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.