1
00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:02,679
Speaker 1: So the way I found out that I was donor

2
00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:06,720
Speaker 1: conceived was when I got the results from twenty three

3
00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:11,520
Speaker 1: and me I matched with somebody who was my half brother.

4
00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,480
Speaker 1: To my surprise, I found out that I am not

5
00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:20,599
Speaker 1: my dad's daughter. He's not my biological father. I took

6
00:00:20,600 --> 00:00:23,279
Speaker 1: a DNA test and I I don't know who I

7
00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:31,480
Speaker 1: am anymore. What if a few drops of saliva held

8
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 1: the power to completely shatter your identity? As the consumer

9
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:39,040
Speaker 1: DNA testing industry has boomed, thousands of people have found

10
00:00:39,080 --> 00:00:42,400
Speaker 1: out that these tests reveal much more than say, a

11
00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:45,600
Speaker 1: Scottish or Chinese heritage. They also have the power to

12
00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:52,000
Speaker 1: unravel decades of closely kept family secrets. Welcome back to Prognosis.

13
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,680
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Michelle fay Cortes. I am so excited

14
00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:59,520
Speaker 1: for this season, where will explore how data is transforming healthcare.

15
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,440
Speaker 1: Often the explosion of information is really helpful. It can

16
00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,160
Speaker 1: also feel pretty invasive, and sometimes it could create an

17
00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:13,080
Speaker 1: existential crisis. This week, we're taking a close look at

18
00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:15,560
Speaker 1: what happens when a half a teaspoon of spit sets

19
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,400
Speaker 1: off a chain reaction, forcing you to reevaluate your identity

20
00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:23,040
Speaker 1: where you belong. In this world. Here's Bloomberg Health reporter

21
00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,760
Speaker 1: Kristen V. Brown with the story of one woman who

22
00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,760
Speaker 1: took a DNA test that changed her life and what

23
00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:41,039
Speaker 1: that means for the rest of us. It's a cold,

24
00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,479
Speaker 1: sunny day in enham Claw, Washington, a city of twelve

25
00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:46,920
Speaker 1: thousand that rests on a plateau at the foot of

26
00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:50,840
Speaker 1: Mount Rainier formed by a volcanic eruption five thousand years ago.

27
00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,960
Speaker 1: The wind is howling, as it usually does here. There

28
00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,640
Speaker 1: is fresh snow on the mountaintop. I'm here to meet

29
00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:02,760
Speaker 1: Caroline Bernard. Caroline raises sheep on a farm in nim Claw.

30
00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:09,160
Speaker 1: The sheep, she'd warn me, don't exactly clean up after themselves. Okay,

31
00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:19,440
Speaker 1: I think she said. She's in lifted back Caroline. Oh hi, Wow,

32
00:02:19,520 --> 00:02:24,680
Speaker 1: there's a lot of pop. Hi Hi, I did and

33
00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,959
Speaker 1: I Oh my godly, guys, I guess I got the

34
00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:36,800
Speaker 1: water in your Caroline took a DNA test last fall

35
00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,680
Speaker 1: that sent her whole world spinning. I was visiting her

36
00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:42,560
Speaker 1: because I wanted to understand what it was like to

37
00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:44,880
Speaker 1: have a piece of data change everything about who you

38
00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,239
Speaker 1: thought you were. When I first started covering DNA testing

39
00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,520
Speaker 1: a few years ago, Occasionally I would hear stories of

40
00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:54,400
Speaker 1: people who found an unexpected parent re sibling through a

41
00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,080
Speaker 1: DNA test. Recently, it's felt like once a week ever

42
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:00,680
Speaker 1: reading somebody's story of how d they brought them a

43
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:04,320
Speaker 1: new family member. Then in December, I wrote a story

44
00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,440
Speaker 1: about how customer service people at three and Me we're

45
00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:11,000
Speaker 1: having to do the jobs of therapists consoling people who

46
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,040
Speaker 1: took a test and uncovered a surprise. The day the

47
00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:17,040
Speaker 1: story ran, I got twenty emails from people with DNA

48
00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,720
Speaker 1: surprised stories of their own. The next day I got

49
00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: a few dozen more, and the emails kept coming. I

50
00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:26,959
Speaker 1: was starting to feel like these individual stories were part

51
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000
Speaker 1: of something much bigger. It felt like DNA testing was

52
00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:34,360
Speaker 1: reshaping the very notion of family. Caroline was one of

53
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:39,240
Speaker 1: the people who emailed me. She had an especially intriguing story.

