Words Beyond Borders: The Story Behind My Multilingual Podcast Network

Between Two Worlds: Building a Bridge Beyond Borders

I grew up between France and the United States, moving between these worlds like the tides, never quite anchored to either shore. My story is about learning to find a home in the spaces between—between languages, between cultures, between belonging and wandering. It’s about the bridge I built to hold all of me, and why I chose to share my voice in both English and French through the Happiness 360 Podcast Network.

Harlem: Fire, Rhythm, and the Legacy of Dreams

In Harlem, I found my voice—a voice that rose up from the marrow, shaped by rhythm, resistance, and soul. Growing up as a Black girl in Harlem, in the years after Dr. King’s dream had been shared, and the dreamer himself shattered by a bullet, meant navigating a complex world. The ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education promised change, but the reality was more nuanced. Harlem was alive, vibrant, but also a place where we had to work to be seen, to be heard, to create our own space. Harlem gave me fire, made me bold. It taught me how to fill a room, how to let my roots dig deep even when my spirit wanted to roam. Harlem embraced me and tested my softness at the same time. And even still, I often felt untethered, as if a part of me was always drifting just beyond my grasp.

Paris: Elegance, Freedom, and the Echoes of History

When I moved to Paris, I found myself surrounded by the haloed soft shadows of memory—the Black soldiers who had fallen from the skies in Normandy to spark liberation, the reverence for jazz musicians who had channeled holiness into this new art form born from Negro spirituals, and the echo of Josephine Baker’s wind that seemed to stir around me. There was a kind of reverence in the way the French met the young Black girl from Harlem, as if they saw not just me, but the echoes of all those who had come before me.

In Paris, I learned how to listen. The quiet of the streets, the air heavy with unspoken thoughts, gave me solitude. Paris was elegance, a place where time slowed down, where I could breathe. For so many African Americans, Paris represented freedom—the chance to exist without the constant lens of race, the freedom to redefine oneself. Paris gave me that freedom too. It gave me a sense of elegance, a space to stand still and reflect. Yet, it also kept me on the outside, looking in—a visitor forever at the threshold, never quite belonging. In the hush of Paris, I found the softness in myself, the delicate truths that Harlem’s fire alone could not ignite.

The Blessing of In-Betweenness

Growing up between these worlds pulled at me, creating a subtle tension—a conflict between two ways of being, two rhythms, two tongues. I thought I had to choose. I believed that belonging meant picking a side: the fire or the stillness, Harlem or Paris, English or French. I felt torn between the places that shaped me, never fully at home in either. But there was also a blessing in this in-betweenness—a brilliance, a bountifulness that buoyed me, because I lived between these cultures. I was an outsider, yes, but also someone who could see the beauty in both.

Why I Built a Bilingual Network

But I learned—home is not about choosing. Home is the bridge you build when you refuse to choose. It is the place you create when you take the fire and the stillness, the rhythm and the quiet, and weave them together. I built my bridge—from Harlem’s fierce soil to Paris’s tender winds, from the noise to the silence, from the pieces of me that never seemed to fit. And there, in the in-between, I found my home.

That’s why the Happiness 360 Podcast Network speaks in both languages. It isn’t about convenience—it’s my soul, laying itself bare. English, sharp and direct, cuts to the truth. French, soft and round, cradles what cannot always be said. Together, they allow me to tell my story fully—my truths, my contradictions, my wanderings.

An Invitation to the In-Between

This bridge I’ve built—it is not just for me. It is for anyone who knows what it feels like to be torn between worlds, to feel the pull of different places, different selves. You don’t have to choose. You don’t have to fit neatly into a box or belong completely to one world. This podcast network is an invitation to linger in the spaces between, to hold both languages, both worlds, and see how they all come together to form something greater.

Listen in English and discover one truth. Listen in French and uncover another. Listen in both, and perhaps you will find yourself somewhere in between. That’s where I am—between Harlem and Paris, between languages, between worlds. It’s a place where I do not need to fit into anyone else’s mold. And neither do you.

So come, sit with me here, in the in-between. Let the stories unfold in the language that speaks to you. Know that no matter how you listen, you will find a piece of yourself here. In this space between belonging and wandering, we will discover the home we’ve always carried within us.

— Traciana