Speaker 1: Fellow conspiracy realist friends and neighbors our classic episode this
Speaker 1: evening is only more relevant as time goes on. I
Speaker 1: know we get a little bit soapboxy in this one,
Speaker 1: But if you're listening now and you don't have a
Speaker 1: bug out bag, do it? Get one immediately?
Speaker 2: What's in your bug out bag?
Speaker 3: Well, look, I don't want to put you on the spot, Ben,
Speaker 3: you cut this if we need to. I notice that
Speaker 3: you carry a bag around a lot. Do you consider
Speaker 3: that to be part of your bug out bag? I
Speaker 3: don't know, system I guess or like? Is it partially?
Speaker 3: Are you partially able to get out at any time?
Speaker 3: Is that something we should be thinking about.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate that I may not be the best
Speaker 1: sample size for this because I'm a little more on
Speaker 1: the paranoid end of the spectrum. I'm on an extreme
Speaker 1: end of a couple of spectrums if we're being honest,
Speaker 1: but I will I will say that. You know, as
Speaker 1: an eagle scout, it is important to always be prepared.
Speaker 1: Got it if possible. Right before you make an entrance,
Speaker 1: you know your exit strategy. We were We get pretty
Speaker 1: in depth with our bug out bag exploration and shout
Speaker 1: out to our friends like the Casual Preppers podcast, The
Speaker 1: question is this, if you were cut off from everything,
Speaker 1: from all modern conveniences, for all of a sudden, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, all at once, for seventy two hours,
Speaker 1: what would you need to survive? What would your loved
Speaker 1: ones need to survive?
Speaker 2: It's a good question and when we do our level
Speaker 2: best to answer. In this very practical and functional episode
Speaker 2: of stuff they don't want you to know.
Speaker 4: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is
Speaker 4: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 4: learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 4: production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
Speaker 3: my name is Nolan.
Speaker 1: They call me Ben. We are joined as always with
Speaker 1: our super producer Paul Mission Control deck and most importantly,
Speaker 1: you are you. You are here, and that makes this
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know. This is a
Speaker 1: little bit of a weird episode for us because in
Speaker 1: a in a few of our recent shows, we had
Speaker 1: touched on the idea of emergency preparation, right we had uh,
Speaker 1: we had mentioned building out bug out bags just just
Speaker 1: in passing. Remember we didn't go to into depth. But
Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys. I was surprised that
Speaker 1: so many of our fellow listeners wrote into us on uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Facebook or Twitter and asked us to make
Speaker 1: an episodisode just about bug outbacks. Did you guys see
Speaker 1: any of that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think it's an important thing that
Speaker 3: maybe we don't think about in our busy lives all
Speaker 3: the time, that we need to be prepared in case
Speaker 3: something goes down all of a sudden. We learned it personally.
Speaker 3: I think we had a close encounter with something like
Speaker 3: this when snowpocalypse occurred in Atlanta, when we realized, oh, well,
Speaker 3: if something does go wrong and let's say even your
Speaker 3: vehicle is a has to be abandoned, is there enough
Speaker 3: stuff in your vehicle to be safe for a night?
Speaker 3: Two nights, forty eight hours? And we noticed a response
Speaker 3: with everyone listening that they also wanted to know this information.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so this episode's going to be a little
Speaker 1: bit different from some of our previous episodes. I don't
Speaker 1: know about you all, but I don't think this will
Speaker 1: include anything quote unquote. But you know, perhaps we've already
Speaker 1: drifted past our old definitions of normalcy nowadays. Anyhow, in
Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to walk through what a bug
Speaker 1: out bag is, whether you need one, what you should
Speaker 1: put in it, what you should watch out for along
Speaker 1: the way, and maybe reveal some of our own hard,
Speaker 1: hard learned lessons here. Guys, you know, we can see
Speaker 1: each other right now, but our fellow listeners, can't You
Speaker 1: all look great? By the way, I want to point out,
Speaker 1: I'm wearing my old, my old, old jacket that I
Speaker 1: used to live in. Seriously, for three months I lived
Speaker 1: in this jacket because I was not prepared, and I.
Speaker 2: Well, it's sort of like a utility belt of a jacket, right,
Speaker 2: Like it's got all these pockets where you can put
Speaker 2: all kinds of necessities in.
Speaker 1: There, right yeah, man, yeah, absolutely, And I never I
Speaker 1: never thought that I would have to use it that way,
Speaker 1: but I got caught out because I wasn't planning ahead.
