What if the truth about adoption wasn’t what you thought it was?
In this eye-opening conversation, international adoptee advocate Lynelle Long joins us to share the untarnished truth about inter-country adoption—what’s lost, what’s hidden, and what so many adoptees are still fighting to reclaim.
We talk about everything from falsified records to the trauma of identity erasure, the global systems that profit off children, and what happens when those most impacted finally find their voice.
“Who could resist such easy money?”
What You'll Learn
→ How falsified paperwork, identity loss, and systemic failures shape the lives of adoptees
→ Why access to truth—records, names, roots—matters more than you think
→ What it means to hold space for stories that disrupt the ‘rescue’ narrative
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Episode Links & Resources
Guest + Organization
Lynelle Long on LinkedIn
Articles + Essays by ICAV
What rights should intercountry adoptees have?
Lifelong impacts of identity loss
The importance of including those most impacted in policy discussions
Intercountry adoptees as transracial immigrants in the USA
What happens after an adoption investigation?
What I’ve missed out on in being adopted internationally
Policy & Legal Resources
HCCH Convention on Intercountry Adoption
Convention on the Rights of the Child | OHCHR
Gregory Luce – Adoptee Rights Law
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Episode Chapters
00:00 Welcome and guest introduction
02:05 How records are falsified
07:11 Realities of abuse and identity loss
10:27 “The untarnished truth” of adoption
14:49 Colonial systems and the adoption industry
20:23 Legal erasure and rights that don’t exist
25:31 Soft diplomacy and the politics of adoption
30:36 How children are removed from their families
40:55 The fight for citizenship and documentation
48:59 What finding your voice actually looks like
57:59 Closing reflections on healing and advocacy
Topics we explore in this episode include:
inter-country adoption, identity loss, adoptee rights, systemic injustice, family separation, international policy, birth record access, emotional healing, truth-telling, personal advocacy
