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Francis Tapon
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Who is Francis Tapon?

Francis Tapon is the author of Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe. He has traveled to 125 countries. He has walked across America four times, Spain twice, and Madagascar once. From 2013-2018, he traveled overland nonstop to all 54 African countries. In 2019, he was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame. He also spent 2021-2024 in Africa; thus, he spent 8 years in the hot continent. In 2025, he plans to release his book & film, The Unseen Africa.
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About Francis Tapon
Francis Tapon is the white guy in this photo, which was taken 100 km away from Agadez, Niger.
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What are experts saying?

“Francis Tapon provides us with a wide-ranging personal and historical travelogue. . . . The result is one of the world's most personal, idiosyncratic, and unorthodox cultural and historical travel guide. It's really an impressive and ambitious book.”
Michael Krasny
Michael Krasny Host on KQED's Forum
"The Hidden Europe is an invigorating narrative packed with useful tips and colorful stories. . . . I had so much fun reading through this book. And it covers every country and every corner of Eastern Europe with a beautiful breezy style, with a fun, intimate report on how Francis enjoyed 3 years exploring Eastern Europe."
Rick Steves
Rick Steves Travel Expert
“Francis Tapon is a modern-day Marco Polo, though unlike Marco Polo he has taken a nude sauna with a gorgeous Finnish woman. So maybe even a little better than Marco Polo. His book The Hidden Europe is a great adventure story.”
AJ Jacobs
AJ Jacobs Bestselling Author
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In my Annual Prediction Show, I review my 2024 predictions before making my new predictions. I got 5 out of 10 points: a mediocre performance.

My 8 Predictions for 2025 

2 Videos

After watching the video below,

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In the first 5 minutes of the video/podcast, I review the 9 predictions I made in 2022.

  • I was correct 5 out of 9 times if you're judging strictly.
  • I was correct 7 out of 9 times if you're a lenient
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Dec 31, 2021 Update: Look for the blue boxes to see how my predictions did!

Everyone loves to say, "I told you so."

But few are willing to admit, "I told you something wrong."

Even though every human makes mistakes every day,

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In my Annual Prediction Show, I review last year's predictions before making my new predictions.

Here are my 2024

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I'm often wrong. It's incredible how uncommon it is for humans to admit they were wrong about something. We all know that nobody is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. However, it's stunning how rare it is to find someone who readily and regularly admits to being wrong.

Even when

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Before you look at these predictions, you should see how accurate my 7 predictions for 2019 were.

In 2020...

Blue boxes have the verdict to see how I did.

1.

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At the end of 2017, I made my predictions for 2018. Although I got a couple of things wrong, I was surprisingly accurate.

Since the point of this exercise is to prove how wrong we can all be, I need to do the same

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As usual, I avoid unquantifiable predictions. For example, these are all vague predictions for 2022:

  • Emerging COVID-19 variants will jeopardize our return to normalcy
  • Interest rate hikes wreak havoc in our debt-heavy world
  • The global supply chain continues to
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