¶ The Need for Preparedness
Fellow conspiracy realist friends and neighbors our classic episode this evening is only more relevant as time goes on. I know we get a little bit soapboxy in this one, But if you're listening now and you don't have a bug out bag, do it? Get one immediately?
What's in your bug out bag?
Well, look, I don't want to put you on the spot, Ben, you cut this if we need to. I notice that you carry a bag around a lot. Do you consider that to be part of your bug out bag? I don't know, system I guess or like? Is it partially? Are you partially able to get out at any time? Is that something we should be thinking about.
Well, I appreciate that I may not be the best sample size for this because I'm a little more on the paranoid end of the spectrum. I'm on an extreme end of a couple of spectrums if we're being honest, but I will I will say that. You know, as an eagle scout, it is important to always be prepared. Got it if possible. Right before you make an entrance,
you know your exit strategy. We were We get pretty in depth with our bug out bag exploration and shout out to our friends like the Casual Preppers podcast, The question is this, if you were cut off from everything, from all modern conveniences, for all of a sudden, all of a sudden, all at once, for seventy two hours, what would you need to survive? What would your loved ones need to survive?
It's a good question and when we do our level best to answer. In this very practical and functional episode of stuff they don't want you to know.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A production of iHeartRadio.
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, my name is Nolan.
They call me Ben. We are joined as always with our super producer Paul Mission Control deck and most importantly, you are you. You are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want you to know. This is a little bit of a weird episode for us because in a in a few of our recent shows, we had touched on the idea of emergency preparation, right we had uh, we had mentioned building out bug out bags just just in passing. Remember we didn't go to into depth. But
I don't know about you guys. I was surprised that so many of our fellow listeners wrote into us on uh, you know, Facebook or Twitter and asked us to make an episodisode just about bug outbacks. Did you guys see any of that? Yeah?
Yeah, I mean I think it's an important thing that maybe we don't think about in our busy lives all the time, that we need to be prepared in case something goes down all of a sudden. We learned it personally. I think we had a close encounter with something like this when snowpocalypse occurred in Atlanta, when we realized, oh, well, if something does go wrong and let's say even your vehicle is a has to be abandoned, is there enough stuff in your vehicle to be safe for a night?
Two nights, forty eight hours? And we noticed a response with everyone listening that they also wanted to know this information.
Yeah, and so this episode's going to be a little bit different from some of our previous episodes. I don't know about you all, but I don't think this will include anything quote unquote. But you know, perhaps we've already
¶ Adapting to Unexpected Changes
drifted past our old definitions of normalcy nowadays. Anyhow, in this episode, we're going to walk through what a bug out bag is, whether you need one, what you should put in it, what you should watch out for along the way, and maybe reveal some of our own hard, hard learned lessons here. Guys, you know, we can see each other right now, but our fellow listeners, can't You all look great? By the way, I want to point out, I'm wearing my old, my old, old jacket that I
used to live in. Seriously, for three months I lived in this jacket because I was not prepared, and I.
Well, it's sort of like a utility belt of a jacket, right, Like it's got all these pockets where you can put all kinds of necessities in.
There, right yeah, man, yeah, absolutely, And I never I never thought that I would have to use it that way, but I got caught out because I wasn't planning ahead. I'm a fan of improvisation, but in this in this sort of situation, we do need to plan.
So can you tell us just a little bit of like high level info on what happened or is it a mystery just about how you found yourself in that kind of situation?
Yeah? Yeah, Okay, I screwed up, Matt. That's exactly what happened. I screwed up. I was living abroad and I thought at the time that the hostel I was staying in was gonna well, like ale, I don't know these people that I lived with. I thought it was going to
be a safe, pretty reliably consistent domicile situation. I traveled to another town and I couldn't find a place to live there, so I was sleeping rough unless I literally like made friends with someone on the street and trusted them enough to sleep at their house, which you know, I'm not a fan of that.
So yeah, but your jacket or having something on you that you could carry a couple of things on you became really important.
Oh yeah, man, this is ridiculous. This actually used to be a different color, but it got so sun baked and dirty and like I was washing it in a river and stuff. It was weird.
Well, I think that very much applies to today's episode that we're going to be getting into, just the concept that I would say a lot of us, but me personally, I walk around with two pockets four pockets in my pants and that's about it. I guess there's a fifth little tiny one that you can fit a USB driver, so you.
Don't go for the cargo pants. Matt, you're not a cargo guy.
Well, I haven't been lately. Maybe I need to switch over in these times at least. But most of us, if we're walking around, we don't have a lot of storage on us, unless you got a really good jacket or something.
You know what. I get a lot of crap for this from my daughter included, But I am a big fan of a satchel I carry. I have several shoulder bags and I carry them for that very reason because I don't want to stuff my pockets with crap. And if I have like a little, nice, low profile shoulder bag, I can put all the little things in it that I might need, whether it's like nose spray or breath mince or you know, a batter rang what have you. I've got it all in there in my little utility satchel.
And I get a lot of crap for it, but I stand by it.
You know what Ben got me this. I think it's called a Supreme bag. I think that's what it's called. But it's a small bag. It looks almost like a fanny pack, but a little larger and much cooler, but you can put it over your shoulder. When I was watching my son for about a week week and a half, that became like I had to have that. If I didn't have that bag, they had like snack or food for him, water for him, all the basic necessities. If I didn't have a small bag like that, I would
have been out of luck. So that kind of thing that you're talking about, nol Is could be really helpful.
And it's fashionable too, Matt.
And one thing I would point out about your satchel strategy is I like that you also have all your
¶ Understanding Your Go Bag
bags that I've seen have these highly adjustable straps, so you can put it really close to your back, which is great in a situation where you need to keep an eye on snatch and grabs. And it also it kind of transforms it into a single strap backpack. I think that's really smart totally.
You can wear it up high on the small of your back if you're riding a bike, like as a messenger bag. I even have one that has a cross chest attachment that allows you to really wear it up high on the back and gives you more support. I don't know. I'm a big fan and I will never let an eleven year old bully me into thinking otherwise.
So I agree, you know, Matt, Paul and I have your back on that one, of course. But eleven year olds are some of the most powerful, brilliant people in the world, so we would have to team up. But we've got your back. Before we get into today's show, how about we do a quick, just a very quick Twitter roll call. Yes, shout out to grummin six hundred who posted to conspiracy stuff to let us know the
breaking news. As we record this, it's been confirmed UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID nineteen. Did you guys hear about that?
I did just this morning. Yeah.
And another secretary that's high level also tested positive.
M Yeah.
And wasn't there an official that was a or maybe an official? I think it was an evangelist who was a COVID denier has now tested positive as well. Called it's called karma right there.
Yeah, we're getting to the point where instead of knowing of famous, notable figures in the world getting COVID, you may soon by the time this episode comes out, you may personally know someone who is confirmed to have contracted it. But again, the US, unlike the rest of the developed world, is not rolling out testing in a very efficient way.
And so now that many of us are forced to contemplate the sudden and unexpected changes in our day to day lives and status quo, we also have to think about how we will adapt if our normal environment, whether that's our home space or our neighborhood, how do we adapt if that place becomes either unsustainable at some point or dangerous? You know, what do we do if we have to get out? Or what do we do if our normal methods of survival like running water, easily available food,
and so on. What do we do if they run out and we have to survive until help gets to us. That's where a bug out bag comes in. So here are the facts.
This is a question that I had. I'd never heard this term before, bug out bag. I'd love to explore a little more about where that comes from. But another term for it is a go bag. At its most essence, it's really just a bag that contains those bare necessities that you really need to have handy, and the contents can vary. We're gonna give you to that, But here are some of the reasons you might need to have
one of these ready. The one I always think of is if you know you're you're some kind of high level criminal and you've been found out and you'd go on the lamb or maybe change an identity. That's sort of the more like alarmist fiction y type one, but
it's not entirely fictional. So maybe you need to leave one location for another, or you're stranded in a location like you said at the beginning of the show now with the snow apocalypse and being able to need to survive using your car as a temporary domicile in really difficult conditions climate wise, or you're forced to be mobile for some amount of time. That's a little more of the potential on the lamb or just potential like you
need to be on the move for whatever reason. There's many reasons this could be the case.
Well, well, yeah, the whole point is there are endless
¶ Bag Types and Duration
reasons that you may need to do one of those things, be mobile, if you get stranded or you just need to leave for one reason or another, and it could be due to a natural disaster, some kind of you know, I mean the reality of maybe an active shooter somewhere near you, your car breaks down, maybe you're in the middle of a pandemic, and civilization seems to be collapsing
all around you. The whole idea is that when you have access to a bug out bag that you have prepared carefully, this thing can keep you safe and healthy for at least a temporary amount of time. And we'll talk about exactly how long you can essentially set up your bug out bag or your go bag to last you.
Yeah, yeah, that's a key part here. It is meant to keep you safe and healthy for a temporary amount of time because one of the golden rules is that you typically want to be able to pack no more than you can and carry for a sustained amount of time by yourself, even if you have friends and family with you. So to that question, where does the term
come from. I've heard it called a a bug out bag, a go bag, a go home bag, but the origin of bug out bag is largely believed to come from what was once known as a bailout bag used by pilots and aviators in the military. So back in the day, the bailout bag had a couple of items that were critical for pilots if they were shot down or if they experienced an engine malfunction and they landed in the middle of nowhere or even enemy territory, and things like
a knife, you know, compass basic survival gear. Of course, you know, remember when you're putting together your bug out bag, you're probably not going to be jumping out of a plane. You're probably not going to commandeer an island or do any sort of you know, movie stuff the John Wick Mission Impossible type situations. You're just making sure that you're as safe and healthy as possible while you either reach permanent safety or get emergency assistance. One other seed on
a plant here. The old bailout bags used in air forces did used to contain at least according to the stories, did used to contain a small amount of like gold or silver bullion. And that's been the subject of a lot of alarmist uh prepping industry sales points now, you know, but we'll we'll get back to that. So another question you would probably have to ask, a question many of our fellow listeners have received in the past, is is it crazy? Is it overkill to have a bug out bag?
The answer is in general. No, no, it's not. It depends on how weird you get with it.
You will get reactions though from maybe a lot of depending on who you surround yourself with. I just know my immediate family and friends are like, you have what? What? What do you have in your car?
What?
Why would you you do that? And then you have to explain, And then a lot of times you'll notice people are a little more understanding I guess after you give them all the reasons. But yeah, I would say I have encountered that sentiment quite often.
It's one of those things that's really easy to pass judgment on until you know the situation reveals itself where you were actually the smart one, you know, I mean, like what we're in right now, or the snowpocalypse situation. I mean, I don't think anyone would judge you if you had made the right preparations and then that situation presented itself and you were much more able to take care of yourself and your loved ones than others who
maybe thought that was a wacky idea. So I think reducing the stigma of things like this is really important because it's not just some kind of doomsday prepper thing. You know. I think maybe the term bug out bag makes you think like, oh, I'm bugging out, I'm freaking out. Everything's crazy, you know. But no, it's absolutely just good emergency preparedness, right.
It's an emergency preparedness set.
There you go. That sounds a little more legit.
I like to maybe we just call it, maybe call it an improvisation kit. I don't know something, yeah, something yes and bag, yes and bag. There we go. That's good. So, yeah, it's possible, like any anything, it's possible to go overboard when building out kit like this. But most of the most of the stuff at least that we would cover or that we would we would recommend looking into, is pretty reasonable. And a lot of it depend on the time you want to put in UH and your level
of h mcguiverance. Depending on your mcgiver factor. A lot of this can be made with easily obtainable supplies. That's really important. Right now as we record this, there's a lot of information out there about preparedness, about bug out bags, and some of it is misinformed. UH, some of it is coming from a place with an agenda. It's coming from folks who want to sell you something and this
can lead to overkill. More importantly, it can lead to spending a lot of money on things you don't need well, like bone broth, Yeah, like bone broth or gold bullion, or you know, paying paying out the wazoo for something that's kind of cheaply made and may actually break if you ever use it on a regular basis. So, like for an overkill thing, you don't need to pack huge amounts of heavy equipment. You need stuff you can carry
and you can use. So this gets us to different like types of bug out bags, Matt, you mentioned there was a Traditionally they're defined by the amount of time, right, what is that amount of time for you guys?
