247 | Katie Bozek, Ph.D., LMFT Today’s guest is Dr. Katie Bozek, a therapist and the Executive Director of KAAN, the Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network. We talk about the complexity of what being asked for our story brings. Katie shares how the birth of her first child was what set her on the journey of looking closely of what being adopted truly meant to her, and we touch on ways we both parent as adoptees with a focus on building connection. We wrap up by talking about the upcomin...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 247
246 Dorothy Ellen Palmer Today’s guest is author and accessibility consultant Dorothy Ellen Palmer. Dorothy is a fellow Canadian adoptee whose story has some remarkable coincidences. We talk about the indescribable lure back to the places of our biological ancestors, why mainstream adoption humour is so problematic, and ableism in the adoptee community. This episode requires a trigger warning as we touch on some extremely difficult topics including mentions of sexual assault including infant sex...
Mar 31, 2023•56 min•Ep. 246
245 Mary Gauthier What can we say about today’s guest? She is an iconic songwriter, Grammy-nominated folk artist, and outspoken adoptee advocate, Mary Gauthier. Mary’s first book Saved By A Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting is a nurturing exploration of how sharing our stories can be a healing experience. Her 2010 album The Foundling has become a soundtrack for many of us as we’ve grieved and process our own adoptee stories. Mary and Haley talk about her path to songwriting, how imp...
Mar 24, 2023•51 min•Ep. 245
244 Deanna Shrodes, D.Min. We are back with part two of our interview with Dr. Deanna Shrodes. Last week Deanna shared with us how her father Gus Nicholas was found in May 2022 at the age of 92 after a first cousin DNA match. Deanna was his only daughter and they had several precious months together in reunion before he passed away in December 2022. Their story is so unbelievable that it’s been featured on CBS Mornings and has gone viral around the world. Today we talk more about grief, the adop...
Mar 17, 2023•47 min•Ep. 244
243 Deanna Shrodes, D.Min. Our guest is Dr. Deanna Shrodes, a minister and well-known writer of the Adoptee Restoration blog and multiple books. Back in 2019 Deanna and I discussed the challenges of searching for her father and coming up with false leads and dead ends for years. Well today, she is back to share her heartwarming and heartbreaking story of finding her father Gus Nicholas after a lengthy search. It is so unbelievable that it has gone viral with millions watching her story on CBS Mo...
Mar 10, 2023•52 min•Ep. 243
242 Andie Coston, LCSWA Today we are talking about something that may feel triggering to many of us. Indeed, both me and my guest had a hard time at different points during this conversation. We are talking with an adoptee who is also an adoptive parent. Andie Coston, LCSWA, is here, and we’re talking about how to live in the grey world of both advocating for adoption abolition and/or reform, and also the fact that there are children that need permanence now. How do we look at the systemic upstr...
Mar 03, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 242
241 Kirsta Bowman Today’s guest is Kirsta Bowman, also known as Karpoozy to much of the internet. Kirsta is an adoptee advocate who has alerted millions of TikTok viewers about unethical adoption rehoming practices. She shares some of her personal search reunion story with us today, and we chat about the complexities of reunion when your biological family lives on another continent. And of course we revisit the topic of grief when you’re rejected from being reunited and when you find a grave. Fu...
Feb 24, 2023•54 min•Ep. 241
240 Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D. Today’s guest is Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a public health biologist and climate crisis expert. Sandra shares some of her personal story with us, and then the importance of knowing the interactions of both our biology and our adoptive environments on our health. As a gay woman who came out later in life, Sandra now helps facilitate a Queer Adoptee support group and we talk about the intersections and conflicts she sees between the LGBTQ community and the adoptee right...
Feb 17, 2023•52 min•Ep. 240
239 Adoptees On(ly) Book Club We’re inviting you to join our Adoptees On(ly) Book Club discussion today! Sullivan Summer interviews Rebecca Carroll, author of Surviving the White Gaze, at a live Zoom event with fellow adoptees. This was recorded in October of 2022. Like Rebecca, Sullivan is a Black, domestic, transracial adoptee raised in New Hampshire. She is a regular contributor to Adoptees Off Script. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothi...
Feb 10, 2023•54 min•Ep. 239
238 | Lora K. Joy returns to the podcast today to share about the process of legally changing her name and being adopted back by her biological mother. We talk about all the healing work and therapy she's persisted in to find acceptance of herself and about how it feels to own the truth around her story. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or leg...
