Adoption Pop!

E048 | Dallas "Black Market Baby") (1978) – Adoption on Television Thank you to Pop! Star Rebecca for taking us back to a time of feathered hair, dressing up for family dinner, and nearly non-existent rights for women! Today's episode has us laying by the pool of the infamous Southfork Ranch in Dallas, home to Bobby, Pamela, Miss Ellie, Jock, Lucy, Sue Ellen and J.R., the infamous Ewing family who...

E047 | Orphan (2009) – Adoption at the Movies We have been dying to do a horror movie on the pod, and this week we get our chance! 2009's Orphan stars Peter Saarsgard and Vera Farmiga as a wealthy couple who have two children and, after the tragic loss of a third child, adopt a psychopathic, nine-year-old Russian orphan with a mysterious past. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert didn't hate this one...

E046 | Angels in the Outfield (1994) – Adoption at the Movies Whether you have root root rooted for the same team your whole life or, like Kristal and Sullivan, you consider yourself a more generalized "fan," there's only one team to get behind in this episode of Adoption Pop! Angels in the Outfield, originally written and filmed in 1951 centering the struggling Pittsburgh Pirates, was remade in 1...

E045 | Immediate Family (1989) – Adoption at the Movies If you happened to see this one before, it might be because you rented it at the video store. On the cover — two couples, one teenaged and one middle aged, staring at the very pregnant belly of the teenaged girl who plans to relinquish her baby to the older couple. This film is from 1989, the hair and the wardrobe is on point, and so is the c...

E044 | Because She's Adopted (2023) – Adoption at the Movies This is a very special episode of Adoption Pop!, as we cover the film Because She's Adopted, which follows a Cree adoptee from Kelowna, BC who embarks upon a journey to understand the complicated reality of her adoption, and to understand herself. Who picked this? The filmmaker and star of Because She's Adopted, our very own Kristal Park...

E043 | The Sopranos "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh" (2006) – Adoption on Television A big "thank you" to Pop! Star Hannah for giving us the chance to revisit what some critics have called "the greatest, and most groundbreaking television show of all time." The Sopranos ran for six seasons from 1999 through 2007, and followed New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini, and...

E042 | Sex and the City "Just Say Yes" (2001) – Adoption on Television It may have been one of the biggest shows of the era, but its adoption story line has aged about as well as a Mandarin chicken skewer left out on the buffet too long. Season 4, Episode 12 of Sex and the City , "Just Say Yes" follows characters Charlotte and Trey as they toy with the idea of adding a Chinese daughter to their cl...

E041 | Superman (2025) – Adoption at the Movies   Why are there so many superheroes with parental separation in their origin stories? Wikipedia has whole pages devoted to Marvel Comics orphans , and DC Comics orphans ; the latter of which includes Superman, most recently rebooted in 2025 and played by David Corenswet. The film grossed nearly $619 million dollars worldwide, including contributions...

E040 | Frontline: Baby Brokers (2026) – Adoption on Television   As Haley works on her investigative series podcast On Adoption , other docs are also telling real stories about the adoption industry, including PBS's Frontline, which in June of 2026 aired an episode titled "Baby Brokers." Produced in collaboration with the not-for-profit, independent news organization Retro Report, the episode look...

E039 | The Blind Side (2009) – Adoption at the Movies When the summer heat burns itself out, kids head back to school, and a hint of fall breeze rustles the trees, one thing becomes clear: football season is upon us. And while Hollywood has made many a football movie, there is one that scores bigger with audience than all the rest. 2009's The Blind Side follows the story of Michael Oher, a once-ho...

E038 | Two and a Half Men "The Ol' Mexican Spinach" (2025) – Adoption on Television The CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men aired for 12 seasons from 2003 to 2015, and originally starred 1980s film icon Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper, alongside his brother Alan, played by Jon Cryer. Sheen exited the show in the ninth season and was replaced by the aughts-television-famous Ashton Kutcher (we cannot brin...

E037 | Silicon Valley "Maximizing Alphaness" (2019) – Adoption on the Small Screen   Workplaces outside of the home have long been fodder for television entertainment. The first workplace comedy, Our Miss Brooks, premiered way back in 1952 and centered a high school teacher. And while we still have school-based workplace comedies (shout-out to one of Haley's favorites, Abbott Elementary), other sh...

