Episode #20: Molly Ruland 🇺🇸 🇨🇷 🎙

When I first moved to Sacramento in 2003, I literally knew no one in the city. Eager to make friends and expand my circle with positive, impactful people, I started volunteering and attending charity events. It paid off with lifelong friends and connections, such as with the guests on the Who in the World podcast today, Sharon Gerber Scherer and Rob Scherer.

To me, they stood ten feet tall – they were well-accomplished in business, revered in the community, and incredibly well connected. What’s more, they were achieving their success by helping others – what a win-win! 

It was a eureka moment for me to witness them in action and even stand in their shadow.

Over the years there, we all became friends, as I enjoyed supporting their fundraisers and charitable projects, they always came to my humble functions, and I even got to dog sit their four-legged baby. Cabo, when they were out of town.

Now, we all have moved on from Sacramento (although the 916 will always hold a special place in our hearts). Sharon and Rob live in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they are a shining example of how to move abroad, how to reinvent yourself, and how to live a well-balanced life of fun and service.

So, I hope you enjoy this Sunday morning, tequila sunrise podcast chat with the people I’m still honored to know and call friends all of these years later, Sharon and Rob.

Oh, and Cabo, too!

Your buddy,
Norm :-) 

In this episode #32 of the Who in the World Podcast, I have the pleasure of introducing you to ML, one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. 

I first met ML in Sacramento, Ca when we had both newly moved there in the 2000s, her from NYC where she was an actress and arts promoter for 7 years, and me from CT. Upon being introduced by a mutual friend, we became homies instantly, and shared a common vision for community, networking, empowering the arts scene in Sactown, and generally encouraging a higher vibration for all of those around us. 

 In fact, there’s no one I know who loves, supports, & encourages the arts more than ML and, by her side, I’ve experienced art gallery showings, concerts, video shoots, yoga, meditation, all-bodies yoga, fundraisers, and rollerskating topless waitresses. 

 It’s no wonder why I call her my “soul sister!”

 But ML is also one of the kindest, caring, and accepting people I’ve ever known, and I deeply respect both her and her husband, Pete. I love the journey she’s on – always evolving and growing while empowering others to do the same – and I’ll always be her #1 fan! 

 So, enjoy this chat with ML and I’m glad you’ll get to know here as I have through this podcast!

In this episode #31 of the Who in the World Podcast, I share part two of my conversation with Kay Kay, live from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

I was able to travel back to Cambodia last year – one of my favorite countries on earth and I place I lived for a few years – and had the chance to visit Kay Kay at his home for a few beers and a deep conversation about his life.

For those who didn’t get to listen to part one of our talk yet, you can listen here:

And in this part two, we start off when Kay Kay was being bounced around immigration jails in the U.S. until he was deported back to Cambodia, a country he wasn’t born in (Kay Kay was born in a refugee camp in Thailand like so many others), had never visited, knew very few people, and only spoke a little of the language.

Through his monumental struggles in his new homeland of Cambodia, Kay Kay soon adapted and found his footing by serving others, acting as a mentor and educator for poor street kids who had no other role models or opportunities.

Soon after, Tiny Toones was born, Kay Kay’s non-profit organization that helps poor, disenfranchised, and at-risk kids with education, life skills, and basic care through breakdancing, rapping, graffiti art, and other endeavors.

You can check out more about Tiny Toones and make a donation at www.tinytoones.org

And thanks for listening and sharing some time with my friend, Kay Kay!

In this episode, I travel back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia – one of my favorite places in the world – and sit down with my friend Kay Kay.

Kay Kay is one of the “Deportees,” those Cambodian nationals who grew up in the U.S. but were later deported back to Cambodia, to a country and even language they didn’t know. Raised in California in a poor neighborhood amid crime, drugs, and gangs, Kay Kay was more about the breakdancing and graffiti tagging life.

However, he did fall victim to the streets and ended up spending multiple bids in prison and then immigration jail. After years of incarceration in the U.S. system, he was shackled on an airplane and deported to Cambodia.

It’s there that Kay Kay’s true journey starts, as he soon helping poor street kids who had no one else, and then taking them in. He first taught them his break dancing skills, and then offered life guidance and mentorship.

The movement grew and eventually became Tiny Toones, an international non-profit that’s still in existence today after nearly two decades, offering formal education, life skills, and even job placement.

