Adoption Pop!

E023 | Law & Order "Charity Case" (2007) –Adoption on the Small Screen For more than 30 years, the people of New York City have been represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders. This is just one of their stories. Join podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic...

E022 | Mommie Dearest (1981) – Adoption on the Big Screen   For adoptees, Mother's Day can carry complexity and tough emotions. So we decided to lean all the way into the discomfort with a film legendary critic Roger Ebert called "unremittingly depressing," writing that he could not "imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie." Roger Ebert obviously never met podcast journalist Hal...

E021 | Wuthering Heights (2026) – Adoption on the Big Screen   We went deep into the canon for this one, dusting off and stitching together a whole undergraduate English literature syllabus (with Cliffs Notes, Sparks Notes, note cards, and whatever else we were using to make it through our book reports pre-Chat GPT) to bring you our take on Emily Brontë's 1847 gothic romance classic, Wuthering Hei...

E020 | The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012) – Adoption on the Big Screen   April showers bring May flowers or, in the wonderful world of Disney, they bring you a whole child. The Odd Life of Timothy Green follows young Timothy Green, a boy who appears to have been born from the garden of Jim and Cindy, played by Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner, a couple grieving their inability to have a child....

E019 | Friends "The One With the Donor" (2003) – Adoption on the Small Screen   Adoption Pop! has done sitcoms before, but this is perhaps the mother of all sitcoms: Friends, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, and ushered into the mainstream a hairstyle, a pick-up line, and the idea that your friends could be your family. More than 50 million people tu...

E018 | Family Ties "Baby Boy Doe" (1984) – Adoption on the Small Screen   We have Pop! Star Judi to thank for taking us on this journey to a time when adoption jokes got the studio audience roaring, lying to kids passed for good parenting, and one real mother was all that anyone was allowed. No, we're not talking about 2025; we're talking about 1984! Join podcast journalist, Haley Radke, filmmaker...

E017 | Adopted (2009) – Adoption on the Small Screen   Why would we spend an hour talking about a film that went straight-to-video, has a 31% on the Popcornmeter, and not enough critical reviews to have received a Rotten Tomatoes score? Because that film is about adoption, of course! Join podcast journalist, Haley Radke, filmmaker, Kristal Parke, and cultural critic, Sullivan Summer, as we celebra...

E016 | The Truman Show (1998) – Adoption on the Big Screen   Long before we all had front-facing screens in our pockets—even before it would have occurred to us to use the term "front-facing screen"—there was somebody born to be on camera: Truman Burbank. The first baby to have been legally adopted by a corporation, Truman and his namesake show were watched, loved, and protected by millions of fan...

E015 | Philomena (2013) – Adoption on the Big Screen   A young woman shamed, banished, and indentured—yet faith survives for Philomena Lee who, after 50 years of separation, embarks upon a search for the son she was forced to relinquish inside one of Ireland's notorious mother and baby homes. Podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer take on Philo...

E014 | Song Sung Blue (2025) – Adoption on the Big Screen Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of bein' a king, and then became one? Well, except for the names, and a few other changes, you've got the Hollywood adaptation of a little-known documentary profile of the Milwaukee Neil Diamond tribute act known as "Lightning and Thunder." Song Sung Blue hit theaters on Christmas Day in 2025, garn...

E013 | Task (2025) – Adoption on the Small Screen Season 1 of HBO's Task centers former priest, alcoholic, adoptive father, FBI agent, Tom Brandis (played by Mark Ruffalo), who heads up a task force of dubiously-selected young agents as they hunt down a pair of guys robbing violent motorcycle gang-owned stash houses. As melodramatic as the plotline may be, the series quickly became a Pop! favorite...

E012 | Private Practice "Apron Strings" (2012) – Adoption on the Small Screen   The Grey's Anatomy spinoff Private Practice followed OB/GYN Addison Montgomery for six seasons from 2007 until 2013, where she and a who's who of middle-aged eye-candy treated patients at an oceanside wellness center. In a case of art imitating life, Addison, like showrunner Shonda Rhimes, adopts a baby. But when baby...

