The Expat Cast

Season 7, Episode 11. Hannah Teslin moved to Germany years ago for a relationship. When it ended, she found herself in a situation where she had to rebuild her life in Germany, but this time, for herself. Her path to independence involved plenty of trial and error, but Hannah managed to create a beautiful life for herself, now with an amazing job where she works for herself, a wonderful, supportiv...

Season 7, Episode 10. Aditi's career has taken her from her small hometown in India to various bigger Indian cities, and even abroad to Italy, Austria, the US, and Germany. Although the moves have provided many amazing opportunities and experiences, it's also come with many a setback, including a year-long stint living at home with her parents while being unemployed. Aditi also has always worked i...

Season 7, Episode 9. This one's for the love expats! The people - mostly women - who moved abroad to close the distance on a long-distance relationship, or to keep their relationship unit together after a geographical change. Zuza moved from her home country of the Czech Republic to go to Sweden. Sweden led to Uganda, which led to Italy, which led to Zambia, which led to Mongolia, and along the wa...

Season 7, Episode 8. Jo and her husband moved from the western US to Vienna, Austria about a year and a half ago. They've really made the most of their time in Europe by traveling several weekends per month, and Jo creates beautiful, fun travel content for Instagram and Tiktok. In addition to chatting about her travels, Jo - an American in Austria with limited knowledge of Germany - and Nicole - a...

Season 7, Episode 7. We caught Jaedyn in a weird time: between deciding to move and actually doing the moving. Jaedyn is from Canada and has been living in Stuttgart, Germany for 4.5 years. Just when she found peace with the idea of staying in Europe long-term, she met a boy in Canada and things changed. Now, she's in her last season in Germany. Because Germany requires 3 months notice on most con...

Season 7, Episode 6. Where do you call home? For many expats, the question isn't an easy one to answer. Many places? No place at all? Keltie Maguire is a Clarity Coach who moved from Canada to Germany several years ago. She uses her professional expertise and personal experience to shed light on the sticky subject of home: how to define it, how to create it, and how to make a place feel more like...

Season 7, Episode 5. "You asked, I answer!" Listeners submitted questions on Instagram for Nicole to answer, which she does with the help of her best friend and previous guest, Zoe.  Questions include: What's one thing you knew now that you wished you knew back when you moved? When did you start calling Germany home? Do you still feel like an expat, after 5 years in Freiburg? Plus, Nicole shares a...

Season 7, Episode 4. Laurel fell in love with Berlin on a solo trip and decided to make the big move. But it wasn't her first big move. Laurel is from Indiana but moved to LA for several years. She shares how the culture shock moving from the midwest to southern California compares to the culture shock of moving from the USA to Germany. Then, we get into her career. Laurel pivoted to tech during h...

Season 7, Episode 3. Esther was finishing up law school in North Carolina when she told a colleague about her dream to live in Italy. That friend knew someone in Germany with an open position, and while Germany wasn't Italy, it was a heck of a lot closer to Italy than the USA is, so Esther applied. Within days, she had a job offer in Tübingen, Germany. She and her then-teenaged daughter moved mere...

Season 7, Episode 2. Chase never wanted to work in an office, although he works in the corporate world. From the outset, he sought jobs where he could work remotely. Back when he started about 15 years ago, that was rare, to say the least. Now, it's quickly becoming the norm. Chase has lived and traveled for years now, all while working - because he works fully remote, or "remote first." In fact,...

Season 7, Episode 1. We are back for Season 7! Woo! We're kicking it off with a conversation about identity burps, a term coined by today's guest, Ditte. Ditte is an artist from Denmark living in Berlin after many years in Amsterdam. Though drawing is like breathing to her, a main passion of hers was dancing tango. Then she moved to Berlin, a hub for tango, and... no longer felt like dancing tango...

Nicole is popping by about halfway through a longer podcast break to update you on some news!   First, some life updates about travel, visits from home, and thoughts from abroad about the recent loss of the constitutional right to abortion in the US.   Then, a heads-up for fellow US Americans living abroad - The Expat Cast is collaborating with Horbach Expats to host another 4th of July special ev...

