Expats Listen Podcast

Just like Liz, Angela Vitiello moved away from New York in 2010 and has lived abroad ever since. Liz and Angela chat about the NY responses to leaving NY, balancing visits back home, finding friends, and lots more. She's now married with kids and staying put in Brussels, Belgium for the foreseeable future. She runs Expat Parenting Collective and has lots of advice for folks moving abroad or al...

If you're an expat or an immigrant, loneliness will hit you. OK really, if you're a human, loneliness will hit you at some point whether you like it or not. But what do we think of when we think of loneliness? Liz and Ryan share stories of when they've felt most lonely and their backgrounds and experiences shape them into very different perspectives on that same word.

Welcome to Season 2! Is your New Year's resolution to move to a new country? Or to move back to your home country after living abroad? If that's your goal for this year, here are some deeper questions to ask yourself before you buy that plane ticket.

New. More. Different. Expat life is full of excitement, growth and discovery. But what happens when we say goodbye to the life we used to have? We might have lived in a different world with different people while being a different person. And now we are somewhere so far away from there. Today we talk about the things we left behind in order to become expats.

Sometimes you fall in love with a holiday you weren't born celebrating. When Ryan, a South African, started dating Liz, an American, she shared her love for giving thanks and eating an insane amount of butter. Listen to Ryan's experiences with the holiday and what it has come to mean to him. Ryan and Liz also go into lots of detail about the Thanksgiving foods they love and traditions they...

What you don't know can't hurt you, right? Well, when you think about moving to another place, and especially when you actually make a move, you might not realize that you are opening a giant Pandora's Box where you start to notice things that you never noticed before about your home, about your new home, and everything else. Sometimes it's obvious things (like New York is SUPER ex...

When you move abroad, you are going to feel guilty. For what you left, for who you left, for what you’re choosing and what you aren’t choosing, for dozens of different things surrounding the topic of money, for being selfish and chasing your own dreams, for not speaking the local language “well enough”. You’re just going to feel guilty. A lot. Trust us. Ryan and Liz share a list of 10 forms of exp...

In this conversation with Josh & Kalie of Expats Everywhere, we discuss the differences between travel in our early 20’s versus our 30’s, their decision to have a baby in the USA after living abroad for a decade, some ways of making friends in their new home of Portugal, and more. We love to chat with other expats, and it was really fun to compare notes with a couple who’s been abroad for so l...

Just passed in Portuguese Parliament, the path for us expats and immigrants toward citizenship in Portugal is changing. Some people are fed up with how over-immigration is impacting this country and are cheering for reform. Some are livid that these changes will have a tangible impact on their lives, and not a positive one. It seems like everyone in Portugal is having big feelings right now. Onlin...

Fresh off of a trip to the UK, we find ourselves asking, "Could we live there?". So we take a look at some different categories: food, accommodation, transport, weather, and making friends, and try to compare Portugal with the UK. Which would you choose?

Meticulous overplanners, those who throw caution to the wind and come with a dream, lovers reuniting with their loves, career chasers, where do you fit in? We fit into several of these categories ourselves, so we dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly about different expat personas. Spoiler: there is no "best way" to move abroad. Each way has its pros and cons, so use your head and yo...

An appendix removal in Northern Ireland, a heart attack in Portugal, kidney stones in Australia. You never think a medical emergency will happen to you, but what do you do when it does? Fresh off of an appendectomy, Ryan and Liz share their experience with the United Kingdom’s National Health Services, or the NHS. You thought the appendicitis was scary? We also talk through the heart attack Ryan h...

There are things that you know will be difficult about life abroad- being far from family and friends, language barriers, work, finding friends, visa struggles. But then there are the things that you truly cannot believe knock you down. Where is the place that Liz has been brought to tears the most in Portugal? The Portuguese post office, or the CTT. Liz despises the Portuguese post office. Nothin...

You've heard the things we struggle with on "Don't move to Portugal unless..." (And if you haven't, go listen to that episode!) It's time to talk about some of the things that surprised us about becoming expats in Portugal in the best ways. Whenever you move to a country as an expat or an immigrant, you go there with lots of expectations. Most of your experiences will be...

What is home, really? As an expat, this answer can be so complicated. If I say that home is where I live now, am I abandoning where I came from? If I say that home is where I was born, am I living in the past and not showing love to the life I have worked so hard to build here? And what about homesickness? We definitely miss people and places and things from our past homes. But we also miss the ve...

Everybody makes mistakes, but sometimes when you move abroad, what you don't know can cost you dearly. Ryan and Liz share some of the biggest expat mistakes they made, from paperwork errors that ended in tears, a job opportunity that turned into a scam, and lots more. Listener Nina shares her expat mistake of trying to become a local and losing her identity along the way. Learn from our mistakes s...

A loaded question! But one that you should ask yourself, whether or not other people ask you. Moving away from a good job and “on the right track” life in New York, Liz was asked this question constantly in her 20’s when she chose a new path. Moving from South Africa to Europe, nobody asked Ryan what he was running away from, but he asked himself. We have all tried to run away from our problems at...

When you live abroad, how do you balance your vacation days? You want to visit your friends and family but you also want to rest or explore somewhere new. Doing one means less time to do the other, so it's tricky! Liz feels guilty that she left and bends over backwards to create an intricate schedule to see everyone she can while she's back in New York. Ryan feels like he came all the way...

Expats Listen is thrilled to announce our first interview! We are joined by another South African named Ryan, but with a very different story. After a gap year in Taiwan, Ryan Brock's partner got a job offer she couldn't refuse in London and together they made the move. What they thought would be maybe 2 or 3 years turned into 8 and counting! While Brock wasn't the most prepared for th...

Thinking of making the move to Portugal? You're not alone! So many folks have recently made the move or are planning it now. Stop reading articles that tell you how idyllic and perfect your life will be here. There are phenomenal things about living in Portugal, but you also need to hear some of the hard truths of what you need to accept if you want to live here. So let's get going. Don&#3...

We know these can be loaded words! Ryan and Liz talk through what it means to be an expat, and what it means to be an immigrant, both in theory and in practice. We share some stories of how we 🇿🇦🇺🇸 are labeled and treated, and Psychologist Ryan talks through how difficult it can be to be shoved into a box that might not feel like you fit into. Our show is called Expats Listen, but we identify as b...

Hosts Ryan and Liz met in an airport. Yep, really. Hear the whole story of how we met in the airport in Muscat, Oman. A listener question is answered about intercultural relationships. We wrap it up with our first ever "Would you rather?" with the choices of South Africa versus the USA.

Our first episode! Meet hosts Ryan 🙋🏾‍♂️🇿🇦 and Liz 💁🏼‍♀️🇺🇸 and see what we have in store for this podcast, a place to be real about the ups and downs of living abroad for expats and immigrants.