Latest Adoptee stories Podcast Episodes
Adoptee Activism and Building Community: Pt 2 with Boon Young Han, Jenny Na, & kimura byol-nathalie lemoine
Adopted Feels - September 17, 2020 06:37 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, we share the 2nd part of our conversation with Boon Young, Jenny, and kimura, three heavyweights of the global Korean adoptee community, who have committed decades of their lives to advocating for adoptee rights and social change in Korea. We talk about coming 'out of the fog,' w...
Adoption Truths Day: Demanding the truth about our adoption histories and identities - with Boon Young Han, Jenny Na, and kimura byol-nathalie lemoine
Adopted Feels - September 08, 2020 12:59 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsAs international adoptees, everyone knows someone whose adoption records were falsified, manipulated, switched, or never existed in the first place. In fact, accurate, complete records are practically the exception to the rule. We also know the impact of inaccurate, patchy information on an adopt...
"punching you in the heart with comics": On Home, Relationships, and Creating Nikkioften
Adopted Feels - August 19, 2020 02:31 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsNikki Lee Bix Webster is the creator of nikkioften, a visual arts project “dedicated to punching you in the heart with comics”—and she's very good at it. In this episode, Nikki talks to us about living in and leaving Korea, moving back to the U.S., creating home, drawing, and nurturing one's inne...
Race, Identity, & Finding Your Voice as an Asian Adoptee: Intimate Convos with Adam Goodman
Adopted Feels - July 26, 2020 00:49 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn recent months, the Black Lives Matter Movement and anti-Asian covid-19 pandemic racism have prompted renewed urgent conversations regarding race among Korean and other Asian adoptees. In this conversation with Adam Goodman of Plan A Magazine and the Escape from Plan A podcast, we talk about ra...
We Do Our Birth Charts! Astrology for Adoptees with Mallory Gill
Adopted Feels - July 01, 2020 23:56 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsWe’ve mentioned star signs a few times before on the podcast, but today we take it one step further by talking to professional astrologer and shamanic healer Mallory Gill. In this episode Mallory gives us a primer on astrology, what perspectives it can offer - particularly for adoptees - and we l...
Adoptee Suicide Awareness Series Part 3: Interview with Louise
Adopted Feels - June 11, 2020 23:41 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratings[CW: suicide] This is the final episode of our 3-part series on adoptee suicide awareness and prevention, dedicated to a special member of our community who died last year. We speak with Louise, a Korean adoptee in Australia whose sister, also a Korean adoptee, died by suicide. Louise tells us h...
Adoptee Suicide Awareness Series Part 2: Interview with Nicole Sheppard
Adopted Feels - May 28, 2020 00:22 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn the second episode of our Adoptee Suicide Awareness series, we talk to Nicole Sheppard, a Korean adoptee, long-time community advocate and leader, and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (LPCC) from the Twin Cities, Minnesota. This is a long episode, but a super important one: we not only...
Adoptee Suicide Awareness Series Part 1: Interview with Pamela Kim Adams
Adopted Feels - May 19, 2020 00:32 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratings[CW: this episode contains discussions of suicide, eating disorders, and self harm. Note: At around the 40min mark, our guest speaks in more detail about her suicide attempts. She treats this topic very carefully and we have edited this section - but listeners may wish to skip ahead at this point...
Seoul Life Update: covid in Korea, Coping with Anxiety, and Hana Gets Tested
Adopted Feels - March 26, 2020 02:35 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn today's episode we're talking about what its been like living in Korea during covid-19 times, and some of our coping strategies which have seen mixed success. And in the interests of distraction and frivolity, we end the episode with a random questions segment! Which is something we've wanted ...
Running, Grit & Community: Lauren Jung Reflects on Six Years in Korea
Adopted Feels - March 09, 2020 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, we talk to another special friend—Lauren Jung, an accomplished ultra-marathon and trail runner, an active member of the adoptee community in Seoul, a soon-to-be law school student, and a passionate dog mum. Lauren reflects on the early days of moving to Korea almost 6 years ago, ...
