Alex Wagner on identity, ancestry and belonging

Guest: Alex Wagner

Until the age of 12, ALEX WAGNER always thought of herself as all-American. But when a stranger asked her father if she was adopted, she started to more deeply consider her identity. She is the daughter of a Burmese mother and a white American father and she recently set out on a world-wide journey to explore her lineage, her family history and the degree to which one’s ancestry can shape an individual. She writes about her experiences in her new memoir, Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging. Wagner, who is a CBS News correspondent, co-host of Showtime’s The Circus and contributing editor at The Atlantic, joins us to talk about what she learned about herself, her family and our culture’s obsession with identity.