The Metro: Detroiter on becoming the first Black woman to visit all 195 countries

International travel is an easier concept to wrap your head around when you’re from Detroit. There’s a whole other country that’s only a short drive or boat ride away.  It takes less than 30 minutes on a good day to get to Canada. 

For many of the people who call Detroit home, it’s something that is often taken for granted, yet it’s the first time many have traveled internationally.

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Jessica Nabongo is a writer, travel expert and Detroit native. Jessica was bitten by the travel bug after her first trip to Canada as a child. Years later she’s done something only a handful of people in the world have had the opportunity to accomplish. She’s been to all 195 countries and she’s the first Black woman to do so.

She joined The Metro on Wednesday to share her travel experiences. Nabongo’s parents are from Uganda and helped expose her to many different cultures and destinations when she was a kid, she said. 

“I think it removed fear, which I think a lot of people have around traveling, especially if you’ve never traveled internationally, there was just a lot of fear,” Nabongo said. “And also, like, I don’t have a fear of flying, like I’ve been flying since I think I was five or six. So those sort of, what I would consider to be fairly simple barriers, were removed for me from a pretty early age.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More headlines from The Metro on Dec. 11, 2024: 

• Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield this week announced her plans to run for mayor next year, leaving many in the city wondering: Why in a city dominated by women in politics, has a woman never been elected mayor? To discuss the challenges and experiences women in Detroit politics face, former Detroit City Council member Sheila Cockrell and former state representative and current Detroit school board member Sherry Gay-Dagnogo joined the show.
• Poet, author and community leader Rhonda Greene released a collection of popular nursery rhymes, “Are You Sleeping,” that are reimagined to teach lessons about police brutality and cultural awareness. Greene joined the show to talk about the book and her nonprofit, Heritage Works.
• WDET’s Jack Filbrandt went to Belle Isle on a freezing day last week and stepped inside the climate-controlled oasis that is the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, which reopened to the public this week. He talked to Belle Isle Conservancy CEO Megan Elliott and Amanda Treadwell from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about the recent renovations. 
• The Detroit News will announce the top 10 best new restaurants of the year tomorrow. WDET’s Ryan Patrick Hooper sat down with Detroit News Restaurant Critic Melody Baetens to get a preview of that list before it’s published.
• Navigating Detroit and our Metro area can be scary. The city itself has one of the highest pedestrian death rates and driving comes with its own risks. That’s because Detroit has some of the highest rates of fatal car crashes. Weather can make a lot of these statistics worse, with snow, rain and ice making driving all the more treacherous. To discuss how people can navigate the roads more safely this winter and what kinds of winter conditions to anticipate in the coming months, former WDIV Meteorologist Paul Gross and Gary Bubar from AAA joined the show.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.