The Places We Call Home podcast

The night my husband fell ill suddenly, the distance I've been carrying for years hit me harder than I expected.

Everything I usually manage on my own, like anticipated hospital runs, school drop-off and pick up, after-school schedule, new bathroom demolition and rebuild, the business ... suddenly felt impossible without the people who know how to steady me. And in that moment, I had to face a question I’d been avoiding: Is the life I’m living abroad still sustainable for the woman I’m becoming?

This episode is a real look at what a crisis reveals for immigrant women - the pressure to stay strong, the loneliness underneath the routine, and the truth that distance carries a weight you don’t always feel until something breaks open.

Let's have a real conversation about distance, belonging, and the courage to reassess the life you’ve built.

3.Share this with the friend who’s rebuilding her life in a new country.

expat life, immigrant women, emotional sustainability, motherhood abroad, belonging, family distance, crisis support, resilience, moving countries, burnout, identity, women’s stories, life transitions

A real conversation about being unseen, finding your people, and rebuilding connection from scratch.

Today’s episode is a panel conversation with immigrant and American friends talking honestly about the moment they realized, I’m lonely here. From Venezuela, China, Brazil, Sierra Leone, the U.K., and the U.S. We describe the exact situations that made loneliness feel real, and what made the change possible.

We talk about what loneliness looks like for immigrants — the loss of culture, language, identity, and the shock of becoming invisible overnight. And we talk about what loneliness looks like for Americans too, people who grew up here, know the systems, and still feel disconnected. It’s a reminder that loneliness isn’t an immigrant problem or an American problem. It’s a human one.

You’ll hear how each person worked through it: finding community spaces, meeting one person who finally said your name out loud, discovering places where you can be your full self, and learning how to build friendships that can hold real grief, real vulnerability, and real life.

This episode is for any woman who has moved to the U.S. and is struggling with competence loss, language shame, and building friendships that feel safe and real.

Part two continues next week.

loneliness, immigrant women, expat life, belonging, identity loss, competence loss, language shame, community building, friendship, connection, USA relocation, adaptation fatigue, grief abroad, invisibility, migrant stories, panel discussion, emotional wellbeing, social isolation, rebuilding identity, cross‑cultural life

Belonging takes a while to create. It’s something you first begin to build from the inside out.

Part two with guest Natalie Chu, a Taiwanese woman who moved to the U.S. alone and discovered that belonging is also about emotional clarity. She shares how solo travel, cultural transition, and moments of deep loneliness forced her to ask better questions: Why am I feeling this? What do I actually need? What am I trying to build?

We talk about identity, masking, self‑respect, cultural pressure, and the courage to begin again — even when growth feels uncomfortable. Natalie’s story is a guide for any immigrant woman trying to build a life in a new country without losing herself in the process.

If you’ve ever stepped off a plane with two suitcases and a dream, this conversation will feel like someone finally understands you.

“You’re not here for perfect. You’re here for real.”

immigrant women, belonging, loneliness, identity, self‑love, cultural adjustment, starting over, expat life, emotional resilience, self‑discovery, growth, authenticity, Taiwan, women’s stories

There's a moment every immigrant woman hits and once you hit it, everything changes.

In this episode, I'm talking you as my friend. Because starting over in a new country forces you into a delicate truth most people never say out loud: you can chase inclusion for years and still feel lonely, unseen, or disconnected. Real belonging begins somewhere else entirely.

I share what I takeaway from Natalie's story (episode 76) when she left Taiwan for California's Bay Area the warmth she grew up with, the sudden quiet of a new culture, and the powerful decision she made when she stopped asking Why wasn’t I invited? and started choosing people who genuinely appreciate her.

Let's talk about the subtle ways women shrink to fit, the difference between chemistry and consistency, and why leading with a part of your culture can anchor you in places that feel unfamiliar. And we end with the daily practice I've used that builds the kind of self‑appreciation that protects your energy, your identity, and your belonging.

If you’re navigating a new country like us expats in the USA, a new chapter, or a new version of yourself, this episode will help you feel seen, grounded, and reminded there are more friendship connections to be made than not.

Belonging is built with the right people.

belonging, immigrant women, inclusion, identity work, culture, self‑appreciation, expat life, starting over, emotional resilience, community building, relocation, authenticity, women’s stories, Natalie Chu

A conversation about belonging, friendships, and rebuilding yourself in a new country.

I sat down with Natalie Chu, who moved from Taiwan to the U.S. with a childhood dream and found herself facing the emotional truth expat women rarely say out loud. She talks about the “friendly but not actually your friend” moments, and the shock of realizing that belonging doesn’t show up just because you arrived.

Natalie shares what she misses most about home — the morning markets, being known — and how different it feels to build community in the Bay Area.

We talk about navigating safety in San Francisco, learning American social cues, and the moment she stopped chasing inclusion and started defining belonging on her own terms.

This episode is honest, grounded, and deeply human. If you’ve ever moved countries, cities, or chapters, you’ll hear yourself in the tension, the ache, and the small wins that make starting over possible.

A grounded conversation about connecting, community, identity, and the truth of starting over abroad.

Natalie is the founder of a new podcast, Built Young, examining the journey of young entrepreneurs - Under 25. Over 1 M, and the ethics we can learn from them.

Expat women immigrant women Taiwan Bay Area culture shock belonging loneliness move abroad identity homesickness community starting over migration stories international students migration USA friendship homesick

When you migrate, you enter environments that reinterpret you.

