Geopats Abroad : Chats with expats, immigrants, and locals

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If you've ever wondered what it's like to live, work, and podcast in Kathmandu, Nepal, this episode are for you!

Big & White, their podcasting nicknames, are two American Linguists who, until very recently were living in Nepal and creating a rather hilarious audio account of their daily lives. Their episodes covered much of what expat podcasts cover like food, weather, language, and cultural differences but there is an extra kick to their podcast. Their connection and how they bounce off each other is so much fun to listen to. This is the main reason I became a fan of The Big & White Podcast in the first place and definitely why I asked to interview them for the show.

Don't worry, we also talk about podcasting bits like technology, social media, podcast learning curve, editing, audience feedback, Nepali podcasts, guests, and advice for new Podcasters also. But this conversation is a bit more free-flowing than some of the other Geopats Podcasting episodes because we dipped into some of their content topics too like their visual stickoutness in Nepal (thus the name of the podcast), weight lifting and so much more.

And since they are Linguists that were doing field work all over Nepal, there is an episode coming on Geopats Language podcast with that geeking out aspect as well.

Original publication date: January 19, 2021

Big and White podcast: https://pod.link/1425627430

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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David Humphreys and Melissa Joulwan are the hosts of Strong Sense of Place, a podcast and web site dedicated to literary travel and books with vivid settings. In each episode of their show, they explore one destination and talk about what makes that place different from everywhere else on earth. Then they recommend books set in that destination and talk to a special guest.

Original publication date: March 6, 2020

Strong Sense of Place: https://pod.link/1494452606

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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What do you do as an expat when your life goal is to collect and share experiences and information? You start a podcast! And that is exactly what American expat in Germany Nicole Palazzo did just after her first year in Freiburg, Germany. We recorded this mini episode on the new Podbean Live app, which was in Beta version. There were some technical issues but we pushed through and I think there is so much useful and interesting information in Nicole's audio story. In fact, she is going to come back and in the future and update us on her expat podcasting life and adventures. Hurrah. ​

Original publication date: September 26, 2019

The Expat Cast: https://pod.link/1412547847

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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What helps you feel at home when more than one country has shaped who you are? For literary translator and Book Nerd Tokyo creator Yuki Tejima, one answer is coffee: her rituals across Japan and the United States show why everyday habits matter when home exists in more than one place.

Book Nerd Tokyo: https://www.booknerdtokyo.com/

Original publication date: February 9, 2022

Listen for:

• Japanese vs. American coffee culture
• What Tokyo kissaten reveal about Japanese coffee
• How hand-drip coffee rituals create familiarity across countries
• Why neighborhood cafes can strengthen belonging
• How coffee, books, and creative culture connect to place

How Do Coffee Rituals Create a Sense of Home Between Japan and the United States?

Coffee rituals can create continuity when more than one country feels like home. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes a life shaped by Japan and the United States: born in Tokyo, raised in Los Angeles from age four, then living in Okinawa, New York, and Tokyo again. Coffee entered her life in her twenties, first through Starbucks lattes and later through black coffee, hand-drip brewing, and neighborhood roasters.

Yuki’s Tokyo morning ritual is specific: she heats water, grinds beans, and uses a dark-blue ceramic dripper her husband brought home from a Japanese pottery town. She prefers darker, less acidic coffee and repeatedly found that coffees she loved came from Guatemala. She also buys a new bag before the current one runs low. A familiar routine can move between countries even when the culture around it changes.

What Are the Differences Between Japanese and American Coffee Culture?

Japanese and American coffee culture differ in serving style, cafe behavior, and expectations around space. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima compares American cafes, where customers often spread out with laptops and stay for hours, with Tokyo cafes that may limit visits to 90 minutes or two hours because tables need to turn over.

Traditional Japanese kissaten add another difference. Yuki describes retro coffee shops that may have operated for 70, 80, or 90 years, serving small cups of dark, rich coffee. After growing up with larger American servings, she initially found a roughly 600-yen kissaten coffee surprisingly small until she tasted how intense it was. Japan may label a lighter, larger style “American coffee.” The contrast shows that coffee culture is about more than beans. The same drink can reveal different ideas about public space, portion size, and how long people are expected to stay.

