Tiffany joins us from the Spanish Steps for this mini-episode, where glorious azalea plants are spilling down the steps and there is nary a tourist in sight. May 2021 the first—and most likely the last—time it will be possible to see the Spanish Steps this way. As Tiffany marvels at the spectacle, she also marvels at how fast Italians seem to be able to transition in and out of the country's various lockdowns and restrictions. Every time the city opens back up, it almost feel like there was neve...
May 06, 2021•10 min•Season 8Ep. 108
This week we sit down with Riley Morton , a freelance documentary producer and cinematographer who kicked off his career two decades ago in the adventure sports space, producing documentaries and television about climbing, skiing, trail running, and adventure travel. Over the past decade, he has branched out, producing his own documentaries and collaborating on major projects. His newest creation is Endless Earth , a free app that features an ever-changing collection of professionally produced s...
May 03, 2021•27 min•Season 8Ep. 367
Bestselling author and friend of the show Jess Walter joins us for this mini-episode to talk about the reluctance so many people seem to have over getting the Covid vaccine. Jess shares a great tip for convincing the vaccine-hesitant people in your life to get the vaccine. ------------------------------------- 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 Bitt...
Apr 29, 2021•8 min•Season 8Ep. 107
Over in the US, Katy is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Hurrah! Tiffany in Italy, meanwhile, still has a long wait ahead of her. How long is anyone's guess. Today they discuss how Katy's life will change now that she's vaccinated—perhaps a lot, perhaps not much, it's not easy to know just yet. As well as if she even wants to go back to life as it once was. And Tiffany shares her frustrations with Italy's dismal vaccine roll-out. ------------------------------------- ADVERTISE WITH US: Rea...
Apr 26, 2021•31 min•Season 8Ep. 366
Want to write a 90k-word novel? If you've got 46 days (the length of Lent) Tiffany will tell you how to do it. This year during the period of Lent, Tiffany came up with the crazy idea to draft her next novel by Easter. That meant writing nearly 2000 words per day and, if that weren't challenging enough, schools in Italy closed halfway through! In this mini-episode, Tiffany shares her tips for completing such a massive project in such a short amount of time, as well as why you might want to attem...
Apr 22, 2021•20 min•Season 8Ep. 106
One year ago, we asked our listeners, What does a day in the life of someone under lockdown look like? Listeners from around the world sent us a peek into their lives in the form of voice memos, and we included our own auditory snapshots as well. Today we replay that episode to see what has changed in one year—and what has stayed the same. From Lynn in San Francisco as she studies Italian to Jill in Manhattan where the only sound on the city streets is the chirping of birds; from Karen, a US exp...
Apr 19, 2021•49 min•Season 8Ep. 365
Want to move abroad but have no idea how to support yourself when you get there? For this mini-episode, we are joined by David McNeill, creator of Expat Empire , a consulting service for aspiring expats, and host of the Expat Empire podcast (check out this recent episode in which he interviews Tiffany). From finding a local job in the country you are moving to, to getting a transfer through the company you already work for, from opening your own business to becoming a digital nomad, David shares...
Apr 15, 2021•13 min•Season 8Ep. 105
Inspired by our conversation with Elizabeth Miki Brina , author of the new memoir Speak, Okinawa , we turn again to cross-cultural relationships and families, and the challenges that they bring up for those involved, many of them unexpected. We also consider how much those problems can change and worsen, depending on which country the immigrant spouse is from, and how that country is perceived in their new country. Be sure not to miss last week's episode , the interview with Elizabeth Miki Brina...
Apr 12, 2021•29 min•Season 8Ep. 364
Inspired by last week's episode , an interview with Elizabeth Miki Brian, the author of the new memoir Speak, Okinawa, and the challenges she faced growing up the daughter of an American father and an Okinawan mother, Tiffany looks at pitfalls that can crop up in any cross-cultural relationship, particularly when one member of the couple leaves his or her home country to move (often permanently) the the country of the other, as well as a few ideas of how to avoid them. Be sure to listen to Episo...
Apr 08, 2021•12 min•Season 8Ep. 104
Elizabeth Miki Brina's new memoir Speak Okinawa is a "searing, deeply candid memoir about a young woman's journey to understanding her complicated parents—her mother, an Okinawan war bride, her father, a Vietnam veteran—and her own, fraught cultural heritage." We sit down with the author for a probing interview that looks at the pitfalls of cross-cultural marriage, as well as Brina's own guilt and frequent embarrassment at being a mixed-race, mixed-heritage child. Her book seeks to uncover who h...
