Podcast Ep 5: With the increasing popularity of at-home consumer DNA testing through companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe, more and more men are finding previously unknown offspring. For a man with a wife and family, this discovery presents unique challenges, particularly if that newfound "child" is a grown woman.

On today's episode, Glaser talks with DNA Clarity and Support host Brianne Kirkpatrick about the history of coerced adoption in the United States and the influence of culture and stigma on women who in other circumstances might have chosen to parent rather than surrender their to the adoption system.

In this episode, Brianne interviews author Diahan Southard, creator of Your DNA Guide, who brings a much-needed dose of enthusiasm to the talk about genealogy, a biological parent search, and DNA testing!

J.C. Kenney is the author a series of cozy mystery novels, one of which involves using DNA and genealogy to solve a murder cold case. You need not be a true crime fan or a DNA expert to learn from today's episode! The conversation with J.C. hones in on the highlights of DNA and crime investigation and is a great intro for those unfamiliar with investigative genetic genealogy, often shortened to IGG. 

Michael's search entered a new phase when a consumer DNA test connected him to paternal DNA relatives. The up-and-down journey, the people he came to know along the way, and the new understanding he has of his parents are all documented in his memoir, I Had My Underwear on the Entire Time.

The conversation between host Brianne Kirkpatrick and Boni swings back and forth, exploring the personal impacts of a misattributed parentage discovery on Boni and his awareness of the need for societal change. Boni shares how the new trauma of the NPE ('not parent expected') discovery rekindled some of the old trauma from his past, requiring hard work in the therapist's office to work through.

K.S. “Katie” Hopkins never guessed that a discovery about her sister's unexpected paternity would be just the start of a number of surprises in the family. What began as crumbs of information left in family documents led to DNA testing which confirmed a hidden family history.

In this episode, Laura Kieger talks about her family's experience with the hereditary cancer syndrome, FAP. Kieger relates how in just a few short decades, the progress of medical genetics and cancer diagnosis has had a profound impact on her own life and others in her family. If anyone needs an example to point to as support for the importance of sharing DNA medical surprises with family, this episode of DNA Clarity and Support offers it!

John’s story starts with a personal medical crisis leading to a decision to search for information about his biological parentage. It ends with him embracing the truth of his biological origins, a situation that many others in the same shoes have struggled to accept because of society’s stigma around conceptions between parents who are related to each other.

Maggy wrote a reflection for the Watershed DNA blog three years ago. She is back again to share more reflections on her misattributed parentage experience. “Each puzzle piece helps me put myself together a little more firmly. I’m so grateful that I took that DNA test in 2013. It changed me and who I think I am and gave me a stronger sense of self than I think I ever would have had otherwise.”

Season 2 kicks off with Melissa Guida-Richards.

Today’s guest blogger shares the emotional journey he experienced learning at age 68 that he had a daughter of whom he was previously unaware. He is nearing the first anniversary of getting the DNA confirmation of his paternity and is looking forward to a visit with his daughter and her family over Thanksgiving. It will be the fourth time he and his daughter will have a chance to meet up in person. 

The wives of husbands who are newly discovered to be someone’s biological father struggle as well.

Podcast Ep 9: Meet Richard Hill, the adoptee who was the first to use DNA testing to search for and discover the identity of his birth parents.

"NPE" is an acronym with a history originating in the term “non-paternity event” — a term used in the medical setting when parent/child mismatches were uncovered as a result of clinical genetic testing. NPE has also become the term for a person who has discovered one or both parents is not genetically related to them.

Cory's memoir, Folksong, touches on the pain and hope she felt through her journey at the end of her mother's life and through the discovery soon after that her mother had been keeping a secret about Cory's paternity for decades.

Guest blogger Christiane shares her experience telling her two children of different ages about using double gamete donation (both egg and sperm donation) to conceive them.

Doubt is a common reaction in unexpected DNA family discoveries. It’s not only common, it’s also normal and important.

Podcast Ep: 7 A watershed moment in the life of Dani Shapiro--the discovery that she was donor-conceived--was triggered by an innocent adventure into consumer DNA testing.

Podcast Ep: 6 Want to learn a little bit about where the fear and stigma around cousin marriages come from? Ready to be challenged by listening in on a conversation between two genetic counselors discussing past work with families facing uncertain, traumatic pregnancies?