S11, Ep. 26: Mary

Mary is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee born in 1965. She was not adopted until she was almost 8 months old, after being moved to a couple of foster homes. She was told she wasn’t “doing well” at the first, likely because they had too many children there. Raised in a small town by a conservative Catholic family with her brother—also adopted two years later—Mary and her brother always knew they were adopted.

She always felt a sense of disconnection—the “weird kid” who didn’t fit in—so searching was a natural byproduct of that. She began trying to find avenues to learn about her birth family as early as elementary school. She spent hours in libraries, scouring old newspapers and yearbooks. After trying every path she could over the years, thanks to DNA testing, social media, and stubbornness, she was finally able to find them and gain access to her original birth certificate and adoption papers in 2014, with mixed results. She began to realize how ingrained the sense of secrecy and shame still is 50 years later.

Understanding the trauma of adoption and inspired by Ann Fessler’s The Girls Who Went Away, Mary went on to make the Baby Scoop Era the topic of her doctoral dissertation, digging through archives and interviewing birth mothers, case workers, and others who had been involved in the process at the time. She has also been involved in drafting a bill and testifying in front of her state legislature, advocating for access of adult adoptees to their original birth certificates. Mary remains committed to advocating for adoptees and birth parents through research, education, and reform.

To Watch Mary on YouTube

S11, Ep. 25: Jodi

Jodi is a Baby Scoop Era adoptee, born in Los Angeles, California, in 1966. For her, adoption has never been a single event but a lifelong journey of searching, questioning, and seeking understanding. She is now in reunion with her father, and both share a deep connection as artists. Jodi lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her story reflects the complexities of identity, family, and belonging, and she continues to honor both the losses and the connections that have shaped who she is today.

To Watch Jodi on YouTube!

S11, Ep. 24: Mike

Mike Knox is a Los Angeles-based stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and performing artist whose work blends personal storytelling with observational humor. Originally from Pasadena, California, he was adopted at birth from White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles. Mike Knox is the author of the books Vivien’s Rain, written about his daughter’s experience with epilepsy, and Straight Fish, and Isla Vista Halloween.

Watch Mike on YouTube!

S11, Ep. 23: Recinda

Recinda is an artist, writer, and TikTok creator. The chasm between Recinda now and the baby dropped off at an orphanage based in Beirut, Lebanon, is large. She was profoundly changed by her adoption from an American family stationed in Izmir, Turkey, after a seven-year span of life at the orphanage. She had to become adaptive to a new language, an American way of living, as well as the many schools and locations that are an elementary part of military life.

Survival is the key component to Recinda’s life, even after leaving her adoptive family, as she was not prepared mentally for an enlarged worldview or life. She struggled with the
echos of the mental, physical, and sexual abuse of both the orphanage and her adoptive family.

Watch Recinda on YouTube!

Stephanie was born in the Chicago suburbs in June 1983 and adopted 4 days after birth. Her birth mother was 19 years old and was an employee of an attorney associate of her adoptive father's.  Through a private adoption arranged by the attorney, Stephanie was placed into a loving adoptive family with two biological children (and later one adopted sister and one biological brother), both of whom were affected by Canavan Disease and passed away when she was still a child—an experience that shaped her deep sense of empathy but also her perspective on family, belonging, and loss.

Today, Stephanie is a mother of two girls and a family law attorney, and the founder of her own practice, where she helps individuals and families navigate the often-complicated transitions of divorce, parenting, and rebuilding. She serves as a Guardian Ad Litem advocating for children and assisting adopted children whose parents are going through the divorce process.

Stephanie is now reunited with her birth mother and her two half-brothers—an experience that has profoundly impacted her and brought her "out of the fog" while also presenting complexities in her relationship with her adoptive family.

Douglas Shaver was born at Florence Crittenton's Home for Unwed Mothers in Kansas City in 1968. He was adopted five weeks after birth. Though adopted into a loving and supportive family, he struggled with identity and with his place in the world. During middle school, his family moved to Saudi Arabia.  It was during that time in the Middle East that he developed a passion and understanding of different cultures and the communities of people within those cultures. This passion–combined with a constant evaluation of his place in the world as an adoptee– may be what inspired his eventual career in Archaeology. That said, the timeline between the Douglas of Saudi Arabia and the Archaeologist-Douglas of today is punctuated by a series of significant events familiar, but profoundly affecting to many adoptees.

Suffice to say, as an adoptee, reunion and the effects of adoption trauma have played a significant role in the success and challenges in relationships throughout his life.

Through his own work on his adoption journey, Douglas has focused his energies on understanding adoption-related trauma within the adoption triad.  And as mentioned previously, the interest spurred by always seeking to understand relationships played in part in his career in later years.  Douglas currently works as an Archaeologist, traveling extensively throughout the United States for work. Two of his three children spend half their time with him, and his oldest lives with him full time. He decides his time between his work, travels, his children, and his partner.

