Lost and Found: Caroline Topperman on Family, Identity, and the Search for Home

The Not Old Better Show, Family History, Genealogy Interview Series

Welcome to The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast. Today’s show is brought to you by Acorns. The Not Old Better Show. Acorns. ..I’Acorns makes it easy for everyone to start saving and investing

What does it mean to belong? Is home a place, a language, a history—or something else entirely?

Caroline Topperman thought she knew. She grew up speaking Polish, knowing her family’s deep roots in the country, and believing that moving there with her husband would feel like coming home. But instead of familiarity, she found disconnection. Instead of certainty, she found questions. The result of that search is her stunning new book, Your Roots Cast a Shadow: One Family’s Search Across History for Belonging.

Caroline’s story is not just about her journey—it’s about the generations before her who crossed borders and survived wars, about ancestors who built roads in Afghanistan, fought political battles in Poland, and escaped the horrors of World War II. It’s about what gets passed down through family stories, and what gets lost in translation.

She uncovered letters, documents, and even an entire book her grandfather wrote—one referenced in The Holocaust Museum and Stanford’s Hoover Institution. But she also found the gaps, the missing voices, the untold truths. And through it all, she wrestled with a question so many of us face: Do we ever truly find a home, or do we create it?

This is an unforgettable conversation about identity, history, and the invisible ties that connect us to our past. If you’ve ever wondered how much of your family’s story shapes who you are today, this episode is for you.

Let’s welcome to The Not Old – Better Show, writer, entrepreneur, and world traveler, Caroline Topperman.

And now, your host, the award-winning Paul Vogelzang.

My thanks to Acorns for sponsoring today’s episode. Acorns.  Acorns makes it easy for everyone to start saving and investing—my thanks to Caroline Topperman

and her time and patience and willingness to answer our questions.  My thanks to you our wonderful audience here on radio and podcast.  Be well, be safe, and Let’s Talk About Better™ The Not Old Better Show on radio and podcast. Thanks, everybody, and we’ll see you next week.