Exchange students aren’t just the butt of jokes in American teen comedies. They’re young people going through one of the most transformative experiences life has to offer. Expanding it to more children – dare we say, to all children? – could change not just them, but the world.

Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia was dropped in Iowa from the newly broken-up Soviet Union in 1993. Borderline host Isabelle Roughol landed in New Jersey two weeks before 9/11. They reminisce and reflect on the impact of those formative years and share guidance for young people leaving home now – or returning, changed. 

00:00 Intro

01:23 Pandemic and cancer

04:01 Vulnerability and what it means to be there for one another

07:13 From Moscow to Africa to Iowa

12:10 Being a young stranger in a foreign land

15:14 How technology ruined it

18:39 Dreaming of a borderless world 

22:37 Imagining an universal youth exchange

24:32 How to become a Borderline member

25:36 Learning empathy through lots of cringe

32:19 The returnee’s blues & fitting in nowhere and everywhere

38:33 Outro

💪 Help out: Kate’s daughter, Masha Shishkina, is raising funds to help rare cancer patients like herself fund their treatment. Donate here.