Family Secrets

Addiction breeds denial, in both the addict and his loved ones. And when that addiction comes wrapped in a busy, successful, ambitious package like Eilene Zimmerman’s ex-husband, a respected Silicon Valley attorney, it’s especially easy to ignore the warning signs. Until it’s too late. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Bernard never felt close to her judgmental, domineering father, who, for most of her life, denied he’d ever been unfaithful to her mother. It wasn’t until her dad’s sudden death that Emily began the process of getting to know the woman who caused her family so much pain: her father’s longtime mistress. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do you do when you suspect that your own brother is to blame for the seemingly random acts of violence sending shockwaves through the country? Do you keep it to yourself in order to protect him? Or do you turn him in, potentially saving the lives of hundreds of strangers, but putting him at risk of a death sentence? David Kacyznski talks about his impossible choice, and the unlikely friendship he forged in the wake of his brother’s destruction. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a child, Ariana Neumann stumbled upon a strange photo of her father, tucked away in a secret box he kept in his workshop. It was undeniably him, and yet the name in the caption didn’t belong to the man she grew up with. Decades later, Ariana inherits this box and the documents it contains, using them to slowly chip away at the mystery of who her father really was and the lies he had to tell in order to survive. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Even as a young child, Michael Hainey could sense that there was more to the story of his father’s death. But it wasn’t until he stumbled upon a small detail in an obituary—that his father died “after visiting friends”—that he began to understand the lengths those friends went to protect his father’s reputation, and to protect his family from the truth. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Get ready for more inspiring, provocative, and moving conversations about identity, forgiveness, and the meaning of family, featuring incredible guests like David Kaczynski, the Unabomber’s younger brother, and Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Steve Jobs’s first-born. The new season of Family Secrets with Dani Shapiro launches next Thursday, February 6. 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. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0. This January, Dani’s taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets, visit danishapiro.com. 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. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0. This month, Dani’s taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets, visit danishapiro.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Big news, Family Secrets fans: there’s a new season headed your way in just a few weeks (the first episode drops February 6—mark your calendars!) ‘Til then, it seems as though there’s no end to the number of secrets Dani continues to encounter while she’s traveling around the country for her book. Dani shares what she’s learned from her conversations with her podcast guests, her readers, and Family Secrets listeners over the past year—and why she thinks the end of the era of the secret is upon us. 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. To share your secret, call 1-888-SECRET-0. This month, Dani’s taking Family Secrets on the road. To get your tickets, visit danishapiro.com. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.