Listen Up: The China-Based Podcasters Reflecting on Life, Leadership, and Love Abroad

Podcasts about news from China, Chinese history, and learning Mandarin are popular among expatriates who come to stay or settle in China, and they can be a useful resource to better understand the culture and times of a country where language mastery can seem like an insurmountable obstacle.

However, the reality about living in China as an outsider is that it isn’t all about shaping one’s mind into becoming a zhongguotong. Taking note of this fact, several smooth talkers have undertaken to podcast about the actual experience of living as foreigners in Beijing and Shanghai – how can one achieve success here? What makes people stay? Can a foreigner really ever call Beijing home? How the heck does dating work here? Grab a pair of buds and find out.

The Brendan Davis Trifecta

Brendan Davis entered the podcasting world with Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom. He has since moved on to other podcasts, but the archives of this foreigner-on-foreigner, and sometimes foreigner-on-local talk show are essential listening for anyone trying to get a feel on the all the possibilities that life in Beijing has to offer. Interviews cover all the bases, from artists and entrepreneurs to tech nerds and Weibo watchers. (Scroll to episodes 31 and 32, and you’ll even find the Beijinger’s own Kyle Mullin and Mike Wester in the mix.)

But to get a grip on all the basic questions about life in Beijing, listeners ought to check out How China Works, the ongoing podcast that Davis co-hosts with communications consultant Yingying Li. While the latter shows have branched out into a wider variety of issues, Davis says the pair designed the first season of the show as a “crash course in China,” hitting on topics like doing business, dating, finance, and even working with the government in China.

Davis’s other, other show, If I Knew You Better, takes a more global focus, though it can also be China-focused at times. Additionally, he decided to import a segment from Big Fish called the “The Fretful Laowai Radio Hour,” in which he and his old Beijing pengyou Kevin Geiger take a little while to plow through their recent thoughts about life in Northern Capital.

Double Trouble with Michelle Ibarra

Looking to find your tribe or get involved while living in China? Try taking a listen to Pop Abroad, a woman-centric show hosted by Shanghai-based Californian, Michelle Ibarra. But Ibarra doesn’t just talk to women in leadership roles – she has lent her own leadership skills to build up the likes of Girl Gone International and TEDx. In each episode, she talks to a community leader to find out what brings folks together when they are living abroad, whether it be fitness, business, motherhood, sustainability. Along the way, she and her guests hash out the struggles that people so often face when living abroad.

Her other show, Podbabes China, addresses these struggles more directly. Each episode, Ibarra and her guests round up the most essential tools that professionals living in China need to succeed and live well.

Uncorked: Navigating Lifestyle and Profession in China

Another Shanghai-based Californian, Meghan McGee is a regular guest on Podbabes, but she also hosts her own lifestyle podcast, Uncorked. Many discussions of local happenings center around that southern city, but Beijingers might also take interest in her discussions with women entrepreneurs and who have spent years mastering life in China.

Not A Team Player: Connecting with the everyday Beijinger

With a rich background in television and radio, Canadian national Trevor Metz left CRI (China Radio International) to start a bar in Shuangjing, and is now running Plan B. Fascinated by the folks that come in and out of his establishment, he wanted a different angle to what he was hearing from other foreign broadcasters.

“I’m not looking for China Hawks or people that are academics or experts. I’m looking for real people with real stories who have had to struggle, and live here because they really want to,” Metz tells the Beijinger. “If they have a China story to tell, I want to hear that... [This nation is] so misunderstood right now, even on a street level.”

This brand-new podcast only currently has two episodes under its belt, but many more are in the works for this cold winter period, featuring guests from many walks of life on already, and the episodes with VX Entertainment founder Rick Garson and managing director of Canada China Business Council Noah Fraser already having been published. Talking life, marriage, dating, work, and more; you can find Not A Team Player on all your usual podcasting platforms.

Migratory Patterns: Where the heck is home?

Mike Shaw, a Boston native, likes to say that he heard a little voice in his head, telling him to go to China. Rather than get professional help, he decided to listen to the voice and found himself living in Beijing for nearly a decade. Though he and his wife, who appears on the show semi-regularly, now live in Bali, Shaw’s global approach to the show allows him to welcome many current or former Beijingers on the show.

Each episode dives deep into the guest’s migration story and tries to shed some light on the idea of “home,” a concept that is often muddled in the minds of migrants. Shaw keeps it conversational and most of the time is able to relate to the guest’s experience to his own. After a few episodes, a through-line in the lives of migrants becomes clear: a drastic, unexpected change that, even after moving “home” can never be reversed.

Date Night China

If you clicked this article and then immediately scrolled down to find this podcast, chances are that you are familiar with Café De La Poste. That is where Nathan Williams and Rachel Weiss (British and American, respectively) became quick friends after tipsy night, and it wasn’t long afterward that the pair, plus co-host Boniface, decided to combine their knowledge of the Beijing dating scene and share it with the city’s other randy expatriates via the Internet. The result is Date Night China. Most episodes feature at least one guest to keep the conversation fresh and provide a variety of perspectives. For more information, see Weiss's interview with our sister magazine, beijingkids.

READ: Easy Listening: Your Guide to the Biggest Chinese Music Apps

Images: Jonathan Farber (via Unsplash), How China Works Podcast, Michelle Ibarra