S11, Ep. 20: Elena

Elena S. Hall is a Russian adoptee, author, social worker, and the voice behind the Instagram page @ThroughAdoptedEyes. She is passionate about her faith, finding joy amidst grief, and loves ice cream! Adopted at a year and a half into a family that was always open about adoption, Elena brings a unique blend of personal experience and professional insight to her work. She began writing Through Adopted Eyes in 2016—a collection of memoirs from adoptees reflecting on their journeys. She later created Through Adopted Hearts to offer a fuller picture of the adoption constellation.

Elena is also the author of the children’s books Adoption Is Both and My Adoptee Voice, designed to help families talk about adoption in ways that are honest, age-appropriate, and empowering. Through storytelling, education, and advocacy, she uses her platform to challenge simplified adoption narratives and create space for real, nuanced conversations. Whether you’re an adoptee, adoptive parent, or someone eager to learn, Elena’s work invites you to see adoption through a more thoughtful, empathetic lens—one that centers lived experience.

S11, Ep. 19: Charlotte

Charlotte Angeles was conceived during an affair that her biological father was having with her biological mother. She was born in Pasadena, CA, in 1987, and was held in her adoptive parents’ arms that same day.  She knew from an early age that she was adopted - that her birth mother was very young and didn’t have the means to raise her alone - and her adoptive parents always offered a safe space to ask questions. But Charlotte didn’t decide to dive deeper until she gave birth to her first child in 2017. By that time, she had learned of the tragic way in which her birth mother had passed away just a few years prior.

She was, however, able to find and connect with her biological father in 2018. She has also met her biological half-sister and one half-brother. Additionally, she has connected with several of her birth mother’s siblings. Just this year, she received a very sentimental package from one of her birth mother’s sisters - an original sonogram that her birth mother had saved. Through all of these connections, many important questions have been answered, and she has gained so much insight into where a lot of her own behaviors and personality traits have come from.

Today, Charlotte works as a dental hygienist and continues to live in Los Angeles, where she was raised her whole life. One of her biggest dreams was to have her own biological children, and after multiple rounds of IVF, she and her husband have a beautiful son and daughter. She is confident in her identity now and has become more comfortable sharing her story over the past few years.

S11, Ep. 18: Kim

Award-winning author and journalist Kim Orendor was adopted at three months old. Her parents told her about the day she joined their family, along with other stories at bedtime. Kim continues to share her own story with others and has authored an adoption-themed young adult novel. She lives in Northern California.

Kim's YA fiction story "To Whom It May Concern" with an adoption theme, won the NextGen INDIE gold medal.

S11, Ep. 17: Tim

Tim Perdion was born in 1969 and relinquished for adoption at birth. Around two months later, he was adopted into a loving family in Ohio. Though surrounded by care and support, he carried a quiet ache beneath the surface—a longing to understand his identity and a sense of not fully belonging. These hidden wounds, rooted in adoption, shame, and early emotional neglect, followed him into adulthood.

At 46, Tim reunited with both of his biological parents. While the experience offered long-awaited answers, it also opened the door to secondary rejection and a deeper unraveling of his story. This turning point led to a season of intense self-reflection, healing, and transformation—moving from a life driven by performance and self-protection into one anchored in vulnerability, purpose, and connection.

Today, Tim is a senior leader in a private equity-backed professional services firm. Outside of work, he serves as a life coach, speaker, and mentor, walking alongside high-achieving men who look successful on the outside but feel lost or empty on the inside. He facilitates men’s groups focused on accountability, emotional honesty, and growth—creating spaces where men can be fully seen, supported, and known.

Tim’s journey is a story of healing, hope, and rediscovery. He’s passionate about helping others break generational cycles, find clarity in who they are, and live with greater intention, freedom, and wholeness.

S11, Ep. 16: Abby

Dr. Abigail Hasberry is an author, speaker, and educator. She is also a certified executive leadership coach, licensed clinical marriage and family therapist, and holds a school superintendent certification. With a background in education as a former teacher and founding school principal, she has experience in private, traditional public, and charter schools.

Dr. Hasberry holds a Bachelor of Science degree in African American studies and sociology, a Master of Arts in teaching, K-12, a Master of Education in counseling and development, a
Master of Science degree in industrial/organizational psychology, and a Ph.D. in curriculum & instruction.

She is the author of The R3 Framework, a workbook for healing difficult relationships, Living Life on Purpose, for a Purpose, and with a Purpose: 15 Identity Affirming Lessons, and her memoir, Adopting Privilege. She has also authored research on identity development.

Abby is currently serving as a board member for Adoption Knowledge Affiliates and as an Ad Hoc Reviewer for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy’s Minority Fellowship Program.

