Episodes

Saturday Jun 08, 2019
Adoptee Conversations - Polly
Saturday Jun 08, 2019
Saturday Jun 08, 2019
In this episode, I chat to Polly an adult adoptee and she shares her views and perspectives on adoption.
Polly is frank about the challenges that she experienced as result of unsolicited contact from her birth family as well as the challenge of holding contrasting views of adoption and its processes.
Some of the details of her story may be upsetting for listeners who have experience of adoption from whatever perspective so we advise caution. If there’s any doubt then give it a pass or ask a friend to listen to screen it for you.
We'd also like to say we invited Polly to come an share her experience and perspective and we'd like to thank her. We are not expecting her to speak for every adoptee and she does not purport to. It's her story and her perspective and as such we thank her for it and value it as such.
We hope you find it interesting and if you’re an adoptee and would like to share your perspective or experience then please do direct message us at our twitter feed or on our facebook page.
The music used was:
Together, We Can Make It by Neutrin05 | https://soundcloud.com/neutrin05
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US

Saturday Jun 01, 2019
Episode 63 - Prof Beth Neil & the CoramBAAF Contact Conference
Saturday Jun 01, 2019
Saturday Jun 01, 2019
This is an unusual episode as Prof Beth Neil takes the reigns and talks us through the recent CoramBAAF conference on ‘Contact in adoption in the digital age: Where do we go from here?’ that went ahead on the 10th May. Beth and her team kindly interviewed a range of presenters from the conference including adopters, professionals and a birth mother and they are interspersed though the podcast.
The discussion reflects on some of the key points that were drawn from the conference by the contributors and Beth adds some context and highlights key elements of learning that attendees took from the day.
There's a little banter, a barking dog and the one or two audio glitches but nothing that makes it unlistenable. If you want to find out more on the research that the University of East Anglia has undertaken then please check out this website.
As always thank you for listening and if you're feeling warm and fluffy please do leave a review on iTunes to inflate our delicate egos, click here.

Saturday May 25, 2019
Adopter Stories - #15 Suzanne
Saturday May 25, 2019
Saturday May 25, 2019

Sunday May 19, 2019
Adoptee Conversations - Courtney
Sunday May 19, 2019
Sunday May 19, 2019
Hello & welcome to Adoptee Conversations from the adoption and fostering podcast.
In this new series we’re inviting adoptees to share their perspectives and views on all things adoption. We’ve no agenda and are looking to have open and frank conversation. In this, the first episode, I chat to Courtney from the United States and she shares her views and perspectives on adoption as well as parts of her story.
Please note, Courtney is open and honest about the impact of adoption on her and how this manifest in her life from a young age. Some of the detail of this may be upsetting for listeners who have experience of adoption from whatever perspective so we advise caution. If there’s any doubt then give it a pass or ask a friend to listen to screen it for you.
If you’d like to know more or have any questions for Courtney her twitter handle is @wordyramblings and she’d be more to answer questions.
We hope you find it interesting and if you’re an adoptee and would like to share your perspective or experience then please do direct message us at our twitter feed or on our facebook page.

Saturday May 18, 2019
Saturday May 18, 2019
This week we speak to Satwinder Sandhu from the International Adoption Centre as well as add a little wedding chat on then end for those that want the low down on Scott's nuptuals.
Satwinder has recently taken over the role as the Chief Executive of the IAC and Scott invited him in to speak about a subject that is not often the focus of the adoption community. There were some questions in relation to some aspects of the practice and some of the stereotypes that are hovering around. Satwinder is open and honest in relation to his experience as well as the positives and some of the challenges of the process. As he's new in the job we didn't go too hard on him!
At the end of the podcast we have a little catch up on the giddy details of wearing kilts, choke holds from Canadians and all that from Scott and Tris' wedding of the century.
As always a cheeky review on iTunes here would be appreciated.

Saturday May 11, 2019
The Great North Ace Conference: Supporting Families that live with #CCVAB #CPV
Saturday May 11, 2019
Saturday May 11, 2019
This weeks episode is the recording of a conference workshop that I delivered at the Great North Ace Conference at the end of April for the ACE Network NE.
I was asked to speak to professionals about supporting parents, carers and families that live with children who can display challenging, violent and aggressive behaviour in a short workshop. Its a subject that I’d normally run over a minimum of a half day so I talk fast and sometimes skip over issues that I’d dig around in for a lot longer.
The book 'Lets talk about Childhood Challenging Violent or Aggressive Behaviour in the Home' can be bought here on amazon in paperback and on kindle.
I hope you enjoy it and as I note I will be starting some webinars on the subject in the near future.

Saturday May 04, 2019
Episode 61 - An Interview with Betsy de Thierry on Shame
Saturday May 04, 2019
Saturday May 04, 2019
In this week's episode Al interviews Betsy de Thierry and they discuss the roots of shame, types of shame and the impact on many children who have experienced trauma and challenges in their early lives. We've a book to give away that Betsy has written 'The Simple Guide to Understanding Shame in Children: What It Is and How to Help'
We've got a copy to give away so check our twitter feed, here, for details of how to do that.
There's a little banter too as we chat about some of the recent events online and the challenges of communicating with those around the adoption triangle.
As always, a cheeky review on iTunes here would be appreciated and if you're really keen you could vote for us at the Podcast awards here.

Saturday Apr 27, 2019
Adopte Stories #14 Garry and Kyle
Saturday Apr 27, 2019
Saturday Apr 27, 2019

Saturday Apr 20, 2019
Adopter Stories - #13 Stephanie
Saturday Apr 20, 2019
Saturday Apr 20, 2019
In this episode Stephanie shares her story of adopting two little boys with her husband. She discussed the challenges of ethnicity and faith as well as the struggle to get appropriate support for her children.
If you'd like to share your story then please get in touch through the Adoption & Fostering Podcast's facebook page here, or our twitter feed here.

Saturday Apr 13, 2019
Episode 60 - An Interview with Twayna Mayne
Saturday Apr 13, 2019
Saturday Apr 13, 2019
In this episode Al speaks to Twayna Mayne author of the Loco Parentis Podcast, comedian and adoptee about her experiences growing up in care and making the decision to be adopted in her mid teens. It a remarkable story and Twayna is open and honest about her experiences and views on transracial adoption amongst many other things.
Scott and Al tentatively discuss thoughts on transracial adoption then move onto the sad news that After Adoption have closed as well as bantering on the AUK survey, a bizarre WhatsApp group and a disastrous Radio 2 interview. It's a little longer than usual as Scott recounts a tale from his much publicised stag doo in the final 10 mins.
There the mixing is a little off this week as there's been a little software bother, fear not, we're on it. As always a cheeky review on iTunes here would be appreciated and if you're really keen you could vote for us at the Podcast awards here.