Available to book
Thor Pedersen
Resilience
Goal Setting
Cross Culture
Thor Pedersen helps audiences build resilience and adaptability, drawn from his decade-long journey to become the first person to visit every country without flying. Bestselling author of The Impossible Journey, he has spoken across 72 countries worldwide.
Adventurer
Explorer
Humanitarian
Author
Motivational
Inspirational
Personal Development
Travel Industry
Thor Pedersen is the first person in history to visit every country on Earth in one continuous journey without flying, a feat that took nearly ten years to complete.
Between 2013 and 2023, Thor travelled by cargo ship, train, bus, and overland transport through every country on Earth, a journey complicated by closed borders, visa refusals and a two-year stretch stranded in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Along the way, he served as a goodwill ambassador for the Red Cross, visiting Red Cross and Red Crescent organisations in 190 countries. He is the author of the SPIEGEL bestseller The Impossible Journey, and his story has been featured on BBC Travel, BBC iPlayer, and in The Guardian.
Thor's experience shows audiences what sustained commitment looks like when plans repeatedly fail, and a goal remains, for years at a time, out of reach. Drawing on nearly a decade on the road, he speaks to the discipline required to keep moving forward, and to the trust and generosity of the thousands of strangers who made his journey possible.
Audiences leave his talks with a clearer sense of how to maintain momentum through setbacks, adapt when circumstances change without warning, and recognise the role human connection plays in achieving long-term goals.
Book Thor Pedersen to bring a decade of hard-won resilience and human connection to your next event.
Topics, sessions and talks
Thor Pedersen shares three defining stories from his nearly ten-year journey to become the first person in history to visit every country on Earth without flying. Exploring humanity, doubt and fear, and coincidence, he moves from extraordinary kindness shown by strangers to moments when the journey almost ended. Blending adventure, humour, and suspense, the talk reflects on resilience and human connection, leaving audiences with a sense of what it takes to keep moving forward when a goal takes longer than expected.
Built around three memorable stories from Thor Pedersen's nearly ten-year journey to visit every country without flying, this talk explores cultural misunderstanding, self-awareness and adaptability. Thor reflects on what happens when assumptions about the world, and about ourselves, are challenged, drawing out how easily misunderstandings arise between cultures and why adaptability matters when plans go wrong. Audiences come away with sharper instincts for communication, cultural understanding and adjusting course when circumstances shift.
Thor Pedersen tells three extraordinary stories from three different continents, each built around coincidences too striking to explain and too memorable to forget. Drawing on remarkable encounters from his nearly ten-year journey to visit every country on Earth without flying, he explores the strange intersections of timing, circumstance, and human lives. At times surprising, emotional, and humorous, the talk invites audiences to reflect on the role coincidence plays in shaping the paths we take.
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frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email thor.pedersen@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Thor's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Thor Pedersen structures each talk around three distinct stories drawn from his near-decade of overland and sea travel, using narrative arc to carry themes of resilience, cultural misunderstanding, or coincidence depending on the brief.
Thor Pedersen's sessions cover resilience and sustained commitment, cultural misunderstanding and adaptability, and coincidence and human connection. He is the first person in history to visit every country on Earth in one continuous journey without flying, a feat documented in his Spiegel bestseller The Impossible Journey.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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