CULTURS
Download on the App Store

CULTURS episodes

  • The Psychology of Growing Up Between Cultures

    Get the free identity rebuild workbook: https://cultursmag.ac-page.com/self-assessment-Dr-Charles


    Dr. Charles Warter was born in Chile, moved around the US his whole childhood, and didn't have a word for any of it until he was 26 and stumbled onto the Third Culture Kid literature in grad school. Suddenly the quirks weren't quirks. The hyper-awareness when walking into a room, the friendships dropped without flinching, the way he read everyone before saying a word. All of it had a name, a body of research, and a community.

    In this conversation with host Elleyne Aldine, Dr. Warter talks about building Protected Roots, his intensive treatment center for kids and young adults, and his new contract with TriWest, the largest insurer for military families. He breaks down why one sibling thrives in a constantly moving family and another struggles, why TCKs often find collaboration harder than connection, and why depending on other people is a skill, not a risk.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Discovering the TCK literature at 26 and everything clicking
    03:00 - Building Protected Roots and the TriWest military families contract
    07:30 - The classroom moment he realized he was the one leaving
    12:30 - Cultural humility, Hawaii, and getting rocked on the East Coast
    14:30 - Why one sibling adapts and another struggles in the same family
    20:30 - Why TCKs connect deeply but collaborate uncomfortably
    24:30 - The third space and the universal language of attunement
    28:30 - The farewell box and TCKs who have less to give
    30:30 - Trusting your intuition, the first survival skill of a TCK
    31:30 - Why depending on others is a muscle, not a risk

    CONNECT WITH DR. CHARLES WARTER:

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-charles-benjamin-warter-5bb2234a/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/PRI/100092351931156/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/protectedrootsintegrative
    X: https://x.com/pritreatment
    Website: https://pritreatmentcenter.com/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment
    Hair by Tanya Mason

    This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique: https://www.podcastboutique.com

    40 min
  • What It's Like Growing Up When No One Looks Like You

    Get the free identity rebuild workbook: https://cultursmag.ac-page.com/free-journal-kimberly

    Kimberly Ming is Chinese and Puerto Rican, born and raised in Fort Collins, Colo., U.S.A. where almost no one looked like her or her sister. The microaggressions weren't always big, but they piled up: A teacher asking who in the room believed racism existed and only her hand going up. A stepbrother's voicemail using a slur she didn't yet know the meaning of. The constant "what are you," asked more out of confusion than curiosity.

    In this conversation with host Elleyne Aldine, Kimberly talks about moving to Puerto Rico to reconnect with the half of her family she barely got to know, raising her 11-year-old son across cultures, and turning years of feeling invisible into a spoken-word audiobook called “The Untold Stories of a Chinese Puerto Rican Woman.” She also shares the piece she wrote about being the China-Rican Borinqua-Wannis, and what it means to stop apologizing for being mixed.

    Topics discussed:

     00:00 - Growing up Chinese and Puerto Rican in Fort Collins

    06:30 - Feeling isolated with no representation around her
    07:30 - When small microaggressions become a bigger trauma
    09:00 - The classroom moment that made her question herself
    13:30 - Moving to Puerto Rico to reconnect with that side of her family
    20:30 - What her ancestry chart revealed about her global lineage
    23:30 - Raising a mixed 11-year-old son across cultures
    27:30 - Giving her son a voice in the family's moves
    30:30 - Why she wrote “The Untold Stories of a Chinese Puerto Rican Woman”
    34:30 - Her spoken word piece on being the China-Rican Borinqua-Wannis

    🔗 CONNECT WITH KIMBERLY MING:

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlyming/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimberly.ming
    Threads: https://www.threads.com/@kimberly.ming
    Website: https://www.multiculturalmami.com/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Hair by Tanya Mason

     

    This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique: https://www.podcastboutique.com

    41 min
  • Why Multicultural Hair Needs a Completely Different Approach

    Tanya Mason grew up between her Caucasian grandmother's fine hair and her Indian mother's hair that wasn't quite hers either. Nothing the beauty world taught her covered the texture in the middle. After 30 years behind the chair, she stopped following the rules and started asking why: Why conditioner? Why the big chop? Why nothing on the shelf actually worked?

