Nomadic Diaries a Podcast

10/28/2025

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🎙️ NEW PODCAST SERIES LAUNCHING THIS NOVEMBER 🎙️
THE BELONGING PROJECT: What does it really mean to belong? And what happens when we don't?

We're diving deep with 30 episodes that explore:
✨ Why that feeling of "home" isn't always about a place
🌍 How we find our people in unexpected corners of the world
💭 What happens when we're caught between cultures
🤝 The courage it takes to build community from scratch
❤️ Why belonging matters more than ever in our disconnected world
Whether you're a:

Digital nomad searching for community
Expat navigating life between cultures
Someone who's changed careers, cities, or life paths
Anyone who's ever wondered "where do I fit?"
..this conversation is for you.
Hosted by: Doreen Cumberford & Megan Norton-Newbanks
Episodes: 30 days of stories, insights, and real conversations
Available: All podcast platforms
Join us this November as we explore the universal human need to belong - through stories that will make you laugh, think, and maybe see your own journey differently.
🎧 Listen at: www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com
📱 Follow for updates:
What does belonging mean to you? Drop a comment below - your story might be exactly what someone needs to hear today. 👇

10/16/2025

Big news! 🎧 The Belonging Project launches this November with 30 episodes in 30 days. Join hosts Doreen Cumberford & Megan Morton-Newbanks for daily stories where strangers become neighbors. Ready to belong? Link below!

10/13/2025

🌍 Ever wondered what it's really like to leave your country behind?
This week on Nomadic Diaries, I'm talking with Brigitte Muller, who left South Africa for Tampa, Florida in search of economic stability and a better future.
But the journey wasn't easy. Brigitte opens up about:
✈️ The heartbreak of leaving home
💔 Dealing with grief when you can't just "fly back"
🎯 Finding purpose in the distance
🏡 Creating belonging in a new land
Her story is raw, real, and full of hope.
If you've ever lived far from home—or wondered what that life is really like—you need to hear this conversation.

09/18/2025

🎬✨ What happens when your childhood documentary makes history?

https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/breaking-barriers-connecting-saudi-stories-to-global-screens/

My latest podcast guest Todd Nims knows exactly what that feels like. His film "Home: The Aramco Brats Story" became the first movie publicly screened in Saudi Arabia in 30 years - but that's just the beginning of his incredible story.

Todd is what we call a "third culture kid" - born in Saudi Arabia to American parents working for Aramco, raised between two worlds, two cultures, two identities. Sound familiar to anyone? 🙋‍♀️

In our conversation, we dive deep into:
🌍 What it's really like growing up "everywhere and nowhere"
🎭 How he's now helping build Saudi Arabia's film industry from the ground up
💔 The heartbreak of "repatriation" - returning to a "home" that doesn't feel like home
🎥 Using storytelling to bridge cultures and challenge assumptions

If you've ever felt like you don't quite fit anywhere, if you've lived between cultures, or if you're just fascinated by how our childhood experiences shape who we become - this episode will hit you right in the heart.

https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/breaking-barriers-connecting-saudi-stories-to-global-screens/

Who else has that "caught between worlds" feeling? Share your story below - I love hearing from fellow nomads and third culture kids! 👇

Some time ago I recorded this episode of Nomadic Diaries with Todd Nims, an Aramco Brat whose parents we had known in Saudi Arabia. Episode Highlights In this capti…

09/05/2025

Acceptance, Mindfulness and Mental Health with Patrick Kadian is what's on our mind these days! Mental health has risen to the attention of so many people around the world and across the international communities. Here's the link: https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/acceptance-mindfulness-and-mental-health-for-expat-families/

07/21/2025

How to Keep Your Life Back Home Spinning While Living Overseas

News flash: if you are an expat or nomad choosing to live and work overseas, summer trips home are more than vacations. In fact, they can be essential to life maintenance experiences that can help build the runway while preparing for your ultimate repatriation back home. Think of it like spinning plates: each place and area of life needs regular attention to keep turning smoothly.

A few tips for maximising your time are listed below.

Health & Wellness
Plan ahead any medical checkups, including annual physicals, dental cleanings & eye exams. Specialist appointments, consultations with doctors you trust for ongoing conditions. Refill your prescriptions since many medications are not available overseas. Consider your mental health and meet with therapists or counselors you have a zoom relationship with.

Financial & Administrative
Meet with financial advisors to update accounts and review portfolios
Review all health, property, and life insurance renewals. Schedule tax appointments, catch up with accountants, and organize tax documents. Maintain your property by checking on real estate, handling repairs, and meeting with property managers. Update wills, powers of attorney, and other important legal documents.

These administrative tasks are necessary when expanding your life to live abroad. At this point you might be wondering when vacation is happening, so pace yourself from year to year)!

