The Best Podcasts for Adoptees

Conversations About Adoption: Jen is a baby scoop era adopted person, whose podcast does a deep dive with adoption constellation members to examine the realities of adoption. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

The Adoptee Next Door: There is something temptingly tidy about the idea of adoption: a family with extra love and resources meets a child in need of both. On The Adoptee Next Door, Angela Tucker takes the listener beyond the sparkly fairy tale of adoption. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Inside Transracial Adoption: Isaac is a social entrepreneur, whose mission is centered on creating a world where foster and adopted children feel seen, heard, and valued. His podcast, a collaboration with his adoptive mother is a frank look at transracial adoption from both adotee and adopter viewpoints. [Instagram] [Podcast Link][Activism in Adoption Speaker]

The Adoptee Diaries: As a speaker, writer, and advocate, Bethany Fraser is leading the conversation on the intersection of ancestry and adoption, the lifelong search for identity and belonging, and the unique challenges of being mixed in America. In her 40s, she learned via a DNA test that she was biracial, and afterward discovered that everyone else in her family and extended community knew this and kept it from her. Her podcast takes an unfiltered look at adoption. [Instagram] [Podcast Link] [Activism in Adoption Speaker]

Black Adoptees Identities: Christelle Pellecuer is the host of Black Adoptee Identities, a podcast that amplifies Black adoptee voices, providing them a safe space in which to discuss their adoption experience and how they have learned to navigate their identities. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Black to the Beginning: Friends Dr. Samantha Coleman and Sandria Washington both discovered as adults they were adopted. Each quickly learned that Black Adoption is common, but taboo to speak about in private or publicly. The voices of Black adoptees - especially those adopted by Black families - are rarely heard. Most conversations about adoption are from the perspective of parents, typically White adoptive parents. If every birth has a story, why is no one telling ours? In 2019, Dr. Sam and Sandria partnered to create Black to the Beginning to disrupt the legacy of secrecy, stigma, shame and silence about Black Adoption. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

When They Were Young: This is where adoptee stories of thriving, community, healing and empowerment are the centerpiece. What happens when the adoptee is centered as the hero in their own story? Lanise Antoine Shelley has whole-hearted conversations with adoptees and adoption experts who are at the forefront of alchemizing adoption trauma into positive impact for you and the rest of the world. Each episode is designed to make you feel empowered, informed and fortified with a variety of methods, healing modalities and expert advice. This is for the adoptee, parents, and the adoption-curious.[Instagram] [Podcast Link]

I Found Her Podcast: The I Found Her Podcast is a dialogue between a birthmother and the daughter she placed for adoption. They explore the time she went away and placed her for adoption. Roz and Taya engage in a series of moving conversations about reuniting with family to reveal how they have moved forward with faith, hope and love. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

The Adoption Journey: Tarcia Smith provides an open and honest forum for those affected by adoption, whether they are adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, or anyone else touched by adoption. This podcast aims to provide an opportunity for open dialogue, education, and support for those involved in the adoption process. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Who Am I Really?: Damon Davis helps people placed into adoption or who grew up in foster care to explore their own emotions, desires, and questions about reuniting with their biological family by asking others to share their true stories. The emotional journey to locate and reunite with biological family members can be an emotional roller coaster with ups and downs, jarring twists, and unexpected turns. It can be rewarding, disappointing, fulfilling, and heartbreaking. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

The Janchi Show: The Janchi Show is a podcast where three Korean adoptees explore what life is like after you're adopted by white people. Nathan Nowack, Patrick Armstrong, and KJ Roelke share their own unique journeys into discovering and learning more about their Korean and adoptee identities through conversations with each other and guests. Each episode they also try a Korean snack or drink! [Instagram] [Podcast Link] [Activism in Adoption Speaker]

Once Upon A Time in Adopteeland: Jennifer Dyan Ghoston hosts Upon A Time...In Adopteeland is an audio drama and conversations about the subject of relinquishment/adoption. Through an audio drama the listening audience can learn, dissect and grapple with some of the issues that the adoption community face from the perspective of the adoptee.[Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Adoptees On: The podcast where adoptees discuss the adoption experience. This is not the usual adoption talk. You will find real, raw, and deep feelings addressed in these interviews. No sugar-coating here! Come and laugh, cry, learn and heal with us. Adult adoptees share stories of search, reunion, and secondary rejection. Adoptees On also curates recommended resources to encourage and educate the adoption community about adoptee issues.[Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Adoptees Crossing Lines: This podcast deconstrucst the romanticism holding up the family policing industry and it's host is here to unwrap the shiny bow around adoption and speak their truths as an adoptee. In doing so, they explain what it means and what it feels like to “come out of the fog”. [Podcast Link]

Born in June, Raised in April: Nationally recognized thought leader April Dinwoodie hosts a personal journey while exploring her adoption experience. We follow her as she examines her efforts to find love, identify, family, and connection. [Instagram] [Podcast Link]

Adoptees Dish: This adoptee-centered podcast elevating experiences and the lived experience of those impacted by the complexities of adoption. Amy & Marcela are both international & transracial adoptees as well as licensed clinical social workers. Their insights are both personal and share a clinical lens.[Instagram] [Podcast Link] [Activism in Adoption Speaker]