Gabrielle Glaser on Adoption in America

In this episode of Keen On, Andrew talks with Gabrielle Glaser about her new book, "American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption."

During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was common, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her enraged family sent her to a maternity home, and after she gave birth, she wasn't even allowed her to hold her own son. Social workers threatened her with jail until she signed away her parental rights. Her son vanished, his whereabouts and new identity known only to an adoption agency that would never share the slightest detail about his fate.

Gabrielle Glaser is a writer who challenges the conventional wisdom on subjects that broadly touch people's lives. Over decades of work as a journalist and author, she has examined how accepted practices in one era had unexpected and often devastating consequences in the years that followed.

Gabrielle believes that sweeping historical trends must be explored through the stories of the lives of the people who are most deeply affected by them. To fully investigate the story she tells in American Baby, Gabrielle interviewed sources and visited archives in a dozen states from Oregon to Florida, as well as France and Israel.

Her previous book, "Her Best-Kept Secret: Why Women Drink -- And How They Can Regain Control," was a New York Times bestseller. It looked at why women's consumption of alcohol has risen so sharply, how the 85-year-old faith-based program of Alcoholics Anonymous can be harmful to women, and which evidence-based treatments can help those who drink too much.

Glaser's work on mental health, medicine, and culture has been published by The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, STAT, and many other publications. She has appeared on many national radio and television programs, including NPR's Fresh Air, All Things Considered, WNYC's On the Media, and The Brian Lehrer Show, NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World NewsTonight, and All in with Chris Hayes. Her investigative Atlantic story, “The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous,” is included in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology, 2016 edition.

Gabrielle Glaser studied at Stanford University, where she received both her bachelor's and master's degrees in history. She grew up in Oregon, and lives in New Jersey with her husband. She has three wise daughters.

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In this episode of Keen On, Andrew talks with Gabrielle Glaser about her new book, "American Baby: A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption."

During the Baby Boom in 1960s America, women were encouraged to stay home and raise large families, but sex and childbirth were taboo subjects. Premarital sex was common, but birth control was hard to get and abortion was illegal. In 1961, sixteen-year-old Margaret Erle fell in love and became pregnant. Her enraged family sent her to a maternity home, and after she gave birth, she wasn't even allowed her to hold her own son. Social workers threatened her with jail until she signed away her parental rights. Her son vanished, his whereabouts and new identity known only to an adoption agency that would never share the slightest detail about his fate.

Gabrielle Glaser is a writer who challenges the conventional wisdom on subjects that broadly touch people's lives. Over decades of work as a journalist and author, she has examined how accepted practices in one era had unexpected and often devastating consequences in the years that followed.

Gabrielle believes that sweeping historical trends must be explored through the stories of the lives of the people who are most deeply affected by them. To fully investigate the story she tells in American Baby, Gabrielle interviewed sources and visited archives in a dozen states from Oregon to Florida, as well as France and Israel.

Her previous book, "Her Best-Kept Secret: Why Women Drink -- And How They Can Regain Control," was a New York Times bestseller. It looked at why women's consumption of alcohol has risen so sharply, how the 85-year-old faith-based program of Alcoholics Anonymous can be harmful to women, and which evidence-based treatments can help those who drink too much.

Glaser's work on mental health, medicine, and culture has been published by The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, STAT, and many other publications. She has appeared on many national radio and television programs, including NPR's Fresh Air, All Things Considered, WNYC's On the Media, and The Brian Lehrer Show, NBC's Nightly News, ABC's World NewsTonight, and All in with Chris Hayes. Her investigative Atlantic story, “The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous,” is included in Houghton Mifflin’s Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology, 2016 edition.

Gabrielle Glaser studied at Stanford University, where she received both her bachelor's and master's degrees in history. She grew up in Oregon, and lives in New Jersey with her husband. She has three wise daughters.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices