Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life
Behind every put-together exterior is a chapter most people never see.
If you’ve ever felt alone in your own story, especially in the middle of it, this is a place where those unseen chapters are spoken out loud.
Not the version that made it onto a stage. Not the polished takeaway or the neatly packaged lesson.
Hidden Chapters is a storytelling podcast that goes back further. To the grief that didn’t come with a lesson yet. The identity crisis in the middle of the night. The fear, the silence, the in-between, the raw and unresolved moments most people don’t talk about.
Hosted by Genevieve Kruger, each episode invites guests to share the parts of their story that are often left out. Not because the ending doesn’t matter, but because most of us are still living in the middle, and that part deserves its own space.
This is a show about the messy, complicated, tender, and deeply human parts of life that rarely get airtime because they don’t fit neatly into the stories we present to the world.
Hidden Chapters exists to honor the stories we don't always see, so you don't feel alone in yours.
Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life
☀️ Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series | Laura Engel Part 1
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Send me a message via text or voicemail!
☀️ As part of the Hidden Chapters Summer Replay Series, we’re revisiting conversations that shaped the heart of this podcast, stories that continue to reflect the themes introduced in the Season 3 bridge trailer. ☀️
🎙️ Episode Summary PART 1:
Laura Engel was seventeen when she got pregnant, unmarried, in Mississippi in 1967. Her family sent her to an unwed mothers' home in New Orleans for five months. She signed papers she didn't want to sign. She then came back home to her parents house and was expected to just keep going on with her life.
She did that...for fifty years.
🎧 In Part 1 of our conversation, Laura shares what her experience of being pregnant, the months living at the home, and what the next fifty years looked like carrying a child she never forgot. We end on a cliffhanger: the son she had to give away, Jamie, now named Richard, finally found her!
📖 Laura's Hidden Chapter Moment:
The pregnancy, the unwed mother home, and giving up her baby, are all parts people can only imagine. The hidden chapter is what came after. Laura walked back into her life and nobody every spoke of it again. Not because she'd healed, but because that was how it was supposed to be.
🔗 Resources & Links
Include these in your episode show notes so listeners who connect with Laura’s story can find support and community:
Laura’s Links
• Website: lauralengel.com (includes a Starter Guide for finding a lost loved one)
• Book: You’ll Forget This Ever Happened available on Amazon and through She Writes Press
• First podcast appearance: Dani Shapiro’s Family Secrets — available on Laura’s website
Adoption & Birth Parent Resources
• CUB (Concerned United Birthparents): cubirthparents.org — support for birth parents
• Adoption Knowledge Affiliates: adoptionknowledge.org — education and advocacy across the adoption triad
• ISRR (International Soundex Reunion Registry): isrr.org — mutual consent reunion registry
• DNA Detectives (Facebook group) — volunteer search angels to help adoptees and birth parents connect
• Adoptee Rights Law Center: adopteerightslaw.com — advocacy for open original birth certificates
For Adoptees Seeking Records
• Many states are gradually opening access — check your state’s current law at adopteerightslaw.com/map
• Ancestry.com and 23andMe DNA testing remain powerful tools for connection
Grief & Suicide Loss Resources
• Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors: allianceofhope.org
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: afsp.org | Crisis line: 988
Podmatch.com
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
🌐 Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ and stay connected!
🎙️ Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger
🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay
