show episodes
 
No matter where you're from or where you've moved to or are planning to move to, this podcast can help you get grounded. These are conversations that with other long term expats and internationals about what grounded them in their other places in the world. We embrace culture shock and learn from it. Some conversations are focused on books, others language, online communities and more. These are candid, vulnerable conversations that reflect our ups and downs adjusting to life elsewhere.
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show series
 
Send us a text It's time to switch places. Yifei, a Chinese college student in Shanghai and Phil, a Brit living in China, who was doing a Master's program at the time of recording, are swapping stories of learning their two mother tongues. What a pleasure it was to pick their brans on learning their first and all other languages after that. Get rea…
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Send us a text 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. Thomas Sandfield: https://www.instagram.com/thomassandfield/?hl=en Traveling Mailbox: https:/…
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Send us a text Love, loss,new beginnings, it's what we think of when we dream of moving abroad. But what about expat circle gossip or food culture shock moments. We rarely talk about those moments. Author Antonella does though, in her touching book, Parsley & coriander: Life in China with Italian flavor, which is set in Suzhou, China. Join us for t…
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Send us a text 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, Austr…
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Send us a text Jo, a British expat who was living in Shanghai, China. Her wisdom, insight, humour and down to earth advice to other expats about how their online and geographical selves can, should, may and might influence each other is very inspiring. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 Support the show 🔥 Grab some Geopats me…
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Send us a text Eric (his English name) grew up partly outside of Shanghai, China and then in Shanghai. He is now a Software Engineer that maneuvers through his Shanghai life in a multitude of languages including Mandarin Chinese, Shanghaiese, English, Japanese and French. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 Support the show 🔥 …
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Send us a text 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. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 Support the show 🔥 Grab some Geopats merchandise: https://geopats.tpopsite.com/ 🤸🏽Music from Damon Castillo: https://www.damoncas…
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Send us a text Can moving to the U.S. help a European expat have a smoother transition to living in China?​ Pia and her family just recently left Shanghai, China after living here for two years. I have met some active expats in my life but Pia takes the cake on really living life the fullest. She explored China, worked and volunteered locally, all …
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Send us a text ​Do bookworms learn languages better? In 2017 Angie was the Creator of T(h)ree of Books YouTube channel. She was also a German expat living in Shanghai, China. She had a few languages under her belt before she moved to Shanghai and started to study Mandarin Chinese. ​​Angie decided to take the time to study Mandarin Chinese in a clas…
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Send us a text Did you blog your way through your first experiences in a new place? Shannon Martin does this. She is an American who has lived in Shanghai, China for 6 years. In this two part interview she shares her first impressions of China via a blog post she wrote in 2012 with her current life in Shanghai. Shannon brings up many nuanced aspect…
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Send us a text The first year in a new country is always the hardest. Evan did what I did, he took to writing a blog to sort out the think through what he was seeing, experiencing and feeling. In this conversation we revisit an early blog post of his from when he first arrived in China. We chat about dogs, language and so many more nuanced aspects …
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Send us a text Do you have a spiritual home? Xing Zhao does. He's a Chinese Writer, Translator and former international student in Edinburgh, Scotland. Xing shares with us a blog post, Kapa Zhou, that he wrote during his first year studying in Scotland. He goes on to reflect on how his memories of that time period and how they are not fully represe…
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Send us a text Have your expectations about a place ever gotten you into trouble? American expat Evan, also known as my husband, was kind enough to be our first guest on the podcast show back in 2017. He shared a group email that he wrote to his family and friends back home with us as well as what he thinks about his culture shock now, 20 years lat…
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Send us a text So much country to country movement is speeding up in 2025 so it feels like a good time to bring back the podcast. First, we're going to replay episodes and listen to your reaction. What should be next for Geopats? What do you need to hear? And then, we'll see what happens. Enjoy! Support the show 🔥 Grab some Geopats merchandise: htt…
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Send us a text 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 expe…
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Send us a text Have you ever wondered why your immigrant parent(s) didn't prepare you for being a global citizen? Chelsea thought this when she was struggling in her first expat place. Over time she began to understand the distinct difference between her mother's immigrant experience and her expat one. In this conversation, we unpack the lasting im…
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Send us a text How much do our immigrant parents impact our adult expat experiences? This is what we're exploring in this conversation with return guest Alison. Alison and I dig into growing up with two unequal cultures in one household, the racial struggles she's seen in many countries during her years living outside of her passport country of the…
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Send us a text 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. Traveling Mailbox:…
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Send us a text 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. I…
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Send us a text This episode is about half of a conversation that Matthew Boyle of Legendary Language Learner YouTube channel and I had about language teaching, content creation and the intersection between the two. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 Support the show 🔥 Grab some Geopats merchandise: https://geopats.tpopsite.co…
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Send us a text Yuki and I sat down to have this conversation far too long ago. Life has been crazy and, to be honest, I even stopped drinking coffee for awhile. So it felt weird publishing this episode during that time. But things feel a little more frothy these days, so here it is! And here SHE is:) Yuki has sought out, enjoyed and brewed coffee i…
