What does it take to build a life that holds both where you’re from and who you’re becoming? We sit with writer and public health professional Nkem Akinsoto — known to early 2010s readers as romance author Myne Whitman — to unpack identity, love, and the joy of soft living across continents. From keeping her Nigerian accent after sixteen years abroad, to raising two daughters who code-switch with ease, Nkem shows how belonging can be flexible without ever being for sale.

We trace her path from Enugu and Asaba to Edinburgh and finally Seattle, where career, family, and community finally clicked. She shares about adopting her daughters in Nigeria, the growth that parenting demanded, and how compassion replaced old edges. We dig into her prolific romance era: the balcony folk tales that primed her imagination, her fast‑devoured Mills & Boon years, and why her heroes live in fantasy rather than biography. The “billionaire sweep-you-off-your-feet” archetype becomes a lens on the broader Nigerian dream: access, relief, and room to build, balanced by her message to her girls to build their own wings, too.

Nkem also shares how being a multi‑hyphenate turned intention into impact. With her husband’s steadfast support, she launched a nonprofit that moved over ten million naira in pandemic relief, applying program design and evaluation tools from public health to accelerate real help. And yes, hers is a love story for the ages: two anonymous message‑board posters trading sharp comments and, eventually, phone numbers — proof that words can still be chemistry’s best spark.

If you’re navigating immigration, homesickness, or the pressure to blend in, this conversation offers grounded advice and hopeful realism: work where effort is rewarded, keep ties warm, and let love — romantic and communal — soften the path forward. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a friend who needs a reminder that identity can travel well. What part of your story are you choosing to keep?

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Theme Music by

• Akinoluwa Oyedele

Video & Audio Production by

• JSB Video (Season 2)
• Adode Media (Season 1)