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You’ve probably moved cities once or twice. Javier has done it five times, in a country that wasn’t his, in a language that wasn’t his first, starting from scratch every single time.

He left Lima with a little money from his parents, no car, no social security number, and an uncertain place to sleep. By the time his first paycheck cleared at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, he had figured out lease agreements, shared an apartment with a group of strangers, and started building something real. Then he did it again. Detroit, Dallas, Lexington, Birmingham. Five cities. One throughline: a phrase he heard on a Lima street corner that followed him everywhere he went.

If you have ever started over in a place that didn’t know you yet, this one is for you.

In this conversation, you will hear:

• Where “Suerte muchachos” comes from and why Javier carried it into every new city he entered
• What arriving in the US as a medical professional actually looked like — paycheck-to-paycheck deposits, shared apartments, no bank account, no car
• Why the most rigorous hospitals he trained in were also the most diverse ones, and why he thinks that is not a coincidence
• What it means to raise a bilingual son between two cultures when you are still figuring out where you belong yourself
• The Eva Ayllón song that takes him straight back to Peru no matter where he is driving
• Why Peru is not Mexico, ceviche is not a taco, and the diversity inside Latin America can still surprise you if you have never had to learn it the hard way
• What “citizen of the world” actually means when you have had to earn it one city at a time

Javier is a nephrologist and professor at UAB, co-director of Critical Care Nephrology, and someone who has thought more carefully about identity, language, and belonging than most people ever will. This is his story.

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🤝 EPISODE SPONSOR
Red Cat Coffee House
This episode is brought to you by Red Cat Coffee House and their Landmark Series Coffees. You can find the coffee blends online at https://theredcatcoffeehouse.com/shop/, at your Red Cat locations, or at your local Piggly Wiggly.

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Some people don't expect a Yemeni family behind a Middle Eastern grill in Birmingham, Alabama. Noor explains why his family belongs here, and why no one who walks in is ever just a customer.

Immigrants' Table is a series from From Where to Here shining a light on immigrant-owned restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama, the people behind the food, and the stories that travel with every plate.

We sit down with Noor of Makarios Kabob and Grill, a Mediterranean and Middle Eastern restaurant. Noor was born in the United States, and his family's roots are in Yemen. His father arrived in 1997, worked in Michigan, then left Detroit when the economy turned and bet on Birmingham, a city with very few Middle Eastern restaurants at the time.

Along the way, you will hear about the dish that tastes like home, the one ingredient no Arabic kitchen can live without, the truth about pouring Arabic tea from up high, and a lamb dish with a secret ingredient. You will also find out why some Yemeni dishes rarely make the menu.

If you are searching for Middle Eastern food in Birmingham, Yemeni food, or immigrant-owned restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama, this conversation is a good place to start. It is an immigrant restaurant owner story, a family business story, and a story for any Birmingham Alabama foodie who loves food and culture.

Find Makarios Kabob and Grill
940 20th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama 35205
Website: https://www.makarioskabob.com/
Instagram: @makarioskabobgrill

Own or know an immigrant-owned food business? Part 2 is coming soon, and I would love your help shaping it. Apply or nominate here: https://forms.gle/D9SQNcZ8Mw6p7F9V9

Subscribe so you don't miss the next stop at the table. Every plate has a story. Let's find the next one together.

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She grew up poor in the Philippines, where food wasn’t always shared. Now Lea runs Café Baboy, a Filipino food truck in Birmingham, Alabama, and her one rule is: food is for everybody.

In this episode of The Immigrants’ Table, Lea takes us inside Filipino food culture, starting with adobo, a national dish born from poverty with only three ingredients. She explains malinamnam, a Tagalog word that goes deeper than “delicious.” She talks about salo salo, the Filipino tradition of eating together from shared plates, and how that became the soul of her bento box menu. She shares why she feeds the homeless community around her truck, even trading meals for help finding parking.

Lea also introduces us to turo turo, the street food tradition of pointing at what you want, balut (yes, that balut), and maali walas, the untranslatable word that perfectly describes Birmingham’s weather.

From the Philippines to Alabama, this is a story about resourcefulness, generosity, and what happens when you carry your culture’s food across the world and feed a city with it.

🎙️ From Where to Here is part of The Immigrants’ Table, a series of restaurants and immigrant stories.

Follow Café Baboy on Instagram: @cafe.baboy

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

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From Where to Here just got nominated for a Signal Award in the culture, belonging, and inclusion category, and I needed to tell you about it.

I started this podcast selfishly. I moved from Montreal to Alabama and spent years struggling to find my footing. No community, no landmarks, no idea how to belong somewhere new. From Where to Here was my way of working through that, and eventually, a way to give other people a stage to share their own versions of that story.

A nomination like this means more visibility for every guest who trusted me with their story. It means more listeners who might hear something that makes them feel a little less alone, a little less stuck between two worlds. It means more resources to keep building the in-person community events that brought so many of you together, and that we're bringing back in spring 2027.

