Family Twist: A Podcast Exploring DNA Surprises and Family Secrets

In Part One, Lisa shared her extraordinary adoption reunion story. A closed adoption, a lifetime of questions, a birth family who lived down the street, and the shocking discovery that she likely cared for her own biological grandfather in the ICU. It was a story about caregiving, identity, and the power of finally finding your roots. Part Two takes us into a very different kind of discovery. This...

With the Trump administration moving to reclassify nursing so it no longer counts as a professional degree for federal student aid, this episode couldn’t land at a more urgent moment. Nursing organizations warn that limiting access to funding threatens the very foundation of patient care, and in our household, where nurses are family, this news hits hard. Today’s guest, Lisa , is a nurse practitio...

What happens when you discover a whole set of siblings who grew up in the donor’s home, but you are not sure they even know you exist In part one, a simple birthday DNA kit rewrote everything Nick thought he knew about his identity. He learned he was donor conceived at thirty-six, discovered fourteen half siblings, and realized his parents had carried the truth for decades. But nothing prepared hi...

What if a simple birthday gift revealed a secret your parents had been carrying for more than three decades? For his 36th birthday, Nick’s siblings gave him a 23andMe kit. It seemed like a fun way to learn more about his ancestry, until his parents sat him down with a truth that changed everything. Nick discovered that he was donor conceived, while his brother was not. In this first part of Nick’s...

What happens when a single email from a stranger confirms the secret you have been living with your whole life? In this episode, Rich Boerner returns to Family Twist to share the second half of his extraordinary story. In Part One, Rich discovered the truth about his father after finding a Polaroid tucked inside his mother’s old address book. That discovery shattered the story he had grown up beli...

What if the father you spent your life wondering about turned out to be someone you already knew? As a kid growing up on Long Island in the 1970s, Rich Boerner learned not to ask too many questions. His mother had her version of the truth and repeated it word for word whenever he asked. His father was a man from Milwaukee who left when he found out she was pregnant. That was all she would say. It...

What happens when the podcast that’s helping you make sense of your DNA surprise starts to sound a little too familiar? For many listeners, Family Twist is more than a podcast, it’s a lifeline. That’s exactly how it felt for Jai, whose own DNA discovery journey unfolded side by side with the stories she was hearing from Corey and Kendall. As an adoptee navigating identity, belonging, and the shock...

This episode feels like the heart of Family Twist. It’s about what happens when we stop hiding, start talking, and realize we’re all part of a much bigger family than we thought. Right to Know: Healing in Real Time Corey shares the mic with other board members from Right to Know , the organization making sure everyone has access to their own origin story. These conversations aren’t polished or eas...

This episode nearly vanished. Literally. When Corey bumped into fellow podcaster Jeremy Bryant at a New England podcast event, he recognized his voice before placing his face. Then it hit him, they had already recorded an episode of Family Twist with Jeremy, but somehow, that recording got lost. So here it is. Jeremy’s story is about learning he was donor-conceived, discovering a growing list of h...

What if the first clue to your DNA surprise was hidden in your parents’ wedding video — and years later, the search pointed to identical twins? Episode Overview In this episode of the Family Twist podcast, Corey and Kendall talk with Emily , a fellow New England podcaster who uncovered her DNA surprise in an unforgettable way. As a child, she noticed she was in her parents’ wedding video, and that...

Can we ever truly feel safe if we don’t know where we came from? Episode Summary: In this deeply emotional episode of Family Twist , we welcome Bryan Post , world-renowned therapist, author, and adoptee, for a conversation that feels more like a healing session than an interview. Bryan speaks directly to the heart of what many adoptees feel but struggle to articulate: the hidden trauma, the nervou...

What happens when a DNA test flips your world upside down and you decide to make a comedy about it? Actor, writer, and producer Lisa Brenner joins Corey and Kendall to talk about her new film One Big Happy Family , opening in AMC Theatres on October 3, 2025. Inspired by her own discovery at age 40 that the dad who raised her wasn’t her biological father, Lisa transformed a life-altering revelation...

This is the rescued first conversation with author Shirley Muñoz Newsom , whose memoir The Little Dark One: A True Story of Switched at Birth chronicles discovering—at age 43—that she was switched at birth. She grew up in Gillette, Wyoming, knowing she didn’t fit, searching through library microfiche long before Google, and navigating an emotionally unavailable home where affection and belonging w...