54
00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,480
Speaker 1: I was also pretty excited about the sheep. Caroline had

55
00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:46,920
Speaker 1: asked me to bring cheetahs, apparently a favored sheep's neck.

56
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:53,000
Speaker 1: This is from last year. Hi, Oh my god, they

57
00:03:53,040 --> 00:04:00,400
Speaker 1: get so big. And that is Garth Brooks. Cards God

58
00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,000
Speaker 1: Brooks does he have a great boy. He has a

59
00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:05,880
Speaker 1: very deep voice, but he is kind of a chunky

60
00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:09,840
Speaker 1: unit so he's just as handsome as can be. And

61
00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:12,760
Speaker 1: then this is a when teaswater, and then this is

62
00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:15,360
Speaker 1: William and you can see Caroline had taken a d

63
00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:18,320
Speaker 1: n A test from Ancestry and found out that the

64
00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:22,240
Speaker 1: father who raised her wasn't actually her biological dad. I

65
00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:24,760
Speaker 1: was talking to my friend and I really wanted to

66
00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:28,640
Speaker 1: find out about our heritage and about you know, where

67
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,960
Speaker 1: we came from and the ethnicities, and just find other

68
00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,000
Speaker 1: people that were related to right. And I've always known

69
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,839
Speaker 1: that something wasn't right. And I explained that to my mom,

70
00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:44,200
Speaker 1: and of course she was just like, no way, But

71
00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,560
Speaker 1: I've always known that something wasn't right. And um, so

72
00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,680
Speaker 1: sent away for this DNA kit and I let us

73
00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,320
Speaker 1: sit on my on my dresser for like six months,

74
00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:57,840
Speaker 1: and my daughter finally comes over and she says, Mom,

75
00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:01,040
Speaker 1: just take the stinking thing. Just do it. And so

76
00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:04,120
Speaker 1: I did it and she stuck it in the mail.

77
00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,240
Speaker 1: When Caroline got her results back a few weeks later,

78
00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:09,600
Speaker 1: she was having dinner with a friend and an old

79
00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,479
Speaker 1: greasy spoon diner after a long day helping her friend.

80
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:17,440
Speaker 1: She or Sheep, and Ancestry, for whatever reason, texted me

81
00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:20,080
Speaker 1: on a Friday night in the evening and said, your

82
00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,800
Speaker 1: DNA results are in. And I looked at my friend

83
00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:24,560
Speaker 1: and this was the friend who had had been talking

84
00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 1: about DNA with and she goes, well, look at him.

85
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,680
Speaker 1: And so I opened it up and I'm expecting to

86
00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,760
Speaker 1: see Swedish and there wasn't a drop of Swedish anywhere

87
00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:40,960
Speaker 1: in there. And I was a little perplexed and how

88
00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:45,159
Speaker 1: something's not right? And then I um clicked on the

89
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:48,479
Speaker 1: matches and then I saw that the man who I

90
00:05:48,520 --> 00:05:51,680
Speaker 1: grew up with as my father was not my father.

91
00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,760
Speaker 1: It was another man. His name was Gary, and he

92
00:05:56,800 --> 00:05:58,840
Speaker 1: said right on the top, he is your biological father.

93
00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,400
Speaker 1: There is such a disconnect between the type of information

94
00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:09,200
Speaker 1: that these tests were designed to deliver and what people

95
00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,200
Speaker 1: actually wind up finding out. If you get a medical

96
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,440
Speaker 1: test at your doctor's office and the results are troubling,

97
00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,400
Speaker 1: the doctor calls you in to explain what everything means.

