People Like Us

In a change to the usual format, in this episode your host, Jen Mohindra, describes what it’s like to be an adult third culture kid. 

 Topics discussed include:

-     Restlessness and rootlessness

-     How to work out what security and stability mean to you

-     How to find your place in the world – a place that you can belong and a place that you can really call home and mean it.

 Jen shares her personal journey and the challenges faced, navigating her cultural identity as as an adult TCK.

 She also shares how you too can find a sense of peace, balancing the internal conflict of wanting to settle down versus craving adventure and change.

www.jenmohindra.com

Shannon Irby grew up as a military brat. She was born in Germany and also spent her childhood in the USA, Japan and Turkey.

Shannon describes her experience of being a hidden immigrant as an African American woman in the USA. She has since returned to Okinawa, Japan (for an extended period of time thanks to the pandemic) where she feels more comfortable being obviously foreign.

Sabrina Johnston is an adopted TCK of mixed heritage who was born in Indonesia and also spent her childhood in Brunei, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia and she now lives in Perth, Western Australia.

Sabrina talks about what stability and home mean to her and describes her version of adaptability and how she connects with people who don’t share the experience of having lived in different countries.

Sabrina also hosts a podcast show Happily Ever Now: Experiencing Joy amidst Grief.
https://open.spotify.com/show/0Jdwihw9bCb0EPnmMd202p

Agakura Burihabwa was born in Germany to Burundian parents of origin

Then after a brief stint in the United Kingdom her family moved to Kenya. Agakura talks about the difficulty of returning to Germany and describes what belonging and “home” means to her.

She explains how she responds to the classic hard question for us: “Where are you from?”

Agakura’s mixed background and multiple languages has caused her to be mistaken for a spy – listen to this episode to find out why!

Anna Snyder was born in Cameroon which is where her parents are from, and her upbringing was spent between Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger and then she headed to Texas. Anna had to learn a new language quickly with a host family who didn’t speak English and later had to adjust to American English. Her early moves set her up for adjusting quickly to life in America although she was confronted with some dramatic climate changes.

Anna currently lives in the USA and talks about her desire to go back to Africa and do humanitarian work there.

Vanessa Callari is of mixed heritage – American and Filipino and spent her formative years between the two countries.  Vanessa describes how what feels like home is not a static concept to her and how Covid has had an impact on this. She is very aware of and appreciates the opportunities that her TCK childhood has provided her.

Vanessa talks about her growing family and her thoughts around the lifestyle she would like her children to have. She also describes the differences between she and her sister’s adult lives, having both had the TCK upbringing.

Anna H is a former triathlete who currently resides in San Francisco. She spent her first 11.5 years in Germany then moved to the USA with her parents but not her older siblings.  She describes what it’s like to feel German and also Californian.

Whilst wanting to keep an international element to her daughter’s upbringing, Anna also wishes for her child to have a deep sense of belonging.

Chloé Donohue was born in Ecuador, her mum being Venezuelan and her dad American and Canadian. She moved to Romania, Thailand, Indonesia, Switzerland and Ghana before making her first solo move to the United States to go to university.

Chloé’s globally mobile upbringing encouraged her sense of adventure in cycling the length of New Zealand then decided to make another solo move, this time to Japan.

She discusses how to embrace your difference and to be ok with it and talks about what home and belonging mean to her, highlighting that these are often different to the meaning attached by non TCKs.

It's Wednesday podcast day!

People Like Us is a collection of interviews with TCKs about their TCK journey and where they are now.

Ibtihal Ahmed grew up the daughter of her diplomat dad, being raised in 6 countries – USA, Algeria, Sudan, Japan Malaysia and India. She talks about being the girl with the American accent and describes how locals in your native country just know that you’re not a local, despite you thinking that you look like one.

Ibtihal writes about her TCK experiences, both in Arabic and English. Here is a sample of her work, on being a TCK:

Crossing oceans was quite the experience. I hid every piece of my being underneath the promising tide lines. I was here and there, but neither here nor there. I was fascinated with arrival signs the same way departure tunnels propelled me with the exhilaration of make-believe presence. I have always been excited to leave and arrive at the same time. It’s like my identity was tied to in-betweenness and a fog that surrounded my soul whenever I was asked where I was from.

