The Bittersweet Life

How long do you have to live outside your own country before your patriotism starts to fade? How long do you have to be an expat or immigrant before hearing your home country bashed doesn’t phase you…

On Monday we talked about Italian espresso, and what an integral part of Italian culture it is.

In the same vein, Katy describes the unique coffee shop culture of Seattle in the 1990s—a far cry from …

What makes Italian espresso different from American coffee? Perhaps more to the point, what makes it better? And what separates good espresso from great espresso?

Today we are joined by author and It…

Only in Rome can you stumble upon a Michelangelo sculpture in a church hardly any tourists visit. A few weeks ago we talked about some of the most artistically important frescoes and oil paintings th…

Tiffany gives you the low-down on Rome's neighborhoods, particularly from the expat perspective.

Which neighborhoods are the prettiest? Where are they located? How high are the living expenses there …

This week, Tiffany and Aurelio brave the distance learning trenches! What's it like for a six-year-old who has only just started school to attend class via Zoom? How does distance learning in Italy (…

Stewart has one of the …

What is life like when you grow up in no fixed place and in countries that neither of your parents are from? The term for this kind of person is Third Culture Kid, and longtime listener Chelsea Hicks…

You've taken your Italian lessons, you've memorized your vocabulary, you've practiced all your most useful phrases. Then you get to Italy...and it all flies out the window.

It's a common problem that…

When the sons of a centuries-old noble Roman family and the American widow of their father, the prince, can't decide who gets to live in the family's priceless villa, a forced auction ensues!

Princes…

When you decide to hop a plane to LA and recreate your favorite childhood film with your sisters, you contact the writers and directors and ask if they'd like to meet up. At least, if you're Katy, th…

Seven years ago, Katy and her sisters—who each live in different states—started gathering once a year for “Sisterfest.” But this year they are doing something different. When they were little girls …

We get lots of mail from our loyal listeners and we love reading it! You guys always have the best questions and the most insightful commentary on our episodes. We often get inspired to make entire e…

After the disaster of the last two years, Katy and Tiffany are a bit reluctant to make New Year's Resolutions this year. After all, what will the year be like? If 2021 taught us anything, it's that w…

After hearing from Katy's own lips before and after her experience going scuba diving in the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean in winter, listen to Tiffany's own deep-sea adventure in Sumatra, when …

New Year—new experiences! At least that's the idea. That's the way we used to do it pre-pandemic anyway. On this first episode of 2022, Katy digs back into her vast personal audio archive to relive w…

About a month ago, in Bittersweet Moment No. 129, you learned about the 24-hour Radio Race, a competition that challenges radio artists to create a 4-minute story based on an assigned theme—in just 2…

Instead of looking back on the entire year of 2021 (because that might not be too fun), today we look back on the year through the books we read. Find out which we loved best, which surprised us, and…

Do you read to your kids? Tiffany an Aurelio read together every night (and sometimes, when the book is especially good, at every meal). Tiffany and Aurelio gather up all the books they read together…