Meet Dad, Hold the Clothes

Summary

The Nightly – "Meet Dad, Hold the Clothes"
Podcast by Hatch | Aired: July 17, 2026

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Episode Overview

Tonight's episode of The Nightly delivers another heartfelt and humorous late-night dialogue with host Josh. Broadcasting solo from Hatch, Josh welcomes a listener calling from Brooklyn, Andy, who brings a unique and charming cross-cultural relationship question to the table: How does one prepare a new romantic partner for Iceland's unabashedly nude bathing culture—specifically, being naked around one's own parents? With Josh's gentle wit and Andy's open honesty, the episode navigates love, family, and the nuances of cultural traditions that can surprise and even unsettle newcomers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Host Catch-Up: The Uncle Life

• [00:24 – 03:04]
  • Josh opens the episode reflecting on family visits and time with his friend Sean Carter’s young daughter in Tennessee.
  • Notes the exhaustion and joy that comes with playing with children:

    "I gotta say, the uncle life is really the life for me."

  • Sets a tone of warmth, openness, and readiness to help listeners unwind.

2. Andy’s News & Dilemma: Icelandic Bathing Culture Meets New Love

• Andy shares two things:
  • She’s newly in love. (04:05)
  • She has a very specific, culturally charged question:

    "Have you ever been in the nude with your in-laws?" – Andy [04:14]

• [04:29 – 06:58]
  • Andy explains Iceland’s bathing culture: communal nudity in pools and hot springs, where showering naked before entering the water is a matter of respect for nature and hygiene.
  • Andy’s concern: Bringing her American boyfriend to Iceland will almost guarantee he’ll end up naked with her father (and perhaps extended family) in a changing room, a common yet potentially intimidating custom for Americans.

3. Preparation & Communication

• Josh responds with humor and empathy:

  "Being nude with my father is like such a... it's such a charged set of words." – Josh [05:59]

• They discuss:
  • The boyfriend’s current comfort with communal changing (he’s got some experience—gyms, hot springs in the U.S.—but nothing quite like Iceland).
  • The importance of clear communication and gradual introduction; not springing both “naked” and “dad” on him at once.

4. Practical Advice: Two-Pronged Approach

• [09:23 – 12:33]
  • First Prong: Communicate openly, “rip the band-aid off,” and explain this is likely to happen.

    "My father is not gonna be weird to him, and this is just something that might happen that it probably would help to get, like, emotionally prepared for." – Josh [10:33]

  • Second Prong: Ease into it; establish initial comfort and relationship with clothes on.
    • Suggestions include:
      • Staggered arrivals at pools.
      • Allowing the boyfriend to acclimate first in public facilities before meeting the family nude.
      • Start small—being barefoot around family as a toe-dip.
    • Andy jokes:

      "A little nude run down the hall first." – Andy [12:13]

5. Cultural Acceptance and Humor

• The conversation playfully addresses the dissonance between Icelandic and American norms:

  "This is such a natural situation... Even when it is nude to you." – Josh [13:55]

  • They exchange jokes about “taking your pants off one leg at a time,” maintaining a relaxed and relatable mood.

  "Pants are the problem." – Josh [09:44]

• The advice: Normalize what’s normal for Andy, but acknowledge and honor that it’s new (and potentially daunting) for her partner.

6. Concluding Thoughts & Listener Engagement

• Andy commits to a “traditional” first meeting—clothes, food, conversation—before any nude encounters.
• Josh emphasizes that most of the important family bonding will still happen clothed and at their own pace.
• Andy is invited to call back after her trip, promising a return to this memorable story.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On cultural differences:

  "There may be uncles and nephews and who knows who else... there could be a family reunion in that changing room." – Andy [09:07]

• On over-communicating nude topics:

  "Apropos of nothing, I just keep bringing up the word nudity, so... yeah, yeah, yeah." – Andy [08:30]

• On the emotional reality:

  "Surprise, naked dad is... that's a lot to drop on someone, but a naked dad that you're prepared for, I think is a lot, a lot different." – Josh [12:33]

• Comic relief:

  "A pair of legs... we're bifurcated, like pants right here." – Josh [09:40] "Let's bring [the word 'lover'] back." – Andy [08:22]

Heartfelt Goodnights [16:10]

• Josh:

  "I'm going to say goodnight to my in-laws who I've only ever seen fully clothed. But you know, if that needs to change for cultural reasons, I think I love them and I'm open to that if that is the situation."

