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Babes, how did you get here

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by April Jackson

58 episodes

Updated Daily

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Podcast Overview

🌍 Real people. Real journeys. Real lives lived elsewhere. Hosted by April Jackson — BBC presenter, entrepreneur, and former Miss Universe Jamaica — Babes, How Did You Get Here? is a high-quality podcast spotlighting the inspiring stories of everyday people who left everything behind to build a life in a new country. 🎙️ In each episode, April dives into authentic, emotional conversations with global nomads, immigrants, and dream-chasers — from a Russian woman thriving in Jamaica to a former US Marine finding purpose in Thailand. Their stories are raw, reflective, and full of powerful lessons on belonging, transformation, and the courage to start over. 📅 New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. Whether you’re an aspiring traveller, a lover of human stories, or someone seeking the motivation to explore the world, this podcast will leave you feeling inspired and deeply connected.

Language

🇺🇲

Publishing Since

11/16/2025

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Recent Episodes

June 13, 2026

Deported, Broke, Alone: How Jamaica Became My Everything (BO)

From Montreal's Michelin Dreams to Kingston's Reality: A Chef's Raw Journey of Sacrifice, Survival & Starting Over In this powerful episode of 'Babes, How Did You Get Here?', April sits down with Chef Matthew — a celebrated Canadian chef who walked away from TV fame, two thriving restaurants, and financial security in Montreal to rebuild his entire life in Jamaica with just $60,000, a French bulldog, and Japanese knives. This isn't your typical expat story. It's raw, unfiltered, and deeply honest — about addiction, recovery, reinvention, and what it really takes to start over in a country that tests you at every turn. 🔪 From rehab to restaurants: How cooking saved his life (and became his new addiction) 💰 The sacrifice: Leaving two restaurants, a TV career & financial stability at 34 ✈️ Arrival in Jamaica: Detained at customs, partnership collapsed, sleeping with a machete 🍌 Surviving on nothing: Banana & oatmeal breakfasts, tomato sandwiches, $100 left in his pocket 🌀 Hurricane Beryl: The storm that saved him from deportation 📄 The bureaucracy: 8 months to get a work permit, navigating Jamaica's "fuckery" 🍽️ Building a reputation: His first dinner, $1,000 from mom, and earning his place 💔 Dating in Jamaica: Culture shock, rent requests, and redefining what he's looking for 🏡 Finding home: Why Kingston feels more like himself than Montreal ever did 🇯🇲 Earning your place: What it means to truly belong in Jamaica Matthew opens up about the toxic hospitality industry, his relationship with weed and alcohol, why he'll never open a high-end restaurant in Jamaica (yet), and how moving here forced him to redefine success, happiness, and what it means to feel at home. 📚 For more details on parenting course: https://april-s-site-fcfd.thinkific.com This is more than a chef's story. It's about choosing yourself when everything falls apart. It's about trusting the process even when you're down to your last dollar. It's about finding peace in discomfort and building a life that honors who you really are — not who you thought you should be. Whether you've ever thought about leaving everything behind, struggled with addiction and reinvention, or wondered what it takes to truly belong somewhere new — this episode will challenge you, inspire you, and remind you that sometimes the hardest journeys lead to the most honest versions of ourselves. 👉 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more real-life stories of courage, transformation, and finding home far from where you started. #ChefLife #Jamaica #ExpatLife #HowDidYouGetHere #AprilJackson #Montreal #CanadianChef #StartingOver #Recovery #AddictionRecovery #KingstonJamaica #CaribbeanLife #Reinvention #ChefStories #RealStories #Podcast #LifeAbroad #Sacrifice #FindingHome #JamaicanCulture

