🎙️ Allyson Makes the Call

☎️ What would you say to a stranger who might be your biological father?

Eleven years ago, Allyson's mother dropped a bombshell: the man who raised her wasn't her biological father.

That night, still reeling from the news, Allyson recorded an audio diary. She never imagined anyone else would hear it.

🧬 For the next 11 years, she searched for answers. DNA tests, mysterious relatives, unanswered messages. Nothing seemed to get her any closer.

Then, a chance encounter over breakfast changed everything.

Don offered to help, and just 30 hours later, he had a name.

And Allyson? She did the one thing you're NOT supposed to do.

She picked up the phone and called him.

☎️ And she recorded the call.

In this very special episode of L.A. Calling, we hear Allyson's remarkable journey in her own words, from the raw shock of that first night to the extraordinary moment when a stranger answers the phone.

What happens next is unscripted, emotional, awkward, funny, and profoundly human.

🎧 Listen to the call that changed everything.

📬 Have a DNA mystery of your own?

Get in touch with Don:

📧 donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Instagram: @LACallingPodcast

🔎 Need help finding your biological family?

Heidi, the genealogist who helped Don crack Allyson's case, runs Finding Family Network.

🌐 findingfamilynetwork.org

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Fathers and Sons

In the first episode of LA Calling, two stories about fathers, sons, and the complicated things passed between them.

🎵 Act One: The Song

Bob Thiele Jr. tells the story behind Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”—a song written and produced by his father that would haunt, frustrate, and eventually reshape Bob’s life.

🎭 Act Two: Father of the Bride

A father talks about gaining a son, but in the process, losing a daughter.

🔗 Links

Bob Thiele Jr. on Instagram: @bobthielejr

BackStory at the Victory Theatre Center

LA Calling on Instagram

✉️ Contact Don: donNPE@icloud.com

🎶 Music heard in this episode includes:

• “What a Wonderful World” - Louis Armstrong

• “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” - Bob Thiele and His New Happy Times Orchestra

• “A Love Supreme” - John Coltrane

• “Love for Sale”- Miles Davis

Plus the LA Calling theme, written by Don Anderson & Bob Thiele Jr. Produced and performed by Bob Thiele Jr.

LA Calling was formerly known as Missing Pieces — NPE Life.

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Joanna grew up believing she was the miracle baby. Her two older siblings were adopted, but Joanna was the biological child her parents had waited years for. Then, when she was 15, her sister told her a secret that changed everything.

Also in this episode: a pretty big announcement. Missing Pieces is becoming LA Calling. Same feed. Same storyteller. A much bigger world of stories.

🧩 Joanna: TikTok — @Joannamommma 

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

📧 donNPE@icloud.com

⭐️ If you like the show, please rate and review

🎧 Thanks for listening

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🎙️ Uncle Clarence

Ed Hill grew up with a complicated family story. His mom married his uncle — technically, his dad’s sister’s ex-husband — and Clarence became the man who helped raise him.

Years later, an Ancestry DNA test made that already complicated family tree even more complicated.

This is a story about family secrets, identity, DNA, and one very unexpected ending.

❤️ Choosing Hope
https://choosinghopeproject.org

💜 Free Naloxone & Overdose Reversal Training
https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/hope-saves-lives-overdose-reversal-training-and-free-naloxone-kit

📚 Relative Strangers Anthology Launch
Sept. 12 at Village Well Books & Coffee
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anthology-launch-relative-strangers-tickets-1997393967124

📧 donNPE@icloud.com

📱 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

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🧩 In this episode of Missing Pieces, Don sits down with Alison, a sober solo traveler who has explored some of the most remote places in the world. A DNA test she took out of curiosity revealed that the man who raised her was not her biological father—and that the sister she grew up with was actually her half-sister.

Alison shares how the discovery shook her identity, led her to two more half-siblings, and forced her to reconsider everything she believed about her family, her heritage and even herself. It’s a powerful conversation about addiction, recovery, family secrets and finding the courage to keep searching for answers. 

🎧 Listen, follow, rate and review

📸 Missing Pieces Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

🌍 Alison’s Instagram: @alisonfromashes

💚 Choosing Hope Project: choosinghopeproject.org

🎬 Brothers in Arms: The Making of Platoon: Watch on Amazon

📧 Email Don: donNPE@icloud.com

🧩 Every Secret Has a Story

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🧩 In this episode of Missing Pieces, Don sits down with television host, journalist, adoptee, and adoptive mother Lisa Joyner. Lisa shares the story of searching for and meeting both of her biological parents, the emotional impact of finally seeing herself reflected in another person, and how her own adoption experience shaped the way she approached motherhood.

They also look back at Long Lost Family, the care that went into those powerful reunions, and Lisa’s new podcast, Plus One with Lisa and Morgan. 

I’d like to thank Jerry Hauser for letting us use his studio and graciously being our sound engineer!!

