People Like Us
People Like Us is my weekly podcast show, in which I interview adult TCKs about their experience of growing up globally.
One listener said “each episode is a combination of new and familiar experiences”. I’m pleased with that feedback. After all, I’m interviewing People Like Us.
Episode One – Steph Rowley
Steph Rowley is a TCK. She grew up in the middle east and then moved around the UK, living in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
In this episode, Steph and I chat about her TCK journey and where life has taken her since.
Episode Two – Marie Gardom
Marie and I have lots in common, not only are we TCKs, we are also both transracial adoptees.
Marie was born in Malaysia and adopted by white British parents. Her father was in the military and so Marie spent her formative years living on military bases around Europe and the UK.
Episode Three – Jackie Harris
Jackie Harris is a marketing professional who grew up across the US, Canada and Portugal.
Here, we chat about her experiences and the impact they have had on the choices she’s made in her life since.
Episode Four – Paul McGuigan
Paul Mcguigan discovered he’s a TCK after listening to my earlier podcasts.
Born in New Zealand to Scottish parents, he then grew up in England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. Paul talks about his moves and how he felt about the TCK lifestyle when he started his family and what home means to him.
Episode Five – Marie Laidlaw
Marie was born in England, moved to Hong Kong for schooling then back to England. Half Japanese and half English, Marie has also spent time living in Japan. When asked, Marie feels that all 3 places are home.
This makes the current coronavirus pandemic lockdown restrictions on travel very hard to bear.
Episode Six – Jiwon Lee (or 이지원or 李知原)
Jiwon Lee (or 이지원or 李知原) is an award-winning filmmaker who grew up in South Korea, Malaysia and China and studied in Los Angeles.
She has recently published her first book Third Culture Teens, for young TCKs who are struggling to find a place in this world.
Jiwon talks about how her own experiences inspired her to write the book, which is currently available on Amazon.
Episode Seven – Amanda Perez
Amanda Perez was born in Hong Kong grew up in Libya, Texas, Argentina and then Texas again. When we made this podcast, Amanda expressed relief at being able to actually answer the question ‘where are you from?’ honestly.
I hope you enjoy this true TCK conversation.
Episode Eight – Megan Norton
Megan Norton is a true TCK as she grew up everywhere!
She was born in Virginia in the US, moved to Pretoria in South Africa, back to Virginia, then to Seoul in South Korea. Next she moved to Bonn and then Frankfurt in Germany, then on to Tokyo Japan. She graduated high school in Tel Aviv in Israel and went to university in Florida.
Listen as she and I talk about her truly varied life as a TCK.
Episode Nine – Terry Owen
Terry has made his most recent move just weeks ago to the countryside of central France.
He describes what home means to him and talks about his experiences of revisiting some of the places he lived during his childhood. He also talks about cultural belonging and how he responds to the question “Where are you from?
Episode Ten – Lisa Lee
Lisa is not unusual as a TCK in that she lives in the UK midlands and has an accent that doesn’t fit the expectation!
Born in Taiwan, her family moved to Canada for 4 years, and then back to Taiwan for Lisa’s high school. Lisa took her degree in the US and her master’s degree in the UK.
Episode Eleven – Christina Hoag
Christina Hoag is a well-travelled TCK! Born in New Zealand, she went on to live in seven other countries as a child and has lived in another three as a foreign correspondent. She has reported for many different news publications, including the Financial Times, the New York Times, and the Miami Herald.
Christina is also an award-winning author!
Episode Twelve – Javaneh Pirzad
Javaneh Pirzad is an unusual subject for my podcast because she’s not a TCK herself. However, her child is.
Javaneh is British-Iranian and grew up in Iran. She has lived most of her adult life as an expat in various places including UAE, Algeria, UK, India. Since 2018, she has lived in the Netherlands.
Episode Thirteen – Carolina Travaglio
Carolina Travaglio lives in Spain. She was born in Venezuela and moved to France aged 18 months. She then moved to the USA returning to Venezuela aged 7 and stayed there until she was 19.