Usually it goes by hours, but it's really like a day, Like you do a twenty four hour bug but bug out bag, that's kind of your just standard. This is the absolute minimum that I would need to be okay for a full day and night, and then you it generally goes from that to two days, like forty eight hour bug out bag. The cool thing about these things is that let's say you've got a twenty four hour or forty eight hour bag set up as a singular thing.
Let's say in your trunk you keep extra supplies that would turn that into a ninety six hour or longer bug out bag situation, just because the only things really that are limiting you there would be your food, your water, things that would run out because a lot of the tools and things you keep in a bug out bag aren't gonna limit you by a number.
Of hours, right right right the hour limitation or the hour definition, there is gonna really hinge on three things. It's gonna hinge on well, let's call it three point five. It's gonna hinge on the amount of food you need to survive every twenty four hours, the amount of water you need, which is even more important, and the amount of medication you need if you're on a regular medication schedule that's vital to your health. So this means that a bug out bag can be defined also by what
it's not. It is not a long term survival kit, you know what I mean. You're not gonna take this stuff in here and build a cabin and just live there forever. It's not a boding or aviation emergency kit. You can put it in the trunk of your car. But for an auto survival kit specifically, there's going to be things in that kit that you don't need to have in a bug out bag, right, Like you don't
need fix a flat in your bug out bag. You don't need you do need it in your car, but you do need it in your car absolutely, and you can carry more in your car too, obviously.
I think that's a really smart way of looking at it, Ben, because no one would ever begrudgs you keeping supplies in your car, you know, for the event of a breakdown, right, But yet people seem to look askance if you have some sort of like contingency plan back for like some other you know, larger emergency that is not automotive related. So I think that's a really good point.
It's weird because I guess it's all in presentation, right, Like the the stuff that I we keep in my car, I do have it, I do have it separated out. But there's the car stuff, you know, like the signal flares, that kind of that kind of thing, jumper cables, and then there's the bag you can grab. But it doesn't look as crazy if it's in your trunk, right, because everybody's got weird stuff in their trunks.
Well, Hey, speaking of trunks, guys, why don't we Why don't we start going through like what we have. I'd love to give you guys a rundown of my bug out trunk, you know, before we get on too further in this. But before we do that, maybe let's take a quick word from our sponsor.
All right, we're back, Matt. I'm intrigued. What, yeah, are you going to give us the rundown? Are you going to do an unboxing video?
Okay, so before we get into no, I'm not gonna do an o a boxing video, but before we get into you know what you should probably be thinking about putting in your bug out bag. I just want to kind of give you my rundown, and i'd love to hear you, guys just what you keep with yours, if
that's okay. So, first of all, I've got an old, old, old Toyota that I ride around in, and in the trunk, I've got sleeping bags for my family, blankets, jackets, bottled water for at least two days, energy bars for at least two days, a fully charged battery powered generator back there. And those are just the basic things in like if the car breaks down or something and we need to walk a lah a snowpocalypse or something like that. Then we've got my bug out bag itself. Should we go
over that yet or should we? Do you mind?
I'm all ears?
Yeah, So I've personally got closed for two days for myself, a lighter, a flashlight, of batteries, small knife, scissors, just basic toiletries like travel toiletries for that'll last for you know, whatever, a week or something. Wet wipes, some paper towels, contact lenses, passport, two hundred dollars cash, spare house key, spare car key, a sharpie, black pen, and extra eyeglasses.
Nice. Nice.
And here's the things that I'm putting in here that I need to put in there, which is something that I hadn't really been thinking about, but while prepping for this episode, I'm thinking I should probably get a small tent of some sort or a tent that could sleep up to three people, just when I'm thinking about my family and if we're traveling together. And the other thing I don't have in there is a really good first
aid kit that's compact. I'm looking. I'm in the market for one of those, so if you find a good one, let me know.
Now here's a question for you, Matt, why not have a small compact handgun in there. I'm not being I'm not joking.
That is more of a personal question to my family situation, and just it's weird, right having a small handgun and having a four year old or you know, a young child. It's like you can either protect your family or something terrible can happen. In the statistics show that it's more dangerous in most scenarios to have a handgun around a younger child, even if you're trying to protect yourself from other people with handguns. So that's a personal, very personal choice, absolutely,
and it is not my decision. Actually, I got to defer to the most powerful person in this relationship, which is my wife. So she doesn't want it, so it's not going to happen. I would very much like to have something like that, but it's not gonna happen anytime soon, got it.
So with that in mind, I think you've done I think you've done a good job at I make sure I didn't miss this. Do you have like a multi tool, like a leatherman or anything like that in there?
That is exactly what I need. It's exactly what I need to I've got that on my list of needs, as well as purification tablets I don't have right now, or any kind of masks or a good antibacterial sanitizer just given the circumstances. And the last thing that I absolutely need that I don't have is a life straw.
I was just about to ask about that. Yeah, Ben, you were always seeing the praises of life straws. You want to remind listeners what those are.
Yeah, life straws are a pretty handy invention. They are, or were, relatively inexpensive things that allow you to drink water from say a puddle or something without necessarily having to boil it. And the cool thing about the filter is it really is it's a cylindrical It looks like a cylindrical overly thick straw or two. And the way the filter works is such that you can sip directly from the water source. It'll go through the filter and be safe to drink in most circumstances. No, it doesn't
filter out everything. In course, you're not going to show up to Chernobyl and find an a radiated puddle and drink from that. But it is great to hav in a pinch it's no replacement for having those purification tabs though, so you would I would ideally recommend having both of them. But that goes to the question what should be in my bug out bag? We ask each other to answer that. We have to talk about a couple of very important things.
There's no silver bullet bug out bag. There's no like one stop panacea for everyone because we live in different parts of the world.
Yeah, and that being said, you really have to consider your surroundings. That's the big number one. Do you live in a cold, arid part of the world humid hot region. You'll need different things depending on where you are and what season is it. Secondly, you need to keep in mind how long you want your supplies to last you. The typical bug out bag is seventy two hours, like we said, but you can plan for more or less. If you think twenty four hours is fine, it seems
like a bare minimum to me. Are you packing just for yourself or like Matt, are you having to consider a small child and another human being, another full grown adult. This is These are very crucial questions and you're going to very much change the trajectory of the project. All of these factors are going to play a huge role
in your construction of said bug out bag. You'll also want to check back in on your bag every six months to make sure that everything still works, do a little maintenance, make sure nothing's expired, and everything remains seasonally appropriate. You do not want to have your car break down in the middle of nowhere at the height of summer, only to find that your emergency change of clothes is like a sweater and some gloves or something like that than some leg warmers.
