Two Suitcases and a Visa

First-generation immigrants tell the whole story, not the headline

Tolu Adebanjo2 episodes2 min of audio495 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Sep 8, 20260:52304 plays Preview

A Bakery in Montreal, Minus Thirty Outside

Firas ran a bakery in Homs, lost it in 2013, and opened a new one in Montreal six years later. He talks about Quebec winters, French classes at night, and the first customer who cried.

S1 · E1Jul 18, 20260:50191 plays Members

The Nurse Who Learned Arabic on Night Shift

Marisol left Cebu for a Riyadh hospital in 2014 with a two-year plan. Eleven years on, she talks remittances, learning Arabic from patients, and the daughter who grew up on video calls.

About the show

Every week Tolu Adebanjo sits down with one person who packed their life into two suitcases and started again somewhere else. A Filipino nurse in Riyadh, a Syrian baker in Montreal, a Ghanaian software tester in Berlin, a Bangladeshi crane operator in Doha. The conversations run forty to fifty minutes and follow the same honest arc: the decision, the paperwork, the first winter, the phone calls home, and the moment the new place quietly became home too. Tolu does not chase trauma or triumph. She asks about the small things, the first grocery shop, the accent people noticed, the job that was nothing like the job advert. This is a show for anyone who has moved countries, anyone thinking about it, and anyone who wants to understand the neighbour who did. New episodes land every Tuesday, with occasional shorter follow-up calls when a guest's situation changes.

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