Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Family Secrets

Two fires. Two Anitas. Countless questions. In order to understand her mother—and herself—Nina must reckon with a difficult and diffuse past.

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Season 11 of Family Secrets premieres next Thursday, November 7th.

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When Molly’s secret longings and buried desires become the basis of her marriage, she must decide how—and how much—to disclose. To her husband, her children, and herself.

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At just 17 years old, Alisson Wood began a dangerous entanglement with a creative writing teacher at her school, who gifted her a copy of Nabokov’s Lolita. To hear “Mr. North” tell it, Lolita is the ultimate love story—a narrative the young Alisson bought into, until she grew older and learned to see the tale for what it really is: a grim account of predation and abuse.

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Growing up in post-war America, Alexander Wolff had a vague sense that his father, Nico, and his grandfather, Kurt, had two very different wartime experiences. But it wasn’t until he was an adult that he began to understand just how divergent his half-Jewish grandfather’s, and his quarter-Jewish father’s, paths had been.

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Emma Ramos grew up in a deeply religious, and deeply patriarchal, town in Mexico, where carving out an independent life for herself—outside her parents’ expectations—was a constant negotiation. Which is why she hid the most traumatic thing that ever happened to her from her loved ones for more than a decade—until she found herself living under her parents’ roof again, in the midst of the pandemic.

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As a law student, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich was vehemently opposed to the death penalty, even in the most heinous of crimes. Yet their deeply-held beliefs were put to the test after watching the confession tape of a man convicted of the brutal killing and sexual assault of a six-year-old boy—the details of which felt all too familiar to Alex, an abuse survivor.

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Ly Tran’s father refused to accept any kind of weakness in his children—not even something as commonplace, and easily remedied, as poor vision. So when then-eight-year-old Ly brought a note home from school informing her parents she needed glasses, he flew into a rage—setting Ly up for years of struggle and secret-keeping as her eyesight continued to worsen, which impacted every facet of her life.

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What’s it like to live your life so deep undercover, handling secrets that are so sensitive, not even the people who know you best—not your friends, not your siblings, not your parents—can know what you’re up to? Ex-CIA agent Amaryllis Fox spent the better part of her 20s trying to keep WMDs out of the hands of global terror groups—until she became a mother and realized she couldn’t ask her baby daughter to live inside a secret world. 

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Join us for more incredible stories about what happens when long-held family secrets come to light. The new season of Family Secrets launches Thursday, April 1. 

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Dani continues her discussion with Dr. Yehuda about intergenerational trauma, and her fascinating new research into psychedelics as a potential treatment for patients suffering from PTSD.

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In this special episode, Dani speaks with noted trauma expert Dr. Rachel Yehuda about the controversial history of PTSD as a diagnosis, the disorder’s surprising physiological effects, and why the children of PTSD sufferers often show the same biological markers, despite never having experienced trauma themselves.

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In this special bonus episode, recorded as part of the Two Writers Talking virtual series, Dani and journalist Robert Kolker—author of the instant New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road—discuss the delicate work of writing about family secrets, whether they're your own or someone else's.

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Deep in Dina’s family lore is a story of a fire; someone burned a house down. But who? And why? After a lifetime of wondering, Dina finally hunts down the truth.

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In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

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Thank you for listening to season four of Family Secrets.

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David Ingber is a spiritual leader and father of three young kids, beloved by his large New York City Congregation. His wisdom and ability to comfort is sought after by thousands. In this episode, he learns that opening up and allowing himself to show his own vulnerability is part of his teaching and a great spiritual lesson.

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Julia McKenzie Munemo’s late father made his living by churning out trashy novels—that was about as much as she was willing to admit. But she had no desire to crack open any of the dusty paperbacks she inherited, until a nationwide reckoning made it clear she had no choice but to confront the racist legacy her dad left behind.

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During her second year at an elite New England boarding school, Lacy Crawford was brutally assaulted by two senior boys. When the extent of the damage they’d done became clear, the school placed the blame squarely on her. Years later, Lacy would learn just how hard the institution worked to silence her.

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For the first 40 years of her life, Jennifer Finney Boylan figured the price of living her truth would be much too steep; by opening up about who she really was, she assumed she’d lose everything, including the love of her life. But over time, it became clear that hiding who she really was had taken its own toll—on herself, on her family, and on her marriage.

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Nick Flynn was 7 years old when his house burned down. The official story, the one everyone laughed about, was that raccoons had knocked over the family’s Hibachi grill and set the house on fire. Decades later, Nick learned that’s not what happened at all—and started to understand the depth of his mother’s desperation.

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Outwardly, Susan Burton had it all—a degree from Yale, a thriving career, a loving husband and kids. Inside, Susan waged a war on herself, using food as a way to exert control over the discomfort she felt in her own skin.

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Lindsay Roemer assumed she’d metabolized, and mostly moved on from, the secret that had been kept from her most of her life—until an unexpected Facebook message from a man she’d never met changed everything she thought she knew about her father.

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The smart, opinionated, funny women who raised Saeed Jones—his mother and his grandmother—had a profound influence on his identity. But it was the things they couldn’t talk about that echoed the loudest with Saeed as he began to navigate adulthood, trying to figure out where he fit in as a gay Black man from the South.

