16: Brendan Davis, A Colocated American Expat Film & TV Writer, Producer, Director and Podcaster6/21/2019 Powered by RedCircle
In this podcast episode we chat with Brendan Davis, an American expat who has lived in China for many years. Brendan is a Film and TV Writer, Producer, Director and fellow Podcaster. His podcasts are: If I Knew You Better, Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom and How China Works. Brendan somehow has kept grounded as has been involved with some pretty spectacular creative projects globally. Okay, to be honest, he is a bit crazy, good crazy, as his website, https://www.crazyinagoodway.com admits to. The kind of crazy that you want in your life and in your earbuds.
In this conversation Steph and Brendan chat about how his move to China changed what he did online, how he is splitting his time now that he has decided not to work IN China but will continue to keep a home base (and an Internet connection) here, and how he cultivated his crazy in a good way online persona while being a deep, thought provoking and may I say, wonderful human being.
2 Comments
In this podcast episode we chat with Summer Rylander, an American expat who has been living in Nuremberg, Germany since 2015. Summer is a freelance food and travel writer with a fondness for cooking, reading, daydreaming, procrastinating, and taking long walks with podcasts. Her latest droolworthy publication in Culture Magazine is about Swedish cheese (yes, it’s a thing!). When Summer gets writing hungry, she also posts about food and cooking on her blog, Eat Something Go Somewhere.
Summer and Steph met on the @WeAreXpats rocur account, geeked out hard about many things living abroad and geopat oriented so much so that they have started a new creativity podcast together called “Creatively Complicated”, where they discuss the messiness of their own creativity. Additionally, they will be discussing “Global Soul”, the Pico Iyer book that Steph mentioned about halfway through the episode, in the Bookish Expats Podcast on June 24th. If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform, stephfuccio is my handle literally everywhere.
In this podcast episode we chat with Kelly Merks, a Texas expat who has lived abroad since 2011, in Japan and in the Netherlands. Her Twitter bio tells is: “A Texan full of fernweh (NOTE: “fernweh is a German word that means “ A Farsickness or Longing for Unseen Places.). Noob knitter and clay thrower. Fairy godmother of @WeAreXpats, a project of @xpatarchive: http://wearexpats.org “
@WeAreXpats is how Kelly and I first met online and connected over discussions of place, social medianess and expat life. For those of you not familiar with rocur accounts, they are rotating accounts where usually 1 person in that category (in this case, an expat) tweets for a week and then the account will rotate to another person after that. Kelly started this rocur account while she was a volunteer at the Expatriate Archive Center in The Hauge where she now is their Public Relations Manager. Outside of the EAC, Kelly also is raising a tiny human with her husband and somehow finds time to write about her geographic pondering in her blog, Bullet Trains & Bike Lanes. 13: Hao Wu, Director of People's Republic Of Desire On His Own Virtual Habits Binationally4/30/2019
In this podcast episode we chat with China-United States Binational Documentarian Hao Wu about how his movement between these two countries has affected what he has done online, both in personal and professional capacities. Hao grew up in China and has had healthy movement from China to the U.S. and back in his adult life. Although he is currently based in New York City, he admits that he is most interested in stories about China.
One of these China focused projects, People’s Republic of Desire, is about the Chinese live streaming platform YY and specifically about two popular Hosts on the platform. This documentary was screened in Shanghai, where I am currently living, earlier this year. Shannon Martin of Podbean and our local Host of the Podcast Brunch Club was there as well. In fact, during the screening and for days after the event, Shannon and I exchanged ideas, questions and ponderings about the documentary. We are very grateful that Hao was kind enough to agree to an interview so we could ask him about when the Internet became an integral part of his daily life, how creating a documentary about the trials and tribulations of live streaming for years affected his own online activities and the how his online tasks change, even now, when he flies from the U.S. to China and vice versa. Note: Hao’s new project, All In My Family, about his alternative family journey from within a traditional Chinese family structure, is on Netflix May 3rd. 12: Andy Curtain, Australian Comedian & Host of Stuck In The Middle Podcast On His Virtual Identity4/9/2019
In this podcast episode we chat with long term China Expat Andy Curtain about his geographical movement from Melbourne, Australia to Shanghai, China and what effect it had on his online activities/presence. Even though he was online quite early in Australia with IRC and ICQ, he admits that most of his current online activities have been utility based, focusing on his stand up comedy promotions and community building.
