Mike Wester is a 17-year American expat resident of Beijing and a veteran of five years of expatriate living in Taipei as well. In 2001 he co-founded True Run Media, which provides information and services to the internationally-minded communities in China’s largest cities. TRM operates three brands – the Beijinger and beijingkids (English) and JingKids (Chinese), producing print and digital media as well as large-scale live events for each. • the Beijinger (thebeijinger.com) is the capital's to...
May 03, 2017•30 min•Ep. 58
Everyone living outside his or her home nation as a story to tell that explains why they made the choice to travel and then live abroad. In today’s episode we have a guest that fits this description without exception. Currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Anthony Rigogliosi shares with us what brought him to the realization of why he had to change is life situation in his home nation and move abroad. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Facebook (Personal): Anthony Rigogliosi Facebook Group: Podcast N...
Apr 27, 2017•35 min•Ep. 57
From overseas, expats can offer unique perspectives that may not be easily observed by international media outlets. With all the cultural and political uprising taking place in the world today, now is the time for expats, who have had the opportunity to interact and live amongst different cultures, to make their points of views heard and work to breakdown cultural misunderstandings that have developed through suspicions, hate and fear. James Thomas, the host of Four Seas One Family , is working ...
Apr 02, 2017•7 min
There are a few expats who have totally immersed themselves in the culture and lifestyle of their host nation. They later discover that their relationship with their adopted home has become strong and, in some cases, inseparable. Because of this type of unexplainable connection, a few expats have made the decision to give up the passport of their nation of birth to become a citizen of the nation of their adopted home. This transformation for many isn’t an easy one and, in some cases, irreversibl...
Mar 25, 2017•49 min•Ep. 56
It is often hard or almost impossible to predict where your life journey may ultimately take you. An expat’s journey leads to different pathways for self-discovery. My guest this episode is American expat Carlo JaMelle. He proves in a unique way that it is very possible to become an accidental expat and, in the end, enjoy and learn from the path taken. Carlo talks about how he ended up going to Taiwan after graduating from college. Without any in-depth knowledge of his future overseas home, he s...
Mar 08, 2017•32 min•Ep. 55
We sit down for chat with a 24 year old American TCK (Third Culture Kid), Mr. Brandon O’Neal. Brandon takes us for walk in his TCK world and allows us to have a peek inside his sphere of growing up as an African American third culture kid in Taiwan. He shares amusing stories of becoming part of the local Taiwanese community as well as the struggles he faced while being educated in local Taiwanese schools. Brandon points out the importance of learning about the culture you are living in and devel...
Feb 20, 2017•24 min•Ep. 54
It is quite common for expat women traveling abroad, and especially raising a family, to feel lost and lose a sense of purpose. It is easy to feel overwhelmed in an unfamiliar overseas environment. I’m lucky this episode to chat with Ms. Rita Golstein-Galperin a career makeover strategists who focuses on helping expat women abroad find or recalibrate a their life direction. Rita works with women all over the world and offers an online service that helps women focus and stay targeted on their lif...
Feb 16, 2017•26 min•Ep. 53
I started this website and podcast, Four Seas One Family, to explain some of my personal insights to family members and friends back home about life overseas. I also wanted to expand the podcast to where people could easily observe that we have a lot more in common than we think. In this format, people would be able to listen in on examples that prove that we are fundamentally the same regardless of skin color, religion, politics or other beliefs. We all have basic concerns that include security...
Jan 28, 2017•10 min
Living as an expat can sometimes be like riding a rollercoaster in a thunderstorm. Sometimes things appear like they are going for a positive up swing an sometimes the swing runs out of inertia and head straight to the bottom. The same thing can be said for life in one’s home nation. However, riding the cultural wave as an expat takes a very different approach to facing fears, filtering doubts and finding of positive conclusion. Our guest this episode is Ms. Jasliyn Albert. Jasliyn is an America...
Jan 25, 2017•30 min•Ep. 52
In this episode, American expat Jim Kovpak joins us from Moscow, Russia. Jim has been living in Moscow for over ten years and goes into how he became attracted to Russia at an early age. Today Jim is a very active expat journalist who has covered stories for many international news agencies. While living and working in Russia, Jim and a friend noticed the false reality presented in the media about Russia and the lives of its people. Because of this, Jim and his friend created the website Russia ...
