Korean-American adoptee Mila Konomos, 44, has spent a lifetime pondering the meaning of family, first as an adopted child to white American parents stationed on military bases in places such as Japan and the Philippines, later meeting her biological Korean parents to becoming a mother to bi-racial children in the U.S. But neither her adoption nor reunion with bio family has brought her a sense of wholeness. Now a performance artist, social and racial justice rights activist, partner and mother, this episode explores how Konomos' life experiences has shaped who she is today.
Son of a Korean haenyo, the storied female free divers, and a single mother, adoptee Ben Coz, 30, also plunges depths in adoption activism in Korea. You'll hear how his politics are inextricably linked to his personal life, and how early trauma and loss has influenced his call to action.
What do you do when you become an adopted parent's caregiver and there might be unresolved issues related to your childhood and adoption? Sarah MeeRan Cave, 33, shares some of her story of caring for an aging parent, her relationship with music and teachers along the way, and how it has all ultimately help her to find the path to her own healing.
Sharon Jung, 37, is on a redemptive journey. Adopted from Korea at the age of four, Jung, along with her twin sister, would learn devastating details about the separation from their first family and what the adoption agency did to make that happen. It led them down a path to the wrong family. Jung also experienced abuse and mistreatment in her adoptive family, which spiraled into despair and drug abuse. But through it all, Jung's story is about finding how to love even when you feel unworthy of it, and of how her twin never gave up on her.
Taneka Hye Wol Jennings, 34, works towards social justice and immigrant rights as the deputy director of Hana Center in Chicago, Ill. She also uses that passion to advocate for the Korean adoptee community through organizations like KAtCH in Chicago and others. Listen as Jennings steps out of her comfort zone to share some of her reflections as an adoptee, daughter and partner.
This week marks the release of "All You Can Ever Know" by Nicole Chung on paperback. Chung, 38, sat down for an interview earlier this year during the Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network conference, where she gave the keynote. Her book, published by Catapult, is a memoir of her life growing up as a Korean transracial adoptee and how she navigated coming to terms with her own identity while struggling to make sense of how the outside world wanted her to feel.
LA-based filmmaker and Korean adoptee Jon Maxwell had once struggled to put a lens to his own adoption story in a way that felt satisfying. But he found that by helping to tell the stories of other adoptees, his own came more into frame. Listen as he shares his own story about adoption, career and fatherhood.
What do you do when your adoption agency stonewalls and lies to you? Greg Monroe, 27, didn't give up his search and after many trips to Korea and hard conversations, he was able to reunite with his birth family. But the reunion didn't come with rough parts, for himself and for all those he cares about. He shares what it's like to slowly become a stranger's son.
Korean adoptee and self-described "southern belle" Cindy Wilson, 43, shares a fascinating story of her life growing up in the Deep South, adopted transracially by African-Americans and navigating identity, belonging and being true to herself.
Julie Yackley's path to motherhood was not a common one. But then again, this 33-year old Korean adoptee has faced many challenges that perhaps might uniquely qualify her for her current role as a mother of two children -- one she shares a biological connection with, and the other, a transracial adoptee one. A blogger and author, Yackley shares her very personal story on the podcast about how her feelings of abandonment and grief of losing two mothers has shaped how she approaches being a mother herself.
Mayda Miller, 34, is a Korean adoptee and fronts her namesake rock band in the Twin Cities. From Incheon, South Korea, Miller was adopted to Minnesota spent a lot of her youth competing in sports and classical piano competitions but later found her true calling to create funk and blues influenced-influenced rock music. Miller's story includes meeting her Korean biological parents and living with complicated emotions about them and Korea as a result.
Korean adoptee Annie Malecek, 24, learned as an adult she was conceived from rape. Violence also played a role at a pivotal moment for the Chicago resident when she first realized that having white parents and being raised in a privileged environment would not shield her from racism, prejudice and of being a target for aggression. To find where she fit in America, Malecek had to travel back to Korea, to see and feel and think in the land where it had all begun. Along the way, she found answers, and a peace.
The notion of family is a complicated one for Korean adoptee Jimmy Byrne. The 35-year old Chicagoan shares his story of profound loss and reunion -- and how each continues to shape his life and relationships. Byrne also talks about coming to terms with all aspects of his identity as a gay Asian male, a musician, a transracial adoptee, and as a Korean-American. Through it all, Byrne's humanity and quiet strength shines through.
Elliot Mark, 23, is a Korean adoptee who is also Jewish. He grew up in Skokie, Illinois, the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants and credits his close-knit family with helping him forge a strong identity. Mark also embraces his Korean origins and has recently joined a local group for Korean adoptees to help build his community. Mark shares how he has learned to embrace his whole identity with pride and support.
Korean adoptee Milton Washington, 48, has learned how to live between two worlds ever since he was adopted at the age of eight by an African-American military family. Washington, or Pak Milton-ah, spent his early years under the shadow of rejection by Korean society because of his mixed-blood heritage and outcaste because of his mother's profession and association with black U.S. soldiers. After being adopted into a loving and somewhat unusual family, and raised in the American midwest, he realized he still had demons to overcome. As a black Korean, Washington also had to make sense of his identity in the U.S., and has come to understand and embrace both sides of his history.
Korean adoptee Dan Sieling, 30, is on a journey. He shares his story drawing from both great insight and deep vulnerability -- but all necessary in order to reclaim his identity and relationship to his native country and to reconcile the pain from the loss of his biological family and feelings of abandonment. The New Jersey resident also speaks about confronting some uncomfortable truths about adoption and how it has helped him in his own healing.
Korean adoptee Teri Thomas is a fighter. Adopted from Goyang to the U.S., Thomas survived sexual abuse by her adoptive father soon after arriving at the age of six. Her experiences in a dysfunctional and abusive adoptive home affected how she has felt about her adoption agency Holt Korea, and about the policy of intercountry and transracial adoption. Thomas has cerebral palsy, and while it does limit some of her physical mobility, it doesn't affect her spirit. The 48-year old returned to Korea in 2017 to work on an initiative to fight stigma and improve the opportunities for Korean children with disabilities.
Note: This story contains themes of child sexual abuse, incest, clergy abuse and physical violence.
Rachel Kim Tschida, 39, is a Korean adoptee who grew up in Minnesota, ambivalent about her own Asian identity for most of that time. However, she talks about learning to authentically embrace herself after traveling to Asia on business trips for a major American company. Those trips - especially ones back to Korea - helped spark an interest in her own adoption history, and in turn, advocacy for other adoptees as president of the Korean American Coalition of Washington.
John Park*, 34, is a kinship Korean adoptee. Park is an alias because he does not have legal status in the U.S., despite being brought to the U.S. from Korea as a young child and later adopted by Americans. Adoptee rights advocates estimate there are at least 35,000 foreign-born adopted people in the U.S. who, like Park, never received U.S. citizenship. Efforts to fix an immigration loophole in adoption in 2001 did not address individuals adopted outside the law's restrictions on age and approved arrival visas. Advocates are hoping to change that with a new bill this year, though passage has so far proved politically challenging. Ultimately, Park's adoption story is about survival and circumstance, pain and redemption. And hope.
Note: This episode contains themes of child sex abuse and violence.
Greg Norrish, 32, is about to launch a new venture in South Korea with everything he's learned after more than a decade in kitchens in the U.S., and about fourteen months in his native country. The experience of planting himself amidst an exploding foreign food scene in Seoul has also given him a chance to learn more about himself, reflect on his adoption from Korea and understand more about his native country -- including confronting uncomfortable attitudes on gender and violence, which has exposed a darker side of Korean modern society.