Unraveling Adoption

This week's Unraveling Adoption podcast episode is unique because I am traveling to an adoption conference the week before this episode's release. So instead of editing a regular episode, I put together a short behind-the-scenes episode, highlighting all the things we offer to adoptive families and the larger community.  

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Kevin Burgart from the Nashville area. He's an adoptee, adoptive parent of two children with significant special needs, and recently he became the adoptive parent of his grandchild as well. Since Kevin has been on both sides of this equation, he has a unique perspective on adoption. His life has been more challenging than most in many way...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Cindy Olson McQuay, an adoptee from Pennsylvania who is the co-founder, with Erin Cosentino, of Hiraeth Healing Retreats for Adoptees, DCPs (Donor Conceived People), LDAs (Late Discovery Adoptees), and NPEs (Not Parent Expected). Cindy is a baby scoop era domestic infant adoptee, and she had a rather idyllic childhood with well-informed a...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Greg Gentry, a domestic baby scoop era adoptee, born in California in 1969. He has been in reunion with maternal family members since 2006, and in 2021 also connected with his paternal side. Greg is a facilitator and interviewer for Fireside Adoptees, a private Facebook group founded in 2021, which is committed to additional outreach thro...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Kelsay Elizabeth Myers, a professional writer, artist, and somatic movement educator living in Marin County, CA. She is passionate about personal and social transformation for trauma healing. She's a Korean transnational adoptee who has been on a healing journey the last several years, after spending the first 32 years of her life in self...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Simon Benn, an adoptee living near York, England and host of Thriving Adoptees podcast. I was recently on his show, so I wanted him to be on our show as well. Trading podcasts across the globe. Simon has been on a healing journey for the last 13 or so years, after a discovery about his adoption that rocked his world. He wants to help othe...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Amanda Kari McHugh, an adoptee and an engagement journalist who is making her mark on the adoption community with her project Voices of Adoption which you can find on TikTok, Instagram, and Substack. In this project she elevates the voices of adoptees and birth mothers.  Stay tuned for ways you might be able to participate in this project!  Amanda...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption Podcast, Beth talks with Paul Kimball, an adoptee from Northern California and author of the memoir We Are All Human Beings: An Adoptee Ponders. Music has always been a huge part of his life, and he currently works as a conductor, horn player, and school music teacher.  He didn't realize it at first, but when he reunited with his birth mother, the passion for mus...

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: On Saturday, March 11, Unraveling Adoption is hosting a free webinar called Moving Beyond Adoption - An Immersive Experience with Kat Linquist so you all can experience this amazing work that Kat does. It's 10am-noon PST on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/moving-beyond-adoption-an-immersive-experience-with-kat-linquist-tickets-532651855037...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast, Beth talks with Paul "Jack" Fronczak, a military veteran, musician, published author, executive producer, and former actor, who now works for a non-profit organization devoted to changing lives.  An avid bass guitarist and motorcyclist, Paul now lives  in Las Vegas, and has a teenage daughter he calls "the greatest kid in the world."  Eleven years ago, P...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Ann Weaver Melendy from Oregon, a baby scoop era adoptee who was taught by her adoptive family to not speak about her adoption and to not ask questions. Well that backfired big time, because not only is she now sharing her story on this public podcast and elsewhere, but she is also an adoptee rights advocate. Ann is particularly bothered that adopt...

In this week's Unraveling Adoption podcast (formerly Safe Home Podcast), Beth talks with Alex Baquero, a 31yo from Philadelphia who was adopted at 6 months old from Colombia. His adoptive parents are white, and he started reuniting with his birth family 12 years ago. He shares his adoption story and his complicated reunion story, plus he lets us know what tools have helped him along the way.  ====...

We are just switching our name from Safe Home Podcast to Unraveling Adoption, and this is the first full episode under our new name.  In this week's episode, Beth Syverson chats with Leslie Pate Mackinnon, a licensed clinical social worker and an adoption activist for the past 30 years. Leslie is a seasoned and well-respected therapist in the adoption community. She is a nationally known trainer w...

