There's a new man in the White House this morning—and a new woman too! Just like we did four years ago during Donald Trump's inauguration, we recorded our live reactions to Joe Biden's inauguration via voice memo to each other, a conversation in real time across the ocean. It happened at 6pm in Rome, at 9am in Seattle, and at noon in Washington DC, but through the magic of radio (and Katy's brilliant editing skills), we're all able to experience it together. Listen in on our live reactions to th...
Jan 21, 2021•22 min•Season 8Ep. 94
A missing person, a grieving family, a curious clue: a half-finished manuscript set in Paris... these are just three of the intriguing ingredients of Liam Callanan's new novel, Paris by the Book . The author joins us today to chat about his latest book, and muses on what it's like to write a book that takes place in a city you've never lived in, and how cities like Paris sometimes exist in our imaginations; those versions often have little to do with reality, but that doesn't mean they aren't re...
Jan 16, 2021•33 min•Season 8Ep. 351
Was Pope Francis really arrested by the FBI last weekend? Did all the lights in the Vatican go out to hide this event from the world? And most importantly, did Pope Francis really change all the votes cast from Italy in the November election from Trump to Biden? We're guessing you know the answers to these questions, but we address these questions this wild theory anyway on our latest mini-episode. For further reading check out this post by Rome resident and Vatican expert Mountain Butorac on hi...
Jan 14, 2021•11 min•Season 8Ep. 93
Do Italian parents really take their toddlers out to restaurants at 10pm? Do they really go home for lunch during the work day and take a nap? Thanks to an idea sent in by a listener, today we dig into some of the norms of Italian daily life and how it compares to life in the US. Tiffany busts some myths and shares the ways she's assimilated to the Italian lifestyle, as well as the American habits she just can't shake. -------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, futur...
Jan 10, 2021•31 min•Season 8Ep. 350
Whether a funky mug from Prague, a hand-painted ceramic bowl from Mexico, or a random dish picked up off the street in Japan, there's got to be one special souvenir that has a place in your heart and on your shelf, and takes you back to wherever you found it. Thanks to a listener suggestion, today we're putting out a call for our listeners' favorite souvenirs, whether purchased or found, handmade or mass produced, from as far away as the South China Sea or as near as one town over. Record yourse...
Jan 05, 2021•6 min•Season 8Ep. 92
After the catastrophe that was 2020, we go back and listen to the resolutions we made one year ago. Did we manage to accomplish ANY of them? You'll have to listen to find out. We also make plans for the year ahead, and even dare to make a few resolutions, although we are humbled by the crazy year we've all just lived for and so are keeping our resolutions a bit less ambitious this year. -------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over ...
Jan 02, 2021•31 min•Season 8Ep. 349
It's finally the end of 2020!! We made it! But the close of what many are calling the worst year in living memory won't be rung in as many people would like to: carousing and celebrating in the streets. Instead, most of us are stuck inside, especially those of us in Italy where curfews and lockdowns mean most people will be staying home. Tiffany and Katy talk about Rome's complicated and baffling restrictions over the holiday period and how they'll be celebrating in their respective cities. Happ...
Dec 31, 2020•14 min•Season 8Ep. 91
Lots of out-of-work tour guides are now offering virtual tours of Rome (and, I imagine, cities all around the world), as a way to keep their businesses alive, keep their knowledge fresh, and help people who are stuck at home feel like they are traveling. But way back in April, while we were all stuck inside and not even permitted to go for a walk more than 200 meters from home (at least in Rome), we created an auditory virtual tour of Rome. And the coolest part? We did it from our own homes—half...
Dec 28, 2020•46 min•Season 8Ep. 348
It's Christmas Eve and Tiffany interviews one little child who is looking forward to the big day. Enjoy this mini-burst of holiday cheer and Merry Christmas from your friends at The Bittersweet Life. -------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started. BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Vi...
Dec 23, 2020•9 min•Season 8Ep. 90
Just in time for last-minute Christmas shopping, the "world's librarian" Nancy Pearl , who is also a best-selling author herself, shares her favorite books for giving (or reading yourself) this holiday season (find titles and links below). Nancy also shares her advice for testing out a new friendship: give your new friend a book for Christmas, and whether they bother to read it (or love it or hate it) might inform whether your friendship has longterm potential. Here our Nancy's picks for this ho...
