Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Geopats Abroad : Chats with expats, immigrants, and locals
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A German American Household & Life Abroad in China and Thailand: S11E4 | 25 Aug 2022 | 00:38:11 | |
Can growing up with an immigrant parent change the way you experience life abroad as an adult? Chelsea grew up in Tennessee with a German mother, then built an expat life in Asia, giving her a new perspective on what immigrant parents pass on to their children. Listen for:
How Can Growing Up as the Child of an Immigrant Shape Expat Life? Growing up with an immigrant parent can make life abroad feel possible because another country is already part of family life. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Chelsea describes growing up in Clarksville, Tennessee, with an American father and a German mother from Aachen. Her family traveled to Germany about every two years, often staying for a month, making international travel and cultural differences familiar before Chelsea became an expat. After graduating with a history degree in 2010, Chelsea started questioning whether restaurant work or a conventional desk job suited her. Teaching English abroad let her test a teaching career while seeing more of the world. Chelsea moved to Nanjing, China, in 2011, beginning a decade abroad. Her immigrant-family background didn’t prepare her for every challenge, but it made living outside the United States feel imaginable. How Can Living Abroad Change the Way Adult Children Understand Immigrant Parents and Assimilation? Living abroad can make an immigrant parent’s culture shock easier to understand because the adult child finally experiences being the outsider. In Geopats Abroad, Chelsea explains that her German mother moved to the United States without speaking English and focused on assimilation. She eventually chose English rather than German as the family language, although German food such as schnitzel, Jäger sauce, cucumber salad, and goulash remained part of Chelsea’s childhood. Chelsea’s perspective changed when her mother visited her in China. Chelsea could speak enough Chinese to manage daily life, and people in her neighborhood knew her. Watching her mother become the confused newcomer helped Chelsea reinterpret childhood conflicts about why their family did things differently. Chelsea realized that she and her mother had once been learning how to be American at the same time, only at different ages. Expat life gave Chelsea a new understanding of assimilation, culture shock, and what her mother had navigated while raising children in the United States. How Do Expat Parents Raise Third-Culture Kids Across Countries, Languages, and Cultures? Expat parents can raise third-culture kids by making room for several languages, cultures, and identities at once. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Chelsea had moved from Shanghai to Bangkok for a three-year international-school contract. Her 18-month-old daughter had been born in China and was beginning life in Thailand. Chelsea is American with German family roots, while her husband is from Cameroon, a French-speaking country. They were considering teaching their daughter French, but Chelsea didn’t want to prescribe one cultural identity. She wants her daughter to keep what feels meaningful from the cultures around her and communicate comfortably with people from different backgrounds. Chelsea’s immigrant-family history and expat life shape how she approaches raising a third-culture child across countries. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Tennessee | Clarksville | Aachen | Germany | Nanjing | China | Shanghai | Bangkok | Thailand | Cameroon | immigrant parents | children of immigrants | assimilation | heritage language | cultural identity | culture shock | expat life | living abroad | third-culture kids Original publication date: August 27, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Life Abroad in Thailand, the Czech Republic, and Mexico After Growing Up In A Chilean American Household:: S11E3 | 18 Aug 2022 | 00:43:20 | |
How much do our immigrant parents impact our adult expat experiences? This is what we're exploring in this conversation with return guest Alison. Original publication date: August 26, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Immigrant Roots to Expat Life: Growing Up with Immigrant Parents and Living Abroad: S11E2 | 11 Aug 2022 | 00:41:49 | |
Questions about family can be triggering if the experience was not ideal. This is one of the reasons that Steph's talked about her family in tiny drips here and there but not in depth. But it felt disingenuous to ask other expats to open up about their early family life growing up with immigrant parents without diving into these experiences herself. So to help with this tabled turned interview, Melissa was kind enough to hop in and guide the conversation. Original publication date: August 29, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Montreal to Shanghai: A Greek Canadian Expat Story: S11E1 | 04 Aug 2022 | 00:45:24 | |
Have your immigrant parents ever visited you in any of your expat places? Georges' parents have and it shifted how he understood their struggles moving from Greece to Canada. We cover a lot more ground on his parents' immigrant story and how it has both positively and negatively influenced his own expat experience. Original publication date: July 28, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Damon Castillo on Making Music, Letting Go, and Creating for Others: S10E5 | 10 Feb 2022 | 00:33:45 | |
This episode is really special for me. Last month for NaPodPoMo I had the extreme pleasure of chatting with Damon Castillo for this episode. Yes, THE Damon Castillo of the Mess of Me album that we've been using for the past 2 years in all of the Geopats Podcast Network shows. We talk about the longevity of the Damon Castillo Band, his geopatness, my favorite song on the Mess of Me Album (Saint Cecilia), his recording studio in San Luis Obispo, what music he listens to and some creative struggles. In short, we cover the elements that make up the language of music, lovely, lovely music. Original publication date: December 24, 2020 Damon Castillo: https://www.damoncastillo.com/ 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| What It Feels Like to Return to Japan as a Japanese American: S10E4 | 27 Jan 2022 | 00:41:16 | |
Ken Hirano was born in Japan but his family moved to the U.S. before he started school. He returned to Japan to live a few times in his life, and now is one of them. He moved back to Tokyo about a year ago and recently (wrote a post on LinkedIn) on this geographic anniversary about his cultural and language identity. And that is what we are digging into today. This identity path took us through how he feels in different languages, why he feels more simple and defenseless in Japanese than English, how Japanese locals versus expats in Japan treat his Japanese & Americanness and where he is the most comfortable. Spoiler: none of these issues have a clearly defined answer and that is what made this nuanced discussion with Ken so interesting to have. Original publication date: September 28, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| California to Prague: Building an Online Life Across Countries: S10E3 | 13 Jan 2022 | 01:16:49 | |
Alison Maciejewski made me think long and hard about food photos in our shifting expat lives. How does our wanderlust come through online? But the conversation is not all serious, we have some fun comparing emoji options on Line (in Thailand) and WeChat (in China), what and where “ugly delicious food” is, and how using teen dramas are a good way to learn the Thai language. original publication date: December 13, 2018 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| A Welsh Expat in Denmark: The Album That Helped Him Settle In: S10E2 | 30 Dec 2021 | 01:09:22 | |
Has a song ever carried you through a rough time in your life? That's exactly what happened to British international Karl when he moved to Denmark. original publication date: November 12, 2018 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Thomas Sandfield on Street Photography, Culture Shock, and His First Year in Hong Kong: S10E1 | 16 Dec 2021 | 01:43:15 | |
Can you imagine taking 35,000 photos in one year? Photographer Thomas Sandfield did this his first year in Hong Kong. Join us on this Expat Rewind show for a flashback to this first year as an expat for Thomas and all the flicker fun he had. Original publication date: September 4, 2018 Thomas Sandfield: https://www.instagram.com/thomassandfield 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Early podcasting in Spain and the UK with Pilar Orti and Craig Wealand: S9E4 | 18 Nov 2021 | 00:36:16 | |
Language podcaster Craig is from the UK but has been podcasting in Spain for many years. Alternatively business podcaster Pilar has the opposite geographical podcasting experience being from Spain and podcasting from the UK for a long time. And yet they found each other and created a podcast about the scene in Spain some years ago. In this conversation with Craig and Pilar we dig into what they learned about podcasting in these two countries, how the space has changed since their podcast was live and how indy podcasting differs from business podcasting. These two folks are knowledgeable and are tapped into the space in a passion led way so there's a lot to learn from them. Let's get to it! Original publication date: July 22, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Expat Life in Nepal, Two Americans on Podcasting and Kathmandu: S9E3 | 04 Nov 2021 | 01:03:55 | |
