Paul Barbato … Embrace The Trainwreck

Paul Barbato has traveled to over 70 countries

Paul AKA Barbs and I met through Gus Rosted. Gus is one of the attendees at the Extraordinary Travel Festival. Gus recommended Barbs as speaker at the festival. I knew Barbs and his YouTube channel, Geography Now! and thought he would be a great addition in Armenia. Barbs agreed to participate in the festival and also to join me on Counting Countries.

Barbs has had tremendous success with his YouTube channel with over 3 million subscribers. Barbs’s success was not overnight but nearly a 10-year grind of perfecting his craft and attracting new followers. Barbs is also on a quest to travel to every country in the world, but at his own pace. Unsurprisingly, he also enjoys the oddities of geography during his travels, including salients.

As many of you have heard, Stefan Kraswoski and I have teamed up to host the Extraordinary Travel Festival, the world’s largest gathering of accomplished travelers. This will take place in Yerevan, 2022. We are excited to produce this event to help grow our community while organizing great events, and hosting some amazing experiences. You will see and meet former guests from this show like Francis Tapon, Debjeet Sen, Per Besson, and Audrey Walsworth in Armenia. Please go to ExtraordinaryTravelFestival.com to see our speakers, our sponsors, and some of the trips we are hosting. Check back often since there are frequent updates. If buying a ticket, please use code ETF to save $50. Hope to see you in Yerevan.

I would like to thank everyone for their support of Counting Countries, especially my Patrons: Lucy Shoe, Phillip Jones, Simen Flotvik Mathisen, Ted Nims, Bisa Myles, Thor Pedersen, and Adam Hickman for supporting this podcast. They help pay for the production of this podcast. You can support this podcast by going to Patreon.com/CountingCountries. You can also support Counting Countries be writing a review or sharing this podcast with a travel lover. My patrons hear extra content, like an additional 35 minutes of my last conversation with Lucy Shoe and with this conversation with Barbs, only for you.

You will also hear from Thor at the end of the Barbs interview. For the last 2 years plus, I have been interviewing Thor to track his progress in traveling to every country in the world without flying. My patrons hear this fascinating interviews at the time of the recording. You will hear only a snippet at this time.

And as a side note, Barb’s mom makes a brief appearance while I attempt to say hello in Korean and not impress his mother.

I was in Chicago for this recording while Barbs was in LA. Please listen in and enjoy.

Thank you to my Patrons …. Lucy Shoe, Phillip Jones, Thor Pedersen, Simen Flotvik Mathisen, Adam Hickman, Bisa Myles & Ted Nims. Paul Barbato Counting Countries

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About Counting Countries

Counting Countries is the only podcast to bring you the stories from the dedicated few who’ve spent their lives on the singular quest of traveling to every country in the world. Less people have traveled to every country in the world than have been to outer space.

Theme music for this podcast is Demeter’s Dance, written, performed, and provided by Mundi.

About GlobalGaz

Ric Gazarian is the host of Counting Countries. He is the author of three books: Hit The Road: India, 7000 KM To Go, and Photos From Chernobyl. He is the producer of two travel documentaries: Hit The Road: India and Hit The Road: Cambodia.

Ric is also on his own quest to visit every country in the world. You can see where he has traveled so far and keep up with his journey at GlobalGaz.com

How Many Countries Are There?

Well… that depends on who you ask!

The United Nations states that there are 193 member states.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth office states that there are 226 countries and territories.
The Traveler’s Century Club states that there are 329 sovereign nations, territories, enclaves, and islands.
The Most Traveled Person states that there are 949 unique parts of the world.
The Nomad Mania divides the world into 1301 regions.
SISO says there are 3,978 places in the world.
Me? My goal is the 193 countries that are recognized by the UN, but I am sure I will visit some other places along the way.

An analysis of these lists and who is the best traveled by Kolja Spori.

Disclaimer: I will earn a fee if from some of these links like if you order from Amazon/Agoda/etc. Or book a trip through G Adventures. PS Thanks! Paul Barbato Counting Countries