98
00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,960
Speaker 1: But ancestry DNA test is only designed to tell you

99
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:26,320
Speaker 1: such seemingly benign information, like how Sweedish you are, So

100
00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 1: you can just be sitting at dinner and get this

101
00:06:28,080 --> 00:06:31,400
Speaker 1: casual text revealing that your father isn't your father. There

102
00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:36,440
Speaker 1: is something really callous about that. I didn't expect that.

103
00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:38,800
Speaker 1: I did not expect to see Gary Tackett as your father.

104
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,240
Speaker 1: That was the last thing I expected to see. And

105
00:06:42,279 --> 00:06:46,040
Speaker 1: then I saw all of these siblings that were underneath there.

106
00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:48,760
Speaker 1: And my friend Kelly is she's very familiar with DNA,

107
00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:50,760
Speaker 1: and she says, Oh, that's a sibling. That's a sibling.

108
00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,920
Speaker 1: That's a sibling because of the amount of um match

109
00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,960
Speaker 1: what is that called the the sent of forms or

110
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:00,919
Speaker 1: something sent to Morgan, the amount of sin of Morgan.

111
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:04,680
Speaker 1: She said that that's a sibling, and um, it was

112
00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:09,880
Speaker 1: not anything that I could have predicted or comprehended at

113
00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:16,840
Speaker 1: the moment time. It was very um surreal. Caroline has had,

114
00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,000
Speaker 1: by her own account, a tough life. She got into

115
00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:22,600
Speaker 1: sheep farming to help her cope with post traumatic stress

116
00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:26,360
Speaker 1: disorder after serving as a military nurse. Even though she's

117
00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:29,560
Speaker 1: a farmer, she keeps nocturnal hours, arriving at the farm

118
00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:33,080
Speaker 1: in the afternoon and working until midnight, habit she developed

119
00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,400
Speaker 1: while in an abusive relationship. She isn't close with her

120
00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,560
Speaker 1: family and always felt she didn't quite fit in, but

121
00:07:39,800 --> 00:07:42,480
Speaker 1: never did she expect her dad wasn't the man she

122
00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:48,440
Speaker 1: grew up with. But more than anything, I was just confused.

123
00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:56,559
Speaker 1: I was confused, I was overwhelmed, I was surprised, and UM,

124
00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:02,560
Speaker 1: and I think pissed, you know, kind of like being blindsided.

125
00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,800
Speaker 1: And then I had a two hour drive home, so

126
00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:10,000
Speaker 1: I was able to digest pretty much all of it.

127
00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: And then I called my daughter on the drive home

128
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,880
Speaker 1: and talked to her about it, and UM. Then she

129
00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,280
Speaker 1: decided that she was going to call my mom. And

130
00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:19,280
Speaker 1: she called my mom and called me back and said,

131
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,480
Speaker 1: Mom wants to talk to you at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

132
00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:24,080
Speaker 1: Will you call her? And at that point in time,

133
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:27,160
Speaker 1: I knew that there was something I hadn't been told.

134
00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:37,200
Speaker 1: Her biological father's name was Gary Tackett, or at least

135
00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:39,679
Speaker 1: that was the name he had been born with at

136
00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:43,439
Speaker 1: different times, he has gone by many different names. Caroline

137
00:08:43,480 --> 00:08:46,320
Speaker 1: googled him and began to piece together a portrait of

138
00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,800
Speaker 1: his life from news clippings, public records, and YouTube. Gary

139
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,040
Speaker 1: parlayed a career as a crop duster in Arkansas into

140
00:08:54,080 --> 00:08:57,560
Speaker 1: a gig smuggling marijuana and cocaine from Central America into

141
00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:01,079
Speaker 1: the United States. By all accounts, Scary was charming and

142
00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: an excellent pilot, able to fly in and out of

143
00:09:03,679 --> 00:09:06,920
Speaker 1: tight spaces with ease thanks to his crop testing experience

144
00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,120
Speaker 1: and to evade government surveillance. Skill he picked up as

145
00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,160
Speaker 1: a pilot in Vietnam in the nineteen eighties, he secretly

146
00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:18,280
Speaker 1: flew weapons to Nicaraguan rebels for the CIA, flying back

147
00:09:18,320 --> 00:09:20,800
Speaker 1: to the US with planeloads of drugs and a scandal

148
00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,520
Speaker 1: that would later become known as the Iran Contra affair.

