Ria Xi on Agency, Pilgrimage, and the Long Road From the Camino to a 20,000km Continental Run

Ria Xi has spent the last two years pulling her life apart and rebuilding it entirely on her own terms. She left a tech career in California, stepped away from the version of success she once thought she was supposed to want, and slowly discovered something she never expected: running as a path toward agency, direction, and self-trust. In this episode, she talks openly about moving to Portugal, finding community after years of drifting, why she’s drawn to extreme challenges, and what it feels like to be in the quiet space between a major accomplishment and the biggest adventure of her life.

She recently ran 780 kilometres of the Camino de Santiago and is now preparing for an almost unimaginable project: running 20,000 kilometres from Russia to Portugal. But this isn’t a conversation about distance — it’s about agency, identity, loneliness, self-worth, and building a life that feels like it belongs to you. Ria shares the inner battles she’s faced and why running became her way of stepping back into her own power. It’s a thoughtful, honest journey through what it means to choose your own life.

Follow Ria and support her next adventure: 

• Instagram: @whereisriax

• Website: 20000km.com

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Why do people sign up for group adventures with complete strangers? In this short segment, Sophie talks about the unexpected community that grows on Sidetracked trips — how shared effort, simplicity, and the Arctic cold can bring people closer than they expect. She explains why these connections form so quickly, what people are really searching for, and why returning to the outdoors often feels like returning to ourselves.

It’s a reflection on belonging, challenge, and the surprising ways people reconnect when the noise of everyday life falls away.

Check out Sophie’s stuff:

• Instagram @soph_nolan_ and @sidetracked_adventure

• Website sidetrackedadventures.co.uk

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Sophie Nolan built Sidetracked Adventures from a simple desire to share the wild places she loved. In this conversation, she reflects on how she shaped a life around the outdoors, curiosity, and community. We talk about her early pull toward nature, the years she spent searching for a different path, and how guiding people into remote landscapes has changed her understanding of connection, comfort, and ambition.

Sophie also shares what it’s really like to run an adventure company in a fast-paced world, how she learned to trust her own voice, and why people keep returning to wilderness experiences even as modern life becomes more digital and convenient. It’s a grounded, honest look at building a life that matches your values.

Check out Sophie’s stuff:

• Instagram @soph_nolan_ and @sidetracked_adventure

• Website sidetrackedadventures.co.uk

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In this short segment, Jonathan reflects on the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, which he and his family survived when he was just fourteen. He talks about how the experience reshaped his outlook on life, influenced the risks he was willing to take, and even guided the creative decisions he makes today as a filmmaker and photographer. It’s a brief but moving conversation about clarity, perspective, and the way certain moments stay with us long after they pass.

Check out Jonathan’s stuff

• Instagram: @jonisstrom

• solkattstudios.com

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Jonathan Strömberg (or Jonis Strom) grew up on the Swedish coast, where surfing is cold, rare, and hard to access, yet it shaped his entire life. In this episode, he shares how an unexpected surf community helped him discover filmmaking and photography, and how surviving the 2004 tsunami in Thailand reframed his sense of time, purpose, and risk.

We talk about his creative journey from music school in London to bluffing his way into a filmmaking career, traveling the world with his girlfriend Sara, and creating his award-winning short documentary Buoyancy. Jonathan reflects on creativity in 2025, navigating a crowded digital world, and trusting himself to figure things out along the way.

Check out Jonathan’s stuff

• Instagram: @jonisstrom

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In this short segment, Elspeth Beard talks about how the hardest moments on her motorcycle journey around the world shaped her character. Breaking down in the desert, falling off the bike, getting sick, fixing everything alone built a kind of “unshakable confidence.” The same strength later helped Elspeth take on new challenges, like buying and restoring the 130-foot water tower she now lives in.

This is a reminder that growth doesn’t always happen in the big moments, but when we quietly prove to ourselves that we can handle whatever comes next.

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Follow Elspeth @elspethbeard and check out elspethbeard.com to find her book.

Elspeth Beard was the first British woman to ride a motorcycle around the world — but this conversation isn’t about setting records. It’s an exploration of what happens when you strip life down to the essentials, face the unknown, and learn just how capable you really are.

We talk about what drove her to leave everything behind in the early 1980s, the solitude and strength she found on the road, and how that same resilience shaped her later life as an architect — including the restoration of a 130-foot Victorian water tower she calls home. Forty years on, Elspeth reflects on freedom, technology, and what adventure really means once the noise fades.

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Follow Elspeth @elspethbeard and check out elspethbeard.com to find her book.

“Being on the motorcycle again felt like being that kid on a bike — just exploring with no real purpose.”

In this 8-minute segment, Eddie reflects on how his expectations of a round-the-world motorcycle trip compared to the reality: the unpredictability, the setbacks, and the surprising freedom of not having a plan. He also talks about how the road helped him reconnect with a childlike sense of curiosity and wonder, when each day felt endless and full of discovery.

Follow Eddie @eddiertw and check out @meatbagmc and meatbagmc.com to follow his next endeavour. 

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When Eddie left London three years ago on his motorcycle, he didn’t have a clear destination — just the need to move. What began as an escape from burnout and heartbreak turned into an ongoing journey across continents, from the forests of Europe to the deserts of Mongolia and the vast outback of Australia.

In this conversation, Eddie reflects on what drove him to leave, what he’s learned from years alone on the road, and how travel became a way to reconnect with his childhood sense of wonder. We also talk about solitude, rhythm, and his search for community through his new project, MeatBag MC.

Follow Eddie @eddiertw and check out @meatbagmc and meatbagmc.com to follow his next endeavour. 

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Every long journey has a moment when everything shifts. When the reason you set out starts to change.

In this special episode, four travelers share the moments that reshaped them while they were far from home, tired, unsure, but completely alive.

Nick Butter talks about a conversation in the Sahara that pushed him to run a marathon in every country on Earth.
Thor Pedersen spent nearly ten years traveling to every nation without flying, finding strength and loneliness in equal measure.
Ann da Silva Johansson left her job and life in Sweden to cycle across continents and discovered that courage doesn’t come before you go, it comes once you’ve left.
And Zoe and Olivier from WeLeaf reflect on how constant motion, discomfort, and love became their greatest teachers on the road.

This is about the quiet yet powerful moments that change how we move through the world.

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