Color Shift: Transracial Adoptees

Nathan Choi
  • 5.0 (9)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

This podcast is where transracial adoptees come and share their stories. 

  1. Color Shift: Renee

    4D AGO

    Color Shift: Renee

    In this episode of Color Shift, we’re joined by Renee, a Korean adoptee born in Daegu in 1976 and brought to the United States in 1977. Renee’s adoption story, as she shares, isn’t a simple one—and it’s one she’s willing to speak about fully, with honesty, care, and deep intention. Renee opens up about the complexities of her experience and the ways it has shaped her identity, relationships, and healing journey over time. Through it all, she has found a path rooted in self-discovery and transformation. Since 2018, Renee has been in private practice offering Reiki—work she describes as a form of spiritual therapy that connects mind, body, and spirit, helping others move toward healing, purpose, and meaning. This conversation explores what it looks like to face difficult truths while still choosing growth, grounding, and compassion. Renee's Substack Renee's own Podcast Renee's Business Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    1h 1m
  2. Color Shift: April

    MAR 16

    Color Shift: April

    April joins the show to share her story of growing up as a Black/biracial adoptee navigating identity, belonging, and family in predominantly white spaces. Relinquished at birth in Massachusetts, April spent her earliest months in temporary foster care before being placed in a foster-to-adopt home in Rhode Island. By the age of two, she was adopted into a white family with three biological children. Growing up, April learned to navigate the complexities of being both adopted and a person of color—experiences that would shape her understanding of identity, connection, and what it truly means to belong. In this conversation, April reflects on the realities of transracial adoption, the questions that can follow adoptees throughout their lives, and the emotional work of making sense of one’s story. She also shares how those experiences led her to dedicate her life to reforming child welfare systems and creating spaces that center empathy, inclusion, and understanding. Today, April continues that work through her speaking and coaching, the summer camp she runs, and her two podcasts, where she helps elevate adoptee voices and challenge long-standing narratives around adoption and foster care. This episode is an honest and thoughtful exploration of identity, family, and the lifelong journey of understanding where—and how—we belong. Photo Credit: Jeff Forney April's projects: Born in June, Raised in April Podcast - A podcast exploring adoption, identity, and race through the universal framework of the calendar. Calendar Conversations Podcast  - A guide for adoptive parents to navigate sensitive milestones and inclusive parenting month-by-month. Together on the Journey - A community initiative and camp designed to support and educate transracial adoptive families. June in April (Official Website) - The central hub for April’s professional consulting, public speaking, and DEIB advocacy work. Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    1h 17m
  3. Color Shift: Amy

    MAR 9

    Color Shift: Amy

    In this episode of Color Shift, Nathan sits down with Amy, a Black transracial adoptee who was adopted at just two months old and primarily raised by a single white mother in Rhode Island. Amy reflects on what it was like growing up in a predominantly white environment and how those early experiences shaped her understanding of identity, race, and belonging. Amy speaks candidly about her adoption story and the complicated realities that can exist within adoptive families. She shares openly about her decision to go no-contact with her adoptive mother and what it meant for her to make that choice. With honesty and clarity, Amy discusses the emotional weight of setting boundaries and the process of redefining family on her own terms. Throughout the conversation, Amy explores the intersections of race, adoption, and self-discovery, and what it has looked like for her to claim her own voice as an adult adoptee. Her willingness to talk about the difficult parts—while still holding space for growth and reflection—makes this a deeply honest and powerful conversation. This episode speaks to the complexities many adoptees carry but don’t always feel safe expressing out loud. Amy’s story is one of truth-telling, agency, and the ongoing journey of understanding who you are beyond the narratives others may have written for you. Where you can find Amy:  Tik tok: @divinely.amyy Instagram: @amyjacksonhouse Facebook: Amy Jackson House Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    56 min
  4. Color Shift: Pat

    FEB 23

    Color Shift: Pat

    Patrick (“Pat”) was adopted from Vietnam at six months old and raised in Central Pennsylvania, just outside of Harrisburg, where he still lives today. At sixteen, he returned to Vietnam on a motherland tour with his adoption agency — a trip that would profoundly shape his understanding of his own story. During that visit, he met his birth mother for the first time. His birth father had already passed away. In this episode of Color Shift, Pat reflects on what it was like to return to his birth country as a teenager, to stand face-to-face with the woman who gave him life, and to begin integrating pieces of his identity that once felt distant or abstract. He also shares about finding adoptee community later in life through a local social media group — and what happened when he took a chance and showed up to an event without knowing anyone in the room. This is a conversation about reunion, risk, and the unexpected ways belonging can find us when we decide to step into the unknown. Harrisburg AAPI Website: HAAPI HAAPI Instagram: @harrisburgaapi Pat's personal Instagram: @pattythang Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    56 min
  5. Color Shift: Hasina

