Read the full transcript of Danish adventurer Thor Pedersen ‘s talk titled “What I Learned About Humanity By Visiting Every Country” at TEDxArendal 2025 conference [Mar 1, 2025].
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
The Journey Begins
THOR PEDERSEN: If I had a time machine, and only one journey, then I would use it to go back in time and try to stop myself from setting out on a highly ambitious project back in 2013. A project which would make me the first in history to reach every single country in the world in one unbroken journey completely without flying. But also a project which would end up costing me ten years of my life, or nearly ten years of my life. A project which would have me at gunpoint several times and which would leave me with trauma as meeting with people can be like a lottery. I would definitely try to stop myself from setting out on such a journey.
However, that is a paradox, because if I had not gone through everything I did, then I wouldn’t be the man that I am today, and I wouldn’t know the things that I know today.
We live in a world where more than 6,000 people have been on top of Mount Everest, and more than 600 people have been to space, but less than 400 people have been to every country in the world. Four have been twice, I have met three of them, and there are two people who found their way to every country in an unbroken journey, meaning that they did not return home until they reached the final country. I am one of those two. And there is only one person who has made it to every country in the world completely without flying.
And after today, he is also a TEDx speaker.
A People Project
I thought I set out on a country project, but I quickly realized that in reality it was a people project, and I met with thousands of strangers, which turned out to be friends. And in the end, the entire saga was only possible due to all the support and kindness from many people around the world. People, they helped me, people, they supported me. They supported me with a meal, with a place to stay, with a contact, with a translation, or even a smile when I needed it.
When you travel without flying, then you get to see what countries they meet. And there is rarely a clear difference between one side or the other. Around borders, there is often a common language. People tend to dress in the same way, they eat the same food, and a tree does not care if it grows on one side or the other. It’s actually only once you travel a fair distance into a country that you begin to feel a difference.
Cultural Connections
I traveled during the time of Game of Thrones, which was interesting. As people across borders, regardless of religion, culture, or race, they would be holding their breath waiting to see who would live and who would die in the next episode. And when fidget spinners were a thing, they were in the hands of people wherever I went. I remember seeing a young boy in Libya playing with a fidget spinner, which was colored like the shield of Captain America.
Over the years, I learned that people are just people. Wherever we go, we meet everyday people that go about with everyday life. These are people that care about family, and friends, and food, music, sports and games, and people they generally do not like it when it rains or if they get stuck in traffic.
A Connected World
Every now and again, I meet someone who says it’s a small world. As someone who spent nearly ten years navigating a flightless path through every country in the world, I feel I can guarantee you it’s definitely not small. However, I would argue that it is well connected. Within seconds, a story or an idea can make it around the world. It can be a heartfelt story, or it can be a message of pure hate.
How do we feel about people who lose everything, who lose their home in a matter of seconds due to nature’s immense powers? Do we look at those strangers and think of them as potential friends? I think that more often than not, we quickly move on to the next thing. We tend to scroll past the things that we do not care about. But what if we felt a connection to those people? Would we help? Could we help?
In my humble opinion, people are just people. And they want the same that everybody else wants. They want safety and security. They want to know that they can buy bread at the same price as they did yesterday. They want a stable income. And people, they want to know that they can call home for home as long as they wish.
Beyond the Headlines
Unfortunately, the narrative of most media will not share any of this. Maybe it’s not newsworthy. But I have also seen that the cameraman, while filming the worst in our world, will often stand in safety. And sometimes with open markets and ordinary traffic and schoolchildren safely in the background.
A stranger is a friend you’ve never met before. That was my project motto. It became a philosophy of how you meet with people. Do you show respect or do you elevate yourself before them? It’s always your choice.
If we reduce people to numbers and statistics, then we distance ourselves and we lose empathy. Divide and conquer is an age-old strategy and it works really well. But at which cost? We can divide the world until we all sit alone.
Just remember that even in the hardest part of the world, people, they fall in love. And children, they play games such as football. And in cultures far away, people, they laugh and they joke. I’ve seen this over and over again.
The Human Truth
In my humble opinion, people are just people. They care more about food and music and sports and games and family than they do about politics and religion. And I know this having sat in exactly 351 long-distance buses and many other modes of transportation while sharing food and holding babies and having conversations with locals all over the world.
When I returned home after nine years, nine months, and 16 days, I had a lot to think about. I had traveled a distance equal to going 9½ times around the planet or a full journey to the moon. And I realized that I had not been to a single country in the world where I did not meet someone who either was kind to me or assisted me with something, and often both. And I had been to every country in the world.
So I concluded that as long as we’re dealing with people, we’re dealing with a reverse lottery. In the normal lottery, you buy a ticket, the chances of winning are almost zero, and you know you’re going to lose. And as long as we’re dealing with people, we are winning, and winning, and winning, and winning. It’s possible to lose, and I have, more than once. But the odds are overwhelmingly in our favor.
