All posts by kaomig

A journalist and podcaster.
Season 7

Season 7, Episode 6: Robert Holloway and Menzeba Hasati are Children of a Korean Adoptee

Robert Holloway, 34, and Menzeba Hasati, 40, are siblings who are adult children of a Black Korean adoptee. Their mother is a first-wave adoptee, whose mother was Korean and father an American G.I. She was adopted to Alaska in the 1960s by a Black couple. Her children forged their own identities; one in spite of their mother’s strong influence towards Korean culture, and the other, embraced it.  Now as adults, Robert and Menzeba talk about the intergenerational trauma in their family, and how separation, abandonment, longing and love all embody their lives and experience with adoption. 

Available on Friday, November 24, 2023.

Season 7

Season 7, Episode 5: Matthew Rodriguez and Fact Versus Fiction

Korean adoptee Matthew Rodriguez, 43, is trying to make sense of his adoption story. For years, it’s been clouded by stories that were told to him and those he told himself, even if they weren’t always accurate. It was a means to survive. But Rodriguez, whose adoptive parents are white and Mexican American, and who grew up in Alaska (a first for the podcast!), was taught that he needed to excel academically to be valued. Now a parent himself and manager of a venture capital fund, he has a different story to tell.

Audio available on Friday, Nov. 10.

Season 7

Season 7, Episode 4: Jenna Antoniewicz is Ready

Korean adoptee Jenna Antoniewicz, 40, has been on a whirlwind over the past 24 months since beginning to reckon her adoption history and adoptee identity. While mayor of a town in Pennsylvania, she found herself speaking for Asian America during the coronavirus pandemic about anti-Asian hate. But that triggered an imposter syndrome deep within Antoniewicz, who hadn’t previously given much thought about her adoption from Korea or what it meant to be Korean-American. Fast forward two years,  and this wife and mother of two is now living on Jeju-do, off of mainland Korea, not far from her biological father, making sense of her experience by connecting to others and blending her past with her future. 

Audio available on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.

Season 7

Season 7, Episode 3: Hollee McGinnis and Her Soul Work

Hollee McGinnis, 51, is a Korean adoptee and founder of Also Known As, one of the longest continuously running international adoptee community organization and based in the New York Tri-State area. In this episode, she discusses her new project, Mapping the Life Course of Adoption, and provides some insights from some of the preliminary findings. 

Audio available on Oct. 13, 2023 at 7:00 am CST.

Patreon supporters are listening now!

Season 7

Season 7, Episode 2: Lee Herrick — Scar and Flower

Lee Herrick, 52, is a poet, author, educator and adoptee. He was adopted from South Korea to the San Francisco Bay area in 1971. Herrick discusses how he uses his lens as an adoptee to observe and write verse about life. He also reads from his 2019 acclaimed collection of poems, “Scar and Flower.”

Photo Credit: Curtis Messer

Audio available on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.

Season 7

Season 7, Episode 1: Kimberly McKee and Asian Adoptee Fetishization

Dr. Kimberly McKee, 39, currently a visiting Fulbright scholar at Sogang University in Seoul, Korea, is a critical adoption studies researcher. This November, her latest book, “Adoption Fantasies: Fetishization of Asian Adoptees from Girlhood to Womanhood” (The Ohio State University Press) will come out. We’ll talk about her latest monograph as well as her 2019 book, “Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States” (University of Illinois Press).

Publishing on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023.

Season 6

Season 6, Episode 21: Randy Walker and Finding Self-Worth

Imagine a story told to you from childhood, that your biological mother died and your biological father decided to relinquish you? And the people who adopted you rehomed you to another couple, where you found abuse and neglect? Randy Walker, 48, has lived such a life and re-examines his trauma and discusses how negative family experiences can shape one’s future relationships.

Audio available June 13, 2023.

“Running” by Jae Jin.

Other music appears under license with Blue Dot Sessions.

Season 6

Season 6, Episode 20: Sara Jones Was Marked By Love

Sara Jones isn’t sure whether she’s 48 or 49. That’s because the circumstances surrounding her relinquishment are still a bit unclear. What she does know for certain, is that her father never wanted her to be separated from her family or be adopted overseas. But his worst fears happened anyway, and against most all odds she was able to find her way back. Now, she’s using her voice to help other Korean adoptees whom the system disenfranchised and left vulnerable. 

Audio available on Tuesday, May 23 at 7:00 am CST.

Transcript

“Running” by Jae Jin.

Other music appears under license with Blue Dot Sessions.

Season 6

Season 6, Episode 19: Eric Poole and His New Hope

Eric Poole, 55, continues his conversation in this second of a two-part interview. In this episode, we follow his adoption to the U.S. and adjustment in New Hope, Minnesota, where as a Black Korean boy, he felt like he traded one outsider life for another. 

CW: N word

Audio available May 08, 2023.

Eric-Poole-2-TranscriptDownload

Patreon subscribers get early access.

“Running” by JaeJin.

Other music appears under license with Blue Dot Sessions.

Season 6

Season 6, Episode 18: Eric Poole is the Boy From Uijeongbu

Eric Poole, 55, is a transracially adopted Black Korean who has come a long way from his early days as a mixed-race Korean child in a US military camptown in Korea. He’s now a father to three kids, husband, and one of the few Black pilots in the commercial flight industry. But his success story is built on the complicated foundation of being orphaned, outcast, alone and othered. He also shares his experiences being at the Holt orphanage, including being sexually abused by other kids and being groomed for a new life in the US.  (Part 1 of 2 part interview). 

Audio available on April 25, 2023.

Transcript

“Running” by JaeJin.

Other music appears under license with Blue Dot Sessions.