On the final days of a group trip to Salvador, Brazil, Peuge finds exactly the kind of person On Location was built for: someone whose life story unfolds like a masterclass in service, curiosity, and the power of showing up somewhere new.
Regina Jackson spent nearly 30 years running a youth development center, served as CEO of a national environmental health nonprofit, was appointed as Oakland's inaugural police commissioner and used that role to fire the police chief, received the President's Service Award, was named to Ebony's Power 100, and had a street named after her. She also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro on sabbatical, has been to South Africa six times, was given land in Cameroon after tracing her African ancestry, and is now on a book tour for her bestselling title Unleashed Potential, which just received a foreword from Steph Curry.
She has been to every continent except Antarctica. She does not count countries because there are too many.
But this conversation goes deeper than the resume. Regina talks about what it felt like to see the favelas of Salvador up close: the radical economic separation, the way families hold onto place-based identity across generations, and what that teaches you about home. She speaks about colorism in Brazil and the broader, painful work of cultural erasure. She shares how a month-long trip to Europe at 16, chosen by her mother as an alternative to a cotillion, bit her with a travel bug she has never recovered from. And she talks about how she has taken young people out of the country, convinced school districts to award high school credits for travel, and pushed parents not to let their own fear become a ceiling for their children's possibilities.
Regina's message is simple and uncompromising: do not wait. The world is small if you are willing to step into it, and the best version of yourself is usually waiting somewhere you have never been.
This is On Location. Real people, real places, real conversations.
Follow and Listen to On Location With Atomics Travels
Instagram: @chnoent
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
iHeart
YouTube
Contact us: [email protected]
Call us: (267) 860-9481
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.