I am definitely guilty of that. For a while, my bug out bag looked like like a gym bag or something, you know, with like the minimum amount of clothing. And then it got into the winter and I was like, oh, oh, I haven't changed to this. It's okay.
Well, full disclosure to you guys. I'm learning a lot here because my bug out bag literally is a gym bag and and and then it's just a gym bag. And I don't even go to the gym very often. So I am going to take some cues from you guys, along with listeners hopefully, so I'm really ready to dive in even further.
Yeah, I want to go ahead and preemptively give a shout out to all our fellow listeners on Here's where it gets crazy, specifically Shia or shay sh Ea Parizine. And here's where it gets crazy. Who asks people what they put in their bug out bags. There's a great conversation going on around that, and you'll see that not everybody agrees, and you'll also see that people are in very different situations to your point. So let's let's say, like the one rule is you ideally want to have
this ready before you need it. So we've got a list of what we consider more or less essentials, and then we've got a list of things that are nice to have but not mandatory. And then we've got a list of what I would call extreme things, so essentials. Backpack container, you know, I would say this can be anything that works for you as long as you're able to carry it easily under your own power, and it's something that is waterproof, a that's non negotiable or water resistant.
I don't you know, not everybody agrees on this, but I would say backpacks are Backpacks are going to be great because if they have two straps, it's going to be less fatiguing on your body to carry it over
¶ Personal Bag and Customization
a long period of time. You know, if you've ever carried something really heavy and like I have messenger bags, and if you walk around for hours with those, then you have tow to different shoulders and it can start it can start wearing on you differently.
That's a good point, Ben, I can speak to that personally. Yeah, And a nice kind of camping type backpack would probably be the way to go because they're usually just a giant, big, kind of like empty area without too many pockets, and you can just like fit as much stuff in there as you possibly can and then just sense it up at the top, and then sometimes there's pockets on the side.
Like I have a pretty nice camping backpack that's just one big, huge cavity in the middle and then a couple of small pockets on the side and one big pocket on the back, and that's all you need. You don't need anything super fancy.
Yeah, And a lot of those backpacks are expandable a bit in case you do find yourself in a situation where you need to expand your kit. So I would say that's a really good call.
Now, let me ask you this, listeners, have you ever found yourself in a situation where you were physically panicking because your phone was about to die and there was no electricity nearby, and you rely so heavily on your phone for everything from communication to directions to just like piece of that's something you really need to take into consideration.
I mean, I would add to this list if you if you are gonna need to lean on your phone, bring several of those like, you know, tricks that you can always recharge your phone with without having to you know, have any electricity. But more importantly, you need to discount your phone entirely and have a physical map and a compass, you know, analog technology. Right, This stuff holds up splendidly.
I mean, it's it's really crucial. You might have a regional map or a particular city or a US Atlas, but the compass is gonna be key because it doesn't require any electricity. It's absolutely lightweight, easy to carry around, and it can absolutely be the difference between life and death if you say, lost in the woods and you need to find your way out to the highway or whatever. It's just a crucial piece of kit for for for sure.
You know, Ben, do you have a good compass? I do not have one in my kit right now.
Yeah, I have my Oh well, I say it's good. It just has a broken yet.
Well, sure that's great.
Yeah, I have my old, my old, reliable. I haven't dug it out of my bag yet. I'll get the brand name and look it up. But I would say that's a good point. A compass is a good investment. You're gonna see. There are some things, especially multi tools, that are next multi tools or survival knives are sometimes called that's another essential. There are some of those that will include maybe a little dinky compass on the end
of the knife handle or whatever. But a compass is lightweight enough that you want a dedicated one that just does that. Even though I'm a huge proponent of things with multiple applications, you want a compass that is just a compass, because if you get one that's just sort of an add on to an existing multi tool or apparatus, then it's the odds are it's not going to be as well made, which means it won't be as dure, which means at some point, you know, I don't know.
There is some different kind of like bear grills type things you can do to make make your own quote unquote compass in the wild, but just buy one if you can, because they're not going to break the bank.
What are we talking like, twenty bucks, thirty bucks.
Less? Yeah, you can find some used ones for less if you go to like your local camp or military or if you go to your local military surplus store, you can find some used ones for less. You can also find I mean, like anything, there's a wide range there for sure. But I wouldn't I wouldn't pay like I wouldn't treat a compass like a fancy watch. I wouldn't not pay a premium for one you just needed to work.
There's definitely some that look like fancy watches, and they're in the like seventy dollars range. But there's one called a Silva Guide Explore two point zero compass that you can get at Cabela's at twenty five bucks, and it looks pretty pretty sturdy, and there's there's a whole range of them, so absolutely.
Whoa on Amazon. I just found it's a parachord bracelet with a fire starter and a compass on it, and and that.
Parachord bracelet is one of the ones where you can disassemble the bracelet and it becomes like a piece of rope that you can use. Isn't that the deal?
Yeah?
Five point fifty pair record. It's it's it's kind of a gold standard for that sort of stuff because you can use it to bind, you can use it to help hang up a tarp. That's actually on the list later here, but I don't want to lose that. A knife for a multi tool or if you're if you're
so inclined, a machete. Of course, multi tools are great, you you know, the multi tool is probably most familiar with people is going to be the stereotypical, uh, the iconic Swiss army knife, right, But that's that's just the beginning. Like leather Man has some great multi tools, but they're they're in the pricier range, you know, think like uh, one hundred dollars plus for some, but they include things.
They include like nineteen or eighteen different things like a leather all, a small saw, you know, pliers of course,
tiny scissors, things like that, a can opener, right you. Basically, a multi tool is a great example of something in your bug out bag that fulfills multiple uses, restricting you know, it lowers the amount of weight you're carrying, because if you had to carry a screwdriver, a pocket knife, a corkscrew of can open all this other stuff separately, it gets heavy very quickly, and weight is your enemy here.
