LA Calling

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 

📸 Insta...

🎙️ 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://choosinghope...

🧩 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 recon...

🧩 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 ...

🧩 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 i...

🧩 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.

A...

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 lik...

🧩 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 ...

🧩 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 en...

🧩 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...

🎙️ 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/2v1sdN...

🎙️ 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/

🌳🧬 ...

🎄✨ 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 ge...

🎧 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.youtu...

✦ 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...

🎧 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

🎧 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

🎙 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.onebig...

Welcome to another amazing episode of Missing Pieces – NPE Life

In this episode, Jake shares an incredible life story that’s equal parts jaw-dropping and inspiring — from growing up in a cult to discovering his biological father was a real-life private investigator.

We also feature archival footage used under the Fair Use doctrine as defined by U.S. copyright law. The footage comes from the documentary Vain Glory by...