🎧 Listen, follow, rate and review
📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

📸 Instagram: @plusonewithlisaandmorgan

📸 Lisa's Instagram @mslisajoyner

📸 Morgan's Instagram @morganwalshy

📧 Email Don: donNPE@icloud.com
🧩 Every Secret Has a Story

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🧩 Relative Strangers

This week on Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Don talks with writer Laura Jenkins, whose essay appears in the new anthology Relative Strangers: Inheritance, Identity, and the Meaning of Kinship, edited by B.K. Jackson.

Laura shares her story of discovering she is an NPE and the emotional journey that followed — the shock, the questions, the search for truth, and the complicated process of making sense of identity when the story you were given turns out not to be the whole story.

Relative Strangers features 28 writers exploring family secrets, DNA discoveries, inheritance, identity, and what it means when a person who was once a complete stranger turns out to be close family.

You can follow Laura on Instagram at @lajenx
Visit Laura’s website at www.laurajenkinswriter.com
You can follow B.K. Jackson at @b.k.jackson

🎁 Don is also hosting a giveaway for copies of Relative Strangers. To enter, go to Instagram and follow the instructions on the giveaway post at @npe_life_podcast.

🎧 Listen to Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, NPE discoveries, donor conception, adoption, and the people left to make sense of family secrets.

📩 Contact Don: donNPE@icloud.com
📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

⭐ Please follow the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if Laura’s story moves you, leaving a rating or review really helps other people find the podcast.

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🧩 Analog Rick

In 1992, Rick set out to find his birth mother’s family without DNA tests, without Ancestry, without 23andMe, without Facebook, and without the internet as we know it.

All he had were a few pieces of information, some determination, and the willingness to follow a trail the old-fashioned way.

In this episode of Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Rick tells the story of how he found the missing pieces of who he was.

And make sure you listen to the end, when Don shares what happened after the interview — including how he finally uncovered the identity of Rick’s biological father, a man with a criminal past straight out of an old newspaper headline.

🎧 Listen to Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, NPE discoveries, donor conception, adoption, and the people left to make sense of family secrets.

📩 Contact Don: donNPE@icloud.com
📸 Instagram: @NPE_LIFE_Podcast

⭐ Please follow the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And if Rick’s story moves you, leaving a rating or review really helps other people find the podcast.

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Veronica From The Other Side

In this episode of Missing Pieces — NPE Life, Don talks with Veronica, who discovered in middle age that her father had two children outside of his marriage.

For NPEs — Not Parent Expected — adoptees, donor-conceived people, and others who uncover family secrets through DNA, the focus is often on the person making the discovery. But what about the family on the other side? What is it like to get the call that a stranger shares your father’s DNA? What happens when a secret you never asked to keep suddenly lands in your lap?

Veronica shares what it was like to learn that she had siblings she never knew existed, and how her family had to make room for a truth that changed the story they thought they knew.

🧩 Missing Pieces — NPE Life
Stories of DNA surprises, family secrets, and the search for identity.

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast
📧 Email: donNPE@icloud.com

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🧩 Christina’s Truth - LIVE 🎙️

On today’s episode of Missing Pieces, we hear Christina’s incredible story — the questions, the search, the emotions, and the years spent trying to understand where she came from.

But this episode takes a turn neither of us will ever forget…

Because during the recording itself…
I tell Christina who her biological father is. LIVE.

No script.
No warning.
Just one of the most real and emotional moments we’ve ever captured on this podcast.

🎧 Listen now.

✉️ donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Instagram: @NPE_LIFE_PODCAST

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🧩 Jamilia - Out of Anonymity 

Years ago, I did an episode called The Moment of Truth —
a collection of stories about that exact instant when denial disappears… and the truth hits.

Who you are.
Who your parents are.
No more guessing. No more stories. Just truth.

Jamilia was one of those voices.
And she didn’t just describe that moment — she nailed it.

But that moment?
That’s not the end of the story.

It’s the beginning.

🎧 Today, we hear what came after.

✉️ Reach out
donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Follow along
https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

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🧩 3 Sisters United

On today’s episode of Missing Pieces, we tell the story of June — raised in Canada by her grandparents, growing up with questions instead of answers.

As a teenager, she learns who her father is…
—or so she thinks.

What unfolds next connects three sisters, decades of silence, and the kind of truth that changes everything. This is one of those episodes that reminds you why this show exists.

🎧 Buckle up.

🍫 Support Choosing Hope (and make people very happy)
We’re raising funds with See’s Candies — because doing good should taste amazing.
Grab something sweet for someone you love (or yourself, no judgment):

👉 https://www.yumraising.com/store/spring-2026-spring-for-hope-sees-candy-fundraiser-4517/LisPog72533

🌱 Untangling Our Roots Summit
The conference that brings together the NPE, Donor Conceived, and Adoption communities under one roof:

👉 https://untanglingourroots.org/

✉️ Reach out
donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Follow along
https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

Thanks for listening.
Really. It matters.

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🎙️ Tonia – Dirty John’s First Wife

Today on Missing Pieces, I’m joined by Tonia Bales, the first wife of John Meehan, also known as Dirty John. 🧬 At one point in the episode, an unknown sibling comes into the story. 