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of improvisation, but in this in this
Speaker 1: sort of situation, we do need to plan.
Speaker 3: So can you tell us just a little bit of
Speaker 3: like high level info on what happened or is it
Speaker 3: a mystery just about how you found yourself in that
Speaker 3: kind of situation?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, Okay, I screwed up, Matt. That's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: I screwed up. I was living abroad and I thought
Speaker 1: at the time that the hostel I was staying in
Speaker 1: was gonna well, like ale, I don't know these people
Speaker 1: that I lived with. I thought it was going to
Speaker 1: be a safe, pretty reliably consistent domicile situation. I traveled
Speaker 1: to another town and I couldn't find a place to
Speaker 1: live there, so I was sleeping rough unless I literally
Speaker 1: like made friends with someone on the street and trusted
Speaker 1: them enough to sleep at their house, which you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan of that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, but your jacket or having something on you
Speaker 3: that you could carry a couple of things on you
Speaker 3: became really important.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, this is ridiculous. This actually used to
Speaker 1: be a different color, but it got so sun baked
Speaker 1: and dirty and like I was washing it in a
Speaker 1: river and stuff. It was weird.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that very much applies to today's episode that
Speaker 3: we're going to be getting into, just the concept that
Speaker 3: I would say a lot of us, but me personally,
Speaker 3: I walk around with two pockets four pockets in my
Speaker 3: pants and that's about it. I guess there's a fifth
Speaker 3: little tiny one that you can fit a USB driver,
Speaker 3: so you.
Speaker 2: Don't go for the cargo pants. Matt, you're not a
Speaker 2: cargo guy.
Speaker 3: Well, I haven't been lately. Maybe I need to switch
Speaker 3: over in these times at least. But most of us,
Speaker 3: if we're walking around, we don't have a lot of
Speaker 3: storage on us, unless you got a really good jacket
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 2: You know what. I get a lot of crap for
Speaker 2: this from my daughter included, But I am a big
Speaker 2: fan of a satchel I carry. I have several shoulder
Speaker 2: bags and I carry them for that very reason because
Speaker 2: I don't want to stuff my pockets with crap. And
Speaker 2: if I have like a little, nice, low profile shoulder bag,
Speaker 2: I can put all the little things in it that
Speaker 2: I might need, whether it's like nose spray or breath
Speaker 2: mince or you know, a batter rang what have you.
Speaker 2: I've got it all in there in my little utility satchel.
Speaker 2: And I get a lot of crap for it, but
Speaker 2: I stand by it.
Speaker 3: You know what Ben got me this. I think it's
Speaker 3: called a Supreme bag. I think that's what it's called.
Speaker 3: But it's a small bag. It looks almost like a
Speaker 3: fanny pack, but a little larger and much cooler, but
Speaker 3: you can put it over your shoulder. When I was
Speaker 3: watching my son for about a week week and a half,
Speaker 3: that became like I had to have that. If I
Speaker 3: didn't have that bag, they had like snack or food
Speaker 3: for him, water for him, all the basic necessities. If
Speaker 3: I didn't have a small bag like that, I would
Speaker 3: have been out of luck. So that kind of thing
Speaker 3: that you're talking about, nol Is could be really helpful.
Speaker 2: And it's fashionable too, Matt.
Speaker 1: And one thing I would point out about your satchel
Speaker 1: strategy is I like that you also have all your
Speaker 1: bags that I've seen have these highly adjustable straps, so
Speaker 1: you can put it really close to your back, which
Speaker 1: is great in a situation where you need to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on snatch and grabs. And it also it
Speaker 1: kind of transforms it into a single strap backpack. I
Speaker 1: think that's really smart totally.
Speaker 2: You can wear it up high on the small of
Speaker 2: your back if you're riding a bike, like as a
Speaker 2: messenger bag. I even have one that has a cross
Speaker 2: chest attachment that allows you to really wear it up
Speaker 2: high on the back and gives you more support. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I'm a big fan and I will never
Speaker 2: let an eleven year old bully me into thinking otherwise.
Speaker 1: So I agree, you know, Matt, Paul and I have
Speaker 1: your back on that one, of course. But eleven year
Speaker 1: olds are some of the most powerful, brilliant people in
Speaker 1: the world, so we would have to team up. But
Speaker 1: we've got your back. Before we get into today's show,
Speaker 1: how about we do a quick, just a very quick
Speaker 1: Twitter roll call. Yes, shout out to grummin six hundred
Speaker 1: who posted to conspiracy stuff to let us know the
Speaker 1: breaking news. As we record this, it's been confirmed UK
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: Did you guys hear about that?
