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Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Episode 756: Hannah Russell, Asexual Latter-day Saint

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8839 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2024

⏱️ 85 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My friend Hannah Russell (married mother of three, PhD, lives in Cincinnati, active Latter-day Saint) joins us to share her story of being asexual out of a desire to help others not feel alone. Hannah starts realizing she is different and falsely concluding “I am not a divine child of Heavenly Parents” because I don’t have any sexual interest. Hannah talks about how being asexual is a real thing and there isn’t some backstory “confusing” Hannah to falsely make this conclusion. Hannah talks about learning more about herself at BYU and dating. Hannah is very brave—and without shame—in sharing her feelings about not wanting to be sexually intimate. Hannah talks about getting on with her life (after a broken off engagement) and getting her PhD in Pathobiology and Molecular Medicine. Hannah talks about meeting her husband John and opening up to him about being asexual and how they navigated that road together and decided to get married and start a family. Hannah talks about how their marriage—a beautiful love story—is based on communication and consent. I learned so much from Hannah story about how to better understand and support my asexual friends, and principles to create a stronger marriage and family. Thank you, Hannah, for your courage to share your story so others don’t feel alone and all are welcome and needed as we create Zion. You are awesome! Links: Hannah’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannah.russell.1428 Facebook Group to Better Support LGBTQ Latter-Day Saints: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433556613672143

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.

0:10.0

My guest on today's podcast is my friend Hannah Russell, joining us from Cincinnati, Ohio.

0:16.3

Welcome to the podcast, Hannah.

0:18.7

Hi.

0:20.2

Hannah's going to share her story being asexual, and I'll let her define that at some point.

0:26.0

We've done very few podcasts with asexual guests.

0:29.2

I think we've done one in the 700 podcasts we've done, and I'm so glad that Hannah,

0:36.0

some friend of Hannah kind of reached out and wondered if you'd be on the podcast, and I'm so glad that Hannah, some of a friend of Hannah, kind of reached out and wondered if you'd be on the podcast.

0:40.1

And I'm so glad.

0:41.7

Let me tell you a little bit about Hannah.

0:43.4

She grew up in the Seattle area for the most part.

0:47.5

She gradually made her way through education all the way to become a PhD.

0:52.4

That's what took her to Cincinnati, where her and her husband live.

0:56.2

So she's really Dr. Hannah Russell.

0:59.2

Will you tell our listeners, because I want to get straight, what your PhD in is really cool.

1:04.0

Tell us, tell our listeners, because I'll kind of botch it, tell our listeners what your

1:08.4

is focused on.

1:14.0

Yeah. So I, as I said, it sounds much fancier than it is, but I have a PhD in pathobiology and molecular medicine. So sometimes

1:20.2

we'll say I have a doctorate in medicine, but I am not a doctor of medicine. So we study

1:26.5

the science of diseases and of treating diseases.

1:31.0

So essentially we try to understand what is happening on a very base level in a disease process

1:37.0

and how can we treat that better than we currently are.

...

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