![\"Vic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/LIB_S10_Unit_04778R_edit.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been a whirlwind few weeks for Ohio State University professor Vic St. John. A year has passed since he took a semester off to film the most recent season of Netflix\u2019s Love Is Blind, and he has kept a low profile while the show aired over the last couple of months. With Wednesday\u2019s cast reunion said and done, the criminology professor is ready to shout his success. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ohio State\u2019s Vic St. John shows off his wedding ring.<\/p>\n
St. John, 34 and up for tenure next year, joined Season 10 of Love Is Blind, which features 16 men and 16 women from Ohio who date over a period of 10 days, separated by an opaque wall. If they fall in love, they have the opportunity to get engaged before ever laying eyes on each other. And, once engaged, they must meet each other\u2019s families and friends and learn to live together before deciding whether to say \u201cI\u00a0do.\u201d Spoiler alert: It worked for St. John. He and his wife, Christine, a speech language pathologist, have been married for almost a year. <\/p>\n
With its unending teaching, research, mentorship and faculty governance work, academia didn\u2019t make a great dating pool, according to St. John. But his experience on a dating show has opened doors for him in academia\u2014professors across the country are reaching out with messages of support and requests to collaborate, he said. <\/p>\n
Inside Higher Ed sat down with St. John to hear about his experience on the show as a professor, what he took away from it and how it\u2019s impacted his academic career so far. <\/p>\n
Inside Higher Ed spoke with St. John over Zoom. This interview has been edited for length and clarity, and contains spoilers for Love Is Blind Season 10. <\/p>\n
Q: So, Vic, you\u2019re a tenure-track, successful professor at a major university. I\u00a0don\u2019t know anything about the Ohio dating pool, but why go on Love Is Blind in the first place?<\/p>\n
A: Dating while being in academia is difficult in a lot of ways, especially with my working style\u2014I\u00a0tend to go full throttle, for lack of a better word. So the full-on teaching, mentoring students, the research, the service attached to it\u2014it just makes your day very busy relatively quickly. Coupled with that, I\u00a0definitely hold very specific boundaries in the academic setting, so there isn\u2019t really much opportunity to meet people or date.<\/p>\n
A friend of mine was like, \u201cHey, this show is coming to your town. You should take a look at it, I\u00a0know what your dating life has been like.\u201d And I\u00a0took a look at it and I\u00a0was like, \u201cNo, there\u2019s no way I\u00a0can do this.\u201d I\u00a0have a whole career that I\u00a0care about. I\u2019m a very private individual, and to take a risk to enter this experiment\u2014who knows what I\u2019ll encounter. And then it also goes out to the public. But when I\u00a0sat back and looked at the questionnaire associated with the experience, there were some pretty thought-provoking questions. I\u00a0think I\u00a0was almost weirdly excited to just respond to the questions and have that cathartic experience of really digging deeply and introspectively into my dating life and the romantic side of me\u00a0\u2026 And before I\u00a0knew it, I\u2019d answered all those questions. So I\u00a0hit submit. <\/p>\n
Not too long after, I\u00a0was watching a sermon on TV because I\u00a0couldn\u2019t go into church that day. It keeps me grounded, keeps me centered. Ping\u2014my phone goes off, and it\u2019s a text message from someone who does the screening and the casting, and they\u2019re like, \u201cHey, I\u2019d like to talk more to you about an opportunity\u201d\u00a0\u2026 So I\u00a0took the call, and before I\u00a0knew it, things kind of just snowballed. I\u00a0was in the pods.<\/p>\n
Q: Well, it definitely worked out for you\u2014congratulations on getting married! Have you watched the show at all since it aired?<\/p>\n
A: Yes. Interestingly enough, when the show is airing, Christine and I\u00a0have to stay hidden, out of sight, like a secret husband and wife. But we live together, right? We\u2019re married while we\u2019re watching ourselves meet on TV. <\/p>\n
Q: Is there anything about your experience that was not included in the final edit that you wish was aired?<\/p>\n
