Happy spring! With cherry blossoms blooming all around, Dean and Tom float into an exploration of ikigai, a concept for finding happiness and purpose in everyday life, in Japanese culture. Along the road of their discussion, they also stay at a ryokan and relish wabi-sabi – all while occasionally being interrupted by the Licensing department. Whether you’re subtly finding beauty in the imperfection of this episode (there’s plenty here!), or you’re taking the “full-blown, get-in-the-van” approach to finding pleasure here, we hope that your listening experience with this episode leaves you feeling quite content!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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Clink clink! Dean and Tom would just like to take a moment (actually, several moments across this episode) to toast toasting and public speaking across cultures. After toasting all night long with a tamada in Georgia, they toast Dean’s May 2024 article for Toastmasters – Speaking Across Cultures: Top 10 rules for communicating around the world – and Tom tries to guess some of the top 10 rules before Dean reveals them. If you can guess them correctly, dear listener, we’ll happily toast you all night long as well! Enjoy and cheers!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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O Canada! With all the recent talk of Canada being the 51st U.S. state – it’s not, and won’t be! – Dean and Tom venture into the vast expanse of cultural differences between Canadians and U.S. Americans in this episode. Meanwhile, Dean encounters polar bears on the Canadian Shield, Tom’s Canadian relatives enter the melting pot, and Torin searches underground for Montreal’s Nuit Blanche (White Night). To learn if they all survive their respective Canadian adventures, pull up next to a crackling fire if you can – with a bowl of salad or poutine (or both) – and enjoy!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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It’s a holiday-filled time of year and a heavy travel time across cultures, dear listeners; as such, we’ve been receiving your questions about how not to be the “ugly American (or fill in your country of choice) tourist” while traveling abroad. On this Boxing Day, Dean and Tom pause their gifting to unpack fears about this, and then to wrap up practical advice about it into a festive 40-minute episode! Plus: A holiday-themed Wordplay to shepherd us into 2025. Enjoy your holidays, thank you for listening, and we’ll be back soon with new episodes in the new year!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for Dean’s “UGLY (Fill in Your Country of Choice) TOURISTS.” article, plus CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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Happy Thanksgiving to our U.S. listeners! In this episode, Dean and Tom thank local caregivers for helping Dean survive sudden maladies across three different continents. They also explore culture’s impact on the care he received, as well as lessons learned (and salt balls rolled…by butterflies?). Plus, the exciting premiere of not one but TWO spinoff segments (and soon-to-be fan favorites!): “Bad Wordplay” & “Grammar Time with Metaphors”, introduced by an “interesting” harmony. We’ve pulled out all the stops and the rehydration salts for this episode, so if you overindulge in anything today, make it this! (Maybe listen two, three, ten times – why not?)

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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Are Burma and Myanmar the same place? How long does a zat pwe last? Why are only foreigners allowed into a certain garage in Mandalay? In this episode, Dean and Tom travel along Myanmar’s central river, the Irrawaddy, to answer these very questions, all the while observing Buddhist temples and pagodas, holding hands with new friends, and donning a mustachioed purple t-shirt. They also seek to build bridges across a river of differences – and despite Producer Torin having just mixed river metaphors while writing this description, he (foolishly) continues his literary journey for one more sentence. In closing: Join us for this episode’s journey to and through Myanmar; you won’t soon forget it.

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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Hungry for more food talk after last month’s “Somebody Feed Dean” episode? We’re serving it up to you on a silver platter with this special reissue of our July 2018 episode, “Fish Cheeks & Dining Myth Explosions”. Bon appétit!

This episode, Dean and Tom remain hungry for traditional foods across cultures: fish cheeks in China, black pudding and haggis in the U.K., guinea pigs in the Andes, and many more (1:45)! Next, Dean answers a listener question about visiting the Middle East during Ramadan (15:30), and does his best to drink liquified yogurt on his recent trip to the Balkans (23:20). Then, take cover as Dean explodes pesky myths regarding perceived dining pretensions in France, Italy, Hawaii, and Japan (32:09). Please, slurp up this episode as loudly as you’d like – it’s not at all rude!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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It’s a food travel show for your ears! Dean ventures to his favorite worldwide hole-in-the-wall restaurants, street stands, and more in this episode, experiencing the best meals of his life from Sri Lanka to Shanghai and everywhere in between. Meanwhile, Tom risks losing his head in his search for the most spectacular chocolate mousse in and around Paris. We hope that you’ll take the calculated risk to both venture out to that bus station shawarma stand with the long line, and into the artichoke heart of this episode – you (likely) won’t regret it!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

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We’re popping open a bottle of Mirto from Sardinia in celebration of our 50TH EPISODE! First, Dean caps off our prior episode about music and dance with the happiest song he’s ever heard, Jambo Bwana, from East Africa, and with an Italian version of the card game Spoons in which the losing player sings an aria. From there, Dean and Tom explore divisions between the north and south of Italy, the cultural prominence of “la bella figura” across Italy, and the intersection of transactions and personal relationships throughout Italy as well. Lastly, our friends at Licensing check in on all of the celebratory singing going on (and perhaps to enjoy some Mirto too?). Thanks very much for laughing and learning with us over these 50 episodes! Ciao bella, until next time!

***Subscribe to Dean’s Substack here for all of Dean’s CultureQuizzes, “Culture’s Consequences” articles, and much much more!***

Have a cultural question or episode idea? Reach out on X/Twitter & Facebook (@OopsCultureShow) or by email at oopscultureshow@gmail.com.

Hosts: Dean Foster & Tom Peterson

Audio Production: Tom Peterson & Torin Peterson

Music: “Little Idea” – Bensound.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:23 — 29.6MB) | Embed

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