E011 | Love is Blind UK Season 1 (2024) –Adoption on Reality TV   According to Forbes magazine, around 80 million people, 30% of the adult population in the US, is on a dating app, with 10% of partnered adults reporting that they met their significant other through a dating site or app. Of course, one might skip university, friends, apps, and pokes (ew), and head straight for reality television. W...

010 | Colin in Black and White (2021) – Part 2: Adoption on the Small Screen   Part 2 of an Adoption Pop! two-part episode.  San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines in 2016 when he courageously took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparking national debate over the role of activism in professional sports. Kaepernick went...

Bonus Pop! | "The Girl in the Middle" (2026) – Advertising Adoption   This is a very special, bonus Pop! episode, recorded as the adoptee community awaits the premier of "The Girl in the Middle," a pro-adoption advertisement promoted by the National Council for Adoption and others, slated to air during the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show—but only if you believe their marketing. (Spoiler: We do not rec...

009 | Colin in Black and White (2021) – Part 1: Adoption on the Small Screen   San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines in 2016 when he courageously took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, sparking national debate over the role of activism in professional sports. Kaepernick went on to become a civil rights activist, devoting...

008 | Vivien's Wild Ride (2026): Adoption on the Small Screen   Vivien Hillgrove has been a film and sound editor all her adult life. She's worked with many filmmaking greats: Francis Coppola, Phil Kaufman, Milos Forman, Walter Murch, and celebrated documentary filmmakers Lourdes Portillo and Deann Borshay Liem. But when Vivien's eyesight starts to deteriorate, the shame and loneliness she felt in...

007 | Modern Family "Pilot" (2009): Adoption on the Small Screen   For 11 seasons the Dunphys, the Delgado-Pritchetts, and the Tucker-Pritchetts influenced modern American families' views on gender roles, inter-generational relationships, and transnational adoption. Listen in as podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer break down the pilot episod...

006 | K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025): Adoption on the Big Screen Breaking Netflix streaming and box-office records, and charming the critics, podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer go all-in on summer 2025's breakthrough hit, K-Pop Demon Hunters. Clever humor, catchy tunes, and storylines exploring shame and generational trauma, the Huntrix girls a...

005 | Sex and the City: The Movie (2008): Adoption on the Big Screen   Slip on your Manolos, pour yourself a Cosmo, and listen in to podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer pick up where the turn-of-the-century HBO juggernaut left off: with Samantha and her celebrity boy toy on the west coast, Miranda living in something less than domestic bliss...

004 | Penny Serenade (1941): Adoption on the Silver Screen   The 1941 sentimental classic, Penny Serenade, stars Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as a married couple who replace children more often than they replace the needle on their sitting room Victrola. Join podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker, Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer as we challenge marriage and adoption propaganda...

003 | The Family Stone (2005): Adoption on the Big Screen   In this episode of Adoption Pop!, podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer delve into the dysfunctional dynamics of The Family Stone. Race, queer rights, adoption, heirloom jewelry, and a beloved family recipe for strata—this film has everything (except maybe likeable characters engaged...

002 | The Grinch (2018): Adoption on the Big Screen   Terrorizing Whoville and inciting holiday joy for almost 70 years, podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer bring an adoptee lens to the only adaptation of the classic, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! that turns the title character into an orphan.  The Grinch (2018) was written by Michael LaSi...

001 | Elf (2003): Adoption on the Big Screen   The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear! Whether it's your first time watching this holiday classic, or your fiftieth, you've probably never watched Elf like this before. Podcast journalist Haley Radke, filmmaker Kristal Parke, and cultural critic Sullivan Summer–all adoptees themselves–explore the adoptee experience...

Welcome to Adoption Pop! where a podcast journalist, a filmmaker, and a cultural critic burst pop culture's favorite adoption tropes. Each episode, we'll dive into movies, TV, and reality shows, from prestige dramas to the classics, to ask what these stories are really saying, and not saying, about adoption. And we'll get real about representation: how the world sees us, and how we see ourselves....