Publishing Details
Contact & Outreach
About This Podcast
The Parenting Different Podcast is the go-to show for adoptive parents who want to raise children who feel seen, heard, and truly valued. Hosted by Anna Bernacki, Director of Community at Parenting Different, this podcast blends expert insight with real lived experience from adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families.
Podcasting 2.0 Features
Explore Statistics
Recent Episodes
The Hidden Struggles of Raising Kids with RAD
This conversation delves into the challenges of parenting children with Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and the systemic issues surrounding the lack of understanding and resources for this…
S2E8 Healing After Failed Adoptions & Finding Hope
What happens when an adoption doesn’t go through? No one really talks about what comes next.In this deeply moving conversation, Valerie Marble shares the story behind the launch of Beyond the Match…
Adoption Ethics: Red Flags Every Parent Must Know
Adoption is often painted as a beautiful, selfless act, but what happens when we look beneath the surface? In this deeply honest and eye-opening conversation, Anna Bernacki sits down with birth…
Adoption, Identity, and the Search for Who We Really Are with Simon Benn
Simon Benn spent most of his life believing he had a “good” adoption story. Raised in a loving home, he didn’t carry the obvious wounds many adoptees describe. But at 40 years old, a simple…
Parenting Kids With Trauma: When Love Isn’t Enough
Melissa Smallwood’s story is layered with resilience, heartbreak, healing, and deep commitment to children from hard places. Removed from her home as a child and placed into foster care, Melissa aged…
Navigating Racial Incidents in Transracial Families
When racism makes headlines, transracial families feel it at home. What others may dismiss as politics often lands as something deeply personal for parents raising children of color.In this candid…
How to Fix Foster Care: One Brave Voice at a Time
The foster care system feels massive. Broken. Overwhelming. And if you’re a foster or adoptive parent in the thick of it, it can feel like your voice doesn’t matter at all.In this powerful…
Adoptee to Adoptive Mom: Identity, Grief & Healing the Brain
What happens when an adoptee becomes an adoptive mom?In this deeply honest conversation, Dolly Regier shares what it means to live on both sides of the adoption triad. Adopted from South Korea and…
S2E3 How Trauma Affects Eating in Foster and Adopted Kids
Eating struggles in foster and adoptive homes are rarely about food alone. In this powerful and deeply affirming episode, Anna sits down with Madison a registered dietitian and adoptive mom to…
Love, Loss, and Adoption as a Birth Mother with Janelle Basham (Part 2)
In Part 2 of this powerful conversation, Janelle Basham and host Anna move deeper into what adoption looks like over time when children grow up, technology changes everything, and honesty can no…
S2E1 Love, Loss, and Adoption as a Birth Mother with Janelle Basham (Part 1)
What does it really mean to choose adoption, and how does that decision stay with you for life? In Part 1 of this deeply honest conversation, Janelle Basham shares her story of becoming a birth…
Adoption & the Holidays
The holidays can bring warmth, traditions, and togetherness, but for adoptive families, they can also surface grief, trauma, sensory overload, and big emotions that don’t fit neatly into…
Breaking Cycles: A Foster Youth, Now an Adoptive Mom
In this powerful and deeply vulnerable episode, Lainey Hartley shares her extraordinary journey from childhood neglect, foster care, and kinship care to becoming a foster mom, adoptive mom, author,…
What Adoption Really Takes: Valerie’s Story of Loss, Hope & Openness
In this powerful conversation, Valerie Marble opens up about the winding, emotional path that led her into the world of adoption, first through heartbreak, then through unexpected connection, and…
Embryo Adoption Made Me a Mom: Abbey’s Journey Through Infertility & Adoption
In this powerful episode, Abbey Ramirez shares the winding, vulnerable, and hope-filled road that led her to motherhood through embryo adoption and eventually to welcoming twins through domestic…
S1E12 What No One Tells You About Infertility and Adoption: Julie Etter’s Story
In this powerful and deeply vulnerable episode of Parenting Different, host Anna Bernacki talks with Julie Etter, teacher, mom of five, and adoptive parent trainer, about the silent grief that so…
S1E11 The Reality of International Adoption: Jodi Slein’s Journey to Adopt Her Son
In this episode, we explore the reality of international adoption through the powerful story of Jodi Slein’s journey to adopt her son from Romania. Host Anna Bernacki sits down with Jodi, a parent…
S1E10 What Adoptees Need Most: A Conversation with Isaac Etter
Host Anna Bernacki welcomes Parenting Different founder Isaac Etter to break down the biggest misunderstandings adoptive parents have and what truly helps adoptees thrive. From trauma-informed…
S1E9 Growing Up Adopted: A Brother and Sister Look Back
In this powerful and personal episode, host Anna Bernacki sits down with her adopted brother Jon DeWitt for their first-ever honest conversation about what it was like growing up adopted in the same…
S1E8 Parenting Beyond Perfect: A Conversation with Alice Refauvelet
Host Anna Bernacki sits down with adoptive mom and advocate Alice Refauvelet to explore the messy, meaningful work of transracial parenting. Alice shares her journey through infertility and adoption,…
Frequently Asked Questions
Parenting Different has published 27 episodes since November 2025, covering topics in Kids & Family, Parenting.
Parenting Different is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 42m.
Sign up on Grep.FM to access contact details for Parenting Different, including email and social media links.
Similar Podcasts
Focus on the Family with Jim Daly
Focus on the Family
100 episodes
Good Inside with Dr. Becky
Good Inside
101 episodes
The Longest Shortest Time
Hillary Frank | Realm
285 episodes
The Wellness Mama Podcast
Katie Wells
1,069 episodes
The Carpool with Kelly and Lizz
The Car Mom LLC / tentwentytwo Projects
372 episodes
Respectful Parenting: Janet Lansbury Unruffled
JLML Press
443 episodes