A (Non-Productive) Week in My Seoul Life
Adopted Feels - February 23, 2020 20:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this audio-log style episode, Hana shares a little 6-month update (or 7 months to be precise) on her life in Seoul. Hana gives us an honest and descriptive glimpse into her everyday life in Korea, complete with work-related stress, the rare home-cooked meal, baking when you don't have an oven,...
Becoming a Parent for the First Time: Jess Walton on Adoption Research, Motherhood, and Connectedness
Adopted Feels - February 09, 2020 20:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, Ryan talks to Dr. Jess Walton, a Melbourne-based senior researcher, an author, a new mother, and a dear friend of ours. Jess shares openly and generously about her research, her new book (Korean Adoptees and Transnational Adoption: Embodiment and Emotion, Routledge 2019) and her ...
Happy New Year! Wrapping Up 2019 and Getting Reflective (shucks, we can’t help it)
Adopted Feels - January 06, 2020 23:03 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this short and sweet mini-pod, Hana and Ryan discuss their 2019s, hopes and goals for 2020, and the joys of running the podcast so far. Hana shares her NYE reflective prompts, her grand vision for 2020 (in the form of an animal, naturally!), and they both contemplate what 2020 might mean for t...
Holiday Special: Self-Care, Burnout & Boundaries!
Adopted Feels - December 23, 2019 04:39 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsTune in to our conversation on self-care, burnout, stress, and the holidays - including references to (Hana’s wellness guru) Elizabeth Gilbert, the potential over-use of the metaphor of eggs in baskets and scared puppies, how self-care can also involve self-discipline, and the importance of ident...
Healing Body, Mind and Soul: Hilbrand Westra and the Systemic Constellations Approach
Adopted Feels - December 08, 2019 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsHana sat down with Hilbrand Westra in Seoul, after participating in one of his workshops for adoptees, for an extended convo that goes deep into feelings. They talk about the systemic approach, core issues that adoptees face, the path to healing, the limitations of conventional talking therapy fo...
Opening Up About Our Families!
Adopted Feels - November 24, 2019 20:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsAlthough Hana and Ryan have discussed various topics so far on the podcast, they’ve shied away from talking about their adoptive families. In this episode they talk about the reasons why, about trying to protect their parents’ feelings, and what they do and don’t discuss with their parents. They ...
Nine Years Later: Long-Term Birth Family Search & Processing the First Trip Home Experience - An Interview with Alyson Yost
Adopted Feels - November 11, 2019 05:52 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsA friend and podcast listener recently pointed out that many of our episodes talk about search and reunion, especially now that both of us have reunited. But of course not all adoptees who start a birth family search reunite, and not all adoptees want to search in the first place. In light of Nat...
Meg O'Shea (aka even.little.meg): On Comics, Documenting Everyday Life, and Living in Seoul
Adopted Feels - October 27, 2019 20:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsHana sits down for a casual conversation with the very talented Meg O'Shea - aka @even.little.meg - a comic maker and illustrator, and fellow Australian Korean adoptee living in Seoul. They talk about Meg's comics and illustrations, why she was drawn to comics as a medium, moving to Korea, racism...
Meeting your Birth Mother! (As a Nonbinary Trans Adoptee)
Adopted Feels - October 13, 2019 19:00 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode Ryan spills the beans on what it was like meeting their birthmother for the first time! We talk about the additional complexities involved in being a trans and queer adoptee searching for birth family - incl. explaining one's gender identity and relationship, DNA testing, and fear...
Harlow’s Monkey in the House! Interview with JaeRan Kim
Adopted Feels - September 29, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, Hana and Ryan sit down with JaeRan Kim, who we were very lucky to catch right after the IKAA Gathering. JaeRan is a social worker, writer, teacher and scholar. Her involvement in the adoptee activist community began with her well-known blog “Harlow’s Monkey”, an unapologetic look...
