PODCAST · society
Adoptees On
by Haley Radke
The podcast where adoptees discuss the adoption experience. This is not the usual adoption talk. You will find real, raw, and deep feelings addressed in these interviews. No sugar-coating here! Come and laugh, cry, learn and heal with us.Adult adoptees share stories of search, reunion, and secondary rejection. Adoptees On also curates recommended resources to encourage and educate the adoption community about adoptee issues.
Episodes
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Danna Schmidt
332 | Danna Schmidt Today's guest is Danna Schmidt, a writer and celebrant. At eighteen, Danna found herself working in a courthouse with her own sealed adoption file within reach and began plotting how to read it. She shares her story of searching, reunion, and estrangement, and how she's making...
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Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello
331 | Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello Today's guest is poet Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello. Marci shares about growing up in a deeply religious adoptive family. We talk about finding room in her writing for questions about her origins that may never have answers, how translation can echo the adoptee...
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Deanna Shrodes, D.Min.
330 | Deanna Shrodes, D.Min. Today, Deanna Shrodes returns to share the remarkable story behind her new book, Finding Mr. Greek, about searching for, finding, and reuniting with her biological father, Gus, when he was 91 years old. We talk about the precious time they spent together, the peace…
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Alex Blum
329 | Alex Blum Today's guest is Alex Blum, author of An Accident of Birth. Alex shares his story of how he reconnected with his three full biological brothers through DNA testing. We also talk about seeing yourself reflected in biological family for the first time, nature versus nurture, and…
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10 Years of Adoptees On with Haley Radke, Sullivan Summer, and Kristal Parke
328 | 10 Years of Adoptees On with Haley Radke, Sullivan Summer, and Kristal Parke I'm the creator and host of this show, which aired it's first episode on July 1, 2016, a full decade ago! When I started Adoptees On all those years ago, my teens were a toddler and a preschooler and I podcasted in…
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Beth Yu Simpson, MSW, LICSW
327 | Beth Yu Simpson, MSW, LICSW On today's episode I'm in conversation with Beth Yu Simpson: a therapist, educator, and founder of AIRE Roots. Beth shares how mentorship, community-building, and her own lived experience as a Korean adoptee have shaped her work, including her focus on ancestral...
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Sun Yung Shin
326 | Sun Yung Shin My guest today is Sun Yung Shin, poet and author of the new book Heart Eater: A Memoir of Immigration, Belonging, and How We Find Ourselves in Language. Sun Yung's work examines the complexities of transracial and transnational adoption, identity, and the limits of what some...
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[Healing Series] Narcissism in Adoptive Parents with Katy Perkins, LICSW-S
325 | [Healing Series] Narcissism in Adoptive Parents with Katy Perkins, LICSW-S This is a special episode in our healing series where I interview therapists who are also adoptees themselves, so they know from personal experience what it feels like to be an adoptee. Today we are joined by Katy...
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Diana
324 | Diana On today's episode we are welcoming Diana to the show to share her story of being adopted from Russia at age two. Diana unpacks how early separation, institutional care and adoption shaped her mental health and sense of identity. This episode has mentions of childhood sexual assault,...
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Lisa Olivera, MFT
323 | Lisa Olivera, MFT So honoured to welcome back Lisa Olivera, MFT to explore her new book When the Ache Remains. Lisa shares how becoming a mother has brought up new layers of both loss and connection, and we both open up about recent, painful relationship ruptures. Full Show Notes and...
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Monique Pangari, MEd, SEP
322 | Monique Pangari, MEd, SEP I'm so excited to introduce you to today's guest, Australian adoptee and somatic psychotherapist, Monique Pangari. Monique shares about her experiences as a teen mom, what lead her to search for her origins, and how she discovered the man she believed was her…
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David McCarty-Caplan, Ph.D.
321 | David McCarty-Caplan, Ph.D. Today's guest is Dr. David McCarty-Caplan, a researcher, consultant and a Colombian-born adoptee. After becoming a father himself, David began searching for his biological family, leading to a reunion with his mother and siblings in Colombia — an experience that...
