22.33

When Kayla Huemer traveled to India as a biomedical researcher, she worried about finding a community in the land of contrasts. However, it didn't take too long for her to find her people, join an ultimate frisbee team, and participate in India's first national frisbee tournament.

On this bonus episode of 22.33, we ask Kalina Silverman, founder of Big Talk, to answer questions from her very own Big Talk card game, designed to help facilitate in-depth conversations with friends, family, coworkers, and strangers. All the questions in the deck are universal, open-ended, and meaningful. We put a twist on the old fortune cookie game and simply had Kalina add the words "...on your exchange" to every question. Guess what? It works!

When Kalina Silverman went to study  journalism at Northwestern University, she was meeting new people each day, yet still felt a sense of loneliness and superficiality that made her feel isolated and disconnected. So, she tried skipping small talk, and immediately noticed she was making more meaningful connections with her peers. Encouraged by this reaction, she made a video, where she approached strangers and asked them the fist Big Talk question: “What do you want to do before you die?”

How do you mix heartbreaking and hilarious? Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program participant Bilal Khan, from Karachi, Pakistan, tells about his life before, during, and after YES, and the inescapable conclusion is that stories like Bilal's are why we do international exchanges.

On this bonus episode we bring you even more hilarious food stories from around the world.

This week, understanding systems to help individual people; learning to expand your limits of trust; and using words to understand emotions. Join us on a journey from Virginia to the Dominican Republic, and communicating through imagery and empathy.

What happens when you leave your comfort zone, travel to another country, interact with a different culture, a new language, and unique ways of life? Now let's take that a step further. Imagine you are in a place that many would be very afraid to visit, finding yourself in situations like nothing you've ever experienced. How do you trust yourself to make the right decisions? This week, a Fulbright ETA shares stories of her time in Jordan & Syria. It's an audio journey from Vermont to the Middle East, mainly by taxi and bus and taxi.

As a child, when you thought of America, you thought of the Texas plains and cowboys but, as a teenager, when you first traveled to America, your destination was Alaska. Instead of life in the Wild West, you found yourself in the snow hugging trees, literally hugging trees.

The thriving, multicultural neighborhood that you so love wasn't always that way. When you first arrived, it was a place of fear and violence, and thus sadness. A group of courageous and passionate community leaders, including you, set out to change that. You talked to the neighborhood elders. You listened. You started living and leading by example. One of the driving forces of your actions, then and now, is the vital importance of outdoor spaces, places where people meet, and come together, and share their lives. You are listening to 22..33, a podcast of exchanged stories.

A medley of “Little Nook” concerts and original music heard exclusively over the course of 22.33’s first 49 episodes. Featuring Seth Glier, Carla Canales, Francis Tongpalad, Est Est Est, Begish, Derik Nelson & Family, Tony Memmel & Junious.