Speaker 1: Family Secrets is a production of I Heart Radio. This January,
Speaker 1: Danny's taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets,
Speaker 1: visit Danny Shapiro dot com. Hey all, it's Danny here.
Speaker 1: I've been hard at work getting season three ready for you.
Speaker 1: That's going to launch on Thursday, February six, not too
Speaker 1: much longer to wait. In the meantime, it's been amazing
Speaker 1: to see so many family secrets pouring in through the
Speaker 1: special line we set up to record your stories. One
Speaker 1: Secret zero do keep it up. We love listening. But
Speaker 1: today I thought i'd share with you some of what
Speaker 1: I'm continuing to hear and see as I travel the
Speaker 1: country from my book and for this podcast. You guys,
Speaker 1: it's epidemic. I truly believe we're living in the era
Speaker 1: of the end of the secret, and so many of
Speaker 1: those secrets that are coming to light are family secrets.
Speaker 1: I see you when I'm doing an event from the stage.
Speaker 1: I notice your faces in the crowd. You the young
Speaker 1: woman with the direct gaze who radiates intensity. You're almost
Speaker 1: always someone who has just discovered a big DNA surprise,
Speaker 1: a late discovery adoptee, someone who is donor conceived. Whatever
Speaker 1: it is, the intensity, the aliveness, the hunger is unmistakable.
Speaker 1: You the couple holding hands tightly, who look frightened, confused,
Speaker 1: sometimes upset. You believed you were doing the right thing
Speaker 1: all these years, not telling your children the truth of
Speaker 1: their genetic identity. But now you're realizing that it isn't
Speaker 1: possible to keep that secret anymore, at least not for certain.
Speaker 1: So now what do you do. There are men who
Speaker 1: have just discovered kids they didn't know they had, women
Speaker 1: who put up a child for adoption when they were
Speaker 1: teenagers and never told a soul. Adult adoptees finding their
Speaker 1: birth mothers, sometimes with just a few key strokes. So
Speaker 1: many family secrets each year, the number just increases. A
Speaker 1: lot of that is due to DNA testing and how
Speaker 1: popular it's become. A lot of it is due to
Speaker 1: the Internet and how connected we all are. Lies and
Speaker 1: secrets become harder and harder to keep. The Me Too
Speaker 1: movement has eradicated another kind of secret, a cultural shift
Speaker 1: towards connection, community gathering, truth telling, the beginning of an
Speaker 1: understanding that the shame that thrumbs like a drumbeat under
Speaker 1: all these secrets is just a story. We're telling ourselves,
Speaker 1: here's what I'm seeing. Sometimes it's hard to tell the truth,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it's hard to hear it, but it is
Speaker 1: always better for us. It may not feel that way,
Speaker 1: not at first, not always, but in all of my
Speaker 1: conversations for Family Secrets, at the end, I asked my
Speaker 1: guests if they wished they hadn't discovered what they had,
Speaker 1: and not one of them has said yes, that they
Speaker 1: wished they had remained in the dark. Because when we
Speaker 1: know what's been hidden in the shadows, it's like the
Speaker 1: lights blink on. We understand more about ourselves and where
Speaker 1: we come from, what built us, what makes us who
Speaker 1: we are. There's tremendous liberation in that. There's freedom, there's beauty,
Speaker 1: there's grace, which is why I keep having these conversations
Speaker 1: and why I love connecting with all of you. Next week,
Speaker 1: we'll be back with more of your Family Secrets, and
Speaker 1: remember that on February six, our third season will drop.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to share these extraordinary guests and their journey.
Speaker 1: He's with you. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.