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Erick Wolfmeyer
320 | Erick Wolfmeyer Today's guest is Erick Wolfmeyer, a contemporary quilt artist known for his bold, large-scale textile works. Erick shares his experiences of being relinquished twice by his mother, their fraught reunion, and the DNA discovery that upended his identity yet again. Full Show...
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Kristina Richie
319 | Kristina Richie Today's guest is Kristina Richie, TikTokker and author of Unraveling Adoption: Weaving Between Two Worlds. She shares some of her story with us, including how her birth mother gained custody of her when Kristina was 16 years old. We talk about how the secrets in her adoptive...
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Diego Vitelli, LMFT
318 | Diego Vitelli, LMFT Today I'm joined by Diego Vitelli, a Colombian adoptee and adoptee-focused therapist. Diego shares his own adoption story with us, including what it has looked like for him to have been assigned an artificial date of birth. We also talk about the accuracy of using terms...
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Kailee Pedersen
317 | Kailee Pedersen Today's guest is the multifaceted Kailee Pedersen: from software engineer to opera singer to novelist! Kailee shares about being adopted from China, growing up in Nebraska, navigating racial isolation and the complexities of searching for family across borders and systems.…
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Jennifer Lauck
316 | Jennifer Lauck Today we are honoured to have with us New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Lauck, whose memoirs have shaped how so many understand the adoptee experience. Her landmark book Blackbird is celebrating its 25th-anniversary edition this year. In our conversation we talk…
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Alé Cardinalle, MSW
315 | Alé Cardinalle, MSW Today's guest is Alé Cardinalle, an adoptee advocate who has taught millions of people on TikTok about the complexities of adoption. We talk about what reunion is like when it's international and everyone speaks a different language. One of my favourite things about Alé…
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Nik Chang Hoon
314 | Nik Chang Hoon Today's guest is memoirist and poet, Nik Chang Hoon. Nik shares his journey of identity and language reclamation, including returning to Korea and reuniting with his birth mother in secret. We also talk about estrangement, healing, and his powerful writing that invites us to...
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Molly Gaudry
313 | Molly Gaudry Today's guest is Molly Gaudry, author of Fit Into Me: A Novel A Memoir. This interview is one of the first ever Molly has given surrounding her adoptee identity. Relatable to anyone who has contradictory or missing narratives in their origin stories, Molly shares the…
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Bonus: Adoptees for Family Preservation
Bonus | Adoptees for Family Preservation Full Show Notes and Transcript Here Join our adoptee community on Patreon here Check out our upcoming live events here! Find out more about Adoptees for Family Preservation here! Support Haley's new podcast here! This podcast is for educational and...
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Lynelle Long
312 | Lynelle Long Lynelle Long has been an adoptee advocate for nearly thirty years. The founder of Inter-Country Adoptee Voices (ICAV) Lynelle has built a network of thousands of adoptees around the world to both connect with each other and to effect change at each level of government, as high…
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Sasha Hom
311 | Sasha Hom Sasha Hom lives an extraordinarily unconventional life. I'm so excited to introduce her to you. She's a writer, goat farmer, mother, and her new book Sidework is incredible. Today we talk about her experiences as a Korean adoptee, adopted to a Chinese American couple in…
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Mirella Stoyanova
310 | Mirella Stoyanova Mirella Stoyanova is our guest today, and I don't normally say this, but this was one of my favourite conversations in recent memory. Mirella is a therapist and writer, and her insights dazzled me. We talk about her experience being adopted at age 5, and what coming to...
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Megan Hunter, MBA
309 | Megan Hunter, MBA It's such an honour to bring you today's guest, Megan Hunter, MBA. Megan is known as the Conflict Influencer, and is the co-founder of the High Conflict Institute. We get to know Megan's personal story today, including her reunion story. Megan shares about how she first...
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Alexandra Mann
308 | Alexandra Mann Who among us doesn't love a good movie? And how many times have you been watching a film and, jump scare, some terrible adoptee trope comes out of nowhere. Today's guest, Alexandra Mann had that happen one too many times and what grew out of that all too common adoptee...