Speaker 2: I did just this morning. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And another secretary that's high level also tested positive.
Speaker 1: M Yeah.
Speaker 2: And wasn't there an official that was a or maybe
Speaker 2: an official? I think it was an evangelist who was
Speaker 2: a COVID denier has now tested positive as well. Called
Speaker 2: it's called karma right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're getting to the point where instead of knowing
Speaker 1: of famous, notable figures in the world getting COVID, you
Speaker 1: may soon by the time this episode comes out, you
Speaker 1: may personally know someone who is confirmed to have contracted it.
Speaker 1: But again, the US, unlike the rest of the developed world,
Speaker 1: is not rolling out testing in a very efficient way.
Speaker 1: And so now that many of us are forced to
Speaker 1: contemplate the sudden and unexpected changes in our day to
Speaker 1: day lives and status quo, we also have to think
Speaker 1: about how we will adapt if our normal environment, whether
Speaker 1: that's our home space or our neighborhood, how do we
Speaker 1: adapt if that place becomes either unsustainable at some point
Speaker 1: or dangerous? You know, what do we do if we
Speaker 1: have to get out? Or what do we do if
Speaker 1: our normal methods of survival like running water, easily available food,
Speaker 1: and so on. What do we do if they run
Speaker 1: out and we have to survive until help gets to us.
Speaker 1: That's where a bug out bag comes in. So here
Speaker 1: are the facts.
Speaker 2: This is a question that I had. I'd never heard
Speaker 2: this term before, bug out bag. I'd love to explore
Speaker 2: a little more about where that comes from. But another
Speaker 2: term for it is a go bag. At its most essence,
Speaker 2: it's really just a bag that contains those bare necessities
Speaker 2: that you really need to have handy, and the contents
Speaker 2: can vary. We're gonna give you to that, But here
Speaker 2: are some of the reasons you might need to have
Speaker 2: one of these ready. The one I always think of
Speaker 2: is if you know you're you're some kind of high
Speaker 2: level criminal and you've been found out and you'd go
Speaker 2: on the lamb or maybe change an identity. That's sort
Speaker 2: of the more like alarmist fiction y type one, but
Speaker 2: it's not entirely fictional. So maybe you need to leave
Speaker 2: one location for another, or you're stranded in a location
Speaker 2: like you said at the beginning of the show now
Speaker 2: with the snow apocalypse and being able to need to
Speaker 2: survive using your car as a temporary domicile in really
Speaker 2: difficult conditions climate wise, or you're forced to be mobile
Speaker 2: for some amount of time. That's a little more of
Speaker 2: the potential on the lamb or just potential like you
Speaker 2: need to be on the move for whatever reason. There's
Speaker 2: many reasons this could be the case.
Speaker 3: Well, well, yeah, the whole point is there are endless
Speaker 3: reasons that you may need to do one of those things,
Speaker 3: be mobile, if you get stranded or you just need
Speaker 3: to leave for one reason or another, and it could
Speaker 3: be due to a natural disaster, some kind of you know,
Speaker 3: I mean the reality of maybe an active shooter somewhere
Speaker 3: near you, your car breaks down, maybe you're in the
Speaker 3: middle of a pandemic, and civilization seems to be collapsing
Speaker 3: all around you. The whole idea is that when you
Speaker 3: have access to a bug out bag that you have
Speaker 3: prepared carefully, this thing can keep you safe and healthy
Speaker 3: for at least a temporary amount of time. And we'll
Speaker 3: talk about exactly how long you can essentially set up
Speaker 3: your bug out bag or your go bag to last you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a key part here. It is meant
Speaker 1: to keep you safe and healthy for a temporary amount
Speaker 1: of time because one of the golden rules is that
Speaker 1: you typically want to be able to pack no more
Speaker 1: than you can and carry for a sustained amount of
Speaker 1: time by yourself, even if you have friends and family
Speaker 1: with you. So to that question, where does the term
Speaker 1: come from. I've heard it called a a bug out bag,
Speaker 1: a go bag, a go home bag, but the origin
Speaker 1: of bug out bag is largely believed to come from
Speaker 1: what was once known as a bailout bag used by
Speaker 1: pilots and aviators in the military. So back in the day,
Speaker 1: the bailout bag had a couple of items that were
Speaker 1: critical for pilots if they were shot down or if
Speaker 1: they experienced an engine malfunction and they landed in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere or even enemy territory, and things like
Speaker 1: a knife, you know, compass basic survival gear. Of course,
Speaker 1: you know, remember when you're putting together your bug out bag,
Speaker 1: you're probably not going to be jumping out of a plane.
