284 | Dr. Alice Diver

Today’s guest is the remarkable Dr. Alice Diver, law professor and outspoken adoptee advocate. Alice has written multiple journal articles and books on the topic of adoptee rights, including her latest, Genetic Stigma in Law and Literature: Orphanhood, Adoption, and the Right to Reunion. Alice shares some of her personal story with us, and then we dive into her work including language in adoption, where you’ll hear such gems as “surplus people” and “substitute families”. We also get to talk about how adoptees are viewed by the law in comparison with adoptive parents.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

283 | Cam Lee Small, MS, LPCC

We have a returning guest, adoptee therapist Cam Lee Small back with us today. Cam has a brand new book out, The Adoptee’s Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowerment, published by a faith-based press. I recently got to meet Cam in real life, and he’s just as warm and genuine as he appears on the Internet. In our conversation today, Cam and I talk about how most churches have majorly missed the mark in serving adoptees, we address how “gotcha day” misses the “lost-ya day” and the grief of adoption. One of my favourite things Cam shares in his book, and we do address it today, is that just being an adopted person take an extraordinary amount of cognitive and emotional bandwidth.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

282 | Alison Larkin

Alison Larkin is here today, and we are so so honoured to have her with us. It’s likely a lot of you already know Alison, but for those who are new to her, she is a stand-up comedian, voice artist, audiobook narrator, actress, producer, screenwriter, and bestselling author of The English American. Today we get to hear her story which includes reunions with both birth parents, seeking out a therapist after meeting Nancy Verrier, and how she finally came to truly fall in love in her fifties only to have her fiancé die suddenly during the pandemic. Alison recounts this in her brand new one-woman show, called Grief…A Comedy which is embarking on a world tour this summer.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

281 | Janet Sherlund

Today we’re welcoming Janet Sherlund to the show! Janet is the author of the brand new memoir, Abandoned at Birth: Searching for the Arms that Once Held Me. Janet shares some of her story with us, including her challenging relationship with her adoptive mother, her struggles with anxiety, and the reason she finally felt free to write her memoir.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

280 | Svetlana Sandoval

We’re back, and I’m sick again, and my voice is only going to be like this for the intro because luckily I was healthy when I interviewed this week’s guest, Svetlana Sandoval. Svetlana is an international adoptee, adopted from Russia at about six months old. We talk about what sparked an interest to search for her biological family, how she navigated the language barriers using technology and a friend of a friend. Svetlana also shares about her decision to reclaim her original name. Due to the sensitive nature of her reunion during the war, she will not be commenting directly on the conflict.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

279 | Reshma McClintock

Oh it is such a delight to get to share this interview with you. Reshma McClintock, the producer and subject of the film Calcutta is My Mother is back with us today. Reshma is a transracial adoptee from Calcutta, India, and this incredible film documents her return to Calcutta for the first time since her adoption, and she would tell you that it also depicts a portion of her journey “out of the fog”. I received permission to share the audio from her trailer, and I’m going to play that for you here, just before we get into the conversation about her story, some of her experiences in Calcutta, and some tips for transnational adoptees about preparing for a home country visit. We also get to talk about her upcoming documentary screening in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 4, 2024. I get the honour of hosting the Q&A for that event, so consider this my personal invite to you to come and join us to see the film and hang out with some fellow adoptees!

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

278 | Adrian Wills

Today’s guest is fellow Canadian, award-winning director and filmmaker, Adrian Wills. Adrian has a brand new documentary out called A Quiet Girl where get to follow his journey of a public search for his birth mother, and experience every new discovery along with him. Today we talk with Adrian about how his friends prompted his search and what he’s discovered about the people of Newfoundland through his time there. We also discuss how we often create these mythical personas of our biological parents from a few short sentences in our non-identifying adoption information.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.

277 | John Gallaher, Ph.D.

You’re in for a treat today, we have award-winning poet John Gallaher with us! John’s newest poetry collection, My Life in Brutalist Architecture releases this month and it’s his first collection focused in on his experience as an adopted person. Even though he was a kinship adoptee, he still had to take a DNA test to find the family he was searching for. We talk about DNA, nature versus nurture, his search for the other John Gallahers of the world and what reunion really looks like for him right now.

This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing stated on it, either by its hosts or any guests, is to be construed as psychological, medical or legal advice. Please seek out professionals in those fields if you need those services. The views expressed by the hosts of Adoptees On or any guests are their own and do not represent the opinions of any organization or other person unless otherwise stated.