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[Healing Series] The Nothing Place with Pam Cordano, MFT
307 | [Healing Series] The Nothing Place with Pam Cordano, MFT I'm so glad to be back with you after our summer break! Today's episode is a special episode in our Healing Series that truthfully I've been scared to do and I've intentionally been waiting to do because of this fear. This concept has...
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[Healing Series] Money and Worth with Marta Isabella Sierra Cifuentes, LMHC
306 | [Healing Series] Money and Worth with Marta Isabella Sierra Cifuentes, LMHC For our last episode before our summer break, we're talking about adoptees and money! Marta Isabella Sierra Cifuentes, LMHC is back and teaching us all about money, worthiness, the obvious commodification of…
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Maria Diemar and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom
305 | Maria Diemar and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom We have two incredible adoptee activists with us today. Maria Diemar and Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, both adopted in Sweden, joined up to elevate adoptee causes in some very impactful ways. Maria is the subject of Lisa's latest graphic novel, The Excavated...
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Dr. Michele Merritt
304 | Dr. Michele Merritt Today's guest is Dr. Michele Merritt - a philosophy professor who's coined the new term Adoptism to describe the ways adoptees are marginalized. Michele shares some of her personal story, including the curiosity she always had about where she came from. We discuss what…
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Craig Mod
303 | Craig Mod Craig Mod the author of Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir joins us to share his story. We deep dive into Craig's recent reunion with his birthmother including the complexities of searching in the digital age when so much of our information is publicly available. Being...
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greiby medina
302 | greiby medina Today we're pleased to introduce you to greiby medina, author of The One Who Loves You the Most. greiby was adopted from Honduras at age two-and-a-half to a single white mother. We discuss changing names, why greiby is not a fan of the term "coming out of the fog", and being...
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[Healing Series] Wounds of Childhood with Anna Linde, Sexologist
301 | [Healing Series] Wounds of Childhood with Anna Linde, Sexologist This is a special episode in our Healing Series where we bring on adoptee experts to tackle issues that may impact our mental health. Most often we're talking with therapists but today I invited Anna Linde, a sexologist, to…
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Haley's Sisters
300 | Haley's Sisters We've reached our 300th episode! I found my paternal side of my family 14 years ago, and I discovered that I had three younger siblings. So even though I'm the only adoptee on today's show, I thought you'd enjoy this peek behind the curtain, exploring what was it like for my...
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Dr. Abby Hasberry
299 | Dr. Abby Hasberry I'm so excited to welcome Dr. Abby Hasberry back to the show today! We are celebrating her brand new book, Adopting Privilege: A Memoir of Reinventing My Adoptee Narrative. Abby is a therapist, a scholar, an adoptee and a birth mother. We get into all of it: coercion in...
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Kit Myers
298 | Kit Myers We've been waiting several years to have today's guest on, and when better then to celebrate his brand new book! Professor and critical adoption scholar Kit Myers is with us to talk about his new book, The Violence of Love: Race, Family, and Adoption in the United States. Kit is…
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Adé Carrena
297 | Adé Carrena I don't think we've ever had anyone on the show that shares today's guest's profession! I'm thrilled to introduce you to Chef Adé Carrena, she's the subject of a beautiful new documentary called Bite of Benin. Adé is passionate about using food as a storytelling tool and has...
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Connor Howe
296 | Connor Howe I'm so excited to introduce you to our guest today! We are talking all about open adoption with Connor Howe, who probably already know as adopted_connor from his many videos online. We talk about his personal story, including what it's like to grow up with a sibling that is your...
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Lee Herrick
295 | Lee Herrick We are starting the year off with such a delight, Lee Herrick, the California Poet Laureate, joins us today! Lee recently released his latest poetry collection, In Praise of Late Wonder, which is focused fully on the topic of adoption. Today we talk about what it means to feel...