Jan 19, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 51
People choose to go and live overseas for many different reasons. In the beginning, some people may have gone overseas to further their education, search for financial opportunities, seek romance or to simply search for adventure. The desire to travel overseas can come from variety of different sources. The desire to travel abroad may come from someone we admire, a book we may have read or even a movie we may have seen. So as you see, the reasons are countless and sometimes can be left to the im...
Jan 02, 2017•15 min•Ep. 50
An expat may never be fully intergraded or accepted into all parts of a host nation. There will always be a far side of a host nation that an expat may never be allowed to reach and this is something that may just have to be accepted. The reasons for this may frankly be the way an expat converses with citizens, habits displayed or simply the way a particular expat looks. Local citizens aren’t under any obligation to completely accept an expat as one of their own. The only thing an expat can do, ...
Dec 15, 2016•25 min•Ep. 49
In this episode we are having a wonderful chat with Pakistani expat Shehar Bano Rizvi (A name that James easily mispronounces.) who, at the time of this interview, has been living in Doha, Qatar for 13 years. Shehar is raising three children in her adopted home and shares how her little ones are adapting to a life that is constantly being in a mix of different languages, faces and cultures. Learn why Shehar sees this fact as a strong asset to her children’s personal development. She goes into wh...
Dec 04, 2016•50 min•Ep. 48
In this episode, we chat in the Marilyn Monroe suite with Angela Carson. Angela is an American expat from Southern California who has travelled all over the globe to over 33 different countries looking for adventure (I said "adventure" not trouble! [smile]). Angela has not only managed to travel the world and commit to an exciting career as an accomplished travel blogger (Boy! Am I jealous! [wink!]), but also raise, as a single parent I may add, a wonderful daughter. Find out what Angela's daugh...
Nov 20, 2016•42 min•Ep. 47
In this episode, we have American-expat Drey Gibson who is, at the time of this episode, living in Germany. He is also an expat guest with a military background. Drey is from a place in the U.S. where people from his small town, at the time of his service in the U.S. military, had limited access to information regarding traveling and living overseas. Drey is an engaging speaker who goes into how he coped with life overseas while in the military. It is easy to hear that his clear and positive sta...
Nov 05, 2016•58 min•Ep. 46
In our efforts to further understand the expat experience while raising children abroad, we are lucky this episode to gain further insights into the topic with our guest and fellow podcaster, Ms. Jennifer Langkjaer. Jennifer is an American expat currently living in Switzerland near Zurich. Jennifer briefly talks about how her children kept up with pop-culture in the US and the type of education her children are getting in Switzerland as opposed to what they may need upon returning to the United ...
Oct 31, 2016•36 min•Ep. 45
I have been receiving email from listeners across Facebook and Twitter about covering the topic of parenting overseas. So over the next few weeks, I will be trying to deliver more information about the nuances of parenting as an expat abroad. I will also try to gather information from a variety of expats located in different parts of the world and focus on the commonalities of trying to raise children outside of their passport nation. So beginning in this episode we sit down for a chat with an A...
Oct 23, 2016•33 min•Ep. 44
In this episode, James is talking to American expat, part-time musician with a voice that any radio announcer would dream of having, Mr. Jim Santos. Jim is a retired network engineer from the DC area someplace near Chesapeake Bay and is connecting to us from Ecuador. I found Jim from one of his articles posted on the Wall Street Journal website. From his overseas vantage point, Jim uses a direct and, at times, strategic humorous point of view to highlight the events currently going on in the US....
Oct 07, 2016•38 min•Ep. 43
I truly believe every single person on Earth has the ability to show compassion towards their fellow human beings regardless of the many countless obstacles. In my podcast, Four Seas One Family, I frantically try to construct cultural bridges to shorten the distance between common beliefs and mutual concerns. Global events displayed daily on our televisions, read in newspapers and on-line causes us to develop a pessimistic view of the world. The large numbers of innocent people suffering and dyi...
Sep 28, 2016•15 min•Ep. 42
In this episode we have a fellow podcaster from Kansas City who is now living as an expat in Belize on the island of Caye Caulker. A person of action, Robert Harper, explains how he has changed his philosophy about life and managed to arrange a lifestyle that allows him to work remotely and experience living abroad with his extended family which includes two wonderful young grandchildren. Robert shares why he feels supplying his grandchildren with supplementary remote educational resources will ...
