S1 E25 - Unraveling Lisa - Lisa took a DNA test out of curiosity: something light, something fun. But when her results came back, they didn’t just surprise her. They unraveled everything she thought she knew about who she was. In this conversation, Lisa shares how a single test led her to uncover donor conception, connect with a half-brother, and rethink the meaning of family, culture, and self. Raised in a fully Ashkenazi Jewish family, Lisa was confronted with results that made no sense—until they did. What followed was not just a search for answers, but a profound reckoning with identity, belonging, and truth. Through it all, she brings humor, honesty, and a deep sense of compassion for everyone involved, including her mother.

SHOW NOTES

Kara and Lisa discuss:

• Taking a DNA test “for fun” and discovering unexpected results
• Growing up with a strong cultural identity—and having it suddenly questioned
• The confusion of early DNA matches and making sense of new relationships
• Navigating donor conception and the reality of medical practices in earlier generations
• The emotional complexity of truth, love, and protecting family relationships
• Turning pain into storytelling through her feature comedy One Big Happy Family

Lisa’s story holds both weight and lightness. It captures the disorientation of late discovery, but also the perspective that comes with time—how something once devastating can eventually be transformed into art. By turning her experience into One Big Happy Family, Lisa found a way to share her difficult truth with humor, heart, and humanity.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E24 Unraveling Monica B - In this powerful and deeply human conversation, Kara and Monica explore how meaning can emerge even from the most chaotic beginnings. Monica’s story begins with a series of events so unlikely they almost feel fictional—until they lead to a life-altering truth. After her father’s sudden death, Monica found herself entangled in an unbelievable web with the FBI, her family farm, and an international cartel. What followed was a cascade of events and a DNA test gifted before a trip to Scotland, a stroke with no clear family history, and a genetic diagnosis that didn’t match what she knew about her lineage. Piece by piece, her story unraveled. And eventually, the truth became undeniable.

SHOW NOTES:

Kara and Monica discuss:

• The chain of unexpected events that led to her discovery
• A medical diagnosis that revealed a hidden genetic truth
• The emotional complexity of loving both a raising father and a genetic one
• The role of timing, coincidence, and resilience in identity discovery
• Navigating grief, gratitude, and belonging all at once

Monica speaks with honesty, perspective, and remarkable grace. Even in the face of loss, shock, and disorientation, she chooses curiosity over bitterness—and connection over certainty. Her story is a reminder that life doesn’t always unfold in a straight line. Sometimes truth arrives through a series of unexpected turns—and when it does, it has the power to reshape not just where we come from, but how we move forward.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E23 - Unraveling Donna - In this powerful conversation, Kara and Donna explore what it means to survive a traumatic upbringing, uncover a hidden genetic story, and rebuild a life rooted in truth. Donna speaks with honesty, grit, and hard-won clarity. She does not soften the truth of what she lived through, but she also makes space for joy, connection, and healing. Her story is a reminder that truth can be painful—but it can also be liberating. And sometimes, finding out where you come from is part of finally understanding how you survived.

(Content warning: This episode contains discussion of child abuse, sexual abuse, and suicide.)

SHOW NOTES:

Donna’s story is one of survival, truth, and the long shadow of childhood trauma. Raised in a deeply abusive and chaotic home, Donna grew up knowing something didn’t fit. That sense of being “different” stayed with her long before she had the language—or the evidence—to understand why. After finding the courage to leave home as a teenager, Donna began the long process of healing and rebuilding her life. But the question of where she came from never fully left her. When she eventually took a DNA test, the results didn’t just provide answers—they revealed an entirely new reality.

Kara and Donna discuss:

• Growing up in an abusive home and finding a way out as a teenager
• The lasting impact of childhood trauma and the work of healing
• Discovering she was donor-conceived after years of searching for answers
• The shock of unexpected DNA results and finding a large network of siblings
• Navigating connection, rejection, and the complexities of genetic family
• Why regulation and accountability in the fertility industry matter

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E22 - Unraveling Kirk and Randi - In this episode, Randi and Kirk share their deeply human, nonlinear journey of welcoming Kirk’s newly discovered daughter, Athena, into their family. What began as a destabilizing revelation became an ongoing process of reckoning, repair, growth, and choice.