If you've ever wondered what it's like to live, work, and podcast in Kathmandu, Nepal, this episode are for you! Big & White, their podcasting nicknames, are two American Linguists who, until very recently were living in Nepal and creating a rather hilarious audio account of their daily lives. Their episodes covered much of what expat podcasts cover like food, weather, language, and cultural differences but there is an extra kick to their podcast. Their connection and how they bounce off each other is so much fun to listen to. This is the main reason I became a fan of The Big & White Podcast in the first place and definitely why I asked to interview them for the show. Don't worry, we also talk about podcasting bits like technology, social media, podcast learning curve, editing, audience feedback, Nepali podcasts, guests, and advice for new Podcasters also. But this conversation is a bit more free-flowing than some of the other Geopats Podcasting episodes because we dipped into some of their content topics too like their visual stickoutness in Nepal (thus the name of the podcast), weight lifting and so much more. And since they are Linguists that were doing field work all over Nepal, there is an episode coming on Geopats Language podcast with that geeking out aspect as well. Original publication date: January 19, 2021 Big and White podcast: https://pod.link/1425627430 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Strong Sense of Place A Travel Podcast on Books That Bring Places to Life: S9E2 | 21 Oct 2021 | 00:49:58 | |
David Humphreys and Melissa Joulwan are the hosts of Strong Sense of Place, a podcast and web site dedicated to literary travel and books with vivid settings. In each episode of their show, they explore one destination and talk about what makes that place different from everywhere else on earth. Then they recommend books set in that destination and talk to a special guest. Original publication date: March 6, 2020 Strong Sense of Place: https://pod.link/1494452606 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| An American Expat Podcaster in Freiburg on Building a Podcast Life in Germany: S9E1 | 07 Oct 2021 | 00:21:14 | |
What do you do as an expat when your life goal is to collect and share experiences and information? You start a podcast! And that is exactly what American expat in Germany Nicole Palazzo did just after her first year in Freiburg, Germany. We recorded this mini episode on the new Podbean Live app, which was in Beta version. There were some technical issues but we pushed through and I think there is so much useful and interesting information in Nicole's audio story. In fact, she is going to come back and in the future and update us on her expat podcasting life and adventures. Hurrah. Original publication date: September 26, 2019 The Expat Cast: https://pod.link/1412547847 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Tokyo Kissaten to Paris Cafés, A Book Lover’s Coffee Life: S8E5 | 02 Sep 2021 | 00:51:15 | |
What helps you feel at home when more than one country has shaped who you are? For literary translator and Book Nerd Tokyo creator Yuki Tejima, one answer is coffee: her rituals across Japan and the United States show why everyday habits matter when home exists in more than one place. Book Nerd Tokyo: https://www.booknerdtokyo.com/ Listen for:
How Do Coffee Rituals Create a Sense of Home Between Japan and the United States? Coffee rituals can create continuity when more than one country feels like home. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes a life shaped by Japan and the United States: born in Tokyo, raised in Los Angeles from age four, then living in Okinawa, New York, and Tokyo again. Coffee entered her life in her twenties, first through Starbucks lattes and later through black coffee, hand-drip brewing, and neighborhood roasters. Yuki’s Tokyo morning ritual is specific: she heats water, grinds beans, and uses a dark-blue ceramic dripper her husband brought home from a Japanese pottery town. She prefers darker, less acidic coffee and repeatedly found that coffees she loved came from Guatemala. She also buys a new bag before the current one runs low. A familiar routine can move between countries even when the culture around it changes. What Are the Differences Between Japanese and American Coffee Culture? Japanese and American coffee culture differ in serving style, cafe behavior, and expectations around space. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima compares American cafes, where customers often spread out with laptops and stay for hours, with Tokyo cafes that may limit visits to 90 minutes or two hours because tables need to turn over. Traditional Japanese kissaten add another difference. Yuki describes retro coffee shops that may have operated for 70, 80, or 90 years, serving small cups of dark, rich coffee. After growing up with larger American servings, she initially found a roughly 600-yen kissaten coffee surprisingly small until she tasted how intense it was. Japan may label a lighter, larger style “American coffee.” The contrast shows that coffee culture is about more than beans. The same drink can reveal different ideas about public space, portion size, and how long people are expected to stay. How Do Tokyo Coffee Shops and Historic Cafes Create a Sense of Belonging? Tokyo coffee shops and historic cafes can make a large city feel personal by tying routines to specific streets, train lines, and histories. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes Horiguchi Coffee as a regular stop when she lived one station away and Woodberry Coffee Roasters as a favorite she could later reach on foot. The day before the interview, she worked at Blue Bottle Coffee before buying two bags of beans at Cafe Shozo in Aoyama. Coffee also overlaps with Yuki’s relationship to books and creative history. In Kyoto, she once felt too intimidated to enter Rokuyosha as a UC Irvine exchange student. About ten years later, she returned, walked in, ordered coffee, and finally experienced the legendary cafe herself. Cafe Reggio in Greenwich Village gave her a similar connection to earlier generations of writers and artists. Belonging grows through repeated places and rituals, not just an address. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Japan | Tokyo | Los Angeles | New York | Okinawa | Kyoto | Japanese coffee culture | American coffee culture | kissaten | hand-drip coffee | Horiguchi Coffee | Woodberry Coffee Roasters | Rokuyosha | Book Nerd Tokyo Original publication date: February 9, 2022 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Vietnam Egg Coffee & Italian Espresso, A Canadian Expat’s Coffee Journey: S8E4 | 19 Aug 2021 | 00:41:44 | |
Erin and I met in Vietnam many years ago, the place where both of our coffee obsession hit a peak, so it only made sense to have her on the podcast. In this episode we dive into her coffee explorations in Australia, many countries in Asia, Italy and Canada. Original publication date: July 24, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| An American Expat's Coffee Journey Through Germany, Prague, and the U.S: S8E3 | 05 Aug 2021 | 00:41:35 | |
Travis lived in Germany and the Czech Republic for 20 years and podcasts about history on podcastnik.com. After talking about alchemy and witches as a ghost-tour guide in Prague, he teamed up with Pete Collman to figure out podcasting as a medium to tell stories from history. Travis has a long and complicatedly long adoration with coffee that started in his childhood upbringing in Germany. Now, he now lives in Oregon, where he partakes in specialty and 7-11 coffee. Original publication date: June 19, 2020 Travis's website: https://podcastnik.com/ 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| The Philippines to Berlin, a Coffee Lover on Brewing and Farming: S8E2 | 22 Jul 2021 | 00:33:42 | |
Did you view your home country differently after moving abroad? Marielle, a Filipino data scientist living in Germany, found that leaving the Philippines didn’t pull her farther from home, it gave her a new way back through her family’s coffee farm in Benguet, where expat life, family history, specialty coffee, and global markets come together. Listen for:
How Can Expat Life in Germany Change Your Connection to the Philippines? Expat life can create new ways to participate in the place you left. After growing up in the Philippines, moving to Melbourne, and then spending nearly seven years in Germany, this Filipino expat found that coffee connected her international life back to her family’s land in Benguet. From Germany, she researches coffee farming, follows industry trends, and sends useful information back to her family. Living abroad didn’t weaken her connection to the Philippines; it changed the role she could play. Why Is Coffee Farming in Benguet Important to the Philippines? Coffee farming in Benguet connects family history with the region’s agricultural past. Her family found letters from her American great-great-grandfather describing a coffee plantation on the same land, though no one knows what happened to the original trees. Today, the family has roughly 5,000 coffee seedlings across about three hectares and expects to wait several years for a major harvest. What looked like a new project turned out to be a return to something her family had already done generations earlier. How Can Expats Support Family Businesses From Abroad? Expats can support family projects from abroad through research, professional networks, and skills that complement the work happening locally. Her mother manages much of the Benguet coffee farm, while she researches farming methods, follows Specialty Coffee Association resources, attends World of Coffee events, and shares what she learns from Germany. Her data-science background also led her to consider a weather station for the farm, with local data she could analyze remotely. Distance changes how she contributes, not whether she contributes. Why Is Asian Specialty Coffee Growing in Global Coffee Markets? Asian specialty coffee is gaining attention because countries such as China, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar produce high-quality coffees many European drinkers rarely encounter. Trying a fruity Yunnan coffee at Berlin roastery 19 Grams made her rethink what Asian coffee could mean in the global specialty market. It also changed her assumption that success meant exporting Philippine coffee to Europe. Some of Asia’s best coffee already has strong demand closer to home, so European approval isn’t the only measure of value. How Do Specialty Coffee Prices Connect to What Farmers Earn? Specialty coffee prices don’t show how much farmers earn because the cafe price comes at the end of a long supply chain. After comparing €4 flat whites, €7 hand brews, and €15 bags of beans in Berlin with lower prices in Düsseldorf, she began asking where that money goes and how much reaches growers. She encourages coffee drinkers to look at roaster transparency reports and think beyond the cafe to the growing, harvesting, sorting, and processing behind every cup. Coffee farming turned a consumer habit into a question about labor, fairness, and who benefits. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Philippines | Benguet | expat life in Germany | Berlin | Melbourne | specialty coffee | coffee farming | Asian specialty coffee | Yunnan coffee | World of Coffee | data science | coffee farmers | coffee prices Original publication date: February 29, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Prague to Turkey, Italy, and Norway, an Expat’s Coffee Journey: S8E1 | 08 Jul 2021 | 00:39:34 | |
