Us & Them

Finding Your Family


Listen Later

International adoption helped many Americans build families, but a dark side victimized poor people in developing countries. The practice began in the 1950s to help Korean War orphans and more than 70 years later hundreds of thousands of children born in other countries are part of a complex cultural legacy. By the early 2000s, corruption scandals scaled back or shut down programs in some of the most popular countries for adoption - South Korea, Romania, Russia, and Guatemala. On this Us & Them episode, host Trey Kay talks with Laurie Stern and her 24-year-old son about their adoption journey. Their podcast called “Defining Diego” chronicles Diego’s growing understanding of his Guatemalan legacy and family.  Changing social and geopolitical attitudes have made for a dramatic drop in the number of international adoptions - from more than 20,000 in 2004 to just about 3,000 in 2019. We’ll hear about that shift and how one young man finds his new name and his future, by looking back.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Us & ThemBy Trey Kay and WVPB

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

392 ratings


More shows like Us & Them

View all
On the Media by WNYC Studios

On the Media

9,180 Listeners

On Point | Podcast by WBUR

On Point | Podcast

3,916 Listeners

Fresh Air by NPR

Fresh Air

37,887 Listeners

Reveal by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

Reveal

8,281 Listeners

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts by Slate Podcasts

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

3,469 Listeners

Scene on Radio by Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

Scene on Radio

77 Listeners

The NPR Politics Podcast by NPR

The NPR Politics Podcast

25,812 Listeners

Code Switch by NPR

Code Switch

14,553 Listeners

Pod Save America by Crooked Media

Pod Save America

86,745 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,088 Listeners

It's Been a Minute by NPR

It's Been a Minute

8,959 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,078 Listeners

Consider This from NPR by NPR

Consider This from NPR

6,005 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,503 Listeners

The Opinions by The New York Times Opinion

The Opinions

465 Listeners