Dec 18, 2020•30 min•Season 8Ep. 347
Katy catches up with Matthew P. Woerner, the writer and director of Monday's audio play "After Midnight," who also happens to be a childhood friend. On this mini-episode, they discuss their mutual love for old-time radio, and hypothesize on what makes radio theater unique. Matthew talks about his inspiration for "After Midnight," and how he got the radio bug. They also reminisce about their childhood and what Katy was like as a kid. -------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach...
Dec 17, 2020•17 min•Season 8Ep. 89
Get a cup of your favorite hot drink, find a cozy corner, and sit back and enjoy a totally different kind of show. Today we're presenting a special radio play inspired by the Golden Age of radio drama, the very medium that made Katy fall in love with radio and go into a career as a public radio producer and podcaster. After Midnight was written and directed by Matthew P. Woerner, a childhood friend of Katy. During the long, solitary months of lockdown, as many people were pursuing new creative e...
Dec 14, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 8Ep. 346
In a time when leisure travel (especially international leisure travel) is all but non-existent, some brave and insistent travel-lovers are going anyway. Today we chat with long-time listener and past guest Lynn Fortunato, who flew to Italy from her home in San Francisco just before the second wave hit, with a one-way ticket and not much of a plan. Hear in her own words her experiences with Italy's strict quarantine for foreign travelers, where she's been, and how she's been filling her time in ...
Dec 10, 2020•14 min•Season 8Ep. 88
There are lots of new sights we are all quickly getting used to during this unprecedented time. People in masks, plexiglass partitions, ubiquitous hand sanitizer dispensers... but what about all the things we used to see everywhere that are now just gone? This week we remark on what sights have disappeared from our streets, and if they'll ever come back, which leads to a broader conversation about how the world is changing. ** This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publ...
Dec 06, 2020•35 min•Season 8Ep. 345
Winter can be long at the best of times. But during a pandemic with no end in sight, it can be brutal. Katy is joined briefly by author Jess Walter and the two try and come up with ways to get through this long, dark, and solitary winter. ** This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publisher for founders, innovators, thinkers, and tinkerers. Check out their latest release, Georges Bank by Bradley Bagshow, a maritime novel set in a 19th-century fishing village in New Engla...
Dec 03, 2020•4 min•Season 87Ep. 8
We all make goals—or, at least most of us do—but what happens when we decide to scratch a goal off the list without ever completing it? Whether because we're simply not interested in having a particular experience anymore, our passions have led us in another direction, or we have (sob!) "aged out" of the possibility of achieving a dream, it's ok to change our minds. What we are determined to do when we're 14 (or 40) might not be what we were meant to do. This week we talk about how revising and ...
Nov 30, 2020•36 min•Season 8Ep. 344
On this extra-short mini-episode, Katy and Tiffany express their thanks for things in their lives that they are unexpectedly treasuring this year. Sometimes it's the little things, sometimes it's the big things, but we can all find something to be grateful, even in the midst of the craziest year of our lives. ** This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publisher for founders, innovators, thinkers, and tinkerers.** -------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: ...
Nov 26, 2020•10 min•Season 8Ep. 86
About five years ago, Clare Brown left a predictable life in the UK to move to Split, Croatia in search of writing, exploration, and adventure. A longtime listener of the show, she has been a regular guest over the years and has inspired the listeners of The Bittersweet Life with her daring yet highly relatable story. She first appeared on Episode 112 EXPLORE and, by popular demand, she returned in Episode 157 CLARE . This week, joins us once again from Split, Croatia with chapter three of her a...
Nov 23, 2020•37 min•Season 8Ep. 343
Italy is in the midst of a wicked second wave of Covid. In fact, it makes spring's wave seem like a bump by comparison. Instead of instituting a national lockdown, as they did last spring, Italy's leaders have opted for zoned restrictions, ranging from light restrictions in the yellow zones (Rome, for example), to a nearly complete lockdown in red zones (Milan and Florence, for example). In this mini-episode, Tiffany explains the different restrictions facing different areas of the country, and ...
Nov 19, 2020•14 min•Season 8Ep. 85
Do you have a hard time falling asleep at night? Or perhaps, like Katy, you sleep fitfully, waking multiple times a night and having trouble falling back to sleep again. Or maybe, like Tiffany, you're one of the lucky ones, and sleep comes quickly and easily. (But don't get too smug, you could end up with a baby who refuses to sleep, just like Aurelio did!) After several listener requests, this week we present an episode all about slumber. Why some people find it so elusive and others so welcomi...