149
00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:27,760
Speaker 1: Caroline watched footage of him testifying before Congress about the scandal.

150
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:32,160
Speaker 1: In by then he was going by Gary Betsner. It

151
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:35,319
Speaker 1: was the first time she'd heard her father speak. Here's

152
00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:41,800
Speaker 1: Gary talking to then Senator John Kerry Bell. Mr Batsner,

153
00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,560
Speaker 1: what would you describe to us this first drug venture

154
00:09:46,640 --> 00:09:48,960
Speaker 1: you went on. You've never flown down there before. How

155
00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,160
Speaker 1: did you know where to go? Well, I'm a pilot,

156
00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:58,760
Speaker 1: and um, I've had considerable navigation experience, so it was

157
00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:03,480
Speaker 1: readily simple for me to do. I Caroline's mom was

158
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,800
Speaker 1: already divorced with a son when she met Gary. Around

159
00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:08,880
Speaker 1: the same time, she was also dating the man who

160
00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:12,040
Speaker 1: Caroline grew up with knowing as her father. Her mom

161
00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:14,240
Speaker 1: says she ended things with Gary after he pressed an

162
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:17,120
Speaker 1: old fashioned bottle opener up to her neck and threatened

163
00:10:17,160 --> 00:10:20,640
Speaker 1: to kill her. Gary has denied this account to Caroline.

164
00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:23,640
Speaker 1: Either way, when her mom realized she was pregnant, she

165
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:26,720
Speaker 1: told her future husband, the man that raised Caroline, thought

166
00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,520
Speaker 1: the baby was his. If she had said anything, she

167
00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:33,280
Speaker 1: would end up being a divorce woman and nwood mother,

168
00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,400
Speaker 1: and her life would have been destroyed. I mean, that's

169
00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,920
Speaker 1: just the way it was back then, and um, she

170
00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:42,360
Speaker 1: did what she did to protect her kids. Abortion wasn't

171
00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:47,440
Speaker 1: an option. As a rural sheep farmer from a one

172
00:10:47,440 --> 00:10:50,640
Speaker 1: stoplight town, it was hard for Caroline to imagine someone

173
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:54,840
Speaker 1: so infamous was her father. He had lived this adventurous life,

174
00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:59,000
Speaker 1: making millions, smuggling drugs and romancing countless women in his travels.

175
00:10:59,559 --> 00:11:02,320
Speaker 1: He was a evicted criminal. He was a hippie too,

176
00:11:02,559 --> 00:11:06,120
Speaker 1: and at one point had followed an Indian guru once.

177
00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,520
Speaker 1: He even faked his own death and moved to Hawaii

178
00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:12,040
Speaker 1: with his then wife and two of his children. One

179
00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:14,920
Speaker 1: of his other daughters, Polly, told me, she only found

180
00:11:14,920 --> 00:11:17,400
Speaker 1: out her dad was still alive when she read about

181
00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:27,080
Speaker 1: his congressional testimony in the local paper. Caroline isn't interested

182
00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:30,000
Speaker 1: in relationship with her new found father, though he has

183
00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:34,079
Speaker 1: reached out to her several times under different aliases via Facebook.

184
00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:37,120
Speaker 1: We also tried to reach out to Gary for an interview.

185
00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:40,320
Speaker 1: He never responded and told Caroline he would only talk

186
00:11:40,360 --> 00:11:43,200
Speaker 1: to a reporter if she would speak to him. I

187
00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:47,840
Speaker 1: watched that senate testimony and I'm he's a narcissist and

188
00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:53,240
Speaker 1: there's nothing for him to offer my life and what

189
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:55,040
Speaker 1: he did to my mom and what he did all

190
00:11:55,080 --> 00:11:57,880
Speaker 1: his other other women. I want nothing to do with him.