Amanda Bates grew up between the USA and Cameroon. Moving to Cameroon when she was 9 saw her move from being in the minority to the majority, at least from a physical perspective. She describes living in several places within the USA and the vast contrasts across the country, likening it to nine different countries.

Amanda is fascinated in navigating cross-cultural spaces and identity and is the founder of The Black Expat – a multimedia platform focused on Black identity and international living.

Nurly Yusof grew up as the daughter of a diplomat. She was born in Morocco then moved as a baby to Russia. This was followed by Malaysia (her passport country) then Hungary, Qatar then back to Malaysia. Then her parents moved to Singapore for her father’s last posting and she finally moved back to Malaysia.

Nurly describes what it was like to have so many moves growing up, what belonging means to her, nostalgia and the concept of home. When she meets a TCK by chance she gets a giddy, childlike feeling with “the wall having been lifted” and she can just “relax and be”.

Amanda Mulder was born in The Netherlands to a Dutch mother (who was born and spent her early years in Australia) and an Indonesian father.

She moved to Brazil at 10 years old then Belgium at 15, followed by university in Great Britain. Amanda followed in the footsteps of her mother, moving to Australia as an adult. She has made many moves since!

Listen as Amanda describes reclaiming her Dutch identity, her creative response to “Where are you from” and discusses the advantages of having grown up as a Third Culture Kid.

Somare Nicole Peyton was almost born in the Philippines like her brothers, but was actually born in Texas, USA. She did move to the Philippines at a very young age and moved again, within the country, before going to high school in Texas.

Somare describes the difficulties of her moves, both international and local, for both she and her parents. She also talks about what it means to be a TCK screamer or wallflower and how she discovered that she is a TCK.

Listen to Somare’s long held desire and plans to work with and help other TCKs.

Galindo Aliyo was born in Uganda then when she was almost 3, her family moved to what was then called Swaziland, now Eswatini. She lived amongst different cultures in Swaziland until she was 15 and then moved back to Uganda.

Galindo talks about what it is to feel settled (in Uganda), patriotism and her identity when it comes to her culture in Uganda.

She was drawn to humanitarian work and her TCK background enables her to empathise with the refugees that she helps in her role as a lawyer.

Aman Singh was born into an Indian diplomat family and despite being Indian he doesn’t feel like an Indian and describes experiencing reverse culture shock in India. He spent his TCK upbringing in Spain, Bulgaria, India, Mexico and Myanmar then went to the USA for college.

Mexico evokes mixed emotions for Aman since it was the first place that felt like home, but he also incurred a profound loss there.

Aman also talks about the classic TCK conundrum of stability versus travelling (to stay or not to stay…)

I am delighted to announce that as the 25th episode of the second series, this is the 50th episode!!

In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with a former coaching client, Frank Nilsen.

Frank grew up between Norway and the USA (moving between the two many times during his upbringing). He talks about the many changes that he has experienced in his life (relationships, career, locations).

Listen as he describes how coaching helped him calm his “three year itch” and take control of the choices available to him.

And in Frank’s words:

The coaching sessions with Jenny helped me recognize that a nomadic TCK (third culture kid) background is a platform to build upon rather than a "swamp" to get us stuck. Jenny's calm demeanor and thoughtful observations lead me to consider how I can harness my rootlessness and restlessness energies to become part of purposeful decision-making rather than drivers of my decisions.

Working with Jenny—a TCK herself—meant that I could forego a lot of time that might otherwise be spent with background explanations. We were able to “cut to the chase” since her starting point is an understanding of what it means to grow up on-the-go. The sessions with Jenny allowed me time to examine my TCK liabilities while exploring ways of converting those into constructive focus going forward.

MaryAnne Camaiani is a Norwegian, Filipino, Canadian who grew up in Ethiopia and Nigeria and has Italian children. She was adopted at 9 ½ months and went to boarding school at the tender age of 6 years old.  MaryAnne resisted one of her childhood moves by not boarding the plane to leave.

