The Expat Cast

Season 6, Episode 12. Grief isn't something reserved for tragedy and death. Grief has a much wider spectrum, and people living abroad have some unique challenges with some of its forms. Returning guest Katie, a US American living in Munich, Germany, has had her own (un)fair share of grief. As a licensed counselor, she's put her experience and professional knowledge to pen and paper with her new bo...

Season 6, Episode 11.  In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Wiesbaden!  Christie moved from her home of London to her husband's home of Germany and quickly fell in love with the city of Wiesbaden. Located among German wine country and in the most forested state of the country, Wiesbaden's nat...

Season 6, Episode 10. Hey so uhhh... Are German people funny? We tackle the age-old question with Chelsea, a US American in Hamburg and a fellow lover of comedy. First, we share our favorite and least favorite German language movies and TV shows in the category "comedy." Then, we explore the stand-up scene in Germany, both via online specials and in-person shows. Finally, we turn the examination i...

Season 6, Episode 9. Nic and Simon from the podcast "Decades from Home" come by to talk about the media landscape in Germany. Nic and Simon both moved from the UK to Germany, where they've now been living for (you guessed it) decades. They share how they find their news in Germany, compare German political reporting to it in the UK, and even get into why US news is covered with such dramatic flair...

Season 6, Episode 8. Let's talk about how to get mental health support when living abroad. One great thing about living in Germany is the health care - for many reasons, but notably, most public health insurances cover mental health therapy. It's a wonderful thing, but like all things in Germany, there is a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy required to find a therapist, get the therapy approved, an...

Season 6, Episode 7.  Casey and Nicole compare stories and experiences from their first trips back to the US since the arrival of the pandemic. Casey moved from the US to Germany 3 years ago. In March 2020, she had her bags packed and ready to go on her first trip back home since moving abroad... when lockdown was announced and international travel was halted due to Covid. In August 2021, she fina...

Season 6, Episode 6.  To some, Julie's life might seem like she's hitting certain milestones too late. But for Julie, life is playing out right on time. She left her good, satisfying life in Scotland in her early 40s, because she was ready for a change. Love took her to Munich, Germany, where she moved in with her partner, started her own business, and had a child - all at the same time. Although...

Season 6, Episode 5.  On a solo backpacking trip in her early 20s, Meghan visited Munich. She wasn't expecting to fall in love, but she did - with the city itself. She moved there as soon as she could, at least temporarily. But she extended her temporary stay by another couple months, then another, then another... Now, she and Munich are celebrating 14 delightful years together. Along the way, Meg...

Season 6, Episode 4.  In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there. Today, we learn about Kiel!  Jordan Wagner takes us all the way up north near the Danish border to the city of Kiel, a harbor city that is a paradise for boat lovers. Jordan used to think she could never love anywhere like she loves southern Germany, but K...

Season 6, Episode 3. Stop me if you've heard this one - a South African, a Filipino, & an American walk into a bakery... Shaun from South Africa moved to Germany 14 years ago and now runs T he Germany Experience podcast. Lawin from the Philippines moved to Germany 2 years ago and now runs the Pop Your Cultural Cherry podcast. And your host Nicole moved to Germany 4 years ago and hosts, well, this...

Season 6, Episode 2. You know her from her TikToks about being a Canadian in Germany, but how did Hannah Teslin become this confident expat? When Hannah moved abroad in college, it was to study abroad in Cologne - but really, she was studying there to be near a guy she'd met while traveling who lived in Hamburg. It was all too easy to slip into his world, his friendships, his activities, to depend...

Season 6, Episode 1. Welcome back for Season 6! We're kicking it off with a deeper look into how Vanessa of Wander Onwards got to become the financial guru, world traveler, and awesome expat she is. From a brief stint as an undocumented person in China to meeting her husband at a beer pong tournament, Vanessa's got some crazy stories to share. She also explains how and why she got serious about pa...

Season 5, Episode 25. Cheers to 3 years of The Expat Cast, 125 episodes, 5 seasons! This season finale, we're marking the occasion by diving into a touchy topic: I collected your stories of times German people of authority have made you cry. It happened at the foreigner's office, in banks, in doctor's offices, at the customs office, on the train. It happened, surprisingly, far more in bigger citie...

