GETTING CURIOUS | What’s It Like To Be An Ex-Nun? with Kelli Dunham and Mary Johnson

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2021

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you’re a regular listener of Getting Curious, you know how much Jonathan loves the Sister Act films. But how realistic were they? This week, former nuns Kelli Dunham and Mary Johnson share what it was like to serve with Mother Teresa (yeah, that Mother Teresa) in the Missionaries of Charity—and why they left the congregation. Kelli Dunham is a comic, writer, nurse, and genderqueer ex-nun. You can follow Kelli on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @kellidunham—and at kellidunham.com. Make sure to check out Kelli’s storytelling series Queer Memoir at Caveat. Mary Johnson loves life. Her award-winning memoir An Unquenchable Thirst reveals the secret life inside her 20 years as a nun with the Sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. As a Humanist Celebrant, Mary creates ceremonies for weddings, memorials, and all life’s transitions. Mary is also host of The Book Canopy and is working on a second book and a video series. You can follow Mary on Twitter @_MaryJohnson and at maryjohnson.co. Want to hear more from Kelli and Mary, and other former Missionaries of Charity? Check out the excellent podcast series The Turning: The Sisters Who Left, inspired by Mary’s Memoir and produced by Rococo Punch and iHeartMedia. Find out what today’s guests and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com. Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious, I'm Jonathan Van Ness, and every week I sit down for a gorgeous conversation
0:05.2	with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious.
0:09.6	On today's episode, I'm joined by Kelly Dunham and Mary Johnson where I ask them what's it like to be an ex-none?
0:20.0	Welcome to getting curious. This is Jonathan Van Ness. I am so excited. I have got to welcome our guests.
0:26.0	We have two guys which is also a really special episode of Getting Curious because we don't often have two people.
0:30.0	Kelly Dunham and Mary Johnson, who are both both I need to switch back into my more professional podcast voice now that I got so excited
0:37.8	Who are both former congregants of the missionaries of charity Mary spent 20 years as a nun with the
0:44.4	sisters of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Kelly served as a nun in the South
0:48.4	Bronx. Those were like three really major sentences and I'm also going to break my new journalistic rule
0:53.8	Kelly
0:54.8	Your hair color is everything I wish that this was a TV show sometimes so that people could see your hair color
1:00.7	It's everything it's vibrant.
1:03.0	And Mary, I gotta say, you have great texture too,
1:04.8	I love your curls, I love your ways.
1:06.2	Your hair is gorgeous too.
1:07.4	Welcome both.
1:08.2	How are you, Kelly?
1:09.0	How are you, Mary?
1:10.2	I'm doing great, yeah, thanks.
1:11.6	I don't have great attention to detail, so I just feel happy that the color is not on my ears, you know, and all over my house.
1:17.0	You played kitchen beautician. You did it yourself? I did this myself. Yeah, I actually did it to distract. I had a large other change in my appearance that I didn't want people to comment on and it works perfectly now people don't comment on that they just say oh I love your oh wow it's excellent it's perfect I'm
1:34.0	really excited to be here with you Jonathan and I have the gray hair but it
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Sony Music, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Sony Music and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.