Speaker 1: You're probably not going to commandeer an island or do
Speaker 1: any sort of you know, movie stuff the John Wick
Speaker 1: Mission Impossible type situations. You're just making sure that you're
Speaker 1: as safe and healthy as possible while you either reach
Speaker 1: permanent safety or get emergency assistance. One other seed on
Speaker 1: a plant here. The old bailout bags used in air
Speaker 1: forces did used to contain at least according to the stories,
Speaker 1: did used to contain a small amount of like gold
Speaker 1: or silver bullion. And that's been the subject of a
Speaker 1: lot of alarmist uh prepping industry sales points now, you know,
Speaker 1: but we'll we'll get back to that. So another question
Speaker 1: you would probably have to ask, a question many of
Speaker 1: our fellow listeners have received in the past, is is
Speaker 1: it crazy? Is it overkill to have a bug out bag?
Speaker 1: The answer is in general. No, no, it's not. It
Speaker 1: depends on how weird you get with it.
Speaker 3: You will get reactions though from maybe a lot of
Speaker 3: depending on who you surround yourself with. I just know
Speaker 3: my immediate family and friends are like, you have what? What?
Speaker 3: What do you have in your car?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: Why would you you do that? And then you have
Speaker 3: to explain, And then a lot of times you'll notice
Speaker 3: people are a little more understanding I guess after you
Speaker 3: give them all the reasons. But yeah, I would say
Speaker 3: I have encountered that sentiment quite often.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that's really easy to pass
Speaker 2: judgment on until you know the situation reveals itself where
Speaker 2: you were actually the smart one, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: like what we're in right now, or the snowpocalypse situation.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't think anyone would judge you if
Speaker 2: you had made the right preparations and then that situation
Speaker 2: presented itself and you were much more able to take
Speaker 2: care of yourself and your loved ones than others who
Speaker 2: maybe thought that was a wacky idea. So I think
Speaker 2: reducing the stigma of things like this is really important
Speaker 2: because it's not just some kind of doomsday prepper thing.
Speaker 2: You know. I think maybe the term bug out bag
Speaker 2: makes you think like, oh, I'm bugging out, I'm freaking out.
Speaker 2: Everything's crazy, you know. But no, it's absolutely just good
Speaker 2: emergency preparedness, right.
Speaker 3: It's an emergency preparedness set.
Speaker 2: There you go. That sounds a little more legit.
Speaker 1: I like to maybe we just call it, maybe call
Speaker 1: it an improvisation kit. I don't know something, yeah, something
Speaker 1: yes and bag, yes and bag. There we go. That's good. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's possible, like any anything, it's possible to go overboard
Speaker 1: when building out kit like this. But most of the
Speaker 1: most of the stuff at least that we would cover
Speaker 1: or that we would we would recommend looking into, is
Speaker 1: pretty reasonable. And a lot of it depend on the
Speaker 1: time you want to put in UH and your level
Speaker 1: of h mcguiverance. Depending on your mcgiver factor. A lot
Speaker 1: of this can be made with easily obtainable supplies. That's
Speaker 1: really important. Right now as we record this, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of information out there about preparedness, about bug out bags,
Speaker 1: and some of it is misinformed. UH, some of it
Speaker 1: is coming from a place with an agenda. It's coming
Speaker 1: from folks who want to sell you something and this
Speaker 1: can lead to overkill. More importantly, it can lead to
Speaker 1: spending a lot of money on things you don't need well,
Speaker 1: like bone broth, Yeah, like bone broth or gold bullion,
Speaker 1: or you know, paying paying out the wazoo for something
Speaker 1: that's kind of cheaply made and may actually break if
Speaker 1: you ever use it on a regular basis. So, like
Speaker 1: for an overkill thing, you don't need to pack huge
Speaker 1: amounts of heavy equipment. You need stuff you can carry
Speaker 1: and you can use. So this gets us to different
Speaker 1: like types of bug out bags, Matt, you mentioned there
Speaker 1: was a Traditionally they're defined by the amount of time, right,
Speaker 1: what is that amount of time for you guys?
Speaker 3: Usually it goes by hours, but it's really like a day,
Speaker 3: Like you do a twenty four hour bug but bug
Speaker 3: out bag, that's kind of your just standard. This is
Speaker 3: the absolute minimum that I would need to be okay
Speaker 3: for a full day and night, and then you it
Speaker 3: generally goes from that to two days, like forty eight
Speaker 3: hour bug out bag. The cool thing about these things
Speaker 3: is that let's say you've got a twenty four hour
Speaker 3: or forty eight hour bag set up as a singular thing.
