{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/690534bf3906f8011add9159/699209564d911476d8b7d28e?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"S1E16 Unraveling Cassandra","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/690534bf3906f8011add9159/1771178270371-b59a3b7f-9471-4b91-8d3b-8406b469e471.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p><strong>S1 E16 – Unraveling Cassandra - </strong>This episode is a powerful meditation on truth, belonging, and the slow work of integration. She reminds us that identity isn’t rebuilt overnight—and that learning who you are is often a lifelong process, especially when the truth arrives after everything else is already in motion.</p><p><br></p><p>Cassandra’s story begins on what she calls her “re-birthday”—the night a DNA test revealed the truth about her origins and quietly dismantled everything she thought she knew about herself. What followed wasn’t a single moment of realization, but years of unraveling, re-integration, and learning how to live honestly inside a body that suddenly held a different history.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In this deeply reflective conversation, Kara and Cassandra explore how donor conception, secrecy, and late discovery reshape identity—not just intellectually, but emotionally, relationally, and culturally.</p><p><br></p><p><strong><u>SHOW NOTES</u></strong>&nbsp;</p><p>Kara and Cassandra discuss:</p><ul><li>The shock of realizing the story of her conception was never disclosed</li><li>Navigating parental secrecy and the emotional aftermath of planned silence</li><li>Meeting her genetic father and donor-conceived siblings</li><li>The life changing impact of learning she is half Ashkenazi Jewish</li><li>Grief for a cultural inheritance hidden from your childhood—and the pull to reclaim it</li><li>Rebuilding identity after truth arrives late</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Cassandra speaks with care for everyone involved, even as she names the cost of secrecy and delayed truth. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>","author_name":"Kara Rubinstein-Deyerin & Alan Katz"}