From Down Under to Down South

Send us Fan Mail When I first moved to America, there were plenty of moments when I wasn't sure I belonged. Looking back now, what surprises me isn't the awkward moments—it's how many people seemed determined to make room for us. In this episode, I reflect on the small everyday interactions that gradually changed how I saw America, from a Thanksgiving invitation to familiar faces at...

Send us Fan Mail What happens to friendships when you live overseas for years? This week, I’ve been thinking about the people and everyday moments we slowly lose touch with — the ordinary Tuesdays we once shared without realizing how important they were. But this is This Week in America , so things don't stay reflective for long. I'm also talking about Georgia surviving an intense week o...

Send us Fan Mail After eight years living in the United States, I thought I understood why Americans talk to strangers. I assumed it was friendliness. But over time, I started to realise I was looking at it the wrong way. In this episode, I share the observation that changed my perspective and why I now believe friendliness isn't the goal at all. From conversations in grocery stores to chance...

Send us Fan Mail This week, a chest infection brought back memories I hadn't thought about in years. Even though it wasn't COVID, the symptoms felt almost identical, reminding me just how deeply certain experiences stay with us.  From remembering the uncertainty of the pandemic and being separated from family in Australia, to living through storms and power outages in Tennessee, I explor...

Send us Fan Mail When we moved from Australia to America, I assumed my daughters would simply grow up with a connection to both countries. What I didn't expect was how raising kids overseas would slowly change the way I saw home. In this episode, I share the moment my youngest daughter referred to Australia as "Dad's country" and why it made me realise something important: home...

Send us Fan Mail Some weeks are full of big moments. Others remind you just how nice an ordinary week can be. This week, I reflect on the unexpected joy of having nothing much happen. We chat about the explosion of comments on my YouTube channel, why watching strangers connect in the comments has become one of my favourite parts of creating content, and why I still choose to keep politics out of m...

Send us Fan Mail After living in America for years now, I’ve realised the biggest differences between Australia and the United States usually aren’t the obvious ones. It’s the social rhythm. The way conversations start. How strangers interact. How Americans encourage people openly. Even the way people stand in supermarkets. In this episode, I talk about the small cultural differences Australians n...

Send us Fan Mail This week in America, I reflect on a milestone I never expected to reach: 10,000 YouTube subscribers. But surprisingly, the number itself isn't what has been on my mind. Instead, I've been thinking about the stories people have been sharing. Stories about family, kindness, belonging, moving to new places, and the moments that shape who we become. Reading those stories ha...

Send us Fan Mail Living in America changed me more than I realised. After 8 years living in the United States as an Australian expat, I started noticing small changes in my patience, expectations, reactions, customer service standards, and everyday life. In this episode, I talk about the subtle ways living in America slowly changes you over time — often without you even noticing. From waiting at a...

Send us Fan Mail This week in America, a trip to Daytona Beach for Georgia’s final dance competition of the season turned into something I wasn’t expecting. What started as a week of dance nationals, beaches, airports and sightseeing became a reminder that the things we remember most about travel are often the people we meet along the way. From conversations with a Haitian taxi driver, a Jamaican...

Send us Fan Mail Living in America as an Australian changes the way you speak in ways you don’t expect. After 8 years in the USA, I’ve started noticing American phrases, cultural differences, and everyday habits slowly becoming part of my life without even realising it. It starts small. Saying “y’all” at work. Asking for a “to go box” instead of takeaway. Calling it a gas station instead of a serv...

Send us Fan Mail This week, a few seemingly unrelated things came together. A missing dance partner. The World Cup. Memories of Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand. A part-time job that almost became a full-time career. A YouTube video that suddenly took off. For years, I measured success by promotions, responsibility and whatever the next opportunity happened to be. Lately, I've started asking diffe...

