Show Notes
S1 E23 - Unraveling Donna - In this powerful conversation, Kara and Donna explore what it means to survive a traumatic upbringing, uncover a hidden genetic story, and rebuild a life rooted in truth. Donna speaks with honesty, grit, and hard-won clarity. She does not soften the truth of what she lived through, but she also makes space for joy, connection, and healing. Her story is a reminder that truth can be painful—but it can also be liberating. And sometimes, finding out where you come from is part of finally understanding how you survived.
(Content warning: This episode contains discussion of child abuse, sexual abuse, and suicide.)
SHOW NOTES: Donna’s story is one of survival, truth, and the long shadow of childhood trauma. Raised in a deeply abusive and chaotic home, Donna grew up knowing something didn’t fit. That sense of being “different” stayed with her long before she had the language—or the evidence—to understand why. After finding the courage to leave home as a teenager, Donna began the long process of healing and rebuilding her life. But the question of where she came from never fully left her. When she eventually took a DNA test, the results didn’t just provide answers—they revealed an entirely new reality.
Kara and Donna discuss: Growing up in an abusive home and finding a way out as a teenager The lasting impact of childhood trauma and the work of healing Discovering she was donor-conceived after years of searching for answers The shock of unexpected DNA results and finding a large network of siblings Navigating connection, rejection, and the complexities of genetic family Why regulation and accountability in the fertility industry matter
Everyone has the right to know the truth about where they come from. Unraveling Me speaks to those people impacted by DNA surprises, NPEs (non-paternal event), adoption, assisted reproduction, and other revelations that their parentage isn't entirely what they thought. Having experienced an NPE herself, Kara (through Right To Know and this podcast) seeks to highlight those moments when we learn the most unsettling of secret—who we really are.
At Right To Know, we encourage engagement to facilitate and create real change. As an organization, we are inclusive. We assist adoptees, the donor-conceived community, people with an NPE, birth parents, gamete providers, new genetic family, recipient parents, raising families, and significant others. In learning and growing from each other, we must put the voices of adoptees, donor conceived, and people with an NPE first.
For more information about Right To Know - or if you have a story you want to tell - please visit us at https://righttoknow.us/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Unraveling Me
S1 E51 - Unraveling Chris & Mary Chris grew up knowing he was adopted—and knowing his genetic family. His parents shared celebrations, built relationships with one another, and made room for everyone in his life. He calls it “integrated adoption.” But even with that openness and connection, Chris struggled with feeling slightly different everywhere he went. Recognizing the grief connected to his adoption brought a question he hadn’t known how to ask: “Is it okay that I feel this way?” His raising mother, Mary, answered without hesitation: “Of course it’s okay.”
S1 E50 - Unraveling Corey & Kendall Kendall always knew he was adopted. His parents welcomed his questions, and when his adoptive mother died, his father showed him the name he’d been given at birth. Kendall was ten. He searched through phone books, library records, and adoption registries, and petitioned the court three times for his sealed records. Years of dead ends left him believing he might never find his genetic family.
S1 E49 - Unraveling Stephanie Stephanie’s story is about what happens when a lifelong search for roots finally begins. It is also a reminder that success does not always mean finding every answer. Sometimes it means discovering where you come from, building relationships along the way, and finding the courage to keep searching. Stephanie was adopted at three years old from a Mother Teresa orphanage in India and raised in a white Catholic family on Long Island. She always knew she was adopted, but for most of her life, she gave little thought to the identity, culture, and history she had lost.
S1 E48 Unraveling Tom J Tom Junod has spent much of his career investigating other people’s lives. His profile of Fred Rogers inspired the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and his essay The Falling Man became one of the most recognized pieces of writing about 9/11. But in his memoir, In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man, Tom turns that investigative lens on his own family.
S1E47 Unraveling MP MP grew up feeling like the odd person out. He looked different from his brothers, struggled to connect with the man he believed was his father, and was repeatedly reminded that his interests, personality, and appearance did not fit the rest of his family. At 13, he unexpectedly learned that his parents had married after he was born. That first crack in the family story left him wondering what else he had not been told.