Family Secrets

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thank you for making season two of Family Secrets such an amazing success. If you have a secret you’d like to share, please call 1-888-SECRET-0. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kiese grew up in Oxford, Mississippi —the only child of a single mother, a black boy who struggled with weight. His childhood and adolescence were marked by two daily assaults: that of American racism, and America’s obsession with weight. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a privileged New England family living by the sea, with a glamorous, wild mother who has a long affair with her husband’s best friend, and makes her daughter — Adrienne — her ally. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up in suburban New York, Joanna was always aware of two pastel portraits of children she assumed were just part of her parents’ art collection. But sometimes she would hear her mother on the phone, crying, and referencing “the accident.” Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At some point in our childhood we all met the moment where we had to summon the courage and strength to stand up to the difficulties of the world. But imagine being 8 years old and finding yourself in the car with your mother in the middle of the night as she hands you a map and speeds away into the unknown. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up Noah knew his grandparents had survived the Holocaust, but his questions had always been sidelined. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frank's father was a “proud Willie Loman” character who sold stuff — cars, printing presses, whatever needed selling. He was a glad-handing guy, “the mayor of everything.” And he was living a double life. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bridgett grew up in Detroit in the '60s in a vibrant house with a mother who was genius with numbers. But for most of her life, Bridgett kept her mother's genius a secret. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Bill, who grew up in a traditional, southern family, first met his wife he recognized the outsider in her – that she too felt isolated and different. Together the two of them banded together in solidarity and love and took on the world. But when Bill was 45, they came to terms with the realization that Bill wasn’t living truthfully. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We forget that our parents have their own lives, desires and, in some cases, secret lives that they’ve covered up in order to protect the family. But what happens when your elderly parent develops dementia, forgets to cover his tracks, and in doing so unleashes a Pandora’s box of secrets about his sexual escapades and misdeeds? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro discusses the launch of Family Secrets and shares a sneak peek of next week’s episode. Beginning next week Family Secrets resumes its weekly publishing schedule on Thursdays. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you kept a secret because it was so painful it would crush your young children? What if you were terminal and chose not to tell them? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode, Dani Shapiro talks with best-selling author, speaker and therapist Lori Gottlieb about the emotional toll of secrets. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out the trailer for season two of Family Secrets, from best-selling author, Dani Shapiro. Season two premieres on Monday, August 19th. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the second part of this special episode, Dani sits down with Nora McInerny from the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special episode Dani sits down with Nora McInerny from the podcast Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro and Sam Dingman from the podcast, Family Ghosts, discuss the family secret Sam revealed on his podcast. Season 2 of Family Ghosts launched on May 15. Familyghostspodcast.com Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro and Brian Koppelman of “Billions” talk about the extraordinary speech on secrets and shame that the character, Chuck, delivers on “Billions.” Find out how vulnerability and truth fuel creativity. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of you have filled our inbox with powerful stories. To that end, we’ve set up a phone number for listeners of Family Secrets. And we invite you to tell your secret, your story, that we can share with this community. If you’d like to share your family secret story, call the Family Secrets hotline at 1-888-732-7380 Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro shares her experience of being out on the road on her book tour, hearing from readers and listeners about their family secrets. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this bonus episode, Dani shares an excerpt from her New York Times best-selling novel ‘Inheritance.’ Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This bonus episode features an edited conversation between Dani Shapiro and journalist and genealogy expert, Jennifer Mendelsohn, at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sylvia Boorstein grew up in a loving, close-knit family. But in the background lingered a grief-filled secret. As an adult she allowed herself to explore the secret, and one day, on a hunch, visited the cemetery where her mother was buried. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

While walking her dogs one evening Laura Engel received a life-changing email that transported her back to a home for unwed mothers in New Orleans. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tim Ehrlich's secret nearly killed him. But he and a group of other men with the same secret found the courage to come forward and reveal it, and in doing so heal a lifetime of pain. (Warning this episode contains explicit information about sexual abuse). Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jane Mintz's parents were forthright about her being adopted, but not about her birth mother's identity. As an adult, Jane found her biological mother and discovered many more secrets, the cost of keeping them, and why we all deserve to know where we come from. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if, as a child born into a white Jewish family, anytime someone remarked about your skin color, a story was told about a distant Sicilian grandfather? Even if it was obvious that wasn't the whole story? Lacey Schwartz talks about what it's like to live in an alternate universe of knowing-not knowing your own secret. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Debbie Millman's story is one of extraordinary resilience in the face of trauma and the redemptive power of love and strength found in the unlikeliest of places. (Warning: this episode contains explicit information about sexual abuse.) Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a child, Steve Lickteig was told that he was adopted. But that didn't turn out to be entirely true, or even half of the story. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine living in one of the whitest enclaves in America, so white that just four people of color were recorded by the census bureau. Now imagine that your father "slipped over the color line" to be there. Bliss Broyard discusses her family secret and how it formed her life, past and present. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Growing up Jim Graham never felt at home in his father's house. But it wasn't until he was well into adulthood that a family secret revealed why. For two decades Jim's tenacity led him through the maze of the Catholic Church archives to learn the truth of his origins. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author Dani Shapiro reveals what it was like to, by chance, discover a shocking secret about herself, and what this secret taught her about identity, family, and new beginnings. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro reveals what it feels like to uncover a family secret and how that secret leads to self-exploration. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani Shapiro dared to tell her family secret. In return, others told her theirs. Explore how family secrets shape us, distort us and … liberate us. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.