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When Michelle gets a knock on her door one day in 2017, her life—and the lives of her loved ones—will be forever changed. What she learns that day will send her and her beloved sister down a harrowing and unforeseen path.

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Singer Kanene Pipkin always loved her mother, but they weren’t exactly close. Until one day her mother called with some news Kanene couldn’t wrap her head around—news that would change their relationship, and Kanene’s understanding of what it means to be a family, forever.

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Ruthie Lindsey attracted a massive following with her picture-perfect lifestyle shots on Instagram. But what those images didn’t show was everything that came before, including an accident that nearly killed her, a painkiller addiction that might have finished the job—and the unconditional love of a family determined to pull her out of the darkness.

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Ruthie Lindsey knows first-hand just how much pain might be hiding behind someone’s picture-perfect social media presence. Hear the rest of her story on the Season 4 premiere of Family Secrets, next Thursday, October 1.

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Get ready for more incredible stories about the secrets—both big and small—that shape us from the inside out. The new season of Family Secrets launches October 1.

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Dani checks in with a quick update on season 4. (Mark your calendars for October 1!)

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In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

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In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dani and Alicia continue their conversation about becoming the person you were always meant to be, and Alicia shares her strategy for moving forward when you find yourself at a crossroads—learn to feel out, and trust, the resounding yeses. (Alicia’s memoir, More Myself: A Journey, is out now.)

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On this very special episode of Family Secrets, Dani speaks with singer-songwriter Alicia Keys about living unapologetically, making art without compromise, and the women who kept her grounded when she became a household name at just 20 years old—her mother and her grandmother. (Alicia’s memoir, More Myself: A Journey, is out now.)

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Dani calls up Doree and Kate, hosts of the hit podcast Forever35, for an in-depth conversation about self-care, shifting priorities, and why it’s so important to keep a record of what you’re doing, thinking, and feeling during this time.

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Barrett and his wife Jane are both oncologists – they share a social world, a professional world, and a rich life together. But one thing is not shared—a secret that’s as heartbreaking as it is cataclysmic.

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In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

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In this bonus episode we hear from listeners in the Family Secrets community. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0.

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Dani and Liz respond to questions from the audience about shame, the power of the unthought known, and the growing community of people who find out later in life they were donor-conceived. 

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On this special live episode of Family Secrets, recorded in Los Angeles in January, Dani sits down with indie rock icon Liz Phair to talk about the stories we choose to tell ourselves—and how the act of writing can lead to a deeper, more nuanced understanding of both our pasts and the people we’ve become.

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Dani and Gretchen respond to audience questions — including one from a former anonymous sperm donor, who wonders where his loyalties should lie after he’s asked not to tell one of his biological children the truth about her origins.

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On this special live episode of Family Secrets, recorded in Philadelphia in January, author and podcast host Gretchen Rubin interviews Dani about uncovering the family secret that became the subject of her bestselling memoir Inheritance: that her beloved father was not related to her by blood. Gretchen and Dani discuss the aftermath of that discovery — including what it was like to forge a connection with her biological dad — plus the ethics of anonymous sperm donation, and what the rise of DNA testing means for those guarantees of anonymity.

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On part two of Dani’s conversation with Libby Copeland, Dani and Libby discuss the fallout on the other side of a major DNA revelation, and why DNA testing could make secrecy around a person’s origins a thing of the past.

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On this special bonus episode of Family Secrets, Dani speaks with Libby Copeland, author and journalist, about the psychological and emotional complexities that face families who have kept secrets, and families who have had secrets kept from them. This is an intimate conversation about the deepest parts of identity exposed by unexpected DNA results. 

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Dani and Bessel respond to questions from the audience about trauma, and how art—and writing in particular—can help people heal.

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In January, Dani hit the road for a series of live conversations with some of her favorite writers, artists, and thinkers. Her first stop: Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she sat down with renowned trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, for a discussion about how we move forward after traumatic events—a topic nobody could have predicted would apply to each and every one of us just a few months later.

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Growing up, Whit was extremely close with her mother. But when she becomes pregnant in her twenties, her mother extracts herself entirely; she spends the rest of her life pretending as if Whit simply does not exist. Why? To answer this burning question, Whit must dig and dig and dig.

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For years, Steven Romo just didn’t talk about the bleak landscape of his childhood—not with friends, and certainly not with his colleagues at the TV station where he works as an anchor. Until a headline that reminded him of his upbringing inspired him to open up about what he’s been through, giving everyone a glimpse at the pain he kept hidden beneath his polished, professional exterior. 

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In this special bonus episode, Dani speaks with Stephanie Wittels Wachs, actress, activist, and co-host of the hit podcast Last Day, which shines a light on the real human stories behind epidemics we usually only think about in terms of their staggering — yet seemingly abstract — statistics. Recording from their respective homes, Dani (sitting in her PJs in her son’s old room) and Stephanie (holed up in the closet that serves as her makeshift studio) discuss trauma, the collective grief we’re all feeling in this era of social distancing, and making meaning out of tragedy — which is exactly what Stephanie did after losing her beloved younger brother, the comedian Harris Wittels, to a heroin overdose.

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Janny Scott grew up on an 800-acre British-style estate outside Philadelphia with a loving, gregarious father who was always the life of the party. But underneath her father’s light exterior was a darkness he struggled to keep at bay—a lifelong effort that would eventually cause him to self-destruct.

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