From In the Dark: The Journey

Hi, it's David Remnick, and this is a bonus episode of the New Yorker Radio Hour. It's the beginning of a new season of In the Dark, the New Yorker's investigative podcast. This time, staff writer Ava Kaufman explores how a wealthy Los Angeles couple obtained dozens of children all born to surrogates, and she uncovers a dark scandal that could have consequences for the entire industry of surrogate birth. It's an astonishing story and it's called The Journey.

Here's episode one Alrighty guys, so I know it's been a while. Uh my name is Kayla. If y'all are just now stumbling upon my page, I am 26 years old, I live in Texas and this is my first time being a gestational uh surrogate. So I'm kind of sharing my experience, but um last year I started watching videos posted online by a woman in Corpus Christi, Texas.

This will be my fifth pregnancy. I have four bio kids. I'm very new at YouTubing, so bear with me, I still getting the hang of actually speaking and looking at the camera making videos. Kayla Elliott was about to carry a child for strangers. She figured, about nine months of work, and then it'd be over.

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