Sep 21, 2016•38 min•Ep. 41
Many people find their life path at unexpected times and in bewildering situations. Sometimes, people find themselves “evacuating” a certain life situation to search for another purpose. In this episode we are happy to sit down for a chat with American expat Andrea Whitaker. Andrea is very energetic so she doesn’t just sit around waiting for adventure to somehow find her. She bravely goes out on her scooter and not only looks for adventure, but hunts for it. Andrea has left over 25 years in the ...
Sep 11, 2016•31 min•Ep. 40
Join us this episode as our host, James Thomas , sits down for a chat with Zambian-Canadian expat-entrepreneur Mr. Rico Ngoma . Tune in and listen to what lead Mr. Ngoma to learn more about China and what gave him the spark to finally move to China and start a business in the southern ever-moving Chinese city of Guangzhou. As Rico’s parents are also deeply involved in business, it maybe fair to say that doing business is in Rico’s DNA. Rico followed the road many expats take while living abroad ...
Aug 31, 2016•47 min•Ep. 39
Today, I am happy to have new dad, podcaster and entrepreneur Mr. Michael Michelini on the show. Michael is not only a new dad of two wonderful children; he is also a podcaster with two shows to look after! A top of all of this, Michael is also a business consultant for overseas companies looking to manufacture products in China. Michael’s consulting business, along with its website and other businesses, specializes in helping individuals and overseas companies understand how to do business in C...
Aug 24, 2016•30 min•Ep. 38
It is no secret that taking a leap of faith of any kind can lead to many important transitions in anyone’s life, which can help a person further develop him or herself as a part of the human race. In this episode, James is joined in his downtown office studio in Taipei with Mr. Johnny Fountain who currently works for a major global computer manufacturer with offices in Asia. Johnny is now based in Taipei, Taiwan and he joins us in this episode to talk about his experiences that lead to his life ...
Aug 17, 2016•38 min•Ep. 37
Teaching is a tool to help make this world a better place for everyone and today I am very lucky to have Mr. Barry Mernin on the show this episode. Mr. Mernin is a lifelong elementary educator. Before teaching overseas, Mr. Mernin spent 12 years teaching in the US. Now, at the time of this episode, Mr. Mernin has spent the past fifteen years teaching in Singapore, Japan, Jordan and Hong Kong. He is currently a teaching administrator at Hokkaido International School- Niseko, Japan. Mr. Mernin’s p...
Aug 05, 2016•46 min•Ep. 36
In this episode James and Jon Dunning sit down for a chat about the different types of expats that adventure beyond their nations borders to experience life and for what reasons. Expats view their overseas life experience in many ways and in this podcast learn about the make up of a few of them. The expat's approach to assimilation and humility in learning about a host country's culture, balancing birth/host country cultures, are we conquerors, escapees or explorers? MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: C...
Jul 20, 2016•42 min•Ep. 35
We have expat author Ian Mote on the show to share his expat experience and how and why he decided to write a memoir of his life in China in his comically titled book "From Chicken Feet to Crystal Baths". As a youngster from London and while traveling from country to country with his parents, Ian may have picked up an expat gene along the way. As of this podcast, Ian has lived as a expat for over 14 years. He has lived 4 years in Hong Kong, 3 years in Dubai and over 7 years in Shanghai, China. I...
Jul 14, 2016•39 min•Ep. 34
I’m very happy to have Ms. Amanda Bate as my guest on the podcast. Amanda was born in the US to Cameroonian parents and grew up in Africa. Amanda is also the founder of The Black Expat website. The Black Expat website spotlights collected black expat experiences that are directly related to a black expat’s survival while living abroad. Also, parts of the website talks about issues that relate to raising children abroad and, in particular issues related to what Third Culture Kids (TCKs) face whil...
Jul 02, 2016•50 min•Ep. 33
EPISODE OVERVIEW: In this episode, I go into a direction that has been on my mind ever since I decided to live permanently outside my nation of birth. I often find it hard to explain to friends and family back in the South Bronx the reasons why I chose to live abroad and face the challenges of living away from familiar faces, places and customs. I didn’t want to fall into the same, and often limited, life style most African-Americans with little or no financial backing often find themselves beco...
May 29, 2016•21 min•Ep. 32
In this episode, we do some myth busting about the value of paying collective taxes. We see how an American expat learnt to appreciate something about his host nation that would raise eyebrows and receive loads of criticism back home. It is often veryhard for an expat to communicate the way other people in differentparts of the world are living and how the particular system theylive under would be of some good use elsewhere. ABOUT GUEST : Tom Heberlein is a retired environmental sociologist prof...
May 02, 2016•36 min•Ep. 31
