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

Epizodai

• Susan: A Story Rooted in Heritage 30.06.2026 1val 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.
• 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.
• Anne-Grete: The Long Journey Home 16.06.2026 1val 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.
• Samantha: Reunion, Loss, and Self-Acceptance 09.06.2026 1val 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.
• Gabriel: Dance, Identity, and Healing 02.06.2026 1val 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Jae: Finding Voice, Claiming Self 05.05.2026 1val 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Lisa: Adoption, Identity & Health 14.04.2026 1val 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.
• 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.
• Jeff: Behind the Chameleon Mask 31.03.2026 1val 9min

  Jeff was born in San Francisco in 1962, relinquished at birth, and raised in a loving adoptive family that openly discussed adoption—yet he still struggled with identity, shame, and substance use, shaped in part by a “chameleon” coping mechanism. Years later, learning about adoption-related trauma and exploring his origins through DNA testing led to powerful revelations, unexpected family connections, and a deeper understanding of his story.
• Greta: The Road from Loneliness to Self 24.03.2026 1val 3min

  Greta, born during the Baby Scoop Era, grew up in silence and disconnection, carrying deep loneliness and questions about her origins while finding refuge in basketball, creativity, and a self-made “Ghost Kingdom.” After a complex reunion with her biological family and years of searching for belonging, she continues to heal through connection, recovery, and storytelling, reclaiming her voice and sense of self.
• Raven: Living Beyond The Lies 17.03.2026 57min

  Raven was born in 1949 in North Hollywood, California, and was adopted as a newborn under the belief that her biological mother had died in childbirth—a story that shaped her childhood with anxiety, guilt, and fear of loss. After a difficult upbringing and later learning the truth about her origins, she found purpose later in life supporting the dying and now, at 77, works in home health and hospice, a role she deeply loves.
• Valorie: The Long Road to Family 10.03.2026 1val 16min

  Born in New Jersey and relinquished at birth, Valorie faced a difficult childhood marked by challenges with attachment, school, and addiction before finding sobriety at a young age and beginning her healing journey. Years later, after long wondering about her biological family, she found both sides in one remarkable weekend and has been in reunion since 2024 — discovering that for her, the fairytale came later, like a rainbow after the storm.
• Emma: The Truth Beneath "Chosen" 03.03.2026 58min

  Born in Tennessee in 1989 and flown home on Valentine’s Day, Emma grew up in rural Western Massachusetts in a loving, creative family, where her adoption once felt more like a fairytale than a lived experience — even as anxiety and depression quietly took root. Meeting her birth mother at twenty sparked a fifteen-year reckoning, unraveling the “chosen baby” narrative and leading her to confront the hard truths at the heart of her story.
• Season 11 Finale: Monica Hall, Jesse Scott & Liz Harvie 24.02.2026 1val 9min

  Season 11 concludes with Monica Hall, Jesse Scott, and Liz Harvie in a deep and honest conversation with hosts Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne about their books — Practically Still a Virgin, You Can’t Get Rid of Me, and Unspoken. Together, they explore identity, belonging, and the many layers of the adoptee experience.
• Maria: The Long Road to Knowing 17.02.2026 50min

  Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Maria was adopted at four months old and grew up feeling distinctly different from her adoptive family, always questioning her origins and searching for more than the brief explanation she was given as a child. After years of determined searching in the pre-internet era, she eventually pieced together her story — answers that eased some of her anxiety — and now dedicates time to exploring how adoption has shaped her life while living in the Bay Area near her children and grandchildren.