Ana Blackstad has experienced coffee culture in so many different places that I ran out of ink during our chat yesterday. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit but seriously, Ana moved to Prague, Czech Republic only 3 years ago but she has made the caffeinated most out of her time there by exploring both local Prague cafes (many of which are listed down below) and those in neighboring countries like Italy, Greece, the UK, Norway, Finland and Turkey. Her love of this beany goodness comes through loud and clear. Ohhhhh, just wait until you reach the part where she describes the best latte she ever had. She speaks of “peak coffee experiences” and the “theatricality” of cafes so eloquently that I think we should all adopt this vocabulary to share the coffee goodness going forward. Who’s with me on this idea? Original publication date: October 25, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Peace Corps in Albania and Bangkok: An American Couple on Learning Albanians: S7E7 | 10 Jun 2021 | 00:53:48 | |
Two Americans who barely traveled before the Peace Corps ended up mastering Albanian, building lives in tiny towns, and falling for a place that completely changed how they see themselves. Their stories about learning Albanian in real Albanian villages, picking up slang and dialects, switching between Albanian and Greek, and figuring out daily expat life through immersion and community are wild, and honestly it reminded me how much language is tied to belonging. If you want to hear what fluency looks like when it grows out of real life in Albania, not textbooks, and how learning a language can change who you are, listen to the full episode. Diane's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/life__of__di/ Original publication date: March 21, 2021 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| British Author in Kosovo on Learning Albanian and Language Differences Across Albania: S7E6 | 27 May 2021 | 00:32:18 | |
Language can be a lens into culture, a way to share our experiences and a tool to help others. These are some of the aspects of language that we discuss with guest Elizabeth Gowing. She worked in primary education in inner London before moving to the Balkans in 2006. From then until very recently she split her time between Kosovo, Albania and the UK. During her time in the Balkans she immersed herself in many of the languages used there and shares the cultural insights that she learned. One of these experiences while she was in Kosovo was co-founding The Ideas Partnership non-profit. She is also the owner of the Sapune social enterprise, offering employment to village and minority community women and support to the education of their children. Elizabeth is also an author of five travel books and has translated two books from Albanian. Original publication date: March 5, 2021 Elizabeth's website: https://www.elizabethgowing.com/ 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| American Linguists in Nepal on Nepali, Facebook, and Language Preservation: S7E5 | 13 May 2021 | 00:13:54 | |
If you've ever wondered what it's like to live and do linguistic research in Kathmandu, Nepal, this episode is for you! Big & White, their podcasting nicknames, are two American Linguists who, until very recently were living in Nepal and creating a rather hilarious audio account of their daily lives on their podcast (the https://bigwhitepodcast.libsyn.com/website (Big & White podcast). Their connection and how they bounce off each other is so much fun to listen to. This is the main reason I became a fan of The Big & White Podcast in the first place and definitely why I asked to interview them for the show. This episode is a part of a podcast pair. How apt. Original publication date: February 9, 2021 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| 4 Language Learning Podcasters on Motivation, Accessibility, and Starting a Podcast: S7E4 | 29 Apr 2021 | 00:53:58 | |
On September 30, 2020 I was thrilled to lead a language learning Podcasters panel for International Podcast Day. You can watch the video of this panel on YouTube, https://youtu.be/hR8fr0Hapo0, OR you can listen to this on this episode. Thank you to Dave and Steve, the geniuses behind IPD, for holding yet another amazing year's sessions of Podcasters from around the world. And for allowing us to use the audio versions of our panel on our podcasts. Since you are language lovers, you may want to check out the other IPD sessions on YouTube IN other languages.
Original publication date: October 13, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| German in America on Language Differences, Culture, and Everyday Communication: S7E3 | 15 Apr 2021 | 00:43:17 | |
In this episode, Steph Cook of Transcontinental Overload is kind enough to ponder 3 aspects of German that strike me (Geopats Steph) as strange. Her insights and humo(u)r about these differences is a sheer delight. You will never hear the German language in the same way again. Original publication date: July 17, 2020 Get The Boots (rebranded Transcontinental Overload): https://pod.link/1501120374 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| A Singaporean Writer in New York: Language, Identity, and Living Between Cultures: S7E2 | 01 Apr 2021 | 01:52:38 | |
As a writer and playright, words are what Jeremy Tiang uses to share his ideas about the world and all of its ambiguity. original publication date: October 9, 2018 Jeremy Tiang's website: https://www.jeremytiang.com/ 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| A Chinese American on Cantonese, Mandarin, and the Emotions of Language Learning: S7E1 | 18 Mar 2021 | 01:32:42 | |
Liv is in an interesting language experience right now. She grew in New York City using Cantonese with her Southern Chinese mother and some Mandarin Chinese with her Taiwanese father. She then picked up Spanish and English in her diverse NYC environment. She has traveled extensively and has learned a few more languages along the way. But it is now, while living and working in Shanghai, China, that she is faced with a myriad of language AND cultural obstacles that she feels the most challenged by. Original publication date: June 16, 2018 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Two American Expats on Hemingway’s A Movable Feast and Life Abroad: S6E11 | 28 Jan 2021 | 00:56:21 | |
In December 2019 my dear friend Shannon Martin and I sat down and recorded an episode about The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. We were so intrigued with the book that we wanted to repeat the process with the more autobiographical version of the book, A Moveable Feast. And then we both left China and you know what happened. We did record this follow up episode in mid-2020 but life was still hectic. So here it is, nearly a year later. Thank you to Shannon for being so patient during this time. Original publication date: June 5, 2021 Shannon's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twowhotravelsam/ 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Life in Germany as an American, Culture Shock, Bread, and German Habits: S6E9 | 07 Jan 2021 | 00:41:30 | |
If your picture of German culture still comes mostly from stereotypes about coldness, efficiency, or bluntness, Rebecca Schuman offers a much more human way in. In this warm, funny conversation, the author of Schadenfreude, A Love Story and former Fulbright scholar uses her years in Germany and Austria to explore German hospitality, language, family life, academia, and belonging, showing how much more complicated a place becomes once you live inside it. Listen for:
How Does German Hospitality Differ From American Friendliness? German hospitality can be far warmer than German small talk suggests. Rebecca Schuman jokes that you might barely know a German beyond one heated argument about politics or soccer, yet mention visiting their town and they may insist you stay for two weeks. Years in Germany changed Schuman too: after returning to the United States, she kept the instinct to offer visitors a place to stay. For expats in Germany, reserve doesn’t necessarily mean rejection. How Does Expat Life in Germany Change Everyday Habits and Culture Shock? Living in Germany can permanently change what an expat considers normal, especially around transportation. Rebecca Schuman first studied German in Münster, later lived in Berlin for roughly eight or nine months, and eventually spent a year in Vienna as a Fulbright scholar. One habit stuck: if somewhere is less than about 10 kilometers away, Schuman would rather bike than get into a car “for no reason.” Returning home can create its own culture shock when old habits no longer make sense. Why Do Expats Leave Germany Even When They Prefer Life Abroad? Some expats leave Germany because family and career realities outweigh preference. Rebecca Schuman believed being a non-native German speaker made teaching German literature at a German university an unlikely career path. Family mattered even more: Schuman wanted her daughter near her grandparents, and after her father died, staying close to her mother in Oregon became important. Germany and Austria still remained part of her future. How Does Family Life in Germany and Austria Differ From the United States? Family life in Austria felt more integrated into public life for Rebecca Schuman. While living in Vienna with her husband and young daughter, she remembers what felt like a playground on every block, free activities for children, and public spaces where bringing a child seemed normal. The experience made Schuman question the gap between how strongly American culture celebrates children and how difficult daily life can be for parents. How Does Schadenfreude, A Love Story Explore German Culture, Kafka, and Belonging? Schadenfreude, A Love Story connects Rebecca Schuman’s fascination with German culture and her difficult relationship with academia through Franz Kafka. Schuman describes her relationship with Kafka as moving from schoolgirl infatuation to codependent misery and finally to peace. Kafka wrote in German without being German, echoing Schuman’s own connection to German language and culture while remaining partly outside it. Academia created a similar tension, giving the memoir’s two stories a shared theme of belonging. READ HER BOOK: REBECCA SCHUMAN MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Schadenfreude, A Love Story | Rebecca Schuman | German culture | expat life in Germany | Berlin | Münster | Vienna | Austria | German hospitality | German language | Franz Kafka | academia | Fulbright | culture shock | parenting abroad Original publication date: July 27, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Los Angeles to Tokyo: Booknerd Tokyo on Language, Culture, and Living Abroad: S6E8 | 24 Dec 2020 | 01:01:46 | |
