Adoptees On

274 | Julian Washio-Collette

Today's guest is Julian Washio-Collette, a writer and monastic spiritual seeker, whose story includes the rarity of being relinquished and adopted twice. Julian shares what he hears when someone says the term "forever family", how building community was difficult here when seemingly no one else has had the same experience of being a double-adoptee, and we ponder what the spiritual implications of adoption may mean.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

273 | SunAh Laybourn, Ph.D.

We are so excited to welcome professor and sociologist Dr. SunAh Laybourn today! Sunah's brand new book is called Out of Place: The Lives of Korean Adoptee Immigrants and it is definitely one you're going to want to add into your collection. Today we talk about SunAh's research, the realization that heritage culture camps are prioritizing adoptive parents' comfort, and the public's perception of the still dire issue of adoptee citizenship. Haley finally gets to ask the question she's wondered about for at least five years: is being an adopted person a distinct culture of its own?

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

272 | James Cagney

Today's guest is award-winning poet, James Cagney. Author of Black Steel Magnolias in the Hour of Chaos Theory and Martian: The Saint of Loneliness, James is known for his absolutely dynamic live poetry readings, and we are honoured with a reading in this very episode! We discuss how James came to find out he was adopted, and as usual we've got questions about why parents keep these things a secret.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

271 | Healing Series: Ask an Adoptee Therapist with Marta Isabella Sierra, LMHC

Today's episode is our last one before our holiday break. We'll be back with brand-new weekly episodes on January 12, 2024. We wanted to bring you a Healing Series episode to make sure we all had a little extra support before the holiday rush takes over. This year we started a brand new event called Ask an Adoptee therapist, and it has been an absolutely amazing resource for the community. Today's episode is a compilation of some of the helpful conversations we've had together this fall with Marta Isabella Sierra, LMHC.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

270 | Sara Easterly

Sara Easterly is back with us, she's the author of Searching for Mom and the founder of Adoptee Voices. Today we're talking about how Sara became friends with an adoptive mother and a birth mother in order to write a book called Adoption Unfiltered. It's a hard conversation because when Haley got asked to endorse this book she had to say no, to a friend, who we value and deeply appreciate for her contributions to the adoptee community. So we got together to talk about it. We address the power dynamics when interacting with adoptive parents, we talk about whether or not adoption really is always going to be around, and what adoptive parents need to be doing now that they know they participated in a terrible system.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

269 | Dr. Liz DeBetta

Today we welcome back Dr. Liz DeBetta, author of Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness. Liz shares some reunion updates with us, including some very sad news about her sister. We discuss what lead her to choose to remain childfree. And of course, we talk about how writing, re-writing and examining the stories that have been placed upon us can help reconnect us to ourselves. Today's episode has mentions of sudden death, abuse and abortion.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

268 | Kimberly McKee, Ph.D.

We are so excited to host critical adoption studies scholar, Dr. Kimberly McKee. She's the author of the impactful book Disrupting Kinship, and her brand new release is Adoption Fantasies: The Fetishization of Asian Adoptees from Girlhood to Womanhood. We talk about Kim's reunion with her family in Korea, where she's currently living with her young son, and what it's like parenting through reunification and reculturation. We talk about adoption in pop culture, and how preserving adoptee history and acknowledging the work of those who've come before us is vital to community building.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

267 | Jessica Hairston

Today our guest is poet Jessica Hairston, author of Power of Our Wombs. Jessica shares her complex origin story, where both of her biological parents were struggling with addiction when she was born, apprehended and adopted soon after. We talk about "the traveling trauma" that has impacted her family system and the power of the word womb which features prominently in her poetry collection.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

266 | Susan Kiyo Ito

Today's guest is the indomitable Susan Kiyo Ito. She has been writing, advocating, and leading in the adoptee community for decades and we are all the richer for it. Susan's brand new memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, has just been released and it is fantastic. We talk about how Susan first discovered an adoptee memoir at her local library at age 13, and how that changed the course of her life. We've got adoptee activism history, relatable reunion problems, and the power of sharing our adoptee experiences in community all throughout this conversation.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

265 | Louise & Sarah

You might know today's guests and recognize their voices from their podcast, Adoption: The Making of Me. Louise Browne and Sarah Reinhardt are here! Today we hear about how their friendship started, they dish about some of the fights they've had and how they've sustained their close friendship. We also talk about all the books they've read in community with their audience, and which ones have been most impactful on their understanding of the impact of adoption.

*TW: We mention death by suicide in this episode so please take care when listening.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.