    In this conversation with host Elleyne Aldine, Tanya talks about the multicultural hair gap nobody taught her in beauty school, the ingredient in your conditioner that's also approved as jet fuel, and the water she trademarked that changed everything for her clients. She also shares her CPC formula: Commitment, patience, consistency. The restoration program that lets you keep your length, and why the real damage to your hair isn't the product, it's what's coming out of your tap.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Growing up between her grandmother's and mother's hair textures

    03:30 - 30 years behind the chair and what beauty school never taught her
    05:00 - Why she became an educator to fix her own confusion
    13:00 - Why the type of water you drink matters more than you think
    16:00 - The story behind My Water and her trademarked process
    20:30 - Why most people don't actually need conditioner
    21:30 - The conditioner ingredient also approved as jet fuel
    24:00 - What conditioner does once it dries on your hair
    31:00 - The restoration program that lets clients keep their length
    33:00 - CPC. Commitment, patience, consistency

    CONNECT WITH TANYA MASON:

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanya-mason-4a4561128/

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyadoeshairllc/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tanyadoeshairllc/?ref=NONE_xav_ig_profile_page_web#
    Website: https://tanyadoeshairllc.square.site/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

     

    37 min
  • A DNA Test Can Rewrite Your Entire Identity

    Brianne Kirkpatrick-Williams has spent almost 20 years as a genetic counselor, and she's one of the only people in the world doing this specific work. She helps people figure out what to do after a DNA test rewrites their family story. A parent who isn't a parent. A heritage that was never theirs. A chapter no one ever mentioned. Over 40 million people now have their DNA in consumer databases, and the surprises don't stay quiet.

    In this conversation with host Elleyne Aldine, Brianne talks about founding Watershed DNA, co-authoring DNA Guide for Adoptees, and the seven surprise discoveries she's made inside her own extended family. She explains why one DNA discovery can ripple through an entire family, why "just call them" is rarely the right move, and how identity, health, and heritage all sit inside the same strand of code.

     

    Topics discussed:


    00:00 - What a genetic counselor actually does
    03:30 - Working with adoptees, NPEs, and donor-conceived people
    06:30 - How she found this field and built a one-woman practice
    09:30 - The 2018 explosion of at-home DNA testing
    11:30 - Why finding biological family is never as simple as picking up the phone
    12:30 - The "search angel" community helping people piece together family trees
    16:00 - The seven surprise discoveries inside her own family
    17:30 - Honoring the person most impacted before the news spreads
    20:30 - The book she co-wrote for adoptees on DNA and search
    22:00 - What health DNA testing reveals about who you are and why

     

    🔗CONNECT WITH BRIANNE KIRKPATRICK-WILLIAMS:


    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianne-k-w/
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/watersheddnaofficial/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WatershedDNA
    Website: https://www.watersheddna.com/about

     

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get the free identity rebuild workbook:

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Hair by Tanya Mason

     

    34 min
  • If You've Ever Felt the Weight of Representing Your Entire Culture, Watch This

    Eugene Tapahe grew up on the Navajo Nation with no running water and no electricity, raised by his grandmother in the Diné language, learning ceremony before he learned English. As a Native artist, he's spent his life being asked to speak for all 576 federally recognized tribes, as if one brown face could carry that. He couldn't. No one can. And the anger that built from being flattened into a single story almost became the whole story.

    Now he's a Diné photographer, the creator of the Art Heals: Jingle Dress Project, and the first Native American to have a solo show at the BYU Museum of Art. In this conversation with host Elleyne Aldine, Eugene talks about the dream that started it all during COVID, the soil samples he washed from 98 places across America, and the moment he realized he'd become the thing he was fighting. 

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Growing up on the reservation with his grandmother

    04:00 - The Art Heals: Jingle Dress Project and the dream that started it
    06:30 - The first dance at the Bonneville Salt Flats
    11:30 - The 100-year-old Ojibwe origin of the jingle dress
    18:30 - The first Native American solo show at the BYU Museum of Art
    19:00 - The weight of being asked to represent all 576 tribes
    23:00 - Washing the cities off the soil samples
    31:00 - The boarding schools and the trauma that didn't stop with one generation
    32:30 - The moment he realized he'd become what he was fighting
    36:30 - His grandmother's advice: Take it to the woods.

