I guess a lot of people would agree that a 9-to-5 job is comforting and it is - allegedly -safe. But what happens when you start to question that? What happens when you’ve built a successful career — and then realize you might want a completely different life?

I believe we are seeing that shift. People are realizing they can change their minds and transition into a different career. And some people are learning to let go of the idea that their success and self-worth are defined by their job. When you let that go, other opportunities can open up for you.

In this episode, I’m revisiting three conversations with women who walked away from established professional paths and chose to start over.

But don’t limit your source of inspiration to these four - this podcast features other tons of episodes with similar stories.

In this episode, you will learn more about these stories:

• Sometimes reinvention is actually a return. After around 15 years in corporate life, burnout forced Leah to reconsider a passion she had pushed aside. So she quit her job to become an artist - in Paris.
• Your profession doesn’t have to be your permanent identity. Lisa trained and worked as a lawyer in Germany - but when her side gig as a content creator took off, she had to reconsider both her career path and the assumptions she had built around what a successful life was supposed to look like.
• Growth can mean starting from the bottom again. Cate left an established media career in the Philippines and moved to Madrid, trading professional status for the chance to discover who she could become in a completely different environment.

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Have you ever looked back at your journey and noticed how some small decisions ended up changing your life in big ways? From the street you decided to turn down one day that leads you to find a cute new café, to turning down a job offer and later having the opportunity to get a better one. Or perhaps changing the destination of your month abroad can lead you to meet the love of your life...

That's exactly what happened to Taylor Kane.

Taylor had never dreamed about living abroad, and when she decided to spend one month overseas during college, Prague wasn't even her first choice. She was thinking about Amsterdam. But she changed her mind after following her uncle's advice — and during her very first week there, she met Mark.

It has been seven years since her life took that turn, and now she is building a life with him in Prague.

Besides chatting about her love story and the decision-making process that led her to take a leap of faith and bet on this relationship, we also talk about how living abroad challenged some of the beliefs she grew up with in the United States, how moving away actually improved her relationship with her mom, and what she has learned about independence and trusting herself.

She also shares some useful advice about the importance of building your own friendships and community, and making sure the life you're creating abroad also feels like yours.

Connect with Taylor:

• Packing Up and Peacing Out Podcast
• Instagram @TaylorTakesPrague

• TikTok @taylortakesprague

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Do you dream about living abroad - but is afraid of doing it solo? Starting a new life in another country can be really intimidating - but guess what? A lot of people do that every day - including lots of women, in different stages of their lives. Yes, it's not easy to starting a new life from scratch without a partner - or without friends and family. But if these four women did it - you can also do it. For this themed episode, we are revisiting conversations with four previous guests who moved to different countries in different circumstances.

But don't limit your source of inspiration to these four - this podcast features other tons of episodes with similar stories.

Check the full episodes:

• Elise https://open.spotify.com/episode/6NRxKe2sc0lHfpb9bHMUq0
• Trish https://open.spotify.com/episode/5abtamkbEBlgl6xrcBi0LQ
• Jasmine https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Oriyw4KxtI24WMTZkkKT8
• Gabu https://open.spotify.com/episode/03z9BRrxkMkpOEy3uTHEkw

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Alexandra Popkova grew up in Russia, and she learned early on how places can impact and shape behavior when her parents moved from Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East, to Saint Petersburg. It was a huge shift, even though it was within the same country. And that was only one of several moves she would go through in her life: she lived in India, Bahrain, and Nicaragua, and now she is based in Colombia.

Besides moving between countries, she also went through career transitions. While she was still at university studying Art History, Alexandra started working with AIESEC, the international youth and leadership organization, and eventually pivoted into coaching and organizational consulting, which is what she does now.

In this episode, we talk about culture shock, identity, intercultural relationships, the invisible mental load of starting over, and the challenge of adapting without feeling like you are betraying yourself. Alexandra shares many examples from her own journey, especially the cultural shocks she faced in Nicaragua, as well as her learnings and advice for navigating an intercultural relationship.

This is a thoughtful conversation about change, belonging, and learning how to grow without losing yourself along the way.

Connect with Alexandra:

• Alexandra's website https://www.alexandrapopkova.com/
• Instagram ⁠@empower_leaders

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

No matter how old a woman is, we all know there’s a fear around aging. Whether it’s because our society glorifies youth and looks, because of our biological clocks, or because we’re somehow supposed to have everything figured out within an impossible timeline.

Then there are those intrusive thoughts: “I’m too old to do XYZ” or “I’m running out of time for XYZ.”

For this new themed episode, I bring you three perspectives from women who completely changed their lives in their 40s and 50s. They come from different backgrounds and have very different journeys, but they all have something in common: the desire to do something different with their lives.

These are highlights from previous episodes — and if you’re interested in hearing their full stories, check out the complete episodes.

• Adalia - Episode 1
• Karen - Episode 11
• Kim - Episode 7

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Brittany Brooker grew up in a small town in Virginia, in the U.S., but from an early age, she was already dreaming about a life somewhere else through reading fairy tales. Although she stayed close to home for college, Brittany eventually had the opportunity to study abroad in Sweden — and something shifted.

When she got back to the States, she was determined to leave the country as soon as possible. So, at 21, after graduation, Brittany moved to Germany through the au pair program — and later on, she transitioned into her field, navigated visas, relationships, the pandemic, and built a life in Hamburg.

