Oops, Your Culture's Showing!

As we rapidly approach the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, many school schedules are preparing to slow down or take a break in the warmer months, as some work schedules do too. With this in mind, please enjoy this special reissue of our 35th episode on work-life balance in cultures around the globe, “‘Work to live’ cultures, and ‘live to work’ cultures&#82...

Whether you’re enjoying the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, or autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s a great time for an outdoor stroll – with ‘Oops, Your Culture’s Showing!’ playing in your ears, of course. But when you’re navigating street crossings on this stroll, are there cultural implications attached to what you and those around you ar...

Merriam-Webster defines “talking turkey” as “speaking frankly or bluntly”, but, honestly, where’s the fun in that…so instead, we’re talking about Turkey, the country, in this episode. Dean brings Tom and Torin along on his recent expedition there: from “fabulous, glorious center of the word” Istanbul, to the “fascinating” fairy chim...

If you find yourself itching to hear Dean and Tom this month, we’re happy to oblige: here is a special reissue of our January 2020 episode, “Which Body Part’s Itchy?”. There’s certainly no dry spell happening in this episode – enjoy! In this episode, Dean and Tom scratch away at cultural associations related to itchy noses, itchy palms, and itchy feet around the...

With Mardi Gras 2026 right around the corner, sink your teeth into a special slice – erm, reissue – of our Mardi Gras-themed episode, “Culture’s Consequences: King Cake At Mardi Gras”, from February 2024. Enjoy this purple, green, and gold delight! Introducing…Dean’s new  “Culture’s Consequences” Substack column , in which he reveals the hidden cultural reasons behind...

Happy (almost) new year! In this episode, Dean remembers his experience of ‘rum, rhumba, and remembrance’ in Havana Cuba on a past New Year’s Eve. Tom and Torin join him on this (literally) timeless journey, rum in hand, dancing shoes on, and all clearly being out-rhumba-ed by six-year-olds. Join us on this blur and whirl of an episode, because, as always, we are the walrus: coo...

Please enjoy this holiday-themed episode reissue from Boxing Day 2024, “How Not To Be The Ugly (Fill In The Country Of Choice) Tourist”, and have a happy end of 2025 & start of 2026! It’s a holiday-filled time of year and a heavy travel time across cultures, dear listeners; as such, we’ve been receiving your questions about how not to be the “ugly American (or fill in your country...

Thanksgiving is back in the US, and so are we with a special reissue of our November 2022 episode, “Holidays of gratitude”! (And don’t forget: Dean’s newest book, “Business Beyond Borders: Stories, Tales, and Lessons Learned from Working in 100 Cultures Around the World” , IS OUT NOW. Order your copy today!) Happy Thanksgiving to our US American listeners! In this episode,...

After recently exploring what certain words and phrases say about culture, we thought it time to re-explore what other certain phrases – idioms – say about – yes – culture! With that, enjoy this special reissue of our 47th episode, “Idiots Talking Idioms”, from March 2024. (And don’t forget: Dean’s newest book, “Business Beyond Borders: Stories, Tale...

We’re back for Part 2 and for our 60TH EPISODE! In this even more culture-lit-laden episode, Dean, Tom, and Torin resume poring over Christopher Moore’s book “The Untranslatables”, about terms representing universal concepts that don’t have a direct translation in U.S. English, like the French term “esprit de l’escalier”, the Mandarin word “guanxi”, and the Bantu word “ubuntu”. Dean’s stories, tal...

Dear listeners: As you’ve enjoyed nearly sixty episodes of Dean’s stories, tales, and lessons learned from working in a hundred cultures around the world (and if not, why are you here? this is what we do!), we know you’re absolutely going to love Dean’s newest book, “Business Beyond Borders: Stories, Tales, and Lessons Learned from Working in 100 Cultures Around the World” . It’ll be release...

Listen to this juicy rumor: In this episode, would you believe that Dean and Tom ‘spill the tea’ on the value and function of gossip and secrecy across cultures? From investigating the use of tsismis in Manila, to eyeing gossip’s impact on decision-making in sub-Saharan Africa – plus secrecy’s impact on drapery in Brussels – they manage to make a splash at proverbial water coolers in b...

While we’re sorry to possibly offend, we’re not at all sorry about reissuing our apologies-across-cultures episode, “Sorry?”, from June 2019. We hope that you enjoy it, and if you don’t, what else can we say but…sorry? We’re very (not) sorry to say that Dean and Tom are talking apologies across cultures, particularly in the U.K. and East Asia, in this episode. A...