In this episode of Family Twist , Corey and Kendall sit down with Mary , adoptive mom to previous guest Chris Martin . If you haven’t already, we recommend listening to Chris’ two episodes first — his story as an adoptee lays the groundwork for the conversation you’re about to hear with his mom. Mary opens up about the unexpected beginnings of Chris’ adoption and how what started as a plan for a c...

In this episode of Family Twist , Corey and Kendall sit down with storyteller and comedian Becca Rothman to talk about her remarkable DNA discovery and her upcoming live solo show, Gifted: Nature, Nurture, and an Unexpected Present . Becca shares the journey from long-held suspicions about her conception, to finally taking a DNA test, to discovering her biological father—a pediatrician—and two hal...

In this episode of Family Twist , Corey and Kendall get raw, real, and a little ranty. It’s part group therapy, part comedy roast, and all about the phrases adoptees hear over and over again that range from paper-cut stings to sledgehammer blows. From “You’re so lucky your parents chose you” to “Do you know your real parents?”—they unpack why these comments miss the mark, how they flatten adoptee...

In this candid conversation, Corey and Kendall tackle one of the most painful realities in the adoptee and DNA surprise world — reaching out to a biological parent and getting… nothing in return. Ghosting the Ghost Parent Kendall opens up about his own experience with his birth mother: the initial reply that offered hope, the “I need time to process” that turned into months of silence, and the slo...

In this heartfelt follow-up to one of our earliest episodes ("The Man Weekend"), Kendall shares stories from a recent rustic getaway with members of his birth family at their long-held property in northern New Hampshire. It’s a full-circle moment—spending time around the campfire with his brother, uncle, cousins, and nephews, deepening bonds with people he didn’t grow up with but now can’t imagine...

In Part 2 of our conversation with author and advocate J. Steven Osborne, we explore what happens after the shock of a DNA discovery, when the dust starts to settle, and you're left piecing together not just your origin story, but your identity . Steven opens up about the emotional toll of learning that Jack Osborne, the man who raised him and loved him unconditionally, wasn’t his biological fathe...

J. Steven Osborne believed he knew where he came from until an ancestry DNA test turned his world upside down. What started in 2021 as a casual curiosity for Native American heritage ended with a jaw-dropping response: a first cousin in Prince Edward Island. And his father? Not who he thought. Join Corey as Steven recounts the powerful, painful, and sometimes absurd journey that unraveled in real...

Author, adoptee, and fierce truth-teller Jean Widner returns to Family Twist —and this time, she’s holding a finished book in her hands. In this emotionally raw and intellectually rich conversation, Corey sits down with Jean to talk about the release of her long-anticipated book, The Adoption Paradox , and the deeply personal story behind it. What began as a community-driven exploration of adoptio...

In Part 2 of our powerful conversation with Chris, the emotional stakes deepen. Chris takes us through the winding road of reconnection with his birth father—once lost to addiction and incarceration—and how a long-awaited letter cracked the door open to forgiveness and healing. We also explore the life-changing moment Chris met his half-brother from his birth father’s side, a child who didn’t just...

Chris’s story may not begin with a shocking discovery but it’s no less extraordinary. In this episode, Kendall and Corey sit down with Chris to explore a rare but deeply moving example of an open adoption that worked exactly as intended . Chris has known his birth parents for his entire life, and his adoptive parents invited his birth family in from day one. But as we quickly learn, openness doesn...

In Part 2 of our powerful conversation with Lisa MM Butler, we go deeper into what happens after the DNA tests, after the reunions, and after the losses. Lisa, an outspoken transracial adoptee, writer, illustrator, and library worker, shares how the death of her adoptive parents left her grappling with the question: Whose family am I part of now? Lisa takes us inside her inner world of healing, th...

In Part One of this powerful two-part episode, Corey and Kendall sit down with Lisa, who shares the beginning of her journey into the world of unexpected DNA discoveries. Lisa believed she understood her place in her family — until a test revealed otherwise. What follows is a story of emotional whiplash: from excitement and curiosity to confusion, rejection, and deep grief. DNA Doesn’t Lie, But Fa...