• Andy:

  "I would like to say goodnight to Mama Puppy in Iceland and also to my lover and yours."

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:24] – Host introduces the show and reflects on time with family
• [03:04] – Andy calls in, shares her news and presses her question
• [04:49] – The Icelandic communal bathing tradition explained
• [05:59] – The dilemma: introducing boyfriend to being nude with her father
• [09:23] – Josh's two-pronged advice: open communication and gradual introduction
• [12:33] – Discussing emotional comfort and nudity in new environments
• [13:55] – Highlighting cultural naturalness and the importance of appreciating novelty for outsiders
• [15:09] – End-of-show goodnights with an affectionate flair

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Tone & Language

Throughout the episode, the tone is warm, funny, and gently supportive—balancing respect for cultural traditions with the universal awkwardness of family-meets-romance firsts. Andy and Josh both lean into humor, creating a relaxed, safe space for discussion of vulnerability, love, and the value of communication.

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Summary:
This episode of The Nightly gracefully tackles the challenge of navigating love across cultures—with particular focus on Iceland’s communal nudity and how to introduce a new partner to such customs. Through laughter, understanding, and practical wisdom, Josh and Andy highlight the value of communication, emotional preparation, and gentle introduction to help bridge the gap between old routines and new relationships.

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Transcript

[A]

Audio for sleep by hatch.

[B]

Hello and good evening everyone. I'm Josh and this is the Night Leaf from Hatch, where your late night thoughts go to rest. I'm hosting solo tonight and I'm going to take a call from a listener in a little bit. And as always, if you have thoughts you want to share with the hosts or on the show, if you'd like to chat with us about something that's been on your mind, a thought that you kick around late at night when you've got nobody to talk to, we're always happy to hear it. You can email us at thenightlyach co. That's the nightlyatch co. I have been outside of the show. I have been spending a lot of time with family and that's been really nice. I hadn't been home to Massachusetts in a little while and I also hung out with my friend Sean's five year old daughter. I was visiting because I don't have kids of my own, but I was visiting my friend Sean in Tennessee. He owns a little comedy club called the Blu Ray Comedy Club in Bristol, Tennessee. It was really fun. His name is Shawn Carter. You have to Google Sean Carter comedy or else you will just get results pertaining to Jay Z. But his little kid, which I used to teach when I was a teacher, I taught three to five year olds and she's just finishing up pre K now. And it was so funny because she was so high energy and we played this game, they have a little motorboat and we went out into the lake and she would bite through the imaginary fishing line in swim way and we did that for like half an hour. And at the end of it I was so tired from just the constant focus of like, oh, you don't get any breaks. And so I really, I had such a great time. They went back home to eat lunch and change and I went back to the Airbnb where I was staying while I was in town and I was like, gosh, I gotta say, the uncle life is really the life for me. So that's what I've been up to lately. It's been a lot of fun. I wonder what our caller wants to talk about though, because that's been what I've been thinking about. We have a listener who's calling in right now who has something that's maybe been keeping them up at night or something that they've been idling on or ruminating on a little bit and I'm excited to hear from them. Our caller tonight is Andy.

[A]

Welcome to the Nightly thank you so much. How are you this evening?

[B]

I'm doing very well, thank you. And yourself?

[A]

You know, I have a little summer cold, but I am doing well.

[B]

Well, first, first of all, I'm so sorry to hear about the summer cold. Any. A little sickness just really nags in the summer in a way, where in the winter you go, yeah, I'm supposed to feel a little bad, but in the summer I'm always like, yeah, it's just like walking around in the heat, like sniffling misery.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

How dare my histamines or whatever or anti histamine. No, I think it's the histamines do it.

[A]

I think the histamines. Yeah.

[B]

And where are you calling from today, Andy?

[A]

So I'm calling from Brooklyn, New York.

[B]

Excellent. What's been keeping your brain occupied in the nighttime lately?

[A]

Okay, thank you so much because I just want to get a couple things off my chest before I go to sleep. And one is a piece of news that I'm pretty excited to share. And then I have a couple questions, if that's okay.

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

I'm in love.

[B]

Congratulations.

[A]

Thank you so much. I'm really excited about it.

[B]

What a wonderful alternative event. How long have you been in love?

[A]

Oh, just a few months. But it's very wonderful, very exciting and related to that. I have a question for you which is, have you ever been in the nude with your in laws?