Dr. Hasberry's research and publications focus on identity development, diversity, and the experiences of black teachers in private, affluent, and predominantly white schools. As a therapist, her practice predominantly serves adoptees and birth parents. She is also actively involved in training therapists on adoption-informed practices and has been a speaker on adoption, identity development, parenting, and trauma in various keynotes, panels, podcasts, workshops, conferences, and webinars.

In addition to working as a therapist, Abby has a thriving executive leadership coaching and consulting practice. Her clients are primarily BIPOC founders and leaders of startup organizations. She pairs her experiences as a coach and a therapist when presenting on workplace wellness, founder challenges and solutions, finding and aligning to your purpose, and more.

Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Hasberry is married and has raised three children. Her personal journey as a transracial adoptee and birth mom fuels her dedication to support adult adoptees and birth mothers in their own paths of healing and growth.

To find Dr. Hasberry: https://adoptingprivilege.com/

S11, Ep. 15: Susie

 Susie DeTitta was born in California in 1965 and adopted at three months old by a family unable to have children due to infertility. Her parents had previously adopted two other children. Shortly after her adoption, the family relocated to Arizona, where Susie spent her childhood and later attended university.

While in college, a spontaneous call with a friend to the adoption agency proved to be a dead end in her search for her biological roots. Years later, after moving to Portland, Oregon, a letter from the same agency reignited her curiosity—this time, it seemed someone might be looking for her. That intuition proved true: within months, Susie was reunited with her biological family. This marked the beginning of a 35-year journey of connection, discovery, and relationship-building. Throughout it all, Susie has maintained strong ties with both her adoptive and biological families, weaving together a rich and meaningful tapestry of identity—while continuing her personal search for belonging between two separate worlds and within herself.

S11, Ep. 14: Dave

Born in Long Island in 1966, Dave Verrone’s life began with separation — just five days after birth, he was placed with a foster family. For the next 14 months, he bonded deeply with his foster parents and three siblings. In October 1967, he joined the Verrone family, adjusting to his third mother, his father, and a new sister, also adopted.

Childhood brought both love and challenge. Though his adoptive parents cared for him deeply, their “clean slate” approach left Dave hesitant to ask about his origins, shaping him into a quiet “pleaser” who avoided rocking the boat. Separation anxiety, shyness, and self-doubt followed him, but so did perseverance.

Through life’s ups and downs - successes, losses, and moments of self-discovery - Dave built his own family and, in time, reconnected with his biological relatives. His journey is one of resilience, acceptance, and the enduring search for identity.

S11, Ep. 13: Karen

Karen was adopted domestically at birth, and found by her birth family at 29, and entered reunion soon after. The experience of merging her past and present was both transformational and complex, bringing up emotions and questions she hadn’t fully confronted before. During this time, Karen sought therapy but struggled to find someone who truly understood the adoptee experience. Many available therapists were adoptive parents—well-intentioned, but not individuals she felt safe opening up to. This gap in adoptee-centered care inspired Karen to return to graduate school in her 40s to become the kind of therapist she needed: someone with lived experience, deep empathy, and the tools to support others navigating the lifelong journey of adoption. Now, as an adoptee-competent therapist, Karen is committed to holding space for fellow adoptees as they explore identity, grief, belonging, and connection on their own terms.

S11, Ep. 12: Pete

Pete Droge is a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter based in Seattle, WA who rocketed to early stardom on the strength of his 1994 debut Necktie Second. The Los Angeles Times compared his songwriting to Bob Dylan and Neil Young while also earning similar praise from Rolling Stone and Boston Globe among many others, and within a year he was on the road supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He has since released a series of well-received solo albums, composed a variety of works for film and television, and even appeared in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.

Sixteen years ago, Pete Droge went looking for his birth mother; instead, he found her obituary. But rather than marking the end of the story, the discovery ultimately led him to reconnect with his surviving relatives and started a journey that would forever change his life and career. He explores it all with poetic grace on Fade Away Blue, a rich, revelatory sonic memoir that faces down doubt and despair with love, resilience, and commitment at every turn. The songs are bittersweet, balancing longing and gratitude in equal measure, and the arrangements are warm and inviting to match, with Droge's tender, comforting lyrics and easygoing, understated delivery.

Pete Droge

S11, Ep. 11: Bob

Bob Wilson an adoptee born in the early 1970s at the end of the Baby Scoop Era. During his childhood and young adulthood, he thought little about the fact that he was adopted. But after reading Ann Fessler’s groundbreaking book The Girls Who Went Away (2007) about adoption in mid-twentieth century America, he began the legal process of unsealing his adoption records and attempting to find his birthmother. He located and contacted his birthmother nearly two decades ago and has had a close relationship with her since then. In 2020, GeoHumanities published his essay “Relinquished,” a narrative of his birthmother’s fraught journey to surrender him for adoption and the legacy of that decision. “Relinquished” is a story of a birthmother and adoptee, but it also illuminates the history of adoption, abortion, and unplanned pregnancies in the decades before Roe v. Wade. He is currently associate professor of geography and the environment in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he teaches courses in historical geography, environmental history, and the environmental humanities.