Apr 05, 2021•38 min•Season 8Ep. 363
As a follow-up to Monday's episode, What Do I Want to Do Today? , on this mini-episode, Katy presents a radio piece she produced several years ago, in which she is physically present—and recording in audio—the birth of a child. First she chats with the parents-to-be about their decision to attempt a natural childbirth, as well as the doula who will be assisting the birth. Sometimes coming up with an idea for a story or a project can be as simple as asking yourself what you want to do that day. A...
Mar 31, 2021•23 min•Season 8Ep. 103
When trying to come up with an idea, whether it's for an article you're trying to pitch, a school assignment, a book you want to write, or any creative endeavor, have you ever just asked yourself: What do I want to do today? Today we talk about how this seemingly simple question can not only open up an opportunity to do something totally new to you and perhaps even out of your comfort zone, but it may also bring you an abundance of inspiration for a creative project. We also chat about all the c...
Mar 29, 2021•44 min•Season 8Ep. 362
Italy is in lockdown (again), but this time it feels very different. The rules are mostly the same, but the mood on the street is completely changed. The restaurants and many of the shops may be closed, movement may be restricted, but the citizens are rejecting the call not to socialize, and (so far) the authorities have chosen to ignore it. Aurelio also stops by to chat about why he's fine with Italy's Lockdown 3.0. **This episode was sponsored by Lingoda — the #1 trusted European language scho...
Mar 25, 2021•9 min•Season 8Ep. 102
So, you've decided you want to move abroad but... where do you start? It's not an easy subject to tackle, so today we've asked an expert. On this week's episode, we sit down with expert expat Jessica Drucker, author of How to Move Abroad and Why it's the Best Thing You'll Do . She's also the host of the Adventure Calls podcast. We get into the nitty-gritty of how to go about achieving your expat dreams, covering topics such as why you should move abroad, how to budget for your move, how to get y...
Mar 22, 2021•40 min•Season 8Ep. 362
Today we celebrate seven years of The Bittersweet Life! To mark this milestone, on this mini-episode we ask each other seven questions, each one inspired by the legendary seven hills of Rome! Listen in and you may just learn something new about us! **This episode was sponsored by Lingoda — the #1 trusted European language school with very affordable prices. The small online classes, available 24/7, are taught by native-speaking teachers with proven methods and expert-designed curriculums. Partic...
Mar 17, 2021•17 min•Season 8Ep. 101
For much of the pandemic, Italy has been keeping their numbers (relatively) under control, and the United States, on the other hand, has seen their numbers climb and climb without an end in sight. But now the shoe is on the other foot, so it would seem. The vaccination roll-out in the US is actually ahead of schedule, and things are slowly, finally, beginning to turn around, meanwhile most of Italy is back in full lockdown as of today. We chat about how the situation in Italy is getting worse, w...
Mar 15, 2021•30 min•Season 8Ep. 360
Tiffany looks back on the week that it all changed in Italy—one year ago right now. Did any of us think, a year later, that restrictions, yellow, orange, and red zones, masks and all the rest of it, would still be a part of our lives one year later? She muses on what was going through our heads at that unprecedented time, what, if anything, we have learned since then, and the ways in which have we've been forever changed. She even listens back to the very first episode we taped about the pandemi...
Mar 11, 2021•10 min•Season 8Ep. 100
Walking through the halls of a museum like the Uffizi Gallery in Florence—when we're not in the middle of a pandemic, that is—is generally about as artistic an experience as rush hour at Grand Central Station. Florence, a relatively small city, is overwhelmed by the number of tourists who visit it (in a normal year) and almost all of those tourists visit the Uffizi Gallery. The director of the Gallery is already thinking ahead to when mass tourism inevitably returns to Florence, and he's come up...
Mar 08, 2021•28 min•Season 8Ep. 359
Katy gets into the nitty-gritty of feedback from her own point of view, digging into her own past as a senior radio producer. Today's mini-episode features part of the conversation that was cut from Monday's full-length episode, an interview with Dr. Therese Huston, author of Let’s Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower. Katy looks back at her former job and wonders: did I give good feedback? Did I give enough feedback at all? If you haven't listened to Monday's episode, The Art of Feedba...
Mar 04, 2021•9 min•Season 8Ep. 99
How can effective feedback change your life? Today, we sit down with Dr. Theresa Huston, author of the new book Let’s Talk: Make Effective Feedback Your Superpower , a "game-changing model for giving effective feedback to peers, employees, or even your boss—without offending or demotivating." In it, she explains how to tell someone that they're not meeting expectations without crushing their spirit, a skill which, when delivered skillfully, can turn average performers into the hardest workers an...
