In this podcast, Tavin and Mikayla of VOX Studios break down what HIV really is, how it affects people, and why compassion and accurate information matter. They walk through real-life scenarios — from supporting a friend with a positive status to shutting down stigma in public — and explain how education, empathy, and facts make all the difference. Along the way, they debunk myths, highlight prevention tools like PrEP and PEP, and remind listeners that understanding is the first step toward ending HIV stigma.
Transcript (Edited for Clarity)
Tavin Lewis: Hey, everyone. Welcome to VOX ATL. I’m Tavin.
Mikayla Johnson: And I’m Mikayla.
Tavin: Today, we are having an important conversation about HIV, what it means, how it impacts people’s lives, and how we can handle different situations with compassion and understanding.
Mikayla: A lot of people don’t know how to react when HIV comes up, whether it’s in a friendship, a relationship, or even in casual conversation.
Mikayla: So we’re diving into some real-life scenarios, things that can actually happen, and talk through the best ways to respond with empathy, respect, and facts.
Tavin: So we’re gonna be talking a little bit about what HIV and PrEP is. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. It’s a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. There’s no current effective cure, but there are many ways to prevent it, like using PrEP, condoms, and by never sharing needles.
Mikayla: PrEP stands for pre-exposure prophylaxis. PrEP is a medicine that can be given in pill or shot form. It reduces your chance of getting HIV, but it must be taken before exposure.
Mikayla: PEP is post-exposure prophylaxis. It’s an emergency medication to prevent HIV infection if taken 72 hours after potential exposure.
Tavin: We’re going to talk about how to support a friend who is currently living with HIV. This topic is often misunderstood or even stigmatized, but showing compassion and understanding can make a huge difference in someone’s life. I’ve never gone through this personally, but I was reminded of this while watching an episode of “A Different World,” where the show tackled HIV awareness and how friends respond to someone’s positive status. The episode really highlighted how fear, misunderstanding, and stigma can affect relationships, but it also showed the power of support, education, and empathy.
[clip from “A Different World”]
Josie: I didn’t get AIDS from a blood transfusion or by doing drugs. I got it by having unprotected sex with my boyfriend junior year in high school. I knew Frank was smart. Fine. Team star quarterback. Neither of us knew he was HIV positive, lying on the grass. I mean, you at night looking up at the stars, you just know you’re going to live forever.
Lying on the grass. It’s impossible to imagine that five years later you’ll be lying in a hospital bed with pneumocystis pneumonia and a few years to live. Nothing like an AIDS war to teach you that. Youth is not immortality more than anything. Youth is the power to make choices. Now that I’m gone, I ask one thing of you: remember always to choose life.
Teacher: Thank you for your honesty. How long have you known?
Josie: Since last summer,
Student 1: Excuse me. Josie, what’s it like? I mean, how do you feel every day?
Josie: Some days, fine. Other days not so fine. I take a lot of medicine.
Whitley: I don’t, um. I, I, I don’t understand. This is not a woman’s disease.
Kim: Tell that to the 16,000 women who have it, Whitley.
Whitley: They use drugs, and they, they do perverted things.
Teacher: AIDS is not a moral judgment.
Whitley: How come? She couldn’t tell by By looking at him. ’cause you can tell by looking at him.
Josie: Looking at me. Could you tell I was dying?
Gina: Girl, she lives right down the hall from me. I gotta change dorms.
Kim: Gina, to get aids, there has to be an exchange of bodily fluids. That’s why people get it from needles, transfusions, sex.
[End of Clip]
Tavin: So, Mikayla, what do you think went wrong in the episode?
Mikayla: I think what went wrong in the episode was — I believe in the clip somebody said that like she couldn’t have HIV ’cause that’s like a man’s disease, which isn’t true. And, women do get HIV, and I think that’s what mainly went wrong: they were uneducated, and also kind of shocked.
Tavin: Yeah, I agree. They were very shocked. The main thing is that they are just not educated enough on the topic itself. One thing that I heard during the clip was that somebody said, “Oh, she lives on the same floor as me. I need to move a couple of doors down.” That’s a complete myth. It’s not airborne at all. So I think educating yourself on the topic is a great way to show your support and empathy when it relates to your friend or somebody close to you, telling you about a positive status.
Mikayla: So, what are some things you can do if your friend tells you that they’re HIV positive?
Tavin: The first thing I say is to educate yourself. Learn about HIV so you can offer accurate support and not rely on myths or misinformation. Knowledge can make you a better friend or ally and allows you to answer questions with compassion rather than fear.
