The Ocean's Bottom: Tales from a Third Culture Kid: Recent Episodes
The Ocean's Bottom
Third Culture Kid, TCK: (noun) children who spend their formative years in places that are not their homeland. A podcast about TCK life, hosted by Tiffany and Heidi Burkard. A journey of processing what it means to be a TCK together. It can easy to feel isolated and alone being a TCK in a non TCK world, but we all have struggled with similar things. This podcast is designed to share stories of TCKs across the globe and talk through the process of how our lives have been shaped. We hope you enjoy the conversations and are encouraged by the stories of others. And if you aren't a TCK, we hope you learn more about how we see the world.
Alas, we have reached the end of the journey for this season. For this final episode Tiffany and Heid recap some of their favorite episodes and moments, and they also talk about grief and goodbyes, both of which tend to be a heavy subject. Grief and goodbyes can be particularly heart-retching for TCKs who seem to experience those things more frequently than others, and Tiff and Heidi discuss the unnamable qualities of it along with some tips that they have found helpful in processing that heaviness. Since we are not sure of this podcast's future at this time, we say goodbye, only for now.
There are may subcategories of third culture kids. Whether you are a military kid, an expat's kid, or a missionary kid we all have commonalities, but also have drastic differences. Join Tiffany and Heidi while they talk about their specific experiences as a missionary's kid. The highs and lows and "wish is could have been different"s.
Tiffany and Heidi called up their close friend Daniel Kennedy who has an uniquely different perspective on being a third cultured kid. He is a full blooded Japanese adopted by American parents and raised in Okinawa Japan. Kind of a hidden TCK if you will.
Listen in on their conversation about Daniel's life and experiences.
Belong is a feeling that most people are very familiar with, whether it be the abundance or lack thereof. Tiffany and Heidi discuss what belonging means, and why it's so important to the lives of TCKs.
Tiffany and Heidi sit down to discuss some of their favorite points on the previous episode with Tim Brown about transitioning, and relay some of their own experiences on the topic of transitioning.
Tiffany sits down with our cousin, Tim Brown, to talk about transitioning from place to place, and also how he is trying to raise his kids who are in the midst of experiencing a highly transitional life style.
No Common Thread - A new occasional episode series where discussions jump from one topic to another about the little things we experience as TCKs.
Not everything about processing the TCK experience has to be heavy and hard. There are some topics that may seem trivial, like picking a sport team or learning to flirt in different cultures.
Listen in to Tiffany and Heidi discuss how they came to pick their NFL teams and learned how different flirting in the States could be, among other topics.
Christine, a missionary third culture kid, raised third culture kids of her own.
Defining home and having to adjust to parenthood in a foreign nation had its challenges and blessings.
Listen in to hear Christine and Tiffany chat about what it was all like.
Sometimes we have questions we don't have answers to, and that's okay.
Listen in as Tiffany, Heidi and their brother Jeremy discuss the effects of feeling like not having roots in a single place, and how it doesn't have to be a bad thing.
Tiffany called an old friend to talk about some of the harder things we've faced through being a TCK. It isn't always easy living a life we didn't ask for, and in a place we may not necessarily fit in. Sean Coble talks through some of his deep struggles from a young age in hopes that someone else will benefit from his story.
Book mentioned
"I Never Asked to be a Pastor's Kid: from obligation to passion." By Lawrence Matsuwaki
ISBN 9789810821999
Tiffany and Heidi are joined by their older sister Stephanie for a conversation about home and homesickness. Home can be a place or a memory, home can be more than one place, and home will always be missed.
Listen in on their discussion about where home is and how they deal with homesickness to this day.
Heidi and Zach continue their conversation from where they left off about knowing they were different than their peers when they were young. Among other things in this discussion they also talk about developing friendships, work place ethics, and relationships with extended family.
Ever struggle with how to answer the question "where are you from?" You aren't alone in having a more complicated answer than most.
Heidi and Tiffany talk about their experiences when asked the question and how they have learned to go about answering it. The distaste for the question is common among many TCKs, whether it's because the answer takes more time or involves more unwanted follow up questions.
Heidi sits down with her friend Zach Bezner, who was a classmate or hers in secondary school, to talk about what it has been like as a TCK since graduating high school. The first of a two-part interview, together they discuss what they have observed as they have transitioned to living in their passport country, and their experiences as chameleons in their current society and culture.
In the spirit of celebrating Mother's day, Tiffany and Heidi discuss the value of family and finding community.
Heidi sits down with our dad, Tom Burkard, to talk about his life from growing up in Japan to how he ended up back in Japan as a missionary with a wife in tow. 32 years later Japan is still home.
Dad's biggest take away from being a TCK... Marry a TCK.
Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken
Once upon a time, we came into existence. Simple as that. However, things haven't been so simple since then, and we thought it best to give you an idea of where we came from and how we grew up. We hope this will give you more insight about our story. The End.
Did you ever have an experience where realize you were different from your peers? In this episode Tiffany and Heidi talk with their older sister, Stephanie Taylor, about their different experiences of when they realized they were different from their peers. They touch on the heart and hope for this podcast, among other things.
"Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Worlds" by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken
https://www.amazon.com/Third-Culture-Kids-Growing-Revised/dp/1857885252
Follow us on Instagram @theoceansbottom
Connect with us by email: theoceansbottom@gmail.com
Let us introduce ourselves, and our podcast. We talk about what it means to be a third culture kid, and how it has shaped our lives. Here's a sneakpeak of what to expect from us, comments, opinions, laughs and all. We're no professionals, but we're entertaining, at least we think so. Our hope is that we can shed some insight into the third culture kids (TCK) life, and share stories of other TCKs. - The end.