Dear Sugars

Dear Sugars was Cheryl Strayed and Steve Almond answering letters about the problems people are embarrassed to say out loud.

They recorded in a studio conversation, then let the letter set the stakes. Strayed writes like a novelist. Almond argues like a critic who has been in the room. Neither of them pretends a letter has one clean reply.

The show mattered because advice audio is usually a performance of certainty. This one left the contradiction in. A listener could hear two smart people disagree and still feel accompanied.

The episodes are topical rather than serial. Choose a letter whose dilemma you recognize, and ignore the urge to treat their answer as a rule.