The second one is don’t shame or compare situations. Sometimes they just need someone to hear them and validate their feelings. So don’t try to fix the situation or offer advice immediately. Just be present and attentive so you can help them feel validated and less alone.
And the third one is to encourage treatment and care. HIV is manageable with proper medical care today, and supporting your friend in their healthcare journey, whether by asking how they’re doing or helping them stay motivated, shows that you respect their autonomy and care about their well-being. Supporting a friend with HIV is all about empathy, patience, and showing up consistently, just like in a different world. How we respond to our friends in tough moments can really strengthen our relationships and help break stigma around HIV.
Mikayla: The next scenario ties into kind of what we just talked about, how to stand up for someone where others are responding poorly to someone’s status. So basically, a few weeks ago, I was on the train with a group of teenagers. One of their friends got on their phone, and they told their friends that they had HIV, and they immediately started yelling at him, and laughing at him, and making the situation something bigger than it should have been, to the point where I was able to hear it across the train station.
So I just really felt bad for him in that situation. And it’s something I’ve been thinking about over the past few weeks. I just don’t think that was the right way to respond. I don’t think anybody should respond like that, making the person immediately feel embarrassed. The boy eventually just kind of ran away and got into a different train car than his friends. And even after he did that, they continued to talk about him and taunt him.
Tavin: Yeah.. I think that finding out in that way — and it being publicized to the train — I think that’s a very harsh, scary, and intimidating thing to happen to somebody. And I don’t think that’s a way that a friend should be treated, and how you should want to treat your friends. Continue to try to be there for your friends as much as you can in the most respectful way as possible. I think that would be best for both parties.
Tavin: Our next topic is teen pregnancy with a positive status. Now, I know that that can kind of be a daunting sentence, but if you are in the predicament of being pregnant with a positive status, you can start antiretroviral or ART before or during pregnancy, and formula feeding to reduce the risk of passing the infection to your child.
What do you think about this, Mikayla?
Mikayla: I think – especially with teen pregnancy — a lot of people can be embarrassed about what’s happening. And even if that’s the case, I think the most important thing would be to not only educate yourself, like we’ve been saying, but also just get medical help even though you might feel that embarrassment, because your health and your child’s health are what’s most important.
Tavin: I definitely agree with you. ART can help control the virus and prevent it from progressing to AIDS, the most severe and potentially lethal stage of HIV infection. A pregnant person with HIV who is not receiving ART has a 15% to 45% chance of transmitting HIV during pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding. This chance decreases to less than 1% if women with HIV receive ART.
Mikayla: Now that we have educated ourselves on specific scenarios and what to do with them, I’m going to test Tavin with a little true or false.
So, are you ready?
Tavin: I am ready.
Mikayla: Okay. So. The first one is that “HIV is a gay male disease.”
Tavin: That is false.
Mikayla: That is false. No disease belongs to any group of people, and it’s the same for HIV. Anyone can get HIV regardless of race, sex, age, or sexual orientation. HIV impacts women as well. In 2021, 19 0.7% of diagnoses in Georgia were amongst women. So, yeah, that is false.
The next one is, “You can’t get HIV from oral sex.”
Tavin: False.
Mikayla: That is false. It is possible to get HIV through oral sex. If the mucus membrane in your mouth meets body fluids that can spread STIs, such as semen and vaginal fluids, you can contract a disease.
Tavin: Okay. That’s good to know.
Mikayla: And then the last one is, “You should not eat or drink after a person who has HIV.”
Tavin: False.
Mikayla: Since HIV is not passed through saliva or sharing food and drink, you’re good.
Tavin: There we go.
Mikayla: There’s no reason to be afraid or shame a person because you don’t want to eat or drink after them, because they have HIV. That’s something that is commonly done. I don’t know why, though. You cannot contract it from eating or drinking after people.
Tavin: Good to know.
Tavin: Alright, that’s all we have for y’all today. A reason why I think that this conversation is so important is that this topic is very misunderstood and often even stigmatized. Having open conversations like this can allow people to have these conversations in their own homes and with their friends, just to help people know what to do when somebody is positive.
Mikayla: I agree. Having conversations like this is very needed and, hopefully, if you did learn something today, please share the information with someone you know, so we can continue to destigmatize different things around HIV. Thank you so much for listening!
Editor’s Note: The Counter Narrative Project commissioned this podcast. It was produced in partnership with VOX Studios.
