The Bittersweet Life

10 Episodes
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By: Expat, Repat, Travel, Rome, Seattle, Books, Art, Italy, Wonder

Life doesn't have a script. At least, it doesn't have to. Hosts Katy Sewall and Tiffany Parks explore the challenges and joys of moving abroad and moving home. Whether you’re living overseas, or not — or not yet — join us weekly for unadulterated conversation. Get to know Rome. Laugh at our embarrassments and insights. Most of all, imagine the possibilities for your own life (and meet some famous authors along the way).

Episode 525: A Question of Season
#525
Last Monday at 7:01 AM

Last week we talked—among other things—about what it would be like if the year started in March, as it used to do in ancient Rome.

This got us thinking about seasons and how they effect our lives.

On this week's episode we talk about what we love about certain seasons, how where you live can vastly affect how you experience the seasons (and therefore which ones you prefer), and the drawbacks of living in a place without distinct seasons.

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Episode 524: What if New Year's Were in March?
#524
03/18/2024

Is early January—the deepest, bleakest, darkest moment of winter—really the best time to make New Year's Resolutions? Isn't early spring a more fortuitous time for new beginnings? (And did you know that March used to be the first month of the year?)

We mull this and other season-related questions on this episode (including a check-in to see how Tiffany and Katy are getting on with their resolutions for this year).

We also talk about what we love about certain seasons, how where you live can vastly affect how you experience the seasons (and ther...


Episode 523: Legacy and Loss (with Kaila Merrill)
#523
03/11/2024

Today we explore a story of one woman whose family legacy—in particular her close relationship with her mother whom she lost suddenly to cancer—brought about a life pivot that she was never expecting.

Kaila Merrill joins us today to tell her moving story, from growing up in tiny island town in northern Vermont to a carefree life on the beaches of Australia where she met her future husband, to her whirlwind wedding on Lake Como—one of the last joyful moments she was able to share with her mom—to realizing, while she greived her loss, th...


Episode 522: The Case Against Travel, Part 2
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03/04/2024

What if travel doesn't actually change you?

A few weeks ago, we discussed this controversial idea, a conversation inspired by an essay in The New Yorker. (Make sure you listen to that episode first, because we had a lot to say on the topic!)

It turns out, our listeners did too, as we got a lot of feedback on the subject. Today, we share some of it and dig even deeper into the topic.

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Episode 521: Road Trips (with John Roderick)
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02/26/2024

What makes a song a good road trip song? This is something Katy has been musing over for several years now.

 

What better person to ask than a musician who has crossed the country on tour numerous times?

 

This week, Katy sits down with musician and podcaster John Roderick to talk about the allure of the American road trip, as well as what you should listen to while you are doing it.

 

John talks about his experience hitchhiking across the US as a recent high school graduate, and...


Episode 520: The Case Against Travel
#520
02/19/2024

Tell me about that trip that changed your life... and I'll tell you how you're lying to yourself.

So claims a recent essay in The New Yorker titled The Case Against Travel. In it, author Agnes Callard makes some pretty bold and sweeping assertions, including that travel "turns us into the worst version of ourselves while convincing us that we’re at our best."

Visiting a new place doesn't change the traveler, Callard argues, rather, the traveler changes the place.

While there's certainly a nugget of unpleasant truth in that, the idea that tr...


Episode 519: Martyr! (with Kaveh Akbar)
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02/12/2024

What makes a life meaningful? Can a meaningful death transform an otherwise meaningless life into a meaningful one?

These are just a few of the many ideas touched on in this week's episode, an interview with poet and author Kaveh Akbar. He joins us this week to discuss his new book, Martyr!, released in January 2024 and already a New York Times bestseller. This story follows a "newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, who embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a...


Episode 518: The Limitations of Language
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02/05/2024

A line from a new book by poet Kaveh Akbar sparks the idea for this episode: in a nutshell, does language have the capacity to truly express what we are trying to convey, or is there always something that can't be put into mere words?

Is it true, as Akbar claims, that a photograph can describe what it was, but words can only describe what it was like?

Also, when you speak two languages fluently, or live in two languages, do you naturally have a larger lexicon from which to draw when trying to express...


Episode 517: Could You Miss Discovering Your Passion?
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01/29/2024

How do we discover our passions? Is it a given that we will discover them at all?

And where do they come from? Are they something we are born with and just need to be discovered within ourselves? Or are they triggered by something we are exposed to externally? Or is it a bit of both?

Are there people with incredible innate talent for music or painting, walking around who will never know it because they never sit down at a piano or pick up a brush? Or will a remarkable talent always crop up...


Episode 516: Post-Covid Social Woes
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01/22/2024

Is it Covid or are we just getting older?

This week we discuss how the social world seems to have changed drastically in recent years—but is it due to this post-Covid era we're living in, or is it simply because we're getting older?

We wonder:

Is it acceptable now to simply not respond (indefinitely) to text messages? Even if they are from a close friend?

Is it normal to have a sudden social anxiety that you've never experienced before?

Is it easier to create a social circle in mi...