Listen as MaryAnne talks about what home means to her, with 30 moves under her belt, and describes the adventure of getting to know people and seeing beyond the visual differences.

Marion Lougheed grew up in Canada (where she was born), West Africa, Belgium and Germany.

She describes how it can be easier to be a foreigner in a country than a “local” (ie having been born in Canada, lived there for a few years, then returned later.)

She also talks about how hard it is to explain life in Africa to those who haven’t lived there!

Giulia De Mauro was born in France to Italian parents and grew up between France, Italy and Gabon.

She describes the trauma of leaving people behind as a consequence of her childhood moves and how moving again helped her to “move on” in more ways than one.

Giulia also talks about what she considers when deciding where to move and how she has carved out a career that suits her globally mobile lifestyle.

In this episode I chat with Myra Dumapias who was born in the Philippines and has also lived in China, Malaysia, Germany South Korea, Romania and the USA.

Myra talks about fitting in, class consciousness and growing up between local and international environments.

Myra is very active in the TCK space having transformed TCKid into a sustainable non-profit organization that serves as support for understanding the Third Culture Kid identity.

In this episode I talk with Jordan Kalondo-Lechien.

Jordan grew up in Namibia, Kenya, France, Ghana, Switzerland and the UK.  He and I share the same experience of having lived in Nairobi from the age of 8 to 13.

Listen as Jordan describes how he handles peoples reactions to his response to “Where are you from?” and talks about the ups and downs of being a TCK.

Garon Wade is a transracial adoptee, having been adopted from Sri Lanka by a white American couple. He was raised in South Africa, Hawaii, Gambia, Jamaica, Louisiana and Jordan.

Now based in Fort Lauderdale, USA, Garon talks about his international upbringing, going back to Sri Lanka as a teenager and much, much more.

Recently published is Garon’s memoir “You’ll Always Be White To Me”, which explores the themes of love, identity, race and culture.

In this episode I chat with Tayo Rockson.

The son of a diplomat, Tayo grew up in Nigeria, Sweden, Burkina Faso, Vietnam and the USA.

The eldest of three brothers, Tayo describes the different perspectives that they each had of their TCK upbringing.

Listen to find out how a near death experience prompted Tayo to decide to use his global identity to make an impact in the world. He now uses his difference to make a difference, making the most of being a TCK!

https://tayorockson.com

Don Blevins is half American and half Korean and spent his early years in Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan before completing his schooling in the USA.  His adult life has seen him live in several different states of the USA and he also feels very much at home in South East Asia.

Listen as Don talks about his three daughters and the decisions around whether to move or not whilst raising them.

Qahli Eltinae grew up in in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. He attended international schools in both places.

Once out of education, he started to explore his Sudanese roots by going to Khartoum. As with all TCKs, smells evoke his memories of his childhood and take him back to the places he grew up in an instant.

His book The Moral Judgement of Butterflies will be published in October 2021.

In this week’s episode I chat with Heather Thorkelson. Heather’s TCK upbringing was unusual in that as well as growing up in Canada and Costa Rica, her dad was a pilot so she travelled with him to unusual places such as rural Brazil from the age of 8. This gave her the courage to move to Japan and find out if she could manage on her own in such a foreign environment. Listen to see how that worked out and how she came to live in Sweden, where she currently resides

https://heatherthorkelson.com/

In this week’s episode I chat with Barry Barnes. Barry is no stranger to the classic TCK line which is “and then we moved to…” having lived in 41 houses by the time he was 19 years old. He grew up as both a TCK and a military brat in the USA and the Philippines.

Listen as we talk about his many interests along with what home means to Barry and how he’s now reached an all time record of living in his current house for 10.5 years.

In today’s episode I chat with Elizabeth (Lisa) Liang. Lisa grew up in six countries as a dual citizen of mixed heritage and now resides in Los Angeles. She has a her multi faceted career that leverages her cross-cultural competence and has created her one-woman show which is now an award winning film: Alien Citizen – An Earth Odyssey.

Lisa talks about the moves of her childhood, some being harder than others. She also describes what home means to her, and how she comes from people rather than a place.