Tonia has a new book out today — January 13, 2026:

📘 When You See It: How I Outsmarted & Outlasted Dirty John
🛒 Available wherever books are sold
👉 Amazon: https://a.co/d/2v1sdNR

🎧 Listen to Tonia’s podcast
The First Wife: John Meehan’s Reign of Terror
👉 https://www.audible.com/podcast/The-First-Wife-John-Meehans-Reign-of-Terror/B099BYMH4G?srsltid=AfmBOopq4Yu6okol_zuGIMPAG8mqVw3atXfQCK-1i61juepfZS0mJv6I

🧬 Untangling Our Roots
👉 https://untanglingourroots.org/

🧠 Amy Jauman – Projects & Work
👉 https://www.amyjauman.com/projects

To check out my new sister Tammi’s company please go to https://www.viverealestate.mx/

📩 Contact the show
Email: donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Follow on Instagram
👉 https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

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🎙️ Missing Pieces explores the stories of people who’ve discovered—or are still searching for—their "missing pieces".

In this episode, Don talks with Amanda, who grew up in South Texas always wondering why she didn’t look like her other siblings. Years later, DNA gave her the answer—and with it, she found her missing pieces.

🧢👕 Missing Pieces Merch
👉 https://missingpieces.printify.me/

🌳🧬 Untangling Our Roots Summit
👉 https://untanglingourroots.org/

📧 Email Don: donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Follow us: https://www.instagram.com/npe_life_podcast/

📸 Find Amanda: https://www.instagram.com/butterflylove1979/

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🎄✨ Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, everyone! ✨🎄

This is a very special episode. I take a moment to share a few things happening in my own life—and one hugecoincidence that stopped me cold. 🧩😳

It was one of those moments that feels too big to be random… the kind that makes you pause and think, “Okay, what is actually going on here?”

I don’t want to spoil it by saying more—so let’s get into the episode. 🎧➡️

🧢👕 Missing Pieces Merch
Support the show (and look good doing it):
👉 https://missingpieces.printify.me/

🌳🧬 Untangling Our Roots Summit
Learn more here:
👉 https://untanglingourroots.org/

📚 Book Recommendation: Buckeye
Find it here:
👉 https://patrickryanbooks.com/

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🎧 Missing Pieces – NPE Life

Today I’m joined by Australian actor David Field, whose world was shaken by a deathbed confession and a DNA truth decades in the making. 

🔗 Links Mentioned

• Every Family Has a Secret
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEqpbWR-ydk&t=32s

• The Secret Daughter (Amazon)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07L4CV52Q/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

• Convict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JLzLZnnO88&t=3706s

• Reel (Commercial – 2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEqpbWR-ydk&t=34s

Please download and listen to this podcast I started to produce...this episode is about how AI is helping transform preparedness. 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-response-force-multiplier/id1686185554?i=1000737543444

📬 Connect with Don
📧 donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

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✦ EPISODE: Shelby – Sister of NPEs ✦

Shelby shares the astonishing story of discovering not one, but two NPEs in her immediate family.
Born in Detroit and now settled in Tennessee, she brings warmth, humor, and reflection to a journey that proves DNA can connect — and complicate — in equal measure.

🧬 Secrets, surprises, and the search for truth — this is Missing Pieces.

–––
🎧 Follow on Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

📧 Contact: donNPE@icloud.com

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🎧 Missing Pieces
Welcome to another episode of Missing Pieces – NPE Life.
Today’s anonymous guest takes us from her childhood in Maine to a life-changing discovery just a few months ago. She’s brand-new to the NPE world and bravely shares what it’s like to stand at the very beginning of that journey.

✨ Listen in — it’s raw, real, and relatable.

📬 Connect with Don:
📧 donNPE@icloud.com

📸 Instagram: @npe_life_podcast

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🎧 Missing Pieces
Stephanie shares her remarkable journey from growing up in Detroit to discovering her true identity. She’s a born storyteller, very moving.

📖 A Penny on the Hood (her forthcoming book) — She's looking for representation. inquiries: nonpareve@gmail.com

📺 Watch her Cuba trip series: YouTube Playlist

📬 Connect with Don: donNPE@icloud.com
| @npe_life_podcast

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🎙 Welcome to Another Episode of Missing Pieces!

Today’s guest is Lisa Brenner — actor, writer, and producer — who bravely shares her own NPE/DCP journey through her brand-new film.

🎬 About the Film
Lisa’s movie, One Big Happy Family, explores the twists and turns of discovering unexpected family connections. It opens October 3rd in select AMC theaters nationwide. Get tickets and theater info at www.onebighappyfamilymovie.com
.

You can also watch the trailer on the site — or directly on Vimeo!

📲 Connect with Lisa & the Film

• Instagram: @thelisabrenner
  
  
• Instagram: @onebighappyfamilymovie
  
  

💌 Connect with Don
I’d love to hear from you — whether you just want to say hi or pitch your own story!

• Email: DonNPE@icloud.com
  
  
• Instagram: @NPE_LIFE_PODCAST

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