If your understanding of Japan still comes mostly from travel imagery, pop culture, or Haruki Murakami, Yuki Tejima offers a faster way to widen that picture. Born in Japan, raised in Los Angeles, and later returning to Tokyo, the creator of Book Nerd Tokyo uses Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen to explore Japanese literature, grief, food, identity, and everyday communication, showing why the 1988 novel still feels relevant now. Listen for:
Why Did Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto Become a Modern Japanese Classic? Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen became a modern Japanese classic by turning grief into a story about recovery, food, and chosen family. After Mikage loses the grandmother who raised her, she moves in with Yuichi and his mother, Eriko, and begins rebuilding her life. Mikage sleeps beside the refrigerator because the kitchen is the only place where she can rest, and cooking later gives her direction. Yoshimoto said she wrote for people who felt things deeply or found everyday life intensely lonely, yet Kitchen became a phenomenon while she was only 24. How Does Kitchen Challenge Stereotypes About Japanese Literature and Culture? Banana Yoshimoto’s Kitchen challenges stereotypes about Japanese literature by focusing on ordinary emotions and people who don’t fit neatly into social expectations rather than familiar images of Japan. Yuki points to references to Bewitched, Helen Keller, the Brothers Grimm, and Linus and his blanket instead of Mount Fuji or shrines. Kitchen also introduces Eriko, Yuichi’s transgender mother, without making her identity the central conflict. Yuki says Japanese readers could recognize characters who mourned differently, had unusual families, or didn’t know what they wanted from life. How Do Food and Seasonal Eating Shape Everyday Life in Japan? Food and seasonal eating shape everyday life in Japan through regional specialties, changing ingredients, and close attention to preparation. Yuki says Japanese television features food constantly, from restaurants to regional dishes. At an inn in Kyoto, she once ate roughly 20 different tofu dishes and learned to notice differences in texture, preparation, and presentation. Seasonal food became part of that education too: winter cabbage tastes especially sweet, while tomatoes and cucumbers belong to summer. How Can Japanese Literature Help Explain Communication and Culture in Japan? Japanese literature helped Yuki understand unspoken communication in Japan by showing the thoughts and emotions behind behavior people didn’t always express directly. Raised in the United States, Yuki describes herself as more American in her communication style. In Tokyo, she found more emphasis on reading the room and noticing nonverbal cues, so modern Japanese novels became a kind of textbook. Yuki also recommends Yoko Ogawa’s The Housekeeper and the Professor, Hiromi Kawakami, and Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman for readers exploring Japanese literature beyond Haruki Murakami. CONNECT WITH GUEST: YUKI TEJIMA Book Nerd Tokyo: Instagram: CONNECT WITH GUEST HOST: TATJANA CHEN https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/contact-stephanie MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Kitchen | Banana Yoshimoto | Japanese literature | modern Japanese culture | Book Nerd Tokyo | Tokyo | Japanese food culture | seasonal eating | Japanese communication | The Housekeeper and the Professor | Yoko Ogawa | Hiromi Kawakami | Convenience Store Woman | Sayaka Murata | Haruki Murakami Original publication date: May 29, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Strong Sense of Place Podcast: Two American Expats Exploring Prague Through Books: S6E7 | 10 Dec 2020 | 00:10:42 | |
The strongest connection between books and place isn’t always where a story is set. Sometimes it’s the bookstore you discover in Prague, the novel someone gives you before you fall in love, or the children’s book you can’t finish reading at your own wedding. Melissa and Dave, creators of Strong Sense of Place, explore how literary travel, books with vivid settings, and local bookstores can deepen the way travelers and armchair travelers understand a destination and remember it long after the trip ends. Listen for:
How Literary Travel Helps You Understand a Destination Before You Visit Reading books set in a destination before a trip can give travelers cultural and emotional context before they arrive. Melissa’s habit of doing this became part of the foundation for Strong Sense of Place, especially after she found that online searches often returned giant algorithm-generated lists instead of thoughtful recommendations. The podcast now helps travelers and armchair travelers explore places through books with vivid settings. Where to Find English-Language Bookstores in Prague Prague has several English-language bookstores that give travelers and expats different ways to connect with the city. Neoluxor on Wenceslas Square has a large English-language section in its basement, Shakespeare and Sons near Prague Castle has a used-book basement overlooking a canal, and The Globe combines English books, newspapers, Czech literature in translation, and a café. Why Local Bookstores Matter for Expats and International Travelers Local bookstores can help expats and international travelers build a stronger connection with the place where they’re living or visiting. Melissa and Dave use Prague bookstores for different needs, from browsing UK editions to finding Czech books in English translation or sitting with coffee and an English-language newspaper. How Travel Changes the Way You Experience Books Travel can make books feel more vivid because places that once existed only on the page become part of your own memory. Once you’ve walked the streets, seen the architecture, and learned the shape of a neighborhood, fictional settings can feel more concrete when you return to them in a book. How Books Become Connected to Places, Memories, and Relationships Books can become permanently tied to the places and people around us, even when the story itself has nothing to do with that setting. Before Melissa and Dave started dating, Dave gave Melissa a hardcover copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray during one of their walks in Sausalito, California. Years later, Melissa chose I Like You for their wedding reading, became too emotional to finish it, and handed it to Dave, who completed the reading while the room cried. CONNECT WITH GUESTS: MELISSA AND DAVE Website: Strong Sense of Place CONNECT WITH HOST STEPHANIE FUCCIO https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/contact-stephanie MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Strong Sense of Place | literary travel | Prague | Neoluxor | Shakespeare and Sons | The Globe | English-language bookstores | Czech literature in translation | The Picture of Dorian Gray | I Like You | Sausalito Music by Damon Castillo, featuring “Sometime Guy.” Original publication date: February 21, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Living Abroad: Are Expats Really Any Different Today vs the 1920s? S6E6 | 26 Nov 2020 | 01:15:21 | |
Years ago an expat friend of mine made a comparison with the Lost Generation in Paris in the 1920’s and Western expats in Asia in the early 2000’s and I have never forgotten it. Shannon Martin returns to the Geopats Podcast for a dive into Ernest Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” book about his slice of the Lost Generation so that we can dig into this expat generation comparison with about 100 years time difference between them. We will be following up with a conversation about Hemingway’s more autobiographical version of “The Sun Also Rises”, “A Moveable Feast” in 2020, when both of us will possibly be living in Western Europe. Original publication date: December 13, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| A Singaporean Immigrant Explains China Through Story and History: S6E5 | 12 Nov 2020 | 01:13:26 | |
In this podcast episode, I am honored to talk with Tina Kanagaratnam about the book The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Tina is a Bookish Expat with both strong literary and historical knowledge of China. I have been to a number of bookish events in Shanghai where Tina has joined in to provide some historic context to the texts that we were discussing. Every time I have blown away by how knowledgeable, insightful and personable she is. Tina is one of those people that balances intelligence, perspective and humor perfectly. Original publication date: August 23, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Germany Through an American Expat and a German Abroad: Culture, Language, and Misunderstandings:: S6E4 | 29 Oct 2020 | 01:17:09 | |