Speaker 3: Let's say in your trunk you keep extra supplies that
Speaker 3: would turn that into a ninety six hour or longer
Speaker 3: bug out bag situation, just because the only things really
Speaker 3: that are limiting you there would be your food, your water,
Speaker 3: things that would run out because a lot of the
Speaker 3: tools and things you keep in a bug out bag
Speaker 3: aren't gonna limit you by a number.
Speaker 1: Of hours, right right right the hour limitation or the
Speaker 1: hour definition, there is gonna really hinge on three things.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hinge on well, let's call it three point five.
Speaker 1: It's gonna hinge on the amount of food you need
Speaker 1: to survive every twenty four hours, the amount of water
Speaker 1: you need, which is even more important, and the amount
Speaker 1: of medication you need if you're on a regular medication
Speaker 1: schedule that's vital to your health. So this means that
Speaker 1: a bug out bag can be defined also by what
Speaker 1: it's not. It is not a long term survival kit,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. You're not gonna take this
Speaker 1: stuff in here and build a cabin and just live
Speaker 1: there forever. It's not a boding or aviation emergency kit.
Speaker 1: You can put it in the trunk of your car.
Speaker 1: But for an auto survival kit specifically, there's going to
Speaker 1: be things in that kit that you don't need to
Speaker 1: have in a bug out bag, right, Like you don't
Speaker 1: need fix a flat in your bug out bag. You
Speaker 1: don't need you do need it in your car, but
Speaker 1: you do need it in your car absolutely, and you
Speaker 1: can carry more in your car too, obviously.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really smart way of looking at it, Ben,
Speaker 2: because no one would ever begrudgs you keeping supplies in
Speaker 2: your car, you know, for the event of a breakdown, right,
Speaker 2: But yet people seem to look askance if you have
Speaker 2: some sort of like contingency plan back for like some
Speaker 2: other you know, larger emergency that is not automotive related.
Speaker 2: So I think that's a really good point.
Speaker 1: It's weird because I guess it's all in presentation, right,
Speaker 1: Like the the stuff that I we keep in my car,
Speaker 1: I do have it, I do have it separated out.
Speaker 1: But there's the car stuff, you know, like the signal flares,
Speaker 1: that kind of that kind of thing, jumper cables, and
Speaker 1: then there's the bag you can grab. But it doesn't
Speaker 1: look as crazy if it's in your trunk, right, because
Speaker 1: everybody's got weird stuff in their trunks.
Speaker 3: Well, Hey, speaking of trunks, guys, why don't we Why
Speaker 3: don't we start going through like what we have. I'd
Speaker 3: love to give you guys a rundown of my bug
Speaker 3: out trunk, you know, before we get on too further
Speaker 3: in this. But before we do that, maybe let's take
Speaker 3: a quick word from our sponsor.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back, Matt. I'm intrigued. What, yeah, are
Speaker 1: you going to give us the rundown? Are you going
Speaker 1: to do an unboxing video?
Speaker 3: Okay, so before we get into no, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: do an o a boxing video, but before we get
Speaker 3: into you know what you should probably be thinking about
Speaker 3: putting in your bug out bag. I just want to
Speaker 3: kind of give you my rundown, and i'd love to
Speaker 3: hear you, guys just what you keep with yours, if
Speaker 3: that's okay. So, first of all, I've got an old, old,
Speaker 3: old Toyota that I ride around in, and in the trunk,
Speaker 3: I've got sleeping bags for my family, blankets, jackets, bottled
Speaker 3: water for at least two days, energy bars for at
Speaker 3: least two days, a fully charged battery powered generator back there.
Speaker 3: And those are just the basic things in like if
Speaker 3: the car breaks down or something and we need to
Speaker 3: walk a lah a snowpocalypse or something like that. Then
Speaker 3: we've got my bug out bag itself. Should we go
Speaker 3: over that yet or should we? Do you mind?
Speaker 1: I'm all ears?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I've personally got closed for two days for myself,
Speaker 3: a lighter, a flashlight, of batteries, small knife, scissors, just
Speaker 3: basic toiletries like travel toiletries for that'll last for you know, whatever,
Speaker 3: a week or something. Wet wipes, some paper towels, contact lenses, passport,
Speaker 3: two hundred dollars cash, spare house key, spare car key,
Speaker 3: a sharpie, black pen, and extra eyeglasses.
