Description

Geopats Abroad is about what helps us feel grounded while in our life abroad. 

For eight years of my serial expat life, I interviewed people about the things that helped them understand, adjust to, and feel more connected to the places they were living.

The original Geopats Abroad podcast ended in 2022, but the conversations still hold up. This Substack is where I’m bringing that archive back to life.

Living Abroad, Culture, Identity, and Belonging

I’m tidying up the older episodes to make them easier to find and listen to because more and more people are making the leap to living outside their passport country. In these conversations, you’ll find stories from expats, immigrants, international students, long-term travelers, and people whose lives don’t fit neatly into one place.

The driving force of the podcast is my own curiosity and desire to connect with other internationals globally. This isn’t just an audio project, a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a Substack. It’s a very personal project. It’s part of who I am and who I was while recording these conversations.

Some episodes are practical. Others are deeply personal. Most explore the small and big things that help us make sense of a new place and feel more at home in it.

What Geopats Abroad Explores

Each season of Geopats Abroad approaches getting comfortable in our new places from a different angle.

Season 1: Guests looked back at something they had written during an earlier period of living abroad, including emails, blog posts, and social media posts, and reflected on how they saw that experience differently later.

Seasons 2 and 3: Language learning. Season 2 focused on foreigners learning Mandarin Chinese, while Season 3 featured native Chinese speakers talking about learning English and other languages.

Seasons 4 and 5: Online communities that helped people feel more connected and at home in a new place.

Season 6: Books that helped people understand the places they were living in.

Season 7: Conversations about learning languages other than Chinese.

Season 8: Coffee and the role it can play in connecting to a place.

Season 9: Podcasting globally: how it’s similar and different. And of course, how it can connect us to each other in our new culture. 

Season 10: A mixed season covering music, photography, returning home, and other parts of life abroad.

Season 11: Immigrant kids who later became expats, exploring how growing up between cultures shaped the way they experienced living abroad as adults.

About Stephanie Fuccio: Serial Expat Since 2003

I’m Stephanie Fuccio. I’ve mostly been living and working outside the U.S. since 2003 and have lived in Asia, Latin America, and Europe during this time.

My own experiences with culture shock, identity, belonging, language, and building a life abroad shaped many of the questions behind Geopats Abroad.

The podcast grew from my curiosity about what helps people feel grounded in a new place, how we build connection far from where we started, and how living abroad changes the way we understand home, culture, identity, and ourselves.

Geopats is my ongoing archive of those conversations.