191
00:11:57,920 --> 00:12:00,320
Speaker 1: But Caroline has connected with a few of her nine

192
00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:04,200
Speaker 1: new siblings. The night she got her ancestor results, Caroline

193
00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:08,920
Speaker 1: also received a message from Carla, an actress. HI looks

194
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:12,839
Speaker 1: like we're close relatives. Are you adopted? Um? My mom's

195
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,360
Speaker 1: name was Caroline from Bellingham, Washington. She died a cancer

196
00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:18,199
Speaker 1: in eight d and I never met her. You're only

197
00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:20,160
Speaker 1: eight year months older than me. What is your mom's

198
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,160
Speaker 1: maiden name? I live in Kingston. I ferry your away

199
00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:24,800
Speaker 1: from you. We could meet and talk, she wrote back.

200
00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:27,080
Speaker 1: I tried to call you, it said your number is

201
00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:29,480
Speaker 1: not in service. I stayed up late. I'm on Pacific

202
00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,360
Speaker 1: standard time. I would love to talk to you before.

203
00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:32,720
Speaker 1: I talked to my mother in the morning, and that

204
00:12:32,760 --> 00:12:35,120
Speaker 1: was a phone call at ten. Now I know that

205
00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:36,920
Speaker 1: they've been lying to me in my entire life. I'm

206
00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:38,719
Speaker 1: flum mixed, and I feel like my entire life was

207
00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:44,360
Speaker 1: a lie. Carla grew up in Puerto Rico and only

208
00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:47,079
Speaker 1: found out she was adopted much later. As an adult.

209
00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:51,120
Speaker 1: When DNA testing came around, she tried it out, searching

210
00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:54,440
Speaker 1: for some sense of identity. The test linked her to

211
00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:57,839
Speaker 1: a paternal niece and nephew, who led her to Gary.

212
00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:01,880
Speaker 1: Carla asked Gary to take a d A test. Eventually,

213
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,960
Speaker 1: ancestry would also identify Gary as the father of three

214
00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: other children who had no idea Gary was their father,

215
00:13:08,040 --> 00:13:11,800
Speaker 1: including most recently Caroline, as well as six others who

216
00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:14,880
Speaker 1: grew up knowing Gary as their dad. The first time

217
00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,440
Speaker 1: Carline Caroline met at an olive garden and Washington, they

218
00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:23,400
Speaker 1: talked for hours as if they were old friends. Another sister, Angela,

219
00:13:23,720 --> 00:13:26,240
Speaker 1: seemed to share her sense of humor. They now have

220
00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:30,920
Speaker 1: near daily conversations, and a brother, Christopher, looked on cannily

221
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:38,360
Speaker 1: like her. For Caroline, a new family was beginning to form.

222
00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,280
Speaker 1: We had one day we were sending each other pictures

223
00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:42,840
Speaker 1: of our feet because we all have the same toes.

224
00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:46,160
Speaker 1: We all had the same goofy toes where our big

225
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:48,120
Speaker 1: toe is the longest and then the rest of the

226
00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:50,600
Speaker 1: toes gets smaller as they go down. So we were

227
00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:52,640
Speaker 1: taking pictures of our toes, and we were taking pictures

228
00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,960
Speaker 1: of our hands, and we all the same pinkie and um,

229
00:13:57,000 --> 00:13:59,720
Speaker 1: you know, we all have the same droopy eyelid. It's

230
00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:02,920
Speaker 1: just and my daughter is the spitting image of Gary.

231
00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:08,720
Speaker 1: Really yeah, sitting in her barn, sheltered from the wind,

232
00:14:08,920 --> 00:14:13,040
Speaker 1: amidst the sheep, a llama, chickens, and cats. Caroline should

233
00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:17,120
Speaker 1: be photos how much her two sons look like Carla's

234
00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:21,360
Speaker 1: the goofy selfies she and Angela like to trade. For Caroline,

235
00:14:21,680 --> 00:14:24,360
Speaker 1: who had felt she never fit in. Here were people

236
00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:26,480
Speaker 1: she had never met that seemed to look like her

237
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:30,200
Speaker 1: and laugh at the same kind of jokes. I wake

238
00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:34,000
Speaker 1: up in the morning, it's like my reality so different

239
00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:40,480
Speaker 1: than what it was. It used to be that the

240
00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:44,120
Speaker 1: prototypical American family was a man and his wife, a

241
00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,280
Speaker 1: couple of kids, maybe a dog. Then, as divorced became

242
00:14:48,280 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: more common, half siblings, step siblings, and stepparents became part

243
00:14:52,120 --> 00:14:56,640
Speaker 1: of the mix. Same sex marriage legalization, too, has diversified

244
00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,800
Speaker 1: what families look like. What does it mean for the

245
00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:03,720
Speaker 1: family unit When thousands of people are logging into ancestry

246
00:15:03,800 --> 00:15:06,840
Speaker 1: and twenty three and me to discover families they never

247
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:12,320
Speaker 1: knew they had, I tracked down Cecy Moore, a genetic genealogist.

