Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories

Episodi

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  Laurie: Journey to the Truth 18.08.2026 1h 1min

  Laurie, a Baby Scoop Era adoptee born in 1968, spent decades searching for her biological family, eventually discovering her biological father, six half-siblings, and a sister who had also been placed for adoption. After a lifetime of questions, unexpected discoveries, and complicated relationships, Laurie has found connection, embraced her story, and proudly knows who she is.
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  Elle: Adopted Into Silence 11.08.2026 1h 12min

  Elle is a baby-scoop-era domestic adoptee born in New York City in 1969, who grew up in a dysfunctional adoptive family where questions about her adoption were not welcome. After more than 30 years of searching, twists, rejection, and reconnection, Elle found many of the answers she was seeking and, through coming out of the fog, has found healing while helping others through sharing her story and lived experience.
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  Mishelle: Harnessing the Strength Within 04.08.2026 1h 4min

  Mishelle was born as "Baby Girl Powers," a placeholder name that would take on unexpected meaning as she navigated the lifelong impact of adoption. Through The Making of Me and the shared stories of fellow adoptees, she finally discovered the source of her resilience and embraced the strength that had always been within her.
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  Diane: The Art of Finding Home 28.07.2026 56min

  Diane, an accomplished Bay Area artist and adoptee, spent decades searching for her origins, ultimately reconnecting with both sides of her biological family—including a father who never knew she existed—and building meaningful relationships that transformed her understanding of herself. Her deeply personal adoption journey now inspires her paintings and sculptures, which explore identity, DNA, memory, secrecy, and the lifelong search for belonging.
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  Adrian: From Survival to Purpose 21.07.2026 54min

  Our current guest, Adrian Burks, is a filmmaker, writer, director, producer, and recovery professional whose work is deeply shaped by his experience as a domestic adoptee and former foster youth. Through both storytelling and rehabilitation, Adrian is dedicated to helping others find resilience, healing, and hope while empowering them to rebuild their lives.
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  Christy: Where Healing Takes Root 14.07.2026 1h 7min

  Our current guest, Christy Gilvear, is the creator of The Rooted Petal, a plant-centered brand that explores the connection between houseplants, healing, and personal transformation. An adoptee and Citizen Potawatomi Nation member, Christy shares how plants, identity, and reconnecting with nature have become an important part of her journey toward belonging and healing.
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  Patsy: Found by DNA, Silenced by Family 07.07.2026 1h 3min

  Our current guest, Patsy Brooks-Tallant, is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee whose private adoption was arranged through falsified legal documents, leaving family secrets hidden for more than six decades. Through years of determined genealogy research and DNA testing, she uncovered both sides of her biological family and now passionately advocates for adoptee rights, open records, and the truth every adoptee deserves to know.
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  Susan: A Story Rooted in Heritage 30.06.2026 1h 5min

  Our current guest, Susan "Cricket" Fedorko, has spent decades sharing her adoption journey through writing and media, including the remarkable discovery at age 40 that her birth mother was pioneering Native American supermodel Cathee Dahmen. An enrolled member of the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa (Ojibwe), Susan has now been reunited with her biological family for 24 years and continues to use her voice to educate and advocate for adoptees.
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  Jackson: Between Two Worlds 23.06.2026 51min

  Jackson TerKeurst's life was forever changed when he was separated from his family during the Liberian civil war and spent years in an orphanage before coming to the United States and being adopted at age 15. Today, the author of The Only Way Forward Is Back shares his powerful story of resilience, identity, and belonging, inspiring others to overcome adversity and find purpose.
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  Anne-Grete: The Long Journey Home 16.06.2026 1h 10min

  Born in London and adopted from Norway in 1967, Anne-Grete spent much of her life moving around the world before settling in Norway, where she eventually began exploring the deeper impact of adoption on her identity and sense of belonging. Her journey through reunion, reconnection with biological family, and involvement with Adopterte helped her come out of the fog and become an advocate for adoption awareness and adoptee support in Norway.
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  Samantha: Reunion, Loss, and Self-Acceptance 09.06.2026 1h 3min