E036 | Black Cake (2023) – Adoption on the Small Screen   Certain foods can be a strong connection to the geographies and cultures that we come from, even after physical separation from those geographies and cultures. It is this universal experience that undergirds the 2023 Hulu limited series, Black Cake. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake follows a multige...

E035 | The Sheep Detectives (2026) – Adoption on the Big Screen   Whodunnits are a staple of American popular culture, and so are adoptees, so it only makes sense that every so often they come together in a film made for the whole family! Amazon MGM Studios' The Sheep Detectives stars Hugh Jackman as a shepherd in what G. Allen Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "plays like an episode of...

E034 | The Jerk (1979) – Adoption on the Big Screen   With one of the most famous opening lines in comedic cinema history, 1979's The Jerk follows Navin Johnson (played by Steve Martin in his first starring role), the white, adopted son of Black Mississippi sharecroppers. The film was a box office success; it was one of the top 10 highest grossing films of 1979 alongside classics Kramer vs. Kramer...

E033 | Meet the Robinsons (2007) – Adoption on the Big Screen   We love getting recommendations from our Pop! Stars and, while we slot every one into our queue at some point, having an "in" can help bump a recommendation to the top of the list. Who picked this? Evie Parke said we must do the 2007 Disney animated film, Meet the Robinsons. (Give us a break; adoptees don't get to do legit nepotism ve...

E032 | Finding Your Roots – Kristin Chenoweth (2026) – Adoption on the Small Screen   To be an adoptee in the 21st century is to know a little something about spitting into test tubes. Podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer have all had this experience, as has the Tony and Emmy award-winning star of the stage and screen, Kristin Chenoweth, who...

E031 | Shrinking Season 3 (2026) – Adoption on the Small Screen   The Apple TV comedy, Shrinking, follows a group of therapists, their friends and loved ones, all of whom seem to have unhealthy attachment issues, including the characters Brian and Charlie who, at the end of Season 2 (which we covered on Adoption Pop! Episode 30) were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Ava's baby so they could adopt...

E030 | Shrinking Season 2 (2024) – Adoption on the Small Screen   As adopted people, we know a little something about therapy. In fact, fellow adoptee, Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker maintains a directory of licensed mental health professionals who identify as adoptees, and who work with adoptees and adoptive families. But do you know where you won't find any adoption-competent therapists? On the Apple...

E029 | Big Daddy (1999) – Adoption on the Big Screen   Limp Bizkit in the discman, punchlines built on misogyny and homophobia, and Adam Sandler on the big screen… it must by the 90s on Adoption Pop! Join podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer, as we revisit the polarizing humor of Big Daddy, a film that was both a box office success and a 5-ti...

E028 | Little Bird Episodes 4-6 (2023) – Adoption on the Small Screen   In part two of this two-part episode, we cover the last three episodes of Little Bird, the Canadian dramatic series following a First Nations woman adopted into a Jewish family during the Sixties Scoop as she attempts to reconnect with her family and heritage. Based on real events of the past and present, Little Bird was the w...

E027 | Little Bird Episodes 1-3 (2023) – Adoption on the Small Screen   In part one of a two-part episode, we cover the first three episodes of Little Bird, the Canadian dramatic series following a First Nations woman adopted into a Jewish family during the Sixties Scoop as she attempts to reconnect with her family and heritage. Based on real events of the past and present, Little Bird was the win...

E026 | Annie (1982) – Adoption on the Big Screen   We think you're gonna like it here on this episode of Adoption Pop! We're just thinkin' about 10-year-old Aileen Quinn in the role that would make her a star—in the film that became the blueprint for a better life. The 1982 big screen adaption of the 1977 Tony-winner, Annie was not well received by critics upon its release. It has just a 50% Rotte...

E025 | Jersey Shore Family Vacation Season 8 (2025) – Adoption on the Small Screen   Before Bravo had a summer house in the Hamptons, MTV had a place on the Jersey Shore, where for six seasons Pauly D, J-Woww, Sammi Sweetheart, Vinny, Ronny, The Situation, and Snooki partied like it was the 2010s. The show spawned seven spinoffs, including Jersey Shore Family Vacation, back in summer 2026 for a ni...

E024 | Virgin River Season 7 (2026) – Adoption on the Small Screen What do you get when you take sweeping mountain views, added to a fictional town of 627 people, with a magical sprinkle from the vivid imagination of a showrunner who is also a proud adoptive parent? You get the wildly problematic, seventh season of the cozy Netflix drama, Virgin River. Listen in as podcast journalist Haley Radke,...