Last month, Dean entered a ryokan  in Japan, so this month he – and we – are re-entering the Japanese bathroom in the FIRST-EVER episode of the “Oops, Your Culture’s Showing!” podcast. Enjoy this special reissue of our March 23rd 2018 premiere episode, titled “Shaving & Japanese Toilets”! World cultures expert Dean Foster and longtime friend Tom Peters...

Happy spring! With cherry blossoms blooming all around, Dean and Tom float into an exploration of ikigai , a concept for finding happiness and purpose in everyday life, in Japanese culture. Along the road of their discussion, they also stay at a ryokan and relish wabi-sabi – all while occasionally being interrupted by the Licensing department. Whether you’re subtly finding beauty in the impe...

Clink clink! Dean and Tom would just like to take a moment (actually, several moments across this episode) to toast toasting and public speaking across cultures. After toasting all night long with a tamada in Georgia, they toast Dean’s May 2024 article for Toastmasters – Speaking Across Cultures: Top 10 rules for communicating around the world – and Tom tries to guess some of the top 1...

O Canada! With all the recent talk of Canada being the 51st U.S. state – it’s not, and won’t be! – Dean and Tom venture into the vast expanse of cultural differences between Canadians and U.S. Americans in this episode. Meanwhile, Dean encounters polar bears on the Canadian Shield, Tom’s Canadian relatives enter the melting pot, and Torin searches underground for Montreal’s Nuit Blanch...

Hoping a magic carpet ride whisks you away to a magical “far far away” place this week? Well, you’re in *luck*, because we’re reissuing our August 2019 episode, “Do You Believe In Magic?”, for that very reason. Enjoy being transported to Dean and Tom’s realm of magic and wonder, and we’ll see you on the other side! In this episode, Dean and Tom explo...

It’s a holiday-filled time of year and a heavy travel time across cultures, dear listeners; as such, we’ve been receiving your questions about how not to be the “ugly American (or fill in your country of choice) tourist” while traveling abroad. On this Boxing Day, Dean and Tom pause their gifting to unpack fears about this, and then to wrap up practical advice about it into a festive 40-minute epi...

Happy Thanksgiving to our U.S. listeners! In this episode, Dean and Tom thank local caregivers for helping Dean survive sudden maladies across three different continents. They also explore culture’s impact on the care he received, as well as lessons learned (and salt balls rolled…by butterflies?). Plus, the exciting premiere of not one but TWO spinoff segments (and soon-to-be fan favorites!): “Bad...

Are Burma and Myanmar the same place? How long does a zat pwe last? Why are only foreigners allowed into a certain garage in Mandalay? In this episode, Dean and Tom travel along Myanmar’s central river, the Irrawaddy, to answer these very questions, all the while observing Buddhist temples and pagodas, holding hands with new friends, and donning a mustachioed purple t-shirt. They also seek to buil...

Hungry for more food talk after last month’s “Somebody Feed Dean” episode? We’re serving it up to you on a silver platter with this special reissue of our July 2018 episode, “Fish Cheeks & Dining Myth Explosions”. Bon appétit! This episode, Dean and Tom remain hungry for traditional foods across cultures: fish cheeks in China, black pudding and haggis in the U.K., guinea pigs in th...

It’s a food travel show for your ears! Dean ventures to his favorite worldwide hole-in-the-wall restaurants, street stands, and more in this episode, experiencing the best meals of his life from Sri Lanka to Shanghai and everywhere in between. Meanwhile, Tom risks losing his head in his search for the most spectacular chocolate mousse in and around Paris. We hope that you’ll take the calculated ri...

We’re popping open a bottle of Mirto from Sardinia in celebration of our 50TH EPISODE! First, Dean caps off our prior episode about music and dance with the happiest song he’s ever heard,  Jambo Bwana , from East Africa, and with an Italian version of the card game Spoons in which the losing player sings an aria. From there, Dean and Tom explore divisions between the north and south of Italy, the...

We’re groovin’ to the tunes in this episode! Join Dean and Tom as they explore varying expressions, along with common purposes, of music and dance across cultures: from an indoor wedding in Cairo and music bar in Dublin, to an outdoor opera in Rome and the salsa-filled streets of Havana. Everybody gather ’round now. Let your body feel the heat. Don’t you worry if you can’t dance....