Adapted Podcast

Korean adoptee Sun Mee Martin, 39, was adopted from South Korea at the age of 3 1/2 years to Bavaria, Germany. She grew up constantly being questioned about why she was there and felt othered by others who would ask where she was from. "I think a more interesting question is, 'where are you going?', Martin says on the episode. After living in New York City and two trips back to Korea, Martin is no...

Danish filmmaker and Korean adoptee Sun Hee Engelstoft, 38, born 신순희 sits down with Adapted Podcast to talk about the making of her profound documentary film, "Forget Me Not," which focuses on the lives of several Korean teenagers who are faced with a difficult decision of whether to keep their babies or give them up for adoption. 

Timothy Vanderburg, 30, is an Australian Korean adoptee living in Sydney.  Growing up, he became involved with a local Korean adoptee camp and continued to have an interest in Korea throughout his life. And though he's had many opportunities to connect with his native land and its people, those experiences have taught him important lessons about identity. 

Korean adoptee SunAh Marie Laybourn, 38, was adopted to the state of Tennessee in the US at the age of four months from Korea. After her adoptive mother died when SunAh was young and navigating environments where she was different from the white or Black students at her schools, she buried her feelings as a way to cope. Now an educator, motivational speaker and coach and podcaster, the high achiev...

Korean adoptee Jonas Gürrich, 34, was adopted at three months old to Norway. The story he's been told about his relinquishment by his Korean mother is a familiar one - a young woman unable to take care of him - and has chosen to embrace the positives in his life. Recently, he's been exploring DNA as a way to search for biological relatives, though not without some trepidation. 

Remember the days when you were 21 and trying to figure out life? Add being a Korean transracial adoptee in Copenhagen dealing with racism borne in a global pandemic, meeting your biological family on your first trip back to Korea and trying decode the emojis sent from your Korean aunt? Meet Rasmus, and his thoughts about it all at time in his life when the future outstretched before him. 

Korean-American adoptee Tara Footner, 44, survived rehoming and abusive adoptive and foster homes as a child. Those early experiences led her to turn inward to write and reflect. Today, Footner has most recently channeled her creative energy into a new online platform called The Universal Asian.  *Child abuse including sexual abuse, rehoming; explicit language

Leah Nichols, 34, is a Korean-American woman who has been reclaiming her Asian identity after its erasure because of her intercountry adoption from Korea by white Americans, and subsequent environment growing up. She cares deeply about racial and reproductive justice and works to advance resources for other Asian adoptees. Nichols is also reunited with her biological family in Korea. Listen as she...

James Straker, 51, was adopted to the US from Korea at age five. He doesn't remember much during the time of his adoption. It's taken him decades to unpack all the trauma from his adoption and dysfunctional adoptive family upbringing, including a suicide attempt, monastery training, moving back to Korea and marrying a Korean woman and having a family of his own. Today, he's done a lot of healing,...

Jenny Dargren, 46, is a Korean adoptee in Sweden. She opens up about her struggles with bulimia and how she finally understood the disorder to be linked to low self-esteem from her abandonment and adoption. She hid from her Korean roots for many years until traveling back to Korea for the first time in her 40s. 

Heather Schultz, 36, was adopted from Korea at four months old by a couple in Long Island, New York. At a young age, Heather lost her mother to a terminal disease and had to survive the rest of her childhood adjusting to a stepmother and stepsisters, who moved into the home she shared with her father. Seeking refuge for her grief, she found support and love from her paternal grandmother. After lea...

Thomas Juncker, 21, was adopted to Denmark from Korea as an infant and grew up always having a keen interest in his birth country. In 2019, he decided to move to Korea during a gap year in his education. There he was able to explore his Korean roots, make new friends and ponder his life and how adoption shaped it. This interview took place earlier this year, just days after his return to Denmark a...

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. 

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...

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 addr...

Daniel Jeremiah Persson, 27, was adopted from Korea at age two to white parents in Sweden and grew up in the countryside where he faced bullies and racism. It wasn't until he left to attend dance school in London when he found his voice to express himself through words and movement. When he went to Korea to explore his ethnic roots, Persson both found joy and disappointment. Utlimately, discoverin...

American Rachel Rostad, 26, is a Korean adoptee who reunited with her biological family only to find that her eomma was suffering from a chronic illness that only added more questions than answered any. But while she would come to feel a sense of belonging with her Korean family, her belonging in Korea was another matter. 

Shaun Seo, 33, is an Australian Korean adoptee whose childhood was marked with multiple tragedies. Living with his family as expats in Papua New Guinea and Fiji, he also was thrown into the politics of poverty and privilege at a young age. But a family rupture changed Seo's life yet again and sent him back to the Australian countryside and its racially white homogeneity. Seo recently attended the...

Korean adoptee Kara Bos talked with Adapted Podcast in a zoom event on June 27, 2020 about her ordeal trying to find her find her biological mother and having to resort to pursuing a court case in order to get official acknowledgement of her relationship to her biological father. The groundbreaking paternity case may pave the way for other adoptees to find their parents. 

Kaomi Goetz, 49, was adopted from Korea to the United States at the age of six months old. She grew up in rural Minnesota and was sexually abused by her adoptive father as a young girl. After producing more than 60 episodes of this podcast, Goetz has decided to share her story of how being an incest survivor has affected her and why freeing adoptee voices to frame their own adoption narrative has...

Jae Hyun Shim, 38, was adopted from Korea and grew up the youngest and only daughter and adopted child in their Minnesota family. But there were plenty of other adoptees in Shim's life from an early age and their parents took unusual steps to secure access to Korean-ness for Shim. That close relationship with their parents helped Shim to develop into the person they are. And meeting their biologic...

This week, we'll hear from Daniel Kang Yoon Nørregaard, 33, adopted from Korea to Denmark at three months old, he talks about growing up in a predominately racially white environment, leaving his adoptive country to study design and eventually settling down in London. Though his career has been his focus, lately he's realized there are parts of himself that he's been disconnected from. And through...

Growing up in the English countryside in a middle class family and attending private schools and later a boarding school, already would have set Saschia Ryder, 48, apart from many others with less-privileged backgrounds in the U.K. But she was also adopted from Korea --and like many transracially-adopted Koreans -- grew up in predominately white environments where she began to feel increasingly un...

Kurt RuKim [he/him], 34, was adopted from Korea and raised in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota. His identity has evolved over time, from living in predominately white spaces to embracing his authentic self as an Asian male and claiming his own body, being a dancer and racial equity activist and ally for others. RuKim also shares some of his experiences and observances being part of an interra...

Sooki Jalali, 56, was adopted from Korea at the age of 12 or 14. She's not sure, and her paperwork gave her a different name and birth date, making her at least several years younger. Jun Sukja would take on a new name and identity in the U.S., but her new life often didn't seem like an escape from her old one in the orphanage. As a first wave internationally adopted Korean, she grew up in a small...