Season 6, Episode 25. Do you want to have kids or not? How has your geography impacted this? We asked these questions to the listener community, and fellow expats, immigrants, people living abroad shared their pros and cons, their talking points, their feelings, their beliefs, their dreams. Their answers range from YES to NO to MAYBE, and they're gathered here for you. This marks the end of season...

Season 6, Episode 24. What's it like dating a German? How do I make friends as an expat? Can I get a job in Germany without knowing German? Is the rental market reallllyyyy that bad? Nicole is joined by Idan from Unmatch Me Now to get into all of these questions and more! From personal experiences and opinions to concrete resources about Kindergeld and donating blood, nothing is off the table. Tha...

Season 6, Episode 23. What's it like to be a foreigner working as a librarian in Germany? We've got two international librarians here to tell you! Katherine and Nicole both fell in love with the career of librarianship before moving to Germany from Venezuela and USA, respectively. Now, they both live and work in German libraries, Katherine in a university library and Nicole in a public library. Bo...

Season 6, Episode 22. When she was 15, Nyla moved from the US to Germany. It was supposed to be just for one year. Spoiler alert: it's been 6 years and counting! Nyla comes on the show to discuss how the temporary moved turned permanent, and what it was like moving abroad as a teenager. She had to learn the language from scratch and adjust to a new culture, all while those delightful teenage hormo...

Season 6, Episode 21. Being a single mom ain't easy. Being an expat ain't easy. Being a single mom AND an expat? Yeah, it REALLY ain't easy. But it is possible. Tanya is here to tell us how. Tanya moved from California to Germany when her son was 2. She had been single parenting until that point, and initially when she moved abroad, her then-husband was able to provide support while Tanya adjusted...

Season 6, Episode 20. Did you know that 80% of expats who moved abroad for work are male? Often, men get relocated for their work and their wives or partners to come with. Kate has been working with and studying expat partners, or trailing spouses, who tend to be women, for years. Lately, she got curious about that other 20% - the women who moved abroad for their jobs, sometimes with their husband...

Season 6, Episode 19. It's a Buy One Get One deal: Nicole interviews not one, but TWO Zacks from Michigan who live in Stuttgart, Germany! Zac XVIII and Zack Bachelor are two guys in their 20s who met on a basketball court in Stuttgart. They're from the same home state, have the same first name, and now are famous around expat social media for their hilarious skits about living as a US American in...

Season 6, Episode 18. Emily is known online as Emily in Hamburg, but once upon a time, Emily was in New York, in Portugal, and even on a cruise ship!  After a performance career in New York City, Emily took a chance and signed a contract to perform on a cruise ship sailing around Scandinavia. Her training for the ship caused her path to cross with the big love of her life: Hamburg. Emily loved Ham...

Season 6, Episode 17. Melanie moved to Switzerland when she was 29 and in love with a Swiss man. That relationship didn't last as she'd hoped, but Melanie stayed in Switzerland anyway. Now, Melanie is 61, and she's living in southern Germany after many years in Cologne and several moves back to her home country of the US, then back to Germany. She shares the ins and outs of all these moves, includ...

Season 6, Episode 16.  In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Karlsruhe!  Santhiya moved with her husband and their kids to Karlsruhe, Germany in June 2021. Though they haven't been there long, their family has made the most of their time and explored Karlsruhe and the area. Karlsruhe is rich i...

Season 6, Episode 15. Once upon a time, two friends on a train trip to Nuremberg passed a bit of graffiti that would haunt then for years to come. Nicole & Samar have been quoting that graffiti since 2020, and now they're here to share all their thoughts about it with you. "All thinking is comparison." The phrase has come to be a moniker for discussing geographical backgrounds, diversity, and priv...

Season 6, Episode 14. Moving abroad ain't easy. Now imagine moving to Germany having never been in Europe before. Speaking no word of German. With four kids. In the middle of a pandemic. And the house you move into gets flooded in a catastrophic regional weather disaster. That's what happened to Sara. She and her husband and their four young kids moved to Rheinbach for her husband's job, developin...

Season 6, Episode 13. The best thing about Christmas in the US is the cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime, Hallmark, and now even Netflix. Aspen & Nicole are two Americans in Germany who love trash movies, so we asked ourselves, do these wonderful-terrible movies exist in Germany? To find out, we watched Über Weihnachten and This Is Love. Both are German productions released on Netflix that try to...