Adam Buxton on Why No Parent Has It Figured Out

In this episode of Identified with Nabil Ayers, Adam Buxton explores family, identity, childhood, boarding school, fatherhood, parenting, class, and friendship.

The comedian, writer, broadcaster, and host of The Adam Buxton Podcast reflects on growing up with a Chilean mother and British father, navigating privilege, and how childhood experiences shaped the parent he is today.

Adam and Nabil talk about his parents’ remarkable love story, his mother’s early loneliness after moving to England, being sent to boarding school at nine years old, discovering lifelong friendships with Joe Cornish and Louis Theroux, and finding a creative community that became his chosen family.

Guest: Adam Buxton
Host: Nabil Ayers
Executive Producer: Kieron Banerji
Produced by Palm Tree Island

Recorded in front of a live audience at Fiction Studios, London.

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00:00 Intro
00:48 His parents’ unlikely love story
05:51 His mother’s lonely first years in London
09:00 Being sent to boarding school at nine
12:12 When friends became family
17:00 Finding his creative community
20:24 Why he should have gone to art school
22:00 Looking back at his family history
26:00 Understanding his father’s choices
30:24 Becoming a parent himself
31:39 What family means to Adam

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Identified is a podcast series that explores identity, race, culture, and family through personal conversations. Hosted by author and music executive Nabil Ayers, each episode dives into lived experiences that reveal how our backgrounds shape who we are—and how we find belonging.

Nabil is the author of My Life in the Sunshine (Viking, 2022), and has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, and GQ on themes of race, music, and personal history. He’s also the President of Beggars Group US, co-founder of Sonic Boom Records, and founder of the record label The Control Group / Valley of Search.

Identified brings together notable voices for reflective, vulnerable conversations about where we come from—and where we’re going.

Read more about Nabil:
➡️https://www.nabilayers.com/

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