Best Dr. Noelle, Tosha, Lia Podcasts (2024)

Send us a Text Message. Fai Knudson Fai Knudson grew up in a white, conservative town, always feeling different. As a biracial, transracial adoptee, Faye faced racism and isolation. Leaving their hometown ignited a journey of self-discovery, leading to advocacy and therapy focused on adoptee mental health. In this episode, Fai shares their powerful…

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Finding Freedom: Reflections on One Year of No Contact 46:06

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2M ago46:06

46:06

Send us a Text Message. 1 Year of No Contact It's been 365 days since I cut ties with my adopters to protect myself. A year of healing, self-discovery, and finding my voice. In this episode, I share my no contact journey, the reasons behind my decision, the process of healing, and the freedom I’ve found. Hear my story of setting boundaries, seeking…

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Operation Stop CPS w/ Amanda Wallace 36:02

3M ago36:02

36:02

Send us a Text Message. Amanda Wallace Amanda Wallace helps families powerfully stop Child Protective Services from stealing their children. In this episode she talk about how you can do it too, how her organization reunited 20+ families, and why we should abolish the belief that the CPS system should even exist. Listen and let’s stop CPS. What we …

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Adoption is not a part of God's plan 41:02

3M ago41:02

41:02

Send us a Text Message. Abolition is Not A Part Of God’s Plan People who adopt say it’s God’s plan for them to adopt. But, they almost never say that God’s plan is for them NOT to have children. This is just one of the many ways people use religion to justify human trafficking. I found out, through an archived article, that I was trafckied into ado…

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Mila's Truth: Navigating Adoption, Liberation, and Community 58:08

4M ago58:08

58:08

Send us a Text Message. Mila's Truth: Navigating Adoption, Liberation, and Community The Church does an excellent job of silencing you if you oppose them. They’d even hire a marketing company to rebrand adoption so that their business as adoption middlemen can continue to thrive. But, it’s not just the Church. The dominant culture is to silence any…

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My Journey to Abolition 33:56

4M ago33:56

33:56

Send us a Text Message. My Journey To Abolition Every adult in my childhood has failed me, none of them did what they’re supposed to. Every part of the system failed me…it did exactly what it’s supposed to. The system kills children and breaks families, it must be abolished. In this episode, I share how I gradually evolved towards this deep belief …

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Navigating Change: A Conversation with Josh Lamers, Co-founder of Collective of Child Welfare Survivors 49:48

5M ago49:48

49:48

Send us a Text Message. Josh Lamers Adoption is trauma. How do we help surviving children heal the wounds they’ve sustained from the child welfare system? Josh Lamers, a transracial adoptee, is public enemy #1 for child welfare agencies in Canada. He joins the show to discuss what adoption and child welfare are like in Canada; and how his organizat…

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Adoptees & Community 24:18

5M ago24:18

24:18

Send us a Text Message. Adoptees & Community Before I found other adoptees online I was lost. I wanted to know where I came from, and I wanted to know others like me. Most adoption communities center adoptive parents and foster parents. We are left out of the picture. This doesn’t make sense. This episode is a collection of my thoughts on this matt…

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Confronting the Racist Legacy of the Child Welfare System w/ Alan Dettlaff 43:10

6M ago43:10

43:10

Send us a Text Message. Confronting the Racist Legacy of the American Child Welfare System It was when Alan arrived at a home with the cops to remove a child and heard his mother say “Charles, run, they're coming to take you and they're going to sell you to the white people” that he realized how the trauma of slavery cannot be disentangled from the…

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Unveiling Roots: The Journey of Gregory D. Luce, Attorney and Advocate for Adoptee Rights 42:19

8M ago42:19

42:19

Send us a Text Message. Unveiling Roots: The Journey of Gregory D. Luce, Attorney and Advocate for Adoptee Rights Us adoptees have to pay thousands of dollars and jump through hoops to unseal our records. This robs us of autonomy, dignity, and equality. Gregory D. Luce is an attorney who helps adoptees all across the US go through this hurdle. In t…

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Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World 1:10:02

9M ago1:10:02

1:10:02

Send us a Text Message. Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World More than anyone else, black women get their children kidnapped by the state, by the child “welfare system”. This episode is about the whys and hows of abolishing a system built to strip families away from their childr…

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Embracing Identity: John's Journey of Self-Discovery 39:14

9M ago39:14

39:14

Send us a Text Message. Reuniting with his birth family showed John McCormick, a transracial adoptee, a new world. He physically felt a relaxation he had never felt before, he connected with music and art like never before, and he started to own who he is - confidently - even when others denied his identity. This is the story of how John’s reunion …

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Emily's Journey: Identity, Language Learning, and Adoption Realities 40:40

10M ago40:40

40:40

Send us a Text Message. Emily's Journey: Identity, Language Learning, and Adoption Realities After 9 months of living with monks, Emily Harris was adopted from China. She was left behind by her bio family due to the One Child Policy. To process her loss of identity, she has started to learn Chinese with a community of adoptees. In this episode, she…

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Adoption Trauma, Mental Health, and Suicide Risk with Lina Vanegas 46:04

10M ago46:04

46:04

Send us a Text Message. Lina Though Lina Vanegas was born to a Colombian family, she was forced to assimilate as a white jewish person. 38 years later, she’s unable to fully connect with her bio family nor speak their language. Forced assimilation is trauma. Her mission is to educate people on adoption trauma. In the episode, she gives a crash cour…

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Navigating the Complex World of Adoption: Unveiling Azriel June's Journey 45:26

11M ago45:26

45:26

Send us a Text Message. Navigating the Complex World of Adoption: Unveiling Azriel June's Journey They were told they’re white. They aren’t. They were told they’re Jewish. They aren’t. They tried to erase her heritage over and over again. They couldn’t…so they “gave her back”. This is the story that explains how US adoptions human rights violations…

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Navigating No Contact: Adoptees' Journeys to Healing 37:58

11M ago37:58

37:58

Send us a Text Message. Should you cut off your adoptive parents? Should you “go no contact” with your adoptive parents? “Oh hell no. Not this time. I’m done.” That’s what we felt before cutting off contact with your adoptive parents. Sometimes, the healthies thing we can do is to go no contact with our adoptive parents. Escaping abuse. Escaping ra…

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Reclaiming Identity: Dr. Amy Ritterbusch on International Adoption & Abolition 39:59

12M ago39:59

39:59

Send us a Text Message. Reclaiming Identity: Dr. Amy Ritterbusch on International Adoption & Abolition Dr. Amy Ritterbusch was stolen from Colombia as a child and forced to live in the United States with her adoptive family. Foreign land, foreign people, foreign language. But, her longing for where she came from and who she came from never died. Sh…

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Navigating Holidays as an Adoptee: Exploring Complex Emotions and Self-Care 37:38

12M ago37:38

37:38

Send us a Text Message. Navigating Holidays as an Adoptee: Exploring Complex Emotions & Self Care For adoptees, holidays mean performance. Acting like you care, acting like you’re happy, acting like you’re grateful. And if you don’t perform, then you live in guilt. It’s ironic, because adoption itself is an act. Join us as we explore this and discu…

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Challenging Adoption Norms and Embracing Queer Parenting: A Conversation with Yomi 42:42

1y ago42:42

42:42

Send us a Text Message. Adoptee Origin Story: Ayomide Bee Is Adoption Human Trafficking? With Ayomide Bee Selling children is human trafficking, so why isn’t adoption considered human trafficking? It’s state-sanctioned trafficking with a paper trail. Ayomide Bee shares her adoption story as a queer transracial adoptee. Her take is not only that sam…

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Activism & Origin Story: Erica Babino 29:44

1y ago29:44

29:44

Send us a Text Message. Activism For Adoptees With Erica Babino What’s it like to be an activist for adoptees? What’s the story of someone who is an adoptees activist? How would you feel if you discovered that your bio mom lives on your street, after you’ve been searching for her for 25 years? This week, we speak to Erica Babino a Black same race a…

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A Bittersweet Farewell: Reflecting on Season One and Embracing Self-Care 5:38

1y ago5:38

5:38

Send us a Text Message.By Dr. Noelle, Tosha, Lia

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Dr. Noelle's Origin Story: A Journey of Adoption, Identity, and Reunion 29:48

1y ago29:48

29:48

Send us a Text Message. Adoptee Origin Story: Dr. Noelle Two white people raised me, an African American child. I’m Dr. Noelle and this is the secret-filled story of my adoption after being an orphan in Texas. What we discussed (00:00) Cosplaying as adoptees? (01:35) The stories I was told (05:30) My abusive adoptive mother (06:15) Taking a DNA tes…

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Navigating Adoption and Rediscovering Family: Lia's Journey 30:48

1y ago30:48

30:48

Send us a Text Message. Navigating Adoption and Rediscovering Family: Lia's Journey I’m Lia and this is my adoptee origin story from foster care to reuniting with my siblings. What I shared (01:02) What I was told about my bio parents (02:18) What actually happened (04:59) My adoptive parents (05:34) My birth father’s side of the story (06:36) My a…

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Exploring the Impact of Adoption on Mental Health: Insights from Adoptees 39:10

1+ y ago39:10

39:10

Send us a Text Message. Exploring the Impact of Adoption on Mental Health: Insights from Adoptees Why adoptees are more likely to attempt suicide Trigger Warning: Suicide, Suicidal ideation, Involuntary hospitalization Adoptees are 4x more likely to commit suicide, in this episode we unpack why that is. Being an adoptee is a lifelong sentence, we h…

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Navigating Parenthood as Adoptees: Insights from Dr. Noelle and Tosha 31:22

1+ y ago31:22

31:22

Send us a Text Message. Adoptees as parents Parenting as an adoptee What’s it like when you’re adopted and then become a parent? We discuss the unexpected joys and reliefs of parenting, the mistakes we were almost programmed to make, how parenting can heal us, how to tell your children you’re adopted, and being careful about not placing a burden on…

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Exploring Adoptees' Identity: Navigating Complex Journeys 44:27

1+ y ago44:27

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Send us a Text Message. Adoptees & Identity For all our lives, our identities as adoptees have been stripped away from us. Our names changed, our blackness erased, and our birth certificates stolen. This episode we break down the ugly reality of having a fluid identity. Adoption is about stripping us of our decision-making autonomy, so this episode…

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Exploring Blackness and Adoption: Navigating Identity and Challenges 35:34

1+ y ago35:34

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Send us a Text Message. Blackness and adoption Adoption taught us anti-blackness Being adopted makes us an “other” whether we were raised by white, black, or brown families. In this episode we talk about unlearning the anti-blackness we internalized as children, why black adoptees cost less than white adoptees, the parallels between adoption and sl…

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An Open Letter to the People who Bought Me 33:36

1+ y ago33:36

33:36

Send us a Text Message. An open letter to the people who bought me Yesterday I decided to text my adoptive parents that they failed me as parents, it was the first time I ever confronted them. I talk about how they responded in this episode and open up about being sexually assaulted as a child…then gaslighted. This was never my burden to carry, but…

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Navigating Relationships as an Adoptee: Insights and Challenges 32:18

1+ y ago32:18

32:18

Send us a Text Message. Most challenging parts of friendship and dating for adoptees Why friendship and dating are so hard for adoptees What friends and partners don’t understand about adoptees As adoptees, we never want to rock the boat in any relationship we’re in be it with friends, family, or partners. The fear of abandonment is always lingerin…

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Unveiling Adoption's Dark Realities: Saviorism and Adoptive Parents' Narcissism 25:58

1+ y ago25:58

25:58

Send us a Text Message. The fact that there are more rigorous mental health requirements for people who want to do weight loss surgeries than there are for adoptive parents is a shame. Adoptive parents think they’ve done us a huge favor and “saved” our lives, that without them we’d be worse off - that’s the lie the whole industry is built on. Holdi…

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Why we're not Grateful Adoptees: A Critical Look at the Adoptee Experience 30:21

1+ y ago30:21

30:21

Send us a Text Message. Ungrateful Adoptees No, I’m not grateful you adopted me. Why would I be grateful for family separation? Why would I be grateful for being lied to about where I came from? Why would I be grateful for solving their infertility issues? It’s adoptive parents that should be grateful to have us, not the other way around. This epis…

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The Complexities of Reunion: Exploring Adoptees' Emotional Journey 35:34

1+ y ago35:34

35:34

Send us a Text Message. The Complexities of Reunion: Exploring Adoptees' Emotional Journey Family reunification for adoptees: our journeys, challenges and advice Our family reunification stories (as adoptees) Scouring through facebook, twitter, and adoption boards to find your biological family is a heavy journey. There are so many risks: what if t…

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Exploring Adoption and Grief: Untangling the Emotional Journeys of Adoptees 30:44

1+ y ago30:44

30:44

Send us a Text Message. Exploring Adoption and Grief: Untangling the Emotional Journeys of Adoptees Coping with grief as an adoptee They change our name, our identity is erased. They don’t change it, we feel like outsiders. As adoptees, we don’t belong to any family…neither our adoptive family or biological family really gets us. In this episode, w…

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Breaking the Adoption Silence: Unveiling the Realities of Adoptee Experiences 30:48

1+ y ago30:48

30:48

Send us a Text Message. NOT a feel good podcast about being adopted We’re the not-so-feel-good show about adoption (coming out of the fog) We are 3 people with 3 very different experiences of being adopted. In this podcast we deconstruct the romanticism holding up the adoption industry and expose the lies, abuse, and pain that get silenced. We’re h…

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Trailer 1:17

1+ y ago1:17

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Send us a Text Message. No, adoption isn’t magical. No, I’m not grateful for being adopted. Yes, being adopted is painful Yes, adoption is trauma This is the not-so-feel-good podcast where we reflect deeply on our experiences being adoptees and expose the pains inflicted by the adoption industry one episode at a time. Links Follow us on social medi…

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Dr. Noelle, Tosha, Lia Podcasts

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