This week we welcome Hudson to Culturally Speaking to lift the lid on American high school culture. Janice and I were almost giddy to find out if what we’ve been watching on-screen really lives up to the reality. We cover everything from school spirit, sports rivalries, Friday Night lights and senior pranks. What actually is a Pep Rally and do people really get promposals? Of course in true Culturally Speaking fashion, we ask Hudson about cafeteria food and her view on Olive Garden breadsticks! Tune in next week for part 2 where Hudson shares her American college experiences. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

Have you ever taken a career survey and convinced yourself that living the life of a foreign diplomat was the ideal career to fulfill your wanderlust? (full disclosure; we totally did). This week we welcome Alexandra Paucescu to the podcast to lift the lid on her experiences as a Romanian diplomatic spouse and writer currently living in Berlin who has previously lived in Austria and the US. We discuss the culture shocks she experienced on her travels, cultural diplomacy and how she manages to retain her Romanian culture wherever she is. Alexandra’s book, ‘Just a Diplomatic Spouse',  a unique collection of memories, feelings and experiences in the diplomatic world, a diary, travel blog and guide of diplomatic protocol and ranking is available on Amazon as a paperback and e-book. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

The face that launched a Thousand Ships … or 1,186 ships to be more accurate. The face in question was Helen’s and the ships sailed to Troy as described in Homer’s Iliad to begin a 10 year siege of the city. The legend of Troy has endured over 3,000 years and inspired countless retellings (including THAT 2004 Orlanda Bloom/Brad Pitt film!) This week we welcome Madhav to the podcast to clarify where Troy actually is, our thoughts on the relationship between Helen and Paris, the influence of the gods and just about everything in between. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

Prathet Thai, translates to ‘Land of the Free’ in the Thai language and it seems pretty apt given that Thailand is the only country in South-East Asia to never have been colonised by any European nation. This week we welcome Robbie to Culturally Speaking to share his take on two of the best known Thai festivals, Songkran and Loi Krathong. We cover the origins of the celebrations, similarities with other cultures and what you can expect to see today from the infamous and epic water fights that rage through the streets of Bangkok to lanterns lighting up Chiang Mai night time skies. Of course in true Culturally Speaking fashion we couldn’t let Robbie go without talking about Thai food and bonding over a shared love of khao soi! Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

The 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha, based on the novel of the same name, piqued audiences interest in the ancient Japanese entertainers skilled in the arts such as singing and dancing. This week Janice enlightens me on the long and involved process trainee geishas undergo and how the first entertainers were in fact men. We cover how the role of the geisha in Japanese society has evolved over time, their distinctive makeup and why they used to paint their teeth black! Tune in to find out how geishas manage not to wash their hair for a week and still maintain their elaborate hairstyles. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

We are honoured to welcome the wonderfully funny and talented Flora (@florasowerby) to the podcast this week to talk about her thespian experiences. We pull back the curtain on things the audience doesn’t get to see from what happens when an actor forgets their lines, killing off characters prematurely and performing drunk. Tune in to hear Flora recant her most memorable audition, a clue it involves Olivia Newton-John’s Physical (need we say anymore!) Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

Marilyn Monroe famously said “Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world” and the mochis, or shoemakers, of Lahore would certainly agree. This week we welcome Mashal (@mashalkadri) to the podcast to talk about the ‘sole’ of Pakistan, from how shoemaking skills are passed down from one generation to the next, to how what you wear on your feet is much more than a fashion statement. Tune to hear how Louis Vuttion’s cultural appropriation of the Peshwari chappal went down and Janice learns that a khussa can be worn on either foot! Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

This week we welcome Nefe to Culturally Speaking to continue the conversation on race. From myth busting and microaggressions to cultural appropriation, tune to hear her experiences as an American-Nigerian women who grew up in the UK and is now living in France. As Nefe rightly reminds us in this episode, Black Lives Matter is more than a moment in time, it is a movement - therefore we feel very strongly that we need to keep having these conversations, keep educating ourselves and challenging the status quo regarding racism. P.S. any of the materials referenced in the recording are linked on our Instagram stories. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast. 

From giving a tiger and a bear 20 cloves of garlic and a bundle of mugwort (we had to Google that one too!) and being told to avoid sunlight for 100 days comes the mythology that is believed to be the foundations of ancient Korea. This week Janice shares the story of Dangun Wanggeom, the founder of the first kingdom of Korea and traditions practiced in Korean culture today. When we think of modern day Korea, K-Pop,  futuristic skincare, kimchi come to mind, but who knew that 10 pin bowling brought over by American GIs in the 50s remains just as popular.  Tune in to hear some surprising discoveries ranging from underfloor heating to. blood groups. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast.

We started Culturally Speaking out of our own curiosity and interest in multiculturalism, but also with a mission in mind to help promote acceptance and tolerance of all cultures. On 25 May, George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black American man, died in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after being restrained by four police officers. The subsequent protests against excessive use of police force against Black citizens and institutional racism more widely have spread across the world. We recognise that we were not the most qualified to talk about this, so this week we invited Larry and Joe to have an open and wide-ranging discussion about race. P.S. any of the materials referenced in the recording are linked on our Instragram stories. Stay Cultured, J & N xoxo. Please take a moment to subscribe, review and comment. We’d love to hear from you @culturallyspeakingpodcast.