Show Notes
Welcome to No Straight Answers — the fence-sitting advice show where we explore your predicaments with curiosity, compassion and a few questionable ideas.
In this debut, Suran and Clayton trade highs and lows, then tackle two listener letters: Letter 1 — The Screen-Time Standoff: When one parent rage-bans devices, what actually helps? We talk dopamine and transitions (hugs, timers, trampolines), neutral parenting, weekly couple check-ins and family meetings. The aim: less panic, more predictable routines. Letter 2 — The Micromanager Maze: How to steady yourself when a new boss erodes your confidence. We cover fight/flight, getting the frontal lobe back online (breathing, pause lines), written follow-ups, allies, and when a values misfit means planning an exit. We cap it with a quick AMA (Clayton's first hickey is a hot topic!). Not therapy, just a couple of old friends workshopping your dilemmas. And pushing each other to overshare more and more each week! Send your dilemma: [email protected] Content note: mild language.
More from No Straight Answers
This week Clayton and Suran go back and forth with two letters about situations that are COMPLICATED. Mark has been having an affair for nearly three years. His partner says she'll leave her husband when the time is right, when things settle, when the kids are more stable. Will it ever happen though... A senior leader writes in about an accidental Tinder swipe. She matched with someone junior to her at work - he's been giving her a look and she has been catastrophising ever since. Clayton and Suran talk her down from the dating ledge. Plus Clayton asks Suran about the small things that bring joy, and Suran asks Clayton what people get wrong about him.
This episode deals directly with suicide and suicide bereavement. If that's not where you're at today, give yourself permission to sit this one out or come back to it when you're ready. Support details at the end of these notes.
Clayton and Suran are back, and this week the co-parenting wars come to the hockey pitch. Fraser's wife is a Black Sticks player with strong opinions about sportsmanship. Fraser thinks his eight-year-old was mid-cry and in pain. Both of them are a little bit right, which is the most annoying possible outcome.
Clayton and Suran are back, and this week things get a little ungodly. A listener writes in about the person she becomes the moment she gets behind the wheel, she's calm, patient, reasonable by day; full swears unleashed the second someone pulls out in front of her car. Her seven year old heard everything then went home and repeated it to Dad...