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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff

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Speaker 1: I've never told your production of iHeart Radio. And yes,

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Speaker 1: welcome for another edition of Women Around the World. Do

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna try newoddle theme songs every time? I think?

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Speaker 1: What do you think? Any I think that that is

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Speaker 1: just asking for somebody to make a super cut of

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Speaker 1: all between Christina and super producer Andrew, who has moved

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Speaker 1: on to bigger and better shows I have, they have

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Speaker 1: a lot of blackmail. I think I'm not gonna think

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Speaker 1: too much about it, hoping that it just got a

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Speaker 1: race slowly. Well that is a mistake, but I will

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Speaker 1: support you and your face misplaced face, that's true, very misplaced.

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Speaker 1: But other than that, we are still celebrating Pride Month

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Speaker 1: and wanted to make sure we keep highlighting the people

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Speaker 1: who are doing some amazing work when it comes to

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Speaker 1: advocating for the LGBTQ plus community. And I have been

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Speaker 1: all up in your business Annie for a little while now,

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Speaker 1: and yes this has all been with permission, and make

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Speaker 1: sure because I think it's really interesting that we keep

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Speaker 1: having this conversation of unfolding what sexuality is or can be,

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Speaker 1: or can be perceived and We've talked a lot about

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Speaker 1: what it is to be ACE or a sexual and

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Speaker 1: why it's important that we continue to talk about this

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Speaker 1: and de stigmatize some of the things that come around

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Speaker 1: with being a sexual or realizing that you're a sexual.

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Speaker 1: But I wanted to give you, I think a fairly

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Speaker 1: easy question. Yes you said it before, but just to

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Speaker 1: kind of give us a little better When wasn't that

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Speaker 1: you first learned about a sexuality or being ACE. It

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Speaker 1: was on this very show when I first was editing,

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Speaker 1: when I was a video editor for the Stuff We

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Speaker 1: Never Told You YouTube channel, so I probably was like

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Speaker 1: twenty two and the host and creator, Kristen, she did

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Speaker 1: a a video called the A B C S of Ace, which, yes,

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Speaker 1: that's what we named our episode that we did with

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Speaker 1: Adoha Danzo, but her video was much more like A

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Speaker 1: is for a sexual, B is for by romantic and

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Speaker 1: you know, much more in the title. And I had

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Speaker 1: never heard of it before, and at the time it

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Speaker 1: seemed impossible to me, not that it existed, but that

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Speaker 1: it was how I identified. I've been thinking about why

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Speaker 1: that is lately, and I think it's just one of

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Speaker 1: those things where if you grow up in sort of

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Speaker 1: homogeneous space where what you're seeing is a lot of

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Speaker 1: heteronormative stuff and your entertainment people around you. Then it

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Speaker 1: just feels like, well, that can't be me, even if

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Speaker 1: I was pretty like I think I bisexual. But that

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Speaker 1: is also when I learned about how you can be

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Speaker 1: like a sexual and bi romantic, which is where I

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Speaker 1: think I am. But now I'm also like, maybe I'm

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Speaker 1: very sexual or do bisexual Because there's so many avenues

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Speaker 1: of identity, it's hard to put into one label or

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Speaker 1: one word. And so I think that that's been really

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Speaker 1: interesting for me, a learning process for me and for

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Speaker 1: all of us as we're learning, Oh, I'm not the

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Speaker 1: only one that feels this way, that there are other

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Speaker 1: people who are trying to figure out how the emotional

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Speaker 1: aspect works and the sexual aspect works, and the romantic

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Speaker 1: aspect works, and how they all work together or don't.

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Speaker 1: So I was pretty it was pretty late in the

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Speaker 1: game when I found out, and I think it was

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Speaker 1: pretty much later because a lot of you got to

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Speaker 1: hear me go through it on this show, kind of

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Speaker 1: like figuring it out that I was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe this is a possibility for me, Maybe this is correct,

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Speaker 1: and how I am yeah right, And again I think

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Speaker 1: it's a beautiful process. And maybe it is because I

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Speaker 1: have been with you for a chunk of this process

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Speaker 1: that I really am fascinated and as well as like,

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Speaker 1: I love that you're finding yourself. Um, and when people

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Speaker 1: find themselves, it's such a whole like turning on the

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Speaker 1: light moment that you get to witness and it's just

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Speaker 1: like a privilege. But speaking of getting to witness, we

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Speaker 1: wanted to celebrate the queer community and activists of Dr

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Speaker 1: Pragotti Singh, who is a doctor, has been a public