As a fellow Content Creator (and Influencer, lol), I find it very interesting that the making of his podcast, Stuck in the Middle, helps him process his own comedic material. There is so much to say about Andy, the deep impression he has made on the stand up comedy scene in China and his own business savvy that has impacted how I think of my own creative endeavors on and offline in the short time since this interview took place. But for now I will just say thank you Andy for coming on the show and sharing your story. 11: Virtual Habits In Ecuador, the U.S, UK and China with Eva Yoo, Founder of Seekroad.com3/26/2019
In this podcast episode we chat with Eva Yoo, a Korean Tech Journalist who has lived in the U.S., the UK, Ecuador, Israel and China. Last year she completed an 8 month cycling trip from Shanghai, China to the UK, along the ancient Silk Road.
During this trip she did many interviews with people working in startups. But Eva is so much more than the sum of these actions: she is a kind, thoughtful and curious person who makes the balancing of IRL and VRL (offline and online lives) look easy and I greatly admire her for that.
In this episode we chat with Alexandra Talty, an American who has lived on and offline in Italy, the Dominican Republic and Beirut, Lebanon, where she has been based for 4 years now. Over the years Alexandra has taken full advantage of online opportunities available via blogs/blogging, social media platforms, and YouTube.
She maintains a healthy IRL-VRL (online-offline) balance with regular social media fasts and by participating in and hosting online groups that meet in person. She is very honest and candid about her experiences being a foreign, American, female Journalist and all of the advantages and disadvantages those pieces of her identity invite as she works online while living abroad. Powered by RedCircle
THIS WEEK we chat with Greg from the Bangkok Podcast . Greg moved from his passport country of Canada to Thailand 17 years ago. His IRC chatroom habits at home changed quite a bit since this move and we try to sort out (Canadian vowel here folks!) if it was the changing digital landscape or his move to another country (and all of the cultural and social changes that go with the expat experience) that brought on these changes, including writing his blog, Greg to Differ and creating the Bangkok Podcast.
Note: If you’ve been following Virtual Expats Podcast for awhile you may recognize the Bangkok Podcast from a review I did of it back when the podcast was called the Armchair Expat (not available online anymore, sorry!) Special thanks needs to go out to Greg’s co-hosts present and past of the Bangkok Podcast: 1. Ed Knuth is the current (and wonderful) co-host of the show but we also need to mention Greg’s previous co-hosts on the podcast: 2. Evo Terra (master of many projects but the one I am, a Podcaster, currently obsessed with is “Podcast Pontifications”) and 3. Anthony Joh of the “Speak Up Asia” Podcast. 8: Virtual Thought Leader Reflections from Creatrix Tiara, Performer, Writer & So Much More12/27/2018
THIS WEEK we chat with Creatrix Tiara. Tiara started interacting with others online in chat rooms at 10 years old while IRL living in Malaysia. Over the years Tiara’s geographical path has included locations in Malaysia, Australia and the U.S. While Tiara’s geographic life shifted, Tiara’s online life seems to have had an upward trajectory in notariety and impact due to the candid and eloquent vocalization of immigrant and queer issues.
Like many Online Content Creators, Tiara’s work going viral has not balanced notoriety with financial freedom. But perhaps that will change with the Queer Lady Magician show Tiara is currently doing (the next round of which will take place at the Melbourne LGBTQ Festival Midsumma from January 30-February 3, 2019). Judging from the voluminous body of work, Tiara will no doubt keep writing and creating for as long as possible. This passion to analyze, share and question is what first led me to Tiara’s creations and is why I love keeping up to date on what Tiara is doing. THIS WEEK Alison Maciejewski makes us think long and hard about food photos on social media, wanderlust articles that try to tackle culture and the linguistic barriers of the Internet. But the conversation is not all serious, we have some fun comparing emoji options on Line (in Thailand) and WeChat (in China), what and where “ugly delicious food” is, and how using teen dramas are a good way to learn the Thai language. |
AuthorSerial expat who loves diving into the messiness of a global life. Archives
April 2021
Categories |