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Kathy Mackechney, LCSW
294 | Kathy Mackechney, LCSW We are doing a hybrid Healing Series episode with adoptee and adoptee therapist, Kathy Mackechney, LCSW. Kathy shares part of her story with us, including how she was prepared for rejection during her reunions, but was instead surprised by eager acceptance. Getting…
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Dr. Julie Lopez
293 | Dr. Julie Lopez This is a special episode in our healing series where I interview therapists who are also adoptees themselves, so they know from personal experience what it feels like to be an adoptee. Today I'm so pleased to welcome back Dr. Julie Lopez, author of Live Empowered! We are...
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Shelby Redfield Kilgore
292 | Shelby Redfield Kilgore Shelby Redfield Kilgore is a Korean adoptee and filmmaker. You can watch her documentaries and videos on YouTube alongside 800,000 other folks who've already had the pleasure. We talk about Shelby's passion for sharing adoptee stories and how that shifted in tone…
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Kae Wangare Leonard
291 | Kae Wangare Leonard Today we welcome Kae Wangare Leonard to the show. Kae is a writer, athlete and artist, born and adopted in Kenya by white Americans. She shares some of her story with us, including what does home mean when you've lived in multiple countries. We discuss what it means to…
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Kristal Parke
290 | Kristal Parke Today's guest is filmmaker and fellow podcaster, and fellow Canadian, Kristal Parke! Kristal is the subject of the documentary, Because She's Adopted. Today Kristal shares some of her story with us including her non-paternal realization, her road to sobriety, her visits back…
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Bruce Porth Part 2
289 | Bruce Porth Part 2 Today is part two of a two-part episode that we began last week, with our friend Bruce Porth. Today we talk a little more about reunion and what it looks like when someone is being dishonest with you, and also about using breathwork and psychedelics as healing modalities....
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Bruce Porth Part 1
288 | Bruce Porth Part 1 We are so fortunate to hear from Bruce Porth today; he is one of those people that only speaks when he's got something thoughtful and insightful to share, and today's conversation is no exception. Bruce shares about his childhood, some difficult relationship…
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Ande Stanley
287 | Ande Stanley On today's show we're welcoming Ande Stanley, creator and host of the podcast, The Adoption Files. Ande is a late discovery adoptee, only finding out accidentally when they were in their thirties. We talk about how that happened, and the reactions of adoptive family members to...
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Grace Newton, MSW
286 | Grace Newton, MSW Today's guest is Grace Newton, MSW, a Chinese adoptee, author of the prolific blog, Red Thread Broken, and one of the co-authors of the Adoptee Consciousness Model. We discuss the reasons for the rise and fall of international adoption from China, and how the critical...
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[Healing Series] The Seven Insights into Adoptee Attachment with Pam Cordano, MFT
285 | [Healing Series] The Seven Insights into Adoptee Attachment with Pam Cordano, MFT Today's episode is a special episode in our Healing Series, where I interview therapists who are also adoptees themselves, so they know from personal experience what it feels like to be an adoptee. We're…
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Dr. Alice Diver
284 | Dr. Alice Diver Today's guest is the remarkable Dr. Alice Diver, law professor and outspoken adoptee advocate. Alice has written multiple journal articles and books on the topic of adoptee rights, including her latest, Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The podcast where adoptees discuss the adoption experience. This is not the usual adoption talk. You will find real, raw, and deep feelings addressed in these interviews. No sugar-coating here! Come and laugh, cry, learn and heal with us.Adult adoptees share stories of search, reunion, and secondary rejection. Adoptees On also curates recommended resources to encourage and educate the adoption community about adoptee issues.
HOSTED BY
Haley Radke
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Adoptees On have?
Adoptees On currently has 343 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Adoptees On about?
The podcast where adoptees discuss the adoption experience. This is not the usual adoption talk. You will find real, raw, and deep feelings addressed in these interviews. No sugar-coating here! Come and laugh, cry, learn and heal with us.Adult adoptees share stories of search, reunion, and...
How often does Adoptees On release new episodes?
Adoptees On publishes regularly with 343 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Adoptees On?
You can listen to Adoptees On on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Adoptees On?
Adoptees On is created and hosted by Haley Radke.
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