One Step Beyond
One Step Beyond is back. Whether it’s to hike a local trail or climb a distant mountain, move to a new country or travel somewhere new, run a first 5k, go rock climbing, tackle sexism in soccer or undertake an ultra-marathon, write to relieve PTSD or take up wildlife photography, this is the show for people looking to step outside their comfort zone and enrich their life. Join author, runner, broadcaster, and traveler Tony Fletcher every month on the podcast all about positively engaging with the world outside our door.
Sign up for a free weekly newsletter from Tony; as well as news about this and his other show, The Fanzine Podcast, you'll get a weekly weekend long read. All in your Inbox for free from tonyfletcher.substack.com
Whether it’s to hike a local trail or climb a distant mountain, move to a new country or just travel somewhere new, run a first 5k, go rock climbing, tackle sexism in soccer or undertake an ultra-marathon, write to relieve PTSD or this is the show for you: people looking to step outside their comfort zone and enrich their life. Over the course of 40+ episodes, our shows have featured guests from Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Colombia, as well as the USA and UK, talking about .
Those guests have included: the rock star who established the cancer foundation Love Hope Strength, and the former professional athlete behind the soccer-based initiative Equal Playing Field; an Afghan war veteran who became the first double above-knee amputee to climb Mt Kilimanjaro unaided; a Zen Buddhist teacher who authored a book on running; one American who moved to Bogota and set up an art colony; and another who gave up dreams of becoming a professional ventriloquist to instead find a new life as an award-winning wildlife photographer.
We have talked to the pioneering female founder of Africa's first running shoe company, to a family that traveled round the world together for over two years, and to a teacher who founded a travel company to support students of color, along with several of those students. We have also talked to amateur adventurers of all ages who have set themselves fierce goals - like walking the length of India, or running the Sparta course in Greece unaided - and achieved them. The show includes several episodes recorded on location, beginning with a 4-part documentary about climbing Kilimanjaro, but also including in-the-field tips on hiking without navigational tools and running on trails; how to master an ultra-marathon; and how to give up your possessions and start a new life. Shows generally stay under an hour, include additional commentary and information, and do not shy away from current affairs.
Tony Fletcher is the British-born author of best-selling biographies of Keith Moon, Wilson Pickett, R.E.M. and The Smiths, as well as a memoir, a novel and many other books on or about music. In 2016, he backpacked around the world with his then-wife and 11-year old younger son. In 2019 he hosted and wrote “It's A Pixies Podcast." A keen runner, with dozens of road and trail marathons to his name, he lives in Kingston, New York.
Follow One Step Beyond:
Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast
Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Update frequency
- every 17 days
- Average duration
- 52 minutes
- Episodes
- 56
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2024
Ep. 34: Having a Hemorrhage
For this episode, the last in Series 1 of One Step Beyond, we flip the script, and allow regular host Tony Fletcher to be interviewed by guest host Paula Lucas about his recent brain hemorrhage - and…
Ep. 33: The Day I Met Macca
It’s not every 17-year old who gets the chance to interview Paul McCartney for three hours, especially at the point, back in early 1982, that Macca had barely been heard from publicly since the assas…
Ep. 32: Manitous Revisited
Following on from Episode 31, Running An Ultra, which featured Mike Siudy, co-Race Director of the Manitou's Revenge ultramarathon in the Catskill Mountains, this episode features a round-table discu…
Ep. 31: Running an Ultra
Have you ever considered upping your outdoor game to take on an ultra marathon? Or do you consider those who willingly subject themselves to something like Manitou’s Revenge - the 54 mile race throug…
Ep. 30: Travel Days and Travel Diaries
In this episode, host Tony Fletcher reads another short story from his Round The World, backpacking trip of 2016 with wife and 11-year old son: A Travel Day, set in Morocco. Doing so inspires him to …
Ep. 29: Equal Playing Field, second half
In this second half of our interview with Erin Blankenship, a former professional football player in leagues around the world and the co-founder of Equal Playing Field, we talk more about the initiat…
Ep. 28: Equal Playing Field, first half.
Ever considered arranging an official 90-minute football/soccer match, on a full-size pitch, at 18,746ft/5714 meters above sea level, in the oxygen-starved atmosphere on top of Mt Kilimanjaro? Erin B…
Ep. 27: Love Hope Strength with Mike Peters
Mike Peters is the rare rock star to have an MBE after his name - awarded not for his musical successes with Welsh rock band The Alarm, considerable though they have been, but for his charity work wi…
Ep. 26: You Do Not Need A Guide
For this episode, we revisit India in the form of another short story I wrote about our travels backpacking round the world, with then wife and then 11-year old son, in 2016, for almost the whole yea…
Ep. 25: The Anniversary Episode
One Step Beyond is one year old, and to celebrate, we revisit some of our best episodes and catch up with the guests, each of whom was invited to answer four questions about how they coped with this …
Ep. 24: Saharan Sundown
Following on from Episode 15.5, and the short story "You Don't Believe In God?" I return to our round the world backpacking trip from 2016 and pick up where that last short story left off... In Moroc…
Ep. 23: The Backcountry Bug
Three years ago, Julie McGuire, a High School English teacher in the South Bronx, came home from work eager to set off on another weekend in the Catskills, only to find her wife waiting to declare th…
Ep. 22: Conquering the Unthinkable
In 2009, in the first month of his first tour of Afghanistan with the British Army, James Rose had his legs blown off when he stepped on an IED. He barely survived with his life. Yet in 2019, he beca…
Ep. 21: A Winter Day's Hike
I live at the gateway to New York’s Catskill Mountains, which I consider my playground. And I’m not the only one. In what seem to be record numbers right now, people run these mountains, they ski the…
Ep. 20: Black Travel Matters
Ashley Scott is a teacher in Atlanta, GA, who grew up believing that travel was not for people like himself. In his mid-30s, having still never been outside the USA, he established an educational tra…
Ep 19: Berlin Bound
In this second of a two-parter about New Beginnings for the New Year, I talk to David Watts Barton, a writer, traveler, musician, Burner and all-round optimist who upped and left the USA for Berlin i…
Ep. 18: Not the Samos It Ever Was
One Step Beyond launches 2021 with a two parter about two people who refused to let the pandemic of 2020 prevent them making planned life changes. In part 1, Adam Fletcher - yes, he is a relation - t…
Ep. 17: It's a Wonderful Life... On the Road
In May 2016, halfway through my 3-person family's year-long backpacking trip around the world, we met the Norths - Phil, Amanda, Sophie and Nate - in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They had left their former …
Ep. 16: Travel in the Age of Covid
Long term international travel has proven nigh impossible in 2020, and will be well into 2021 as well. But what if you live on the road, what if you are already somewhere else on the planet when lock…
Ep 15.5 "You Don't Believe in God?"
Regular listeners may know that in what I sometimes call the ‘default world’ – the one outside this podcast – I am a writer by trade, and my books have included one published memoir with another to …