That's why with fire starters next on the list, you'll see people who say, I'm not gonna bother having a canister of matches. I'm not gonna bother having you know, a lighter, because it needs fuel. I'm just gonna carry a flint and steel striker ca. Those things work, man, but they are they're a pain. I personally have some redundancy. I have a I have a lighter, a striker kit,
¶ Essentials: Tools, Navigation, Fire
and a little thing of waterproof matches, just because I don't want to need a fire and not be able to make it. Also a little life hack there, if you have access to a home washer dryer, you can collect dryer lint. I think somebody also mentioned this, and here's where it gets crazy. You can collect dryer lint and compress it into a into a really small container.
Maybe take like an old prescription bottle or something. Just stuff that with dryer lint, and then you can use that as your tender to make a fire.
Oh that's a great idea.
Yeah, I'm gonna do that today.
And it's a good you know. You know, it's like clean out your dryer trap. It's so fun. You're like, I don't want to throw this away. This stuff is like gold. There must be a use for it. And there there we are. There's a use for it.
So, Matt, you and men. First aid supplies, first aid supplies, I'm gonna say it. You can. You can find some some good pre made first aid kits, but you can find even more mediocre first aid kits. What you want to do, Yeah, and a lot of the like really good comprehensive ones are going to be fairly expensive, especially now, so I would recommend making your own kit. Get any
necessary medicine that you will need, bandages, disinfected, painkillers. You know, some people include stuff that other people consider unnecessary, like a lot of people have, Like if you have a tourniquet, you are you might be considered a little too extreme for some people. But you know, you might also be in a situation where you say, hey, I have a real possibility of losing a limb.
You know, no, that's true.
We're going to pause for a moment for a word from our sponsors, and we're gonna come back in and run through our essentials before we get to the nice stuff and the extreme stuff. All right, we're back. Next stuff A flashlight. Some people say a headlamp. I would say a flashlight. It works. If you're in a car, you might want to put in signal flares, you know, roadside accident kit stuff. But if you're on foot or you're on a bike or something, it's good to have
a flashlight with you. But remember a flashlight is only as useful as the battery power. So if you decide to have a flashlight, you are also deciding to have extra batteries or some sort of charging mechanism for that. Be careful, you know not. I mean, like we've all seen the horror movies. Maybe some of us have personally encountered it, but there's nothing quite as discouraging as being in the dark and seeing your flashlights start to flicker. It's never a good look.
Yeah, my recommendation would be a some kind of led flashlight that doesn't use a ton of power just to make it work correctly, and just a few extra batteries considering how long you want your bag to function.
Yeah, exactly. Then you know water purification tabs work. You're also going to want to carry at the very minimum containers for water or a water bladder. Some people use like a camelback for instance, but you have to have those. That's non negotiable. One difference would be some people say, hey, why don't I just carry that? Why don't I just have the container itself? And other people say, no, I want to already have water stored in there. There are
a couple of different reasons people make that decision. But if you decide to just carry a bladder or a container, then make extra show were that you know you will be able to have water that to find water that you can put in that container. Otherwise you're just lugging around, uh something empty, you know what I mean. So I think you can tell by the way I'm talking that I'm a proponent of already having the water with you.
But I guess the drawback there is that you know, water is heavy, exactly.
Nail on the head. Speaking of nails, what about a what about a repair kit? You know, we mentioned things are different if you're if you're thinking about something you store in your car, But even if you're on foot. You want to have, uh, you want to have some amount of rope or binding implements, five point fifty pair of cord maybe some uh what do they call carabiners carabiners? I never remember out of I think it's beaners. Beaners. Yeah, you want to have some care beaners. Uh. And you
want to have duct tape. It's duct tape is not I know we're based in the South, but please don't think duct tape is somehow just quote unquote for rednecks, duck takes chrome. It's so useful, it's so versatile, I got, you know, and you can.
Use it if you hurt yourself in a pinch. You could use it to wrap a wound, you know, or use it to create a makeshift brace. Like if you have like a piece of a stick or something, you could like use the duct tape to attach it to a fracture in multiple locations. And it wouldn't be perfect, but it would definitely get the job done in a pinch, right absolutely.
And you know, you might be in a situation where you have to get the job done in a pinch. You might be someone who bought a bargain basement first aid kit and you get a serious injury and you're like, oh, I don't have the means to stitch something up. I guess it's the duct tape because these band aids aren't going to do it, you know, no offense Johnson and Johnson.
You also want some sort of emergency shelter. This is This can be a tough one for people in relationships because sometimes we have different definitions of what an acceptable shelter.
Is, right, Yeah, like one of those fire festivals, theesic domes or something, you know.
Right, and then someone else might say, well, I am not gonna live like a hobo sleeping with a tarp on the ground and a tarp between these trees.
Right, I need a bespoke, you know, heated tent.
Right. Yeah, I'm a glamper, not a camper. Rightly, you'll you'll That's why you'll see things like emergency blankets great to have, especially if you're in a situation where things are very cold, or where somebody might be exposed to water, or you know, their body temperature, the core temperature might be dropping. There are some chemical handwarmers that that work well, but they're single use, so after you've cracked them open, they'll and after the after their first use, they're gonna
be useless to you. I I personally, I keep a tarp and a small tent and a in an emergency blanket. But that's it, and that's that's just me, and that's because I still have that in my car.
Yeah, I would say a tarp and just a small spool of twine goes a long way.
Yeah, So that you can because the tarps have little little uh gramets on the sides, so you can use it to attach to a tree like a makeshift shelter. You know, you don't like, let's let's just make it clear, you don't have to like sleep directly on the ground covered by the tarp. You can kind of rig it up so it creates almost like a little awning kind of and then you're sheltered from the rain. And then you can kind of like lay a blanket out underneath it.
And it's a pretty solid little makeshift shelter.
And if you're in if you're in an environment where
¶ Essentials: Health, Water, Shelter
you can take found materials like sticks in the woods or you know, whatever you find laying around in an urban environment, you can you can position your tarp when you string it up like you just said, Noel, you can position your tarp to c leckt rain water and go into one of those containers for water that you have with you, and that of course only works if it rains and if the rain is not poison So there are a couple of biffs there. Hopefully we're not in the poison rain stage.
I don't know this, Ben, but but do you think there's maybe something that would filter rain, if like, like something you could add to a container that maybe would filter rain if there is any impurities like that and make it guaranteed more safe to drink.