  Born in San Francisco in 1970 and adopted from foster care as an infant, Samantha (Sam) Shields spent years searching for answers about her origins and the feelings of loss and disconnection that shaped her life. After reuniting with her original mother at age 27, Sam navigated a complex and deeply meaningful relationship that ultimately helped her confront family trauma, find self-acceptance, and begin writing a memoir about her reunion journey.
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  Gabriel: Dance, Identity, and Healing 02.06.2026 1h 6min

  Gabriel Gutiérrez is an adult adoptee, street dancer, reconnecting P’urhépecha native, and founder of MoFundamentals, the only foster-adoptee-led dance program in the United States. Through dance, advocacy, and cultural storytelling, he uplifts foster and adoptee voices while exploring identity, healing, resilience, and the journey of reconnecting with his roots.
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  Lynn: Not a Blank Slate 26.05.2026 58min

  Born in 1970 and adopted as an infant, Lynn grew up believing the story that she was chosen and special, only to later discover that her adoption was a kinship adoption and that the woman she knew as her cousin was actually her birth mother. After finding her birth father through DNA at age 49, more family secrets and painful rejections surfaced, shaping Lynn’s passion for adoptee truth, openness, and educating adoptive parents that adoption is never a blank slate.
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  Mary Lynn: From Hidden Story to Search Angel 19.05.2026 54min

  Born in 1966 and adopted after spending her first ten months in foster care, Mary Lynn grew up questioning the incomplete answers surrounding her adoption and later began a years-long search for the truth about her origins. Through persistence, DNA testing, and the help of search volunteers, she reunited with her birthmother and now serves as a search angel herself, helping others find truth, connection, and hope.
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  Diane: The Truth Beneath the Story 12.05.2026 57min

  Adopted during the Baby Scoop Era, Diane Wheaton spent much of her life navigating conflicting stories about her origins before beginning a search for her biological family at age forty-seven. Her memoir, Finding Loretta, explores reunion, family secrets, grief, and healing as she learns to embrace both her adoptive and biological families and the complex journey that shaped her.
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  Jae: Finding Voice, Claiming Self 05.05.2026 1h 6min

  Jae Carelli, adopted from Korea as an infant, grew up in New Jersey and Cape Cod and later studied at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, navigating mental health challenges and an ongoing search connected to their adoption. Now based in Brooklyn, Jae is a vocalist, songwriter, and educator whose work explores identity, duality, and voice, including their album American Doll and their solo show Homeward Bound.
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  Virginia: Live Podcast from Austin, Texas 28.04.2026 55min

  Live from Austin, Texas on April 18th, Virginia McQueen Laney—an adoptee in a blended family—shares her work building an adoptee- and queer-centered collaborative practice rooted in identity, advocacy, and community care. A Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and founder of Bozeman Identity Counseling Center, she brings a trauma-informed approach that extends beyond individual therapy to support adoptee rights, tribal collaboration, and the LGBTQIA2+ community.
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  Alex: An Accident of Birth 21.04.2026 55min

  At sixty, Alex Blum discovered he was the eldest of four biological brothers he never knew existed, after decades of secrecy left him without answers about his origins despite always knowing he was adopted. Raised in privilege yet feeling deeply disconnected, Blum reflects in An Accident of Birth on the universal adoptee experience—exploring identity, alienation, and the lifelong search for belonging.
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  Lisa: Adoption, Identity & Health 14.04.2026 1h 2min

  Dr. Lisa Chism is the Clinical Director of the Oakland Macomb Center for Breast Health and a highly credentialed expert in menopause, sexual health, breast care, and trauma-informed practice, with decades of experience caring for breast cancer survivors and high-risk patients. She is also an author and adoptee whose memoir The Adopted Nurse reflects her passion for supporting adoptees through a healthcare lens.
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  Mioara: The Long Thread Home 07.04.2026 47min

  Born into Roma heritage and adopted at six weeks old, Mioara grew up between cultures, carrying a quiet curiosity about her origins that deepened after reconnecting with her biological parents in 2018. Her journey led her to her younger sister—also adopted—and in 2025 they found each other, forming an immediate and profound connection that reshaped her understanding of identity, belonging, and the ties that bind us.