The Places We Call Home podcast

A podcast for any woman seeking practical support and life-transforming stories of rebuilding identity, finding belonging, and creating a meaningful life in a new country. Host Yolanda Reshemah explores the real inner work of moving abroad — the loneliness, the loss of professional footing, the homesickness, the cultural adjustment, and the invisible labor women perform to hold their families steady while navigating their own becoming. Through personal stories, practical tools, and conversations with women around the world, this show helps you make sense of who you are now and who you’re becoming. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, isolated, or permanently on duty after immigrating, this podcast is your room — a place to feel seen, share your story, and feel less lonely. For and by: migrant women, immigrant women, expat women, trailing spouses, global families, women rebuilding identity abroad.

The Places We Call Home podcast is a society podcast hosted by Yolanda Reshemah, with 79 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Yolanda Reshemah hosts The Places We Call Home podcast, a society show with 79 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  The Places We Call Home podcast

  #78.Why Belonging Feels So Hard: What Immigrant Women Need to Ask Themselves First

  Sep 23, 202622 min

  Belonging takes a while to create. It’s something you first begin to build from the inside out. Part two with guest Natalie Chu, a Taiwanese woman who moved to the U.S. alone and discovered that belonging is also about emotional clarity. She shares how solo travel, cultural transition, and moments of deep loneliness forced her to ask better questions: Why am I feeling this? What do I actually need? What am I trying to build? We talk about identity, masking, self‑respect, cultural pressure, and the courage to begin again — even when growth feels uncomfortable. Natalie’s story is a guide for any immigrant woman trying to build a life in a new country without losing herself in the process. If you’ve ever stepped off a plane with two suitcases and a dream, this conversation will feel like someone finally understands you. “You’re not here for perfect. You’re here for real.” immigrant women, belonging, loneliness, identity, self‑love, cultural adjustment, starting over, expat life, emotional resilience, self‑discovery, growth, authenticity, Taiwan, women’s stories

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  The Places We Call Home podcast

  #77. The Day You Stop Begging to Belong

  Sep 14, 20268 min

  There's a moment every immigrant woman hits and once you hit it, everything changes. In this episode, I'm talking you as my friend. Because starting over in a new country forces you into a delicate truth most people never say out loud: you can chase inclusion for years and still feel lonely, unseen, or disconnected. Real belonging begins somewhere else entirely. I share what I takeaway from Natalie's story (episode 76) when she left Taiwan for California's Bay Area the warmth she grew up with, the sudden quiet of a new culture, and the powerful decision she made when she stopped asking Why wasn’t I invited? and started choosing people who genuinely appreciate her. Let's talk about the subtle ways women shrink to fit, the difference between chemistry and consistency, and why leading with a part of your culture can anchor you in places that feel unfamiliar. And we end with the daily practice I've used that builds the kind of self‑appreciation that protects your energy, your identity, and your belonging. If you’re navigating a new country like us expats in the USA, a new chapter, or a new version of yourself, this episode will help you feel seen, grounded, and reminded there are more friendship connections to be made than not. Belonging is built with the right people. belonging, immigrant women, inclusion, identity work, culture, self‑appreciation, expat life, starting over, emotional resilience, community building, relocation, authenticity, women’s stories, Natalie Chu

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  The Places We Call Home podcast

  #76. Friendliness Isn’t Friendship: What Expat Women Learn the Hard Way

  Sep 10, 202629 min

  A conversation about belonging, friendships, and rebuilding yourself in a new country. I sat down with Natalie Chu, who moved from Taiwan to the U.S. with a childhood dream and found herself facing the emotional truth expat women rarely say out loud. She talks about the “friendly but not actually your friend” moments, and the shock of realizing that belonging doesn’t show up just because you arrived. Natalie shares what she misses most about home — the morning markets, being known — and how different it feels to build community in the Bay Area. We talk about navigating safety in San Francisco, learning American social cues, and the moment she stopped chasing inclusion and started defining belonging on her own terms. This episode is honest, grounded, and deeply human. If you’ve ever moved countries, cities, or chapters, you’ll hear yourself in the tension, the ache, and the small wins that make starting over possible. A grounded conversation about connecting, community, identity, and the truth of starting over abroad. Natalie is the founder of a new podcast, Built Young, examining the journey of young entrepreneurs - Under 25. Over 1 M, and the ethics we can learn from them. Expat women immigrant women Taiwan Bay Area culture shock belonging loneliness move abroad identity homesickness community starting over migration stories international students migration USA friendship homesick

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  The Places We Call Home podcast

  #75. Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself Abroad: How to Reclaim Your Identity

  Sep 5, 20268 min

  When you migrate, you enter environments that reinterpret you. In this solo episode, Yolanda Reshemah breaks down why so many immigrant women, expat women suddenly feel unfamiliar to themselves after moving abroad, and how identity distortion happens long before you realize it. From credential devaluation to accent bias to being misread in rooms where people don’t yet understand your history. Yolanda explains the emotional and psychological impact of being seen through someone else’s lens. Drawing from her conversation with Assistant Professor Neisha Terry Young and her own six international relocations, Yolanda shows how identity disruption is a predictable response to being repositioned by new systems, cultures, and assumptions. She offers two practical tools to help you reclaim your sense of self: • A Narrative Audit to separate who you are from who others decide you are • A Belonging Anchor to stabilize your identity while you rebuild confidence and community. If you’ve been feeling disoriented, diminished, or disconnected from your old self, this episode gives you grounded, emotionally honest guidance to reclaim your identity and rebuild belonging from the inside out. Reclaim who you are — before the world decides for you. identity distortion; identity disruption; immigrant women; expat identity; belonging abroad; confidence loss; competence grief; misrecognition; credential devaluation; accent bias; narrative audit; belonging anchor; migration identity; emotional resilience; immigrant experience USA; expat life; rebuilding identity; Yolanda Reshemah

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  The Places We Call Home podcast

  #74. Reclaiming Your Worth — Finding Yourself Again After Migration

  Aug 27, 202620 min

  A conversation about rebuilding identity, reclaiming your worth after migration. Educator and scholar Neisha Terry shares the deeply personal journey of navigating identity after migrating to the United States. She speaks openly about having her Jamaican teaching credentials reduced to “nothing,” being questioned about her legitimacy, and the emotional weight of constantly proving herself in spaces that weren’t built with her in mind. She speaks candidly about the exhaustion of becoming, the discipline of returning to being, and the moment she decided to stop shrinking herself and stand firmly in her truth. she acknowledges that self‑definition alone doesn’t erase structural barriers or the exhaustion of proving yourself. Belonging requires both inner clarity and external change. Her story is a reminder that that every woman navigating a new country, a new culture, or a new version of herself deserves to feel seen, valid, and whole. A grounded conversation on identity, worth, and the courage to define yourself on your own terms. immigrant women, expat identity, belonging after migration, Jamaican educator, women entrepreneurs, move abroad, study abroad, live abroad, homesickness, isolation, credential evaluation experience, women in academia, mental wellness, courage, resilience, women of color in academia, self‑definition, authenticity, cultural transition, reclaiming worth, migration identity, Neisha Terry Young, The Places We Call Home podcast

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