Dear LFTP: how to tell an adult son he smells

• How do you tell a loved one they have bad hygiene — tell them or let them stink?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a mother whose adult son has bad body odor — not medical, not from exercise — asking whether to tell him or let him stink; the verdict is tell him. One host shares a serious story of a boss who compassionately confronted him during a rough season when he'd 'stopped caring about living' and his hygiene collapsed — 'you matter... tomorrow matters' — and a comic story of a 13-hour Minneapolis-to-Tokyo flight he never stood up from, ending with a French woman visibly recoiling from his odor in the airport food court. They riff on raising 'soft people' with no grit, read the Secular answer (a pamphlet-toned suggestion of dental checkups), and close by joking about scheduling a daily 'scrub them yellows, dirty fella' text.