Memoirist Carmen Rita Wong on Family Secrets, Identity and a Midlife Reckoning

Family secrets shape our lives before we even know they exist, as Carmen Rita Wong reveals in her memoir "Why Didn't You Tell Me?"

After learning at age 31 that her Chinese father wasn't her biological parent, Carmen set off on a quest to uncover both her true origins and her mother's motivations for concealing such a fundamental truth.

Part detective story, part emotional excavation—host Katie Fogarty and Carmen explore the layers of a story built on secrets and now told with unflinching honesty. We dive into the intricate terrain of mother-daughter relationships, cultural identity across Dominican and Chinese heritage, the pressures of assimilation in 1980s America, and why, as Carmen puts it, "when you bury the truth, you bury it alive."

A powerful exploration on finding peace without forgiveness, breaking generational patterns as a parent, and how memoir brings a wide-angle lens to universal themes of identity, the tangle of family relationships, and the search for belonging and clarity in midlife.

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