Going blind, losing our surrogate, & retiring my service dog

The Unplanned Podcast with Matt & Abby

Matt & Abby

Society & Culture

4.8 • 16.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2026

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode is sponsored by: Unreal Snacks, Square, Good Wipes, and Cash App Unreal Snacks: Visit https://unrealsnacks.com/unplanned o get $4 off a bag of Unreal—terms and conditions apply. Square: Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/unplanned ! #squarepod Good Wipes: Head to https://goodwipes.com/UNPLANNED to learn how to snag a free pack of goodwipes! Cash App: Download Cash App at https://capl.onelink.me/vFut/kssum24w and use code FAMILY10 at signup to earn $10 when you send $5 to a friend within 14 days. Terms apply. Today on Unplanned, we sit down with Matthew and Paul — an interabled married couple loved by millions for their honest conversations around disability, identity, and life online. Paul opens up about being diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that will eventually leave him completely blind, while Matthew shares his experience growing up in a strict religious cult and the journey that led him to finally leave. We also talk about internet trolls, misconceptions about blindness, their dream of becoming parents, retiring a guide dog, and how they’ve built a life centered around creativity, advocacy, and finding joy in the face of adversity. Matthew & Paul's IG: @matthewandpaul Paul's Children's Books IG: @paulcastlestudio Find Paul's books here: https://paulcastlestudio.com/ Find Matthew's music here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/31WEJvJ77B3sv45clvu889/discography/all Guide dog resource mentioned in this episode: https://www.guidedogs.com/ Follow The Unplanned Podcast: https://www.instagram.com/unplanned__podcast/ https://www.tiktok.com/@unplanned_podcast Listen to the pod on Spotify/ Apple Podcasts: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ToDA4ufQuWuEgMq07zN6t https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unplanned-podcast/id1669604504 Follow Matt & Abby: Abby's Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/abbyelizabethoward/ Matt's Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/_matt_howard_/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@matt_and_abby Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/mattandabb YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@MattandAbby Chapters: 01:02 - Traveling with a guide dog 07:15 - Retinitis Pigmentosa 11:15 - How we met 15:09 - Breaking up 17:35 - Growing up in the IBLP 30:00 - Escaping the IBLP 33:30 - Dealing with the internet trolls 42:40 - Family planning 46:00 - Coping with grief 53:00 - Getting married 01:00:00 - Retiring our service dog 01:11:30 - Running a marathon as a blind person 01:13:00 - Applying for a new guide dog 01:20:00 - When my guide dog saved my life 01:30:00 - Authoring children's books Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	A friend of his said, you're throwing your life away.
0:03.0	This guy's gonna lose all his vision, you're gonna be his caretaker. Is that what you really want? You could marry a fully able-bodied person, and then they get hit by a bus, and then they're in a wheelchair. Does that mean you'd leave them? Matthew and Paul are an inter-abled couple that went mega viral on TikTok after Matthew started breaking his blind husband, Paul. Growing up gay, there's just a lot of people that don't understand,
0:23.0	and it's not something
0:23.4	that we take personally.
0:24.7	We shifted to really focusing on talking about my journey with sight loss.
0:28.7	That is when this whole new crop of trolls emerged.
0:31.8	Really?
0:32.8	We call him the blind deniers.
0:33.6	At 16, Paul was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease that will eventually leave him completely blind.
0:38.3	But that hasn't stopped him from pursuing his dream of becoming a children's author,
0:42.3	illustrating six books in the last two years.
0:44.3	When there's a blind character, they always have some superpower, and they have like Kung Fu Ninja skills, and they're so cool.
0:50.3	I say you run with that.
0:52.3	We talked with them about escaping a cult, their journey to fatherhood, and retiring their beloved guide dog, Maple, all on today's episode.
1:00.4	Please welcome Matthew and Paul and Mr. Maple.
1:05.8	Oh, Mr. Maple.
1:08.5	Does live and lift his hat.
1:09.6	He didn't even lift his hat.
1:10.9	So great. He's so over it already. Oh, it even lift his head. He didn't even lift his head. So great.
1:11.7	He's so over it already. Oh, it's a big travel day for him. Yes. Yeah, but he loves to travel. He does. He does. Yeah, gives him a purpose. It's true. It does. He loves, like, it's a new places to nap. He loves new places to nap. all the way from Seattle,
1:26.6	how do you,
1:27.4	when Maple's traveling,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

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

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