Joanna grew up believing she was the miracle baby. Her two older siblings were adopted, but Joanna was the biological child her parents had waited years for. Then, when she was 15, her sister told her a secret that changed everything.

Also in this episode: a pretty big announcement. Missing Pieces is becoming LA Calling. Same feed. Same storyteller. A much bigger world of stories.

🧩 Joanna: TikTok — @Joannamommma 

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

📧 [email protected]

⭐️ If you like the show, please rate and review

🎧 Thanks for listening

🎙️ Uncle Clarence

Ed Hill grew up with a complicated family story. His mom married his uncle — technically, his dad’s sister’s ex-husband — and Clarence became the man who helped raise him.

Years later, an Ancestry DNA test made that already complicated family tree even more complicated.

This is a story about family secrets, identity, DNA, and one very unexpected ending.

❤️ Choosing Hope
https://choosinghopeproject.org

💜 Free Naloxone & Overdose Reversal Training
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/hope-saves-lives-overdose-reversal-training-and-free-naloxone-kit

📚 Relative Strangers Anthology Launch
Sept. 12 at Village Well Books & Coffee
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anthology-launch-relative-strangers-tickets-1997393967124

📧 [email protected]

📱 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

🧩 In this episode of Missing Pieces, Don sits down with Alison, a sober solo traveler who has explored some of the most remote places in the world. A DNA test she took out of curiosity revealed that the man who raised her was not her biological father—and that the sister she grew up with was actually her half-sister.

Alison shares how the discovery shook her identity, led her to two more half-siblings, and forced her to reconsider everything she believed about her family, her heritage and even herself. It’s a powerful conversation about addiction, recovery, family secrets and finding the courage to keep searching for answers. 

🎧 Listen, follow, rate and review

📸 Missing Pieces Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

🌍 Alison’s Instagram: @alisonfromashes

💚 Choosing Hope Project: choosinghopeproject.org

🎬 Brothers in Arms: The Making of Platoon: Watch on Amazon

📧 Email Don: [email protected]

🧩 Every Secret Has a Story

🧩 In this episode of Missing Pieces, Don sits down with television host, journalist, adoptee, and adoptive mother Lisa Joyner. Lisa shares the story of searching for and meeting both of her biological parents, the emotional impact of finally seeing herself reflected in another person, and how her own adoption experience shaped the way she approached motherhood.

They also look back at Long Lost Family, the care that went into those powerful reunions, and Lisa’s new podcast, Plus One with Lisa and Morgan. 

I’d like to thank Jerry Hauser for letting us use his studio and graciously being our sound engineer!!

🎧 Listen, follow, rate and review
📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

📸 Instagram: @plusonewithlisaandmorgan

📸 Lisa's Instagram @mslisajoyner

📸 Morgan's Instagram @morganwalshy

📧 Email Don: [email protected]
🧩 Every Secret Has a Story

🧩 Relative Strangers

This week on Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Don talks with writer Laura Jenkins, whose essay appears in the new anthology Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, edited by B.K. Jackson.

Laura shares her story of discovering she is an NPE and the emotional journey that followed — the shock, the questions, the search for truth, and the complicated process of making sense of identity when the story you were given turns out not to be the whole story.

Relative Strangers features 28 writers exploring family secrets, DNA discoveries, inheritance, identity, and what it means when a person who was once a complete stranger turns out to be close family.

You can follow Laura on Instagram at @lajenx
Visit Laura’s website at www.laurajenkinswriter.com
You can follow B.K. Jackson at @b.k.jackson

🎁 Don is also hosting a giveaway for copies of Relative Strangers. To enter, go to Instagram and follow the instructions on the giveaway post at @npe_life_podcast.

🎧 Listen to Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, NPE discoveries, donor conception, adoption, and the people left to make sense of family secrets.

📩 Contact Don: [email protected]
📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

⭐ Please follow the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if Laura’s story moves you, leaving a rating or review really helps other people find the podcast.

🧩 Analog Rick

In 1992, Rick set out to find his birth mother’s family without DNA tests, without Ancestry, without 23andMe, without Facebook, and without the internet as we know it.

All he had were a few pieces of information, some determination, and the willingness to follow a trail the old-fashioned way.

In this episode of Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Rick tells the story of how he found the missing pieces of who he was.

And make sure you listen to the end, when Don shares what happened after the interview — including how he finally uncovered the identity of Rick’s biological father, a man with a criminal past straight out of an old newspaper headline.

🎧 Listen to Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, NPE discoveries, donor conception, adoption, and the people left to make sense of family secrets.

📩 Contact Don: [email protected]
📸 Instagram: @NPE_LIFE_Podcast

⭐ Please follow the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if Rick’s story moves you, leaving a rating or review really helps other people find the podcast.

Veronica From The Other Side

In this episode of Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Don talks with Veronica, who discovered in middle age that her father had two children outside of his marriage.

For NPEs — Not Parent Expected — adoptees, donor-conceived people, and others who uncover family secrets through DNA, the focus is often on the person making the discovery. But what about the family on the other side? What is it like to get the call that a stranger shares your father’s DNA? What happens when a secret you never asked to keep suddenly lands in your lap?

Veronica shares what it was like to learn that she had siblings she never knew existed, and how her family had to make room for a truth that changed the story they thought they knew.

🧩 Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, family secrets, and the search for identity.

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast
📧 Email: [email protected]

🧩 Christina’s Truth - LIVE 🎙️

On today’s episode of Missing Pieces, we hear Christina’s incredible story — the questions, the search, the emotions, and the years spent trying to understand where she came from.

But this episode takes a turn neither of us will ever forget…

Because during the recording itself…
I tell Christina who her biological father is. LIVE.

No script.
No warning.
Just one of the most real and emotional moments we’ve ever captured on this podcast.

🎧 Listen now.

✉️ [email protected]

📸 Instagram: @NPE_LIFE_PODCAST

🧩 Jamilia - Out of Anonymity 

Years ago, I did an episode called The Moment of Truth —
a collection of stories about that exact instant when denial disappears… and the truth hits.

Who you are.
Who your parents are.
No more guessing. No more stories. Just truth.

Jamilia was one of those voices.
And she didn’t just describe that moment — she nailed it.

But that moment?
That’s not the end of the story.

It’s the beginning.

🎧 Today, we hear what came after.

✉️ Reach out
[email protected]

📸 Follow along
https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

🧩 3 Sisters United

On today’s episode of Missing Pieces, we tell the story of June — raised in Canada by her grandparents, growing up with questions instead of answers.

As a teenager, she learns who her father is…
—or so she thinks.

What unfolds next connects three sisters, decades of silence, and the kind of truth that changes everything. This is one of those episodes that reminds you why this show exists.

🎧 Buckle up.

🍫 Support Choosing Hope (and make people very happy)
We’re raising funds with See’s Candies — because doing good should taste amazing.
Grab something sweet for someone you love (or yourself, no judgment):

👉 https://www.yumraising.com/store/spring-2026-spring-for-hope-sees-candy-fundraiser-4517/LisPog72533

🌱 Untangling Our Roots Summit
The conference that brings together the NPE, Donor Conceived, and Adoption communities under one roof:

👉 https://untanglingourroots.org/

✉️ Reach out
[email protected]

📸 Follow along
https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

Thanks for listening.
Really. It matters.