A: Yeah, I\u00a0would say some of the lighter sides to Christine and I. A lot of the edits show our more serious conversations around dating\u2014our past experiences with our families, conversations about what a future family would look like and those sorts of things. They were meaningful conversations and we had a lot of those, actually. You have to. You\u2019re going to make a big decision, right? But then there were also some lighthearted, fun times that her and I\u00a0had that weren\u2019t necessarily captured. Whether it was sharing music in the pods, jamming out or just some of my corny jokes and her quirkiness\u2014those aspects of things, I\u00a0don\u2019t know we really got to see much of.<\/p>\n
Q: I\u00a0did notice that they sort of speed-ran your whole story in the first episode, and that\u2019s all we really got from you guys in the pods.<\/p>\n
A: So, fun fact: If you\u2019re going to propose, they all have to be on the same day. Each day there are rounds of dates, and those lists of who you are dating get smaller and smaller, and [the dates] can go for several hours. Eventually you start doing night and day dating for six hours on end, taking breaks at your cadence, so you really have a lot of time to just talk. There are little things in between\u2014sharing music, experiences, jokes\u2014but the way the final product comes out can look in a number of ways. So it just happens that in episode one, it shows us getting [engaged].<\/p>\n
Q: That\u2019s good to know, because I\u00a0was wondering if you were just then sitting in the men\u2019s quarters like, \u201cAll right, I\u2019m engaged,\u201d and watching the rest of the guys still go through it. The camaraderie in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s quarters always reminds me of a college dorm setting. Did it feel like being back in undergrad to you? <\/p>\n
A: Oh, man, I\u00a0wouldn\u2019t use \u201cundergrad\u201d as a descriptor. There are people going through the same shared experience in different ways. We don\u2019t talk about who we\u2019re dating or getting to know, per se, and, if I\u00a0can be honest, the way that some folks showed up on the men\u2019s side looks different from what I\u00a0ended up seeing on-screen, where there were sides of the men I\u00a0didn\u2019t know existed. So I\u00a0would say it was pretty cordial and chill. There are a few of the guys that I\u00a0really connected with. One was Haramol Gill\u2014he\u2019s an emergency room doctor out here in Ohio as well\u2014and we just hit it off with our worldviews on life. And Jordan Faeth is another person on the guys\u2019 side that I\u00a0really hit it off with. We connected more so over our faith. <\/p>\n
Q: It\u2019s great that you are able to leave with some new friends, too. A nice bonus.<\/p>\n
A: It is, and it was a good reprieve. In academia, we focus on academics\u2014we should, right? But that professor in front of the classroom is a whole person outside of our careers, and there are other aspects of and dimensions to us. It was cool to be able to tap into that by way of this experiment.<\/p>\n
Q: I\u00a0did notice\u2014and I\u00a0know a lot of viewers have noticed\u2014that political discussions are often left out of the final edit. I\u00a0know your research [is] on criminology and criminal justice, which is closely tied to politics in many ways. Did you want to talk about that more on the show? Did you talk about it, and we just didn\u2019t get to see that?<\/p>\n
A: Yeah, politics were definitely discussed in those pods. I\u00a0don\u2019t know what the reasons were for what got aired or didn\u2019t get aired. We don\u2019t have any say in that, but we definitely had those conversations. Again, you\u2019re about to potentially propose to someone, and then later on to see if you want to say yes at the altar, so you\u2019re asking all of those heavy-hitting questions. That was happening, at least in my conversations, and I\u2019m pretty sure in a lot of other guys\u2019 conversations.<\/p>\n
Q: I\u00a0also noticed that you never mentioned Ohio State by name. That was on purpose, right? <\/p>\n
A: Yes. I\u00a0never mentioned Ohio State on purpose while I\u00a0was there. I\u00a0also made sure I\u00a0followed all the ethical rules necessary to get into an experiment like this. Part of it is making sure to go through the university legal team, to make sure you\u2019re not receiving any payment during this time, any benefits, no health care, no retirement. It\u2019s a full-on unpaid, off-duty activity. So I\u00a0went through all those channels, and then part of it was\u00a0\u2026 I\u00a0just was not going to say Ohio State\u2019s name while I\u2019m in the experiment. It\u2019s not necessary.<\/p>\n