What do you get when you have two American Expats and one German Expat talk about a book by a former American Expat living in 1990’s Former East Germany? This culturally windy episode dripping with heaps of blasted stereotypes, linguistic gems and lots of laughter. We are delighted to have Nicole Palazzo, Host of the Expat Cast Podcast on the show today. Original publication date: July 26, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Two American Expats on Living Between Cultures: S6E3 | 15 Oct 2020 | 01:36:31 | |
The Global Soul by Pico Iyer is a seminal geopat book. Stephanie and Summer (Steph’s Co-Host on the new podcast Creatively Complicated) dig into this book in a very big way. This is not a regular episode because Steph is not interviewing Summer about her reading story but instead they are discussing both of their reactions to this book. Summer read this book for the first time recently thanks (or no thanks, lol) to Steph’s persistent recommendation and Steph tried to reread it for the first time since she fell in love with it in 2002. Original publication date: July 5, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| What Indian Fiction Taught a German Expat: S6E2 | 01 Oct 2020 | 01:33:46 | |
In the podcast episode we chat with Tatjana, in her words “a German married to an Indian-Chinese - or Chinese-Indian depending on the mood of the day”. Tatjana grew up wanting to live in different countries, so she went into Hospitality in order to do so. Of course, at the same time she read voraciously. In fact, while living in Dubai, one of the six cities she has called home thus far, she met her husband. Just before she moved to India to be with him she started reading the works of Indian Author Chetan Bhagat. And thus began her bookjucation of India and Indian culture. I was fortunate enough to sit down with Tatjana in my home in Shanghai and chat about some of Chetan’s books that had an impact on her life in India. We also dig into her bookology, her favorite books and places to read them and so much more. Original publication date: May 31, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| How an American Learned Thai Work Culture Through a Book: S6E1 | 17 Sep 2020 | 00:56:10 | |
Working in Thailand can expose cultural differences in workplace communication that language skills alone won’t solve. Evo Terra learned that a smile during conflict could signal discomfort rather than agreement, and understanding those signals became essential to avoiding mistakes that could damage working relationships across cultures. Evo is a podcasting pioneer, Podcasting for Dummies author, and longtime business and marketing professional who lived in Bangkok for more than two years. After struggling to find work and realizing his direct American communication style wasn’t translating well, a friend recommended Working with the Thais. The book became a practical guide to understanding Thai workplace culture, saving face, hierarchy, feedback, and cross-cultural communication. Listen for:
How Thai Workplace Culture Differs From American Workplace Culture Evo came to Thailand with years of experience in advertising, marketing, startups, and business operations, but his usual direct style wasn’t helping him professionally. Working with the Thais gave him a framework for understanding why pressure, urgency, criticism, and hierarchy operated differently than he expected. What Smiling During Conflict Can Mean in Thai Culture At the school where Evo taught adults, he confronted a scheduler who kept assigning classes during hours he couldn’t work. She smiled during the tense exchange, a reaction he might once have read as dismissive. Instead, the book helped him recognize that the smile could signal discomfort, and the aftermath showed how badly a direct confrontation could damage a working relationship. How Saving Face and Hierarchy Affect Thai Workplace Relationships Evo became more aware of how public embarrassment could affect not just one person, but how others around them viewed that person too. He also began noticing how status changed tone, deference, body language, and even who initiated the Thai wai. Those patterns made hierarchy far more visible than it had been to him in American workplaces. How Working in Thailand Changed Cross-Cultural Communication After leaving Thailand, Evo found that the lessons stayed with him. He now pays closer attention to the status and role each person brings into an interaction, not to rank people, but to understand what the relationship requires. The experience made him less “in your face” and more aware that clear communication depends on how the other person interprets the exchange. CONNECT WITH GUEST: EVO TERRA Podcast: Podcast Pontifications CONNECT WITH HOST STEPHANIE FUCCIO https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/contact-stephanie MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Working with the Thais | The Dragon Page | Podcasting for Dummies | The Three-Body Problem | Bangkok | Thailand | Thai wai | saving face Music by Damon Castillo, featuring “Sometime Guy.” Original publication date: April 23, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Africa to Germany, One Online Community at a Time: S5E11 | 20 Aug 2020 | 00:54:07 | |
Can social media ground us and make us feel more at peace in this crazy world? This conversation with Tania from Swahili Secrets will present an answer to this question that is not common but very refreshing. Tania was born in Kenya and moved around a lot. Her geographical footprint includes 4 other African countries, Thailand, Austria and Germany. Although she calls Germany home, her heart and her projects revolve around Kenya. In this conversation we follow her online journey from her first chat room all the way through to her current day Instagram world. This IG space includes the travel services of Swahili Secrets, the African inspired merchandise of Bantu Sisters, and the community oriented The Kenyan Kind. In this conversation we chat about:
Original publication date: April 2, 2021 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Music and Politics From China to the UK: A British Expat on Social Media and Real Life Abroad: S5E10 | 23 Jul 2020 | 00:17:55 | |
Before social media became nonstop political warfare, moving abroad often meant building creative communities online from scratch. James spent 14 years outside the UK, first in the Czech Republic and later in China, where blogs, expat forums, mixtapes, and early music podcasts helped him stay connected across cultures. Now back in England, he reflects on how dramatically online life changed between 2002 and 2016. We talk about Prague’s early expat blogging scene, podcasting before it went mainstream, China’s surprisingly open early internet years, the rise of the Great Firewall, reverse culture shock, Brexit-era social media tension, and the story behind Centuries of Sound, his podcast creating mixtapes for every year of recorded sound history. Original publication date: July 18, 2020 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Starting An Expat Podcast in Germany as a South African Immigrant: S5E9 | 09 Jul 2020 | 00:18:00 | |
Podcasting in Germany can give immigrants and long-term international residents a way to reconnect with the curiosity and identity that can fade once life abroad becomes ordinary. After 12 years in Germany, Shaun Behrens found that creating an English-language podcast about expat life didn’t just connect him with listeners, it pulled him back into conversations about movement, belonging, and international life that he was starting to miss. Shaun is originally from South Africa and had become a German citizen after more than a decade in Germany. He started Expat Life Germany partly because he missed the “expat spirit” of people willing to pack everything up and build a life somewhere new. With two children, a third on the way, and a settled life in Germany, moving again wasn’t realistic, so interviewing people still navigating international life became another way to stay connected to that part of himself. Listen for:
How Immigrants Stay Connected to International Life After Settling in Germany After 12 years in Germany, Shaun no longer considered himself an expat. He’d become a German citizen and described himself more as an immigrant, but he still missed the curiosity and movement of international life. Expat Life Germany gave him regular contact with people who were still experiencing the process of moving somewhere new. Why Germans Listen to English-Language Podcasts About Germany Shaun expected an English-language podcast about Germany to attract foreigners, but Germans started listening too. They told him they enjoyed hearing their country through “outsiders’ eyes.” That unexpected audience made him reconsider whether the podcast was really just about expat life. How Expat Podcasts Expand Into Immigration, Identity, and Belonging Shaun originally planned to interview people currently living in Germany as expats, but the stories he wanted to tell soon became broader. One upcoming guest had German grandparents who left during the Holocaust, later studied German at university, and spent several months living in Germany. Shaun began thinking less about “expat life” and more about the wider “Germany experience” created through immigration, travel, language, history, and family. The show was also growing faster than Shaun expected. Just 13 episodes in, his Facebook group had around 40 members and his downloads were strong enough that changing the concept no longer felt invisible. He was considering a rebrand, even if it meant losing some listeners, because making a show he wanted to keep producing mattered more than protecting the original idea. CONNECT WITH GUEST: SHAUN BEHRENS Podcast: The Germany Experience (the new name): https://pod.link/1464633448 CONNECT WITH HOST STEPHANIE FUCCIO https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/contact-stephanie MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE Expat Life Germany | Podstock | Podcastnik | The Expat Cast | Buzzsprout | Zencastr Music by Damon Castillo, featuring “Sometime Guy.” Original publication date: September 30, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Living Abroad in China: Why This American Expat Prefers Chinese Social Media: S5E8 | 25 Jun 2020 | 00:58:37 | |