How Do Tokyo Coffee Shops and Historic Cafes Create a Sense of Belonging?

Tokyo coffee shops and historic cafes can make a large city feel personal by tying routines to specific streets, train lines, and histories. In this Geopats Abroad conversation, Yuki Tejima describes Horiguchi Coffee as a regular stop when she lived one station away and Woodberry Coffee Roasters as a favorite she could later reach on foot. The day before the interview, she worked at Blue Bottle Coffee before buying two bags of beans at Cafe Shozo in Aoyama.

Coffee also overlaps with Yuki’s relationship to books and creative history. In Kyoto, she once felt too intimidated to enter Rokuyosha as a UC Irvine exchange student. About ten years later, she returned, walked in, ordered coffee, and finally experienced the legendary cafe herself. Cafe Reggio in Greenwich Village gave her a similar connection to earlier generations of writers and artists. Belonging grows through repeated places and rituals, not just an address.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Japan | Tokyo | Los Angeles | New York | Okinawa | Kyoto | Japanese coffee culture | American coffee culture | kissaten | hand-drip coffee | Horiguchi Coffee | Woodberry Coffee Roasters | Rokuyosha | Book Nerd Tokyo

Original publication date: February 9, 2022

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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Erin and I met in Vietnam many years ago, the place where both of our coffee obsession hit a peak, so it only made sense to have her on the podcast. In this episode we dive into her coffee explorations in Australia, many countries in Asia, Italy and Canada. 

Original publication date: July 24, 2020

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

There are podcast listeners asking for podcast recommendations AND podcasters asking for people to listen to their podcasts BUT they're often not in the same spaces. What if, I thought, we tried to match these two sets of folks. I grew up in the time of the American TV show, The Dating Game and thought it would be fun to use something like this format to match listeners with podcasts/podcasters, with some internet format adjustments. 

Melissa Lent was generous enough to be our first listener. But, as with a lot of our PodRevDay community, she's also in podcasting. Here's more about the people and podcasts involved in this episode. Have a listen to her reaction by listening to clips from all 3 sci-fi podcasts and hearing from the Creators themselves. This is pure matchability joy!
The AMAZING people in this episode:

-Melissa: twitter.com/melmollyrose

-Hi Nay: twitter.com/HiNayPod

-FanDummies: twitter.com/FanDummies

-Pod Against The Machine: twitter.com/PodVsMachine

This episode is available in podcast and video formats with a bit different content. 

Video (YouTube): 4 parts

We introduced her to the podcast's Twitter profile page, have her listen to a clip for each podcast, AND watch videos from all of the Creators who answered 1 question that she had for them. We also shared the Creator's reaction to Melisssa's reaction to these podcastery things. 

video 1: https://youtu.be/_vUlV_gsqAs

video 2: https://youtu.be/wzDtnpFMAns

video 3: https://youtu.be/RqTvSCW8I9Q

video 4: https://youtu.be/FAyoKwUQIiY

www.stephfuccio.com

Producer, Host, Editor: Stephanie Fuccio: https://www.stephfuccio.com/contact.html

Geopats YouTube channel: under construction

This podcast was created with (affiliate links):

• Streamyard for recording, going live, and distributing FULL videos to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube: https://streamyard.com?pal=5673660346007552
• Buzzsprout for podcast hosting: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1907332
• Acon Digital's DeVerberate to reduce echo: https://a.paddle.com/v2/click/11427/147398?link=3691
• Tube Buddy to optimize YouTube: https://www.tubebuddy.com/globalpodcasteditors

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Travis lived in Germany and the Czech Republic for 20 years and podcasts about history on podcastnik.com. After talking about alchemy and witches as a ghost-tour guide in Prague, he teamed up with Pete Collman to figure out podcasting as a medium to tell stories from history. Travis has a long and complicatedly long adoration with coffee that started in his childhood upbringing in Germany. Now, he now lives in Oregon, where he partakes in specialty and 7-11 coffee.

Original publication date: June 19, 2020

Travis's website: https://podcastnik.com/

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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Did you view your home country differently after moving abroad? Marielle, a Filipino data scientist living in Germany, found that leaving the Philippines didn’t pull her farther from home, it gave her a new way back through her family’s coffee farm in Benguet, where expat life, family history, specialty coffee, and global markets come together.

