The Anna Jinja Show

Anna Jinja

The Anna Jinja show focuses on the stories, issues, and questions connected to adoption and foster care experiences. The host is an international adoptee with biological roots in Korea and adopted roots in the United States. As you can imagine, her journey and experiences as a transracial adoptee are multifaceted. Her experiences have been with the pain of discrimination and rejection as well as the joys of self-discovery and learning to embrace all aspects of her identity. Along the way, she has discovered that she is not alone. We’re all – in some ways – adopted into or out of homes, cultures, communities, and relationships as we grow and evolve. This show illuminates the theme of adoption, in all ways, in our lives. And how those experiences create who we are and who we are yet to be. Her hope is that through engaging with the guests and creative content, we are welcomed home in this world, cradled in the belief that we belong, that we are worthy, and that we are loved. So stay tuned, and you may discover your own adoption story.

  1. Sep 22

    Rose Crelli & Claire Steele

    Send us Fan Mail A violinist who stopped the internet. A poem that turned her story into music. In February, Rose Crelli performed alongside Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl halftime show — then posted a few quiet words online. More than 147,000 people responded with tears and recognition. Rose was born in China and adopted into a family in rural Alaska, in a home without running water, electricity, or internet. From those log cabins beneath the northern sky, she found her way to conservatory training, to stages shared with the NFL, the NBA, the MLB, and Andrea Bocelli — all the way to the biggest halftime show on earth. When writer and writing coach Claire Steele heard Rose's story, she couldn't stop thinking about it. So she wrote a poem: "Oh My Baby, Baby." And in true Anna Jinja Show fashion, Rose set Claire's words to music for this episode.  It's a conversation about identity, belonging, and the sound of finally coming home. Guest Links: https://www.constellationsconsultancy.co.uk/who-we-are https://rosecrelliviolin.com/ Support the show

    Rose Crelli & Claire Steele

  2. Aug 25

    Wilson Munsterman & Mike Bila

    Send us Fan Mail Host Anna Jinja sits down with Wilson Munsterman and Mike Bila — two men who, on paper, don't have much in common. Wilson is 19, an adoptee from China, and the author of a book that's now part of the Library of Congress collection. Mike is a singer-songwriter and father, the middle child of seven, who wrote a song called "The Man That She Sees" out of something close to imposter syndrome. But Wilson chose Mike's song for this episode. And once he explains why, the whole conversation clicks into place. The song is about a father trying to close the gap between who his daughter believes he is and who he's afraid he really is. Wilson hears that and recognizes it instantly — not as a parent, but as someone who has spent his whole life navigating the distance between how people assume his adoption story goes and what it actually felt like to live it. The "grateful adoptee." The "success story." Titles that flatten a whole, complicated person into something easier to hold. The episode sits with that flattening. The Hollywood version of adoption that ends the moment the paperwork is signed, when in reality, that's when the real story starts. The self-doubt that follows someone even when — especially when — they've built something as remarkable as Wilson has by 19. And the conversation turns to choosing. Not just being chosen — which is where so much of the adoption conversation stays — but choosing, actively, again and again. Choosing the people who show up with no legal obligation to. Choosing ourselves, even on the days it doesn't feel earned. It's the whole reason this movement carries the name it does. Host Anna Jinja's husband Pete joins the episode on guitar to accompany Mike on the song, and there's something about hearing it performed in real time, right after the conversation that shaped it, that's hard to fully describe on the page. For anyone who has ever felt the weight of being someone's idea of them instead of just themselves — this episode is for you.  CREATIVE INTERCHANGE: Song written and performed by Mike Bila  Guitar accompaniment by Pete Mather The Man That She Sees                          by M.T. Bila Questions abound at this time of life - truth to tell well hell I'm scared The feel of alone settled deep in my bones begs the question - is anyone there? Dreams die on the vine - no she wLl never be mine - and Nashville most likely wont call But the dream I love best so much more than the rest still thinks her dad stands twelve feet tall  CHORUS The most painful thing about living this life I live is letting her down I've found new ways to lose - only a child or a fool  would ever hang around a ship going down Yesterday twelve tomorrow thirteen - now one has to wonder how long will it be  until she opens her eyes and the man that she sees  is me I've spent hear after year proving her momma wrong just To find time again she was right all along I gotta try - I gotta fight - i've got to go on -oh God please make me the man that she sees.  Questions abound black and white all around but I live in shades of gray In the shadows of life not quite wrong looks like right and not quite right is close enough so they say At almost forty years old I'm a low budget hero - seems like I fall much more than I fly But there's a girl in her room thinking dad roped the moon - how much less can I do than try REPEAT CHORUS Support the show