In China, WeChat, Alipay, and Didi can give expats and internationals something bigger than convenience: independence. That matters fast when daily life depends on local apps, and Keturah Kendrick’s experience in Shanghai shows how technology can reshape transportation, payments, communication, and the basic ability to navigate life abroad. Keturah Kendrick is an international English teacher, author of No Thanks: Reflections on Freedom, and host of Unchained, Unbothered, a podcast centering Black women across the African diaspora. After growing up in New Orleans, spending 14 years in New York City, living in Rwanda, traveling across 13 African countries, and then moving to Shanghai, she experienced a major shift in her relationship with technology. In this conversation, she explains how someone who once resisted Instagram came to rely on WeChat, Alipay, Didi, translation tools, food delivery, and streaming to live more independently abroad and stay connected to home. Listen for:
Why WeChat Matters for Expat Life in China WeChat sat at the center of Keturah’s shift from reluctant tech user to someone who depended on digital tools every day. She used it for messaging, payments, translation, group communication, and even arranging rides when her phone initially wouldn’t download Didi. Combined with Alipay, Ele.me, Explore Shanghai, and SmartShanghai, these apps became less about “being online” and more about functioning independently in Shanghai. How Expats Use Chinese and Western Apps Differently Keturah used Chinese and Western platforms for different parts of her life. WeChat, Didi, Ele.me, and city apps helped her navigate Shanghai, while Facebook and Instagram kept her connected with friends, family, readers, and podcast listeners outside China. That split created two parallel digital lives: one for where she physically lived and one for the community she carried with her. Why Living Abroad Can Increase Connection to Home Living in China also made Keturah watch more American television than she had in the US. Shows like Pose, Queen Sugar, 90 Day Fiancé, and the Real Housewives franchises helped recreate the cultural conversations she no longer picked up naturally through coworkers, students, and friends. Streaming became another way to stay connected to home. Keturah also challenges the idea that online relationships are automatically less real. Some of the people who found her through her podcast and book became genuine friends before they ever met in person. As she put it, “we’ve been met.” By the end of the conversation, internet access no longer felt optional to her. She went from questioning why anyone needed Instagram to seeing internet access as essential modern infrastructure for work, communication, transportation, information, and independence abroad. CONNECT WITH GUEST: KETURAH KENDRICK Author: No Thanks: Reflections on Freedom CONNECT WITH STEPH FUCCIO Website: PodcastSteph.com MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE WeChat | Alipay | Didi | Ele.me | Explore Shanghai | SmartShanghai Music by Damon Castillo, featuring “Sometime Guy.” Original publication date: September 27, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| From Turkey to China: How One Expat Rebuilt His Life and Went Viral: S5E7 | 11 Jun 2020 | 01:59:29 | |
In this episode I am pleased to welcome Yunus Emre Karasakal, a Turkish expat in Shanghai, China. Yunus is a Brazilian JiuJitsu (BJJ) Instructor here in Shanghai as well as an Abu Dhabi World Pro Masters Champion (Brown Belt) and an IBJJF Asian Open Champion (Brown and Black Belt). Yes, for the language geeks, he gives BJJ instruction in English and Chinese and yes, we chatted about him coming on the Changing Scripts show soon, don’t worry. Yunus is the first expat I’ve talked to that spends more time on his host country’s social media platforms than the ones he used before moving abroad. The platform he uses the most is the very popular Chinese video app, Douyin, which has an outside of China app spin off called Tiktok. He brings BJJ to a funny level on this current platform. If you don’t have Douyin, don’t worry, you can still see some of his videos on Instagram. Original publication date: September 13, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Third Culture Kid Life Online: Social Media, Identity, and Growing Up Across Countries: S5E6 | 28 May 2020 | 01:35:17 | |
Third culture kids don’t use the internet the same way everywhere they live, and Ting’s moves between China, the US, Singapore, and Hong Kong show how geography reshapes social media habits, online identity, privacy, language, and communication. As more of our relationships and professional lives move online, understanding how culture and location influence the platforms we use, what we share, and how we connect across borders matters more than ever. What You’ll Learn About Third Culture Kids, Social Media, and Online Identity
How Living in Different Countries Changes Online Identity Ting was born in Hainan, grew up in San Francisco and Beijing, attended university in North Carolina, and studied in Singapore and Hong Kong. By middle school, she was already noticing that online profiles showed only selected parts of a person. As her geography changed, so did the platforms, languages, and social expectations around her. How Social Media Helps Maintain Friendships Across Borders At around 14, Ting moved from San Francisco back to Beijing and entered a local Chinese school while rebuilding her Chinese. She dropped from partway through ninth grade in the US back to eighth grade and prepared for the Zhongkao high school entrance exam. AIM became a way to stay connected with childhood friends in the US and feel less isolated after the move. Why WeChat Became Essential for Communication in China Ting didn’t initially understand why classmates wanted smartphones. Then WeChat groups became part of everyday social life, and not having a smartphone meant missing conversations. Her parents saw smartphones as a distraction, so Ting eventually saved enough money to buy one herself. How WeChat Privacy Differs From Facebook Ting kept using WeChat wherever she lived partly because WeChat Moments felt more private than Facebook. Likes and comments are only visible to people who are also connected to the person interacting with the post. That privacy influenced what people shared, from harmless screenshots of jokes to group-chat arguments exposed publicly. Why WhatsApp Is Popular for International Communication During a university exchange in Singapore, Ting encountered another communication norm: exchanging WhatsApp details when meeting someone. She liked that WhatsApp focused on direct communication rather than giving a new acquaintance access to years of public posts and photos. It stayed important when she later studied in Hong Kong. How Messaging Apps Support Long-Distance Friendships Ting met her best friend during the Singapore exchange and became closer to her in Hong Kong. Her friend doesn’t use Facebook or Instagram, so WhatsApp became their main way to message and call across countries. Different apps weren’t interchangeable. Some became closely tied to particular relationships and places. How Local Culture Changes Online Conversations When Ting moved from Singapore to Hong Kong, the apps people used stayed similar, but the conversations changed. She noticed much more politically heated discussion and online activism around local elections. The technology was similar, but geography changed what people used it to discuss. How Bilingual People Use Different Languages Online Ting mainly uses English on Facebook and Instagram. On WeChat, she moves between English and Chinese depending on the person and what she wants to express. With other third culture kids, she may code-switch between both languages. Often, the language she first uses with someone becomes the language she continues using with them. Why Geography Influences Social Media Platform Use MySpace and AIM mattered in California. WeChat became essential in China, while WhatsApp entered Ting’s life in Singapore and remained useful in Hong Kong. Ting describes herself as “social media slow,” which makes the pattern clearer: geography and community kept deciding which technologies became relevant. What Old Social Media Posts Reveal About Online Identity Ting sometimes looks back at old blog and social media posts and barely recognizes the person who created them. She sees that distance as evidence of growth. For people who move across countries and cultures, old posts can preserve earlier versions of someone whose geography, language, relationships, and ideas about privacy were all changing at the same time. Original publication date: August 16, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Filmmaker in China: An American Expat on Creativity and Life Online: S5E5 | 14 May 2020 | 01:37:39 | |
In this podcast episode we chat with Brendan Davis, an American expat who has lived in China for many years. Brendan is a Film and TV Writer, Producer, Director and fellow Podcaster. His podcasts are: If I Knew You Better, Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom and How China Works. Brendan somehow has kept grounded as has been involved with some pretty spectacular creative projects globally. Okay, to be honest, he is a bit crazy, good crazy, as his website, https://www.crazyinagoodway.com admits to. The kind of crazy that you want in your life and in your earbuds. In this conversation Steph and Brendan chat about how his move to China changed what he did online, how he is splitting his time now that he has decided not to work IN China but will continue to keep a home base (and an Internet connection) here, and how he cultivated his crazy in a good way online persona while being a deep, thought provoking and may I say, wonderful human being. Original publication date: June 21, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| American in the Netherlands: Expat Life, Social Media, and Sense of Place: S5E4 | 30 Apr 2020 | 01:32:43 | |
