Episode 40 - Ryan Jon: Adopted…and Adept at Stirring Emotions

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Welcome to The Australian Adoption Podcast, where we explore the stories that shape us; stories of identity, resilience, and the courage it takes to search your truth.

Today’s guest is someone many of you will recognise, not just from the hugely popular Toni and Ryan Podcast, but from a more personal journey that’s touched hearts across Australia and beyond.

Ryan Jon is a storyteller, a broadcaster, a podcaster, a husband and father and an adoptee. In 2017, he shared a heartfelt video on Mother’s Day: a message to the birth mother he’d never met, filled with gratitude, hope, and love. In November 2024, that search came to an end; not in the way Ryan expected, but in a way that brought heartbreak, grief but also a sense of healing.

In this episode, Ryan reflects on the moment he found out that his birth mother, Julie, had passed, and the unexpected reunion with her family that followed. He also talks about discovering his birth father through a DNA test, connecting instantly through humour, quick wit and similar career paths and interests with him and his half brothers, and how becoming a dad to Mabel has shifted things he thought he knew about love, sacrifice, and appreciating the present moment.

This was a conversation about curiosity, connection, and the quiet power of finding peace in a journey of identity that had an unexpected finality to it. 

This was a warm, honest, and full of heart conversation. Here’s my chat with Ryan Jon.

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The Australian Adoption Podcast with host Nadia Levett!