Podcast Club:
Exploring Lesser-Heard Voices of Adoption

You can catch up on the whole series here!

• Episode 1: Intro to Themes in Adoption—Adoptees On: Stephanie Tait (Episode 125) [1 hr. 7 min.]
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• Episode 2: Kinship Adoption & History of Adoption in the Black Community—The Black Adoption Podcast: Kinship Adoption: It’s Complicated (Season 2, Episode 1) [44 min.]
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• Episode 3: Focus on the Birth Mother Voice—Around the World With the Archibald Project: The Side of Adoption You Must Know With Ashley Mitchell (Episode 83) [1 hr.]
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  Black to the Beginning: The Black Adoption Podcast: The Secret of the Black Birthmother With Courtney Cook (S2E4) [44 min.]
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• Episode 4: Focus on Extended Family in the Adoption Constellation—This Land: The Grandmother Versus the Foster Parents (S2E3)  [43 min.]
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  This Land: The Heart of It (S2E8) [32 min.]
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• Episode 5: Adoption & Older Youth—The Archibald Project: Adult Adoptee Sisters Share Foster Care & Adoption Experience With Patty & Angelica (Episode 80) [34 min.]
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  Unadopted (Short Documentary)—Foster care alum Noel Anaya reflects on his own experiences within the foster care system, and follows 2 other teens as they grapple with decisions surrounding adoption. [27 min.]
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• Episode 6: Focus on the Male Adoptee Voice—Adoptees On: Mike Trupiano (Episode 206) [1 hr]
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  When They Were Young: Isaac Etter—Ethical Adoption (Episode 35) [1 hr]
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• Episode 7: When Adoption Isn’t “Happily Ever After”—The Black Adoption Podcast: Pieces of Me (S3 E38) [1.25 hrs]
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  The Archibald Project: When Adoption Doesn’t Go As Planned (Episode 72) [37 min.]
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• Episode 8: Transracial Adoption—

  Code Switch: Our Homeland Is Each Other [26 min.]
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  Born in June, Raised in April: The Intersection of Freedom & Adoption With Milton Washington [58 min.]
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• Episode 9: Supply & Demand in Adoption—
  Domestic: This Land: Supply & Demand (Season 2, Episode 4) [35 min.]
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  International: Point of Inquiry: The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption
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CaseyCast: A monthly podcast from the Annie B. Casey foundation, an organization that collects data and proposes policy solutions to strengthen families and protect children. Total credit determined by how many episodes and which ones listened to.

Counselor Toolbox: Increase your understanding of mental health diagnoses and addiction. Check out especially Episode 424 (Supporting Families Without Enabling), 415 (Relapse Prevention), 411 (Cognitive Behavioral Interventions for PTSD), 407 (Understanding Autism), 406 (Biopsychosocial Impact Of Addiction & Mental Disorders on the Individual), and more! Total credit determined by which and how many episodes you listen to.

The Legacy of Massive Resistance: The story of teenage girl Barbara Johns’ walk-out in 1951 to protest the substandard conditions of segregated schools in nearby Prince Edward County. Their subsequent court case helped ultimately lead to Brown v. Board of Education, but rather than integrate, Prince Edward County shut down their public schools for 5 years, as a part of overall Virginia’s “massive resistance” response to integration. Students at the time describe their memories of the strike, and local historians discuss the long-term impact. 1 episode, for 1 hour education credit.

Special Education Advocacy With Ashley Barlow: Ashley Barlow is a former educator, now a special education attorney who is also the parent of a disabled child. This podcast is great for beginners trying to understand navigating the school system for a child who needs extra support—she breaks topics down into bite-sized, understandable pieces.

Trauma Informed Education: A total of 100 episodes to choose from, with practical, evidence-based strategies for challenging students. Total amount of credit determined by how many/which episodes listened to.

Anatomy of a Doubt: A foster youth named Marie is sexually assaulted while living in an independent living arrangement, but police begin to doubt her account. Her case handling leads to one of two investigations—one small and bad, and the other stunningly big and good. 3 episodes, for a total of 1 hour of education credit.

Armchair Expert: Dr. Nadine Burke Harris sits down with actor Dax Shepard to discuss the pivotal ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences study), tools for universal screening, and protocols she developed to respond to childhood trauma in her pediatric practice. 1 episode, for a total of 2.25 hours education credit.

Around the World With the Archibald Project: We first heard of this podcast when applicants for the advocate role came to us after hearing about CASA from this program! Adoptive parents and filmmakers host this podcast, and they’ve done visual projects in addition to podcast episodes addressing both domestic and international adoption and child welfare systems. A great episode to start with is Episode 83, The Side of Adoption You Must Know With Ashley Mitchell. She explores her own experience with relinquishment and open adoption, and the profound and ongoing trauma from that process, as well as her ongoing work with mothers, and the ethics around the support we provide (or don’t) to vulnerable mothers.

Believed: “Larry Nassar, an Olympic gymnastics doctor, got away with abusing hundreds of women and girls for two decades. Believed is an inside look at how a team of women won a conviction in one of the largest serial sexual abuse cases in U.S. history, and an unnerving exploration of how even well-meaning adults can fail to believe.” 10 total episodes, for a total of 4.25 hours of credit.

The Black Adoption Podcast: This podcast is hosted by 2 women who each found out in adulthood that they were adopted. Their unique lens of exploring themes and conversations around adoption comes through centering #BlackAndAdopted adults and #TheBlackFamily. As they say—”In order to change the narrative, you gotta CHANGE THE NARRATOR.” In Podcast Club we highlighted their S2E1 episode on Kinship Adoption, and the S2E4 conversation with a birth mother.

Born in June, Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World: Adult adoptee and national thought leader April Dinwoodie explores her own adoption experience as well as broader themes in the adoptive experience as she interviews guests month to month.

Children’s Law Podcast: Episodes being added on a continuing basis, looking at the profession of representing children, the future of the field, and how advocacy can transform the child welfare system. We especially recommend episodes 6-8, regarding permanency. Total credit determined by how many & which episodes you listen to.

Nurturing the Heart of a Child: Dr. Barbara Sorrels, trainer on child trauma & therapeutic early childhood education, partners with her daughter to discuss nurturing parenting, using the lens of trauma & attachment in many of their episodes. We highly recommend those episodes exploring trauma and attachment. 31 episodes so far, total credit determined by how many episodes and which ones listened to.

This Land: Rebecca Nagle, a writer and citizen of Cherokee nation, is the narrator of this riveting podcast. Throughout Season 2 they trace the origins of the contested child welfare cases the Supreme Court heard recently, challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act. They explore critically needed conversations around adoption and child welfare, such as the inequity between foster/adoptive and families of origin, questions of identity for transracial adoptees, and supply and demand around adoption. Additionally, they trace the history of Indian boarding schools and overrepresentation in the child welfare system that led to the creation of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a law that creates investigatory responsibilities in each of our current foster care cases.