Season 5, Episode 24. Steph is a fellow expat podcaster, host of the great show Transcontinental Overload. She was born and raised in Germany, but her love for and comfort with the English language made her certain she'd one day move to London. She did, and the classic thing happened: one year abroad turned into a lifetime. After years in England, Steph moved to Silicon Valley in California, USA....

Season 5, Episode 23. Steffi actually went by Stephanie until she moved from the UK to a small town in Bavarian almost two years ago. Her name isn't the only thing that has changed - Germany has made her ditch her high heels, embrace jeans for every occasion, and improve her ability to stay on top of paperwork. Steffi is a hilarious breath of fresh air, who some might know from her blog Adventures...

Season 5, Episode 22. Psychologist Gabriela Encina is here to talk to us about the unique effects life in Coronavirus Pandemic era has had on expats all over the world. We've all experienced Covid fatigue, languishing, and zoom burnout. Expats have also faced family separation, social isolation, and a harsh interruption to their integration process. Now, as numbers start to go down and many countr...

Season 5, Episode 21. Just about every expat in Germany can tell you a story of a time an interaction with a person of authority made them cry. While many if not most interactions go good or even well, there are unfortunately times when relating across cultures and languages goes awry and leaves you feeling disempowered, helpless, and demeaned. At worst, this might mean you don't get the medical h...

Season 5, Episode 20. In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there.  Today, we learn about Bamberg, a small city in upper Franconia in Bavaria. Within 2-3 hours from Munich, Berlin, and Prague, Bamberg is an ideal stop along the way. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of beautiful buildings, charming riverside nooks, a...

Season 5, Episode 19. Applying for jobs in a new country is difficult, not just because it follows completely different processes than your home country but also because of all the ways the job-hunt process is ripe with opportunity for cultural clashes. Jana is here to talk us through some of the most culture-clashy aspects of it: resume writing, interviewing, and contract negotiations. She gives...

Season 5, Episode 18. When she was in her early 20s, Gabi, from Hannover, Germany answered a newspaper ad to become an au pair in Georgia, USA. There, she met and married and had three kids. She made a conscious choice to raise her kids as American children. While they kept up some German traditions, the language and culture were always secondary to English and American culture. Her daughter, Elan...

Season 5, Episode 17. If you're in the expat community, you've probably seen the initials TCK pop up in Facebook groups, on Instagram, and more. It stands for Third Culture Kid, and Anna, today's guest, is one of them.  She's married to a CCK, a Cross-Culture Kid, and their kids, who've lived in many countries before settling into their passport country, are TCKs. Anna works as an expat coach spec...

Season 5, Episode 16. The wonderful parts of life abroad are easy to share: photos from a great vacation, an Instagram post of your latest delicious meal. What's harder to talk about is the bad days abroad. But fear not - there's a blog for that! Katherine started this blog while living in Denmark for 10 years. She grew up in Estonia and Switzerland, and after stints in Australia and New Zealand,...

Season 5, Episode 15. In the Travel Germany series, different places across Germany are featured in interviews with expats who relocated there.  Today, we learn about two Berlin neighborhoods: Friedenau and Karlshorst! Marguerite spent most of her life country hopping, but Berlin has captured her attention for 5 years and counting. In fact, it inspired her to start her blog, Berlin and Around , wh...

Season 5, Episode 14. It's not easy being a mom. It's not easy living abroad. When you combine both things, things can get really, really tricky. Johanna is a doula in Heidelberg, Germany. She's lived outside her home country of the US plenty, but moving abroad as a mom of two changed things for her. She shares her own expat story and explains the German social support systems, from pregnancy to e...

Season 5, Episode 13. In December, The Expat Cast went head-to-head with rival podcast The Germany Experience to see who could raise more money for charity. As much as it pains to admit it, The Expat Cast lost. Today, The Germany Experience is here to claim their prize. The Germany Experience is here to take over The Expat Cast for one episode. Shaun uses his prize to ask Nicole about how her expe...