Dear Birth Mother
After waiting for Mr. Right (who has yet to arrive) and experiencing years of fertility treatments, Suzanne, a single woman in her 40s, decides to adopt an African-American baby.
Best Documentary: Gold2005 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition2005 / Dan Collison / Elizabeth Meister / Chicago Public Radio, USA
After waiting for Mr. Right (who has yet to arrive) and experiencing years of fertility treatments, Suzanne, a single woman in her 40s, decides to adopt an African-American baby.
Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister follow her for several months as she attends workshops designed to "teach white people to raise kids of color," goes on baby-shopping trips with Mom at Target, takes part in a critical rendezvous with a young mother at a pancake house, and, finally, a magical night at a suburban restaurant chain.
Dear Birth Mother won the Best Documentary: Gold Award in the 2005 Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition.
produced by
Together with his life and radio partner Elizabeth Meister, Dan Collison produces audio documentaries and song/stories that detail everyday life in America, work that has consistently garnered radio's top awards.
Elizabeth Meister quit her job at the phone company to volunteer for public radio show This American Life in 1998, when she started their award-winning website in exchange for a chance to learn how to make radio documentaries.