Our Best Interests: Adopted - Life Lessons from Childhood Trauma to Adulthood - podcast cover

Our Best Interests: Adopted - Life Lessons from Childhood Trauma to Adulthood

Michael Rocco - Authormichael-rocco-author.com
We all need meaningful social connections and a secure sense of belonging. But sometimes, natural or social forces separate us from loved ones and even ourselves. Children who were relinquished by their families and later adopted navigate a particularly challenging set of issues related to finding authentic individual and social identities. Michael and Jack invite other adoptees and allies to discuss issues of self, family and society from the adoptee perspective. #adoptee #adoption #adopteevoices #adopted #transracialadoptee #adopteestories #adoptees #adopteesspeak #childhoodtrauma
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Episodes

Pamela Karanova - Season 2, Episode 1.

Jack and I recorded this episode with adoptee activist Pamela Karanova back in early 2022. Pamela is a fearless and talented writer and Founder of both Adoptees Connect and Authenticity Over Alcohol. Since the time of our conversation, Pamela lost her birth father, so we added a brief condolence to the beginning of the recording. Stepping away from the Adage format of Season I, we discuss Pam's struggles with relinquishment and grief, inhabiting 'badness' and her never-ending quest to take contr...

Aug 03, 20221 hr 10 minSeason 2Ep. 1

Reckoning with the Primal Wound: An Interview with Rebecca Autumn Sansom

Michael and Jack interview filmaker Rebecca Atumn Sansom about her documentary feature film Reckoning with the Primal Wound - December 23, 2021. Show notes forthcoming. See the film's webpage: reckoningwiththeprimalwound.com Leave a message for the show! https://anchor.fm/michael-rocco-author/message #adoptee #adopted #adoption #ptsd #cptsd #childhoodtrauma #primalwound #reckoningwiththeprimalwound #tra #transracialadoptee

Jan 07, 202251 minSeason 1Ep. 6

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree

This time Jack and I welcome Dr. E. Kay Trimberger, Professor Emerita of Women’s and Gender Studies at Sonoma State University and author of Creole Son: An Adoptive Mother Untangles Nature and Nurture, published by LSU Press 2020. The guiding adage for this episode is “The Apple Doesn’t fall far from the Tree.” Kay’s memoir recounts transracial adoptive motherhood using insights gained through the field of behavioral genetics. Using this body of research, she revisits key inflection points in ra...

Jul 14, 202141 minSeason 1Ep. 4

New Eyes

This time, Jack and I are joined by Sergeant Brad Ewell, a Texas bomb squad law enforcement officer, late discovery adoptee, husband, and father of three. Brad situates his story within a quote by the French writer Marcel Proust, “The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” We unravel the relevance of Brad’s quote for adoption throughout our chat, but zero in during our discussion of the movies Truman Show and Sixth Sense . In the Truman Show, t...

May 08, 202150 minSeason 1Ep. 3

A House Divided Cannot Stand

Michael Rocco is joined by Co-Host Dr. Jack Rocco (not related) in OBI's premier episode. Jack is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee who strongly identified with his Italian-American, Democrat, Catholic, Yankees fan, blue-collar upbringing in Erie, Pennsylvania. But, well into adulthood, Jack's ethnic/racial identity was challenged when he learned about his black/white biracial father after meeting his biological mother. Eventually, he confirms his own biracial identity through meeting paternal cousins. L...

Apr 29, 202125 minSeason 1Ep. 1

Never Trouble Trouble

To leave a voice message for the show: https://anchor.fm/michael-rocco-author/message - Please like and subscribe! Our guest is Barbara Sumner , filmmaker, journalist and author of the memoir Tree of Strangers (Massey University Press, 2020). Barbara situates part of her adoption story within the adage “Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you, for you’ll only trouble trouble and trouble others too.” This was a common response to questions about adoption when she was young. The adage advi...

Apr 29, 202128 minSeason 1Ep. 2

Our Best Interests: Life Lessons from Childhood Trauma to Adulthood

Each episode of Our Best Interests is guided by an adage. Adages are little bits of folk wisdom that can apply to a variety of situations. In this series, they will be used to shed light on life lessons learned by adoptees by situating our experiences within greater "truths" about humanity. The goal is to help the listener connect the adoptee experience to something already understood in a way that is both meaningful and memorable. Original song "Muse" composed and performed by David Russell (wi...

Mar 02, 20212 min
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