Culture Crossings: Recent Episodes
Culture Crossings
A podcast for globally mobile millennials with cross-cultural identities hosted by Phoebe Yu and Asuka Ichikawa. We share and interview stories about identity, wellness, and career development for young professionals on the move.
Music Title: Light Waves by Nick Petrov http://www.hooksounds.com
In this final episode of Season 2, we will talk about careers and couples. For many couples, coordinating each other’s career opportunities in the same city can be challenging, and this is especially true for foreign-born professionals. Our guests are Sneha and Ryan, who will share their story to reflect what it means for a cross-cultural couple to support each other along the journey. Sneha Thayil is an Associate for Training & Engagement at Convergence Blended Finance. Her husband, Ryan Mathew is the Manager of Security Operations at Sprinklr. They both have extensive experiences living in multiple countries, and now they are based in Toronto, Canada.
In this episode, we have Zishu Chen, a column writer and education innovator specializing in China and the U.S. Zishu has an interdisciplinary background in education and economics. For college, she went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the U.S.. She also has a master’s degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education. In this episode, she will share her experiences in both China and the U.S. as a student, and later working in the education industry as a professional to create a learning environment where students could prepare themselves to navigate their future in both contexts.
In this episode, you will hear from Sanae, the Youth Education Marketing Manager at Brooklyn Arts Exchange in New York. Prior to this role, she worked for private and public sectors in Japan and the U.S. In the process of making an unconventional career change from the food industry to performing arts administration, Sanae highlights the value of self-reflection to define your long-term passion, the importance of building related academic and internship experiences to plan for ambiguities and challenges to start a new career in a new country. In observing the millennials from her current role she also shares what she finds unique about this population.
Ivy Wang is a Fine Fragrances Developer currently based in Singapore. In this episode, Ivy talks about how she was first introduced into the niche field of cosmetics and perfumery, and the sometimes hard decisions she had to make in pursuing her passion. As an immigrant and with her career taking her to different countries, she shares how she has dealt with having to say goodbye to family and friends, and finally coming to terms with where she is now.
Jaeseung Hahn is a post-doctoral research scientist with a joint appointment in the Danino Lab and the Leong Lab at Columbia University in New York. Prior to his current position, he completed his Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics through the joint program in Health Sciences and Technology through Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this episode, he will talk about his multicultural upbringing in Korea, Belgium, and the U.S., and how diversity matters for his personal and professional life. He will then share his passion for science, and a way of mind that keeps him resilient to pursue an academic career.
Kumiko Aoki talks about growing up bicultural, moving across continents in her adult life and handling workplace stress. Being Japanese and Filipino, she was double schooled, spending summers being educated in the Japanese school system and going to regular school in the Philippines for the rest of the year. She's currently living and working as a graphic designer in the Netherlands for Asics, a Japanese sportswear company. Kumiko reflects on how she takes care of her mental health amidst the pandemic and handling the workplace pressures that come with it.
For this episode, Lulu talks about her transcontinental moves since the age of 12, and wading through visa applications from the age of 15. She shares practical tips and stories of how to land your first job in a new country, what you should expect and how to make new connections. As a woman working in the tech Industry, Lulu stresses the importance of being yourself, valuing your international experiences and not to sell yourself short to potential employers.
Toru Momii is a Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory at Columbia University in New York. After having a bicontinental adolescence between Japan and the U.S., he went to college in New York to double major in music and economics. Upon graduating, he began his career in HR at Barclays investment bank in Tokyo. A few years later, he decided to pursue a Ph.D. in music theory. In this episode, he will share the challenges and values of developing intercultural competency, stories behind his career change, and some insights as a former HR professional in lateral recruitment at a global firm.
How do you maintain and nurture your friendships in a globally mobile life? Join us in the second part of our conversation on global friendships with Ta and Moon, our friends from undergrad years.
How do you make friends in a new country? How does the process change as we become adults? In this episode, we interview our friends, Moon and Ta, whom we’ve met as undergrads more than a decade ago to reflect upon our global friendships overtime.
In this episode, we continue our conversation about our own migratory experiences to and from Canada. We reflect on the time we came back to our home countries as college graduates, facing and coping with intercultural challenges to become who we are today.
In this episode, we describe the common stages of culture shock and reflect back on our own experiences moving to Canada. Phoebe shares the story from the perspective of a teenage immigrant from the Philippines, and Asuka as a Japanese international student in Grade 11.
What is mental health? How does it relate to our identity, culture and migratory life? In this special hour-long episode, we interview Dr. Josephine M. Kim, licensed counselor and professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education.
On this episode, we explore our relationship to the languages we speak and how they have influenced or shaped our identities.
Covid-19 made us realize the impact of isolation. In this episode, we bring our personal experiences as an immigrant and as an international student to talk about being separated from home and family, and how this has shaped who we are today. In the latter part of the episode, we share some film / book titles that explore the meaning of home and multicultural identity.
A full episode interview with Naomi Funahashi, Manager of Reischauer Scholars Program and Teacher, Professional Development for the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). Funahashi shares her insights on facilitating cross-cultural learning online.
In this episode, we talk about the education we received about food and nutrition growing up. We also have a guest - Dr. Yang, who's a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. He will be talking about how to boost your health and immunity with traditional Chinese foods.
For our first episode, we introduce ourselves and our experiences living an intercultural, transnational life. Asuka Ichikawa is an international educator, and has lived in Japan, Canada and the US. Phoebe Yu is a writer and has lived in the Philippines, Canada and the UK with a brief stint in Turkey.