Nov 16, 2020•33 min•Season 8Ep. 342
Katy and Tiffany send voice memos back and forth across the Atlantic as one of the most consequential presidential elections in American history is finally called for Joe Biden. For Katy, it's early on a Saturday morning, for Tiffany, it's almost dinnertime, and once again they wonder if the time of day that something happens makes a difference in how you experience it. But most of all, they share their feelings, hopes, and reactions as this historic election is finally called, and what they thi...
Nov 12, 2020•15 min
Photographer and visual storyteller Cyndie Burkhardt was living in New York City feeling unsatisfied with her life. Rather than continue to struggle, she decided to leave. Her goal: to visit 12 countries in 12 months and rediscover herself along the way. Nine months in, the coronavirus stopped her in her tracks. On today's episode we sit down with Cyndie to explore the journey she took, what she found, and where she is now. Follow Cyndie on her blog , at her 12 Countries, 12 Months photo project...
Nov 09, 2020•28 min•Season 8Ep. 341
If you live abroad, sometimes you have to stay up all night in order to keep an eye on the fate of your home country. And then there are the rare occasions when you have to stay up all night even if you are in the states. No one said 2020 was going to be an easy year. On this week's mini-episode, Tiffany and Katy comunicate with each other via voice memo as the results of the 2020 US election come in. For Tiffany, this happened beginning at one in the morning, for Katy, the more reasonable hour ...
Nov 05, 2020•16 min•Season 8Ep. 83
It's the eve of the US presidential election, what the vast majority of Americans consider to be the most important election of their lifetimes. But what happens when you're an expat, living across the world while something so important is happening? Even if you exercise your right to vote from abroad, it can still be challenging for expats to be so far away when something enormously consequential is going on at home. On this episode, Tiffany explains what it feels like to be so far from home at...
Nov 02, 2020•32 min•Season 8Ep. 340
It's almost Halloween, and to assuage the fears of anyone who is afraid of rats (like Tiffany, see previous episode!) Katy shares a fascinating and little-known recording of rat laughter (yes, you read that right). On this mini-episode, she also shares a touching piece of short fiction she wrote during lockdown that most likely many of our listeners can relate to in some way. ** This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publisher for founders, innovators, thinkers, and tin...
Oct 29, 2020•9 min•Season 8Ep. 82
Are you afraid of the dark? Spider or rats? Being buried alive or drowning? Encountering a wild ferocious beast? Are you afraid of ghosts? Someone lurking in the shadows who is about to jump out and attack? In honor of Halloween week, this episode is all about our fears, whether they be rational or irrational. And if they are rational, can they even be considered fears? Or is that just a natural form of self-protection? And speaking of irrational fears, why are we often scared of things that we ...
Oct 26, 2020•33 min•Season 8Ep. 339
Considered for centuries to be the most mysterious sculpture in the world, The Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino (1753) is an astoundingly realistically marble creation of the crucified Christ covered with a nearly transparent veil. The depiction is so uncannily real that for nearly 200 years, it was believed by many to have been created with the use of magical means. On this Bittersweet Moment, Tiffany tells the history of this mystifying work, and the secret that was believed to be responsi...
Oct 21, 2020•11 min•Season 8Ep. 81
"All things cute and cuddly" was the surprising topic requested by listener Sara, who supports us at the $50 level on Patreon . Choosing the topic of an episode is just one of many bonuses we offer our Patreon supporters, and as this episode proves, we take that pledge seriously and hold no veto power. The sky is the limit! In delving into this unexpected topic, we attempt to answer many questions: Why does Tiffany hate cuddly things—and the very word "cuddly" itself? What is the cutest thing Ka...
Oct 19, 2020•36 min•Season 8Ep. 338
What are book tours like in the time of Covid? For this week's mini-episode, Katy sits down with bestselling author Jess Walter to discuss what it's like to do book events in his office while staring into a computer screen or to sign 6000 books in one go. They also consider that, even in a post-Covid world, true book tours might become a thing of the past, and why maybe that won't be such a bad thing. Jess' latest book, The Cold Millions will be published on 27 October 2020. Pre-order your copy ...
Oct 15, 2020•13 min•Season 8Ep. 80
This week we give all our listeners a peek into some of the extra bonus content that our Patreon donors are receiving. Every month we offer one or more bonus episodes exclusively for our Patreon supporters, and today we are sharing one of those with our entire audience. Way back in 2015, we taped a final episode just before Tiffany took a break to have her baby and begin learning the ropes of motherhood. This week, we re-listen to that episode and offer real-time commentary on it. Did Tiffany ha...
Oct 12, 2020•50 min•Season 8Ep. 337