Q: The participants and the hosts in the show always refer to it as an experiment, but you\u2019re a researcher: Do you think that\u2019s an appropriate word for what\u2019s going on in the show?<\/p>\n
A: I\u00a0mean, we don\u2019t have a counterfactual at play here. So if we use the term \u201csocial experiment\u201d loosely, I\u00a0would say yes, but because we don\u2019t necessarily have the control group\u00a0\u2026 I\u2019ll say it wouldn\u2019t fall into the gold standard of randomization.<\/p>\n
Q: Would you recommend going on the show to other academics?<\/p>\n
A: Yeah. I\u00a0pause there, because I\u00a0don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily the professional component that\u2019s too risky, but I\u00a0think it\u2019s more so who you are as a person. Regardless of if you\u2019re in academia, or if you\u2019re a law enforcement officer, or you are a nurse or whatever your career is\u2014if your personality is a certain way, then maybe you shouldn\u2019t embark on an experiment like that. That\u2019s kind of the nice way to put it. But if you\u2019re open and you can truly see finding a potential partner, then I\u00a0think this specific show was set up and designed pretty well.<\/p>\n
Q: How have your students reacted to the show? I\u00a0assume they have been watching.<\/p>\n
A: The students have been super supportive. The hype was larger when it first started\u2014I\u00a0had one student raise their hand in class and say, \u201cHey, I\u00a0saw you on my [TikTok] For You page,\u201d and brought up the elephant in the room. So I\u00a0quickly took maybe 30 seconds of class time and said, \u201cYes, that is me, but we\u2019re not going to talk about that in the middle of class.\u201d But they\u2019ve been super supportive.<\/p>\n
Q: What about colleagues? Have they talked to you about it?<\/p>\n
A: Yeah, my colleagues are super excited. Within the university and even outside the university, academics have reached out to say, \u201cHey, we like how you represented us. It was good to see the whole person. We study, we do research, we mentor, we teach, we\u2019re serious about our business and we also have this other side to us. So it was cool to see the whole professor.\u201d And then some folks confused it with other shows. <\/p>\n
Q: Like Love Island?<\/p>\n
A: No shots to those shows, but they\u2019re different kinds of setups. Love Is Blind is unscripted. Who you are when you show up is who you are, and you\u2019re looking for a forever partner.<\/p>\n
Something interesting that\u2019s happened, too, is that I\u2019ve been getting outreach from academics not only in support, but also about collaborating on research. They\u2019re like, \u201cHey, can we work on something together? Or do something together with your skill set and your expertise?\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cSure, let\u2019s talk.\u201d So it\u2019s opened doors for other connections to be made.<\/p>\n
Q: OK, last question for you, Vic: Is love truly blind?<\/p>\n
A: I\u00a0believe so. The connection that I\u00a0made with Christine before I\u00a0saw her was so true, so real. It was a visceral feeling, and it was just a wall between us. All I\u00a0have is the voice.<\/p>\n
Once the dates are done, you\u2019re lounging with the guys, or sometimes you go back to the room to sleep, and I\u00a0just couldn\u2019t help but continue thinking about her, the connection we\u2019re building, the curiosity I\u00a0had about other aspects of her life, learning about her family, her quirks, all these things. And it was really cool to have that devoted time where I\u00a0knew I\u00a0was in love with her before I\u00a0went down on one knee. It did not matter who came through those doors. It would not have mattered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a whirlwind few weeks for Ohio State University professor Vic St. John. A year has passed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9412,243,146,2323,11320,85,46,265,43],"class_list":["post-343460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-career","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-higher","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jobs","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}