England Saw A Black Man. Africa Saw A Star

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

They Moved to Jamaica at 8 and 9 — Now They're Competing for Jamaica Internationally

Two Canadian kids land in Jamaica at 8 and 9 years old. No choice. No warning. No idea what was coming. Ten years later, they're still here — navigating identity, belonging, and what it means to grow up between worlds. Alexandra and Scarlett moved to Jamaica from Montreal in 2015. One day they were eating dumplings in Canada, the next they were the only white kids at Mona Prep, getting swarmed by classmates who wanted to touch their hair. They went from closed Canadian school buildings to open air classrooms with grills and shutters. From musical theatre and soccer to Junior School Challenge Quiz and memorizing Jamaican proverbs at 6:45 AM. From being tourists at all inclusives to representing Jamaica internationally in equestrian competitions. Now 19 and 17, they've built entire lives here. Alexandra teaches piano, stage manages productions, and is launching her own children's performing arts camp. Scarlett rides horses competitively and wears the Jamaican flag abroad — even though she's not technically Jamaican. But the question remains: where do they actually belong? In this honest and surprisingly funny conversation, they talk about what it's really like to grow up in a country you didn't choose, build a career in a place with fewer competitors, and navigate identity when you're not quite Canadian anymore but not fully Jamaican either. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: Moving to Jamaica at 8 and 9 with no real explanation Being the first white kids many classmates had ever seen The culture shock of open air schools and touching hair Junior School Challenge Quiz and memorizing Jamaican history at 6 AM Learning patois proverbs and current affairs to compete Representing Jamaica internationally in equestrian sports Teaching piano in Jamaica vs competing in Canada Why it's easier to build a creative career here The trauma of finding maggots in a school patty Juicy vs Tasty patty debate (and why one of them will never eat patties) Curry goat vs oxtail (it's about price and consistency) Sorrel vs eggnog at Christmas What they miss about Canada (dumplings and musical theatre) What they'll miss about Jamaica when they leave Growing up between cultures and not fully belonging to either Where home actually is after 10 years abroad ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode is about what happens when kids don't get a choice. It's about adapting, surviving, and eventually thriving in a place that wasn't part of the plan. It's about building identity when you're caught between two worlds, and realizing that "home" might not be a place at all. Whether you moved as a kid, raised third culture kids, or have ever felt like you don't fully belong anywhere — this conversation will make you laugh, think, and maybe reconsider what it really means to call a place home. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Did you move countries as a kid? Do you think kids adapt easier than adults? Where do you actually feel like you belong? Drop your thoughts below 👇 We read every single one. 🔁 Share this with someone who grew up between cultures. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 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. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: #Jamaica #Canada #ThirdCultureKids #ExpatLife #MovingAbroad #GrowingUpAbroad #MonaPrep #JamaicanIdentity #CanadianExpats #Kingston #LifeInJamaica #CulturalIdentity #BelongingNowhere #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #RaisingKidsAbroad #ExpatKids #JamaicaLife #IdentityCrisis #BetweenWorlds #HomeIsWhereYouMakeIt #PerformingArts #EquestrianLife #ModernMigration

From Football Dreams to Testicular Cancer: A Japanese Expat's Journey in Cambodia