    🔗 CONNECT WITH EUGENE TAPAHE:

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenetapahe/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get the free identity rebuild workbook: https://cultursmag.ac-page.com/rediscover-your-heritage

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Hair by Tanya Mason

     

     

    41 min
  • What Would You Do If Your Identity Was Taken From You Overnight?

    In about 30 seconds, one DNA test erased the name, the heritage, and the Latina identity Dr. Paulette Bethel had carried her entire life. The family she thought she came from was not the family her genes pointed to, and a long-held secret reshaped everything she believed about herself.

    In this episode, Paulette opens up about the grief of losing an identity that felt unshakable, what it took to rebuild from truth, and how that pain became the foundation for her NPE (Not Parent Expected) Identity Disruption Model, now helping thousands navigate the same kind of loss.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - The moment a DNA test shattered her identity

    02:33 - Growing up culturally fluid in New Orleans
    03:50 - Joining the Air Force after a difficult divorce
    06:38 - Building a blended TCK family across Asia
    08:41 - Leading a foster care nonprofit in Hawaii
    14:19 - Why she finally took the Ancestry DNA test
    16:22 - Discovering zero percent Native American ancestry
    18:24 - Grieving the loss of being Latina
    20:28 - Creating the Identity Disruption model from her own pain
    38:53 - Bella's front porch and the power of gathering

    CONNECT WITH DR. PAULETTE BETHEL:

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulettebethel/

    Get the free identity rebuild workbook: https://cultursmag.ac-page.com/identity-workbook

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Makeup by Sedrique Olsen
    Styling by Sonja Henderson

    42 min
  • If Your Parents Hid Their Culture to Protect You, You Need to Hear This

    Chris Armas grew up in a Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Italian household where family, discipline, and hard work came first. In 1970s New York, his parents avoided speaking Spanish at home to protect their children from discrimination — but their culture still shaped everything he became.

    Now a National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee and head coach of the Kansas City Current, Armas reflects on his journey from Long Island youth soccer to the US National Team and the highest levels of coaching. He shares lessons on identity, leadership, teamwork, and the values that built his career.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Growing up in a Puerto Rican and Cuban household

    03:02 - Family values and hard work
    05:18 - Soccer’s growth in the United States
    07:10 - College soccer and the LA Galaxy
    09:09 - Getting drafted into MLS
    11:14 - David Beckham’s impact on US soccer
    14:10 - Transitioning from player to coach
    17:05 - Life after retirement from soccer
    20:14 - Coaching from New York to Manchester United
    21:10 - How soccer shaped his identity
    24:35 - Puerto Rican culture and family traditions
    27:14 - Experiencing discrimination growing up
    34:04 - Building culture as a coach
    39:18 - Entering the Soccer Hall of Fame
    42:22 - Advice for young athletes

    🔗 CONNECT WITH CHRIS ARMAS:

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Makeup by Sedrique Olsen
    Styling by Sonja Henderson

    47 min
  • You Don't Need an MBA — You Need What Your Culture Already Taught You

    Culture. Discomfort. Resilience. These are worth more than any degree.

    Joe Hyrkin, former CEO of Issuu and Silicon Valley veteran, didn't build his business skills in a boardroom or classroom. They were earned on the streets and trains of China.

    In this episode, he shares what nearly a decade in China taught him about negotiation, resilience, and reading any room you walk into.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Introduction

    01:45 - Cross-cultural childhood
    03:41 - What led him to China
    07:44 - Navigating a new culture
    12:09 - Learning how to negotiate
    16:33 - “I was not gonna be Chinese”
    21:46 - Traveling vs. discovering
    26:23 - From Hong Kong to Silicon Valley
    30:01 - Building video before YouTube
    34:00 - Resilience as a business skill
    37:42 - Early days of social media
    40:24 - How AI is history repeating itself
    41:32 - The CEO years
    45:29 - Why some businesses survived COVID
    51:38 - 3 principles for entrepreneurial success


    🔗 CONNECT WITH JOE HYRKIN:

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/joehyrkin/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

     

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Makeup by Sedrique Olsen
    Styling by Sonja Henderson

    58 min
  • You've Been Code-Switching Your Whole Life — What If You Stopped?