At its heart, this episode is about commitment—the kind that says: we will face this together. We will make room. We will grow. Because sometimes family isn’t defined by how it begins, but by how people choose to show up when everything changes. This story is not tidy. It is layered, evolving, and real.

SHOW NOTES

When truth arrives unexpectedly, it rarely unfolds in a straight line. There were hard conversations. There were moments of grief and disorientation. There were questions about loyalty, identity, and what family really means. And alongside all of it, there was intention.

Randi’s strength is not loud, but it is steady—marked by tenacity, empathy, and a willingness to sit inside discomfort without shutting down. Kirk’s willingness to grow in real time, to hold complexity, and to lead with love even when it would be easier to retreat is equally powerful.

Together, they show what it looks like to stay engaged when life gets complicated.

In this episode, Kara, Randi, and Kirk discuss:

• The emotional shock of unexpected parentage
• What it takes to expand a family after trust is shaken
• Navigating loyalty, grief, and new relationships simultaneously
• The courage required to support one another through identity shifts
• Choosing connection over defensiveness

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E21 - Unraveling Diana - Diana speaks candidly about identity, secrecy, and the emotional toll of discovering that official records cannot always be trusted. Her journey spans continents, generations, and legal gray zones. And yet, through genealogy work, writing her book Connected: Finding My Truth, and helping others uncover hidden histories, Diana has transformed her pain into purpose.

Diana grew up believing her origins were clear. Raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish home, she built her identity around faith, family, and tradition. Even when she didn’t quite look like her parents, there was always a photograph ready to explain it away. But a slip of the tongue from a family friend changed everything.

SHOW NOTES

What followed was not a simple adoption story. It was a layered, cross-border unraveling. In this powerful and complex conversation, Kara and Diana explore what it means to chase truth when the truth keeps shifting.

• Finding the truth in multiple different birth certificates, each with conflicting information
• The reality of baby brokers and the “baby scoop era”
• How coercion forced Diana to step back from her search and reunion for 15 years
• Wrestling with faith, conversion, and maternal lineage within Judaism
• Living with unanswered questions and choosing peace anyway

Her story reminds us that truth is not always neat. It does not always come with paperwork. And sometimes the unraveling is lifelong. But seeking it anyway? That is courage.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E20 - Unraveling Angie - In this candid and emotionally layered conversation, Kara and Angie explore what it means to live between bravery and fear, loyalty and longing, compassion and grief. Angie was a seasoned mental health therapist, international wellness presenter, and expert in stress management when she did the very thing she tells her clients not to do—she ignored the truth. After taking a 23andMe test and discovering she was 49% Ashkenazi Jewish, something that made no sense given her family story, Angie quietly deleted the app and buried the results. For years, she chose hope over certainty (it felt safer that way). But during the pandemic, a call from her sister changed everything. DNA results confirmed what Angie had tried to dismiss: she was not fully genetically related to the family who raised her.

SHOW NOTES

In This Episode, Kara and Angie discuss:

• Suppressing shocking DNA results and why even therapists avoid their own pain
• Protecting her mother’s legacy while naming the cost of secrecy
• The complexity of loving a parent and feeling betrayed at the same time
• Searching for her genetic father years after discovery
• Being rejected by DNA matches and finding the courage to keep going
• The various ways we can reach out to new family and when just showing up is an option
• Holding fear and hope in the same breath

Angie speaks with deep compassion for everyone involved: her mother, her sisters, even the family she has yet to meet. As a wellness professional, she understands that emotions aren’t binary. Two things can be true at once. Love and grief. Loyalty and betrayal. Fear and courage. Her story is about finally choosing truth over silence and deciding that uncertainty is still better than never knowing.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E 19 - Unraveling Linda Linda speaks candidly about fear, obligation, guilt, and the slow unraveling required to rebuild a life rooted in truth. Her story is about reclaiming agency after manipulation, breaking generational silence, and choosing to breathe again after everything falls apart. This episode is a testament to resilience, discernment, and the courage it takes to say: My story belongs to me.

