Real talk, no lectures.
Honest, hopeful reads for men in Aotearoa about reaching out, getting through a rough patch, and asking for help. The stuff it helps to hear from someone who has been there.
When it's your mate in the dark
What to do when a mate's in a genuinely bad place: stay, listen, bridge him to real help, and look after yourself too.
RelationshipsWhen your old man goes
Men grieve sideways: harder at work, shorter at home, dry-eyed at the funeral and ambushed in the ute months later. All of it is normal.
RelationshipsSeparation, kids, and the quiet afterwards
The specific loneliness of a split, and the small anchors that hold while life reshapes.
WorkThe farm gate
When your workmates are dogs and your nearest neighbour is ten minutes up the road, isolation isn't a feeling. It's the job description.
WorkAfter the injury
The scan shows the disc. It doesn't show what months off the tools does to a working man's head.
MatesThe new town
Moving for work at forty-five means starting the friendship apprenticeship again from year one. It can be done. Here's how blokes actually do it.
RelationshipsThe new dad nobody checks on
Everyone asks how mum and baby are doing. Here's the bloke standing behind them, running on two hours' sleep.
RelationshipsCarrying the family
When illness hits the household, one man often becomes driver, cook, scheduler and rock. Rocks erode. Here's how not to.
EverydayThe 3am board meeting
Money, work, the kids, that thing you said in 2019. Why your head holds its worst meetings at 3am, and how to adjourn them.
WorkWhen the books don't balance
Money trouble makes men go quiet at the exact moment talking would help most. A story about the sums, the silence, and the way out.
WorkRedundancy, and the man you thought you were
When the work goes, it takes more than the payslip. Rebuilding worth that isn't a job title.
Reaching outThe waiting room: talking to your GP about your head
Blokes book the doctor for a sore knee without a second thought. Here's what actually happens when the sore thing is upstairs.
MatesThe group chat that went quiet
Mates don't fall out in middle age. They fade out. Somebody has to text first, and it might as well be you.
MatesThe strongest bloke on site
Everyone leaned on him. Nobody ever asked how he was. If you know a Dave, or you are one, read this.
EverydayThe short fuse isn't the real problem
When a steady bloke starts snapping at the people he loves, the anger is usually the messenger, not the message.
AlcoholThe drink that stopped helping
How a wind-down beer becomes the main coping tool, and how you'd notice, without the sermon.
EverydayGeorge's walk: small things that actually shift a bad day
No wellness lecture. Just the boring, real things that move a bad day a few degrees, starting with the dog.
EverydayTools down: what a rough patch really looks like
The everyday signs a man's struggling, in language you'd actually use, and none of it a life sentence.
MatesThe mate's version of a check-in: getting past "yeah, good"
How to actually ask a mate if he's OK, and what to do with the answer.
Reaching outYou don't have to have the words
You don't need a diagnosis, a story, or a speech. "I'm not doing great" is enough to start.
Reaching outIt's OK to not be OK, and OK to say so
The mask a lot of Kiwi blokes carry, and why silence is the real danger.
Everyday"Suffer ignorance and smile": what the Englishman actually meant
The line sounds like grin and bear it. Its real story says the opposite.
OriginWhy "Ask Andrew": a note from the bloke who built it
Where the name comes from, what this place is, and, plainly, what it isn't.