248
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,840
Speaker 1: These days, CC is most famous for her work using

249
00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:19,600
Speaker 1: genealogy to hunt serial killers, but Cec got to start

250
00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,880
Speaker 1: pioneering away for adoptees to use DNA to find their

251
00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:27,080
Speaker 1: birth parents. So many people are finding these surprises. And

252
00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,360
Speaker 1: often when someone says, oh, my gosh, I took a

253
00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,200
Speaker 1: DNA test and I found a half sibling, the person

254
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:34,560
Speaker 1: they're telling will say, oh, well, guess what it happened

255
00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:36,640
Speaker 1: to me too, Or it happened to my cousin, or

256
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:39,600
Speaker 1: it happened to someone I'm close to. So it's becoming

257
00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:42,840
Speaker 1: so common that it's not out of the realm of

258
00:15:42,960 --> 00:15:45,760
Speaker 1: most people's experience, like it happened to them or it

259
00:15:45,800 --> 00:15:48,760
Speaker 1: happened to someone they know very well. Cecy said she's

260
00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:51,400
Speaker 1: seen cases or people have moved to be closer to

261
00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,960
Speaker 1: their newfound genetic families. Or taken in DNA relatives that

262
00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,280
Speaker 1: were homeless or in need of support. I think the

263
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:02,360
Speaker 1: concept of family already expanded greatly, and this is just

264
00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:05,280
Speaker 1: one more step in that direction. Now we have quote

265
00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:09,720
Speaker 1: unquote DNA cousins, DNA relatives, people that we have found

266
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:13,240
Speaker 1: strictly through DNA that haven't been part of our history

267
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,280
Speaker 1: or our life story that but perhaps may play an

268
00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,480
Speaker 1: important role in the future. Of course, people don't always

269
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:24,120
Speaker 1: embrace their new found families with open arms, but Czi

270
00:16:24,240 --> 00:16:26,720
Speaker 1: thinks stories like Caroline's have made people more open to

271
00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:31,120
Speaker 1: connecting or fussing up to long held secrets. She's heard

272
00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:33,400
Speaker 1: from sperm donors who now want to connect with their

273
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:37,360
Speaker 1: donor children and mothers who abandoned babies and decades later

274
00:16:37,480 --> 00:16:40,760
Speaker 1: decided to reach out to their kids. People are realizing

275
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,360
Speaker 1: they can't keep secrets anymore because of consumer DNA testing,

276
00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,400
Speaker 1: because of genetic genealogy techniques to uncover these secrets. So

277
00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:52,280
Speaker 1: I do think it's going to have a very profound

278
00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:58,520
Speaker 1: and wide effect across our society. More than fifteen million

279
00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:01,720
Speaker 1: people have taken DNA to through just ancestry and twenty

280
00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:04,600
Speaker 1: three and me alone, a number that has only grown

281
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,679
Speaker 1: since the last time each company publicly released statistics. So

282
00:17:09,760 --> 00:17:12,760
Speaker 1: many people have had experiences like Caroline's that an array

283
00:17:12,800 --> 00:17:16,240
Speaker 1: of support networks for people with so called non expected

284
00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:20,800
Speaker 1: parental events have cropped up on Facebook. The biggest among them,

285
00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:24,280
Speaker 1: d NA and PE Friends, has grown to more than

286
00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:28,240
Speaker 1: five thousand members. Four thousand of those people joined in

287
00:17:28,320 --> 00:17:31,800
Speaker 1: just the last seven months. The group recently began the

288
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,800
Speaker 1: process to register as a nonprofit advocating for emotional support

289
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:38,439
Speaker 1: for the thousands of people who take DNA tests and

290
00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:41,840
Speaker 1: find out their family isn't exactly the family they expected.

