741: Erika Hayasaki: Somewhere Sisters: Born Together, Raised Apart, Then Reunified

Erika Hayasaki is a Shameless Mom of 3. She is the author of Somewhere Sisters, the true story of twin girls who were born in Vietnam separated at birth and raised in different parts of the world. Somewhere Sisters was nominated as an NPR Best Book of 2022. She is also the author of The Death Class, a former 2021-22 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow, and a 2018 Alicia Patterson Fellow. She has received awards from the Association of Sunday Feature Editors, the Society for Features Journalism, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. 

Erika’s book is a stunning and captivating story of the intersection of nature vs nurture with twins, interracial adoption, identity, and the meaning of family. This was such a powerful conversation. 

Listen in to hear Erika share:

About her book, Somewhere Sisters, the true story of twin girls, born in Vietnam and separated at birth, and raised in different parts of the world

How she reconstructed the sisters Ha and Loan’s stories and their reunion when they were 13 

The science around nature vs. nurture from twin studies 

The unexpected trauma that can come with twin and adoptee reunification that we don’t see play out in TV and movies

How she had to follow the journalistic truth of each person’s story in the book and not be connected to her own hopes for the girls and the story

The legislative loophole in which international adoptees are not automatically granted citizenship and the push for legislation to change it

The ethical considerations of interracial adoption

How sharing our layered identities with one another allows for a more connected human experience

Links mentioned:

Book: Somewhere Sisters

Erika on Twitter

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