Ending 2021 with someone I deeply cherish, former foster youth, adult adoptee and consultant, La Tika Jeffery. This month we discuss adoption as an adult and how La Tikas life circumstances impact her very clear choice to be a stay at home mom. We also dive deep into breaking old traditions and creating new healthier ones.

For National Adoption Awareness Month, I highlight some past conversations with guests that remind us of how adoption can show up at our holiday tables, how adopted children may feel the moment they realize they don’t look like their adoptive parents and how we must make room for the uncomfortable visitor of adoption to ensure adoption is experienced at the highest level of elevation.

It’s October which means one thing, Halloween, candy, and of course costumes and masks. This month, April is joined by the founder of Educate Don’t Incarcerate, a mentoring program that focuses on criminal, juvenile and educational reform, Terrence Coffie. April and Terrence steer directly into how masks have affected their lives growing up adopted or as a foster youth and even now as adults.

It’s September 2021 and that means Back to School! This month we sit with Korean Transracially adopted person Nam Holtz. Nam produced and directed a documentary film titled “Found in Korea”. The film follows Nam as she journeys back to Korea in search of her culture, roots, and identity. We dive deep into this idea of parents and professionals who are on this journey of better understanding adoption and foster care.

In this August 2021 episode we go back to school and continue our journey to better understand adoption with Dr. Bruce Perry.  Dr. Perry is co-author along with Oprah Winfrey of “What Happened to You?” a book about the impact of trauma. We dive deep into Dr. Perry’s work with the neurosequential model and the importance of asking “what happened to you?” vs “what’s wrong with you?” specifically related to adoption and identity.

For this July 2021 episode we steer into an urgent conversation about what is and is not happening in education today.  Host April Dinwoodie is joined by 2018 guest Cami Anderson to talk about the future of education and what parents and grown-ups that care about children need to know.  Cami’s Thirdway Solutions Group supports policy, government, non-profit, corporate, and philanthropic leaders in pursuit of equity and justice to find innovative solutions to their most vexing challenges.

This month, host April Dinwoodie sits down with culture critic, podcast host, and author of the stunning memoir Surviving the White Gaze, Rebecca Carroll. In this spirited conversation, the two discuss identity, family, difference of race and culture and of course, what adoption can teach the world.

In this month’s episode, host April Dinwoodie sits down with writer, editor and author of “All You Can Ever Know,” Nicole Chung to discuss adoption, identity, and the mother of all holidays, Mother’s Day!

This month host April Dinwoodie welcomes her sister Dawn for a conversation that is as beautiful and authentic as their bond. From being dressed as twins as little girls to finding even more love and connection as adults, these sisters have so much to share about how together the navigated adoption and differences of race.

In this poignant episode of Born in June, Raised in April, host April Dinwoodie sits down with attorney turned nonprofit executive and transracially/transnationally adopted person Julie Young. Together they discuss the concept of luck from the perspective of an adopted person and the realities of complicated beginnings as women. They also make space to process the tragic shooting in Atlanta of 6 Asian women.