In this podcast episode we chat with Kelly Merks, a Texas expat who has lived abroad since 2011, in Japan and in the Netherlands. Her Twitter bio tells is: “A Texan full of fernweh (NOTE: “fernweh is a German word that means “ A Farsickness or Longing for Unseen Places.). Noob knitter and clay thrower. Fairy godmother of @WeAreXpats, a project of @xpatarchive: http://wearexpats.org “ @WeAreXpats is how Kelly and I first met online and connected over discussions of place, social medianess and expat life. For those of you not familiar with rocur accounts, they are rotating accounts where usually 1 person in that category (in this case, an expat) tweets for a week and then the account will rotate to another person after that. Kelly started this rocur account while she was a volunteer at the Expatriate Archive Center in The Hauge where she now is their Public Relations Manager. Outside of the EAC, Kelly also is raising a tiny human with her husband and somehow finds time to write about her geographic pondering in her blog, Bullet Trains & Bike Lanes. Original publication date: May 14, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Inside China’s Livestream World: Director Hao Wu on Fame, Fans, and Big Money: S5E3 | 16 Apr 2020 | 00:44:32 | |
China’s internet culture reveals how powerfully money, status, and the need for connection shape what people do online. Documentary filmmaker Hao Wu explains how moving between China and the US changes his internet habits, and what China’s YY livestreaming world reveals about class, fame, connection, and the creator economy. Hao Wu: https://www.haowufilm.com/ What You’ll Learn About China’s Internet and Chinese Livestreaming
How Internet Use Differs Between China and the US Hao moved from China to the US at age 20 in 1992, when staying connected meant sending email through Unix commands on black screens with green text. His habits still change with geography. In China, he turns to WeChat, Toutiao, and Tencent Video. In the US, he shifts toward The New York Times, BuzzFeed, YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu. How China’s Great Firewall Shapes Online Behavior China’s Great Firewall explains only part of that divide. Conversations with cab drivers and childhood friends also change what he researches online. For Hao, digital life doesn’t exist separately from everyday life. Moving countries changes the information and online spaces he needs. How YY Livestreaming Helped Build China’s Creator Economy Hao began filming People’s Republic of Desire in 2014, before livestreaming became mainstream in China. YY fascinated him because wealthy tuhao and poorer diaosi could occupy the same online space even though they rarely mixed that way offline. YY connected performers, fans, patrons, agencies, and the platform through virtual gifts and revenue sharing. Big spenders gained recognition and status while streamers built careers around keeping audiences engaged. How Chinese Livestreaming Created Community for Migrant Workers Hao followed Yong, a migrant worker who spent his evenings watching livestreamer Big Lee. When Hao asked when he would stop, Yong said: when Big Lee stopped performing. For devoted fans, livestreaming offered more than entertainment. It created a recurring social space built around personalities, jokes, competitions, and a performer’s success. What It Takes to Become a Successful Livestreamer in China Livestreaming could look like easy money, but successful hosts might improvise for one or two hours while entertaining viewers and responding in real time. Big Lee became so drained by performing that he no longer wanted to talk after broadcasts. The connection viewers valued could leave the performer exhausted. What Chinese Livestreaming Reveals About Class, Money, and Status Hao doesn’t claim YY represents all of China. Instead, he describes livestreaming as an extreme reflection containing “kernels of truth.” Money, status, aspiration, recognition, and inequality already existed offline. YY made those forces unusually visible online. Why Social Media Creates Connection and Dependence After two years filming People’s Republic of Desire and another year and a half editing it, Hao began questioning his own desire for likes, comments, and recognition online. Yet social media also helped people discover, fund, and share his independent films. The same technology could create dependence while providing genuine community and support. How Geography Shapes Online Identity Across Countries Move Hao from the US to China and his apps, news, conversations, and questions change. The livestreamers and fans he documented show a related pattern: what people want or lack offline shapes what they seek online. Our online identities don’t exist separately from where and how we live. They grow out of them. Original publication date: April 20, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Australia and Shanghai: Andy Curtain on Expat Life and Stand-Up in China: S5E2 | 02 Apr 2020 | 01:23:55 | |
In this podcast episode we chat with long term China Expat Andy Curtain about his geographical movement from Melbourne, Australia to Shanghai, China and what effect it had on his online activities/presence. Even though he was online quite early in Australia with IRC and ICQ, he admits that most of his current online activities have been utility based, focusing on his stand up comedy promotions and community building. As a fellow Content Creator (and Influencer, lol), I find it very interesting that the making of his podcast, Stuck in the Middle, helps him process his own comedic material. There is so much to say about Andy, the deep impression he has made on the stand up comedy scene in China and his own business savvy that has impacted how I think of my own creative endeavors on and offline in the short time since this interview took place. But for now I will just say thank you Andy for coming on the show and sharing your story. Original publication date: April 9, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Expat Life in China: An Australian’s Deep Dive into Mandarin & Identity: S5E1 | 19 Mar 2020 | 01:38:02 | |
Mandarin Chinese can feel completely different depending on whether you’re reading it, hearing it, or trying to speak it. After 25 years with Mandarin, Tanya Crossman explains why Chinese characters, tones, grammar, listening comprehension, and real-world language use need different kinds of practice, and what learners should understand before those gaps get harder to close. Her experience across classrooms, workplaces, and daily life in China shows why fluency is about learning how those skills connect. Tanya's website: https://www.tanyacrossman.com/ Original publication date: April 1, 2019 What You’ll Learn About Learning Mandarin Chinese, Listening Comprehension, and Fluency
Why Mandarin Chinese Reading and Listening Develop Differently Tanya started learning Mandarin at age eleven and studied it for about a decade before moving to China. At university in Beijing, she could read her entire textbook but struggled to answer even two out of ten listening-comprehension questions correctly. During her first year in China, she sometimes pictured Chinese characters while trying to speak. Because characters don’t create the same bridge between writing and pronunciation as alphabet-based languages, reading and conversation can develop very differently. Why Mandarin Chinese Grammar Depends on Context and Implied Meaning Mandarin doesn’t rely on verb conjugations like many European languages. Its complexity instead comes through word order, vocabulary, particles, context, and implication. Forms such as 看书, 看完书, 看了书, and 看书了 show how surrounding words change meaning even when the core verb stays recognizable. Learners can know every word and still miss what the speaker means. How Living and Working in China Builds Real-World Mandarin Fluency Tanya’s biggest leap toward fluency came in an open-plan office where she was the only foreign employee. She heard coworkers persuade suppliers, joke with the DHL delivery person, talk with partners, and complain to family members. Hearing the same people shift their Mandarin across situations taught her tone, humor, and implication. She still remembers the first time she successfully used sarcasm in Chinese. How Chinese TV Can Improve Mandarin Listening Comprehension Tanya recommends soap operas because repeated plots and phrases give learners several chances to catch language they initially miss. Early in China, she watched a Russian soap opera dubbed and subtitled in Chinese. The long Russian names created pauses that gave her extra time to process the Mandarin she’d just heard. Why Emotional Vocabulary Matters for Advanced Mandarin Fluency Classroom Mandarin often teaches practical communication before learners can express complicated feelings. Tanya developed more emotional vocabulary by helping a Chinese friend interpret and write personal messages in English. Those conversations showed how advanced fluency requires more than vocabulary and grammar. Learners also need the language and cultural knowledge to communicate who they are. What It Means to Feel Ownership Over Mandarin Chinese After studying around a dozen languages, Tanya says she feels true ownership only over English and Mandarin. A Malaysian Chinese woman who usually addressed Tanya in English eventually apologized for underestimating how deeply Chinese was part of her life. For Tanya, being recognized as a Chinese speaker mattered more than proving she could speak it. 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| South Korean Expat on Moving Abroad: China, the US, UK, and a Life Online: S4E12 | 20 Feb 2020 | 01:20:37 | |
Eva Yu cycled from Shanghai to London across 15 countries partly to break away from her hyper-connected life, only to discover that the internet followed her almost everywhere. The multilingual journalist had already lived and worked across South Korea, the United States, the UK, Ecuador, Israel, and China, watching her relationship with technology change with every move. For expats and internationals building lives across borders, her story shows why online communities and constant connectivity matter now, but also why knowing when to disconnect can determine whether you actually experience the place you moved to. Seek Roads: https://seekroads.co/ What You’ll Learn About Living Abroad, Online Communities, and Digital Identity