If this show has ever made you feel seen, I would love your vote. Voting is open until October 15th and takes 30 seconds at https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting#

Thank you. I appreciate you more than I can say.

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

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quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com

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What does it sound like when a language has a word for something yours has never even tried to name?

This is Between the Words — a language-focused segment clipped from Episode 27 of From Where to Here.

Sheyla from Blitar, East Java, Indonesia teaches us five words and concepts from Bahasa Indonesia and Javanese that reveal something profound about Indonesian culture.

Maaf — the word for sorry that you never say just once. You repeat it until the situation moves on, and the person across from you keeps saying it is okay until the conversation finds its way forward.

Bhinneka Tunggal Ika — Indonesia's national motto in old Javanese, meaning unity in diversity. Thousands of islands. Hundreds of tribes. One nation that found it was stronger together.

Baper — a combination of Bawa (to carry) and Perasaan (feelings). A word for someone who is too invested, too emotional, carrying too much. A word English does not have but absolutely should.

Ngabuburit — a Javanese word for the act of doing nothing while waiting to break your fast during Ramadan. One word for a very specific, very human moment.

Terima Kasih — thank you. Simple. But paired with the story of a girl who could not find the words for depression in any language she grew up with, it lands differently.

Sheyla also shares what it felt like to navigate three languages at once as a teenager in Memphis, why she eventually stopped expressing herself emotionally in Indonesian and Javanese, and what it means to lose connection to a language because the people around you could not hold what you were trying to say.

This one is about more than words. It is about what happens when the language you need does not exist in the one you were born into.

Parts 1 and 2 of Episode 27 are linked below. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you stream.

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

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Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

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He left Lebanon at 16 with a picky eater's palate and his grandmother's recipes locked in his memory. Today, Joseph Matta is the Owner, Founder, and Head Chef of Joseph's Table in Birmingham, Alabama, a Mediterranean and Lebanese restaurant where every plate carries the weight of a border crossed and a memory kept alive.

This is Immigrants' Table, a series from From Where to Here shining a light on immigrant-owned restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama, the people behind the food, and the stories that travel with every plate.

In this conversation, Joseph talks about growing up in Lebanon under French colonial influence, learning English as a third language, and landing in Alabama after coming through Houston, Texas. He talks about what it means to cook from scratch every single day, why he still puts onions in his grandmother's chicken soup even though he hates them, and how a Lebanese mother and a Cajun mother-in-law found common ground through French.

This is not a story about a restaurant. It is a story about what you carry with you when you leave, what you refuse to change, and what it feels like when a bowl of soup tastes exactly like someone you love.

Joseph's Table is located at 9340 Helena Road in Birmingham, Alabama. Order the creamy stuffed chicken rolls first.

From Where to Here is a bilingual podcast exploring cultural identity, language, and the stories of people who have built lives across borders. New episodes drop weekly on YouTube and everywhere you listen.

Subscribe so you do not miss the next table.

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

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Part 2 of 2.
If you have not listened to Part 1 yet, start there. This conversation picks up right where we left off.

In Part 1, Sheyla shared how she arrived in Memphis at 9 years old carrying two languages and spent years quietly setting them both down. In Part 2, she talks about what it looks like to find your way back.

This half of the conversation is about reclaiming. How she started looking into Indonesian history and realized she had never truly learned it. How sourdough bread became a way back to something she could not yet name. How running Breadcrumb, her micro bakery in Birmingham, Alabama, turned into more than a side project. How teaching herself Korean through K-pop over two years was never really about Korean at all. How belonging does not always look like fluency, and how making something with your hands can be its own form of coming home.

There is a moment in this episode where I ask Sheyla what she would tell that 9 year old girl who landed in Memphis scared and alone carrying two languages. Her answer stayed with me.

This is a conversation about finding your way back to yourself on your own terms, in your own time, in whatever language feels most like home that day.

If this one resonated, send it to someone who knows what it feels like to be from more than one place and still searching for where they fully belong.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you stream, or watch Part 2 right here on YouTube.

#fromwheretohere #birminghamalabama #bilingualpodcast

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🔗 LINKS & CONNECT WITH OUR GUEST

Get in Touch:
- Instagram: @bread.crumb.bham

Resources:
- The Jakarta Method book

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

✨ Get My Latest Free Resource
Do you live between cultures, languages, or versions of yourself? Take the free In-Between Index quiz and find out exactly where you land. →
quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com

🎧 Subscribe & Follow
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Part 1 of 2
She arrived in Memphis at 9 years old speaking two languages and spent years quietly setting them both down. Not because she forgot them. Because it felt safer.

