124 episodes

Two adult adoptees, Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne, delve into all things adoption - from their perspectives as adult adoptees. Each season Sarah and Louise recap a chapter from a book centered on adoption and then interview a guest.  Sarah and Louise come out of the 'fog' in real-time through Seasons One and Two and are advocating for change in the adoption industry. They want to give voice to all adoptees. Adoptee stories are needed to reframe the narrative around adoption.Sarah and Louise, two former business partners who had a successful ice cream truck in Los Angeles, team up again - this time in frank and honest conversations about all things adoption from the adoptee perspective. Both were adopted shortly after birth, but they had very different experiences. These will be intimate conversations, but also fun - because Sarah and Louise know how to lighten things up and have a good time. They also have an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a subject with anyone who crosses their path - so conversations will take many turns. 

Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee Stories Louise Browne & Sarah Reinhardt

    • Kids & Family
    • 4.7 • 9 Ratings

Two adult adoptees, Sarah Reinhardt and Louise Browne, delve into all things adoption - from their perspectives as adult adoptees. Each season Sarah and Louise recap a chapter from a book centered on adoption and then interview a guest.  Sarah and Louise come out of the 'fog' in real-time through Seasons One and Two and are advocating for change in the adoption industry. They want to give voice to all adoptees. Adoptee stories are needed to reframe the narrative around adoption.Sarah and Louise, two former business partners who had a successful ice cream truck in Los Angeles, team up again - this time in frank and honest conversations about all things adoption from the adoptee perspective. Both were adopted shortly after birth, but they had very different experiences. These will be intimate conversations, but also fun - because Sarah and Louise know how to lighten things up and have a good time. They also have an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a subject with anyone who crosses their path - so conversations will take many turns. 

    Jeff: The Problem and the Solution

    Jeff: The Problem and the Solution

    Jeff is an adoptee born in 1964 in Salt Lake City Utah. He is the middle of 4 children (an older sister and younger twins, a boy and a girl) who were also adopted. He grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and always knew that he was adopted. He has been able to experience living in the Middle East and working in a variety of cultures in countries throughout the Middle East as well as Mexico and the United States.Jeff is the founder of a non-profit organization that has helped homeless and unders...

    • 1 hr 13 min
    Julie: Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity

    Julie: Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity

    Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. In her books, essays, and blogs, she explores the topics of finding out who you are, and where you belong, and making sense of it. She is the author of two books: Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging, and Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family, and Kinship. Her third book, Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood releases in February 2025.https://www.julie...

    • 57 min
    Stephen: A Story of Adoption and Destiny

    Stephen: A Story of Adoption and Destiny

    Stephen Rowley, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist practicing on Bainbridge Island,Washington. He is an adoptee and the father of an adopted son. Born in 1949 to anunwed mother, he was adopted at six months and enjoyed the benefits of growing up in a loving and affluent home. At age 13 he became deeply curious about his parentage. Not until college did he have the means to begin a lifelong quest to find his birth mother and his true identity. After years of investigation, he finally found his birth ...

    • 1 hr 3 min
    Carolyn: Healing through Poetry

    Carolyn: Healing through Poetry

    Carolyn Hill-Bjerke is an adoptee born in 1967, during the Baby Scoop Era.She was born to 20-year-old students at the University of Connecticut.Carolyn’s biological mother was put into a maternity home. Her fathermoved to New York City and became a lawyer. He worked in theentertainment business.Carolyn was in foster care for the first five months of her life as herbiological mother resisted relinquishment until she no longer could.Carolyn grew up in the Washington, DC area as the daughter of ...

    • 1 hr 11 min
    Trishina: Digging through the Layers of International Adoption

    Trishina: Digging through the Layers of International Adoption

    Trishina was born in 1991 in Sevastopol, Ukraine, and was adopted at 18 months old. She was always curious about her biological family, searching on and off. Still, it wasn’t until she joined a Russian social media app called Vkontakte, that she could find some answers. Trishina is a nurse and military wife currently living in Cleveland, Ohio.Vk LinkTo skip ahead to the interview go to timestamp: 2:12In Season 8, we will be reading The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler starting July 2nd&nbsp...

    • 49 min
    Gretchen: Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood

    Gretchen: Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood

    Season 7 FinaleGretchen Sisson, PhD is a qualitative sociologist who studies abortion and adoption in the United States, based at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, a ten-year examination of adoption relinquishment during the years of Roe.To skip ahead to...

    • 1 hr 4 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
9 Ratings

9 Ratings

MamabearViki ,

Hey ladies!

Thank goodness for you! This ride is a hard one and you’ve helped so much along the way!! The activism side is too much for me still, this is the best place to feel the connection ❣️

M.H. Yoga ,

Highly recommended!

Hi ladies;
I found and began listening to your podcast at the perfect time in my journey through search and reunion. I have been reunited with my Bmom and am currently still searching for Bdad. I had read Nancy Verrier’s book the “Primal Wound” when I was buried in a deep layer of adoption fog. I wasn’t quite yet ready to hear the message and absorb it’s teachings. Now, a few years later, I was thinking about re reading this pivotal book. I am more ready at this stage in my journey. Your review of the book in your first few episodes in conjunction with sharing stories of fellow adoptees, had me hooked from the first episode of your podcast. I enjoy the friendly banter you as hosts have with one another and your both dog people, which automatically makes you my kind of women. Congratulations on a job well done. I will and have recommended you to fellow adoptees. Looking forward to listening to your growth as you journey this path together!

Warmly,
Mimi Hanson

Gzmo55 ,

Unsubscribing

I am unsubscribing to your podcast. The talking over each other and interrupting the interviewee is triggering for me. Sometimes three people are talking at the SAME time.

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