S11, Ep. 10: Mee Ok

Mee Ok Icaro (pronounced “Mee Oak Ee-car-oh”), is a unique and powerful voice in the world of visionary medicine and personal growth. As a Sacred Medicine Advisor and Integration Specialist, Life Purpose Coach and Guide, Writer and Book Doula Mee Ok is dedicated to helping individuals heal and find their path in life. She integrates many teachings from a variety of traditions, from ancient to modern.

With a passion for writing and a talent for prose, Mee Ok is an award-winning stylist and poet. Her work has appeared in notable publications like the LA Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and Michael Pollan’s Trips Worth Telling anthology. She was even featured in Gabor Maté’s New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal and the Netflix docuseries [Un]Well. With over a decade of experience working with ayahuasca and dieting seven master plants, Mee Ok is curing a near-fatal autoimmune disease, scleroderma, and is dedicated to helping others heal and recover their birthright of authenticity and truth.

Mee Ok holds a BA in Philosophy from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and has studied the history of sexuality and medicine at Harvard. She currently partners with Shipibo healers to offer ayahuasca retreats in Peru. With a diverse set of passions, including racial and disability equity, adoptee advocacy, social justice, film, literature, doggies, and drag, Mee Ok is a curious soul with a wealth of knowledge and experience she loves to share. HoldingCompassionate.space

Mee Ok (pronounced "Mee Oak") 

Stay Current: Substack Newsletter

Professional Offerings: HoldingCompassionate.space

Personal Writing: Mee-ok.com

S11, Ep. 9: Simon

Simon Njoroge is an adopted person from Kenya. He has been involved in the child care reform agenda in Kenya in various capacities for more than a decade, including coordinating an adopted persons support group.

S11, Ep. 8: Barbara

Barbara was born in 1964, and although given up within the first week of life, she wasn’t ultimately adopted until she was 16 months old. She was never told why or where she was those first 16 months. While growing up, Barbara occasionally asked about her biological mother. Her adoptive mother told her that she would never be able to find her, as the records in New York State were sealed. Barbara accepted that as fact and never sought to look further. She lived with her adoptive family until she was 18 years old, and then her adoptive parents abruptly moved 1000 miles away. She had always had trouble fitting in at home and struggled socially, but when her adoptive parents left, those issues magnified, and she was left wondering more and more about her past. Until she married at 28 years old and contemplated having children, she really began to question her identity. Working for a financial firm in a Human Resources Department, Barbara managed her company’s blood drive. It was that day specifically when she gave serious thought to her own bloodlines. She randomly called a few agencies blindly that day and found that one of those agencies was definitely where she was adopted from. The agency representative shared a long list of non-identifying information with Barbara. With so much information in her grasp, it became impossible not to try and find her mother. And so began the long search for her biological mother. When she ultimately found her biological mother 2 years later, Barbara discovered that her mother lived only 20 blocks away from her when she was growing up and only a town apart when she was 30 years old and found her. That was the beginning of a long relationship that they still have today. She has met her biological father, as well as extended family. Barbara considers herself blessed. She has written a manuscript about finding her mother, and her mother, who was a professional editor in her career, has edited the entire work. So, it was a collaboration of sorts. What makes the story of finding her biological mother so compelling is the people and the clues that showed up during her search at just the right time that enabled her to find her family. Mother and daughter both feel that they were meant to reunite after all those years apart, and live less than a mile apart today.

S11, Ep. 7: Katherine

Katherine Allen McNally is an adoptee and a licensed therapist who specializes in working with adoptees and their adoptive families. She transitioned from a career in graphic design and advertising to pursue this path, driven by a deep personal commitment to supporting this unique population. Over the course of her work, she has encountered a wide spectrum of adoption narratives, including various forms of conception, gestation, birth, relinquishment, adoption, and survival. These experiences led her, along with a colleague, to develop a trauma healing model known as The TAG Method for Trauma Reprocessing and Integration.

At the heart of The TAG Method lies the adoption experience. Katherine is passionate about sharing this model and its insights with broader audiences. She believes that adoption represents a significant and often overlooked trauma—one that is visible yet rarely acknowledged. In her work, she explores how adoptees navigate attachment loss, the silent fear of being “not chosen” again, and the emotional impact often referred to as "the cloud." She also discusses the "three As" and how these themes influence the adoptee experience.

Katherine shares how clients access these deep-seated pains and begin the process of healing, ultimately freeing themselves from a trauma they never asked to carry. She also offers personal reflections from her own healing journey, enriching her professional insights with lived experience.