In this very special episode, Beth Syverson, host of Safe Home Podcast, explains her pivot to Unraveling Adoption. This is the last episode of Safe Home, and the first episode of Unraveling Adoption. She explains what the new title means, what the future plans are, and she provides ways for everyone to help get the new podcast launched. =============== 💌 Sign up for our email list: http://eepurl....

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Lainie Liberti and her 23yo son Miro Siegel. Lainie Liberti is a best selling author, international speaker, teen mentor,  worldschooler, partnership parenting paradigm advocate and mother. In 2012 Lainie co-founded Project World School with her son and has lived in community with over a 100 teens in over 20 international locations. Lainie founded...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with   Carolyn Balagot, an advocate for neurodiverse people. In her family, she, her husband, and her 3 kids are all neurodiverse in one way or another - primarily with ADHD or Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has worked at her children's school as a 504 case carrier, advocating for students' needs. Her kids all went to school at Orange County School of th...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Amanda Lipp, a documentary filmmaker and social entrepreneur working at the intersection of mental health, storytelling, and technology. Amanda has produced over 80 short documentaries about mental health and social impact - covering topics such as youth psychosis, schizophrenia, art therapy, cyberbullying prevention, and housing relief from wildfi...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Doris Blumenthal, an adopted person who lives in Northern California. Her adoption story is one of the adoptee narratives in the documentary Reckoning with the Primal Wound , which you've probably heard me talking about before. The filmmaker Rebecca Autumn Sansom was on this podcast in Episode 30. If you haven't seen Reckoning with the Primal Wound...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Bonnie Harris, a New Hampshire-area director of Connective Parenting, where she is a parent educator, counselor, coach, and speaker. She wrote two parenting books:   When Your Kids Push Your Buttons and Confident Parents, Remarkable Kids: 8 Principles for Raising Kids You'll Love to Live With . AND she has her own podcast Tell Me About Your Kids wh...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with a family friend of hers from church - Katherine Osborne. Katherine shared with the church that she was recently diagnosed with OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I thought it might be good for our audience to learn from an eloquent teen how OCD feels. Nowadays people joke that they have OCD when they're bothered when something doesn't quite line...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Catherine Becker, founder of the support group called Joys and Challenges of Relative Caregivers. She's a grandma who is raising her three  young grandkids while her daughter struggles with addiction. When she tried to find a tribe of other relatives in her same situation, she didn't find a group that went deep enough or that was small enough to cr...

**TRIGGER WARNING** This episode will be talking directly about suicide, so this might not be for everyone to listen to right now. But we at Safe Home believe this is a very important topic so we hope you'll listen when it's safe for you to do so. In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Frank King, a comedian who wrote for The Tonight Show for over 20 years and who performs standup world...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Rev. Veronica Silva, a New Thought minister and a nurse who has struggled with alcoholism since she was young, but who has been in recovery for 26 years. Veronica has been on a spiritual journey since June 24th, 1996, when she got sober from alcohol and drugs. She has had a passion for spirituality as a result of attending AA meetings and finding a...

In this week's Safe Home Podcast, Beth talks with Emmalinda MacLean, co-founder of More Than Sex-Ed, a Los Angeles-based non-profit whose mission is to nourish healthy development through honest conversation about sex. She is the Director of Curriculum & Instruction at More Than Sex-Ed plus she wrote a children's book around the topic of consent called "Everybody, Every Body!"   In case you couldn...

Safe Home is on vacation this week, so we're replaying one of our favorite episodes. When we started Safe Home Podcast in August 2021, this episode was the most important one we did. Our family wants everyone to know the dangers of having cough medicine and other OTC drugs unlocked and available to teens. Joey almost died twice from overdosing on Coricidin. Take a listen to one of our early episod...