June 9, 2026

Didn't Know Jamaica Existed, Now I'm Selling Out Korean Food Pop-Ups in Kingston

What happens when a Korean girl who dreamed of being Oprah lands in Kingston, speaking zero patois, knowing nothing about Jamaica except what Google told her — and decides to stay longer than planned? 📚 To join the Parenting community: https://april-s-site-fcfd.thinkific.com In this warm and deeply personal episode of "Babes, How Did You Get Here?", April sits down with Herim — a South Korea-born UN Volunteer, content creator, and Korean food pop-up queen who: Googled her way into a UNESCO job in Jamaica Sold out 180 portions of bibimbap in an hour Learned to be proud of where she's from by living somewhere that celebrates itself unapologetically From leaving home at 14 to chase an Oprah-sized dream, to living in New Zealand, New York, and Boston, to choosing Jamaica over Fiji and Mongolia (even though it was her third choice), Herim opens up about belonging, identity, the $100 grocery bill that shocked her, and why she stopped using her English name after years of trying to fit in. We talk about: ✈️ Leaving South Korea at 14 because Oprah's story on a plane to Switzerland changed everything 🎓 High school in New Zealand, university in Boston, and always knowing she'd leave home 🇺🇸 Losing her US work visa after a year and returning to Korea in a quarter-life crisis 🌍 Applying to the UN Volunteers Program and picking Jamaica as her third choice — based on the job, not the country 📊 Googling "safety Jamaica", seeing the homicide stats, then talking to real people and deciding to see for herself 🛫 The 25-hour journey from her island in South Korea to Kingston (and why her mom thought Jamaica was in Africa) 🥥 Arriving in June during hurricane season: heat, humidity, and a $40 grocery bill for eggs, chicken, and coconut water 🛒 Shopping at Coronation Market, missing Korean food for the first time, and stuffing ingredients into her suitcase from the US 🍚 Hosting two sold-out Korean food pop-ups — 60, then 180 portions of kimchi fried rice, bibimbap, tteokbokki & hotteok How Jamaicans' pride in their culture made her more proud to be Korean 🎉 Her first Grand Gala: a stadium full of black, green, and gold, gospel, Bob Marley, and an energy she'd never felt before 🪪 Why she stopped using her English name "Henna" and started introducing herself as Herim — "clever forest", the name her Buddhist monk grandfather gave her 🏝️ Why she extended her stay in Jamaica — and why she's now moving to Bulgaria 💑 Long distance with her boyfriend in the US for three years — and how Jamaica actually made it easier 🌊 Her "postcard moment": alone on a Caribbean beach, relaxed and content, with big cities, diverse people and food swirling around her like an AI-generated dream This isn't just a UN volunteer story. It's about: Choosing to be called by your real name Learning to be proud of your culture by seeing how others celebrate theirs Realizing that home isn't always where you're born — sometimes it's where people make you feel like you belong It's about $1,500 grapes, sorrel with ginger, juicy patties over Tasty (yes, we're judging), and why Jamaicans wearing flags everywhere made a Korean girl finally understand what pride looks like. Whether you're thinking about working abroad, wondering what it's like to be Asian in Jamaica, or you just love stories of reinvention, resilience, and refusing to shrink your name to make others comfortable — this episode will inspire you, make you hungry, and maybe convince you to trust real people over Google stats. 💬 Tell us in the comments: Have you ever changed your name to fit in? Would you move to a country you knew nothing about for the right job? 👀 🎧 About the show – "Babes, How Did You Get Here?" Hosted by entrepreneur & former Miss Jamaica April Jackson, this podcast dives into real, unfiltered stories of people who left the script — swapping comfort for courage and choosing a life "elsewhere". New episodes every week from around the world. Chapters: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: A Korean Journey to the Caribbean 00:00:50 Leaving Home at 14: The Oprah-Inspired Dream 00:04:47 The US Work Visa Crisis and Returning to Korea 00:07:25 Finding Purpose: The Path to the United Nations 00:09:51 The Application: Fiji, Mongolia, or Jamaica? 00:12:27 The Decision: Safety, Distance, and Belonging 00:20:25 Arrival and First Impressions: Heat, Humidity, and Housing 00:25:21 Sharing Korean Culture Through Food 00:32:17 Life in Jamaica: Relationships, Carnival, and Community 00:34:47 Lessons Learned: Pride, Culture, and What's Next 00:35:46 From Henna to Herim: Reclaiming Identity 00:41:02 The Grand Gala: Understanding Jamaican Pride #howdidyougethere #AprilJackson #KoreanInJamaica #JamaicaLiving #ExpatLife #UNVolunteers #UNESCO #SouthKorea #KoreanFood #PopUpDinner #KingstonJamaica #DigitalNomad #CulturalIdentity #Bibimbap #Tteokbokki #GrandGala #JamaicanPride #AsianInJamaica #Reinvention #RealStories #Podcast #FindingHome #CoronationMarket #LifeAbroad #Bulgaria #CaribbeanLife #ThirdChoice

