12 Years Out: With Cole Puterbaugh

Cole Puterbaugh
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Thinking about leaving your home country? 12 Years Out with Cole Puterbaugh explores the real cost, tradeoffs, and consequences of life abroad. With 12+ years overseas, a cross-cultural family, and PhD-level insight, Cole breaks down freedom, isolation, identity, and opportunity beyond surface-level expat stories. Each 15–30 minute episode covers relocation, cultural adaptation, global education, and high-stakes life decisions, all oriented towards helping you understand what trade-offs of living abroad.

  1. Jul 2

    Year 5 is the Real Test

    A lucrative tutoring offer in China forces a choice not between jobs, but between the allure of entrepreneurship and the predictability of a system he despises. For Dr. Cole Puterbaugh, that decision revealed a deeper truth about life abroad: after five years, every choice is a trade-off rooted in conviction, not convenience. Moving overseas is not an escape from fundamentals. Dr. Puterbaugh argues that by the five-year mark, an expat who hasn't intentionally made value-based decisions is in a dangerous state of drift. The social and professional ecosystems you left behind have moved on, while the new one abroad is making demands, trying to slot you into a role. Thinking you can float between these worlds without consequence is a delusion. The real work is turning the ambiguity of being an outsider into a firm choice about who you are. This is for anyone who has realized their life abroad was built by accident. — Join the newsletter and read the essays: https://12yearsout.com Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 Follow Cole on X: https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    Year 5 is the Real Test

  2. Jun 24

    One Ambulance per 40,000 Citizens

    There's one ambulance per 40,000 citizens in Shanghai, a stark reminder of the stability Americans often sacrifice for opportunity when moving abroad. Dr. Cole Puterbaugh frames expatriation not as a simple adventure but as a deliberate trade-off. He argues that even a disliked job in your home country offers a predictability most people don't notice until it’s gone. Moving overseas brings opportunity—qualitative (enrichment, travel) or quantitative (early retirement, higher pay)—but it creates a vacuum where stability once was. Cole warns against the “compounding absence” of this support, using the cautionary tale of aging expats in Thailand as a grim example of a life lived only for the wrong kind of opportunity. For anyone weighing a life overseas, the real question isn't what you'll gain, but what you're prepared to lose. — Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 Follow Cole on X: https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    One Ambulance per 40,000 Citizens

  3. Jun 10

    Driving in China is HELL

    In China, you can have a green light and still be found 40% at fault for hitting a scooter that ran a red light. That single event contains a cultural logic completely alien to the West. Dr. Cole Puterbaugh uses the daily act of driving in Shanghai to decode the unwritten rules of Chinese society. What looks like aggressive selfishness—cars pushing into lanes, pedestrians ignoring traffic—is often a symptom of a different social contract. In a place of extreme population density, the Western idea of an individual’s 'right-of-way' gives way to a system of shared, hierarchical responsibility. The bigger you are, Cole explains, the more responsibility you bear, shifting the onus of safety from the jaywalker to the driver. It is a system built not on abstract laws, but on immediate, concentric circles of relationships. This is a world governed by a logic of social obligation, not individual rights. — Join the newsletter and read the essays: https://12yearsout.com Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 Follow Cole on X: https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    Driving in China is HELL

  4. Jun 2

    The Instagram Lie About Life Abroad

    An encounter with fentanyl users in Philadelphia reveals a hard truth about the idyllic 'life abroad' sold by Instagram influencers. Dr. Cole Puterbaugh argues that the curated perfection on social media is a lie designed to capture your attention. The promise of escape is a fantasy; in reality, life overseas is not an upgrade but a trade-off. "You cannot escape the challenges in front of you," Cole says. "You can only trade them for other challenges." From the air pollution of Southeast Asia to the chaotic traffic in unnamed cities, the daily reality of being an outsider involves friction. This episode contrasts the monetizable visuals of online creators with the uncomfortable, non-Instagrammable truths of global life—from ubiquitous poverty to rising anti-foreigner sentiment. It asks a critical question for any aspiring expat: are you running from your problems, or are you consciously choosing a new set of them? — Join the newsletter and read the essays: https://12yearsout.com Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 Follow Cole on X: https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    The Instagram Lie About Life Abroad

