Identical Strangers

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2016

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein were both born in New York City and adopted as infants. When they were 35 years old, they met and found they were “identical strangers.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Radiotopia.
0:02.0	From PRX.
0:05.0	From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries.
0:08.0	I'm Joe Richmond.
0:10.0	It's an old debate.
0:12.0	What is it that makes us us?
0:14.0	Our DNA or our life experiences?
0:17.0	Genes or environment?
0:19.0	Nature versus nurture. I spent most of my life in the nurture
0:23.4	camp. It just felt to me like such a large part of our personalities, our path in life, is shaped by
0:29.2	circumstances. But then something happened that made me change my mind. I had kids. Two girls,
0:35.6	born just 15 months apart. And they couldn't be more different.
0:39.3	It's been that way from day one.
0:41.3	They came out, printed a certain way.
0:43.3	One has the personality of a roller coaster.
0:46.3	The other one is steady.
0:47.3	One listens to Bruno Mars.
0:49.3	The other one likes Woody Guthrie.
0:51.3	And as a parent, I have to say it's a relief to feel like you don't
0:54.7	deserve too much blame or credit for your kid. My personal insight, however, hasn't seemed to put a
1:01.4	halt to the nature and nurture debate. But what if you could take two identical twins who share
1:07.0	100% of their DNA, and soon after they're born, you place each of them in different families,
	...

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