In this solo episode, Yolanda Reshemah breaks down why so many immigrant women, expat women suddenly feel unfamiliar to themselves after moving abroad, and how identity distortion happens long before you realize it.

From credential devaluation to accent bias to being misread in rooms where people don’t yet understand your history. Yolanda explains the emotional and psychological impact of being seen through someone else’s lens.

Drawing from her conversation with Assistant Professor Neisha Terry Young and her own six international relocations, Yolanda shows how identity disruption is a predictable response to being repositioned by new systems, cultures, and assumptions. She offers two practical tools to help you reclaim your sense of self:

• A Narrative Audit to separate who you are from who others decide you are
• A Belonging Anchor to stabilize your identity while you rebuild confidence and community.

If you’ve been feeling disoriented, diminished, or disconnected from your old self, this episode gives you grounded, emotionally honest guidance to reclaim your identity and rebuild belonging from the inside out.

Reclaim who you are — before the world decides for you.

identity distortion; identity disruption; immigrant women; expat identity; belonging abroad; confidence loss; competence grief; misrecognition; credential devaluation; accent bias; narrative audit; belonging anchor; migration identity; emotional resilience; immigrant experience USA; expat life; rebuilding identity; Yolanda Reshemah

A conversation about rebuilding identity, reclaiming your worth after migration.

Educator and scholar Neisha Terry shares the deeply personal journey of navigating identity after migrating to the United States. She speaks openly about having her Jamaican teaching credentials reduced to “nothing,” being questioned about her legitimacy, and the emotional weight of constantly proving herself in spaces that weren’t built with her in mind.

She speaks candidly about the exhaustion of becoming, the discipline of returning to being, and the moment she decided to stop shrinking herself and stand firmly in her truth. she acknowledges that self‑definition alone doesn’t erase structural barriers or the exhaustion of proving yourself. Belonging requires both inner clarity and external change.

Her story is a reminder that that every woman navigating a new country, a new culture, or a new version of herself deserves to feel seen, valid, and whole.

A grounded conversation on identity, worth, and the courage to define yourself on your own terms.

immigrant women, expat identity, belonging after migration, Jamaican educator, women entrepreneurs, move abroad, study abroad, live abroad, homesickness, isolation, credential evaluation experience, women in academia, mental wellness, courage, resilience, women of color in academia, self‑definition, authenticity, cultural transition, reclaiming worth, migration identity, Neisha Terry Young, The Places We Call Home podcast

A conversation on identity, home, and why going back never truly happens for immigrant women.

In this episode, I continue my conversation with Dr. Neisha Terry, Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, about what it really means to build a life between geographies. We talk about the emotional weight of being an unconnected immigrant, the freedom she misses from her childhood in Jamaica, and the realities of raising Black boys in America.

Neisha shares how a recent health crisis brought the ache of distance sharply into focus — “I wish I were still at home,” she says — and we explore why going back home never truly happens once migration reshapes your identity, your relationships, and your sense of belonging.

We also talk about accents, self‑expression, and the challenge of being understood in spaces where your language and culture are not the norm. Neisha reflects on the moment she realized her Jamaican Creole couldn’t be heard in the way she intended, and how that shifted her understanding of voice, confidence, and becoming.

This episode is for anyone navigating life across borders — emotionally, culturally, or physically — and for anyone who has ever wondered why “living the dream” doesn’t always feel like the dream at all.

A conversation about identity, home, and the truth behind "living the dream".

immigrant women; expat women; move abroad; homesickness; loneliness; Jamaican diaspora; belonging; identity; home; migration; American Dream; accents; Black motherhood; diaspora stories

Jamaican scholar and assistant professor Nisha Terry Young joins me for a grounded conversation about identity, belonging, and the labels we inherit when we move to the United States. We explore the difference between immigrant and expat—and how those words quietly shape the way women migrants are seen, judged, and expected to perform competence in their new lives.

Nisha shares how her identity as a Jamaican woman fuels her work, and how her decision to pursue a PhD became a direct response to the limiting narratives placed on immigrants in American schools. We talk about the quiet pressure migrant women feel to prove their value, the fatigue of constant adaptation, and the emotional cost of rebuilding identity in spaces where anti‑immigrant and anti‑Black narratives still sit in the background of everyday life.

She also takes us home to Jamaica—its mountains, riverbanks, wood‑fire cooking, music, and mangoes—and reminds us how home stays alive through taste, sound, and small rituals that steady us when loneliness creeps in or when the grief of the old self shows up unexpectedly.

This episode is for any woman navigating competence loss, language shame, identity whiplash, and the slow, uneven work of belonging in a new country.

Part two continues next week.

Five practical tools every migrant woman can use to stop feeling lost

Ever felt overwhelmed after moving abroad? This episode gives you the missing manual. Host Yolanda Reshemah breaks down two essential skills every immigrant, expat, and migrant woman needs:

• Learning the hidden rulebook of your new culture and;
• Using curiosity and optimism as practical survival tools.

You’ll walk away with five clear, actionable strategies to help you feel more grounded, more capable, and more at home in the place you’re rebuilding your life.

As the woman who has relocated six times, host Yolanda shares her tools learned the hard way ... through life, not from books and theories.

She first moved at age 10, then as a teen, a young professional, a wife and most recently as a mother.

On Wednesdays guest conversations bring you lived experiences from a community of women who know where you are and how you feel.

If this episode gives you something real, follow the show and share it with one woman who needs this today.