In this episode, filmmaker and adoptee Glenn Morey discusses the painful experiences and anger felt by Asian American adoptees like him. In this thought-provoking podcast episode, he delves into the realities of growing up in a homogeneously white environment and the damaging effects of negative media portrayals of Asian boys and men. If you are the adoptive or foster parent of an Asian child, do you want to help them develop a strong sense of identity and community? Glenn Morey has the solution...
May 29, 2023•42 min•Season 2Ep. 95
Sandy White Hawk's heartbreaking story of being taken from her Native American family at a young age is a familiar tale, but her unexpected twist of reconnection will leave you in tears. From feelings of isolation to the overwhelming emotions of meeting her birth family, Sandy's journey is a powerful reminder of the importance of connection and the devastating impact of forced removal. Find out how Sandy is helping other Native American adoptees and formerly fostered individuals reconnect with t...
May 22, 2023•57 min
Are you an LGBTQ+ adoptive parent or adoptee in need of support and resources? Look no further! Tony Hynes has the solution for you to connect with a community and discover valuable resources to support your family. Join the growing network of LGBTQ+ adoptive families and find the resources you need to thrive. =============== 📆 Community Calendar: UnravelingAdoption.com/Calendar 💌Sign up for our Unraveling Adoption email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX =============== In this episode, you will ...
May 15, 2023•55 min
If you're feeling the crushing disappointment and heartache of repeatedly hitting dead ends in your search for biological family despite exhaustive DNA testing and genealogy research, then you are not alone! In this episode, you will be able to: Witness Julie's heartwarming tale of finding and reconnecting with her birth family. Grasp the significance of genetic genealogy in uncovering one's heritage. Examine the layered emotions and potential mental health challenges facing adoptees and their f...
May 08, 2023•52 min
After spending 15 years searching for answers, Rich Uhrlaub discovered that both his birth parents had passed away long before his quest had begun. This devastating realization fueled Rich's passion to become an advocate for truth and transparency in adoption, challenging an industry that had grown apathetic to the plight of those it served. In this episode, you will be able to: Gain insight into adoptees' needs for truth and transparency, emphasizing the need for access to birth records and bio...
May 01, 2023•47 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Astrid Castro, Founder and CEO of Adoption Mosaic. She’s a transracial intercountry adoptee, coming from Colombia at the age of 4 along with her older sister. She has been in reunion with her birth family since 2012. Her organization, Adoption Mosaic, creates a strong community of people who can envision a new future of ethical and conscious adoption. Adoption Mosaic provides adoptee-centered courses, speakers, and consultation services...
Apr 24, 2023•56 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Fred Nicora, a Late Discovery Adoptee, or LDA. Fred’s memoir is called Forbidden Roots: A Memoir of Late-Discovery Adoption. Because of his life experience, he now speaks out about truth and transparency in adoption. He has 13 years in recovery from substance use disorder and he now runs a small hobby farm in Southeastern Wisconsin. =============== 📆 Community Calendar: UnravelingAdoption.com/Calendar 💌Sign up for our Unraveling Adopt...
Apr 17, 2023•53 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Amanda Baum, co-founder of Fireside Adoptees Facebook Group. They recently launched a sister site called Fireside Adoptees Constellation which is open to anyone touched by adoption. Now living in North Carolina, she is an intercountry adoptee originally from Mexico but adopted into Utah. Amanda will be talking about how being a transracial adoptee has affected her life. And she will talk about ways she gets and gives support in the adop...
Apr 10, 2023•33 min
This week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast episode is unique because I am traveling to an adoption conference the week before this episode’s release. So instead of editing a regular episode, I put together a short behind-the-scenes episode, highlighting all the things we offer to adoptive families and the larger community.
Apr 03, 2023•22 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Kevin Burgart from the Nashville area. He’s an adoptee, adoptive parent of two children with significant special needs, and recently he became the adoptive parent of his grandchild as well. Since Kevin has been on both sides of this equation, he has a unique perspective on adoption. His life has been more challenging than most in many ways. We will dig into the obstacles he’s faced, and talk about what resources he’s found to help him c...