Sheyla grew up in Blitar, East Java, speaking Javanese at home and Bahasa Indonesia at school. She navigated an American childhood without a roadmap, picked up English, French, a bit of Japanese, and taught herself Korean through K-pop and sheer curiosity. She thought she might become a linguist. Life took her into tech instead. Today she lives in Birmingham, Alabama, works in banking technology by day, and runs Breadcrumb, a micro bakery where she channels that same hunger for connection into flavor fusions inspired by cultures from all over the world.

The through line of her story is not the languages she gained. It is the one she is still trying to find her way back to.

In this episode Sheyla opens up about what it felt like to land in Memphis as a scared nine year old with two languages and no roadmap, the Indonesian word Maaf and why you never say it just once, what most people get wrong about Indonesian culture, how she taught herself Korean through K-pop out of pure curiosity, and the listener question about not feeling Indonesian enough but not fully American either that stopped her in her tracks.

This is a conversation about language loss, bilingual identity, and what it means to reclaim yourself on your own terms.

If this one resonated, send it to someone who knows what it is like to be from more than one place and fully at home in neither.

*** Heads up: this one gets deep. If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day by call or text.

EPISODE SPONSOR
Birmingham Breadworks

This episode is brought to you by Birmingham Breadworks. They have been serving up artisan sourdough, European-style pastries, and scratch-made meals since 2014. With a focus on fresh, preservative-free ingredients, their spacious, light-filled café is a local favorite. They’re also committed to sustainability, proudly holding a Gold Level Earth Aware Team (E.A.T.) certification. Stop by for handmade bread, sandwiches, and house-roasted coffee in a space that feels like home!

#fromwheretohere #languageandidentity #indonesianimmigrant

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

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quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com

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Immigrants' Table is a series from From Where to Here shining a light on immigrant-owned restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama — the people behind the food, and the stories that travel with every plate.

Akash Kapoor grew up in Ranchi, India, was sent to Catholic boarding school at age 10, and built one of the most talked-about Indian street food restaurants in the country — Curry Up Now, now right here in Birmingham, Alabama. But the story behind the menu goes deeper than most people expect.

In this episode, Akash opens up about the Indian street food you simply cannot replicate outside of India, the family dinner rule he has carried from Ranchi to Birmingham, and why chicken tikka masala, according to him, was not even known in India twenty years ago.

He talks about his grandma's 4 PM snack that most people would not dare try, the Sunday dosa ritual he grew up with and still chases today, and the samosa he put inside a burrito that became one of Curry Up Now's most beloved dishes in Birmingham, Alabama.

This is also a conversation about what it means to bring your culture to a new city — not just the food, but the table, the rituals, the one word in Hindi that has no English translation, and the rule that never changed no matter where life took him: be home for dinner.

If you are curious about Indian food culture, immigrant restaurant owners in Birmingham, or the stories that travel further than the people who carry them... This one is for you.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and everywhere you stream, or watch the full episode right here on YouTube.

#immigrantstable #fromwheretohere #indianfoodbirmingham #birminghamalabama #foodandculture

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

✨ Get My Latest Free Resource
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quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com

🎧 Subscribe & Follow
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📱 More language & culture, daily.
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Leave a review or share it with someone who’d love it too.

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Immigrants' Table is a series from From Where to Here shining a light on immigrant-owned restaurants in Birmingham, Alabama — the people behind the food, and the stories that travel with every plate.

Avlo Alvaro grew up in Chihuahua, Mexico where carne asada was never just a meal. It was the reason to gather: after church, at the park, on birthdays, at every celebration that mattered. Today he co-owns Trampled by Tacos in Birmingham, Alabama, and every dish on the menu carries a piece of that history.

In this episode, Avlo opens up about the Mexican food Birmingham rarely gets to hear about beyond tacos and burritos, the family recipes he carried from Chihuahua to his Birmingham kitchen, and what it really means to feed people from a place of pride and memory.

From barbacoa slow cooked with a family seasoning nobody else has, to flank steak marinated in Modelo for 24 to 48 hours, to the caldo de camarón and ceviche that remind him of beach days back home — this is the story behind the food and the immigrant restaurant owner who brought it to Birmingham, Alabama.

If you are curious about the world, the people who carry their cultures across borders, and the food that keeps those stories alive — From Where to Here is your next favorite podcast.

#immigranttable #fromwheretohere #birminghamalabama #birminghamfood #immigrant

🏆 From Where to Here is a Signal Award Winner
Thank you to everyone who voted and supported this show. It means everything.

📩 Let’s stay connected.
Join my email list list for thoughtful reflections, resources, and behind-the-scenes moments I only share there.

✨ Get My Latest Free Resource
Do you live between cultures, languages, or versions of yourself? Take the free In-Between Index quiz and find out exactly where you land. →
quiz.fromwheretoherepod.com

🎧 Subscribe & Follow
Follow From Where to Here on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen so you don’t miss a conversation.

📱 More language & culture, daily.
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🤎 If this episode meant something to you…
Leave a review or share it with someone who’d love it too.