Yeah, yeah, you'll still want to boil it if you can't just in general. Yeah, but put in water purification tabs. That's why you want to have those, you know. It's unfortunately, it's it's safe to assume that you should have some kind of purification filter or process between you and water that you find in the wild. Now, like it's if you're like we have the Chattahoochie here, and you know, if things can't worse the worst, people would probably go to the river and try to drink or get potable
water from there. But even then you would want to boil it, or you would want to purify it somehow. Speaking of that, let's say you've got water again. That's the most important thing if stuff starts going south here. If you think you're going to lose access to water at your house, just start storing it, you know what I mean. I'll say it. Maybe I'll get in trouble about this, but if we're getting to a point where utilities might no longer be feasible, forget your water bill,
fill up the tub, and fill up the tub. You can also empty out the I know it sounds gross, but it's okay. You can also empty out the top tank of your toilet if you have one with that design, and you can boil that. We're not at that point yet. Just things to be aware of. But what good is water? If you don't have food, you'll die and I think you'll dive of starvation in about two weeks without food.
But in this situation, you're probably moving around, You're probably in a very stressful environment, which means that your caloric activity is probably going to increase.
Yeah, so you're gonna need to keep that in mind and uh pack some sort of high calorie and compact food. Uh So that would include things like you know, granola bars or any of those energy type bars that you know that have a lot of protein built into them.
Yeah, or you can go the prepackage route like in good old fashioned m R. Those generally are pretty big, uh, but they are really great for actually getting a ton of calories into you.
Ben.
The MRU gave me was, I don't know the size of a nice tome, like a large tome.
Oh yeah, I've got it. I've got one. I've got to give you.
Oh thanks, but I appreciate it. Yeah, No, I could see that would definitely be something you would you would want to consider, or anything that you cook on a small you know, gas powered camp stove, right m hm.
Also very important and you'll like this point, Matt, very important. People on our fellow listeners will kill us if we don't mention this very very important for any of that survival food. Pack your own hot sauce. Have hot sauce with you. I know it sounds like a cutesy joke thing or something, but it can improve a lot of notoriously bland food. And if you put hot sauce around on the outside of some of your food containers, it can it can help repel a certain wildlife.
See I don't have hot sauce, but I do have red pepper flakes in mine.
Nice.
Nice, but it's only for taste. I didn't think about any of those things ben actually repelling things.
Well.
Also, I don't know. We could talk about MRIs all day. Actually, Nola and I did with Jacqueline Riposo on a different show, Ridiculous History. We did a history of MRIs, So tune in if you want to hear that. And if you have MRI easy you're like, this is this is too big for me to put my my backpack comfortably? Then you can open it up. Go ahead, open it up, break it down, and just take the stuff that you feel like you need.
What about like ramen noodles or something that'd probably be a good one. You could easily do that over a camp stove, and they can be pretty compact, those little bricks you know, or even even the cups.
It just takes more prep right, Well, you could crumble it up if you just took the you know, the dry squares, you can crumble it up so that you can store the bag more easily, and then you can just make you know, you'll just beaten short ramen noodles. That's it. Change of clothes. Change of clothes. Make sure
there's seasonally appropriate. Remember extra socks and underwear. Also, if you don't typically wear durable shoes, then you know, if you have room, I would say include some footwear in there. But remember that stuff can be heavy, like boots, be real heavy.
It can. But you got to think about like what that's that's where you start getting really cold and gross. Is if your one pair of shoes is soaked through, you know, to your feet, and it's cold and raining, you might really consider making room for like a nice pair of like gortex boots or something that are like very very weather resistant, or just wearing those on, just wearing them from the start exactly. Yep.
Yeah, so this is another one. This is something that stood out, Matt. You mentioned this a stash of cash. So some people will tell you to carry gold bullion around because of that old bailout bag pilot story. But sometimes be very careful about this. Sometimes the people or institutions advocating that are the same people trying to sell you that gold, So do be skeptical of them. I
have cash stashed away. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, But I do, I do think that we have to be careful not to pin all our hopes on that, because you know, there may be situations where cash doesn't matter, right, Like we like here in Atlanta, we've seen a move toward a cashless society that we somewhat predicted in a previous episode. We just didn't see it happening this way. Remember that one, guys, Yeah, I do.
What I would say is even if you find yourself in that situation where cash doesn't matter anymore, that's gonna be worst case scenario, right, I mean, that's absolutely worst case scenario. And in most scenarios where you would need to go a go bag, having a little bit of cash is just gonna help you either you know, get whatever extra thing you need for that night or for those two days, or to even make not a deal with someone, but to get someone to help you. I mean, that is a real thing.
Another thing that's really helpful to pack in your go bag is the gift of gab, you know. I mean, it's really important to be able to like negotiate yourself. I'm only half kidding, Like it really is important, and Ben and you matter both fantastic at this being able to kind of talk yourself into an out of tricky
situations and convince people to help you. And it's not to say that you're manipulating people or being, you know, in any way duplicitous, but to be able to plainly and simply state your case and put it in a way where people can understand and can actually help you and feel compelled to help you.
Well, we all all three of us are podcasters, so I think that applies to you as well. Noel, thanks you saying yeah, just you know, just to run through these other ones. These are all easy ones. To the earlier point you made, Noel about charger bricks, would I would recommend, in addition to those, or at the very least in replacement of those, have a solar powered crank charged radio and phone charger of some sort. Yes, they're inexpensive.
You can also power up the bricks with that as long as you have sun.
Like I would argue, I would tend to bet there are new ones that maybe even have USB ports built onto them. I'm just guessing.
Yeah, yeah, that's the kind I have. Also, I would recommend, of course, like like you said earlier, Matt. One thing you nailed that a lot of people don't think about is a hygiene kit. Even if it's just like a little travel bag that you got from the from a distant relative for the holidays, it's better than nothing. You have to remember good hygiene is the first step in good first aid.
Especially now that we know washing our hands is so important because we all forgot for a couple of hundred years.
Yeah right, it's gonna be the biggest takeaway from this whole crisis is wash your damn hands.
And if you're in a long term situation, you know, people can assure you the things that get you are the are the small things that you didn't exercise preventative
¶ Essentials: Sustenance & Information
medicine on, like a toothache turns to something where you need a root canal. Right, especially now here in the US, you know, a lot of dentistry has been considered non essential and people are being told to put it off. So brushing your teeth can make things a lot less painful for you in the long term.