Feb 03, 2023•57 min•Ep. 238
237 | [Healing Series] Identity Marta Isabella Sierra, LMHC returns to discuss a model of attachment that is so helpful for adopted people to consider. Instead of attachment styles being seen as a spectrum, Marta teaches us about the Nested Model and understanding the layers of complexity that can add to adoptees’ experience of attachment. We even do a role play of how to have some challenging conversations if you’re struggling in any relationship. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educat...
Jan 27, 2023•43 min•Ep. 237
Shannon Gibney, an award-winning author of multiple books, and her brand new release, The Girl I Am, Was, & Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption, returns to the podcast! Today Shannon shares some of her reunion story with us, how her long-time friends supported her through some pivotal life events, and how her relationship with her adoptive family has evolved over the years. We talk about the brand new book, and patrons will get the opportunity to join Shannon for an A...
Jan 20, 2023•50 min•Ep. 236
235 | Happy 2023! What a way for us to begin the new year! One of the people we most highly esteem in the adoptee community is here, JaeRan Kim Ph.D.. JaeRan is an adoptee scholar, community leader, and author of the prolific blog, Harlow’s Monkey. Today she shares some of her personal story and how she landed in critical adoption studies. She also teaches us about the brilliant new model she’s developed with several adoptee scholars to help us move beyond “out of the fog” language and instead c...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 1 min
234 | [Healing Series] Positive Racial Identity Abby Hasberry, LMFT-A join us to talk about the importance of adult adoptees developing a positive racial identity. We can’t develop that as children (nor as adults) when racial mirrors and cultural experiences are nonexistent. Abby shares some tools and strategies we can use to do this work of racial reclamation, and she addresses a common fear and question, “but is this cultural appropriation?”. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educationa...
Dec 16, 2022•44 min•Ep. 234
233 | Patrick Armstrong We are so excited to welcome Patrick Armstrong to the podcast! Patrick is a fellow adoptee community builder and today he shares his experiences growing up as a Korean adoptee in all-white spaces. He’s moved from rejecting his Asian identity, to a period of reclamation of identity, language and culture, and now feels that he’s in a place of fully accepting himself. We hope this conversation will be encouraging, especially to those of you who have struggled to affirm your ...
Dec 09, 2022•59 min•Ep. 233
232 | [Healing Series] Identity We’re excited to have Marta Sierra, LMHC back on the podcast, one of our favourite adoptee therapists! Today Marta talks with us about identity development as adult adoptees. We talk through some of the ways adoption trauma can mean delayed development, and that finding out who we really are is possible in adulthood. Marta also advises us that sometimes doing healing work and discovering our preferences and values can upend our lives. Full Show Notes Here This pod...
Dec 02, 2022•33 min•Ep. 232
Thank you to each one of you who has listened to an episode of Adoptees On! Each adoptee who listens is an integral part of our community, and we are feeling especially grateful for you making this possible today. Haley Radke and Carrie Cahill Mulligan are celebrating 1,000,000 downloads of the Adoptees On podcast! Join us as we take a look back at our first episode together and talk through some of our changes of perspective over the last six and a half years. We also answer some of your questi...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 231
230 | Marcy Axness, Ph.D. Today we are excited to welcome Marcy Axness, Ph.D.. This episode is a mix of a history lesson about adoptee activism and the psychological impacts of infant and mother separation. Marcy has her Ph.D. in Early Human Development, and brings a unique expertise and lens to the adopted person’s experience. We discuss what it’s like if we bring consciousness to our experiences and how we can be always moving towards healing but also that, unfortunately, there will likely alw...
Nov 18, 2022•53 min•Ep. 230
229 | Tiffany Henness Today we get to introduce you to our friend, Tiffany Henness. Tiffany shares her story of growing up in an open adoption, and how it isn’t the panacea that many hold it up to be. We discuss how she came to explore race, adoption, and faith and what shifted her perspectives on all of those topics. Now, Tiffany is an adoption and racial literacy expert who writes, speaks, and leads others to unpack the complexities of these experiences. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is fo...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 229
228 | Grace Kelly We have to admit this is the first featured guest we’ve had on the show who is not adopted. We are excited to introduce you to Grace Kelly, who has successfully had her adoption reversed in Australia and now works to help other Australians annul their adoptions. We discuss the impact having her adoption reversed has had on her personal healing journey and Grace also shares about the importance of our language, including why she doesn’t use the term adoptee. Full Show Notes Here...