    FEB 9

    Color Shift: Hasina

    In this episode, Nathan sits down with Hasina, a transracial adoptee born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1977. With little known about her birth story, Hasina spent her earliest years in an orphanage before being adopted at age three by a white Canadian family and raised on a farm outside of London, Ontario. Hasina shares what it was like growing up in isolation, navigating identity without mirrors, and carrying unanswered questions about her beginnings. She also reflects on a later turning point—leaving home and moving to Toronto, where she entered a family made up of adoptees from around the world and experienced diversity in a new, embodied way. This conversation explores belonging, displacement, and the quiet shifts that happen when adoptees find reflection, proximity, and chosen family. Find Hasina's book here: Longing to Belong Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    57 min
  6. Color Shift: Camp Rice

    JAN 26

    Color Shift: Camp Rice

    In this special episode of Color Shift, we have invited a panel of guest to talk about their experiences at Camp Rice.  A Korean Culture camp hosted by Asia Families.  Hyn and Monica attended Camp Rice last year as "campers" for the first time.  They report that their experience and time there was nothing short of life changing, rejuvenating and much needed.  Hollee had the incredible task of leading Camp Rice for the Korean Adult Adoptees, she expresses her joy, slight fatigue but overall amazement of how incredible the "campers" were during this extended weekend.  Join your host, Nathan Choi, as he deep dives into the experiences of Monica, Hyun and Hollee. Below is an excerpt from ASIA Families' website, describing a little about Camp Rice.  "Healing with our Ancestors" Adult Adoptee Program at Camp Rice with Hollee McGinnis aka Lee Hwa Young and Kim-Sue Stevens a body, heart, and soul journey of re•clamation and re•indigenizing ourselves  to our ancestral wisdom “Theme: A Journey of Friendship”  "Healing with Our Ancestors" is an adult adoptee program developed by Korean adoptee Hollee McGinnis, PhD, and co-facilitated with Kim-Sue Stevens that will be offered at Asia Families' annual Camp Rice. This program for adult adoptees is intended to be a space for us to re•claim those parts of us that were taken, abandoned, or forgotten and re•indigenize ourselves to our inner truths and ancestral wisdom. This year’s theme invites us to walk a path of friendship, coming to befriend ourselves, each other, and the world. Set within the context of Asia Familie's Camp Rice for Korean adoptive families, this program is unique for adoptees who may want to bring their children to a Korean culture camp, or who are looking to experience a retreat space for their growth and meaning of being adopted. During our time we will engage in various contemporary mind, body, and energetic practices rooted in ancestral wisdom from Asia and South Korea to harmonize and integrate various parts of ourselves: East and West, suffering and joy, mind and heart, body and spirit, logic and intuition, giving and receiving, doing and being. We will engage in activities that will explore who we are, the parts we are ready to set down, reconnect with those parts we had lost so we can feel more whole, and show up the way we want to be in the world. Website: Adult Adoptee Registration Facebook:  Asia Families Instagram: Asia Families Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    1h 1m
  7. Color Shift: Steven

    JAN 13

    Color Shift: Steven

    In this episode of Color Shift, we’re joined by Steven, a Vietnamese adoptee who grew up in Wyoming and has returned to Vietnam several times as an adult. Steven reflects on transracial adoption, identity, and what it means to reconnect with a place that holds both history and possibility. We also talk about Adoptive Threads, a project Steven created to support adoptee-led organizations and provide supplies to orphanages, including the one where his life began. This conversation explores belonging, memory, and how adoptees navigate the spaces between past and present—holding complexity, curiosity, and care along the way. Steven's t-shirt company: www.adoptivethreads.com Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    56 min
  8. Color Shift: Nate

    JAN 1

    Color Shift: Nate

    Most of the time, I would have a nice info here for the show notes about the guest.  Well, this time, I am keeping short and sweet.  The guest this week is none other than myself, Nate Choi.  I am also happy to introduce my long time friend Jeremy.  Jeremy did an amazing job interviewing and being such a respectful host for this episode.  This episode was scary, hard, wonderful and amazing.  I teared up a little bit and we definitely laughed a lot as well.   Thank you to Jeremy for being a great host.   I hope you enjoy.  Support the show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/color_shift_tra?igsh=em5ka3hkMXJxODA5 TicTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@colorshifttransra?_t=ZP-8wOIvdcK7ah&_r=1 Merch: Color Shift 1.0 by Nathan Choi – Adoptive Threads If you are interested in supporting this podcast please go to the listener support page: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2502012/support If you are a transracial adoptee and want to share your story email me at: transracialadoptionstories@gmail.com

    1h 15m
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9 Ratings

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This podcast is where transracial adoptees come and share their stories. 

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