Mar 01, 2021•44 min•Season 8Ep. 358
Oscar Wilde called it the "holiest place in Rome" and Percy Shelley said it would make someone apt to fall in love with death to think of being buried in so sweet a place...and not soon later he was buried there at only 29. But the most famous resident of Rome's Non-Catholic Cemetery is of course John Keats, who was interred there exactly 200 years ago today. Inspired by Katy's essay on his death and the death of her friend Susan, Tiffany visits the cemetery in her mind (it's still closed at pre...
Feb 25, 2021•16 min•Season 8Ep. 98
Reading books can inspire you to travel, and travel can inspire you to read books. It's what we call a delicious cycle. Today we talk about the books (and other types of art) that have inspired not only particular trips, but the things that we have sought out when on that trip, or even things we have made a point to see in our own cities. But this inspiration goes both ways, and sometimes the things we see when traveling inspire us to read more about them, whether in fiction or non-fiction. List...
Feb 22, 2021•29 min•Season 8Ep. 357
On our "super secret" Truth or Dare episode from a few years ago (available only to our Patreon patrons and long-time donors), Katy did something incredibly scary, heart-poundingly so: she called someone she'd had a brief but electrifying encounter with—completely out of the blue, 20 years later. As a hint of what the bonus content that our patrons and regular donors receive every single month, we are broadcasting this very scary call in all its nail-biting glory. If you'd like more bonus conten...
Feb 18, 2021•21 min•Season 8Ep. 97
Some psychologists say that anticipation of a desired event can often bring more happiness than experiencing the event itself. And if that's the case, can we conclude that planning a trip is even more fun that actually taking the trip? Inspired by a recent article in the New York Times , Travel and the Art of Anticipation by Stephanie Rosenbloom, we muse about the so-called "happiness reset," the pleasure of anticipating travel, and the joys to be gleaned from reminiscing about past adventures. ...
Feb 15, 2021•36 min•Season 8Ep. 356
Every two weeks, an endangered language disappears from the planet, when the last person who speaks it dies. And one third of the world's languages are endangered. On this mini-episode, we talk about the world's languages that are most at risk of disappearing, and why you might want to learn one of them. If you're interested in learning an obscure or endangered language, check out these three articles . **This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publisher for founders, in...
Feb 11, 2021•11 min•Season 8Ep. 96
One of the greatest rewards of being an expat is mastering a foreign language. But what happens when you live in a foreign language so long, so cut off from your own culture, that you start to lose your fluency in your native tongue? Think it couldn't happen to you? Join us for a chat that might change your mind, and learn some Italian words in the process—ones that you might think you know, but their true meaning just may surprise you. **This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —part...
Feb 08, 2021•31 min•Season 8Ep. 355
Today we continue our virtual walk through Rome, were we just happen to run into a few more world-famous authors. What are the odds? Katy's brilliant sound-mixing skills, Tiffany's knowledge of the Eternal City, and the commentary of some of today's most brilliant authors come together in one of our most delightful episodes of all time. If you haven't listened to Part 1 of this episode, make sure you do that first! **This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing —partner and publisher for ...
Feb 04, 2021•23 min•Season 8Ep. 354
Katy and Tiffany take to the streets of Rome once again, and this time, they encounter a slew of fascinating and important people, all former guests of the show! Through the magic of radio—a cache of Rome sounds, snippets from old interviews, and Katy's brilliant sound-mixing skills—this walking tour of Rome was taped NOT on the streets of Rome as it seems, but in Katy and Tiffany's own homes, across the ocean from each other. Don't miss our previous virtual tour of Rome , created during Italy's...
Feb 01, 2021•33 min•Season 8Ep. 353
TripAdvisor might be some people's go-to app for planning their vacations, but Tiffany prefers to steer clear of the anonymous travel review site if possible. We mentioned this on a previous episode, and a listener wrote in to ask why. Tiffany shares her opinions in this mini-episode. **This episode was sponsored by Clyde Hill Publishing — partner and publisher for founders, innovators, thinkers, and tinkerers. Check out their upcoming release, I Had No Idea You Were Black , by Ronald Crutcher. ...
Jan 28, 2021•11 min•Season 8Ep. 95
Is there a specific thing you like to buy when you travel to a new place, like a magnet or a snow globe? Or do you seek out unique and locally made art and objects? Perhaps you prefer the type of souvenir that you can eat once you get back home. Maybe you wait to see what strikes your fancy or just pick something random off the street like Katy? Today we play and comment on the favorite souvenirs of the listeners of The Bittersweet Life, and talk a little bit about the most treasured objects we'...
Jan 25, 2021•33 min•Season 8Ep. 352