Mar 27, 2023•45 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Cindy Olson McQuay, an adoptee from Pennsylvania who is the co-founder, with Erin Cosentino, of Hiraeth Healing Retreats for Adoptees, DCPs (Donor Conceived People), LDAs (Late Discovery Adoptees), and NPEs (Not Parent Expected). Cindy is a baby scoop era domestic infant adoptee, and she had a rather idyllic childhood with well-informed and open adoptive parents, which was somewhat unusual at the time. Besides her work for Hiraeth, she ...
Mar 20, 2023•42 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Greg Gentry, a domestic baby scoop era adoptee, born in California in 1969. He has been in reunion with maternal family members since 2006, and in 2021 also connected with his paternal side. Greg is a facilitator and interviewer for Fireside Adoptees, a private Facebook group founded in 2021, which is committed to additional outreach through its Fireside Adoptees public Facebook page and the Fireside Adoptees Constellation private Faceb...
Mar 13, 2023•46 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Kelsay Elizabeth Myers, a professional writer, artist, and somatic movement educator living in Marin County, CA. She is passionate about personal and social transformation for trauma healing. She's a Korean transnational adoptee who has been on a healing journey the last several years, after spending the first 32 years of her life in self-destructive behavior patterns. Kelsay founded Dialogical Persona Healing Arts where she offers indi...
Mar 06, 2023•37 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Simon Benn, an adoptee living near York, England and host of Thriving Adoptees podcast. I was recently on his show, so I wanted him to be on our show as well. Trading podcasts across the globe. Simon has been on a healing journey for the last 13 or so years, after a discovery about his adoption that rocked his world. He wants to help other adoptees move toward healing with his podcast and webinars. =============== 💌 Sign up for Unravel...
Feb 27, 2023•30 min
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Amanda Kari McHugh, an adoptee and an engagement journalist who is making her mark on the adoption community with her project Voices of Adoption which you can find on TikTok, Instagram, and Substack. In this project she elevates the voices of adoptees and birth mothers. Stay tuned for ways you might be able to participate in this project! Amanda is pursuing a double masters in journalism and engagement from grad school at the Craig Newmark Gradua...
Feb 20, 2023•48 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption Podcast, Beth talks with Paul Kimball, an adoptee from Northern California and author of the memoir We Are All Human Beings: An Adoptee Ponders. Music has always been a huge part of his life, and he currently works as a conductor, horn player, and school music teacher. He didn’t realize it at first, but when he reunited with his birth mother, the passion for music made sense. In this episode, we talk about the power of music to transcend time and space and conn...
Feb 13, 2023•29 min
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: On Saturday, March 11, Unraveling Adoption is hosting a free webinar called Moving Beyond Adoption - An Immersive Experience with Kat Linquist so you all can experience this amazing work that Kat does. It’s 10am-noon PST on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moving-beyond-adoption-an-immersive-experience-with-kat-linquist-tickets-532651855037 If you are curious about how Magnetic Mind can help you in your adoption journey - or with any bloc...
Feb 06, 2023•55 min
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Paul “Jack” Fronczak, a military veteran, musician, published author, executive producer, and former actor, who now works for a non-profit organization devoted to changing lives. An avid bass guitarist and motorcyclist, Paul now lives in Las Vegas, and has a teenage daughter he calls "the greatest kid in the world." Eleven years ago, Paul took a test that disproved the story he'd been told about his identity—that he was "Baby Fronczak,"...
Jan 30, 2023•36 min•Season 2Ep. 78
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Ann Weaver Melendy from Oregon, a baby scoop era adoptee who was taught by her adoptive family to not speak about her adoption and to not ask questions. Well that backfired big time, because not only is she now sharing her story on this public podcast and elsewhere, but she is also an adoptee rights advocate. Ann is particularly bothered that adoptees’ vital records often don’t include the true data about their birthdate, birth parents, and more....
Jan 23, 2023•37 min•Season 2Ep. 77
In this week’s Unraveling Adoption podcast (formerly Safe Home Podcast), Beth talks with Alex Baquero, a 31yo from Philadelphia who was adopted at 6 months old from Colombia. His adoptive parents are white, and he started reuniting with his birth family 12 years ago. He shares his adoption story and his complicated reunion story, plus he lets us know what tools have helped him along the way. =============== 💌 Sign up for our Unraveling Adoption's email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX ===========...