    Your hair is different in every climate. Your voice is different in every room. You've gotten good at switching, but you've never gotten comfortable with it.

    Orion Brown, founder of Black Travel Box, created her brand because the beauty industry had a simple answer for travelers like her: figure it out yourself. But building the brand meant rejection from manufacturers, facing implicit bias every time she walked into a pitch, and fighting for limited funding.

    This episode explores what it looks like to stop performing long enough to ask what it's been costing you.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Introduction

    02:00 - Black Travel Box
    03:49 - Where the global beauty industry is lacking
    05:54 - The Starter Kit + product line
    09:47 - Why she had to formulate the products herself
    14:58 - From pre-med to brand manager
    22:16 - Losing authenticity in corporate environments
    23:53 - The Unmasking Audit
    24:33 - Why she finally left corporate
    32:12 - The Japan trip that started everything
    35:57 - Funding challenges no one warned her about
    40:10 - Implicit bias and masking your way to funding
    48:20 - Trinidad Carnival + body neutrality

    🔗 CONNECT WITH ORION BROWN:

    https://theblacktravelbox.com/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, CULTURS champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the CULTURS community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Makeup by Sedrique Olsen
    Styling by Sonja Henderson

    59 min
  • He Was Ashamed of His Culture as a Kid — Now It’s His Whole Business

    His grandparents fled Spain. His parents left Mexico. He grew up hiding it all.

    Chef Alex Villar, co-founder of The Cooking Clubhouse, was once ashamed of everything that made his family different — pig roasts in the backyard, loud dinner parties, and a Spanish-speaking home. But those exact cultural roots later became the blueprint for his business.

    In this episode, Alex shares how growing up between cultures shaped him as a chef, entrepreneur, and culturally fluid adult that he is today. Plus, stay for a special segment with Khadija Taylor, who breaks down the Spanish-inspired tablescape for this episode's Culturs Celebrations dinner.

    Topics discussed:

    00:00 - Introduction

    04:13 - Alex’s experience as a third culture kid
    08:10 - Why his family really left Mexico
    10:46 - Advice for anyone that grew up differently
    13:10 - How his parents’ risk became his own
    18:10 - The Cooking Clubhouse: concept and inspiration
    25:39 - Finding his business partner and fellow TCK
    27:33 - How living between cultures built his career
    29:17 - Challenges of growing The Cooking Clubhouse
    32:46 - The history and culture of tapas
    34:25 - Inside the Paella experience and what’s in the Paella Kit
    38:06 - The Spanish Dinner Tablescape

    🔗 CONNECT WITH ALEX VILLAR:

    https://thecookingclubhouse.es/about-us/

    🔗 CONNECT WITH KADIJA TAYLOR:

    https://www.hosahomes.com/
    https://www.instagram.com/homeandsanctuaryllc/

    ABOUT CULTURS:

    Reaching millions annually, Culturs champions unique cultural identity, transforming culturally fluid populations (multiethnic and/or geographically mobile people like Third Culture Kids) from being invisible outliers to originals. This includes people of culture in the rapidly growing DNA testing-fueled Not Parent Expected (NPE) community. Our world-class, veteran team of researchers and professionals spans five continents.

    Get social with us:

    https://www.youtube.com/@CultursPodcast
    https://www.instagram.com/Cultursmag/
    https://www.facebook.com/cultursmag
    https://www.pinterest.com/cultursmag/

    Join the Culturs community: https://shop.cultursmag.com/products/culturs-membership

    Original Music by Tommy McMillion, McMillion Entertainment

    Makeup by Sedrique Olsen
    Styling by Sonja Henderson

    59 min

About CULTURS

From the publisher's feed

CULTURS explores how growing up across cultures, countries, and identities shapes who you become. Hosted by Elleyne Aldine, each episode is a conversation with someone whose life spans worlds. CEOs,…