Writer, poet, husband and Korean adoptee Nik Nadeau, also known as Im Chang Hoon, 36, talks about how writing has helped him find inner layers of himself and uncover memories. He also shares how he’s unlocking feelings towards his birth mother with the passage of time.
Audio available April 26, 2024.
Special thanks to Jacquelyn Wells for original music.
Yukyeong Kim and her group of neighbors and friends in Korea self-describe themselves as “ordinary, Korean women.” But they’ve been quietly and determinedly helping adoptees search for their biological family since 2018. I sit down with Kim to find out more about how the group got started and how their bravery and willingness to make a simple phone call or challenge what they consider to be unfair and inhumane privacy laws to adopted people that has often had surprising results.
Audio available on Friday, April 12, 2024.
Dr. JaeHee Chung-Sherman, DSW, LCSW, has centered her practice and research on decolonizing adoption and mental health for transracial and international adoptees. A transracial, transnational adoptee herself, Chung-Sherman, 47, has been among the first co-hort of TRIA therapists to do this work. She talks about narcissistic colonial adopt systems, and why she ultimately has decided to move on from private practice.
Audio available on Friday, March 29, 2024. Patreon supporters get early access.
Mia Quade Kristensen, 46, and Jannie Jung Westermann, 45, are on the board of the 34-year old Danish Korean adoptee organization, Korea Klubben. They will share about their own search and reunion stories, including one of them being in reunion with her Korean family for more than two decades. The women will also share about their community in Denmark and what is needed for the future. Besides the US and Korea, Denmark is the third most-downloaded country for the podcast.
Audio is available on Friday, March 15, 2024.
Join me as I learn more about the Adoptee Consciousness Model developed by Dr. Susan Branco (not shown), Dr. Jaeran Kim, 55, and Grace Newton, 29, MSW. We also talk about the beginnings of their notable blogs where Kim and Newton both began writing about the impact of adoption, ‘righteous anger’ and adoptee identity.
Audio available Friday, March 1, 2024.
Dr. JaeRan Kim:
Harlow’s Monkey
LinkedIn jaerankimphd
Grace Newton:
Facebook: Red Thread Broken
Website: www.redthreadbroken.com
Thomas Haessly, 40, has felt like an outsider ever since he can remember. Adopted from Korea by a Danish mother and American father to Racine, Wisconsin, Haessly recalls feeling like an imposter within his family, of not quite fitting in, and again as an adult at Korean grocery stores and parenting his own children. Haessly’s sister, Mia, also an adopted Korean, is featured on Season 7, Episode 8 of this podcast. This interview is the first for the podcast where adopted siblings who grew up together open up about their lived experiences, and illustrate their differences.
Audio will be available on February 16, 2024.
This week, I talk with Rachel Forbes, LCSW, an Korean-American adoptee therapist and educator. We discuss trauma that occurs in the womb and from early parent separation, and emotional disregulation. Forbes, 34, talks about healing techniques and provides a lot of great resources too.
CW: child molestation/incest/sexual abuse
Audio available Feb. 2, 2024.
Marissa Lichwick, 46, is a Korean adoptee and filmmaker, playwright and actor. She is using her past pain and trauma surrounding her family separation, abuse in the orphanage and in her father and stepmother’s home and the haunting loss of a half-sister she’s never met in her art, to process the events of her life and to encourage healing and community with others. Her first feature-length film is a semi-autobiographical look at her life and will be distributed widely this fall.
Audio available on Friday, January 19, 2024.
| Sara Docan-Morgan, PhD, is a Korean adoptee and communications professor in Wisconsin. Docan-Morgan, 47, is also the youngest child in her Korean biological family, with whom she reunited with many years ago. Her research has focussed on experiences of Korean adoptees and their families, and this month she is out with a new book, “In Reunion: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Communication of Family” (Temple University Press). |
Audio available on Jan. 5, 2024. Patreon supporters receive an early download.
Mia Haessly, 44, is a mother and adopted Korean-American who has reunited with her Korean biological father. And while introducing her family to him and seeing her children connect with Korea in a way she never had has been meaningful, the reunion has presented new challenges. Besides the language and cultural barriers, there is the physical distance between Wisconsin (USA) and Korea. And Haessly’s adoptive parents have at times struggled with accepting that her Korean father is back in the picture, especially her Danish mother.
Audio available on Dec. 22, 2023.