And this sound this may sound kind of silly, but the difference between having like brush your teeth fairly recently and not brushing your teeth for several days and then walking up to someone that you need help from. It psychologically can make a difference. I'm just saying that, and it may not necessarily be true, but it could push, you know, push you towards success a little bit.
People are judging jerks. No, I agree with you. It does make It does make a difference. And that's not even being jerks. It's just maybe it's a subconscious thing. Last two things, A survival guide. I go for military publications, but there are a lot out there. You can also find free PDFs for more long term stuff. But one field manual I would recommend is FM twenty one seventy six Survival, Evasion and Recovery from the Department of Defense. It's a field survival guide and has a lot of
valuable information there. Also, remember all of those government published manuals are yours. If you live in the US, you pay taxes. That's something that you are able to read, you know what I mean. It's not secret. It's not controversial for you to get one. You can find the free PDF and print it out. You can order a physical copy. You can go to well it's tricky to go to a physical bookstore now, but you can find
these easily. Last thing I would say is essential a small notebook and some sort of writing implement for any number of reasons, even if it's just your personal sanity, even if you need to document important dates anything. It's good to have one of those. It doesn't take up much room, it doesn't weigh a lot, and it gives you some It gives you some sort of outlet. Things that are nice to have. We can just laundry list these. These all sound cool.
I mentioned this earlier and actual tent with all the things that come with her, like steaks, extra cord, to hammock, something like that, or just you know, a pop up tent whatever it is, that would be great.
Yeah. Yeah, a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad, like you said, Nola camp stove, some sterno y, or.
Like some nice collapsible pots and pans and cutlery. I mean you've seen those where they literally kind of Russian nesting doll inside of each other. And I believe the cutlery is even included in some of those collapsible sets, which is pretty cool. Like a small handsaw. You can get really compact ones of those hiking poles. I've always
thought those were silly. But after taking a pretty significant hike in Los Angeles with my daughter up to Griffith Park Observatory, she kept seeing these folks with hiking poles and she became obsessed with finding a stick so that she could brace herself. And it really does take some of the stress off, you know, if you have a third point of contact, it's a big deal, especially if you're at it for a long time, or god forbid, you're you're injured in anyway.
Right. Yeah, I would also add, I think it's nice to have a burner phone. I think it's nice to have something that is unattached to whatever your regular phone is, but can also be charged by that crank charger. It's it's just good to have an alternative of communication.
There. Gotta love those prepaid minutes he gots you.
Although, like you know, people look askance at burner phones now because of everything we know from like breaking bad on the wire, But for this situation, I could totally see it. Ben, I have to say when I when I saw this next note, my mind immediately went to an actual tomahawk. Yeah, exactly. Or like I said at the top of the show, a batter rang of some sort or perhaps a grappling hook, but no, we're talking about some kind of high end GPS that doesn't need
a continuous Internet connection that actually uses Ping's satellites. Ben remember when we were in the quiet zone with car stuff and we had one of those. It was a game changer. It actually was an old school garment that Scott Benjamin insisted on bringing along for that very reason. It was actually the only thing that worked when our phones would not work, it continued to work.
Yeah, and luckily there hadn't been a lot of construction in that area of the world because those maps it was using were from the nineties. But that was amazing. It got us out of there. To your point about how you first literally thought it was a tomahawk, I would say I would like to recommend those some sort of survival shovel multi tool. They're really great. You can find they're like a camp shovel that can also be
an axe or a hatchet. It folds down, it doesn't take a lot of weight, and it has a multitude of functions. So check those out. There are a couple of different brands. They're not all created equally, but do check them out. They don't belong in our lists. They're nice to have if you can get them. Our next list the list of extreme things.
A gun or some kind of firearm, And if you are going to carry that with you and plan on using it, you're also gonna want ammunition. And how about a cleaning kit to make sure it would actually function if you did need it?
Yep.
And then you would think of like high grade emergency kits for traumas, and I mean like hospital level injuries. A guy I know a guy who has a bullet wound kit. For some people, that's very extreme for him, it is not. We also, you know, you might run into people who have heavy duty painkillers opioids that would normally only be prescription things of that nature or very specific medical equipment.
And for the advanced user. We talked about this earlier, how it might be useless to folks like like you or I, but sutures and the ability like to really stitch up you know, a bullet wound, like if you or if you needed to do that to yourself and keep it from getting infected. In all of that, things like hydrogen peroxide and then iodine and stuff you know,
like that would really come in handy as well. And then we get into things like body armor that's real extreme because that is not lightweight at all, and that would take up a lot of room and you would really this would be much more in that on the lamb or being chased by the cartel kind of situation.
Right. Yeah, absolutely, hopefully most people will not need body armor. It's if you already have some. It's good to have it, especially if you put it in like your house, or you put it in your vehicle or something, but carrying it around your best bed is going to be just to be wearing it, you know, and don't try to buy it now.
I would say, if you're a high roller, there is some clothing that is like somewhat bullet resistant and very interesting and not as heavy, but only if you're a high roller.
Yeah, what's that stuff called? Like there's a particular type of fabric.
I'm not sure. I've got a tactical shirt. It made it really is?
It made me through.
It's really interesting. Probably not my favorite thing that I've ever purchased, but uh, you know, you can get them.
What was your price on that? If you don't mind me.
Asking, I honestly don't know. It was a gift, so I didn't buy it. Well, I didn't buy it, but my money was used to buy it. Oh man, that makes sense.
There is a website called Bulletproof Zone dot com and they have a MC armor Level concealed tank top and it costs seven hundred and eighty nine dollars. A Bullet Blocker Lightweight flight jacket is eight hundred and seventy nine dollars. And then we have a Tallos Ballistics Phoenix BBL compression tank top for one hundred and sixty four dollars, but it is upgradeable to level three.
A Okay, so my stuff was not this expensive. Just so you know, this is real armor.
This is deal. They got a suit jacket that's eight hundred bucks, and then they've got like one of those nice puffy vests there. They're referring to it as a casual vest.
