Nick Butter is a man who’s turned the word “impossible” into a to-do list.
Once a finance professional chasing bonuses and deadlines, a chance meeting with a terminally ill runner made him completely reimagine his life.
Within a few years, he’d left his job, sold his possessions, and embarked on one of the greatest endurance and logistically challenging feats ever attempted: running a marathon in every one of the world’s 196 countries.
It took him two years, 450 flights, and over a million pounds to complete - but it also transformed how he saw the world and what matters most.
Since that record-breaking run, Nick’s life hasn’t slowed down.
He’s run the entire length of Italy, set a world record running 5,500 miles around the coast of the UK (averaging two marathons a day), recently appeared on the BBC’s Destination X, and launched Run Weekends - global running adventures where pace doesn’t matter, but connection and joy do.
He also founded The 195 Foundation, a charity supporting causes in which give back to the places he’s visited.
In this episode, we dive into what “home” feels like after years of life on the move, the lessons Nick learned from running a marathon in every country on Earth, and how he’s built a life centred on adventure, generosity, and human connection.
We also talk about why he believes that a life well lived matters far more than a life well financed, and what his next big expedition might look like - and why, no matter what comes next, he’ll always be “Mr Possible.”
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Mentioned in the Podcast:
Loosing Eden, Lucy Jones: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305463/losing-eden-by-jones-lucy/9780141992617
Run Weekends: https://www.runweekends.com/
Factfulness, Hans Rosling: https://www.gapminder.org/factfulness-book/
Destination X: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024pz8
Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer: https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/into-the-wild-book-jon-krakauer-9780330453677?sku=GOR001376384
Nick’s 196 Foundation: https://www.the196foundation.com/
Clockify: https://clockify.me/
Read Nick’s Books:
Running the World: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/439803/running-the-world-by-butter-nick/9780552176484
Run Britain: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Run-Britain-Record-Breaking-Adventure-Coastline/dp/1787636410
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