Foreign to Familiar Part 1 w/ Sarah Lanier

Foreign to Familiar Part 1 w/ Sarah Lanier

From Amazon to the Himalayas by Paul Akin

March 11, 2026 · 25 min · Season 9 · Episode 67

About this episode

Paul Akin interviews Sarah Lanier about her book 'Foreign to Familiar' and the impact of cultural differences on communication and leadership.

Host Paul Akin interviews Sarah Lanier about her book "Foreign to Familiar" and how cultural differences affect communication, leadership, and missions. Lanier shares formative cross-cultural lessons from growing up in the Middle East, living in Amsterdam, and a painful miscommunication-filled move to Chile that led to mentoring on “hot” (relationship-focused, indirect) and “cold” (task-focused, direct) cultures. She explains why these categories matter, notes culture is only one “thread” among many that shape people, and gives practical examples of avoiding offense when saying no in relational contexts. Lanier also describes how misunderstanding these dynamics can create serious conflict, including Western-African tension in medical training settings. Mentioned in this episode: The Online PhD at Southern Seminary https://www.sbts.edu/online-phd/

People in this episode

Host: Paul Akin

Guest: Sarah Lanier

Topics covered

  • cultural differences
  • communication
  • leadership
  • missions
  • cross-cultural lessons
  • relationship-focused cultures
  • task-focused cultures

Keywords

  • cultural differences
  • communication
  • leadership
  • missions
  • cross-cultural
  • relationship-focused
  • task-focused
  • miscommunication
  • conflict

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Southern Seminary

Books & works: Foreign to Familiar

More episodes of Amazon to the Himalayas

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Amazon to the Himalayas podcast page.