Nomadic Diaries: Mastering Global Transitions

Where is home when you’ve lived in more than one country? Doreen explores home as a feeling the body knows before the mind does, the place where the senses go quiet, and why home may be less a noun than a verb, something you do rather than somewhere you live. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford dr...

Who are you without your job title, your language and your old roles? Doreen explores how moving abroad reshapes your identity, layer by layer like an onion, and how to decide what to keep and what to let go, whether you’re the one who moved for work, the partner who followed or the child growing up between worlds. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomad...

Expat grief is real, even when you chose the move. Doreen names the quiet losses of life abroad, from status and routine to simply being known, explains why joy and loss can sit side by side, and shows how giving yourself permission to mourn helps you move forward. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberf...

The Power of Home The concept of "home" is deeply complex for global nomads, expats, and third culture kids. In this inspirational episode, Doreen Cumberford welcomes Sam Frearson Tubito, author of Beneath a Borrowed Sky , to explore the emotional landscape of life in constant transition. Sam Frearson Tubito shares stories of living in 15 countries, raising third culture children, and he...

The brochure price of a new life abroad is rarely the real one. Doreen looks at the true cost of living, banking and currency swings across borders, finding health insurance and local care, and why a cushion for the unexpected may be the best thing you pack. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford dra...

How you leave shapes how you land. Doreen explores why saying goodbye well, to people, places, pets and possessions, matters as much as any arrival, and shares simple leaving rituals that help you close the door without slamming it. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life...

The paperwork is the part of moving abroad everyone underestimates. Doreen covers why you should start visas and residency earlier than you think, which papers people forget, and why one red folder and a visit in the season you dread most can save you a world of trouble. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen C...

The honeymoon always ends, often in a queue at the bank. Doreen explains why the frustration that follows is normal, not failure, and shares one simple tool for getting through the hard weeks. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four continen...

You will rarely feel ready to move abroad, and that’s exactly the point. Doreen looks at the gap between fear and readiness, shares stories of people who moved later in life or against the odds, and offers small acts of courage that prove to yourself what’s possible. Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumbe...

Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from  What does “permanent” really mean when you move abroad? Doreen looks at why people go, how a chosen move differs from a company posting, and the one question to ask yourself before you commit. Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty years of life across eight countries and four contine...

Two suitcases, 31 days, one letter at a time. In this opening episode, Doreen explains why every move abroad is really two journeys, the one you can map and the one you can’t, and invites you to ask yourself where you are on the road right now.   Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad is a 31-day NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . In ten-minute episodes, Doreen Cumberford draws on fifty...

Fifty years. Eight countries. Two suitcases. Now 31 days. Welcome to Launch to Landed: The A to Z of Life Abroad , a NaPodPoMo series from Nomadic Diaries . Every day this November, Doreen Cumberford brings you one ten-minute episode, built around one letter. The series runs from the first “what if we moved abroad?” to the homecoming nobody warns you about. Whether you’re dreaming, packing, living...

About our Guest Simon D. spent fifteen years running his own renovation business in Hamilton, Ontario, before he and his wife swapped Canadian life for Belize in 2022, a country they first fell for on their babymoon.  Leaving his trade behind, he turned to content writing just as large language models arrived, and rather than retreat, he went all in. Today he helps founders and small businesses bu...

Don’t Transplant Your Life, Translate It: Repatriating to Poland  Lucyna Boland left Poland already asking where she could go next. Twenty years later she had lived in the United States, Germany, England, Spain and France. She had built a career in corporate learning and talent development, married a Canadian and started a family. Then, during the pandemic and while grieving her father, she felt a...

In this inspirational and deeply personal conversation, Doreen Cumberford sits down with Melissa Parks, therapist, coach and author of A Compassionate Mess: A Therapist, Her Monsters, and a Journey to Self-Acceptance  - to explore the challenges and rewards of self-compassion, the realities of cross-cultural transitions, and the myths that hold us back from thriving as global nomads and returnees....

In this deeply personal episode, Doreen Cumberford interviews Sarah Deschamps, author of I Couldn't Tell You . Sarah Deschamps shares the harrowing and ultimately hopeful story of her family’s move from Tokyo back to Minnesota, a journey marked by her daughter's complex medical challenges and the mental health struggles entwined with repatriation. This conversation illuminates the hidden...

In this insightful episode, Doreen Cumberford is joined by Saehee Chang, an intercultural trainer, engagement specialist, and founder of Korea Connect. Together, they explore the journey of navigating life across cultures as a Third Culture Kid (TCK), the challenges of repatriation, balancing success and happiness abroad, and the quest for belonging. Key Topics Covered Growing Up Global: Saehee sh...

This episode explores the layers of identity, privilege, and adaptation in expat experiences through a conversation with author Stephanie Cook. Topics range from cultural healing, maintaining authenticity, and the paradoxes of belonging, to practical and emotional strategies for global nomads and expat families. Key Discussion Points 1. The Russian Dolls of Identity Both speakers discuss how multi...

Sarah Rapp: From How to Be Global to 1 Million Humans Sarah Rapp is Director of Youth Advocacy and People at Junior Achievement Worldwide, and a nomad who has worked internationally for nearly a decade. Born in Germany, she moved abroad as an expat to Malta before building a fully nomadic life shaped by people and purpose rather than beaches. She previously hosted the podcast How to Be Global, clo...

Daniel Yalowitz  Daniel Yalowitz psychologist, professor and intercultural mentor came to talk to Nomadic Diaries about his story as a cornerstone of the intercultural field for nearly four decades. Daniel brought to this episode the generosity and warmth that have made him a mentor to so many of us who have navigated life across cultures. His favorite words all start with a C. Curiosity. Creativi...

Nina Aziz Justin  has lived in five countries, worked across forty-seven of them, and spent the better part of five decades asking the question that so many of us quietly carry: where on earth do I actually belong?  She is a serial entrepreneur, cultural chameleon, and self-described "rat in the lab" of her own life experiments, Nina has channelled all of that lived complexity into her m...

Flor Bretón García was born in Venezuela and left her homeland at 22 — which means she's now lived outside her home country longer than she lived in it. Lawyer. Educator. Cross-cultural consultant. Mother of three adult TCKs. President of FIGT. And a woman who, after receiving her 598th job rejection, sat down on a Friday night and wrote an article that stopped LinkedIn in its tracks. In this...

Adrienne Belaire grew up on Aramco compounds in Saudi Arabia from first grade through high school, a world full of sunshine, small communities, and the particular freedom of a life lived between cultures. She is a wife, mother, potter, and artist who, after navigating her own sometimes turbulent repatriation to the United States, made a quietly remarkable decision: to go back again. She returned t...

About Lisa Liang Lisa Liang,  known formally as Elizabeth, with a Z - is an intercultural storytelling coach, solo performer, and TCK who grew up across Central America, Southeast Asia, and the United States.  She has spent decades helping globally mobile people do one of the hardest things there is: turn a life lived between worlds into a story that actually lands. She works with memoir writers,...

About Pia   Pia Mailhot-Leichter is a self-described "recovering nomad" who has lived in more places than most people visit, from Manhattan to Sri Lanka, London to France, and eventually dropping anchor in Copenhagen after decades of following the nomadic pull. Born to a French-Canadian mother and a New York City father, she grew up crossing cultures before she had words for it, and spen...