The Immigrant Perspective

The Immigrant Perspective · reallyfrompod.com

"Where are you really from?" It's a simple question with a complicated answer. The Immigrant Perspective is a podcast dedicated to the voices of those who live between two worlds - exploring the nostalgia, the culture shock, and the triumphs of the migration journey. We move past the small talk and dive into the rich, messy tapestry of what it means to find home in a new land.

14 episodes

11d ago latest

fortnightly cadence

English language

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Episodes 15

Episode 15: Home Is a People, Not a Place
yesterday · 41:27
Perry Constantine grew up in a Chicago suburb with a British father and a mother whose family fled anti-Greek violence in 1950s Istanbul, and then he became an immigrant himself, moving to Japan through the JET Program in 2008. Almost twenty years, one divorce, a remarriage, and two kids later, he's still in Kagoshima. Mary Lou talks with him about culture shock (in both directions), building a bicultural family, and why he now thinks of home as people, not a place.
Episode 14: The Accent Switch
11d ago · 56:58
Cathy met my wife Lois 25 years ago at a summer resort in Michigan, long before she settled in the U.S. herself with her husband Mark, also from England. Eleven years and 48 states later, they're raising two kids who speak with British accents at home and switch to American ones with friends, sometimes mid-sentence. We talk about meeting, building a life across two states, being mistaken for "the ambassador" of an entire country, and what "home" really means when you're a green card holder, not quite sure if you're staying for good.
Episode 13: The Tap Water Was Better
18d ago · 22:12
At thirteen, Nigel de Leon left Cebu City, Philippines with his mom and landed in small-town Alberta. This is the story of the small things that stuck, and the years it took to call it home.
Episode 12: Max Jess: American by birth, Irish by luck, Gaditano by choice
25d ago · 39:57
Max, a 21-year-old Colorado native with an Irish passport, left college, learned Spanish in Costa Rica, and then moved to Cádiz, Spain, where he's already been called gaditano by the locals.
Episode 11: Negin Farsad: Anchor Baby, American Patriot
2mo ago · 48:36
Negin Farsad, comedian, filmmaker, NPR regular, and self-described "dorky patriot," sits down with Mary Lou in Chattanooga to talk about growing up Iranian-American, the Shah's secret police, her father's anatomy book, and why she can't go back to Iran. Funny, warm, and unexpectedly moving.
Episode 10: Home Depends on Who I’m Talking To
2mo ago · 59:37
My brother Cathal goes by Frank. He has an Irish name he mostly sets aside, an American passport he was born into, and a story that doesn't fit neatly into any category. Frank is the only American-born member of our family, born in North Georgia in 1971 while our parents were on their first American adventure, then brought back to Ireland as a toddler, sent to boarding school at eleven, and left alone in our family home in County Clare at fifteen while the rest of us moved to Tennessee. He packed his own bags. He flew alone from Shannon to JFK to Nashville with two pocket knives he had to quie
Episode 9: Home is Where I Am
3mo ago · 23:11
Laurie Mangan was seven when her family left Ireland for Southeast Tennessee. Nearly forty years later, she hasn't been back since 2009, and she's okay with that. A conversation about the immigrant who moves on.
Episode 8: Last Man Out, Turn Off the Lights
3mo ago · 47:33
When the Canadian government closed the Newfoundland cod fishery in the early 1990s, an entire province's economy collapsed. For Siobhan Duff, a newly minted physician, and her husband Jim, a residential builder, the writing was on the wall. The joke at the time: last man out, turn off the lights. So they left. They were recruited to Chattanooga by a group of Canadian doctors, and lured, as Siobhan laughs, by newspaper clippings of the US Olympic women's rowing team training for Atlanta. Thirty years later, they're still here. Three kids, US citizenship, a home known in their community as the
Episode 7: We Were Told We Were Going to Disneyland
4mo ago · 1:17:18
Laura Contreras-Alanis arrived in the United States in 1974 - an 8-year-old girl from Michoacán, Mexico, told she was going to Disneyland. What followed was a lifetime of starting over: migrant farm work in California's Central Valley, being uprooted three times as a teenager, dropping out of high school, and a painful estrangement from her family that left her asking - if I don't have a Mexican family and I don't have an American family, what do I have? Decades later, a spontaneous stop in Knoxville to visit her brother changed everything. She sold her California house, packed a U-Haul, and d
Episode 6: The MacMenamins - Three Countries, One Home
4mo ago · 31:36
Hugh MacMenamin grew up on the south side of Dublin. Kathleen was born in Ghent, Belgium, and arrived in Ireland as a toddler after her father, a Flemish nationalist, fled post-war Belgium and found a new home in Dublin. She grew up speaking Flemish at home, navigating Irish schools as an outsider, and building an identity that was always a little bit of both. They met in pre-med at University College Dublin, graduated, got married, and in 1969 moved to Duluth, Minnesota for internships, thinking they would stay temporarily. Fifty-five years later, they're still here. In this conversation, Hug
Episode 5: Finding Shelter in Sound: Horacio’s Story
4mo ago · 56:03
When Horacio was six years old, his mother left El Salvador for Miami, and he wouldn't see her again for eight years. Growing up in Sonsonate during a brutal civil war, he found an unlikely refuge: the Beatles. From cassette tapes and a Walkman blocking out gunfire, to naming his twin daughters Sadie and Eleanor (born, remarkably, on the exact date the Beatles landed at JFK), Horacio's story is one of resilience, identity, and the music that carried him through. Now living in Atlanta with his American wife Tricia, Horacio reflects on his book Finding Shelter in Sound: A Beatles Memoir, the cul
Episode 4: Emma Williams: The Reverse Immigrant
5mo ago · 55:25
Emma Williams was ten years old when her family left England and landed on Signal Mountain, Tennessee, the same age Mary Lou was when she arrived from Ireland. Thirty five years later, Emma did something most immigrants never do: she went back. In this episode, Emma and Mary Lou trace the full arc of the immigrant experience - the bedsheet welcome sign strung between the trees on Fern Trail, the culture shock of American school buses and accidentally flipping off your teacher, the decades-long pull toward a place that never quite stopped feeling like home. They also dig into the concept of the
Episode 3: A Box of Money and a Change of Heart
5mo ago · 59:24
Ben Zimunya left Zimbabwe for Chattanooga in the summer of 2003 with $800, a one-semester plan, and a literal box of cash that paid for his plane ticket. His wife Cara grew up in Middle Valley, Tennessee, and spent years frustrated by what she thought was Ben's lack of connection to his homeland, until she understood why. Together, they unpack the box of money, the invention of a tribal identity, the packed bags that never quite got unpacked, and what it actually costs - financially and emotionally - to do immigration "the legal way."
Episode 2: The View from the Couch
5mo ago · 30:32
Forty years ago, my parents traded the West Coast of Ireland for the rolling hills of Tennessee. In this inaugural episode, I sit down with my wife, Lois, to discuss what it’s like to be married to someone who has one foot in two different worlds. We explore why I still cry when the plane hits the tarmac in Shannon, the 'dark humor' of the Irish, and a surprise revelation about where I would choose to be born if I had to do it all over again.
Trailer: 40 Years in Translation
5mo ago · 1:44
How do you answer the question, 'Where are you really from?' For Mary Lou, the answer has been forty years in translation. In this trailer, she introduces a new series exploring the journey from a childhood beach town to the wider world, searching for the true meaning of home and the stories that bridge the gap.