June 5, 2026

England Saw A Black Man. Africa Saw A Star

He came to South Africa for a wedding. He stayed for 10 years — and never looked back. From being invisible in England to becoming a household name across 4 continents, Hakeem Kae-Kazim tells the most unfiltered version of his story yet. Racism in the UK industry. Surviving a car crash in the Namibian desert. Delivering his own baby at 2AM on his couch. Choosing Africa over Hollywood. This episode goes there. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ What we cover: Arriving in South Africa for a wedding — and never leaving Why Black actors are quietly escaping England The glass ceiling nobody in the UK wants to admit exists Becoming famous overnight from one TV commercial Don Cheadle inviting him to his house as a nobody The car crash in Namibia that changed everything Delivering his own baby at 2AM with his bare hands Why he chose Cape Town over Hollywood Growing up Nigerian in England — and being told to forget his roots What Africa gave him that England never could The truth about apartheid's shadow still living in South Africa AI, the future of acting, and what nobody in Hollywood is saying Raising three daughters across 4 countries Why he will never move back to England ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ REAL TALK: This episode will make you question everything. Some will relate to every single word. Others will strongly disagree. But whether you agree or not — this conversation forces real questions about race, identity, ambition, fatherhood, and what people are silently searching for when they leave home. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would YOU ever leave your country and never look back? Do you think England gives Black creatives a fair chance? Has living abroad changed the way you see "home"? Drop your thoughts below 👇 We read every single one. Share this with someone secretly thinking about leaving the UK. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ About the show — "Babes, How Did You Get Here?" Hosted by entrepreneur & former Miss Jamaica April Jackson, this podcast explores the raw, emotional, and often uncomfortable stories behind people who chose a life elsewhere. New episodes every week from around the world. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #SouthAfrica #BlackBritish #ExpatLife #LeavingEngland #HakeemKaeKazim #Africa #HotelRwanda #BlackActors #Nollywood #MovingAbroad #Diaspora #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #UKvsAfrica #LifeAbroad #NigerianBritish #BlackExcellence #Fatherhood #Acting #BlackDiaspora #Identity #Hollywood #CapeTowen #AfricanCulture #BlackCreatives

58 total episodes available

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What is Babes, how did you get here?: 🌍 Real people. Real journeys. Real lives lived elsewhere. Hosted by April Jackson — BBC presenter, entrepreneur, and former Miss Universe Jamaica — Babes, How Did You Get Here? is a high-quality podcast spotlighting the inspiring stories of everyday people who left everything behind to build a life in a new country.

🎙️ In each episode, April dives into authentic, emotional conversations with global nomads, immigrants, and dream-chasers — from a Russian woman thriving in Jamaica to a former US Marine finding purpose in Thailand. Their stories are raw, reflective, and full of powerful lessons on belonging, transformation, and the courage to start over.

📅 New episodes every Wednesday and Sunday. Whether you’re an aspiring traveller, a lover of human stories, or someone seeking the motivation to explore the world, this podcast will leave you feeling inspired and deeply connected.
How often does this podcast release new episodes?: This podcast updates daily.
Where can I listen to this podcast?: This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
Does this podcast accept guests?: Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.

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