Nov 04, 2022•54 min•Ep. 228
227 | Adoptee Remembrance Day Adoptee Remembrance Day is commemorated annually on October 30th. It is a day to remember our adoptee friends who have died by suicide. On this day we also acknowledge the adopted people who are without citizenship in the very country they were taken to as infants or children. We think of those who have suffered abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents and grieve those who have been murdered by the people who promised to give them a safe home. We mourn with thos...
Oct 28, 2022•44 min•Ep. 227
226 | Harrison Mooney Today we are so honoured to introduce you to Harrison Mooney, author of the incredible new memoir, Invisible Boy, where he exposes the trauma of transracial adoption. Harrison shares with us why family preservation is so important to him, and how he was able to reconnect with his biological mother after a lengthy time of silence between them. We talk about the complexities of being in a situation where it didn’t feel safe to say the whole truth about adoption, and about how...
Oct 21, 2022•47 min•Ep. 226
225 | Ethan Ferkiss Today we are joined by Ethan Ferkiss to share his heartwarming reunion story. Expecting rejection or indifference, Ethan wasn’t prepared for his search to end in what he calls the “jackpot scenario: a full-scale welcome”. But as you can guess, navigating new relationships with four adult siblings, his biological mother, and his biological father, has been a whirlwind and can be overwhelming at times. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educational and entertainment purpo...
Oct 14, 2022•40 min•Ep. 225
224 | [Healing Series] I Will Not Abandon Myself Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT, RPT-S is back to talk about adoptee self-worth. So many of us tell ourselves the story over and over of, “there must be something wrong with me because I wasn’t worth keeping”. Janet talks us through a new phrase we can say to ourselves, “I will not abandon myself when I need myself the most.” This episode is for you if you’ve ever felt like you weren’t enough. Let’s show up for ourselves, sometimes that’s all we’ve got! F...
Oct 07, 2022•32 min•Ep. 224
223 | Tony Corsentino We are honoured to introduce you to Tony Corsentino today! As a philosophy professor turned public librarian, Tony walks us through some of the best strategies he’s used to challenge the traditional adoption narrative. He also teaches us the differences between privacy and secrecy and he shares the importance of adoptees listening to the stories of others who have experienced severance from their family of origin. Full Show Notes Here This podcast is for educational and ent...
Sep 30, 2022•56 min•Ep. 223
222 | Kara Bos Kara Bos is one of the first adoptees to ever successfully win a paternity lawsuit in South Korea. Kara’s biological father was compelled by the courts to take a DNA test confirming his genetic connection to Kara which in turn allowed her to be added to the family registry as his daughter. We talk about the difficulties of disenfranchised grief she experienced when he died only six months after her court victory. Kara also shares about how there is room for us to be thankful for o...
Sep 23, 2022•58 min•Ep. 222
221 | Haley Does DNA Testing In the final episode before our summer break, guest host Lisette Austin interviews Haley Radke! We are talking all about DNA testing: what made Haley finally take the plunge, which companies she chose to use, and about all the surprise feelings that came up. Haley also did this weird podcaster thing where she recorded her inner thoughts while spitting in the tubes… so we may have a few clips from that throughout the episode. We’ll see you back here in September, make...
Jun 24, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 221
220 | Christina Romo Today guest host Lisette Austin speaks with Christina Romo, creator of the blog called Diary of a Not-So-Angry Asian Adoptee. Christina shares about her career path in the adoption world and how she has finally found a position that she feels aligns with her personal work in adoptee advocacy. Lisette and Christina discuss the complexities that come with being close with adoptive parents and family while coming to grips with the trauma and loss that is part of adoption. Chris...
Jun 17, 2022•39 min•Ep. 220
219 | The Flourish Experience Today we are talking about The Flourish Experience. You’re going to hear from multiple people who participated in a year-long group focused in on adoptee community through writing and sharing together weekly. I hope what you hear is that connecting deeply with other adopted people is possible. So many of them share that by being vulnerable they’ve been able to be truly seen by their peers, and for some that’s brought a measure of healing. There have been many differ...
Jun 10, 2022•58 min•Ep. 219
218 | Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills We are honoured to have the brilliant Dr. Jenny Heijun Wills return to Adoptees On today. We talk about what reunion has looked like in the time since she’s published her award-winning memoir, Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related., including the practical “how-tos” of maintaining a relationship with a family member that lives abroad and speaks a different language. Jenny also addresses what it feels like to be raised with Eurocentric beauty standards as a person of ...
Jun 03, 2022•52 min•Ep. 218