291
00:17:42,640 --> 00:17:46,040
Speaker 1: Katherine st. Clair, the founder of DNA and PE Friends,

292
00:17:46,359 --> 00:17:48,760
Speaker 1: told me even she was surprised by how quickly the

293
00:17:48,800 --> 00:17:52,160
Speaker 1: group has grown. I thought that this situation was very

294
00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:55,280
Speaker 1: unique and very unusual. I mean, I figured that there's

295
00:17:55,280 --> 00:17:57,800
Speaker 1: probably thousands of people out there, but I means thousands

296
00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,960
Speaker 1: per millions, not thousands per hundred thousands. Instead, she said,

297
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:05,199
Speaker 1: some recent estimates have suggested that people like herself and

298
00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:07,879
Speaker 1: Caroline may account for as much as ten percent of

299
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:11,920
Speaker 1: the population. I think that's too conservative. I think the

300
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,840
Speaker 1: conservative estimate is um but still, if you look at

301
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,119
Speaker 1: it as ten percent, even if it is just ten percent.

302
00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:21,359
Speaker 1: Ten percent of the world is left handed, so that

303
00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:23,399
Speaker 1: means this is just as common as being left handed.

304
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,480
Speaker 1: Like CC Katherine told me, she thinks DNA testing marks

305
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:29,720
Speaker 1: the beginning of a shift that will allow people to

306
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,240
Speaker 1: be more open and honest about the complexities of love

307
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,159
Speaker 1: and family. We put our parents upon this pedestal. We

308
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,720
Speaker 1: grow up thinking our parents never made a mistake. We

309
00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:42,240
Speaker 1: grew up thinking that they never did anything stupid, they

310
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,280
Speaker 1: never made bad decisions. Nobody wants to admit that to

311
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:47,240
Speaker 1: their children because they are afraid that their kids are

312
00:18:47,280 --> 00:18:50,200
Speaker 1: going to go out and make bad decisions too. So

313
00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:55,720
Speaker 1: when something like DNA shatters the image we have of

314
00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:00,359
Speaker 1: our parents, it completely changes the way we see our

315
00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:04,719
Speaker 1: families and ourselves. We are she said, heading toward a

316
00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:08,000
Speaker 1: new norm. And I think that this needs to be emphasized.

317
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:10,399
Speaker 1: If you're going to take a DNA tist, don't take

318
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:15,480
Speaker 1: it with the wondering. If you're going to have unexpected findings,

319
00:19:16,080 --> 00:19:22,000
Speaker 1: take it expecting unexpected findings, because every single family in

320
00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:26,119
Speaker 1: the world is going to either have an MPE or

321
00:19:26,160 --> 00:19:31,000
Speaker 1: an unexpected half sibling, or an unexpected aunt or uncle,

322
00:19:31,359 --> 00:19:39,480
Speaker 1: or an unexpected niece or nephew, it's there. But what

323
00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:41,800
Speaker 1: does it really mean to find out that your family

324
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,119
Speaker 1: isn't really who you thought they were? After all, that

325
00:19:45,160 --> 00:19:48,440
Speaker 1: doesn't change who raised you or the experiences you've had.

326
00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,720
Speaker 1: Here's Caroline again. I always thought I was more like

327
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,359
Speaker 1: my dad, and and I think, you know, there's the

328
00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:59,639
Speaker 1: whole nurture versus nature kind of thing, and I don't know.

329
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,400
Speaker 1: And when you get blindsided like that and your whole

330
00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 1: foundation has taken out from underneath you, it's a little perplexing.

331
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 1: It's a little perplexing. Caroline thinks this has actually been

332
00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:19,120
Speaker 1: hardest on the man she considers her dad, the dad

333
00:20:19,160 --> 00:20:22,600
Speaker 1: that raised her. Caroline may have lost her genetic connection

334
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,360
Speaker 1: to him, but she also gained a whole new family.

