Jeff Jenkins, a self-described “chubby” Black man with long locs in his hair, doesn’t see many people on his travel adventures that look like him, and he wants to change that.
The Florida A&M University graduate is hosting a new travel show on National Geographic called “Never Say Never” that airs on Sundays; the full season can be seen on Disney+. It is also available on Hulu.
The eight-episode debut features Jenkins living his travel dreams — white water rafting in New Zealand and immersing himself in the Maori culture, sumo wrestling in Japan and swimming with giant whale sharks in choppy waters off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
He scales a sky high cliff in the “Man of the Mountain” episode, where he travels to the Adirondack Mountains of New York to become a woodsman. Jenkins musters every ounce of strength to reach the top, saying “Push, Jeff. Push.”
And, it works.
Each episode is a test of his mental and physical ability, despite his size. He lives by a simple mantra: Life begins where your comfort zone ends. Still, the biggest challenge, he said, has been weight restrictions but he and the show’s producers worked diligently to carve a path forward.
“‘Oh, it’s all about safety. It’s all about safety,'” said Jenkins, recalling comments he’s hear about why plus-size people couldn’t do certain activities. “No, it’s not all about safety. Yes, safety is definitely important but a lot of times people just haven’t thought about it. When they think about a plus-size person, it was like we need to go lose weight.
“So I feel like our show showed them, ‘Hey man, all it took was an extra harness or a larger harness or a larger wet suit for a plus-sized person to actually enjoy this activity.’ “
FAMU offered Jenkins first international trip
At age 20, Jenkins caught his travel bug while he was a student at FAMU. The music education major went on his first international trip to Japan in 2006 during his school career and after graduating built gardens and water wells in Rwanda in 2017.
The Orlando native participated in a program formerly called Camp Adventure that provided a summer camp for American military children to stay at military bases around the world. Jenkins, 37, who’s been living in Austin, Texas, for about a decade, said the experience changed him.
Yet, his professional career began as a high school choir director. He did that for nine years but his travel cravings never waned. He then began following a friend’s social media that chronicled her globe-trotting experiences.
Every post was another poke, another tug at what Jenkins really wanted to do: Travel journalism. But he didn’t know how to fully jump into that life. He was encouraged to find his own niche, which sparked his personal account of navigating world travel as a plus-size man.
He’s hoping the show, which debuted last month, will be renewed for a second season. It’s already breaking barriers and offering representation for plus-size men and women and people of color – especially children who watch the show and want to be like “Mr. Jeff Jenkins.”
Even while traveling abroad, his FAMU roots remained tethered. He wore the university’s orange and green colors while having dinner in New Zealand and also hinted at the school a few times in the show. While in Japan and beating the taiko drums, he said the deep sound reminded him of listening to FAMU’s Marching 100 band.
The school that changed his life never left his heart. He said the show has garnered great support from viewers, including proud Rattlers who are praising the network for its diverse programming.
“If it wasn’t for FAMU, I would not have taken my first international trip,” Jenkins said. “Love is love always … I’ve found out that if somebody goes to FAMU, it’s like you’re automatically invested so it’s that same feeling, like full circle.”
Contact Reporter TaMaryn Waters at [email protected]. Follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.