In this episode I chat with Louisa Pau who is a European TCK.  Louisa was born in Luxembourg to English and Sardinian parents.  She then moved to Brussels and then the UK, which has been her home for many years and she talks about the impact that Brexit has had on her.

Listen as we talk about how family is very important to Louisa's sense of belonging and how her European upbringing allows her to feel at home in countries in northern and southern Europe.

In this episode I speak with Mathieu Gagnon.  Born in Paris to Canadian parents, Mathieu went on to live in six countries during his early years before settling in Canada, although still moving within the provinces.  

To be in a French speaking country is what makes a place feel like home for Mathieu.  Listen as he describes the difficulties of navigating the differences between Canadian French and French French.

Mathieu explains why he prefers "Tell me your story" to the notoriously hard question for TCKs "Where are you from?"

In this week’s episode I speak with Anne Heijdra. Born in Bolivia to Bolivian and Dutch parents, Anne grew up in Bolivia, Peru and Nepal. She recalls the excitement of the promise of a new bicycle with one of her early moves.

Anne is now exploring her Dutch heritage and currently lives in The Netherlands. She describes her desire to buy a property and what stability and commitment mean to her.

Anne's TCK upbringing has certainly influenced her career as she works with the mission of helping today's TCKs to live a successful and fulfilling cross-cultural experience, and to grow up to be happy and thriving ATCKs.

Today’s podcast is very special to me. Not only am I interviewing a mother and daughter TCK pair, but the mum – Simone – was my best friend at primary school in Nairobi. We haven’t actually seen each other since I was 13, although we did communicate via letters. It was so lovely to chat to her after all this time (and neither of us has changed a bit!).  

Simone’s youngest daughter Ayla has also had a nomadic upbringing and it was so interesting to get the perspective of someone growing up as a  TCK in this much more interconnected world.

In this episode I speak with Dami Junaid. The daughter of a diplomat, Dami was born in Nigeria and then the moves began, which also saw her attend boarding school at a young age.  Currently based in Canada, Dami describes the mental strength that she has acquired from being a TCK.

Also inspired by her TCK upbringing, Dami has a new fashion line coming out in April. Listen to find out more!

In this episode I speak with T L Mazumdar, whose early years saw him living in India, Libya, the UK and Germany. He used to say London was home but now sees himself more at home in Germany.

Listen as we chat about how his TCK upbringing has influenced his life including his career in music which reflects his identity.

In this week’s episode I chat with Aushra Shivitskis.

Aushra was born in Lithuania then lived in Mexico and Canada before returning back to Lithuania again. She then lived in a few cities in Australia and is now back in Lithuania where she has been ice swimming during the winter!

Listen as we talk about how Aushra’s TCK upbringing has impacted her life to date.

In this week’s episode I chat with Philippe Messer. British by birth he then had a typical TCK upbringing of living in France, Spain, America, Canada and Japan. His chosen career as a teacher enables him to continue living in new countries and he and his (non TCK ;-) ) wife currently reside in Australia.

Although his plans were curtailed by the global pandemic, he has recently been able to set off on a driving expedition around Australia.

In this week’s episode I talk with Daniel Nguyen-Phuoc who is no stranger to the TCK podcast airways as he co-hosts Third Culture Talks on which I was his guest last year.

Dan is a Vietnamese American who spent his early years in the USA and Indonesia. He is a polyglot and is currently adding Polish to his list of languages, having recently relocated to Poland.

Listen as we chat about all things TCK including what makes a place feel like home.

Michael V Pollock co-authored the third edition of Third Culture Kids – Growing Up Among Worlds (the ‘TCK bible’).

Raised between three states in the US, (New York, New Jersey, Vermont) and Kenya, East Africa, Michael  can't easily answer the question “where are you from?”

Listen as we chat about his TCK upbringing and how that influenced both his career and his decisions in where to live (he is a proud parent of TCK children).

In this episode, something a little different!  I am joined by renowned coach and mentor, Sarah Short, who interviews ME, placing me in the guest seat to talk about my TCK life.