According to their website, “Our mission is to provide a safe, positive environment for at‐risk youth to channel their energy and creativity into the arts and education, empowering them to build self‐confidence in their daily lives, aim for better employment possibilities, and feel supported pursuing their dreams.”

Kay Kay still runs Tiny Toones all of these years later, making it his life’s mission to save kids from the same gangs, streets, and temptations that almost claimed his life.

Enjoy this part 1 of my conversation with Kay Kay and feel free to check out Tiny Toones and make a humble donation at: www.tinytoones.org

-Norm  :-)

In this podcast, I catch up with my old friend Mounika, who tells me about her trip of a lifetime to Japan.

I was friends with Mounika and her husband Rohit back when I lived in Sacramento and became good friends with them towards the tail end of my stay there before leaving to live abroad in 2011.

Last year, Mounika invited me to speak via video chat to a club with some of her girl friends from India to California. I talked about my adventures, went over a few stories from the books I’ve written about them, and my life as an expat now.

Well, Mounika took my words of words of motivation to heart and planned her own life-changing journey – to Japan!

What makes this odyssey so incredible is that Mounika visited the land of the rising sun solo, and it was her very first time traveling except for her home nations!

Even more incredibly, Mounika’s father just passed away before her whirlwind trip, so she flew back to India to honor and bury her father, with all of the emotions and turmoil that brought, and then right on to Japan from there.

Join me in chatting with Mounika about how she overcame her fears, her impressions of Japan, the serendipitous experiences she had, and the wonderful people she met (not to mention all of the great food!).

Discover what she found on the trip of a lifetime on this very heartfelt and human podcast!

-Norm 🎙️🌏

In this part two of my podcast with Wicced, or Kalvin Hang, we reunite in Phnom Penh, sitting down in a corner of a bar tucked away in an alley to talk about his story, live from the Kingdom of Cambodia.

In episode #26, Wicced and I covered how he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, made his way across the world to settle in California, and then fell into the street life because of his surroundings. Never a naturalized citizen, he ended up in an immigration prison for years and, post 9/11, was deported back to Cambodia – a country he’d never lived, didn’t know the language, and never even visited.

 In this podcast, we pick up Wicced’s story when he first arrives to Phnom Penh on “Con Air,” handcuffed and still incarcerated. He eventually is released to family members in the countryside but the transition from modern California to the villages and province life in rural Cambodia is as radical as it gets. 

 Wicced finds his way to the big city, Phnom Penh, where he settles and immediately starts giving back, helping others, and making an impact. Fast forward almost two decades and Wicced is a community leader, advocate for deportation and immigration reform, social activist who has spoken and attended conferences all over thew world, business man, and family man all the same. 

 It's a great honor to have WIcced as a friend and little brother, and I thoroughly enjoyed our sit down and chat, including a surprise answer to a question I asked him eight years ago. 

 I might just have to move back to Cambodia – a place I’ve lived and really love – just to hang out with Wicced more!
 
 I hope you feel the same after listening to this podcast.

 -Norm 🎙️🌏

 PS Big-up to the Deportees and my Khmer fam!

One of the amazing things about traveling and living abroad is the people you meet in random, chance, and fleeting encounters. Even if you just chat at the airport for 5 minutes or run into someone at a café, you form these deep, meaningful connections that stay with you for life.  

One of those chance encounters occurred for me in the little mountain spa town of Fortuna in Costa Rica. I walked down into the lobby of my backpacker’s lodge one day and saw this tall European woman struggling to walk because she’d injured her knee badly in a surfing accident. 

Being everyone’s big brother when I travel, my first instinct was to help her out, of course, and that’s how I met Rafaela, who turned out to be one of the smartest, most positive, and dynamic people I’ve been blessed to know.  

From humble yet gracious beginnings in Communist Romania, she worked her way up in finance, moved abroad to work in other European nations, speaks six languages, and now lives in Paris. 

I met Rafaela in the midst of her year traveling around the world, when she focused on reading, exercise, yoga, and fully immersing herself in the moment. But far from your typical stereotypical backpacker, she carried a nice suitcase and told me she loved the high heels that she packed instead of the typical hiking boots - a true sophisticated badass!

After months of invitations (and begging), Rafaela finally acquiesced and agreed to hop on the podcast with me, which turned out to be one of my favorite conversations yet!  