Send us Fan Mail Australian humour can be hard to explain until you live somewhere else and suddenly realise… people aren’t hearing it the same way. In this episode, I talk about the small parts of Australian humour that don’t always translate in America — self-deprecation, deadpan sarcasm, understatement, “taking the piss,” and the very Australian habit of cutting down anything that feels a bit t...

Send us Fan Mail This week in America, I started a new job at a self-storage facility just ten minutes from home — or, as I've discovered, exactly two songs away. What I thought would be a story about starting a new job quickly became a story about people. In my first week, I met a woman from Augusta who shared stories about life during Masters week, the owners of a local Chick-fil-A who remi...

Send us Fan Mail Why do Australians sound rude in America? Why do cultural differences between Australia and the US change how we come across without us realising? This episode explores the moment you realise you sound rude in America — and why it happens. After living in the United States for several years, I’ve started to notice something subtle. It’s not that Australians are trying to be rude —...

Send us Fan Mail After 24 years in banking, more than 2,500 job applications, and a career that became my identity, I found myself facing something many people quietly experience but rarely talk about: Starting over. In this episode of This Week in America, I share the reality of leaving a senior banking career after burnout, the emotional toll of unemployment, applying for thousands of jobs in my...

Send us Fan Mail Living in America as an Australian, you start to notice the small cultural differences that no one really talks about. In this episode, I share 10 American habits that still surprise me after 8 years — from grocery shopping at places like Publix, to restaurant service, home owners associations and everyday life in the United States. These aren’t the big, obvious differences betwee...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of This Week in America, I talk about the unexpected ways living in Tennessee has changed what feels familiar to me. I used to miss the loud chaos of Australian birds every morning—lorikeets, magpies, cockatoos—but lately the sounds of cardinals, blue jays, and woodpeckers have started feeling like home too. That leads into a bigger conversation about life as an Au...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a small money habit in America that I didn’t notice at first — and now I see it everywhere. It shows up in tipping, payment screens, and everyday spending habits that quietly add up. The moment you think you’re done… there’s often one more decision waiting. A tip. An upsell. A donation prompt. Something small, but repeated often enough that it starts to shape how you spend...

Send us Fan Mail A week ago I uploaded a video called The First Things Australians Notice in America . https://youtu.be/a2mJtfnJU-8 What happened next caught me completely off guard. The video passed 160,000 views, the comments poured in, and I found myself spending hours talking with Americans from every corner of the country. What started as a simple discussion about cultural differences became...

Send us Fan Mail There’s a moment that tends to happen when you live overseas.  Someone hears your Australian accent in America … pauses for a second… and then the questions start. After eight years living in the United States as an Australian, I’ve noticed the same questions come up again and again. Some are funny, some are unexpected, and some reveal more about the cultural differences between A...

Send us Fan Mail This week in America somehow turned into a mix of Jeep suspension problems, MRI tunnels, ballroom dancing injuries, drum recitals, and trying to work out why American kids seem to have busier schedules than corporate executives. After my Jeep Wrangler started developing the infamous “death wobble,” I found myself bouncing between tire shops, mechanics, dealerships, and a father-an...

Send us Fan Mail Living overseas changes the way you see the place you came from. After eight years in the United States, I’ve started to notice things about Australia that I never really thought about when I lived there. Not the big, obvious things — but the small, everyday ones. The kinds of things that quietly shape your sense of home. In this episode, I reflect on what I didn’t realise I’d tak...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when your kids grow up in a country that still feels new to you? In this episode of This Week in America , I share a simple moment at The Hermitage in Nashville that turned into something bigger — a quiet realisation about identity, family, and what it means to belong in America as an Australian. Living in the United States for eight years, I’ve grown used to the ques...

Send us Fan Mail As an Australian living in America, I’ve come to realise it’s not the big cultural differences that stay with you… it’s the small, everyday habits. In this episode, I talk through some of the little things Americans do that still catch me off guard — from sending mail from your own mailbox, to turning right on a red light, to traditions like trunk or treat. They’re completely norm...