Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Introducing Citizens of the World (formerly Live Without Borders)

Episode Date: October 13, 2024

Live Without Borders is now called Citizens of the world 🎉 This podcast will continue to share how we can thrive through Stoic wisdom, better communication, and global exploration – so why change the name? I explain it all in this episode. Love, Sarahsarahmikutel.comDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Well, hello there. It has been a minute. This is Sarah Mikital, and I hope you and your loved ones are doing fantastic wherever you are in the world. I have really missed you. I have been working on passport number three, and yesterday I passed my UK citizenship exam, so I am very excited about that. And having a goal and seeing it through feel so amazing. And so I'm all about goal setting right now, including improving my Italian skills. So Italian is passport number two. And, but I still love to keep up my Italian. And in the past, I never really cared about measuring things at all. But it is a nice way to have milestones. So I want to pass an exam to prove my certain level of Italian proficiency. I've also been lifting weights and taking long walks on my very Gilmore girls. Est-town Beach. I've been coaching introverts to become more confident communicators using stoicism and, of course, traveling. So this year I went to Bulgaria, or went back to Bulgaria, Italy, France, the U.S. But what I've been really missing is writing and podcasting and connecting with you. And so I am back.

And I would love to introduce you to the new title of this show and also my new substack blog. Citizens of the World. And I was thinking about this title in the past. And I just felt ready to make the change. So today's episode's going to be a little bit different because I just want to briefly share with you the evolution of this podcast, especially if you've been with me for a while, just to talk about how it's grown, where it's headed, and why I made these changes. So if you've been with me for a few years, you know that this podcast, you know that this podcast, started out as the Postcard Academy. And I created that show to feature other expats like myself who packed up everything to start a new adventure in another part of the world. So I interviewed

them about their best travel advice because I also wanted to visit where they were living and find all the hidden gems and, you know, all the best food. And I also wanted to hear their story. and I love the insider outsider perspective that expats have. So those episodes meant a lot to me. And I also wanted the show to serve as a resource for other people interested in living abroad because it is very fun. And I also truly believe that travel and living abroad is the greatest form of diplomacy because we're getting to know each. other on a more human level, making those connections. But as the show progressed, something more was emerging. And over time, I started to talk more about stoicism and how that philosophy, along with travel, had really changed me and influenced me. And I like talking about how those

experiences shifted my mindset and approach to life from how I communicate to what I prioritize, to what kind of work I do. So this podcast has been a work in progress and evolution. And I started to not only talk about going across geographic borders travel-wise, but also discussing mental borders or barriers and how we can transcend those. So at some point, I renamed the podcast, Live Without Borders, to combine my two loves, which is global exploration and also personal development. element, including how stoicism can help us overcome obstacles, including in our relationships, no matter where we are. And so I'm going to continue to podcast about these things. So why change the name? Well, let's talk about stoicism. So the phrase Citizen of the World, and I may even mention this on an episode at some point, Citizen of the World dates back thousands of years to

around 4th century BC. And there was this guy called Diogenes of Sinepe. So of Sinepe means from Senepe. Diogenes who comes from Sinepe. So your name signified where you were from. And Diogenes was a cynic philosopher who predated the Stoics, but a lot of Stoics looked up to him. So one day when somebody asked Diagellular,

where he was from. Instead of saying Sinepe, he said, I'm a citizen of the world. And he's the first known person to use this phrase. So somebody else may have used it before, but we have it down. It's written down that he said this. And this was a really radical thing to do because in ancient Greece, where you came from said a lot about you. But Diogenes refused to align himself to one place. His allegiance was to all of humanity, not just his city-state. So this cosmopolitanism is a core principle of stoicism. One of the reasons it resonates so much with me, we are all one global community. We should care for each other, learn to understand one another. We all have a piece of that divine spark that connects us. So each of us is part of a larger whole. We have a response. We have a

responsibility to uphold the human rights of all individuals across borders. We are all citizens of the world, whether we're digital nomads or even if we have never left our hometown. And so while I love personal development and believe that we need to work on ourselves first, all of this work on ourselves is in service to something greater than ourselves. So I see the change from live without borders to citizens of the world, the name change, as being even more about expansion and connection. And we all know how increasingly polarized this world is becoming. And my hope is that the ideas and stories in this podcast can bring us closer together, to get us to listen more and communicate better and to stop canceling one another,

and also to have fun. In my opinion, Stowe's is. is the best philosophy that you can live your life by if you want to flourish in life. It helps us to show up in a kinder way, to better communicate with people, to not sweat the small stuff. But stoicism does have a bit of a serious reputation. And I say you can be a good person and still have the time of your life. So with that in mind, this podcast will continue to be a show about how we can thrive through stoic wisdom, better communication, big emphasis on global exploration, because discovery is such a meaningful part of being alive, getting curious, learning about new cultures, realizing that we are more similar than we think, and that our differences don't have to be deal-breakers.

So wonder, aw, surprise, I am here for all of it. I hope you are too. If so, hit subscribe if you haven't already done so. and tell a friend about citizens of the world. Talk to you soon. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com slash blank no more.