Jen Mohindra is not only a Third Culture Kid, but is also an adoptee – a transracial adoptee. She was born in Scotland and grew up in Australia, England, Kenya and Australia (again). When she was 30 she found her birth family and discovered her Scottish/Indian mixed-race heritage (she had wondered why she tanned so well!).

Jen has had a fairly typical TCK career in that she chose to work in industries that facilitated international travel – hospitality and finance – for more than 25 years. She then retrained as a coach who works with TCKs to help them find their place in the world.

I  am so very excited to let you know about today’s podcast guest.  She is  so special that I have extended the podcast from its usual 30 minutes to  a whole hour.  

To we TCKs, today’s podcast guest needs no introduction. Ruth Van Reken  is a giant amongst us. Author of Letters Never Sent and co-author of Third Culture Kids with David Pollock known all over the world as the ‘TCK bible’.  

I have had the absolute privilege of spending an hour chatting to Ruth  about her life, her work and growing up as a TCK.

Ngoc grew up in Russia, Vietnam and the US, with a heavy French influence from having attended a French international school in Vietnam. Ngoc felt that no matter who she was talking too in any given situation – her parents, her school friends etc – that they only ever saw one facet of her, the others being masked by a different culture.

Her unusual upbringing has affected her so profoundly that she has gone the extra mile and written a book Weird Culture Kids, that’s now available on Amazon.

Anna is both a TCK and an international adoptee, having been adopted from India by Swedish parents.   She grew up in the Middle East and South East Asia, with summers spent in Sweden and she now resides in Sweden.  

Listen as she talks about her connections to the many places and cultures that contribute to her identity.

Martina was born in the Netherlands and is a polyglot. She moved to Poland, the US, Switzerland, back to the Netherlands, then on to Mexico and she kept on moving! In this podcast episode Martina mentions the little blue airmail envelopes that I had completely forgotten about!  

Martina is now married to an Argentinian and living in Argentina.

Calvin Widjaja is no stranger to the TCK airwaves, as he hosts his own podcast show at Global CKtizens on which I was his guest earlier this year. 

Calvin grew up between Indonesia and Singapore and this week's podcast is our discussion about his TCK upbringing, the impact it's had on him and what he's doing now.

This week is a cause for celebration as it’s my podcast show’s 20th episode!  

In addition that that, this week’s guest is unusual in that I have already appeared as his guest on his live show, Ben There.  

Ben Voegele was born in the USA and spent a large part of his childhood in Asia. When he returned to the US in his teens he had all the usual reverse culture shock that we TCKs experience.  

Listen to me chatting to Ben about his life, his choice of career (very TCK!) and how he has found a degree of peace and a place to put down roots in Utah.

Aida Karabu is a Kenyan TCK who lived in Kenya, Tanzania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, UK, Kenya again and currently resides in Canada.

Aida talks about her hardest move which was at the typical age for TCKs (12 – 14 years) and the difficulties of finding her favourite childhood fruit. In Kikuyu it’s called nathii and the English name is cape gooseberries!

Tamara Yousry is a TCK with mixed heritage – English and Egyptian who has ended up in Perth, Australia.  Her whole life is one of travel and culture, having lived in Kuwait, Egypt, England, Scotland, Norway, Singapore prior to moving down under.

Tamara has a recently published book - My Patchwork Life: An Intercultural Love Story which is set in Cairo and Singapore.  Just the thing for TCKs (and available now on Amazon!)

Richard Loat is a TCK who currently lives in Singapore. 

He is hugely interesting, not least because he's in the process of writing a book about famous and successful TCKs. The reason he's doing this is so that we TCKs can see just how awesome the impact of our TCK upbringing can be.

Listen to our conversation in this week's episode.

Nathan didn't know he was a TCK until recently. He has been delighted to discover that actually, he's not mad (!!) and that there's a whole world of people like us.

When we talked for this episode of my podcast, it became apparent that even TCKs who don't know that they're TCKs, still have the TCK issues that we all share.

Christopher O’Shaughnessy is a passionate and versatile author and speaker who uses a unique blend of story-telling, humor, and provocative insight to engage a wide array of people on topics ranging from Third Culture Kids and the effects of globalization to building community and increasing empathy.