Jan 16, 2023•44 min•Season 2Ep. 76
We are just switching our name from Safe Home Podcast to Unraveling Adoption, and this is the first full episode under our new name. In this week’s episode, Beth Syverson chats with Leslie Pate Mackinnon, a licensed clinical social worker and an adoption activist for the past 30 years. Leslie is a seasoned and well-respected therapist in the adoption community. She is a nationally known trainer who travels across the country training therapists, agencies and child welfare workers about the psych...
Jan 09, 2023•48 min•Season 2Ep. 75
In this very special episode, Beth Syverson, host of Safe Home Podcast, explains her pivot to Unraveling Adoption. This is the last episode of Safe Home, and the first episode of Unraveling Adoption. She explains what the new title means, what the future plans are, and she provides ways for everyone to help get the new podcast launched. =============== 💌 Sign up for our email list: http://eepurl.com/hVIAVX =============== RESOURCES: Beth’s information: Email Beth at Beth@UnravelingAdoption.com ...
Jan 02, 2023•21 min•Season 2Ep. 74
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Lainie Liberti and her 23yo son Miro Siegel. Lainie Liberti is a best selling author, international speaker, teen mentor, worldschooler, partnership parenting paradigm advocate and mother. In 2012 Lainie co-founded Project World School with her son and has lived in community with over a 100 teens in over 20 international locations. Lainie founded Transformative Mentoring for Teens in 2020 in response to the growing need to support teen's mental h...
Dec 26, 2022•46 min•Season 2Ep. 73
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Carolyn Balagot, an advocate for neurodiverse people. In her family, she, her husband, and her 3 kids are all neurodiverse in one way or another - primarily with ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has worked at her children’s school as a 504 case carrier, advocating for students’ needs. Her kids all went to school at Orange County School of the Arts, where I used to teach and which I highly respect and admire. Especially in an arts school, all...
Dec 19, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 72
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Amanda Lipp, a documentary filmmaker and social entrepreneur working at the intersection of mental health, storytelling, and technology. Amanda has produced over 80 short documentaries about mental health and social impact - covering topics such as youth psychosis, schizophrenia, art therapy, cyberbullying prevention, and housing relief from wildfires. A passionate mental health advocate, she has given over 150 speeches around the U.S. since age ...
Dec 12, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 71
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Doris Blumenthal, an adopted person who lives in Northern California. Her adoption story is one of the adoptee narratives in the documentary Reckoning with the Primal Wound , which you’ve probably heard me talking about before. The filmmaker Rebecca Autumn Sansom was on this podcast in Episode 30. If you haven’t seen Reckoning with the Primal Wound yet, I highly recommend it, and I also want to let you know that this episode contains spoilers. ==...
Dec 05, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 70
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Bonnie Harris, a New Hampshire-area director of Connective Parenting, where she is a parent educator, counselor, coach, and speaker. She wrote two parenting books: When Your Kids Push Your Buttons and Confident Parents, Remarkable Kids: 8 Principles for Raising Kids You’ll Love to Live With . AND she has her own podcast Tell Me About Your Kids where anyone can listen in on her parent coaching sessions. Bonnie has a master’s degree in Early Childh...
Nov 28, 2022•46 min•Season 2Ep. 69
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with a family friend of hers from church - Katherine Osborne. Katherine shared with the church that she was recently diagnosed with OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I thought it might be good for our audience to learn from an eloquent teen how OCD feels. Nowadays people joke that they have OCD when they’re bothered when something doesn’t quite line up, or if one tile is a different color. You see memes about OCD all the time. But that’s a very sim...
Nov 21, 2022•32 min•Season 2Ep. 68
In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Catherine Becker, founder of the support group called Joys and Challenges of Relative Caregivers. She’s a grandma who is raising her three young grandkids while her daughter struggles with addiction. When she tried to find a tribe of other relatives in her same situation, she didn’t find a group that went deep enough or that was small enough to create personal connections. So she made her own group. Her organization is raising money to provide fi...
Nov 14, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 67
**TRIGGER WARNING** This episode will be talking directly about suicide, so this might not be for everyone to listen to right now. But we at Safe Home believe this is a very important topic so we hope you’ll listen when it’s safe for you to do so. In this week’s Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Frank King, a comedian who wrote for The Tonight Show for over 20 years and who performs standup worldwide. Along the way, he focused his creative attention on the topic of mental health, and specifical...
Nov 07, 2022•41 min•Season 2Ep. 66