[B]

I'm going to give that a firm no personally.

[A]

Okay. But I still think you can help me with my follow up question, which is, okay, so I'm not from this country, I'm from Iceland.

[B]

Great.

[A]

And in Iceland there's like a. There's quite a unique and strong bathing culture, I would say.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

We have a lot of hot springs and like wonderful swimming pools in every neighborhood. And part of the sort of daily routine of life is to go to a pool or a hot spring and out of respect for nature, you go into the changing facilities and you take off all your clothes and then you take a shower and then you put on your swimming gear and then you go into the water.

[B]

Okay, that seems respectful.

[A]

Yeah. The thing is that you're often in the nude with a lot of people, which is, I think pretty normal in Iceland. Maybe less so here.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

But the thing that's on my mind tonight is say I bring this new love to Iceland. The likelihood of this new love being naked with my father in a changing room is very high.

[B]

It does sound pretty high, given this culture. Yeah.

[A]

Yes. And so what is your advice on how best to prepare him for being nude with my father?

[B]

Being nude with my father is like such a. It's such a charged set of words. Andy, this is a great question. So I guess I have some questions for you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Does your new partner that you're in love with. What is his clothes on relationship with your father so far?

[A]

Well, you see, because my whole family is in Iceland. There has been no meeting yet.

[B]

Okay. Okay.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Has there been, like a FaceTime perhaps?

[A]

Not yet. No. No, no. Okay.

[B]

Okay. So this is like a real new budding relationship for them.

[A]

A new and nude.

[B]

Possibly a new and new and nude. Yeah, those are phonetically pretty similar, but spiritually very different words.

[A]

So different.

[B]

What is. Okay. And what is this person's relationship to, like, changing rooms? Do they go to a gym or, like a. Or a pool closer to home where they're required or expected or, like, allowed to be nude around other people?

[A]

You know, I do know that in the past they have gone, you know, on many hikes and to some hot springs. They have done, you know, gyms and pools in which one does take off one's clothes.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

So that is not a totally new concept to them, which is great. A good start, I think.

[B]

Yeah. It would be. It would be a big lift if this person was new to the concept of taking off their clothes.

[A]

My goodness, that would really be a lot.

[B]

Yeah. That would be an intense thing to introduce. Although maybe without that baggage, with just, like, no experience being naked at all, there would be kind of like, oh, yeah, I guess it's not weirder to do around your dad than with anyone else.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. Maybe that would be the freedom, you know.

[B]

Okay, this is great. And then does your lover. As I'll call him. Yes, your lover. I think that's kind of a. It's gone out of vogue to refer to someone that way. But I do think there's a real sense of intrigue with it.

[A]

Let's bring it back.

[B]

We're bringing it back.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Does he know as much as I know at this point about Icelandic bathing culture?

[A]

Yes. You know, it has been on my mind. So I have found in the last week or so, I just keep mentioning, you know, there's a lot of nudity in Iceland. There's a lot, you know, apropos of nothing, I just keep bringing up the word nudity, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

So you're kind of priming the pump.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Understood. So. So he's generally prepared, but, like, it doesn't sound like you have Done for him what you did for me, which is bring the words naked and my father into kind of immediate proximity.

[A]

Yeah. And can you imagine, I mean, there may be. There may be uncles and nephews and who knows who else will be there? You know, there could be a family reunion in that change of room.

[B]

That is a pretty different relationship than I have with my nephew. But again, it's a cultural thing.

[A]

It's a cultural thing.

[B]

So. Okay. So I think the best. To me, it feels like the best way to handle this. It's a two part. I've got two. Excuse me, two prongs to this strategy. Kind of like a barbecue fork.

[A]

Wonderful. Or a pair of legs.

[B]

A pair of legs. Correct. We're bifurcated. Like pants right here.

[A]

Let's take them off.

[B]

That's right. That's right. Pants are the problem. Two prong story. I take my pants off one leg at a time, just like everyone else. People don't talk about that. People go, I put my pants on one leg at a time. I'm a normal guy. Nobody talks about the amount of legs. Which I guess often that I do both legs at a time. More frequently than when it's going on.

[A]

Yeah. It's easier to do the off both legs than the on both legs.

[B]

Yeah. For sure. And this is a helpful tip you could bring up to your lover. You know, you go both legs sometimes very easy. Just mechanically. It's an intuitive situation. Okay. So I think ripping the band aid off of going, hey, when we come. This is a possibility.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

My father is not gonna be weird to him.

