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How To! with Mike Pesca

How To Date With a Disability

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.32K Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Todd is looking for love, but he's unsure about disclosing something in dating profiles: his multiple sclerosis. With symptoms that are increasingly visible, Todd feels compelled to be upfront about his disability with potential dates—but he doesn't know when or how to discuss it. On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace brings on Jessica Slice and Caroline Cupp, authors of Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down While Chronically Ill and Disabled. They give Todd guidance on having that talk, navigating ableism, and managing his own internal expectations.

If you liked this episode check out: How To Flirt With Confidence

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

How To's executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer. The show is produced by Rosemary Belson, with Kevin Bendis and Sara McCrae.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.

0:22.6

Talk about generational talent.

0:23.7

Coming to headphones near you

0:24.8

on April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

0:31.3

I am a 60-year-old heterosexual single male that has a frequent, if unsuccessful, user of dating apps.

0:39.9

And 30 years ago, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, better known as MS.

0:46.4

How should I relay this critical information when dating?

0:51.7

Welcome to how to, the show where listeners give us their trickiest questions, and we find the perfect people to give them guidance.

0:58.2

I'm Carvel Wallace.

0:59.9

This week's listener, Todd, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about 30 years ago.

1:05.8

MS is a chronic disease where the immune system attacks itself, and the way it presents is unpredictable.

1:12.4

You may see someone in a wheelchair. You may see someone snowboarding. They may both have MS, and you'll

1:18.2

never know it. For the first decade of the disease, Todd wasn't experiencing symptoms, which

1:23.1

meant that people weren't really treating him differently. And perhaps more importantly, he wasn't

1:28.0

thinking of himself differently. He could still do all the physical things that he took for granted.

1:34.5

But as the years have gone by, that has changed. And things have gotten progressively worse.

1:41.4

Now some days Todd walks with a limp. Some days he uses a mobility device like a cane,

1:47.0

and sometimes his symptoms aren't visible at all, and that is what leads us to his current

1:52.4

predicament. I am never married and have been a frequent user of dating apps since they all ask

2:00.7

for a very profile. I continually come across the question,

2:06.6

at what point do I reveal my disability? Do I do it in the profile? Or will that cause issues with people just wiping left right off the bat?

2:20.3

Or do I wait until they meet face to face?

...

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