Them Before Us Podcast

Jenn interviews Lezlee, a member of the Not Parent Expected (NPE) community on her experiences growing up and coming to learn the man who raised her wasn't her biological father.

Check out more from Lezlee at her website: www.iamlezlee.com and her book, If You Only Knew: Navigating DNA Surprises and the *NPE (Not-Parent Expected) World.

Other resources Lezlee mentioned were:

https://www.hiraethhopeandhealing.com/

https://dnasurpriseretreat.com/

Jenn chats with long time friend of Them Before Us, Stephanie Blessing about discovering she was conceived using a sperm "donor" (she likes to make it clear she doesn't consider it altruistic or a donation) and how it impacted her life, both in answering questions she'd always had but also in shaking up the life she thought she knew.

My Daddy's Name is Donor - https://thembeforeus.com/my-daddys-name-is-donor-study/

Stephanie's story on TBU - https://thembeforeus.com/stephanie-blessing-2/

Jenn interviews Joey Pontarelli, the Founder & CEO of Restored, a ministry to "to help teens and young adults from divorced and broken families heal and build virtue, so they can break the cycle of dysfunction and divorce." They talk about the negative impacts of divorce on their own lives and in the lives of the teens and young adults Joey ministers to and how we can rebuild a healthy marriage culture.

See more at https://restoredministry.com/.

Content Caution: We talk about some stories of child abuse perpetuated by people who used surrogacy in the middle of the episode.

In today's episode, Katy gives an update on Them Before Us' filming in Vancouver and Jenn digs into Katy's two latest articles, "Meet 5 Accused Pedophiles Who Bought Kids Through Surrogacy" & "I Paused My Career To Have Children And It Was The Best Decision I Ever Made."

Federalist: Meet 5 Accused Pedophiles Who Bought Kids Through Surrogacy

Evie Magazine: I Paused My Career To Have Children And It Was The Best Decision I Ever Made | Evie Magazine

Katy is back from a weekend of speaking and meetings in our nation's capital during March for Life weekend and we take on a few more questions from listeners:

- What should nurses that work with labor, delivery and other professions that encounter children's rights violating technologies do?

- How should the parent at home help their kids handle parent absence because of jobs like military deployment?

- How can we make evangelicals listen to the ethical issues with IVF and surrogacy?

In this episode, Jenn and Katy talk about the Pope's latest comments on surrogacy and whether or not surrogacy and poly-relationships are mentioned and encouraged in the Bible. Katy and Jenn finish by dissecting a YouTube video telling men not to get married: The DEVASTATING Truth of No-Fault Divorce

Jenn and Katy tackle another around of questions from the audience:

On this episode, Jenn got to chat with researcher Emma Waters on her work regarding surrogacy and third party reproduction. "Emma is a Research Associate in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation."

Katy and Jenn chat about the TBU stance on adoption and foster care, whether or not a single mom should pursue dating, the SNL skit about gay men trying to have a baby and more.

With the recent purchases of babies from prominent gay men in American culture, Katy and Jenn consider whether or not we're allowed to critique methods of conception that violate the rights of children or if all opposition to surrogacy makes a person "anti-LGBT."

Check out Olivia's interview with Allie: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7JXYJnxLfLuJ1yav0OZ74d