Chris’ book, Arrivals, Departures and the Adventures In-Between, has received high praise from students, teachers, and otherexperts in the TCK and international community as a resource that is both enjoyable to read at a student level, and able to instill truths, insights and skills essential to navigating life successfully as a TCK.

Listen as Chris and I chat about his life to date.

Stephen Yap currently lives in the UK, having spent his formative years between Hong Kong and the UK.

He describes the very real experience of reverse culture shock. He also discovered that his knowledge and experience in Hong Kong didn’t translate to the same level of seniority in the UK. Listen to find out why.

Carolina Travaglio lives in Spain. She was born in Venezuela and moved to France aged 18 months. She then moved to the USA returning to Venezuela aged 7 and stayed there until she was 19.  

The international moves she experienced were due to her father studying for a PhD in France and then taking a job in the States.  

Even though Carolina returned to her passport country aged 7, she had already become firmly established as a TCK as she had no remembered knowledge of Venezuela, or of her family there.  

Listen as we talk about her TCK experience, and her life to date.

Javaneh Pirzad is an unusual subject for my podcast, because she’s not a TCK herself. However, her child is.  

Javaneh is British-Iranian and grew up in Iran. She has lived most of her adult life as an expat in various places including UAE, Algeria, UK, India. Since 2018, she has lived in the Netherlands.  

Javaneh is a psychotherapist who works with children and adolescents, including TCKs.  

Listen as she and I talk about the things that affect TCKs and how they can be overcome.

Christina Hoag is a well-travelled TCK! Born in New Zealand, she went on to live in seven other countries as a child and has lived in another three as a foreign correspondent. She has reported for many different news publications, including the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Miami Herald.

Christina is also an award winning author!

Listen as I discuss all things TCK with this accomplished TCK woman.

Lisa is not unusual as a TCK in that she lives in the UK midlands and has an accent that doesn’t fit the expectation!

Born in Taiwan, her family moved to Canada for 4 years, and then back to Taiwan for Lisa’s high school. Lisa took her degree in the US and her masters degree in the UK.

Listen as we talk about her experience growing up globally.

Terry has made his most recent move just weeks ago to country-side of central France.

He describes what home means to him and talks about his experiences of revisiting some of the places he lived during his childhood.  He also talks about cultural belonging and how he responds to the question "Where are you from?

Megan Norton is a true TCK as she grew up everywhere!   

She was born in Virginia in the US, moved to Pretoria in South Africa, back to Virginia, then to Seoul in South Korea. Next she moved to Bonn and then Frankfurt in Germany, then on to Tokyo Japan. She graduated high school in Tel Aviv in Israel and went to university in Florida.  

Listen as she and I talk about her truly varied life as a TCK.

Amanda Perez was born in Hong Kong grew up in Libya, Texas, Argentina and then Texas again. When we made this podcast, Amanda expressed relief at being able to actually answer the question ‘where are you from?’ honestly.  

I hope you enjoy this true TCK conversation.

Marie was born in England, moved to Hong Kong for schooling then back to England.  Half Japanese and half English, Marie has also spent time living in Japan. When asked, Marie feels that all 3 places are home. This makes the current coronvirus pandemic lockdown restrictions on travel very hard to bear.

Paul Mcguigan discovered he’s a TCK after listening to my earlier podcasts. 

Born in New Zealand to Scottish parents, he then grew up in England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand.  Paul talks about his moves and how he felt about the TCK lifestyle when he started his family and what home means to him.

Jackie  Harris is a marketing professional who grew up across the US, Canada  and Portugal. In this episode, we chat about her experiences and the  impact they have had on the choices she’s made in her life since.

In this episode, I interview Marie Gardom.

Marie and I have lots in common, not only are we TCKs, we are also both transracial adoptees.

Marie was born in Malaysia and adopted by white British parents. Her father was in the military and so Marie spent her formative years living on military bases around Europe and the UK.

Steph Rowley is a TCK. She grew up in the middle east and then moved around the UK, living in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In this episode, Steph and I chat about her TCK journey and where life has taken her since.