
Secret Son
The (adoptee) podcast about searching, identity and secrecy
Episodes
26 episodes
Southern Nights
On today's episode, Patricia Knight Meyer and I talk black market babies, the power of genetic mirroring and the magic of Glen Campbell. Join us!A baby-scoop era black-market "adoptee," Patricia was sold along a curb ou...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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34:54

Beds Are Burning
Join Shane Bouel and I as we delve into searching, societal resistance to our search and piecing together our new identity. Shane Bouel, an Australian adoptee, is a compelling voice shedding light on the intricate journey ...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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29:52

Love Is All Around
Amy Lokken and I delve into the challenges of being a transracial Minnesota adoptee, the openness of 1970s hippies and the fiery spirit of Betty Jean Lifton. Join us!Amy Lokken is a biracial, transracial ad...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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44:15

Take The Money And Run
Emma Stevens and I discuss being the adoptee chameleon, secondary rejection and scanning strangers' faces wondering if they might be family. Join us! Emma Stevens is a U.S. domestic adoptee from birth and ha...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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40:44

Please Mr. Postman
Anna Fienbork was adopted as an infant after five days at the hospital. The fact of being adopted was part of her life from early on. The emotional wounds of this early trauma of separation eventually lead her to doing emotional and spiritual w...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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42:42

Paint It Black
Join Emily and I as we discuss Paris, embracing the sublimity of a neurodivergent mind and fearfully admitting to others what they actually already know about us. Emily is a 40-year old domestic infant adoptee, born outs...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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44:20

Being There
Searching and finding disrupts long-standing family dynamics. Jack Dermody and I delve into how newly arrived adoptees are like bombs thrown into a family and how the knowledge gained by searching offers us an invaluable new perspec...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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37:35

Wild at Heart
David Lynch's story and mine run rather parallel. BPD adoptive mother? Check. False leads in our father searches? Also check. Our Lady of Corporal Punishment primary school? Oh, yeah. Join David and I as we delve into ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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43:34

She's Been Around the World
From rural Chile to urban Sweden, Maria Diemar started life with a huge journey.Join Maria and I as we discuss kidnapping investigations, maddening bureaucratic red tape and '90s Nordic Neo-Nazis.Los Secretos are everywhere!...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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31:19

If You're Going to San Francisco
Dave Brown has his own Tales of the City. Join us for episode #11 of Secret Son as we discuss coming out in the 70s, implicit memory and meeting inebriated relatives for the first time. Thanks for listening!<...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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25:56

Can't Get You Out of my Head
Hey! Yeah, you! Why not join us for episode #10? Pamela Karanova is a force to be reckoned with in the adoptee community and has a new Substack you should definitely check out! Pamela and I discuss angelic librarians, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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37:14

He Can See Clearly Now
Join me for episode 9 with Shawn Sigler. We cover the usual stuff - KKK relatives, Cold War Berlin and seeing ourselves in photos of our deceased fathers. Shawn has had an incredible journey of persistence, bravery an...
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25:37

She Went to a Land Down Under
Oi mate, how you going? Join us for episode 8 as I chat with West Coast gal Vicky Graham in her new home in Oz. We investigate the Usual Suspects - romcom-ish reunions, local marsupials and surviving the Land of Misfi...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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22:41

Cammie Chameleon
Sweet home Chicago! The Windy City plays a big part in Cammie Smith’s story. Join us for episode 7 as we get into how best to sneak into nursing homes, problematic Radio Shack ad campaigns and walking that fine line of...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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36:26

Alicia is a Punk Rocker
Hey y'all - between us, some days I just wanna be sedated. This is not one of those days. In episode 6 of Secret Son, I head to the Deep South, set on the porch for a spell and have a leisurely tête-à-tête with Alicia B...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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34:46

Break On Through to the Mother Side
Hey all, did you know that the day destroys the night and night divides the day? Tune into episode 5 to hear author/writing coach Anne Heffron and I get psychedelic.We talk rocky reunions, wrestling with our demons and the ...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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34:21

The Birds, the Bees & Me
Join Secret Son this week as we journey back to a time when it was morning in America.Reagan was president, the Eurythmics were tearing up the charts and the nation was falling in love with a precocious teenager named Michael J. Fox....
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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21:19

Haley of La Crête
Folks, they threw her to the wolves and she’s come back to lead the pack. Superstar podcaster and adoptee activist Haley Radke joins me this week to regale us with tales of being a secret, stalking and the Great White North.
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29:44

A Braverman Than I
I met therapist/adoptee advocate Joe Soll in the mid-90s in New York City. We'll discuss decades-long family searches, "spaciness" and getting fed up with living in secrecy. As we all slowly beat back the darkness and e...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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30:23

Send Me An Angel
Who better to launch with than the woman who helped me track down my father? Adoptee rights advocate and search angel extraordinaire Annette O' Connell and I talk family searches, secondary rejection and the ecstasy of experiencing...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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36:29
Stranger in a Strange Land
Parichard Holm – Healing Through MovementBorn in Thailand and raised in Germany, Parichard Holm struggled with identity and belonging. Feelings of disconnection, anxiety, and panic shaped her early years as she searched for a sens...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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28:13
From Russia With Love
Falsified birthdays, smuggled DNA tests, women’s prisons! George Barbakadze and I discuss that uneasy floating feeling of pre-search life, the joys of a successful DNA result and anticipating a future of wrestling with identity iss...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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32:43

Granite State of Mind
When I asked New Hampshire-ite Greg Gentry how he was doing, he simply put down his musket, looked in the camera and said, "live free or die!" Listen in on our conversation as we take a deep dive into that tenuous thing calle...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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37:10