I’m honored to introduce you to my great friend and brother, Kalvin Hang, or Wicced as he’s known. 

Wicced was born in a refugee camp in Thailand as his parents escaped war-torn Cambodia, then emigrated to California, where he grew up in San Diego.  

From dire poverty to gang violence to prison, to say Wicced had it tough is an understatement. He was even thrown in an immigration prison and deported to Cambodia, never allowed to return to the U.S. - even though he’d never actually lived in Cambodia. 

But instead of seeing himself as a victim or shying away from adversity, Wicced thrived on it, becoming a community leader and bridge between two worlds: Cambodia and the U.S., the streets and the bustling business world.

Now, Wicced is thriving in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. But never forgets where he’s from, always judging himself on the scales of karma. He’s equal parts fearless and compassionate, a man of furious action while at the same time deeply introspective. 

But one thing is for sure – if Wicced is your friend, he’s always got your back.

Thanks for listening to this part one of my interview with Wicced and look for part two coming very soon. 

And mad love to Cambodia and the Deportees! 

-Norm Schriever

I recently visited Qatar for the first time, the Arabian country set to host the 2022 World Cup. Amazed and impressed by what I experienced, I wanted to learn more. So, I enlisted the knowledge and perspective of my new friend, Jennifer, in this podcast, an American who’s lived in Qatar with her family for more than twelve years.  

I had so many questions. 

For instance, what is life like for an American family in a traditional Islamic country? 

How is it possible that Qatar is so safe that you don’t need to lock your doors at night and can keep your car running with your purse or wallet inside it while you run into a store? 

What makes an economy boom when 86% of its inhabitants are foreign workers? 

Why do most Ivy League schools from the US and England set up satellite campuses and study abroad programs in Qatar?

Or did you know that Qatar Airways is often voted the world’s best airline, and Hamad International Airport also voted number one?

How could Qatar’s society be so modern and progressive yet be governed by the world’s longest-ruling royal family?

Can a desert nation with no natural rivers or lakes have some of the most scenic marinas, beaches, and man-made islands you’ve ever seen?

And why is such a huge deal that Qatar is the first Arab country to host the World Cup – and what’s all the backlash about?

Add it all up and hot damn, Qatar is cool!

I’m sure you’ll gain a lot of insight from Jennifer in this podcast. And just as I discovered when traveling to one of the world’s most dynamic and unique nations, our talk will probably dispel more than a few myths and preconceptions you may have about life in an Arabian country.

Enjoy this episode #25 of the Who in the World podcast and let’s root for Qatar in this World Cup!

Your buddy,

Norm :-)

Imagine if you had to leave your country virtually overnight, your home, your job, your friends, most of your savings, and almost everything you owned? You needed to scramble to find a new, safe country for your entire family to live in and could only bring one suitcase with you – possibly never to return again. 

Oh, and you couldn’t tell anyone about it or even let on that anything was out of the ordinary. One wrong step, one mistake, and you (and your entire family) would most likely be going to prison for ten years.

You just had to disappear completely from the only life you’ve ever known in the dead of night. Poof.

That was the situation when my guests today fled their homeland of Russia right after their government’s invasion of Ukraine. Guided by their conscience and torn by the censorship, militarization, and Soviet-era crackdowns they saw around them, their comfortable, modern life in Moscow evaporated almost overnight, descending into a dystopian nightmare.  

Now, they are refugees, their future uncertain and not sure when or even if they’ll ever be able to return to their mother land.

Today on the Who in the World podcast, you’ll hear their story.

Having relocated to Thailand last month, I was chilling with my best buddy here, Scott, at a bar called the Red Brick. Sitting at a table next to us were two sisters from Russia and a few of their family members, and we all got to talking as they admired my friend’s pit bull. (Shout out to Frankie!)

The conversation turned to how long each of us had been living in Thailand where we were from, etc., and that’s when I first got to know them. Intrigued, I had to learn more, so I invited them back for dinner and drinks while they told me about their lives – this time with the microphone on.

Enjoy this podcast and after listening, I’m sure you’ll feel the same respect, admiration, and genuine care for them as I do. 

-Norm Schriever

P.S. Names, places, dates, and details have been changed or omitted to keep the sisters and their family safe from retribution by the Russian government. Their security was our utmost concern, so everything you hear has been reviewed and approved by them.