Listen for:

• How expat life in Germany can change your connection to home
• Why coffee farming in Benguet matters to the Philippines
• How expats can support family projects from abroad
• Why Asian specialty coffee is growing in global markets
• How specialty coffee prices connect to farmer pay

How Can Expat Life in Germany Change Your Connection to the Philippines?

Expat life can create new ways to participate in the place you left. After growing up in the Philippines, moving to Melbourne, and then spending nearly seven years in Germany, this Filipino expat found that coffee connected her international life back to her family’s land in Benguet. From Germany, she researches coffee farming, follows industry trends, and sends useful information back to her family. Living abroad didn’t weaken her connection to the Philippines; it changed the role she could play.

Why Is Coffee Farming in Benguet Important to the Philippines?

Coffee farming in Benguet connects family history with the region’s agricultural past. Her family found letters from her American great-great-grandfather describing a coffee plantation on the same land, though no one knows what happened to the original trees. Today, the family has roughly 5,000 coffee seedlings across about three hectares and expects to wait several years for a major harvest. What looked like a new project turned out to be a return to something her family had already done generations earlier.

How Can Expats Support Family Businesses From Abroad?

Expats can support family projects from abroad through research, professional networks, and skills that complement the work happening locally. Her mother manages much of the Benguet coffee farm, while she researches farming methods, follows Specialty Coffee Association resources, attends World of Coffee events, and shares what she learns from Germany. Her data-science background also led her to consider a weather station for the farm, with local data she could analyze remotely. Distance changes how she contributes, not whether she contributes.

Why Is Asian Specialty Coffee Growing in Global Coffee Markets?

Asian specialty coffee is gaining attention because countries such as China, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar produce high-quality coffees many European drinkers rarely encounter. Trying a fruity Yunnan coffee at Berlin roastery 19 Grams made her rethink what Asian coffee could mean in the global specialty market. It also changed her assumption that success meant exporting Philippine coffee to Europe. Some of Asia’s best coffee already has strong demand closer to home, so European approval isn’t the only measure of value.

How Do Specialty Coffee Prices Connect to What Farmers Earn?

Specialty coffee prices don’t show how much farmers earn because the cafe price comes at the end of a long supply chain. After comparing €4 flat whites, €7 hand brews, and €15 bags of beans in Berlin with lower prices in Düsseldorf, she began asking where that money goes and how much reaches growers. She encourages coffee drinkers to look at roaster transparency reports and think beyond the cafe to the growing, harvesting, sorting, and processing behind every cup. Coffee farming turned a consumer habit into a question about labor, fairness, and who benefits.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Philippines | Benguet | expat life in Germany | Berlin | Melbourne | specialty coffee | coffee farming | Asian specialty coffee | Yunnan coffee | World of Coffee | data science | coffee farmers | coffee prices

Original publication date: February 29, 2020

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew

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Ana Blackstad has experienced coffee culture in so many different places that I ran out of ink during our chat yesterday. Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit but seriously, Ana moved to Prague, Czech Republic only 3 years ago but she has made the caffeinated most out of her time there by exploring both local Prague cafes (many of which are listed down below) and those in neighboring countries like Italy, Greece, the UK, Norway, Finland and Turkey. Her love of this beany goodness comes through loud and clear. Ohhhhh, just wait until you reach the part where she describes the best latte she ever had. She speaks of “peak coffee experiences” and the “theatricality” of cafes so eloquently that I think we should all adopt this vocabulary to share the coffee goodness going forward. Who’s with me on this idea? 

Original publication date: October 25, 2019

 🌍 Tools & resources for living, traveling, and working abroad: https://geopatsabroad.substack.com/p/living-abroad-resources

🛍️ Geopats Abroad Stationary Store: https://geopatsabroad-shop.fourthwall.com/en-eur?utm_source=buzzsprout&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=geopats_shop&utm_content=episode_description

🛠️ Podcast & creator tools I use: https://podcaststeph.substack.com/p/podcast-tools-i-use

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geopatsabroad/

🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnfWdoMjmqpcbULZw-hVgew