Shows
This Mama Is Lit!Susan Kiyo Ito: Adoption, Birth Mothers, & Reproductive JusticeAmanda Fields and Holly Rizzuto Palker speak with Susan Kiyo Ito, author of I Would Meet You Anywhere, about adoption, the complexities of meeting one's birth mother, and reproductive freedom. Seeking her birth mother and fighting for reproductive rights inspires Susan to find the power of support in community and answers through her writing.A finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award and a Finalist for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s decision to embrace her right to know and tell her own st...2025-04-2331 min
Unraveling AdoptionResponding to the Siren Call: Navigating Birth Family Connections with Susan Kiyo Ito - Ep 182"I think she had a deep ambivalence about me, knowing me, having a relationship with me from the very beginning." -- Susan Kiyo Ito Read the transcript of this episode here: https://app.swellai.com/t/tp_01JJYRPQ0EJEGKW4GNXFMCA8CV EPISODE SUMMARY: In this episode of Unraveling Adoption, I had the pleasure of speaking with Susan Kiyo Ito, a writing professor and author of the memoir I Would Meet You Anywhere. Susan's book, a culmination of 30 years of work, explores her journey as a biracial adoptee—half Japanese and half wh...2025-02-0331 min
The Adoption FilesFinding identity, and Community: a conversation with Haley RadkePlease join Haley and I as we speak about pursuing identity in Alberta, Canada. We also talk about finding community in the process of navigating the challenges of being adopted.
Haley Radke is a domestically adopted person from Alberta Canada. Seeking answers and connection, she began a podcast to help her feel less alone with the traumas of adoption. In the process, she has grown as an individual while also inspiring others.
Haley can be found on numerous social media platforms. Please visit her website for more information about her podcast, mentoring work, speaking engagements...2024-11-0858 min
Memoir NationSelf-Exposure and Writing the Story You Have to Write, featuring Javier Zamora and Susan Kiyo ItoIn this second week of Write-minded’s August mashups, we bring back the heartfelt interviews with Javier Zamora and Susan Kiyo Ito, both of whom spoke so honestly and supportively about writing and sharing stories they’ve carried with them their entire lives. Javier’s harrowing journey from El Salvador to the US border when he was just nine years old, traveling as an unaccompanied minor is the subject of his memoir, Solito, and Susan’s I Would Meet You Anywhere centers her adoption story, touching upon themes of longing, abandonment, identity, and more. Both authors grapple with exposure in these so...2024-08-1248 min
The Bookshop PodcastKathleen Caldwell and the Heartbeat of Montclair VillageSend us a textIn this episode, I'm in conversation with Kathleen Caldwell, the passionate owner of A Great Good Place for Books in Montclair Village, Oakland, who opens up about her incredible journey in the book industry. From her college days navigating aisles at Crown Books to orchestrating author events at prestigious bookstores like Shakespeare and Company, Kathleen’s story is one of resilience, community, and an unwavering love for books. She shares the heartfelt tale of taking over the store after the unexpected passing of her dear friend and previous owner, Debi Echlin. Hea...2024-07-0130 minMemoir NationThe Raw Truth About Exposure, featuring Susan Kiyo ItoWhat will other people think? What will be the consequences of sharing my truth? These are among some of the questions that hold memoirists back, and their realities post-publication can cause “vulnerability hangovers.” Exposure, fear of fallout, concern for people we love—memoir doesn’t make it easy. With very recent experience informing her, this week’s guest, Susan Kiyo Ito, generously wades into the territory of these themes. If you’re grappling with exposure pre- or post-publication, you won’t want to miss this show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices2024-05-2042 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesSusan: I Would Meet You AnywhereSusan Ito is the author of the memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, published by the Ohio State University Press in November 2023. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Hip Mama, Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen, The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced at Brava Theater. She is a member of the Writers’ Grotto, and teaches at the Mills College campus of Northeastern University. She was a co-organizer of Rooted and W...2024-03-261h 01
Art Heals All WoundsAdoption, and Identity: I Would Meet You Anywhere with Susan Kiyo ItoDon't forget to go to my website and leave me YOUR story of belonging to feature on a future episode!Buy Me a Coffee!This episode of 'Art Heals All Wounds' features a conversation with Susan Kiyo Ito, author of 'I Would Meet You Anywhere,' focusing on her experiences as a transracial adoptee seeking connection with her birth and adoptive families. Susan and I talk about adoptees' quests for origin and belonging, highlighting the role art and creativity play in exploring and understanding complex identities. Susan's...2024-03-2039 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesStacie: For This Adoptee, the Longing Tugged at her HeartStacie is a Canadian born and an adoptee to same race and religion parents in 1991-1992. She is part of a mixed family of adopted and “home-made” siblings, all boys, and is the second oldest. She grew up mostly outdoors in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. Traveling to Canada every summer fostered loving bonds with both of her grandmas and many cousins. Living further away from them, though, meant she had to create her group of “family” as she grew up. She’s maintained supportive friendships spanning over 25 years that have involved a lot of skiing, hiking, traveling, education, football g...2024-03-1959 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesKen: The Unknown Led to AnswersKen DeStefano is a domestic adoptee born in the late 1960's and raised in a caring and loving home. As an adoptee, he has had a largely happy life, but always wondered about the unknown. That curiosity led to a search for his birth mother and a reunification with her. His debut novel, "I Will See You Again...Hearts Will Sing," tells the story of two people whose past, present, and future lives are inexplicably linked.Update: We are not able to attend Chicago Foglift - to attend: Foglift Early Bird Link: C...2024-03-1249 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesVictoria: A Change in the Law Led to Search and ReunionVictoria Rich never expected to search for her biological family. Always curious about her origins, she did a photography project at the infant home where she was born but did not pursue any personal searching. Then she read The Girls Who Went Away and was struck that so many of the women interviewed said they thought about and worried about their babies all the time. She had grown up hearing the message that you should never look because it would be too painful to open up the old wounds for the birth mother. After about a decade of debating...2024-03-051h 06
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesJohn: Operation Baby Lift and the Erasure of CultureJohn Frey was born in Vietnam and brought to the United States as part of Operation Babylift when he was a year-and-a-half old. John often struggled with his identity, having been adopted and raised by a White American family while not having any connection to his birth country or culture.I Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito.Use Discount MAKINGOF for 30% off.Thank you S12F for our past support and support of Adoptees 501c3 organizations.Gregory Luce and Adoptees Rights LawJoe Soll & other adoptee resourcesFireside Adoptees Fac...2024-02-2753 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesKristal: Because She's AdoptedKristal Parke is a talented Cree filmmaker, producer, podcast host, and adoptee, whose personal journey has driven her to explore themes of identity, belonging, and family in her work. Born and raised on the West Coast of Canada, Kristal was adopted into a non-indigenous family as an infant. This experience profoundly shaped her perspective on life, and she has used her creative prowess to shed light on the complexities of adoption and its impact on individuals and communities. In her highly anticipated debut feature documentary, titled "Because She's Adopted," Kristal delves deep into her own life story while also...2024-02-2055 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesLorah: The Adopted ChameleonLorah Gerald is a same race, domestic, Baby Scoop Era, preRoe adoptee. She posts as The Adopted Chameleon on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Patreon, and Pinterest. She co-facilitates Adoptees Connect Tulsa and has a private Facebook group for adoptees and all MPEs called The Adopted Chameleons. She started her social media pages after her reunion with her biological family.She was raised as an only child in her adoptive family. This was the first time in her life she had ever seen or been in contact with anyone in her biological family. Her birth mother ignored her a...2024-02-1358 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesSarah: An International Adoptee Gives Back by WritingSarah D. Shearer is a writer, wife, and mother. She was adopted from Russia as a baby but has spent her life in Thomasville, Georgia. She is passionate about encouraging people to overcome and maintain a positive perspective.Sarah is married with two beautiful children. She and her family live on a sprawling rural farm, which gives her, as L.M. Montgomery says in Sarah’s favorite childhood novel Anne of Green Gables, great “scope for the imagination.”Sarah also enjoys writing for local magazines, reading, and celebrating her friends and family. I...2024-02-0645 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesRoy: For this Neurodiverse Adoptee, Art and Music Helped Him HealBorn in Edinburgh in 1963, Roy grew up an only child and always knew he was adopted, or as his adoptive mother, Mollie, would tell him, “chosen”. Whilst loved unconditionally by Mollie and her husband Peter, the stigma of being an adopted teenager in 1970s Scotland resulted in Roy being bullied and spat on in school. At sixteen, he left Mollie a note asking if she had any information about his blood parents. She supplied a form his birth mother had filled in at the adoption agency that gave some details but omitted others, including his father’s name. 2024-01-3056 min
Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption, Foster & Kinship CareAn Adoption Memoir with Susan ItoClick here to send us a topic idea or question for Weekend Wisdom.Join us for a wonderful discussion with author and performer Susan Kiyo Ito about her new memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere. This is a book adoptive parents should read!In this episode, we cover:It felt like much of the tension between you and your birth mother was due to her desire to keep you a secret and your desire to be seen. And also her desire to be in control of this relationship.The harsh reality that...2024-01-2435 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesPam: A Rare Diagnosis Led This Adoptee on a SearchPam Uzzell is a documentary filmmaker and podcaster currently living in Oakland, CA. She is the director and producer of four independent documentaries and the host and producer of the podcast, Art Heals All Wounds. Her adoptive parents were loving but saw her as the “oddball” of her family, resulting in a profound sense of loneliness. She turned to reading as a way to find a sense of belonging, which led her to gravitate towards storytelling as a career. She’d often been curious about both of her biological parents, but when she was dia...2024-01-231h 02
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesSally: For This Adoptee, Hard Life Lessons Are Paying OffSally King is an adult adoptee from the foster system. Growing up she knew she did not seem to fit anywhere and just accepted that that was who she was. After marrying and having two biological children a little girl came to her and her husband through the foster care system. This had her embark on a journey of self-discovery and acknowledgment and through the later adoption of her daughter and dealing with social services once again she realized the impact her foster and adoption had on her.Sally has never looked back on her decision and...2024-01-161h 00
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesJane: A Late Reunion Brings Family and AnswersJane is a baby scoop-era adoptee born in 1963 in Delaware to a 14 yr. old mother. After being in foster care for the first 10 months she was adopted and raised by two wonderful parents in Pennsylvania.Shortly after her 2nd birthday, her parents gave birth to a biological son. Jane always knew she was adopted and wondered where she came from but never wanted or needed to search. But, at the age of 58, after both adoptive parents passed, she did a DNA test as well as some other searching. She found that sadly, her birth mother h...2024-01-0949 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesSean: An Adoptee Faces the Rollercoaster of ReunionBorn in 1970, Sean Broderick was adopted at birth and always knew he was adopted as long as he can remember. The fact that he was adopted never seemed to bother him or cause any type of turmoil in his life. Sean seemingly had a happy and healthy childhood although alcoholism existed within one of his adoptive parents, his parents ultimately divorced and he had a lack of discipline and guidance due to being alone often.Growing up, Sean’s adopted mother would remind him from time to time that there will come a day that he will want...2024-01-0255 min
Adoption: The Making of Me. An Oral History of Adoptee StoriesKatherine: A Lifelong Question is Finally AnsweredKatherine Sanford is yet another adoptee caught up in the Baby Scoop Era of U.S. closed adoptions and the restrictive laws that prevent access to birth records. It wasn’t until 2017, with the help of two spit-in-a-tube ancestry kits, that she could finally answer the one crucial question she longed to answer: “Who am I?” Katherine writes about her experience in the award-winning book, Storked! You can follow her at www.kcsanford.comI Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito. Use Discount MAKINGOF for 30% off. 2023-12-2650 min
Adoptees OnSusan Kiyo Ito266 | Susan Kiyo Ito Today’s guest is the indomitable Susan Kiyo Ito. She has been writing, advocating, and leading in the adoptee community for decades and we are all the richer for it. Susan’s brand new memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, has just been released and it is fantastic. We talk about how Susan first discovered an adoptee memoir at her local library at age 13, and how that changed the course of her life. We’ve got adoptee activism history, relatable reunion problems, and the power of sharing our adoptee experiences in community all throughout this c...2023-11-1056 min
New ArrivalsSusan Kiyo Ito writes an intimate memoir on adoptionOakland author Susan Kiyo Ito reads from her new book, "I Would Meet You Anywhere." It's about family identity, adoption, Japanese-American experience and secrets. It came out on November 4, 2023.2023-11-0702 min
Once Upon A Time...In Adopteeland147. Susan Kiyo Ito: "I Would Meet You Anywhere"Susan Ito began reading at the age of three, and writing stories at the age six. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption. Her work has appeared in The Writer, Growing Up Asian American, Choice, Hip Mama, Literary Mama, Catapult, Hyphen,The Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. She is a MacDowell colony Fellow, and has also been awarded residencies at The Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and the Blue Mountain Center. She has performed her solo show, The Ice Cream Gene, around the US. Her theatrical adaption of Untold, stories of reproductive stigma, was produced...2023-11-0748 min
Ampersand: The Poets & Writers PodcastI Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo ItoSusan Kiyo Ito reads from the opening of her memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, published by Mad Creek Books in November 2023.2023-10-1104 min