Speaker 1: Nice. Nice.
Speaker 3: And here's the things that I'm putting in here that
Speaker 3: I need to put in there, which is something that
Speaker 3: I hadn't really been thinking about, but while prepping for
Speaker 3: this episode, I'm thinking I should probably get a small
Speaker 3: tent of some sort or a tent that could sleep
Speaker 3: up to three people, just when I'm thinking about my
Speaker 3: family and if we're traveling together. And the other thing
Speaker 3: I don't have in there is a really good first
Speaker 3: aid kit that's compact. I'm looking. I'm in the market
Speaker 3: for one of those, so if you find a good one,
Speaker 3: let me know.
Speaker 2: Now here's a question for you, Matt, why not have
Speaker 2: a small compact handgun in there. I'm not being I'm
Speaker 2: not joking.
Speaker 3: That is more of a personal question to my family situation,
Speaker 3: and just it's weird, right having a small handgun and
Speaker 3: having a four year old or you know, a young child.
Speaker 3: It's like you can either protect your family or something
Speaker 3: terrible can happen. In the statistics show that it's more
Speaker 3: dangerous in most scenarios to have a handgun around a
Speaker 3: younger child, even if you're trying to protect yourself from
Speaker 3: other people with handguns. So that's a personal, very personal choice, absolutely,
Speaker 3: and it is not my decision. Actually, I got to
Speaker 3: defer to the most powerful person in this relationship, which
Speaker 3: is my wife. So she doesn't want it, so it's
Speaker 3: not going to happen. I would very much like to
Speaker 3: have something like that, but it's not gonna happen anytime soon,
Speaker 3: got it.
Speaker 1: So with that in mind, I think you've done I
Speaker 1: think you've done a good job at I make sure
Speaker 1: I didn't miss this. Do you have like a multi tool,
Speaker 1: like a leatherman or anything like that in there?
Speaker 3: That is exactly what I need. It's exactly what I
Speaker 3: need to I've got that on my list of needs,
Speaker 3: as well as purification tablets I don't have right now,
Speaker 3: or any kind of masks or a good antibacterial sanitizer
Speaker 3: just given the circumstances. And the last thing that I
Speaker 3: absolutely need that I don't have is a life straw.
Speaker 2: I was just about to ask about that. Yeah, Ben,
Speaker 2: you were always seeing the praises of life straws. You
Speaker 2: want to remind listeners what those are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, life straws are a pretty handy invention. They are,
Speaker 1: or were, relatively inexpensive things that allow you to drink
Speaker 1: water from say a puddle or something without necessarily having
Speaker 1: to boil it. And the cool thing about the filter
Speaker 1: is it really is it's a cylindrical It looks like
Speaker 1: a cylindrical overly thick straw or two. And the way
Speaker 1: the filter works is such that you can sip directly
Speaker 1: from the water source. It'll go through the filter and
Speaker 1: be safe to drink in most circumstances. No, it doesn't
Speaker 1: filter out everything. In course, you're not going to show
Speaker 1: up to Chernobyl and find an a radiated puddle and
Speaker 1: drink from that. But it is great to hav in
Speaker 1: a pinch it's no replacement for having those purification tabs though,
Speaker 1: so you would I would ideally recommend having both of them.
Speaker 1: But that goes to the question what should be in
Speaker 1: my bug out bag? We ask each other to answer that.
Speaker 1: We have to talk about a couple of very important things.
Speaker 1: There's no silver bullet bug out bag. There's no like
Speaker 1: one stop panacea for everyone because we live in different
Speaker 1: parts of the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that being said, you really have to consider
Speaker 2: your surroundings. That's the big number one. Do you live
Speaker 2: in a cold, arid part of the world humid hot region.
Speaker 2: You'll need different things depending on where you are and
Speaker 2: what season is it. Secondly, you need to keep in
Speaker 2: mind how long you want your supplies to last you.
Speaker 2: The typical bug out bag is seventy two hours, like
Speaker 2: we said, but you can plan for more or less.
Speaker 2: If you think twenty four hours is fine, it seems
Speaker 2: like a bare minimum to me. Are you packing just
Speaker 2: for yourself or like Matt, are you having to consider
Speaker 2: a small child and another human being, another full grown adult.
