Dr. Joe Bianco, Dr. Melissa Rizzo, & Wendy McVicker

When Stories Become Data: How Two Researchers Are Uncovering the Transformative Power of Adoption Narratives

That's exactly what Dr. Melissa Rizzo and Dr. Joe Bianco are exploring in their new research project—a qualitative analysis of The Anna Jinja Show’s episodes focusing on adoption and foster care experiences.

In this episode, they discuss:

• How they're analyzing guest narratives to identify themes around identity, trauma, and resilience
• The importance of truth-telling in healthy identity formation
• Post-traumatic growth: how pain can transform into purpose
• Why qualitative research using personal narratives matters

We also feature a special creative interchange segment with Athens Poet Laureate Wendy McVicker, who shares her moving poem about growth emerging from darkness and difficult circumstances.

Why This Episode Matters
For years, the host avoided talking about her own adoption story. She didn't have the language, the framework, or the community to help her process this fundamental part of her identity. When the host discovered Dr. Rizzo's dissertation research on adoptees searching for biological family, it opened her eyes to what she had been missing. Meeting both her and Dr. Bianco (who also happens to have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel—bonus points!) felt like finding fellow travelers on this journey.Their research validates what she experienced firsthand: sharing our stories creates connection, reduces isolation, and helps us grow together.

As Dr. Bianco noted during our conversation, those of us without certain lived experiences need to hear these stories to avoid "being an unwitting participant in the kind of society that alienates people in the first place."

Host’s Personal Note
One of the most powerful moments came when discussing how secrets and withheld information prevent healthy identity formation. As someone who operated "through the fog" for most of my life, the host understands now how accessing truth and community changes everything.

If you or someone you know is navigating adoption, foster care, or questions of identity and belonging, this episode offers both academic insight and deeply human wisdom.

Creative Interchange/Poem

What grows secretly in midwinter? by Wendy McVicker

What grows secretly 
in silence, what seeds dream 
in the darkness?
A stone on the sill promises
endurance. Sometimes
that’s all you need. Put
your head down, wait out
the storms and the wind.
Wait for clouds to once again
shape the shapeless sky, bring
rain to ease your thirst.
These winter dawns 
are as dark and hard
as stone, cold and withholding.
You remember that.
You remember a house
without heat, without warmth,
a house where your mother
haunted the back rooms 
and left you wandering 
the great hall in the cold.
You collected stones and named
them, planted a garden
around your bed. You sang
to ward off the shadows.
On the last day, you wrote,
“We have tomorrow bright
before us like a flame.”
You gathered your stones
and carried them to the shore.
In moonlight you fed them
to the sea. In moonlight
you sailed away.

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