The Expat Cast

Season 3, Episode 21. There are an estimated 9 million Americans living abroad. If you asked each one of them how they feel about being American, you'd probably get 9 million unique answers. While we can't ask every single person how they feel, we can - and have! - asked two, and this week, we talk to Gabe, a native South Carolinian living in Amsterdam. Gabe feels a deep sense of shame about being...

FEGEPADFO. Is that another one of those famous, long, confusing German words? Nein! It's short for the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The Expat Cast is competing against The Germany Experience to see who can get more donations to their charity of choice over this Advent season. You can participate by donating to either one of their charities - or both!   MORE INFORMA...

Season 3, Episode 20. Nicole grew up in the US and moved to Germany in her mid-20s, and Christin grew up in Germany and moved to the US in her mid-20s. They both pull from their childhood as well as their years in their new home countries to swap stories about how the holidays are in both countries. Do you know about the Christmas Pickle? Have you ever accidentally set an advent wreath on fire? Wh...

FEGEPADFO. Is that another one of those famous, long, confusing German words? Nein! It's short for the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The Expat Cast is competing against The Germany Experience to see who can get more donations to their charity of choice over this Advent season. You can participate by donating to either one of their charities - or both!   MORE INFORMA...

Season 3, Episode 19. This is a rebroadcast from March 2019. It’s being re-released in honor of FEGEPADFO , or the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The guest on the episode is Berly, one of the founders of Women’s Worth Inc., which is my charity of choice for FEGEPADFO. Listen to hear how Berly’s came to the idea to found Women’s Worth, as well as stories of who the pe...

FEGEPADFO. Is that another one of those famous, long, confusing German words? Nein! It's short for the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The Expat Cast is competing against The Germany Experience to see who can get more donations to their charity of choice over this Advent season. You can participate by donating to either one of their charities - or both!   MORE INFORMA...

Season 3, Episode 18. Germany is famous around the globe for their apprenticeship program, or Ausbildung. Did you know that foreigners are also eligible to do an apprenticeship in Germany? We talk to two Americans doing apprenticeships in Germany, one in beer brewing and the other in pottery. The best part? During the whole three-year program, they get a salary! It’s not much, but it’s livable! Th...

FEGEPADFO. Is that another one of those famous, long, confusing German words? Nein! It's short for the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The Expat Cast is competing against The Germany Experience to see who can get more donations to their charity of choice over this Advent season. You can participate by donating to either one of their charities - or both!   MORE INFORMA...

Season 3, Episode 17. Austria and Germany have a sensitive relationship. Picture a sibling rivalry, but with countries and cultures that have coexisted in varying states of war and peace for centuries. Today's guest, Stefanie , grew up in Austria and, against all odds and cultural norms, married a German. *pause for gasps* The two live in Stuttgart, Germany, where Stefanie is experiencing a strang...

FEGEPADFO. Is that another one of those famous, long, confusing German words? Nein! It's short for the First Ever Germany Expat Podcasters Advent Donation Face Off. The Expat Cast is competing against The Germany Experience to see who can get more donations to their charity of choice over this Advent season. You can participate by donating to either one of their charities - or both!   MORE INFORMA...

Season 3, Episode 16. Happy Thanksgiving! Here at The Expat Cast, we're thankful for taxes. Or at least the services & programs that taxes provide. And we're thankful for people like Nathalie Goldstein, who founded MyExpatTaxes, a company whose software makes filing your US expat taxes fun and cute. "Fun" and "cute" and "taxes" all in one sentence? Hold your gasps! With the MyExpatTaxes software,...

Season 3, Episode 15. The days are getting shorter, the weather is getting colder, and we're all getting lonelier. The normal November blues are made that much more challenging when you're facing them in a foreign country. But fret not! You're not alone, even if you are lonely. Every expat has experienced a season of loneliness, and, dare I say, we'll all face them again at some point. This week's...

Season 3, Episode 14. "You're always going to have one set of parents or family who is sad because they're missing their son or daughter." Katie, an American, is married to an Austrian. Their relationship has been colored by what language they communicate in and where they live - in the US, in Austria, and now as digital nomads. Although sometimes it is as magical as taking twirling in the Austria...