  5. May 26

    Leaving Your Home Country is Overrated

    The dream of moving abroad to escape a bad job or a bad boss often ends with a flight home in failure—or worse, a mess for someone else to clean up. Many aspiring expats imagine a new life in Thailand or China will solve their problems, but Dr. Cole Puterbaugh argues this is a flimsy premise for uprooting a life. The lived reality of being an outsider, navigating inconvenient isolation, and losing your familiar support systems is a trade-off many fail to properly weigh. Drawing on his own 12 years in China—a country he still doesn't love or hate more than the United States—Cole makes a distinction between the reasons for leaving and the reasons for staying. He contends that if you are running from loneliness, career frustration, or family drama, those problems will inevitably follow. You participate in your own problems, and they will replicate themselves in a new location. Leaving your country only works if you are intentionally transitioning to a new community, not just fleeing the old one. This is a sober argument for anyone who has ever looked at a plane ticket as a solution. — Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 Follow Cole on X: https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    Leaving Your Home Country is Overrated

  6. May 19

    How to Make it Through Your First Year Abroad

    How do you survive your first year living abroad?In this episode of 12 Years Out with Cole Puterbaugh, I talk about what actually matters during your first year overseas. Living abroad is not just about opportunity or freedom. It is an emotional shift where everything becomes more intense. The highs feel higher and the difficult moments feel heavier.I break down the role of community, why learning the language changes your experience, and how to balance comfort with discomfort. I also talk about why you need something to move toward, not just something you are trying to leave behind.This episode is for anyone considering moving abroad or trying to make sense of their first year living in a new country.Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lOApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsoutX (Twitter):https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    How to Make it Through Your First Year Abroad

  7. May 12

    Who You Become When You Leave Home

    Who do you become when you leave your home country? In this episode of 12 Years Out with Cole Puterbaugh, I explore how living abroad reshapes identity over time. You don’t just relocate—you begin to evolve into something different. Some people become builders, creating a new life in a new place. Others become returners, eventually pulled back home. And some remain in a constant state of transition, never fully rooted anywhere. Drawing on personal experience and real stories, I break down how these paths develop, why they happen, and what it takes to build a stable identity while living abroad. This episode looks at the deeper psychological and cultural shifts that come with leaving home—and what it means for your long-term sense of self. Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout X (Twitter):https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    Who You Become When You Leave Home

  8. May 5

    What Culture Shock Actually Feels Like (After Year 1)

    What does culture shock actually feel like after the first year abroad? In this episode of 12 Years Out with Cole Puterbaugh, I explore the deeper reality of cultural adaptation once the initial excitement fades. Culture shock isn’t just about confusion or discomfort—it’s about realizing that what you thought was “logical” is actually learned behavior shaped by your environment. Drawing on real experiences living abroad, I break down how small, everyday moments—like navigating a bank, crossing the street, or dealing with minor annoyances—reveal much larger differences in how people think and act. Over time, those small differences compound and begin to shape whether you can truly adapt to a new system. If you don’t develop new ways of interpreting the world around you, you won’t last. This episode looks at what it really takes to adjust, and why so many people struggle to do it. Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4b4FiiXIUDscBAVHIDO3lO Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/12-years-out-with-cole-puterbaugh/id1891583275 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@12yearsout X (Twitter):https://x.com/coleputerbaugh

    What Culture Shock Actually Feels Like (After Year 1)
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About

Thinking about leaving your home country? 12 Years Out with Cole Puterbaugh explores the real cost, tradeoffs, and consequences of life abroad. With 12+ years overseas, a cross-cultural family, and PhD-level insight, Cole breaks down freedom, isolation, identity, and opportunity beyond surface-level expat stories. Each 15–30 minute episode covers relocation, cultural adaptation, global education, and high-stakes life decisions, all oriented towards helping you understand what trade-offs of living abroad.

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