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Send us a text 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 di…
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Send us a text 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, Austr…
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Send us a text Can learning a new language unlock part of your personality? This is something I've wondered my entire language play experience. And I've been asking guests flavors of this question more and more lately. How Kyle and Diane answer this question is really going to tickle your funny bone and get you thinking about this too. They are two…
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Send us a text 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, Al…
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Send us a text 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://bigw…
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Send us a text 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 expa…
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Send us a text 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, hi…
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Send us a text Our first guest on Geopats Online (then called Virtual Expats) in September 2018 was Joanna Czutkowna, Founder of Life in Breaths & I went shopping today. When we first met back then she was very passionate about sustainability within the fashion industry and also about redefining how we view age, beauty and the ability in how we des…
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Send us a text Love, loss,new beginnings, it's what we think of when we dream of moving abroad. But what about expat circle gossip or food culture shock moments. We rarely talk about those moments. Author Antonella does though, in her touching book, Parsley & coriander: Life in China with Italian flavor, which is set in Suzhou, China. Join us for t…
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Send us a text 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 sessio…
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Send us a text One year ago today Nicole from the Expat Cast, former guest and guest Host Tatjana and I discussed the book Schadenfreude, a Love Story: Me, the Germans and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words for in an episode. After I moved to Berlin, Germany I p…
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Send us a text 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. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 🔥 Grab some Geopats…
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Send us a text 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. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422…
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Send us a text 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 co…
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Send us a text Welcome to the bookish world of Japan. Guest Host Tatjana from Craving Expat Life chats with Yuki fromBook Nerd Tokyo about Japanese books, specifically Banana Yoshimoto’s “Kitchen” in this conversation. They explore Yuki’s life between Japan and the USA as well as Tatjana’s discovery of Japanese literature, translations, and stereot…
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Send us a text How much overlap is there between music and language? Sinologist, Linguist, Jazz Pianist & returning Geopat Podcast Guest, David Moser, joins us again for a dive into this question. Traveling Mailbox: https://travelingmailbox.com/?ref=3422 🔥 Grab some Geopats merchandise: https://geopats.tpopsite.com/ 🤸🏽Music from Damon Castillo: htt…
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Send us a text 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 …
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Send us a text Do you read about a place before traveling there? Yup, so do we. By we I mean Mel and Dave, two American expats living in Prague, Czech Republic and Creators of the Sense of Place Podcast. Oh, and myself. In a few podcast episodes Mel and Dave have already perfected the art of diving deep into a place via books and the people who lov…
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Support Me on Ko-fi This is a recommendation episode, where I tell you more about episodes from my other podcasts that came out this week AND some flashbacks to other episodes from the other three podcasts in my four podcast world. This episode is the exact same on all of the podcasts it is on this week, so if you are crazy enough to listen to more…
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Support Me on Ko-fi THE NEXT Changing Scripts podcast episode will be published at 12pm Friday, August 9th China time. (Which is 4pm Fri in Auckland, 9am Fri in Delhi, 6am Fri Cairo, 1am Fri in Rio de Janeiro, and 11pm Thur in San Francisco. For more locations, use this handy website: https://www.timeanddate.com/) Thom of ThomReads Instagram accoun…
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THE NEXT Changing Scripts podcast episode will be published at 12pm Friday, August 9th China time. (Which is 4pm Fri in Auckland, 9am Fri in Delhi, 6am Fri Cairo, 1am Fri in Rio de Janeiro, and 11pm Thur in San Francisco. For more locations, use this handy website: https://www.timeanddate.com/) Thom of ThomReads Instagram account will be our guest …
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Send us a text 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 …
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Support Me on Ko-fi In this episode, we chat with Angela, a Canadian who went to China for the first time in 2006, which is where she met her husband. She left China and returned, as so many expats do. Lucky for me, she came back to China in 2010 and worked at the same school teaching Academic English to students who were about to study abroad. Ang…
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Send us a text In this episode, we chat with Angela, a Canadian who went to China for the first time in 2006, which is where she met her husband. She left China and returned, as so many expats do. Lucky for me, she came back to China in 2010 and worked at the same school teaching Academic English to students who were about to study abroad. Angela’s…
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Send us a text In this episode we chat with Summer Rylander, an American expat who has been living in Nuremberg, Germany since 2015. Summer is a freelance food and travel writer with a fondness for cooking, reading, daydreaming, procrastinating, and taking long walks with podcasts. Her latest droolworthy publication in Culture Magazine is about Swe…
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Send us a text 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 Duba…
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Support Me on Ko-fi Nine Years Ago Joshua Ogden-Davis left graduate school in Texas, moved to China and taught himself Chinese. He is now a Mandarin Chinese Translator, does audio and video production in multiple languages, and is a Puppeteer. In this Changing Scripts podcast episode we dig into Josh’s fuller language story, including this switch f…
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