That's six. So this I would also include a list of extreme stuff is all the action movie things that we like to think about using when we watch Mission Impossible, when we watch you know, Take In or something right. But you unless you have been using nunchucks for years and years and years and years, there's no reason to keep them. You probably don't need grenades, you know what I mean, even if you found a great deal on
¶ Beyond Essentials: Nice-to-Haves and Extremes
some at a military surplus store. I'm calling myself out there, don't You don't need to drive around with grenades in your car, Which brings us to this what should not be in your bug out bag? Honestly, a ton of creature comforts need to go. We have to think about that thing. Our parents always told us, the difference between what we want and what we need. If you love
to read books, I read all the time. If you love to read books, then take a kindle and use that with your solar power charger instead of lugging around a miniature library.
Yeah, and like carrying gas around could be tricky, but I mean, if you're really in a pinch and found yourself needing gas, you could do that that old siphoning trick. Not to advocate stealing other people's gas, but absolutely could could do that if you are really really in a desperate situation. Carrying it around would be prohibitively heavy.
Or if you do have that extra cash on hand, you could stop by a place that maybe has gas or trade just seeing.
Yeah, and unless you are already in an environment where civilization or the normal rules of the day to day of collapse. Don't carry anything illegal in your bag, because you have to remember you're ideally gonna have this sitting around for a while. So if you have, for example, a gun that you do not have a license to carry or to transport, then don't have it in there. If you have an illegal recreational drug or some sort of illegal medicine in there, take it out because you
never know. You might forget about it months down the road. You might get in a jam if the authorities find it and say like, hey, why is this I don't I don't know, what's a crazy drug? Like why do you have this jar of ether in your trunk?
Sir?
I mean, why would you have a jar of ether? Anyway?
Well, you know what, it's an anesthetic. I mean, maybe you're just thinking ahead in case you do get you know, shot with some you know, rock salt or something.
Or like marijuana. If if you are in a state or a part of the world where that's illegal.
Or any any medication you do not have a prescription for. Let's leave it at that, right.
Yeah, totally, that's a good way to put it. So there's not a here's where it gets crazy moment in today's episode at all. We're dealing with some stuff that can kind of crazy and frightening for people anyway. But there is an important warning we have to we have to close with it. Is this, A lot of those pre made prepack survival bags are garbage garbage, full stop. The supplies are cheaply made, they don't have some very
important components, and they're often, especially now overpriced. If you buy one, that's fine if that's how you want to approach it. If you do buy one, make sure you go back through it with a fine tooth comb, and you have to be prepared to sub out any of the stuff that you need, and don't be don't be surprised when you see a lot of disappointing stuff in the bag.
Yeah, and it's not to say that all of these are complete ripoffs. There's a site that I found called stealthangelssurvival dot com that they don't seem incredibly gougey. They've got a lot of verified reviews. It seems like the materials that are in the bags or the kinds of things we're talking about, like the handwarmers or you know,
certain flares and things like that. So as long as you can guarantee that the stuff that's in there is the same caliber that you would buy if you bought each piece individually, maybe it is a fine way to go. But I do agree with you, Ben, I think the smartest way to go is just to buy every piece yourself, because then you know exactly what you're getting.
And really quickly, Guys, when you are looking to get stuff to put in there, don't let anybody sell you snake oil, please, because that is something we have seen consistently just through making this show. That stuff exists. And I'm not saying, you know, obviously not real snake oil, but just things that are too good to be true.
There are products out there on the internet that you can buy right now that will fulfill a lot of the purposes that we've talked about in this episode, but a lot of them are too good to be true.
Yeah, Yeah, watch out for anything that is like bring clarity, you know, super pills, get off the grid, you'll be awake for thirty six hours, You'll you'll k bone broth, you know. Watch out for that stuff.
Well, and specifically kind of what you're saying there, have been about the prepackaged go bags, a lot of them. Really, I've seen several opened up and looked at them, and it's just not it's I wouldn't trust my life or especially my son's life with a lot of that stuff. And this is a really good time for us to be thinking about this kind of thing. But this is not and let me repeat this, this is not the time to go out and buy a bunch of survival supplies.
No, absolutely not, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't don't do it. Price scouging on everything from Ammo to packaged food and even camping equipment is getting out of control. So see what you can put together at home. Write to us if you have any ideas life hacks about how to repurpose something from everyday life into your go bag or your go home bag. And and really I appreciate that point you're making about price scouging, Matt like
Ammo and specifics out of control. It always goes out of control when in times like these, a lot of packaged food, like dehydrated food. So like you see, you see this, this is a I'm just showing I'm just showing the guys here, this is a case of Mountain House. It's like a twelve pack case of dehydrated survival food. And well this is like this was bargain basement stuff. This was not very expensive until you know, the prices
started jumping a few weeks ago. So if you are trying to buy stuff like that, remember you can you can get if you're buying dehydrated stuff, you can get some of the same deals by just finding food that's already dried, like dried beans or rice, and you can work with that.
That's a really good point man.
Well, well we'll see. Hopefully it's a point no one ever has to use. But this brings us to the end of today's show. No, we went a little long, but we hope that you enjoyed it, found some constructive things. We want to hear from you. What's in your bugout bag? Let us know on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
And write to us if you want to know what's in Paul Mission Control decans buck out bag. He's been making one the whole time we've been recording this episode. I could hear him in the background gathering all his materials. You can find us on Twitter and Facebook where we're conspiracy stuff on Instagram. We are conspiracy stuff show.
Yeah, you can also you know, we are also individual humans, all in this together. If you want to check us out what we're up to when we're not on the podcast, you can do so. I am at how Now Noel Brown on Instagram.
And I am at Ben Bullen on Instagram. I'm also at Ben bollin HSW on Twitter. Go to Twitter to check out a new show that I circumstances have me starting called Strange News Daily. New episodes out every Monday through Friday. And if you have a story you'd like on the air, just hashtag it Strange Daily.
It's a great time for that show, Ben, because there actually is strange News literally daily.
It's true, hey, and it's from the creators of stuff they don't want you to know. And that's us.
Oh man, oh god, it's the end of the world. Okay, Matt. Some people don't like social media. How do they get to us?
Well, give us a call. Our number is one eight three three st d w y t K. Give us a call, leave us a message. It will go directly to my phone and Ben and Nole's phones too. Just go everywhere. We will see it and we will listen. If you don't want to do that, you can always reach us the good old fashioned way, send us an email.
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