[A]

No.

[B]

And this is just something that might happen that it probably would help to get, like, emotionally prepared for.

[A]

And spiritually.

[B]

And spiritually. Yeah. And comfort. You know, I think even just like a setting the tone of what their dynamic is with clothes on would be very help. I think them getting to know each other a little bit. You don't have to do it as like kind of a pre interview for nudity, but I think just easing them both into it. Your whole family, really.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Could be really helpful.

[A]

A traditional hello meeting. You know, nothing nude about it.

[B]

Mm, that's right. This is old. Which is the opposite of nude. And then I also think, like, taking his temperature about which again, when someone is nude, that's very easy to do with a thermometer kind of anywhere. I mean, emotionally and spiritually taking his temperature.

[A]

Not like medically.

[B]

Not medically. And just. And seeing how he feels about it. And then, like, you know, if he can be initiated into the Culture of your local bathing practices smoothly, then that's great. Or if there are gentle ways to ease him in with maybe staggered arrivals. And then he can practice being naked around your neighbors as opposed to your immediate family. And then bring it closer and closer.

[A]

A little nude run down the hall first.

[B]

That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, maybe just to get. If you're hanging out beforehand. Barefoot.

[A]

Barefoot. He has a really good start, you know.

[B]

That's right. Just making sure everybody's comfortable and knows what's happening. Because I do think, surprise, naked dad is. That's a lot to drop on someone, but a naked dad that you're prepared for, I think is a lot, a lot different. What do you think?

[A]

No, I think this is good. I think. Well, we'll certainly do a, you know, a more traditional meeting first of all. And there will be clothes and, you know, maybe some food just to set the scene, you know.

[B]

Yeah, that's nice.

[A]

Yeah. And maybe, you know, maybe a couple of days of that. And one thing I'm thinking is maybe the two of us, maybe we will do a swimming trip first.

[B]

Yeah, that sounds really nice.

[A]

Get a lay of the land.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

If that's possible.

[B]

Even just giving, taking. Taking off an hour early. Just because I always feel better if I'm gonna be nude. I always feel better when I know my surroundings.

[A]

It's a safety thing.

[B]

Yeah. What's safe to sit on? What am I gonna be bumping into? So I think even establishing those little things in advance without, I think for you, this is such a natural situation. Yeah. Both the bathing and being around your family.

[A]

Oh, natural.

[B]

It's a natural situation. Correct. And so it is not. None of it is new to you, even when it is nude to you. And so I think just appreciating the newness of both the family, your family as its own introduction.

[A]

And.

[B]

And then, you know, your family is, let's say, butt cheeks as a second introduction.

[A]

Smile.

[B]

Yeah, that's right. Is like, it's kind of a two step process. Again, like putting on pants but not like taking off pants.

[A]

Exactly, exactly. I'm with you. No, this is really helpful. This is really helpful.

[B]

Please call back and say how it went after your trip later this summer because I truly cannot wait to hear it. And I really do think that like, your romantic love and your family love are going to really line up beautifully here. And so much of the time that they spend together getting to know each other and getting to know what you love about them all individually and in different ways. Will be spent with clothes on and that will be a little easier too.

[A]

Thank you so much, Josh.

[B]

Of course. Well, thank you so much for calling, Andy. And you know, if any other listeners want to call in and give us a dilemma or and enthusiasm that's in their life recently, would love to hear from you. It's thenightly t h e nightlyatch co and we'd love to hear from you here on the show. Now, Andy, before we go for the evening, I'm going to say goodnight to you, of course, but we also say good night to anyone or anything out there in the world that you want to kind of send a gentleman bedtime greeting to. So I'm gonna start and I'm, I'm going to say goodnight to, to my in laws who I've only ever seen fully clothed. But you know, if, if that needs to change for cultural reasons, I think I love them and I'm open to that if that is the situation. Is there someone you'd like to say goodnight to?

[A]

Absolutely. I would like to say goodnight to Mama Puppy in Iceland and also to my lover and yours.

[B]

That's beautiful. I'm sure wherever they are, they are feeling very comforted and beloved by you. And I'm gonna say goodnight to you, Andy. Good night to all the listeners and I'll talk to you next time on the Nightly Good. To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch co. You can also follow us at HatchPodcasts.