Season 4, Episode 5: Grace Newton

10/27/20 • 69 min

Chinese adoptee Grace Newton, 26, shares her story of coming of age and learning about international adoption as a social, political and industrial practice. An only child, Newton shared a close relationship with her parents, but delving into the history of transnational and transracial adoption created some challenging discussions. Her curiosity and desire to uncover truths have taken her back to China several times, each time imparting new perspectives. Newton has regularly shared some of this sharp and critical commentary with readers of her adoption blog, and as a leader within the adoptee community.

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Season 4, Episode 4: Jenny Heijun Wills

Korean adoptee and Canadian Jenny Heijun Wills, 39, talks about her 2019 acclaimed memoir, Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related. It's about her relationships with her first family after being reunited in a form of a letter to an older biological half-sister, separated by time, language, boundaries, child removal and international closed adoption. and parental failings. The book also bravely addresses inter-adoptee harm, ways marginalized communities protect and hide sexual assault amongst their own kin, and the fears that come with breaking that code.

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Season 4, Episode 6: Benjamin White

First Lieutenant Benjamin White, 26, is a Korean adoptee commissioned in the US Army and stationed back in his birth country of Korea. He's also gay. Listen to his story as he talks about navigating all of these identities as a military officer and as en ethnic Korean, trying to build ties with other Koreans in a country where society does not easily embrace everything about him.