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Family Secrets is a production of I Heart

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Radio. This January,

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Danny's taking Family Secrets on the road. To

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get your tickets, visit Danny Shapiro dot

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com.

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Hey all, it's Danny here. I've

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been hard at work getting season three ready

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for you. That's going to launch on Thursday,

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February six, not too much

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longer to wait. In the meantime,

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it's been amazing to see so many

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family secrets pouring in through the special

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line we set up to record your

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stories. One Secret

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zero do keep it up. We

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love listening. But today

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I thought i'd share with you some of what I'm continuing

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to hear and see as I travel

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the country from my book and for this podcast.

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You guys, it's epidemic.

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I truly believe we're living in the era

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of the end of the secret, and

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so many of those secrets that are coming to light are

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family secrets. I

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see you when I'm doing an event from

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the stage. I notice your faces

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in the crowd. You the young

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woman with the direct gaze who radiates

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intensity. You're almost

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always someone who has just discovered

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a big DNA surprise, a

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late discovery adoptee, someone

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who is donor conceived. Whatever

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it is, the intensity, the

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aliveness, the hunger is

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unmistakable. You the

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couple holding hands tightly, who look

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frightened, confused, sometimes upset.

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You believed you were doing the right thing all

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these years, not telling your children

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the truth of their genetic identity.

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But now you're realizing that it isn't possible

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to keep that secret anymore, at

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least not for certain. So

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now what do you do. There

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are men who have just discovered kids they didn't

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know they had, women who

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put up a child for adoption when they were teenagers

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and never told a soul. Adult

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adoptees finding their birth mothers,

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sometimes with just a few key strokes.

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So many family secrets each

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year, the number just increases.

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A lot of that is due to DNA testing

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and how popular it's become. A

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lot of it is due to the Internet and how connected

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we all are. Lies and

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secrets become harder and harder to keep.

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The Me Too movement has eradicated another

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kind of secret, a cultural

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shift towards connection, community

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gathering, truth telling, the

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beginning of an understanding that the shame

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that thrumbs like a drumbeat under

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all these secrets is just

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a story. We're telling ourselves,

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here's what I'm seeing. Sometimes

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it's hard to tell the truth, and

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sometimes it's hard to hear it, but

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it is always better for us.

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It may not feel that way, not at first,

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not always, but in all

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of my conversations for Family Secrets,

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at the end, I asked my guests if

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they wished they hadn't discovered what they had,

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and not one of them has

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said yes, that they wished they had remained

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in the dark. Because when

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we know what's been hidden in the shadows, it's

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like the lights blink on. We

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understand more about ourselves and where

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we come from, what built us, what

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makes us who we are. There's

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tremendous liberation in that. There's

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freedom, there's beauty,

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there's grace, which is why

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I keep having these conversations and

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why I love connecting with all of

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you. Next

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week, we'll be back with more of your Family Secrets,

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and remember that on February six, our

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third season will drop. I can't

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wait to share these extraordinary guests

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and their journey. He's with you. For

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more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the

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I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or

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wherever you listen to your favorite shows.