Alexis Ohanian
speaker
292 appearances
3 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 12 Jun
Alexis Ohanian’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
But she's relishing that opportunity. And so that helps me a ton because, right, that's – ironically, that's the thing that I grew up with, the boring, typical suburban lifestyle that most people in my position, myself included, will spend a lot of their lives trying to maybe not get or run away from because they want something else.
And yet here she is having gone to the top of the mountain, achieved everything, and that's actually the thing she loves most. And so – How we make it work, it's the banal stuff. It's making sure we prioritize. It's trying to figure out and also decoding the differences. Obviously, we're an interracial relationship. I don't think that'll surprise anyone. And as a white dude...
married to a black woman, you have a societal gulf, right? Between us in terms of the ways we've experienced our lives, right? In the American hierarchy of things, like, you know, we have very different lived experiences. You just set aside, obviously, the fame, notoriety, queer stuff.
But like, even if we just operated this life as two random people with our makeups, we'd have very different points of view, experiences, all that stuff. And it's probably the
hardest and best element to the relationship where like the table stakes are we love each other we've made two incredible humans together we will do anything i mean believe me the two she i she jokes that i'm like the psychopathic dad like there's an armenian dad meme in here by the way like we're very protective of our kids but she's super mama so like we have things that we care so so deeply about that we know we're on the same team for and
And so it's probably the best way of all the ways to be checked on like a blind spot, let's say. It's best to have it come from someone who you know cares so much. And that's where the growth happens. That's the tension.
And so like if I say something or do something, and again, nothing crazy here, but like if I say something or do something and she's able to shine a light on and be like, hey, did you notice, blah, blah, blah, or hey, this is like – bringing up these things to help me have better awareness because look, I got two black daughters. I want to make sure I'm showing up the best way I can for them.
It helps because I still feel that pain. Cause I'm like, I'm not a racist. I'm not a bad person. But then you sit with it for a second. You're like, okay, just hear, hear this feedback. Right. And, and it reminds me, it's just like going to the gym.
You're pushing some weight and you're trying to get to that next level and it's going to hurt because that's where the muscles tear, but that's where it grows back stronger. And so I feel the same way when I take that, I'm like, ah, okay, fight the impulse. Don't be defensive and just listen and hear and try to understand. And, and I will say though, it's,
and I've talked to other folks in interracial relationships, it is definitely, there's a dynamic there that creates new challenges, or even I think any cross-cultural relationship creates those challenges, I bet. I don't know if I was, I guess I'm a weird mid-Atlantic guy, but the difference between me and even a white person from Appalachia is going to have those cultural challenges, right?
But across those lines, that's where you get again, or with a relationship built on love, you get this opportunity to say, okay, like, let me try to learn and try to be a little better that I think helps. But like I said, it's probably the worst part is...
the dynamic there's a reason we live in the middle of nowhere florida like i love being here in la but like i think we live in such a weird culture that you know the celebritization of things is just it's different and and one of the things that we always wanted for our girls is for them to have i mean they're not going to have a normal life but to not be living in it and and to have the ability to do that from
you know, sort of the middle of nowhere Florida has been probably the biggest secret weapon.
You know, the challenge I had in previous relationships, the general theme was... I knew I was super ambitious. I was very upfront about it. But it still doesn't really land until three months in, six months in, nine months in, and you realize, oh, this guy is not going to change. And it seems like a fun thing for a little bit. And then at a certain amount, like eventually push comes to shove.
And there's a gap because they – Didn't get it. And, and I, again, I, I don't think that's a right or wrong here, but it's a, it's an incompatibility. And part of what attracted me so much to Serena was the fact that I knew we would never have this conversation about like, well, why do you have to do this thing? Or why is this so important?
Or like, why, what do you mean you have to get this done tonight? Like that could never happen because of everything she had to do in order to achieve the heights that she had gotten to. And so that to me was already very appealing because I was like, okay, this is table stakes. I have found someone who has clearly even more ambition than me, who has achieved so much. And in a way, so...
I don't know if I'd say the same thing if I were an athlete. I think that might've been harder. But to be with someone like Serena, right? That's like literally one word. Like you don't even need to say her full name. It is tremendously liberating Because I know, and also because of who we are and where we come from, Jay, there is literally nothing I could do.
I could, one day, God willing, I will be a billionaire. I will never run for president. But let's say I could be a billionaire who runs for president, and I'll still be Serena Williams' husband or Serena's husband, right? I could be an astronaut. It doesn't matter. It literally does not matter. And part of that is a testament to where she started.
Where she got what she did all those doors that she opened all those things and so in a way it's kind of liberating as a super ambitious person especially in a society where like it's a meme just to literally say oh that guy is comfortable being called Serena Williams husband. Now, candidly, if we live in an ideal world, no one is anyone's anyone, right?
But I do appreciate, I understand why the internet finds that really exciting and interesting. But the bigger story here is the fact that if you have this kind of partnership you're talking about, you're able to let one another flourish at those things at that time when they're ready. And maybe I didn't see it.
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