Global Travel Stories
& Life Beyond Borders

Black Travelers

Explore podcast episodes featuring Black travelers sharing experiences of living abroad, long-term travel, and cross-cultural travel around the world. Hear perspectives from across the African diaspora on identity abroad, community, and building meaningful lives across borders.

Black travelers experience the world in diverse ways shaped by culture, history, and identity across borders. In this collection from The Maverick Show, guests from across the African diaspora share stories of living abroad, long-term travel, and moving between cultures. You’ll hear the experiences of African Americans, Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as travelers from the African continent navigating global travel on their national passports. These conversations explore cross-cultural travel, the nuances of Black identity abroad, and the realities of building community and finding belonging around the world.

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153: Traveling the African Continent with Wazha Dube

With his roots in Botswana and the U.S., Wazha Dube shares his experience growing up in 6 countries on 4 continents before the age of 18, going to college in Hawaii, and then backpacking through China during the Olympics. He shares his top highlights and recommendations after years of living and traveling in China. Wazha…

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169: Traveling the World for Whisky, Growing up in Queens, and Reflecting on Genocide with Martine Volmar

In this episode, Martine conducts a whisky tasting for Matt in her apartment in Queens, NY, over a wide ranging discussion about books, art, immigrant identity, world travel, food, whisky, gender, race, and genocide. Martine takes us on her journey growing up in Queens, NY in a Haitian immigrant family, being exposed to the cultures…

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211: Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro, Ethiopian Immigrant Culture, and Why Japan is So Amazing with Tammer Abiyu

Tammer Abiyu starts by telling his parents story of participating in the resistance against the Derg regime in 1970s Ethiopia and then coming to the U.S. as refugees, meeting in Washington DC, and settling in New Jersey. He then talks about his experience growing up in an Ethiopian immigrant home in New Jersey, and navigating…

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213: Living in Afghanistan, Haiti, Myanmar and Traveling to Over 100 Countries on a Kenyan Passport with Eva Adongo

Eva Adongo joins Matt for this in-person interview in her home country of Kenya. She starts off by talking about her favorite travel experiences and recommendations inside of Kenya. Matt and Eva then talk about their respective experiences hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Next, Eva talks about growing up in Kenya, starting to travel, and…

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226: The Legacy of South African Apartheid and Healing Ancestral Money Trauma While Traveling the World with Vangile Makwakwa

Vangile Makwakwa takes us on her journey growing up under South African Apartheid, watching it fall, and then navigating institutionalized white supremacy in the post-Apartheid era. She opens up about the extent of racial trauma she experienced when working at Stellenbosch University and how it drove her leave South Africa and travel the world. Vangile…

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280: How to Live Free in a Dangerous World and Write a Decolonial Memoir with Shayla Lawson

Learn about black community building across geography & language, challenging the gender binary & decolonizing ourselves. Shayla Lawson joins Matt for a wine night and starts off talking about growing up in Kentucky, becoming a poet, traveling the world, and writing “How to Live Free in a Dangerous World: A Decolonial Memoir”. They reflect on…

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289: Founding Black Travel Summit and Telling Afro-Indigenous & Global Black Diaspora Stories with Anita Moreau

Learn about the nuances, diversity, and intersecting identities of the global Black diaspora through travel stories. Anita Moreau joins Matt from Miami and starts off talking about her parents’ experiences being born in Haiti and the Seychelles respectively, and eventually moving to London where she was born. Anita describes the diversity of the Black diaspora…

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333: Afro-Colombian Storytelling, Hidden Histories, and Traveling to Sierra Leone with Eileen Ivette

Learn about Afro-Colombian history, diaspora identity, and the impact of 3 special trips to different regions of Africa. Eileen Ivette joins Matt and starts off talking about her viral video on “How Braids Became a Secret Map for Escaping Slavery”. She then talks about her Afro-Colombian heritage, diaspora identity, and experience navigating Blackness in the…

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112: Empowering Plus-Size People to Travel the World and Co-Founding the Black Travel Alliance with Jeff Jenkins

Award-winning travel influencer Jeff Jenkins shares his story of growing up in Orlando, Florida, attending Florida A&M University, and embarking on his world travels with his first international trip to Japan. 35 countries later he reflects back on the beginning of his travel journey, and how a life-changing trip to Rwanda inspired him to quit…

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96: Founding NOMADNESS Travel Tribe for Black and Brown World-Travelers with Evita Turquoise Robinson

Evita Turquoise Robinson shares her story of how a transformative trip to France for a film workshop would change her life trajectory and set her on a path to live in Japan, Thailand and beyond. She opens up about her experience being the only Black person in a small Japanese town teaching English but how…

Dive Deeper: Explore by Community:

Hear from Palestinian and other Arab travelers navigating migration and displacement while building community across borders and cultures.

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Hear from East and Southeast Asian travelers living abroad, exploring the world, and building community across cultures and borders.

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Explore how South Asian travelers navigate family expectations, identity, and life between cultures.

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Hear from Muslim travelers about navigating faith, visibility, and global travel across diverse cultural contexts.

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Explore how Latinx travelers navigate language, culture, and belonging across borders and continents.

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Hear from Black travelers living abroad, moving between cultures, and building community across the global diaspora.

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