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Our American Stories

Generational Trauma Ends With Me: One Father’s Fight to Heal

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, what does it take to stop the cycle? Jason Wolfe knows. As a child, he lived through abandonment, poverty, and the kind of instability no kid should endure. As an adult, he became a tech pioneer, a single father, and a man determined to rewrite his family story. His journey is a powerful testament to resilience, healing, and what real fatherhood looks like when you refuse to pass your pain on to the next generatio

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.5

Guaranteed human.

0:14.1

And we continue with our American stories.

0:17.5

And now, Robbie brings us the story of Jason Wolfe.

0:22.5

He created the first online coupon site and was the first to seriously develop software that tracked web browsing using

0:28.1

what are known as cookies. Jason is here to bring us the story of becoming the father

0:33.2

that he never had himself. Here's Jason.

0:46.3

Okay. that he never had himself. Here's Jason. You know, I think my very first memories were when I was living in Virginia.

0:51.9

My dad worked in the CIA, so we lived in a place called Reston, Virginia,

0:56.0

which was like a new suburb of Washington, D.C. back then.

1:02.0

I could remember having a bike and learning how to ride a bike with my dad, and I must have been maybe three or four.

1:10.0

And I remember going down this little hill that he was pushing me down and, you know, basically being scared and then being happy that I learned how to ride a bike.

1:23.6

So, yeah, it was my earliest memory.

1:34.3

Something that happened in my life that I remember that was like a pivotal thing. Probably when my mom and dad got separated. By then it was

1:39.3

1975, so I was six or so. And I could remember my dad driving, he had a Volkswagen, so like a station wagon,

1:51.0

Volkswagen, loaded all of us up into this Volkswagen, drove up to Connecticut, and all of us, meaning my brother and sister and I,

1:59.0

drove us up to Connecticut and dropped us off with my grandparents,

2:02.6

with my mom.

2:03.6

My mom was acting strange.

2:04.6

I didn't know what was going on.

2:06.6

And then he left, and that was the beginning of their divorce.

2:11.6

And shortly after that, my mom,

...

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