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Speaker 1: health professional and it's the founder of the Indian aces

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Speaker 1: dot com if you need to know, which was created

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Speaker 1: and originally in two to form the Indian subcontinent's first

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Speaker 1: support group for a sexual people. She was working in maternal,

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Speaker 1: child and reproductive health when she began her work and

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Speaker 1: advocating for the Indian as community. Born in Delhi, she

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Speaker 1: talks about how little has been made available to support

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Speaker 1: the a sexual community in India and how she feels

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Speaker 1: it's long overdue. This is actually something that's come up

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Speaker 1: with me in therapy where my therapist is like have

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Speaker 1: you booked or they're a sexual support groups in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: and I have and there are, but they're pretty Maybe

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Speaker 1: I haven't looked deep enough that they seems like pretty

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Speaker 1: small and not you know, too much going on there.

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Speaker 1: But I should check I should check back in. The

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Speaker 1: support group that scene created started out on Facebook, though

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Speaker 1: it really didn't pick up until when someone reached out

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Speaker 1: to her to find out more about the group. Doctor

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Speaker 1: Seeing stated she had looked for quite a while for

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Speaker 1: a group like this, and when she couldn't find one,

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Speaker 1: she decided to create one herself. Love it. We love

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Speaker 1: these stories, yes, and as in fact, she talks about

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Speaker 1: the fact that she sees herself as gray sexual. And

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Speaker 1: I actually had to ask about that because I'm like,

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Speaker 1: oh my goodness, this is a new term. Let me

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Speaker 1: let me look this up. Because I found that fascinating.

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Speaker 1: I was like, okay, um, of course, and he was

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Speaker 1: able to tell me about fain fiction just all know.

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Speaker 1: But I was correction. Doctor Seeing stated about the group

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Speaker 1: quote Indian aces was I dated when I realized there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of a sexual people from India looking

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Speaker 1: for a community platform, but they just didn't have anything.

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Speaker 1: I kept looking for a really long time for such

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Speaker 1: a platform, but there wasn't any I started with something

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Speaker 1: as simple as Facebook page with the memes and information

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Speaker 1: on a sexuality. I had never really envisioned it to

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Speaker 1: become as big a movement that it has now. We

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Speaker 1: do a lot of other things such as research, advocacy,

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Speaker 1: awareness sessions, a lot of campaigns, online and offline meetups, training,

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Speaker 1: and academic and non academic work, and the movement has

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Speaker 1: created so much for the community. Not only does she

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Speaker 1: do training and meetups and awareness sessions, but she also

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Speaker 1: has been invited to do medical conferences such as the

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Speaker 1: World Association of Sexual Health, where she was able to

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Speaker 1: present her research on her sexuality studies, and she was

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Speaker 1: published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine by l Severe.

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Speaker 1: She has continued to speak out about why having such

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Speaker 1: research and studies are important in supporting the community, and

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Speaker 1: how her professional background has helped her as well. She said,

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Speaker 1: in all my academic and professional experience, there's been little

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Speaker 1: to no discourse regarding sexuality, even though I've studied medicine

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Speaker 1: and worked in reproductive health. This is pretty much the

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Speaker 1: norm here. Sexuality just isn't in the forefront. Yet we

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Speaker 1: still have mothers and neonates dying from sexist diarrhea and hemorrhage.

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Speaker 1: Sexual health just isn't a priority. In fact, whatever understanding

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Speaker 1: I have of sexuality today is honestly in spite of

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Speaker 1: my medical education. That being said, I feel like my

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Speaker 1: qualification helps add credibility to the cases I make, such

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Speaker 1: as me saying that hormonal imbalance does have an effect

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Speaker 1: on libido or that certain medications do affect arousal probably

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Speaker 1: doesn't sound as far affected to my audience as it

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Speaker 1: would if I were not a doctor. Right, And she

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Speaker 1: continues on talking about the importance of our work and

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Speaker 1: overall sexual health education, saying sexuality is a hugely taboo

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Speaker 1: topic in India. This is not limited to personal spaces,

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Speaker 1: but even academic and professional spaces. Additionally, the many other

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Speaker 1: problems of third world countries take precedence over sexuality related issues,

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Speaker 1: which are largely considered unimportant or at least non critical.

