The Bittersweet Life

Latest Episodes:

Bittersweet Moment #132: Italian Christmas Sweets Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

From pandora to panettone and everything in between, follow us a dessert-rich tour of Italy at Christmastime. From Cremona's super-sweet and sticky torrone, to the delightful struffoli famous in Naples, on this mini-episode, Tiffany fills you in on all the traditional Italian holiday desserts that warm us up on cold December nights.

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NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 405: How to Dress Like an Italian Dec 06, 2021

Show notes

How do you dress in Italy so you blend in? No one wants to be pegged as a tourist the moment they step off the plane, so today, in response to a listener question, Tiffany gives her advice on how to dress when in Italy so you'll look more like a local.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #131: Perfect Pitch (with Evan Doty and Dana Zahler) Dec 02, 2021

Show notes

Imagine you hear a note—any note—from a ding in an elevator to the whistle of a bird, and somehow, without even having to thing about it, you just know what note it is. F-sharp. B-flat. Middle C. It's just there, as easy as it would be for the rest of us to recognize a color.

This phenomenon is a gift shared by very few people on the earth, and one of them is Katy's nephew Evan. He didn't have to study. He didn't have to train his ear. He didn't acquire this ability after years of piano lessons. It was always with him.

On this mini-episode, Katy talks with both Evan and his mom Dana (Katy's sister) about what it is like to live with this incredible gift. Listen to the end to hear one of Evan's own compositions.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 404: When Not to Move Abroad Nov 29, 2021

Show notes

We spend a lot of time on this show encouraging our listeners—especially those who write in for advice—to throw caution to the wind and move abroad if that is their dream.

But what about when the timing just doesn't seem right? Today we read a letter from a listener asking about a possible move to France, but this time we offer different advice. Listen in and decide if you agree.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 404: When Not to Move Abroad Nov 29, 2021

Show notes

We spend a lot of time on this show encouraging our listeners—especially those who write in for advice—to throw caution to the wind and move abroad if that is their dream.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #130: Empty Nesters Move to Rome (with Adrianne Castro) Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

For Adrianne Castro and her husband Joe, a move to Rome had been a very long time in the making. At first it started out as just an idea when they were on a trip with their young son. But then soon found themselves wondering: why not?

Several years, a son settled at college, the recognition of Joe's Italian citizenship through ancestry, a pandemic, the sale of their home, and a lot of planning later, Adrianne has fulfilled this long-time dream and is living the life she imagined in Rome.

She also just happens to be a longtime listener of the show. She joins us on this inspiring mini-episode to talk about her journey to Rome.

Find Adrianne on Instagram, Facebook, and on her website, Coffee in Italia.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 403: Coping with Anxiety Nov 22, 2021

Show notes

Do you suffer from anxiety? Is it a chronic problem, or something that only flairs up at certain times? Or are you one of the lucky ones, blessed with calm under pressure?

Today we talk about anxiety from a few different angles, including the stress that comes along with moving outside of your comfort zone, whether it be moving to a foreign country, leaving a stable job, or simply trying a new hobby.

We ask, why do some of us sometimes choose discomfort as opposed to doing what's easy? And what happens when you crave novelty but your world has shrunk due to the pandemic?

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #129: The 24-hour Radio Race Nov 18, 2021

Show notes

Can you produce an entire creative project in just 24 hours, from start to finish? This week, Katy attempted just that. She and her good friend and fellow radio producer Casey Martin decided to participate in the KCRW 24-hour Radio Race 2021. The challenge: produce an entire radio piece from scratch in no more than 24 hours.

With the somewhat lack-luster theme of "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", these two audio professionals get to work, taking a radio project from zero to completely produced and in the can. After Monday's episode on ideas, hear Katy and Casey go through the brainstorming process in real time, thinking up an idea and curating it to fit the theme.

Find the finished project, The Thirty Year Secret, here.

You can also hear an interview with Casey Martin from last year on Bittersweet Moment #63: What's Going On in Seattle?

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Episode 402: Where Do Ideas Come From? Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Where do you find your ideas? Do they come to you in a dream? Do you find them by reading, traveling, researching? Do you get them in the shower? By listening in on strangers' conversations? Or do they just come to you from out of nowhere?

Do you have so many ideas you can't begin to use them all, or are ideas hard for you to find? And—perhaps more importantly—when you get these ideas, what do you do with them?

Today Tiffany and Katy talk all about ideas, and the specific ways and places they find them, whether they be for a podcast episode, an article, or a work of fiction.

Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza, which she mentions in this episode, can be purchased here.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

Bittersweet Moment #128: How to Write a Book Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

What does it take to write a book from beginning to end? The novel-writing process probably looks very different from writer to writer, but on this mini-episode, Tiffany describes her writing process from the first seed of an idea, all the way to a completed book.

The writing tools she mentions in this mini-episode are Scivener, a word-processing program designed specifically for novels and other long texts, and Save the Cat Writes a Novel, a book that outlines an ingenious strategy for plotting works of fiction.

If you curious about how Tiffany landed her literary agent, listen back to Bittersweet Moment #47: How to get an agent with PitMad.

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ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach expats, future expats, and travelers all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started.

BECOME A PATRON: Pledge your monthly support of The Bittersweet Life and receive awesome prizes in return for your generosity! Visit our Patreon site to find out more.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Click here to find us on a variety of podcast apps.

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

NEW TO THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1: OUTSET

BOOK: Want to read Tiffany's book, Midnight in the Piazza? Learn more here or order on Amazon.

TOUR ROME: If you're traveling to Rome, don't miss the chance to tour the city with Tiffany as your guide!

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