This is the final episode of The Auto Ethnographer podcast.

After 53 episodes exploring the human stories of expats, cross-cultural professionals, and the quiet logic behind unfamiliar behavior, I am closing this chapter. Not because the stories stopped mattering. Because the urgency has shifted.

In this final episode, we take a global tour of ageism. The numbers are stark:

USA: 64% of workers over 50 have experienced age discrimination (AARP). 22% report being actively pushed out of their jobs.

Germany: 90% of older job seekers encounter age discrimination during interviews. The working-age population will shrink by 4.3 million by 2036.

China: The "Curse of 35" means age discrimination begins at 35, not 50 or 60. The civil service hiring age limit was raised from 35 to 38 in 2025 for the first time in three decades.

Japan: 30% of the population is 65 and older. In 2024, adult diapers outsold baby diapers.

We hear from Dan Pontefract, author of "The Future of Work Is Grey," who was told by a Bank of Japan economist: "When you go back to Canada, make sure you tell your people not to do what Japan is doing." He calls this the Age Debt Crisis — spanning demographic disruption, ageism, longevity, and the loss of institutional wisdom when older workers are pushed out.

And we return to a past conversation with HR recruiter Kelvin Nguyen, who describes how Vietnam — a culture that once venerated age and experience — has seen the threshold for being "too old" drop from 45 to 35 in just a few years. Technology and AI have reshuffled the value equation. Efficiency now overrides tradition.

I started Ageism Survival Guide because I watched scores of friends and peers pushed out of work in 2025. Professionals over 50, with decades of experience, finding themselves on the outside of a system they spent their lives building. They need practical help adapting to a new life over 50 and navigating what a next career might look like.

The Auto Ethnographer taught me how to listen across cultures. Ageism Survival Guide is where I apply that listening to people who need answers now.

Thank you to every listener who has been part of this journey. The curiosity, the cultural humility, and the belief that human stories transcend borders — those values are not going anywhere. They are moving with me. I hope you will come along.

Ageism Survival Guide:

Homepage: https://www.ageismsurvivalguide.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AgeismSurvivalGuide

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ageism-survival-guide

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ageismsurvivalguide

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ageismsurvivalguide/

To learn more about Dan Pontefract:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danpontefract/

Homepage including book listing: https://www.danpontefract.com/the-future-of-work-is-grey/

To learn more about Nguyen Ngo The Cong (Kelvin):

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/congngoheadhunt/

Four years ago, I moved abroad. Three weeks ago, I went back for a visit.

In Episode 51, I told you I was returning to the United States with a certain degree of hesitation. I had some honest apprehensions about what I would find. And I promised to bring you back a full report.

This is that report.

After four years of living overseas, returning to your home country is not the simple homecoming you might expect. The country changes while you are away. You change too. And those two movements do not always move in the same direction.

Using the W-curve model of intercultural adjustment as our framework, this episode explores what happens when a changed self steps back into a changed place. What your fresh eyes confirm. What surprises you. And what simply stands out.

I focused on three areas. The first was scale. The United States is large. But after four years calibrated to life in Bangkok, just how large? From Jazz Fest in New Orleans to the roads of Pennsylvania, the answer became clear very quickly. The second area was social interaction. Am I still the same person in an American social environment? Has four years abroad reshaped how I engage, observe, and respond? The third area was the political and cultural atmosphere. From the news and social media, you would imagine two countries. But what does the ground actually look like?

I will not give away what I found in this description – you will have to watch! But I will tell you that some of what I expected was confirmed. And some of what I expected most, was not.

This episode is for anyone living abroad, planning to move abroad, or simply curious about what it means to return home after a long time away. Reverse culture shock is real. But so is the clarity that distance gives you.

LEARN MORE

Website: https://auto-ethnographer.com

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-auto-ethnographer

YOUR TICKET ABROAD

Thinking about making the move overseas? My comprehensive video course, Your Ticket Abroad, was built to answer the questions I wish someone had answered for me. Filmed in Bangkok, Thailand. Available now at: https://www.auto-ethnographer.com/your-ticket-abroad-course

What does it feel like to return home for a visit after years of living abroad? In this episode of The Auto Ethnographer, John Jörn Stech prepares to board a plane back to the United States — his home country — and discovers something unexpected: he is approaching the trip the way he would approach a country he has never visited before. With research, anticipation, and a degree of hesitation he did not expect to feel.

"Returning home is not that simple, comfortable event that everyone around you expects it to be. It's one of the more quietly demanding experiences in the life of a global professional. And almost nobody talks about it."

Drawing on the W-curve model of intercultural adjustment (Gullahorn & Gullahorn, 1963), this episode explores reverse culture shock — why coming home can be as disorienting as moving abroad, and why almost nobody prepares for it. When your mental image of home freezes at the moment you leave, and you spend years absorbing a different cultural logic, you return not as the person who left — but as someone genuinely changed.

"You're not bringing your old self back to an unchanged place. You're bringing a changed self back to a changed place. And the collision of those two changes is what creates reverse culture shock."

Three anticipations shape this episode: the physical scale of the United States after years in Bangkok, the warmth and openness of American social interaction seen through recalibrated eyes, and the challenge of stepping back into a country in the middle of a deeply public conversation about its own values — without falling into nostalgia or reflexive rejection.

"The stereotypes that are the most difficult to resist are not the ones about unfamiliar cultures. They are the ones about the culture that formed you — the ones you carry without even knowing that you are carrying them."

John Jörn Stech also shares the deeply personal dimensions of this homecoming: attending the New Orleans Jazz Festival for the first time, celebrating his daughter's graduation from medical school, and visiting his son and future daughter-in-law in their first home together.

The Auto Ethnographer will pause for 2 to 3 weeks. New episodes return in the second half of May.

🎓 Ready to make the move abroad? Your Ticket Abroad — the complete guide for global professionals: https://www.auto-ethnographer.com/your-ticket-abroad-course

🌐 The Auto Ethnographer: https://www.auto-ethnographer.com/

🔗 Connect with the Auto Ethnographer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-auto-ethnographer

🔗 Connect with John Jörn Stech on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-stech-drive-electric/