A Japanese man dreams of becoming a professional footballer. A street gang attack derails everything at 17. He ends up in Cambodia, survives testicular cancer, navigates divorce, and discovers his life purpose through photography, community, and human connection. Shunsuke, known as Taki, was on track to become a professional footballer in Japan when a random act of violence shattered his ankle and his dream. One day before his trial, a street gang attacked him, leaving him with a broken ankle and torn ligaments. But what could have been the end became a beginning. From advertising executive in Tokyo to country director in Phnom Penh, Taki traded the suffocating pressure of Japanese corporate culture for the chaotic freedom of Cambodia. He built a community through photography, nerd nights, and football, documented everyday life in the streets of Phnom Penh, and gained 50,000 Instagram followers overnight with a single photo of his son. But life abroad wasn't easy. Divorce. Distance from his children. And then, testicular cancer. He went through chemotherapy in Phnom Penh, lost all his hair, kept working, and rang the bell cancer free on Christmas Eve 2023. Now, nine years into his Cambodian life, Taki is building a creative co op called Hitonami, mobilizing photographers, designers, and change makers to solve social issues through creativity and purpose. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: From football dreams to street gang violence at 17 The doctor who healed him in 2 months and changed his philosophy Finding his attacker at Yokohama Station and getting revenge Why he chose Cambodia over Europe or America First impressions: red soil, tuk tuks, and BBQ on the streets The generous man who was killed and finding purpose through photography Building community through Nerd Night as an outsider Living in Japan vs Cambodia: the crushing weight of social norms The Instagram photo that got him 50K followers overnight Divorce, distance, and raising kids from another country Testicular cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy in Phnom Penh Losing hair, gaining perspective, and ringing the bell cancer free Lifestyle changes: quitting smoking, drinking less, cooking more Why he'll never go back to Japan Starting Hitonami: a creative co op with purpose Online scams, mafia, and social issues in Cambodia The privilege of risk and entrepreneurship realities Life purpose: meeting people and widening perspectives ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode is about resilience, reinvention, and refusing to give up. It's about what happens when your dream gets taken away, when your body betrays you, when your family is thousands of miles away, and you still choose to keep going. Whether you've ever thought about leaving your home country, survived something that nearly broke you, or wondered what it really takes to start over in a place where nobody knows you — this conversation will challenge you, inspire you, and remind you that life is about the people you meet and the perspectives you gain. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would you move to a country you'd never visited before? Have you ever had a dream taken away from you? What would your life postcard look like? Drop your thoughts below 👇 We read every single one. 🔁 Share this with someone who needs to hear this story. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 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. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: CHAPTERS * 00:01:46 Living in Japan vs Cambodia: The Pressure of Social Norms * 00:04:42 The Street Gang Attack That Ended His Football Career * 00:09:05 The Doctor Who Healed Him in 2 Months Instead of 10 * 00:15:43 Revenge at Yokohama Station: Finding the Gang Member * 00:19:51 Why He Chose Cambodia Over Europe or America * 00:21:59 First Impressions: Red Soil, Tuk Tuks & BBQ on the Streets * 00:29:46 The Generous Who Was Killed & Finding His Purpose Through Photography * 00:24:36 Nerd Night & Building Community as an Outsider * 00:28:13 The Instagram Photo That Got Him 50K Followers Overnight * 00:37:48 Divorce, Distance & Raising Kids From Another Country * 00:47:40 Starting Hitonami: A Creative Co op With Purpose #Cambodia #Japan #PhnomPenh #ExpatLife #CancerSurvivor #Reinvention #Photography #Entrepreneurship #LeavingJapan #SoutheastAsia #TesticularCancer #Chemotherapy #Divorce #RaisingKidsAbroad #CreativeCommunity #SocialChange #LifeAbroad #JapaneseExpat #CambodiaLife #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #LifePurpose #HumanConnection #StartingOver #BuildingCommunity #CancerFree #ModernMigration

Kai Charles #2

A Black British woman leaves London with two suitcases, no job, nowhere to live — and builds an entirely new life in Dubai. What started as a one-year plan turned into nine years abroad, multiple careers, identity shifts, burnout, reinvention, and one brutally honest realization: “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London.” Kai Charles grew up in West London, worked corporate jobs at companies like The Economist, and dreamed of building a music career. But despite doing everything “right” — good grades, university, stable career — something still felt deeply wrong. So she left. In this raw, controversial, and deeply honest conversation, Kai opens up about the realities of leaving the UK, the emotional cost of migration, Black British identity, why Dubai felt safer than London, and the uncomfortable truths many people are too scared to say out loud. From surviving Dubai with no plan, no apartment, and only £4,000 in savings… to navigating the music industry, COVID lockdowns, corporate burnout, loneliness abroad, and the question of whether “home” still feels like home — this episode goes there. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: Leaving London with no job and no apartment Why corporate life felt “soul destroying” Working at The Economist before quitting everything Trying to survive as an independent singer in Dubai The hidden reality of gig culture and artist burnout Why Dubai felt safer than the UK The culture shock of raising children in Dubai “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London” The difference between Black British and Caribbean identity Why so many ambitious people are quietly leaving the UK COVID in Dubai vs London: why she chose to stay The loneliness nobody talks about when moving abroad Why London now feels “slow, unsafe and depressing” Soft life culture vs survival mode Why Dubai changed her forever The emotional reality of starting over abroad Building community as a Black woman overseas Why she no longer sees the UK the same way ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode will probably trigger people. Some will completely understand everything Kai is saying. Others will strongly disagree. But whether you agree or not, this conversation opens up real questions about identity, safety, ambition, burnout, race, migration, and what people are silently searching for when they leave home. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would YOU ever leave your country and start over? Do you think London is still a good place to raise children? 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. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Dubai #London #BlackBritish #ExpatLife #LeavingTheUK #DubaiLife #BlackWomen #MovingAbroad #SoftLife #LondonLife #BlackExcellence #Diaspora #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #UKvsDubai #LifeAbroad #BritishCulture #EntrepreneurLife #WomenWhoMove #DubaiPodcast #BlackDiaspora #Identity #SelfDevelopment #BlackProfessionals #ModernMigration