Season 3, Episode 13. You know it's going to be a good episode if it references Brene Brown AND Maya Angelou! This week, we're diving into the nitty gritty of imposter syndrome, or the deep feeling and/or fear of being a fraud. Maybe you've heard of it before, maybe you've admitted to feeling it before, but MAN does expat life intensify the experience of imposter syndrome! Melissa, aka Intentional...

Season 3, Episode 12. HAPPY HALLOWEEN! What better way to celebrate Halloween abroad than by discussing true murder cases that happened in the town where you live? Inspired by the famous & well-loved true crime podcast, My Favorite Murder , your host Nicole and her guest Megan picked out two suspenseful cases that tie into their new home of Freiburg, Germany. First up, Megan (who loves murder!) te...

Season 3, Episode 11. After using and loving the WunderTax tool for expats in Germany to file German taxes, Nicole was so impressed that she invited them on the show. Fellow expat in Germany, Agnese, works with WunderTax, and she tell us everything we need to know to file our taxes on time, accurately, and painlessly. The episode focuses on general insights into filing taxes in Germany. For more a...

Season 3, Episode 10. It's the episode no one wanted, that no one needed - yet here it is! It's Snacks & Toilets! In the first half of the episode, we discuss snacks - the snacks we love and hate in Germany, and the snacks we miss most from home. Then comes part two: toilets. Have you encountered the elusive German toilet phenomenon, the poop shelf? We dish out the pros and cons of the strange des...

Season 3, Episode 9. Moving abroad throws so many things into question - your sense of home, your relationships, your career, your comfort zone. In fact, all of these things are also typically thrown into question during another life period: your 20s.  Olivia is 26. She is half-Irish, half-Austrian and has lived in Australia and Sweden. Suffice it to say, she's had her fair share of opportunities...

Season 3, Episode 8. Look out - a wild podcast has escaped the cage of the basement studio and emerged into the real world! The Expat Cast went LIVE! In honor of International Podcast Day , we hosted an event at the Carl Schurz Haus , the German-American center in Freiburg. Following a quick crash course on podcasting, the audience enjoyed a panel discussion between The Expat Cast and local Freibu...

Season 3, Episode 7. It's time to get to know your host! This episode, there's no guest - just me, Nicole, the lady behind the podcast. I tell my expat story, from my first experience abroad to today. I discuss how I left my heart in Italy, my long-distance relationship, my career as a librarian, and how I made the move to Germany in terms of career, visa, and cultural adjustment.   RESOURCES Long...

Season 3, Episode 6. Today, the expats in Germany podcast worlds collide - because Shaun from The Germany Experience is a guest on The Expat Cast! Shaun moved to Germany from South Africa years ago with his wife, in search of adventure and new experiences. They now have German citizenship and are raising two - soon to be three! - kiddos in their rural German village. Their oldest son has a special...

Season 3, Episode 5. Linda Kerr grew up as a Third Culture Kid and is now a "trailing spouse" or expat partner. That means she's experienced living abroad during various stages of life - but now, she's doing something totally new. She is living abroad in Germany with her husband and their two teenagers. Linda explains how she's made moving to Europe work with a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old. Altho...

Season 3, Episode 4. "For us, the number 1 priority was that they would thrive academically, that they would thrive socially, and that this experience would build them up, not suppress them and make them feel like introverts just because they're outsiders." When Lauren moved from the Jersey Shore in New Jersey, USA to Barcelona, Spain with her husband and three small children, she did her research...

Season 3, Episode 3. Folks, we've got our first New Zealand expat in Germany on the show! Having lived in England during the Brexit vote, Fraser became keenly aware of how some foreigners are referred to as expats while others are immigrants. Expats are often seen in a positive light whereas immigrants are too often seen negatively. Not so coincidentally, "immigrants" are often people of color. We...

Season 3, Episode 2. "Expat" is short for expatriation, or living in a country other than one's native country, and "repat" is short for repatriation, or living back in one's native country after living abroad. Put them together, and you get Expat Repat, the name of Lindsey McLean's podcast. Lindsey herself is a repat, living back in the USA after years of life abroad in Switzerland. In the years...