onefjef

I met Ted in Spanish class. He grew up across the bridge from Boston in a neighborhood where, as he puts it, everybody was a car thief, and that's where he says his fascination with beating the system started. It took him onto the internet before most people knew what it was, and into a career spent hiring people to hack into Boston's biggest investment firms. Please show some support for the podc...

I explain why the mezcal glasses in Mexico City cantinas have a cross on the bottom, why my apartment 601 is on the seventh floor, and why I'm not buying the Green Grow the Lilacs explanation for the word gringo. I also stab myself with an EpiPen. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagr...

I met Fernando Marquez at a Wednesday night language exchange in Condesa, talked to him for about half an hour, and decided that was enough to have him on the podcast. He grew up in Del Valle and still lives there, drives to his mom's place in Querétaro when the city gets to be too much, and dated a woman from Maryland for two years, which meant explaining to her that Mexicans are warm and America...

Today is my six-month Mexico City-iversary, which I celebrated by locking myself out of my apartment twice in as many days. I also finally rode the Metro, heard the loudest clap of thunder I've ever heard while lying in shavasana, and fed an avocado to a squirrel named Pepe, who buried half of it and then shit all over my terrace. My ex-landlord also called to tell me he's suing me for a hate crim...

I met Jonathan Wiest in a dysfunctional Spanish class in Mexico city, soon after he hitchhiked from the Texas border to Vancouver with $500 and a sign reading "north and west." We talk about what he found — conspiracy theories, roadside prayers, a truck named "Murdered," and a lot of friendly people stuck in an unfriendly country. Follow Jonathan on Instagram @jonathqn.w Please show some support f...

The joys of Oaxaca and the horrors of dental anxiety, with some foot fingers, excessive girth and a Rumi poem about teeth along the way. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod TikTok: @onefjefpodcast YouTube: https://www.yout...

I hire a Mexican lawyer to get my deposit back, visit a dentist I found on an expat forum, and spend an entire day trapped at home waiting for Amazon. Plus: I investigate the mysterious strings on Mexico City's garbage bags, contemplate the economics of the camote man, and have the strange realization that I'm happy here. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra conten...

I met Gary in a Spanish class in Mexico City. I didn’t learn much Spanish, but I did make a friend who was riding a bicycle from Alaska to Patagonia. We talk about that, his old life on oil rigs, and eating guinea pig for breakfast. Follow Gary Clarke on Instagram @gary_clarke (This episode was originally released on 11/05/2025.) Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extr...

Chris Ryan is the author of Sex at Dawn and host of Tangentially Speaking . We talk about living and traveling abroad, what happens when you get outside the American bubble, and how seeing other places can change the way you see your own country. We also get into my film Coverage , sex and death, 9/11, politics, Mexico, unemployment, podcasting, hitchhiking, and the unexpected connections that com...

Anastasija grew up in post-Soviet Lithuania, got a green card at 18, and spent years bouncing between Columbus, London, Edinburgh, and Norway before eventually landing back in Ohio and becoming a somatic therapist and yoga teacher. We talk about growing up post-Soviet, the green card bureaucracy, and how a business trip to Columbus turned permanent once the pandemic hit. (This episode was original...

Jason Wachtelhausen has lived one of the most unconventional lives of anyone I've interviewed. As I've been living in Mexico this year, I found myself thinking about his years in Guatemala and hearing this conversation a little differently. We talk heroin addiction, punk rock, butchery, religion, travel, and a life that refuses to fit into a box. (This episode was originally released on 6/17/2025....

I settle into my new apartment (and terrace) in Mexico City while Jonathan's voice memos chronicle the final stretch of his hitchhiking journey across the United States. We end up landing on many of the same questions from very different places: comfort, fear, travel, and what it means to really live. Plus: altitude flatulence, joy, and an announcement about the podcast. Please show some support f...

