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What happens when a father and daughter meet for the first time, in adulthood, and decide to build the relationship in public, in real time?

In this episode of Family Twist, Corey sits down with Joseph McGill Jr. and his daughter Charity Barriere Muhammad, who reunited just six months ago and are already preparing to share their story on stage together at Untangling Our Roots Summit 2026 in Atlanta, March 19–22, 2026.

Joseph is the founder and Executive Director of The Slave Dwelling Project, an effort that brings attention to the overlooked structures where enslaved people lived by arranging overnight stays in extant slave dwellings, creating space for truth-telling, dialogue, and public education. He is also the coauthor of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery, a deeply personal account of that work and what it reveals about American history, memory, and legacy.

Charity is a cultural storyteller, educator, author, and the visionary behind Gumbo for the Soul, blending ancestry, creativity, and community. In Corey’s conversation with Charity and Joseph, you’ll hear how reunion has expanded her sense of identity, including the way heritage and family history show up in food, traditions, and the stories we tell ourselves about where we come from.

Together, Joseph and Charity speak candidly about the early days of reunion, learning trust, holding space for hard truths, and what it means to build a relationship as two adults who both had full lives before they ever met. They also talk about what they hope others in the adoption, donor-conceived, and NPE communities take from their experience, especially those who are still searching, still processing, or still afraid to ask the next question.

Kendall will be attending Untangling Our Roots for the first time, and this episode is part preview, part love letter to the messy middle, where healing is real, but so is the work.

In this episode, we cover

• What six months of reunion can feel like, emotionally and practically
• Nature and nurture moments, when similarities show up in unexpected ways
• Trust-building after a lifetime without a parent-child relationship
• How Joseph’s work as a public historian shapes his view of legacy and family
• How food, recipes, and cultural inheritance become part of reunion
• Why therapy, patience, and “doing your part” matter in late discovery family connections
• What Joseph and Charity hope their on-stage conversation sparks for others at Untangling Our Roots

Guest spotlight

Joseph McGill Jr.
Founder and Executive Director, The Slave Dwelling Project.
Coauthor, Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery.

Charity Barriere Muhammad
Founder, Gumbo for the Soul, author, educator, cultural storyteller.

Mentioned in this episode

• Untangling Our Roots Summit 2026 (Atlanta, March 19–22, 2026)
• The Slave Dwelling Project
• Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery
• Gumbo for the Soul

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Last March, Corey attended Untangling Our Roots Summit in Denver for the first time. He went alone, unsure what to expect, and quietly wondering if he belonged there at all.

In this solo episode, Corey reflects on walking into a room where everyone already spoke the same language. Adoptees, donor-conceived people, NPEs, MPEs, birth parents, adoptive parents, partners, spouses, and allies, all in one space, without hierarchy or comparison. What began as a moment of imposter syndrome quickly turned into connection, recognition, and relief.

This year feels even more meaningful. Corey and Kendall are attending together, and both will be speaking. Corey will be interviewing filmmaker Lisa Brenner, whose work explores identity, truth, and family through storytelling. Kendall will be moderating a powerful panel, “Who Am I? Is This Me. A Male Perspective,” centering men’s voices in conversations about identity disruption and discovery.

This episode is an invitation. To anyone who has ever felt alone after a DNA discovery. To anyone still trying to understand where they fit. To anyone who needs to sit in a room where they don’t have to explain themselves.

Untangling Our Roots is the largest gathering of these communities anywhere in the world, and it only happens every other year. If you miss it this March, the next one won’t be until 2028.

You don’t need all the answers. You just need to show up.

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What happens after the truth comes out, when the search begins and there is no DNA test, no internet, and no clear roadmap?

In part two of this two-part episode, we continue our conversation with Marylee MacDonald as she takes us into the long, painstaking search for her birth family. This was a time before commercial DNA testing, when finding answers meant microfilm machines, legal notices buried in newspapers, and carefully rehearsed phone calls that could change your life in an instant.

Marylee shares how she searched for her birth mother after her adoptive mother’s death, navigating guilt, fear, and hope all at once. When she finally makes contact, she experiences something many adoptees describe but rarely get to feel. Mirrors. Voices that sound like hers. Siblings who feel instantly familiar.

But reunion is not a fairy tale.

Marylee opens up about being kept secret, introduced as a “family friend,” and hearing words no one ever wants to hear from a parent. She reflects on the complicated emotional terrain of reunion, where love, shame, pride, and distance can all exist at the same time.

And then comes another layer. Marylee also shares the story of finding the son she was forced to surrender as a teenager. What followed was not instant closeness, but something deeper. Time. Effort. Shared history. And eventually, a family that chose to make room for one another.

This episode lands during the holidays, and without planning it, Marylee leaves us with a powerful reminder of what connection can look like when the work is done. A full house. A crowded kitchen. Decades of memories made after years of separation.

What We Talk About in Part Two

Searching for birth family before DNA testing
Using microfilm and legal notices to find answers
Making the first phone call to a birth parent
Meeting siblings and finally seeing mirrors
The pain of being kept secret after reunion
Why reunion does not erase grief or shame
Finding a son surrendered in a closed adoption
Building real family history over time
What the holidays can look like after reunion

About Our Guest

Marylee MacDonald is an adoptee and author whose work explores adoption, identity, secrecy, motherhood, and reunion. Her writing reflects both the emotional cost of closed-era adoption and the long process of building real family connection after decades of separation.

Website

Book: Surrender: A Memoir of Nature, Nurture, and Love

Content Note: This episode includes discussion of adoption secrecy, family rejection, grief, and emotional distress. Please listen with care.

Connect with Family Twist

If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone who understands how family secrets shape identity. If you have a story of adoption, late discovery, or a family truth that surfaced years later, we would love to hear from you.

Family secrets are the ultimate plot twist.