SHOW NOTES

Linda always knew she was adopted. What she didn’t know was how deeply secrecy, emotional neglect, and unspoken shame would shape her identity—and how fiercely she would one day fight to reclaim it.

At 24 years old, desperate to know her origins, Linda did something few would dare: she broke into the adoption agency to retrieve her own records. That night became a pivot point—a declaration that her story belonged to her. But accessing the truth was only the beginning.

In this powerful and layered conversation, Kara and Linda explore the long arc of identity, trauma, manipulation, and healing. Kara and Linda discuss:

• Growing up in an alcoholic, authoritarian household where adoption was never openly acknowledged
• Being treated as a “blank slate” and expected to erase her history
• The danger of power imbalances in therapy—and surviving a deeply abusive therapeutic relationship
• Isolation, grooming, and the long road back to autonomy
• Rebuilding identity through sobriety, somatic healing, research, and education
• Why “good therapy” matters—and how to protect yourself when seeking help
• The ongoing process of integration and self-trust

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1E17 – Unraveling Melanie - This episode is a powerful reflection on identity, race, motherhood, and resilience—and on what it takes to keep going, even when the road home is one you have to build yourself.

Melanie was adopted at birth into a white, religious family in the segregated American South. Raised as a transracial adoptee in a household shaped by silence, fear, and rigid expectations, she learned early that survival often meant obedience—and that questions about identity, race, and origin were not welcome. In this candid and powerful conversation, Kara and Melanie explore how adoption, religion, racial isolation, and secrecy intersected to shape Melanie’s childhood and sense of self. 

SHOW NOTES

Kara and Melanie discuss:

• Growing up transracially adopted in the Jim Crow South
• Religious trauma, saviorism, and adoption as status
• Living in a home where fear replaced safety
• The impact of growing up without genetic mirroring
• Teenage motherhood without protection or guidance
• Experiencing abandonment by systems meant to help
• Finding survival and belonging through the support of other women
• Using DNA testing to search for answers and connection
• Navigating reunion, rejection, and loss
• Reclaiming identity, education, and voice later in life
• 
  

Melanie speaks with honesty and clarity—naming harm without minimizing it and holding complexity without excusing silence. Her story reminds us that unraveling is rarely a single moment of discovery, but a lifelong process of learning to belong to yourself when belonging was never made safe.

Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.

At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.

For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

S1 E16 – Unraveling Cassandra - This episode is a powerful meditation on truth, belonging, and the slow work of integration. She reminds us that identity isn’t rebuilt overnight—and that learning who you are is often a lifelong process, especially when the truth arrives after everything else is already in motion.

Cassandra’s story begins on what she calls her “re-birthday”—the night a DNA test revealed the truth about her origins and quietly dismantled everything she thought she knew about herself. What followed wasn’t a single moment of realization, but years of unraveling, re-integration, and learning how to live honestly inside a body that suddenly held a different history.

In this deeply reflective conversation, Kara and Cassandra explore how donor conception, secrecy, and late discovery reshape identity—not just intellectually, but emotionally, relationally, and culturally.

SHOW NOTES 

Kara and Cassandra discuss:

• The shock of realizing the story of her conception was never disclosed
• Navigating parental secrecy and the emotional aftermath of planned silence
• Meeting her genetic father and donor-conceived siblings
• The life changing impact of learning she is half Ashkenazi Jewish
• Grief for a cultural inheritance hidden from your childhood—and the pull to reclaim it
• Rebuilding identity after truth arrives late

Cassandra speaks with care for everyone involved, even as she names the cost of secrecy and delayed truth.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.