In this deep-dive conversation, April Dinwoodie sits down with Sullivan Summer, an independent scholar, poet, and adoptee rights advocate, to unpack the layers of the adoption experience. From the "luck" narrative to the realities of transracial adoption, they explore how media and pop culture shape our understanding of family. Sullivan shares her work with Adoptees for Family Preservation and her own podcast, Adoption Pop!, highlighting why disrupting traditional narratives is essential for authentic storytelling and systemic change.
The "Luck" Complex: Why the concept of being "lucky" in adoption is a double-edged sword that often obscures the loss inherent in the experience.
Media & Representation: How pop culture frequently misrepresents adoption, and how we can use those same tools to reclaim the narrative.
Transracial Dynamics: Navigating the intersection of race, privilege, and marginalization within adoptive families.
The Power of Community: Why adoptee-centered spaces are vital for support and advocacy.
The Business of Adoption: Understanding adoption as a $25 billion industry and the implications for family preservation.
00:00 Introduction and Community Connection
01:09 Exploring the Myth of "Luck" in Adoption
09:14 The Realities of Transracial Adoption
20:10 Misconceptions and Media Representation
37:30 Introducing the Adoption Pop! Podcast
49:05 Authenticity and Vulnerability in Storytelling
58:31 Closing Lessons: The Importance of Listening
Sullivan Summer is a domestic, transracial adoptee and a leading voice in adoptee rights advocacy. She is an independent scholar, critic, essayist, and poet whose work has been featured in various literary and academic outlets. Sullivan serves as the President of Adoptees for Family Preservation, a nonprofit dedicated to adoptee-centered storytelling, and hosts the Adoption Pop! podcast. Her 2025 chapbook, Performance Anxiety, was published by Black Sunflowers Poetry Press.
Connect with Sullivan:
Website: sullivansummer.com
Instagram: @thesullivansummer | @adoptionpoppodcast
Substack: Sullivan Summer on Substack
Podcast: Adoption Pop!
Nonprofit: Adoptees for Family Preservation
Produced by: April Dinwoodie & Kyle Ferreira
Engineered and Edited by: Kyle Ferreira
Theme Music: Kevin Lowther (aka Big Lux)
In this powerful tenth installment of How to Love a Transracially Adopted Person, host April Dinwoodie marks ten years of writing at the intersection of Valentine’s Day and Black History Month with a clear and urgent message: love without protection is no longer enough.
What began as a reflection on romantic love and adoption has evolved into something deeper — a reckoning with identity, loss, belonging, race, safety, and responsibility.
In this episode of Born in June, Raised in April, April examines the incomplete love narrative often attached to adoption and challenges the cultural myth that adoption is a simple, tidy love story. Drawing from her lived experience as a Black woman raised in a white family, she explores how love without truth creates fragility — and how love without protection creates harm.
April shares personal reflections on growing up deeply loved, yet not always protected from racial harm. She unpacks the emotional tension between gratitude and grief, belonging and rupture, and calls parents, professionals, and institutions into a more courageous understanding of what real love requires.
This episode is both personal and universal — a call-in to anyone who claims to love Black and Brown people, especially Black and Brown children.
Because in this moment, protection is not optional.
It is the measure of love.
adoption, transracial adoption, protective love, identity, race, belonging, grief, Black identity, family dynamics, racial justice, advocacy, parenting, adoption narrative, loss, responsibility
Adoption is not a simple love story — it is a complex human story that requires truth.
Gratitude and grief can coexist from the very beginning of an adopted person’s life.
Silence in the face of racial harm is not neutral.
Loving a Black or Brown child requires racial awareness and active protection.
Protective love requires courage, advocacy, and structural accountability.
Love that avoids truth is fragile; love that refuses protection is incomplete.
“Love without protection is no longer enough.”
“Silence is not neutral to a Black child.”
“Exceptional love is not safe.”
“Survival skills are not the same as protection.”
“Protection is not a statement. It is structure.”
00:00 Ten Years at the Intersection
03:40 The Incomplete Love Narrative of Adoption
12:15 Gratitude, Grief, and the Both/And
18:30 When Love Isn’t Connected to Protection
25:10 The Responsibility of Transracial Adoption
32:45 Protection as the Measure of Love
36:50 A Call-In to Parents, Leaders, and Institutions
In this episode of "Born in June, Raised in April," host April Dinwoodie reflects on the journey of the podcast as it celebrates its 10th season. Joined by executive producer Kyle Ferreira, they discuss the significance of the conversations held over the years, particularly those with April's parents, which have profoundly shaped her understanding of adoption and identity. April emphasizes the importance of having difficult conversations about adoption, grief, and family dynamics, highlighting how these discussions can foster deeper connections and understanding among families. The episode also touches on the unique framework of using the calendar as a tool for exploring adoption-related themes, allowing for a structured approach to discussing complex emotions and experiences.
Keywords:
adoption, identity, family, podcast, conversations, grief, family dynamics, communication, personal journey, calendar framework
Takeaways:
Conversations with my parents have been transformational.
It's important to communicate experiences of adoption and family separation.
Adoptive families can relate to feelings of being 'othered' in their own lives.
The calendar serves as a universal framework for discussing adoption.
Both joy and grief can coexist in adoption celebrations.
Sound bites:
"Conversations with my parents have been transformational."
"It's about integrity in a way."
"Sometimes you have to run towards the burning building."
Chapters
00:00 Celebrating 10 Years of the Podcast
02:01 Transformational Conversations with Family
12:40 The Calendar as a Framework for Adoption
18:34 Navigating Joy and Grief in Adoption
22:10 What Adoption Can Teach the World
Calendar Conversations Podcast
Together on the Journey
https://www.transracialjourneys.org/family-camp/