Speaker 2: This is These are very crucial questions and you're going
Speaker 2: to very much change the trajectory of the project. All
Speaker 2: of these factors are going to play a huge role
Speaker 2: in your construction of said bug out bag. You'll also
Speaker 2: want to check back in on your bag every six
Speaker 2: months to make sure that everything still works, do a
Speaker 2: little maintenance, make sure nothing's expired, and everything remains seasonally appropriate.
Speaker 2: You do not want to have your car break down
Speaker 2: in the middle of nowhere at the height of summer,
Speaker 2: only to find that your emergency change of clothes is
Speaker 2: like a sweater and some gloves or something like that
Speaker 2: than some leg warmers.
Speaker 3: I am definitely guilty of that. For a while, my
Speaker 3: bug out bag looked like like a gym bag or something,
Speaker 3: you know, with like the minimum amount of clothing. And
Speaker 3: then it got into the winter and I was like, oh, oh,
Speaker 3: I haven't changed to this. It's okay.
Speaker 2: Well, full disclosure to you guys. I'm learning a lot
Speaker 2: here because my bug out bag literally is a gym
Speaker 2: bag and and and then it's just a gym bag.
Speaker 2: And I don't even go to the gym very often.
Speaker 2: So I am going to take some cues from you guys,
Speaker 2: along with listeners hopefully, so I'm really ready to dive
Speaker 2: in even further.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to go ahead and preemptively give a
Speaker 1: shout out to all our fellow listeners on Here's where
Speaker 1: it gets crazy, specifically Shia or shay sh Ea Parizine.
Speaker 1: And here's where it gets crazy. Who asks people what
Speaker 1: they put in their bug out bags. There's a great
Speaker 1: conversation going on around that, and you'll see that not
Speaker 1: everybody agrees, and you'll also see that people are in
Speaker 1: very different situations to your point. So let's let's say,
Speaker 1: like the one rule is you ideally want to have
Speaker 1: this ready before you need it. So we've got a
Speaker 1: list of what we consider more or less essentials, and
Speaker 1: then we've got a list of things that are nice
Speaker 1: to have but not mandatory. And then we've got a
Speaker 1: list of what I would call extreme things, so essentials.
Speaker 1: Backpack container, you know, I would say this can be
Speaker 1: anything that works for you as long as you're able
Speaker 1: to carry it easily under your own power, and it's
Speaker 1: something that is waterproof, a that's non negotiable or water resistant.
Speaker 1: I don't you know, not everybody agrees on this, but
Speaker 1: I would say backpacks are Backpacks are going to be
Speaker 1: great because if they have two straps, it's going to
Speaker 1: be less fatiguing on your body to carry it over
Speaker 1: a long period of time. You know, if you've ever
Speaker 1: carried something really heavy and like I have messenger bags,
Speaker 1: and if you walk around for hours with those, then
Speaker 1: you have tow to different shoulders and it can start
Speaker 1: it can start wearing on you differently.
Speaker 2: That's a good point, Ben, I can speak to that personally. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And a nice kind of camping type backpack would probably
Speaker 2: be the way to go because they're usually just a giant, big,
Speaker 2: kind of like empty area without too many pockets, and
Speaker 2: you can just like fit as much stuff in there
Speaker 2: as you possibly can and then just sense it up
Speaker 2: at the top, and then sometimes there's pockets on the side.
Speaker 2: Like I have a pretty nice camping backpack that's just
Speaker 2: one big, huge cavity in the middle and then a
Speaker 2: couple of small pockets on the side and one big
Speaker 2: pocket on the back, and that's all you need. You
Speaker 2: don't need anything super fancy.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And a lot of those backpacks are expandable a
Speaker 3: bit in case you do find yourself in a situation
Speaker 3: where you need to expand your kit. So I would
Speaker 3: say that's a really good call.
Speaker 2: Now, let me ask you this, listeners, have you ever
Speaker 2: found yourself in a situation where you were physically panicking
Speaker 2: because your phone was about to die and there was
Speaker 2: no electricity nearby, and you rely so heavily on your
Speaker 2: phone for everything from communication to directions to just like
Speaker 2: piece of that's something you really need to take into consideration.
Speaker 2: I mean, I would add to this list if you
Speaker 2: if you are gonna need to lean on your phone,
Speaker 2: bring several of those like, you know, tricks that you
Speaker 2: can always recharge your phone with without having to you know,
Speaker 2: have any electricity. But more importantly, you need to discount
Speaker 2: your phone entirely and have a physical map and a compass,
Speaker 2: you know, analog technology. Right, This stuff holds up splendidly.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it's really crucial. You might have a
Speaker 2: regional map or a particular city or a US Atlas,
Speaker 2: but the compass is gonna be key because it doesn't
Speaker 2: require any electricity. It's absolutely lightweight, easy to carry around,
Speaker 2: and it can absolutely be the difference between life and
Speaker 2: death if you say, lost in the woods and you
Speaker 2: need to find your way out to the highway or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's just a crucial piece of kit for for for sure.