But after almost five years abroad, she made a decision that many people might misunderstand: she moved back to the U.S. Brittany then spent a few years in Los Angeles, reconnecting with creativity, career goals, and parts of herself that needed space. And then, it was time to move again, now with her husband. They both went through a decision-making process with specific criteria — and the path Brittany chose was through grad school. That’s how they landed in Ireland.

In this episode, we talk about how Brittany pivoted from being an au pair to working in her field in Germany, how returning to the U.S. became a necessary pause and creative reset for her and what it means to go to going to grad school and start over abroad in your 30s.

Connect with Brittany:

• Brittany's Substack: Thriving Elsewhere
• Instagram @brittany.brooker

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

For this themed episode of Transplants, I’m bringing together perspectives from three previous guests — Mary Vass, Asia Dawn, and Maria Sakr — to talk about motherhood away from home.

I know there are tons of experiences of mothers abroad — and I’m sure these perspectives don’t cover everything — but I think they are a great starting point, and sometimes it’s all about knowing you are not alone and that you’ve got this.

But these are not the only guests who are mothers - we have so many other incredible episodes that you should check!

For reference, these are the episode numbers: 1, 4,6,9, 12, 13,14, 26, 28, 33, 35, 36, 40, 41, 44, 45.

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

What if fear never goes away and, instead, you just learn to bring it with you in order to take big steps and bet on yourself?

Well, that’s what María Gómez Otero has learned throughout her journey living abroad. And what a journey! María has lived in Germany, Australia, Barcelona, and now Bulgaria. But if you’ve pictured her as someone who has always been “brave,” you would be wrong.

In fact, her story starts with fear. As a child, she was terrified of anything unfamiliar — new people, new places, new situations. But when she was around 12, traveling with her family awakened a curiosity that changed the direction of her life.

Because of those trips, María decided to study Translation and Interpreting, seeing it as a passport to travel and explore the world.

In this episode, we talk about her Erasmus experience in Germany and the second time she moved there as an au pair — an experience that led her to change her career path and pursue Spanish teaching instead. We also discuss how her third time living in Germany, during the pandemic, taught her how to be alone.

María also shares what it felt like to finally make a childhood dream come true by living and working in Australia for a year — a dream she had kept alive for more than a decade after hearing her family's stories about the country.

Finally, we talk about why coming back to your home country is not a failure, how she found peace in that decision, and what eventually led her to build a new life in Bansko, Bulgaria.

Connect with María

• TRIBIA Online Spanish School
• Instagram: @maria.tribia.spanish
• Podcast: Tribia Spanish for Women — in Spanish, for women learning Spanish.

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Beatrice Kabutakapua was born in Italy to Congolese parents — her father moved there to study, a pattern that Beatrice would later repeat herself. She grew up surrounded by Congolese culture, and, for much of her life, she was asked to fit into boxes that never fully made sense: Italian or Congolese? Quiet or shy? Visible or hidden? Belonging here or there?

Eventually, Bea moved to the UK to study journalism. That led her to explore African migrant communities around the world through a documentary she produced — and also made her reflect on her own story when, during the production, someone asked her, “Why you?”

From journalism, Beatrice pivoted her skills and became a storytelling coach and speaker, and founded The Business Storytelling Centre.

In this episode, we talk about how family stories gave Bea a sense of roots, identity, and belonging, and about her work helping leaders and entrepreneurs become more visible and clear without becoming someone they’re not. We also talk about what immigrant women can do when they feel lost, out of place, or not confident — and how to use their story as an anchor instead of seeing it as a limitation.

Connect with Beatrice

• Instagram @bea_storytellingcoach
• LinkedIn
• Beatrice's book
• The Business Storyteller Centre

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].

Settling down in the United States had never been part of the plan for Saadia Khan. She moved from Lahore, Pakistan, with her husband, who had been accepted to MIT. Recently graduated, young, and ready for an adventure, she saw the move as an opportunity to experience up close a place she had heard so many great stories about from her father.

But when they arrived, America pulled them in, as Saadia describes. Between visa constraints and an atmosphere weighted by fear, suspicion, and anti-Muslim sentiment in the post-9/11 era, she faced anxiety, disorientation, and microaggressions. In the midst of all that, Saadia and her husband decided to start their family — and that’s when they realized they would probably not go back to Pakistan.

In this episode, we talk about her first years as an immigrant, the impact of visa dependency, and what it felt like to have her career paused before it even had the chance to begin. She also shares more on how she switched from business to human rights, and how she created Immigrantly media, plus her takes on belonging and identity, and how her journey inspired her to create the app Belong On Your Own Terms.

Connect with Saadia:

• Immigrantly podcasts
• Download Belong on Your Own Terms App
• Instagram @itssaadiak
• My episode on Saadia's podcast

Connect with Transplants:

• Follow on IG https://www.instagram.com/transplants.pod
• Substack/newsletter - https://wearetransplants.substack.com/
• Laura's IG https://www.instagram.com/laura_peruchi
• Follow on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@wearetransplants
• Questions, suggestions, or random thoughts you’d like to share? Or maybe you’d like to pitch yourself for the podcast or suggest a guest? Send me an email at [email protected].