    Wilson Munsterman & Mike Bila

  3. Aug 17

    Micki Lamb & Shei Sanchez

    Send us Fan Mail This episode follows Micki Lamb, a clinical director at Hopewell Health, who first tried to find her birth mother as a middle schooler walking through a snowstorm to mail a secret letter. Decades later, Micki discovered that her birth mother, Linda, had made a similar solitary trek at age 17—walking across Houston to safely place Micki with an adoption agency. The Anna Jinja Show brought Micki’s story to acclaimed poet Shei Sanchez without instructions or prompts. The result is "Origin," a powerful new poem that reframes the adoptee experience through the iconic line: "My birth family is in red. My adoptive family, in blue. I have begun my own, in purple." On mic, Micki and Shei meet to explore each other’s perspectives for the first time. Key Themes & Appeal •Local & Universal Resonance: Explores adoption, identity, and generational healing through two compelling voices—a former international educator turned Ohio goat farmer/poet, and a veteran child trauma therapist. •Original Arts Feature: Contains the exclusive broadcast premiere and discussion of the poem "Origin." •Emotional Depth: High-engagement narrative suitable for public radio storytelling, human-interest, and arts-focused programming blocks. Support the show

    Micki Lamb & Shei Sanchez

  4. Aug 11

    The Brydges Family & Jean Mikhail

    Send us Fan Mail A boy's only Christmas wish was to be adopted with his brother. Dawson wouldn't leave Dalton behind. Dalton has cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and is legally blind and nonverbal. When Robbin Brydges and her husband Steven found out about Dalton through the Dave Thomas Foundation's Wendy's Wonderful Kids program, they also found out he had a little brother who refused to be split up. They adopted them both. Years later, a poet named Jean Mikhail watched their story and cried so hard she couldn't stop. She wrote a poem about it. Then she got to read it to the family, live, on this show. On this episode of The Anna Jinja Show, you'll hear Jean's poem "Psalter for a Broken World," Robbin's honest reflection on becoming "the mom of a superhero," and Dawson himself, now a junior in high school, telling his brother on air: "I don't care how far the drive is. You can come home." This episode is about the kind of family you choose, and the kind of loyalty a nine-year-old already understands better than most adults do. There are thousands of kids in foster care right now waiting for someone to say yes, the way Robbin and Steven did. If today's episode moves you, you can learn more about foster care adoption through the Dave Thomas Foundation or your local foster care agency. About Jean Voneman Mikhail, a poet from Athens, Ohio, whose work has appeared in The Northern Appalachian Review, Sheila Na Gig Online, and other literary journals. Jean draws on her rich experiences to bring heartfelt stories to the page, inspired by family and place. Support the show

    The Brydges Family & Jean Mikhail

  5. Aug 4

    Karen Salyer McElmurray & Bob Stewart

    Send us Fan Mail Bob Stewart wrote “Shadow Boxer” in 1977, decades before he’d ever hear Karen Salyer McElmurray’s name. He wrote it about shadows in general, the kind everyone carries, unnamed. He had no idea it would end up soundtracking a memoir about a mother who surrendered her son at 16 and spent twenty-five years waiting for a sound she’d only heard once: her baby’s cry, in a hospital room she wasn’t allowed to stay in. Karen’s memoir, Surrendered Child, won the AWP Award for Creative Nonfiction and was named a National Book Critics Circle Notable Book. But this episode, “Shadows and Song: Surrendering to the Truth Within,” isn’t really about the awards. It’s about the day a stranger found Karen through a Google search, and Karen’s son Andrew showed up in a driveway, fully grown, and Karen had to reconcile the baby she’d been picturing for a quarter century with the man actually standing in front of her. She calls it shadow and reality slamming into each other. This episode is all about choosing family, carrying grief you can’t fully name, and  discovering that the people we build our lives around aren’t always the ones we were given. Bob and Karen never met before this recording. Neither knew the other’s story going in. That’s still my favorite part of doing this show: watching two people who think they have nothing in common realize they’ve been speaking the same language the whole time. Support the show

    Karen Salyer McElmurray & Bob Stewart

  6. Jul 21

    Kelley Shinn & Jillian Kay

    Send us Fan Mail Kelley Shinn was sixteen, a scholarship-level cross-country runner, when a rare bacterial infection took her legs. A decade later she and her toddler daughter drove a Land Rover from England to Bosnia-Herzegovina, sponsored by the Landmine Survivors Network, to bring attention to landmine survivors around the world.  Her memoir, The Wounds That Bind Us (West Virginia University Press), traces the whole arc. Losing her legs. Being adopted as an infant. Reaching, decades later, toward the woman who gave her up, and finding her at last through a pharmacy drive-through window in a moment neither of them will forget.  On this episode of The Anna Jinja Show, Kelley talks about what it means to reframe a life instead of just surviving it. About being, in her words, clay that can always be remolded. About walking through a door that might only open once. Paired with her story is a song that was selected just for this conversation. Jillian Kay, an Ohio University music student you may recognize from Donkey Coffee or The Union, wrote “I'm Okay If You're Okay” as a letter to her own childhood self.  After reading Kelley's story, she knew exactly where the song belonged. When she read about Kelley, she recognized the song immediately as belonging to this conversation. Jillian shares, in her own words, why lines like “roller coasters we have rode on, mountains we have climbed to the other side” felt like they belonged to Kelley's younger self as much as her own.  This episode asks a question worth sitting with: what happens when you stop editing your past for other people's comfort, and start editing it for your own healing instead?  Support the show

    Kelley Shinn & Jillian Kay

  7. Jun 16

    ACCS Episode 7: Nancy Schell

    Send us Fan Mail The Athens County Children Services season of The Anna Jinja Show began with the executive director. It ends — in Episode 7, the true season finale — with the board chair. Nancy Schell has served as Chair of the ACCS Board of Directors for over a decade.  She is a volunteer, appointed by the Athens County Commissioners, who shows up to set policy, provide governance, and make sure the agency remains answerable to the children and families at the center of its mission. In her professional life she is a Program Director at Ohio University. In her community life, she is one of the quiet forces that makes Athens County's child welfare infrastructure possible.  In her conversation with host Anna Jinja and assistant producer Lizzi Montanti, Nancy talks about what a board chair actually does — and why someone would give that much of themselves to an unpaid position. She describes the strategic planning process that keeps ACCS from becoming siloed, the discipline of ending every hard board meeting with a good story, and the particular joy of adoption hearings, which she says move her to tears every single month.  She also shares a story worth pausing on: a mother who lost permanent custody of her child, who years later returned to ACCS and now helps the agency improve its services. Nancy calls it "a huge win" — and it is, both for the agency and for every person listening who has ever wondered whether repair is possible.  The episode also features a reprise of the original collaboration between Athens Poet Laureate (2020–2022) Wendy McVicker and folk legend Bruce Dalzell — the first-ever song they made together for this season, heard one last time as a closing gift.  Nancy's call to action brings the full season into focus: support the levy. Consider foster care or kinship care. Talk to your neighbors about what ACCS does. And if you ever see or hear something that worries you about a child — say something. "Err on the side of caution," she says. "These children need us."  Seven episodes. Seven conversations.  A whole season of people who gave their time, their stories, and their art because they believe Athens County's children deserve to be safe, known, and loved.   Support the show

    ACCS Episode 7: Nancy Schell

  8. Jun 9

    Matt Starkey: Art, Advocacy, and the Fight to Keep Children Safe

    Send us Fan Mail What does it mean to tell the story of an organization that protects the most vulnerable children in your community — without exploiting those children's stories?  That critical question sits at the heart of Matt Starkey's work. As the Public Information Officer and Community Events Coordinator for Athens County Children Services, Matt serves as the bridge between the agency's essential work and the public that funds, supports, and depends on it.  In Episode 6 of The Anna Jinja Show's ACCS season, Matt joins host Anna Jinja and assistant producer Lizzi Montanti for a masterclass conversation about ethical storytelling, public transparency, and what it truly takes to keep children safe.  Matt speaks with incredible clarity and conviction about several core themes:  On community reporting: "The only way we do our jobs is if people tell us when something's happening. Listen to children. And if you hear something that doesn't seem right — report it. Err on the side of caution." On the power of showing up: "It takes someone reaching out to a child consistently. Sometimes they slap your hand away. But you keep reaching." On what art can do that a fact sheet can't: Matt describes how the agency's iconic community mural — designed alongside five local high school students — was built to spark genuine emotion. "We don't need you to think about when KidFest is. We want you to drive by and feel happy."The episode also features a cool milestone: the debut collaboration between Athens Poet Laureate (2020–2022) Wendy McVicker and folk singer-songwriter Bruce Dalzell. These two pillars of the Athens arts community had never worked together before but came together here to debut an original piece created in response to ACCS's mission.  This is a cornerstone episode of the ACCS season of The Anna Jinja Show — a brilliant intersection of child welfare, poetry, music, and vital community conversation. Support the show

    Matt Starkey: Art, Advocacy, and the Fight to Keep Children Safe
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The Anna Jinja show focuses on the stories, issues, and questions connected to adoption and foster care experiences. The host is an international adoptee with biological roots in Korea and adopted roots in the United States. As you can imagine, her journey and experiences as a transracial adoptee are multifaceted. Her experiences have been with the pain of discrimination and rejection as well as the joys of self-discovery and learning to embrace all aspects of her identity. Along the way, she has discovered that she is not alone. We’re all – in some ways – adopted into or out of homes, cultures, communities, and relationships as we grow and evolve. This show illuminates the theme of adoption, in all ways, in our lives. And how those experiences create who we are and who we are yet to be. Her hope is that through engaging with the guests and creative content, we are welcomed home in this world, cradled in the belief that we belong, that we are worthy, and that we are loved. So stay tuned, and you may discover your own adoption story.

Information

  • Creator
    Anna Jinja
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    134
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Anna Jinja Show
  • Show Website
    The Anna Jinja Show