The Conscious Gringo: A Mindful Travel Podcast

Rocio Lucero, founder of the CDMX IYKYK newsletter, is a writer and native-born Mexican who grew up in a small town in Durango before moving to Chicago at the age of 12 and spending most of her teenage/young adult years in the USA. Later, she traveled the world (including a long stint in Korea) before settling down in the beautiful, hectic metropolis of Mexico City. A dual citizen with a US-based...

When the Salvadoran Civil War pushed her family to seek asylum in Australia, Bec Ortiz was quickly confronted with a radically different way of life. She was safer, but she would also be forever changed. In this episode, Bec and Donnel discuss the ways a bilingual, multicultural upbringing shapes your identity—especially when you grow up in a place with so little that is familiar to you—and reflec...

Maureen Eggleton is a photographer and therapeutic art and mindfulness guide with a diverse creative background. She has lived and worked in Mexico, the United States, and Japan. We talk about the ways her identity and creativity were shaped by these countries, indelible characteristics of each (Mexican surrealism, US ambition, Japanese loneliness) that have influenced her perspective on life, and...

Miles Rote is many things—entrepreneur, writer, former private investigator and yoga instructor—but above all, he's an insightful and grounded spirit. After several formative years in Costa Rica, including helping others travel through his work with Under30experiences.com, Miles has now set down roots in Nosara, a place that helps him find an equilibrium between the highly technological lives we l...

Chloe Pan, a software engineer turned jewelry designer, joins to talk about her multicultural, trilingual experience of living in China, Australia, the US, and Mexico. In these varied cultures, she found some striking differences and surprising similarities, especially between China and Mexico. Creativity and entrepreneurship are also at the heart of her journey, so Chloe and Donnel discuss what i...

Two textbook gringos talk about what it's like living in America, the political, societal, and economic circumstances that are prompting more Americans to travel and live in other countries, the experience of being gringos abroad, having awareness of one's privilege, and feeling (very mildly) like an outsider for the first time. We also look at the definition of the term "gringo" and the images/pe...

El primer episodio! Donnel and his good friend Kevin Jung, a seasoned traveler who has lived and thrived in cultures around the world, dive into the topic of friendship and how beneficial that is for understanding a new culture and language. Travel already opens our minds, but making friends around the world can expand our horizons in even more profound ways.