Relationships & Network
Spend quality time with family, have deep and meaningful conversations, not just surface visits - if possible. Maintaining friendships is key, so plan activities and spend time together. Visit former colleagues, mentors and neighbors to nurture your community connections.

Cultural & Professional Intelligence
Attend conferences, workshops, or trade events, and experience the current trends, political climate and social changes firsthand. Take advantage of educational opportunities by taking courses, certifications, or updating skills.

Future Planning
Reconnaissance - If you are considering a permanent return home within three years, it's important to scope out potential destinations, checking out schools for children. If retirement is on the horizon, then meet with advisors to discuss long-term strategies.

The key is to create balance between wonder-filled fun and restorative time that fills your soul, with intentional planning to build a runway that will ultimately support you in landing back home with some ease and grace.

These can be strategic investments in your future well-being, and they can be the key to making your ultimate repatriation sooooo much easier.
In my upcoming book, "Unsettled: A Guide to Moving Home from Overseas," we cover these insights and more practical pre-repatriation strategies.

https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/episodes/

I am curious what your best tips are for making repatriation trips productive?

07/13/2025

What's happening?
https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/

Nomadic Diaries is ploughing through the summer of 2025! Since March we have been either traveling, having an adventure or dealing with construction projects at our homebase in San Miguel de Allende.

This has demonstrated the need for me to pace the episodes, so for the next three months at least we will be producing an episode every two weeks or 15 days instead of once per week.

Hopefully this will assist in creating much more thoughtful, organised episodes with more competent guests, plus some time to focus on my next book - Unsettled: An Expats Guide to Moving Home From Overseas.

I personally find podcasting thrilling, lots of fun but more than anything it's a challenge and an opportunity to keep growing. The conversations with experts from the globally mobile communities are awe-inspiring and humbling.

What is there to look forward to?
We have some super guests coming up. We have an entire series called the Belonging Project which has been recorded and will be released in the fall.

Another short series on the topic of expat TCKs raising TCKs is also currently underway. This series will also be available in late fall.

Meanwhile, we hope that whether you are on home leave, on a repatriation trip or spending the summer on assignment, we wish you well! May you be refreshed and ready for the next season overseas.

https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/

07/12/2025

Marilyn Gardner's most recent experience with relocation was fodder for the topic Living Where You Don't Belong? or Living Where You Light UP!
https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/living-well-where.../
The lessons learned were both deep and wide....here are just a few selections. Better still - listen in!
1. Embrace Your Stories
Capture your everyday experiences—big or small. Sharing these helps process transitions and create connections wherever you land.
3. Honor Life’s Rhythm
Recognize the cycles in your life—moves, seasons, routines. Creating and respecting your own rhythms brings stability in constant change.
3. Honor Life’s Rhythm
Recognize the cycles in your life—moves, seasons, routines. Creating and respecting your own rhythms brings stability in constant change.
Words of wisdom land where we give them time and space to grow.
https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/living-well-where.../

07/07/2025

I just loved this conversation with Marilyn Gardner. We published last week on the topic of big moves and living in places that light us up! Drop into Nomadic Diaries for a summer-listen.
https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/living-well-where.../
💡 How to Know If a Place Truly Lights You Up
Discover the physical, emotional, and relational signs that signal whether you're in a place that aligns with your soul—or one that drains you. Marilyn uncovers subtle cues like a sense of peace upon waking, or, conversely, a visceral heaviness or restlessness, as powerful indicators.
👥 The Power of Community and Storytelling
Hear how sharing our stories—both big and small—connects us to ourselves and others, helping us process the abundance (or absence) of meaning in cross-cultural transitions.
🌱 Permission to Choose—and the Privilege It Entails
Marilyn addresses the privilege of being able to move by choice rather than necessity. She urges us to acknowledge the difference, hold space for gratitude, and connects this awareness to greater empathy for displaced people.
Marilyn is the author of https://communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/
🗝 Practical Wisdom for Living Well Between Worlds
From intentionally curating your physical space with meaningful artifacts, to cultivating gratitude and tolerating ambiguity, you’ll hear actionable advice on how to thrive no matter where you’re planted.
🌿 Patience, Belonging, and Letting Go
Adapting takes time—sometimes even years, just like transplanted fig trees.
If you’re living the globally mobile life, between homes, or longing for a sense of “lighting up” in your space, you won’t want to miss this heartfelt, wisdom-packed conversation.
Drop in and lend us your ears!
https://www.nomadicdiariespodcast.com/living-well-where.../
Marilyn is the author of https://communicatingacrossboundariesblog.com/

07/03/2025

Hello from Nomadic Diaries Podcast

07/01/2025

Hello from adic Diaries