Hana's Guide to Moving to Korea
Adopted Feels - September 16, 2019 09:55 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsHave you ever wondered what it might be like to move back to your birth country? In this episode, Hana gives an honest account of her relocation in the form of a quick guide to moving to Korea - slightly tongue-in-cheek but also peppered with practical advice. Hana and Ryan also discuss the joys ...
Sex, Representation, and Men’s Groups: Talkin’ Korean Adoptee Masculinity
Adopted Feels - September 02, 2019 19:37 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this provocatively titled episode, Hana and Ryan chat with Mark and Matt, two cis-gendered adoptee men living in Seoul. Mark and Matt generously and candidly share their adoptee experiences in a conversation that touches on toxic masculinity in Korea, the relative lack of men involved in adopt...
Adoptee Season in Seoul: The Gathering, FOMO, and other Associated Feels
Adopted Feels - August 19, 2019 03:03 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsHana & Ryan debrief about the intense experience that was the 2019 IKAA Gathering and other recent adoptee events in Seoul. In this episode, they do a run-down of everything they attended, before getting deep into their feelings - touching on FOMO, how it feels to leave Korea, and post-Korea blue...
10 Things We Love About Seoul
Adopted Feels - August 05, 2019 04:55 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, Hana and Ryan share 10 Things We Love About Seoul and touch base with their light, frivolous, talking sh*t roots. They catch up (in person, finally!) and chat about being part of the ethnic majority, noraebang go-to songs, and eating cake with chopsticks.
Eleana Kim & Kim Stoker: Adoptee Kinship, Critical Adoption Studies, and Expanding What it Means to be Korean
Adopted Feels - July 21, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this episode, Ryan has the pleasure of interviewing Eleana Kim and Kim Stoker during their visit to Melbourne! We chat about adoptee-run creative hubs in Seoul during the early 2000s including Spy Lounge, Kimura Byul, formally known as Mihee-Nathalie Lemoine, a co-founder of GOA'L and by all a...
Katelyn Hemmeke: Writing, Research, and Activism in the Adoption Space
Adopted Feels - July 07, 2019 14:00 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratings“Things you cannot find in a junk drawer: A whole culture. An entire language. A face that looks like yours.” - from “What You Are” by Katelyn Hemmeke Hana interviews her friend and fellow Korean adoptee Katelyn, an accomplished writer, researcher, and activist in the transracial, transnation...
10 Things Hana Didn't Know About Reunion
Adopted Feels - June 23, 2019 14:15 - 42 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsAlmost 9 years ago, Hana reunited with her birth family, and she was pretty naive and unprepared for it all. In this episode, Hana talks through ten things she didn’t know about reunion, and then Ryan joins the show to dig deeper into Hana’s story. In Hana’s humble opinion, reunion has been both ...
10 Things Ryan Didn't Know About Birth Family Search
Adopted Feels - June 23, 2019 14:00 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsRyan shares 10 things they didn't know about 'the BFS' (birth family search), which is far from straightforward & can bring up a bunch of other stuff! They talk about names, feeling 'ready,' learning about adoption practices, and share their fears/hopes/feels as a trans adoptee who has found - bu...
Inside the Brain of an Adoption Therapist!
Adopted Feels - June 09, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this longer episode, Hana and Ryan pull back the curtain and chat to a therapist who specialises in working with intercountry, transracial adult adoptees and adoptive families. We get into our feelings and discuss it all - Nancy Verrier’s “primal wound” theory, feeling flawed, birth family sea...
Dating and Relationships Part Two: Optics and Acronyms
Adopted Feels - May 26, 2019 14:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 49 ratingsIn this juicy little episode, Hana and Ryan discuss the unfortunate optics of hanging out with our white parents and friends, WMAF and AMWF couples, coming in and out of various closets, dating as an adoptee in Korea, and Bitmoji. Tune in for a full explanation of all acronyms and that overused-y...
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