Passport Full of Elsewhere

Third-culture kids on belonging to everywhere and nowhere

Riya Menon2 episodes2 min of audio133 playsEpisodic

Episodes

One episode is free to sample for 60 seconds. Sign up free or log in to play every episode in full.

S1 · E2Sep 5, 20260:5379 plays Preview

The Visa Expires at Twenty-Five

In many Gulf countries a child's residency ends with their parents' sponsorship. Two guests describe the year they turned twenty-five and had to leave the only home they had ever known.

S1 · E1Feb 1, 20260:4954 plays Members

Where Are You Really From

Two guests who grew up in Jeddah and Singapore compare notes on the question they have each answered ten thousand times, and on the paragraph-long answer they eventually settled on.

About the show

Riya Menon grew up in Dubai with a Kerala passport, an American school accent and a Lebanese best friend, and spent her twenties being asked where she was really from. Passport Full of Elsewhere is her weekly two-guest conversation with people who grew up between cultures: diplomats' children, oil-camp kids, military families, international school lifers, and the children of migrants who were the only ones in the village who had never seen the village. Each episode is about forty minutes and circles a single question. What do you call home when your parents call somewhere else home. Which language do you argue in. What happens at twenty-five when the visa that was tied to your father's job expires. Riya hosts with warmth and a lot of recognition, and she is not afraid of the awkward bits. For anyone who answers the where-are-you-from question with a paragraph, and for the parents raising the next generation of them.

Listen on

RSS feed

Any podcast app can follow this show with its RSS feed, even before it appears in a directory.

Hosted by