Episodes

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More Society shows

The Immigrant Perspective

Episodes 15

Episode 15: Home Is a People, Not a Place

Episode 14: The Accent Switch

Episode 13: The Tap Water Was Better

Episode 12: Max Jess: American by birth, Irish by luck, Gaditano by choice

Episode 11: Negin Farsad: Anchor Baby, American Patriot

Episode 10: Home Depends on Who I’m Talking To

Episode 9: Home is Where I Am

Episode 8: Last Man Out, Turn Off the Lights

Episode 7: We Were Told We Were Going to Disneyland

Episode 6: The MacMenamins - Three Countries, One Home

Episode 5: Finding Shelter in Sound: Horacio’s Story

Episode 4: Emma Williams: The Reverse Immigrant

Episode 3: A Box of Money and a Change of Heart

Episode 2: The View from the Couch

Trailer: 40 Years in Translation

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Episodes 15

Episode 15: Home Is a People, Not a Place

Episode 14: The Accent Switch

Episode 13: The Tap Water Was Better

Episode 12: Max Jess: American by birth, Irish by luck, Gaditano by choice

Episode 11: Negin Farsad: Anchor Baby, American Patriot

Episode 10: Home Depends on Who I’m Talking To

Episode 9: Home is Where I Am

Episode 8: Last Man Out, Turn Off the Lights

Episode 7: We Were Told We Were Going to Disneyland

Episode 6: The MacMenamins - Three Countries, One Home

Episode 5: Finding Shelter in Sound: Horacio’s Story

Episode 4: Emma Williams: The Reverse Immigrant

Episode 3: A Box of Money and a Change of Heart

Episode 2: The View from the Couch

Trailer: 40 Years in Translation