How South Korea’s Early Internet Culture Shaped Digital Life Eva first used computers around 1997–1998. By age eleven, she was uploading school assignments online, reading Korean web novels, following K-pop groups including Shinhwa and TVXQ, and participating in digital communities. She later joined Cyworld, the Korean social network that combined diaries, photos, music, and friends’ messages before Facebook became dominant in Korea. How Blogging Helps Expats Process Culture Shock During an exchange in the UK, Eva began writing online diaries to process cultural differences, relationships, and her reactions to living abroad. She later moved to Naver Blog, writing about Korea, China, business, travel, and international life. At the time of this interview, her blog received roughly 600 visits a day. Writing became a way to understand her experiences as she moved between countries. Why Disconnecting Can Change the Experience of Living Abroad In 2012, Eva spent a year volunteering in Ecuador, teaching Korean in Spanish and living with local people. She deliberately left her phone behind and used the internet for only about an hour every two days. Rather than staying connected to Korea through KakaoTalk, Eva wanted to focus on the life around her. Disconnecting removed an easy escape route back home. How International Work Can Create Digital Overload Abroad Her next experience pushed her in the opposite direction. During seven months in Israel, Eva managed social media, articles, and video across Korean and Israeli schedules while interviewing about 75 startups. Some videos took ten hours to edit, and work could keep her online for twelve or more hours a day. The internet had shifted from a place for personal connection into an always-on workplace. How Moving to China Shaped a Multilingual Digital Identity Eva moved to Shanghai in 2015 to work as a journalist for TechNode. She reported in English, functioned in Chinese, and wrote personal observations in Korean. She noticed that language changed how she presented herself. Korean encouraged more politeness and humility, while English felt more direct and professional. One Chinese diary post received around 2,200 views, highlighting how differently her multilingual audiences responded. What Cycling From Shanghai to London Revealed About Internet Access Eva later spent eight months cycling along the Silk Road from Shanghai to London through 15 countries, interviewing entrepreneurs and holding seminars along the way. She expected the journey to pull her away from her connected Shanghai life. Instead, internet access followed her almost everywhere. Her longest offline stretches included a 36-hour ferry across the Caspian Sea, a 48-hour train journey in Kazakhstan, and a week in Croatia after her phone broke. With 14 sponsors expecting updates, Eva often felt she was either cycling or online documenting the cycling. How Expats Can Balance Online Communities With Local Life Eva doesn’t reject the internet. She uses Couchsurfing, Meetup, and Tantan to meet local people, then gives those interactions her full attention before writing about them later. Across years of living abroad, she learned to give her online and offline lives different jobs. The internet helps her reach people, but she doesn’t want it to replace being with them. For expats and internationals, staying connected across borders is easier than ever. The harder skill is knowing when that connection helps you experience a new place, and when it keeps you from fully being there. Original publication date: March 26, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| New York Writer Moves Abroad and Finds Home in Beirut: S4E11 | 06 Feb 2020 | 01:22:38 | |
In this episode we chat with Alexandra Talty, an American who has lived on and offline in Italy, the Dominican Republic and Beirut, Lebanon, where she has been based for 4 years now. Over the years Alexandra has taken full advantage of online opportunities available via blogs/blogging, social media platforms, and YouTube. She maintains a healthy IRL-VRL (online-offline) balance with regular social media fasts and by participating in and hosting online groups that meet in person. She is very honest and candid about her experiences being a foreign, American, female Journalist and all of the advantages and disadvantages those pieces of her identity invite as she works online while living abroad. Original publication date: March 5, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Canada and Thailand: What Expat Life Was Like Before Smartphones: S4E10 | 23 Jan 2020 | 01:19:14 | |
Before Google Maps and Instagram, Greg moved from Canada to Thailand with almost no digital safety net. In this conversation, the Bangkok Podcast cohost reflects on what expat life looked like in 2001, from IRC chatrooms and internet cafés to early blogging, Napster, Friendster, and the slow rise of social media. We also explore how moving abroad changed his relationship with technology, community, and identity online. Greg shares stories about building one of his first blogs from Thailand, navigating life overseas before smartphones, and how platforms like Twitter eventually became essential for expats living far from home. Along the way, we talk about podcasting, online personas, digital overwhelm, third culture identity, and what it means to stay connected to your home culture while building a life somewhere else. Listen to hear how one expat’s online world evolved alongside the modern internet itself. Original publication date: February 12, 2019 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||
| Living Abroad as an Immigrant: When Online Virality Does NOT Change Anything: S4E9 | 09 Jan 2020 | 01:38:23 | |
Creatrix Tiara went viral and earned major media attention, but online visibility, social media reach, and global audience growth didn’t remove the geographic, financial, and immigration barriers shaping her life abroad. For internationals building careers and communities across countries, her story shows why online communities and digital visibility matter most when they lead to real opportunities, income, access, and belonging. Creatrix Tiara: https://creatrixtiara.com/ What You’ll Learn About Online Communities, Moving Abroad, and Digital Visibility
How Online Communities Help Internationals Find Belonging Abroad Creatrix Tiara first got online around 1995 in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, when she was about ten. As a teenager who often felt isolated, internet connected her with people, ideas, and creative communities she couldn’t find locally. She joined GeoCities and fandom communities, eventually building what she remembers as the largest Savage Garden fanfiction archive. How Blogging Supported Activism and Alternative Education in Malaysia By around 2004, blogging had become an important outlet in Malaysia for political commentary, activism, and ideas that didn’t always fit traditional media. Tiara later created EducateDeviate, an alternative education blog shaped by her gap year, youth journalism work with The Star, and international experience with Up with People. It also helped make Tiara an early public voice on gap years in Malaysia. How Online Communities Create Opportunities Abroad When Tiara moved to Brisbane in 2006, online connections began shaping her offline life. She found her first residential college through someone she followed on LiveJournal. Later, after moving to San Francisco for an MFA, online connections helped her find communities she’d previously known through a screen. Online communities helped her build a local life in new countries. Why Going Viral on Social Media Doesn’t Guarantee Income In 2014, Tiara wrote an essay criticizing privacy problems on Ello. Within about 24 hours, it went viral, drawing attention from the Washington Post, Vogue, Engadget, Fast Company, and The New Yorker. But visibility didn’t create the paid opportunities she hoped for. At the time, Tiara had around 6,000 Twitter followers and 2,000 Tumblr followers, while roughly 35 Patreon supporters generated about $150 per month. “I get a lot of attention, but it doesn't necessarily translate into something tangible.” Her experience exposes the gap between online attention and conversion: followers, shares, and media coverage can grow without producing stable income or paid work. How Social Media Vulnerability Can Create Real-World Support During one overwhelming weekend, Tiara posted that she was struggling with a housing inspection and a performance. Friends pooled money to hire her a cleaner. That experience shaped her approach to online vulnerability. Sharing can help people respond to a real need, but privacy still matters. As Tiara puts it, “No one is entitled to every part of you.” Why Global Online Visibility Doesn’t Remove Geographic Barriers Tiara’s online life stretches from Malaysia to Brisbane, San Francisco, and Melbourne. The internet helped her find housing, creative collaborators, professional networks, and communities across borders. But international visibility didn’t eliminate immigration restrictions, local industries, financial inequality, or finding paid work. For internationals, your audience can be global while many of the opportunities shaping your life remain stubbornly local. original publication date: December 27, 2018 🛍️ Shop Life, Lived Here: https://life-lived-here-geopats-abroad-shop.fourthwall.com/ 💰Best credit card for Americans living or traveling outside the U.S. Chase Sapphire: https://accounts.chase.com/raf/share/1805579379 📬 Traveling Mailbox gives you a permanent US mailing address you can access from anywhere: https://travelingmailbox.com/geopats/?ref=3422 💰Global bank account with multiple currencies: https://wise.com/invite/dic/debrad107 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew 🎙️Start your own podcast. Get a bonus when you upgrade with this link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=2022201 📬 Weekly podcast discoverability tips: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/ | |||