Why I’d NEVER Raise Black Children In London

A Black British woman leaves London with two suitcases, no job, nowhere to live — and builds an entirely new life in Dubai. What started as a one-year plan turned into nine years abroad, multiple careers, identity shifts, burnout, reinvention, and one brutally honest realization: “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London.” Kai Charles grew up in West London, worked corporate jobs at companies like The Economist, and dreamed of building a music career. But despite doing everything “right” — good grades, university, stable career — something still felt deeply wrong. So she left. In this raw, controversial, and deeply honest conversation, Kai opens up about the realities of leaving the UK, the emotional cost of migration, Black British identity, why Dubai felt safer than London, and the uncomfortable truths many people are too scared to say out loud. From surviving Dubai with no plan, no apartment, and only £4,000 in savings… to navigating the music industry, COVID lockdowns, corporate burnout, loneliness abroad, and the question of whether “home” still feels like home — this episode goes there. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: Leaving London with no job and no apartment Why corporate life felt “soul destroying” Working at The Economist before quitting everything Trying to survive as an independent singer in Dubai The hidden reality of gig culture and artist burnout Why Dubai felt safer than the UK The culture shock of raising children in Dubai “I’d NEVER raise Black children in London” The difference between Black British and Caribbean identity Why so many ambitious people are quietly leaving the UK COVID in Dubai vs London: why she chose to stay The loneliness nobody talks about when moving abroad Why London now feels “slow, unsafe and depressing” Soft life culture vs survival mode Why Dubai changed her forever The emotional reality of starting over abroad Building community as a Black woman overseas Why she no longer sees the UK the same way ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode will probably trigger people. Some will completely understand everything Kai is saying. Others will strongly disagree. But whether you agree or not, this conversation opens up real questions about identity, safety, ambition, burnout, race, migration, and what people are silently searching for when they leave home. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would YOU ever leave your country and start over? Do you think London is still a good place to raise children? 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. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: CHAPTERS * 00:00:00 Introduction * 00:01:25 Leaving London With Two Suitcases * 00:04:49 Corporate Burnout & Music Dreams * 00:06:16 “I Got Sick Of Being Sick In London” * 00:07:38 Moving To Dubai With No Plan * 00:10:57 Finding An Apartment In 5 Days * 00:14:14 Why Dubai Felt Different * 00:17:07 How The Dubai Music Industry Really Works * 00:20:14 Sacrificing Artistry To Survive * 00:21:51 Why She Quit Singing * 00:23:19 COVID Destroyed The Industry * 00:26:17 Why She Stayed In Dubai During Lockdown * 00:28:04 Returning To London After Living Abroad * 00:29:59 How Dubai Changed Her Personality * 00:31:03 The Moment She Realized She’d Never Move Back * 00:33:02 Why Corporate Life Never Fulfilled Her * 00:39:09 Searching For Purpose Beyond Money * 00:40:01 Family Reactions To Her Leaving * 00:41:20 Why So Many People Are Moving To Dubai * 00:43:17 Parenting, Culture Shock & Children In Dubai * 00:47:47 “I’d NEVER Raise Black Children In London” * 00:50:02 Why The West No Longer Feels Appealing * 00:51:11 Black British Identity Explained ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Dubai #London #BlackBritish #ExpatLife #LeavingTheUK #DubaiLife #BlackWomen #MovingAbroad #SoftLife #LondonLife #BlackExcellence #Diaspora #Podcast #AprilJackson #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #UKvsDubai #LifeAbroad #BritishCulture #EntrepreneurLife #WomenWhoMove #DubaiPodcast #BlackDiaspora #Identity #SelfDevelopment #BlackProfessionals #ModernMigration