The odd reality of building a life somewhere new is that eventually you end up homesick no matter where you are. I'll be back to normal episodes next week, whatever normal means. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod TikTok:...

I return to the United States for the first time since moving away and quickly remember what America does—and doesn’t—feel like. Jonathan continues hitchhiking toward Canada, collecting stories that range from deeply moving to completely bizarre: strangers who pray for him, unexpected generosity, Native ceremonies, truck stops, and conversations that reveal just how differently people experience t...

I end up in a World Cup celebration unlike anything I've ever experienced, get spectacularly lost wandering Mexico City after my phone dies, and share audio dispatches from a 20-year-old German hitchhiking across the US with almost no money. Plus: the Mexican national anthem is secretly a death threat, every guy Jonathan meets in Texas has done time, a thunderclap broke a seismograph, and a little...

I'm in my last week of six-hour Spanish days, packing up the apartment I can't wait to leave, and negotiating my deposit back over WhatsApp with a landlord who's taking my early exit personally. Also: the Fungi Festival, psychedelic cumbia, nooks & crannies, and weed honey. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://...

I got sick, got antibiotics from a tip-jar doctor, and came back to life right as the World Cup kicked off here in Mexico City. The city went dead quiet, then erupted. I Watched Mexico win from a cantina with free tequila and a torrential downpour. Oh, and I'm moving. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreo...

Celebrating one year of the podcast from Mexico City, where strangers wish you a good meal and toilets overflow without warning. Illness, isolation, ten M&M's in a bag, the kindness of a movie theater employee, and why I couldn't sell hair loss products for a living. Thank you so much to everyone who has listened to this podcast over the past year. I truly appreciate you, and your ears. You ca...

The inevitable loneliness of starting a new life. Also I got strapped into a bungee harness with four women and zero Spanish comprehension, learned that The Simpsons is apparently funnier in Spanish, named my kefir Bicho, and rode through the insane streets of CDMX at night with a friend for the first time. Also I have thoughts about masculine and feminine nouns and they are not entirely diplomati...

SEASON TWO PREMIERE! Chris Casey is back. I find out he actually was an expat — Abu Dhabi, year and a half, government-financed apartment, walked around like he owned the place. We talk about when I learned Arabic at a mosque in South Korea, the call to prayer being piped through an entire city from one voice, me hanging out with Chris' parents in Mexico City without him, his girlfriend's menstrua...

This is the final episode of season one of onefjef : a compilation of clips, conversations, connection, confessions, and moments that somehow led me from Columbus, Ohio to Mexico City. I still can’t believe I made 49 of these. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Faceb...

An earthquake alarm went off, Mexico City is slowly disappearing into the earth, and I'm still impressed I haven't fallen on the sidewalk yet. Episode 48 — the penultimate episode of onefjef season one — short, a little chaotic, what you'd expect, hopefully what you'll like. Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www...

It’s a new era. The podcast has a focus now — expat life in Mexico City — and there’s a new contest to go with it. I talk about CDMX’s no-driving-test license system, why Beetle taxis used to rule the city, the many ways Spanish says “I love you” (and the one way English does), and a tortilla situation I probably should’ve kept to myself. Ponte el cinturón, mis amigos. Please show some support for...

Filmmaker Jon Sherman has been my friend for years and I finally got him in front of a microphone before I left Ohio. We talk about growing up in Manhattan, making movies nobody would buy, Harvey Weinstein passing on his film, directing a hundred people when you have no idea what you're doing, teaching at Kenyon for 17 years, and the tattoo that may not say what he thinks it says. You can, and sho...

I probably shouldn't release this episode but I'm clearly doing it anyway. I talk about Mexican milk cartons, eating raw white bread, and the NEW CONTEST! Please show some support for the podcast and get access to some extra content by subscribing to the Patreon page: http://www.patreon.com/onefjef Instagram: @onefjefpod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onefjefpod TikTok: @onefjefpodcast YouTube...