We’re not local, we’re not leaving, and we have a lot of thoughts. Two American moms raising kids in South Korea — talking motherhood abroad, expat life, identity, friendships, and everything nobody warned you about before you moved here.
Heidi went back to America so we dove into how living in Korea has changed us. We compare what our lives might look like in each country, what we genuinely miss about the US, and what Korea has done to us that we didn’t sign up for. The fruit was cheaper, the nature was wilder, yet somehow we still miss Korea when we are in the US. We get into all of it. The good, the complicated, and everything living abroad does to you without asking permission.
17 Aug 2026
Nunchi — The Vibe Check Korea Invented
Every culture has unspoken social rules. Korea has nunchi — the art of reading a room, sensing the energy, knowing what someone needs before they say it. It sounds simple. It isn't.In this episode of Not Local, we get into what nunchi actually is, from the perspective of two foreigners who have lived it firsthand. We also debate — is nunchi inherently selfish, can it be used for power, and has it evolved over time? Does reading the room serve the individual as much as the collective?Plus — our weekly High, Low, Buffalo, a Hot Topic neither of us saw coming, and a game called Him or Hanbok, where we figure out if our husbands' habits are personal quirks or deeply Korean.Not Local is a podcast for anyone who has ever felt not local — wherever in the world that might be.🌐 IPIKorea (https://www.ipikorea.com/notlocal)
3 Aug 2026
The In-between Life: Who we are as "Not Locals"
In this episode, we get into the identity questions that come with living outside your home country — who you become when you’re not fully “from here” but not fully “from there” either. We talk about friendship abroad and how it forms differently, plus the gap between how people back home imagine our lives and what it’s actually like day to day.
Not Local is a podcast hosted by Amanda and Heidi — two American moms who’ve built their lives in South Korea. Every episode we pull up a chair and get honest about being foreigners in Korea, identity, friendships, and the beautiful chaos of building a life far from home.
🎧 Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts — links in bio.
In partnership with & Recorded at Blue Kite Publishing Studio · Bundang.
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20 Jul 2026
Who We Are & Why We’re Here
Welcome to the very first episode of Not Local — a podcast for anyone who has ever felt not local, wherever in the world that might be.
In this episode you meet your two hosts. Amanda Yoon grew up in Ellicott City, Maryland, surrounded by Korean culture long before she ever set foot in the country so when she finally came, it felt less like arriving somewhere new and more like finding something she'd been looking for. Heidi Bloom is a small-town South Dakota girl who somehow spent her entire adult life everywhere but South Dakota — Latin America, the Middle East, Washington DC, and Korea, which she keeps coming back to whether she plans to or not.
We talk about who we are, how we ended up here, how we found each other, and why we built the International Parents in Korea website and now this podcast. We play our first game, get into our first Hot Topic, and leave you with a question worth sitting with this week.
This is the episode to send to someone who just moved abroad, just married into a different culture, or is starting to wonder if the life they built somewhere unexpected could actually become a reality.
Interested? Pull up a chair!
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
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