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Speaker 1: Never Mind the fact that we have the world's largest

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Speaker 1: youth population. Never mind the fact that the sexual harassment

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Speaker 1: and abuse is a rampant in our nation. Never mind

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Speaker 1: that marital rape is not considered rape as such an

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Speaker 1: Indian law. To top all of this, there's no real

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Speaker 1: sexual ed in our educational institutes, and the pressure to

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Speaker 1: get made by age twenty five for women in age

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Speaker 1: thirty four men is huge in our culture. All of

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Speaker 1: this basically means that for someone who's a sexual in India,

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Speaker 1: their adolescents would be a period of great confusion owing

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Speaker 1: to the lack of awareness and agency available right now.

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Speaker 1: Their youth may probably be marred with unhealthy, broken relationships,

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Speaker 1: with multiple fail attempts at having a quote normal youth experience.

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Speaker 1: And she even tried different things to help a sexuals

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Speaker 1: and Indian communities, including a matchmaking app. Though no longer operational,

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Speaker 1: it was originally intended to help match people all over

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Speaker 1: the world with a fairly elaborate foreign process. However, because

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Speaker 1: of the overwhelming response, she was not able to handle

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Speaker 1: it and has since shut it down. But she did

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Speaker 1: talk about the overall fact that's apps or something that

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Speaker 1: should be looked into and maybe we'll they will look

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Speaker 1: at later again. Um And interestingly, I know we talked

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Speaker 1: about that in our a Sexual episode, because that is

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Speaker 1: a plot point on bo Jack Horsemen is a sexual

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Speaker 1: and he tries to create the app. Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: So she actually did it. It didn't last very long.

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Speaker 1: But she was intent in trying to help a matchmaking

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Speaker 1: scene because, as she talks about, with the Indian pressures

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Speaker 1: to get married and oftentimes feeling like you have to

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Speaker 1: force to be there, that maybe if you could find

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Speaker 1: another a sexual partner, that it would make marriage better.

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Speaker 1: So being able to be a part of that cultural moment,

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Speaker 1: I guess, and pleasing the families, maybe finding a partner

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Speaker 1: who meets that same level as you do. So she

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Speaker 1: was talking about trying to creating all of this um

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Speaker 1: Apparently she tried to do it offline as well. I'm

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Speaker 1: not really sure what that means or what that looks like,

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Speaker 1: but yeah, she had it going internationally, so she was

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Speaker 1: trying real hard to get it all out there, including Egypt, Spain, Canada,

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Speaker 1: and she had like two hundred more responses than she

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Speaker 1: thought she was going to have, like two hundred more,

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Speaker 1: and she's like, Okay, never mind, I can't do all

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Speaker 1: of this. I couldn't imagine being a medical professional, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and trying to do all of that. So, you know,

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Speaker 1: kudos for trying, But it does sound like there's a need.

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Speaker 1: People want that to happen. People want to see that happening,

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Speaker 1: and maybe someone can, but it shouldn't be a surprise

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Speaker 1: that she has been awarded Mania accolaise and deservedly so.

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Speaker 1: And so those include being on the BBC one Women

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Speaker 1: Award in twenty nineteen, which we've talked about a few times.

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Speaker 1: That's how I've founded several of our people to talk about.

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Speaker 1: She was on the Young Achieved Award in twenty eighteen

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Speaker 1: from the Duti Government. She was awarded the Orange Flower

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Speaker 1: Award in twenty seventeen by the Women's Web. She was

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Speaker 1: awarded the Best Oral Paper Presentation in twenty seventeen. Uh

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Speaker 1: and with the Nobel Laureate as well. So very amazing

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Speaker 1: things and obviously she continues to do a lot of

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Speaker 1: amazing work for those around her community. Yeah, and if

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Speaker 1: you want to go check her out. She has her

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Speaker 1: own website, Dr Pragatti sing as well as her other site,

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Speaker 1: indianases dot com. And if you're actually in India, I

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Speaker 1: don't know if anybody listens from India. If you do,

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Speaker 1: shout us out, would love to hear from you if

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Speaker 1: you can check it out, and now you can get

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Speaker 1: involved there as well within that growing community. So really

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Speaker 1: amazing work. Love seeing things like this and I love,

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Speaker 1: just how everything kind of comes together. You're like, look

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Speaker 1: at this big community, it's so big in their international

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Speaker 1: is just full of love, just like us. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: it's lovely to see and as always, listeners, we do

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Speaker 1: love hearing from you. If you have any people you

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Speaker 1: would like us to talk about in this segment or

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Speaker 1: any segment, you can email us our emails Stephanie and

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Speaker 1: mom Stuff at ihart media dot com. You can find

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Speaker 1: us on Instagram at stefphone Ever Told You are on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always to our

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Speaker 1: super producer Christina, Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Stephon ever Told You the production of iHeart Radio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcast from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows