SPFPP Episode 163: The Seriousness of Herpes Jokes - with Comic Hanna Dickinson

For having experienced rejection for a number of things throughout life, one of the most challenging rejections to this day that I’ll ever have felt are the ones from social media accounts with larger followings who have mentioned they have or have covered the topic of herpes simplex virus. I’ve been met rejected for not knowing the audience size of Something Positive for Positive People, and then when finding out, I was rejected for it not being worth the time of the person I’ve asked to be a guest on the podcast to share their experience. It’s made me avoid reaching out to people who could in fact significantly grow our audience size, maybe reach that few people who can and are willing to connect us to people who can help us with our goals or reach that person who has no idea this resource exists, but here I am scared of rejection when I tell everyone else not to be.

This interview with Hana Dickinson was the first time I asked someone with the swipe up feature on their Instagram to be a guest and they did. Hanna boosted the shit out of my confidence with this one and delivered an authentic experience for the 2020 Christmas release of this Something Positive for Positive People podcast episode. Hanna brings her SELF to this interview, who just happens to be funny but also vulnerable about her experience with her genital herpes diagnosis and how she navigated her diagnosis. Not only that but she uses it in her comedy.

As someone who literally does not have to tell anyone about this unless she’s having sex with them, I admire her for inconveniencing herself with podcast interviews, awkward looks and potentially sly side comments from people and whatever else comes with being a woman with herpes in comedy. I’m excited to share this podcast episode, because it’s a REAL experience from a REAL person. Despite doing comedy, we hear about the Seriousness of Herpes Jokes.