335
00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,520
Speaker 1: For her father, there was no new family to balance

336
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 1: out the loss. I talked to a few of Caroline's

337
00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: new sisters and Gary's brother too. All of them seemed

338
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:40,160
Speaker 1: to embrace their new found family. Even for the siblings

339
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:43,080
Speaker 1: who grew up knowing Gary as their father, the expanded

340
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:46,240
Speaker 1: family has changed their lives. There has been tension at

341
00:20:46,280 --> 00:20:49,240
Speaker 1: times and jealousy as Gary has embraced some of his

342
00:20:49,320 --> 00:20:52,720
Speaker 1: new children despite tattered relationships with some of his old ones.

343
00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:56,560
Speaker 1: Early on, one of Caroline's new sisters joked to her

344
00:20:56,800 --> 00:20:59,440
Speaker 1: that instead of the Brady Bunch, she had stumbled into

345
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,479
Speaker 1: the Jerry's Bring Our Show. But there have also been

346
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:06,280
Speaker 1: joyful reunions and family group text threads and new bonds

347
00:21:06,359 --> 00:21:10,160
Speaker 1: that seem as deep as any childhood once. Here's Gary's

348
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 1: brother Larry, who the siblings called the funcle or the

349
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:18,240
Speaker 1: fun Uncle. I feel related to them. I'm very interested

350
00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:22,679
Speaker 1: in their stories, in their lives. Um you know, I

351
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,080
Speaker 1: was raised by a stepfather, my parents divorced from a

352
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,879
Speaker 1: young I have a lot of compassion for a situation

353
00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:35,000
Speaker 1: like that. Later this year, some of Caroline's new family

354
00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:38,320
Speaker 1: is planning to visit her in Washington. She said, it's

355
00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:41,119
Speaker 1: weird how easy it has been to get to know them.

356
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: It often feels like talking to an old friend, when

357
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:46,680
Speaker 1: the family she grew up with often feel like strangers.

358
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:49,560
Speaker 1: She is a little in common with, and it's actually

359
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:53,080
Speaker 1: helped her strained relationship with her parents, allowing them to

360
00:21:53,119 --> 00:21:56,879
Speaker 1: talk more openly. She says she's glad to know the truth,

361
00:21:57,359 --> 00:21:59,920
Speaker 1: to have learned something new about herself and where she

362
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,120
Speaker 1: came from. That our roots are not Swedish and Jewish

363
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,280
Speaker 1: but Southern that other people share her same weird toes.

364
00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:11,960
Speaker 1: How has it changed my life? It's changed my life

365
00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:18,679
Speaker 1: or a positive. I have a family and um I

366
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:21,640
Speaker 1: didn't have that, you know, six months ago I had

367
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: the family I grew up with, but it was dysfunctional

368
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:29,320
Speaker 1: and broken. And this is probably still dysfunctional and broken,

369
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:35,600
Speaker 1: but it's bigger. But she is also still a sheep

370
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:38,320
Speaker 1: farmer who keeps nocturnal hours and knows all of her

371
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,919
Speaker 1: eighties sheep by name, A woman who grew up with

372
00:22:40,960 --> 00:22:43,040
Speaker 1: two parents and a half brother in the country on

373
00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:46,600
Speaker 1: the Canadian border, and a divorce mom to three kids.

374
00:22:49,280 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, you know, it doesn't change who I am.

375
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: And that's it for this week's prognosis. Thanks for listening.

376
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 1: Do you have a story about help here in the

377
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,480
Speaker 1: US or around the world. We want to hear from you.

378
00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:12,440
Speaker 1: You can email me m Cortes at Bloomberg dot net

379
00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:15,560
Speaker 1: or find me on Twitter at bay Cortes. If you

380
00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:18,040
Speaker 1: were a fan of this episode, please take a moment

381
00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 1: to rate and review us. It helps new listeners find

382
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: the show. This episode was produced by Liz Smith. Our

383
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,880
Speaker 1: story editor was rich Shine. Thanks also to help team

384
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,120
Speaker 1: leader Drew Armstrong and Francesco Levie, whose head of podcasts

385
00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:32,679
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg. We'll see you in two weeks on April

386
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:36,720
Speaker 1: eleventh for our next episode,