The international moves she experienced were due to her father studying for a PhD in France and then taking a job in the States.
Episode Fourteen – Stephen Yap
Stephen Yap currently lives in the UK, having spent his formative years between Hong Kong and the UK.
He describes the very real experience of reverse culture shock. He also discovered that his knowledge and experience in Hong Kong didn’t translate to the same level of seniority in the UK. Listen to find out why.
Episode Fifteen – Chris O’Shaughnessy
Christopher O’Shaughnessy is a passionate and versatile author and speaker who uses a unique blend of story-telling, humor, and provocative insight to engage a wide array of people on topics ranging from Third Culture Kids and the effects of globalization to building community and increasing empathy.
Chris’ book, Arrivals, Departures and the Adventures In-Between, has received high praise from students, teachers, and otherexperts in the TCK and international community as a resource that is both enjoyable to read at a student level, and able to instill truths, insights and skills essential to navigating life successfully as a TCK.
Listen as Chris and I chat about his life to date.
Episode Sixteen – Nathan Ghanbari
Nathan didn’t know he was a TCK until recently. He has been delighted to discover that actually, he’s not mad (!!) and that there’s a whole world of people like us.
When we talked for this episode of my podcast, it became apparent that even TCKs who don’t know that they’re TCKs, still have the TCK issues that we all share.
Episode Seventeen – Richard Loat
Richard Loat is a TCK who currently lives in Singapore.
He is hugely interesting, not least because he’s in the process of writing a book about famous and successful TCKs. The reason he’s doing this is so that we TCKs can see just how awesome the impact of our TCK upbringing can be.
Listen to our conversation in this week’s episode.
Episode Eighteen – Tamara Yousry
Tamara Yousry is a TCK with mixed heritage – English and Egyptian who has ended up in Perth, Australia. Her whole life is one of travel and culture, having lived in Kuwait, Egypt, England, Scotland, Norway, Singapore prior to moving down under.
Tamara has a recently published book – My Patchwork Life: An Intercultural Love Story which is set in Cairo and Singapore. Just the thing for TCKs (and available now on Amazon!)
Episode Nineteen – Aida Karabu
Aida Karabu is a Kenyan TCK who lived in Kenya, Tanzania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, UK, Kenya again and currently resides in Canada.
Aida talks about her hardest move which was at the typical age for TCKs (12 – 14 years) and the difficulties of finding her favourite childhood fruit. In Kikuyu it’s called nathii and the English name is cape gooseberries!
Episode Twenty – Ben Voegele
This week is a cause for celebration as it’s my podcast show’s 20th episode!
In addition that that, this week’s guest is unusual in that I have already appeared as his guest on his live show, Ben There.
Ben Voegele was born in the USA and spent a large part of his childhood in Asia. When he returned to the US in his teens he had all the usual reverse culture shock that we TCKs experience.
Listen to me chatting to Ben about his life, his choice of career (very TCK!) and how he has found a degree of peace and a place to put down roots in Utah.
Episode Twenty-One – Calvin Widjaja
Calvin Widjaja is no stranger to the TCK airwaves, as he hosts his own podcast show at Global CKtizens on which I was his guest earlier this year.
Calvin grew up between Indonesia and Singapore and this week’s podcast is our discussion about his TCK upbringing, the impact it’s had on him and what he’s doing now.
Episode Twenty-Two – Martina Kist
Martina was born in the Netherlands and is a polyglot. She moved to Poland, the US, Switzerland, back to the Netherlands, then on to Mexico and she kept on moving! In this podcast episode Martina mentions the little blue airmail envelopes that I had completely forgotten about!
Martina is now married to an Argentinian and living in Argentina.
Episode Twenty-Three – Anna Svedberg
Anna is both a TCK and an international adoptee, having been adopted from India by Swedish parents. She grew up in the Middle East and South East Asia, with summers spent in Sweden and she now resides in Sweden.
Listen as she talks about her connections to the many places and cultures that contribute to her identity.