Speaker 3: You know, Ben, do you have a good compass? I
Speaker 3: do not have one in my kit right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have my Oh well, I say it's good.
Speaker 1: It just has a broken yet.
Speaker 3: Well, sure that's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have my old, my old, reliable. I haven't
Speaker 1: dug it out of my bag yet. I'll get the
Speaker 1: brand name and look it up. But I would say
Speaker 1: that's a good point. A compass is a good investment.
Speaker 1: You're gonna see. There are some things, especially multi tools,
Speaker 1: that are next multi tools or survival knives are sometimes
Speaker 1: called that's another essential. There are some of those that
Speaker 1: will include maybe a little dinky compass on the end
Speaker 1: of the knife handle or whatever. But a compass is
Speaker 1: lightweight enough that you want a dedicated one that just
Speaker 1: does that. Even though I'm a huge proponent of things
Speaker 1: with multiple applications, you want a compass that is just
Speaker 1: a compass, because if you get one that's just sort
Speaker 1: of an add on to an existing multi tool or apparatus,
Speaker 1: then it's the odds are it's not going to be
Speaker 1: as well made, which means it won't be as dure,
Speaker 1: which means at some point, you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: There is some different kind of like bear grills type
Speaker 1: things you can do to make make your own quote
Speaker 1: unquote compass in the wild, but just buy one if
Speaker 1: you can, because they're not going to break the bank.
Speaker 2: What are we talking like, twenty bucks, thirty bucks.
Speaker 1: Less? Yeah, you can find some used ones for less
Speaker 1: if you go to like your local camp or military
Speaker 1: or if you go to your local military surplus store,
Speaker 1: you can find some used ones for less. You can
Speaker 1: also find I mean, like anything, there's a wide range
Speaker 1: there for sure. But I wouldn't I wouldn't pay like
Speaker 1: I wouldn't treat a compass like a fancy watch. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't not pay a premium for one you just needed
Speaker 1: to work.
Speaker 2: There's definitely some that look like fancy watches, and they're
Speaker 2: in the like seventy dollars range. But there's one called
Speaker 2: a Silva Guide Explore two point zero compass that you
Speaker 2: can get at Cabela's at twenty five bucks, and it
Speaker 2: looks pretty pretty sturdy, and there's there's a whole range
Speaker 2: of them, so absolutely.
Speaker 3: Whoa on Amazon. I just found it's a parachord bracelet
Speaker 3: with a fire starter and a compass on it, and
Speaker 3: and that.
Speaker 2: Parachord bracelet is one of the ones where you can
Speaker 2: disassemble the bracelet and it becomes like a piece of
Speaker 2: rope that you can use. Isn't that the deal?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Five point fifty pair record. It's it's it's kind of
Speaker 1: a gold standard for that sort of stuff because you
Speaker 1: can use it to bind, you can use it to
Speaker 1: help hang up a tarp. That's actually on the list
Speaker 1: later here, but I don't want to lose that. A
Speaker 1: knife for a multi tool or if you're if you're
Speaker 1: so inclined, a machete. Of course, multi tools are great,
Speaker 1: you you know, the multi tool is probably most familiar
Speaker 1: with people is going to be the stereotypical, uh, the
Speaker 1: iconic Swiss army knife, right, But that's that's just the beginning.
Speaker 1: Like leather Man has some great multi tools, but they're
Speaker 1: they're in the pricier range, you know, think like uh,
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars plus for some, but they include things.
Speaker 1: They include like nineteen or eighteen different things like a
Speaker 1: leather all, a small saw, you know, pliers of course,
Speaker 1: tiny scissors, things like that, a can opener, right you. Basically,
Speaker 1: a multi tool is a great example of something in
Speaker 1: your bug out bag that fulfills multiple uses, restricting you know,
Speaker 1: it lowers the amount of weight you're carrying, because if
Speaker 1: you had to carry a screwdriver, a pocket knife, a
Speaker 1: corkscrew of can open all this other stuff separately, it
Speaker 1: gets heavy very quickly, and weight is your enemy here.
Speaker 1: That's why with fire starters next on the list, you'll
Speaker 1: see people who say, I'm not gonna bother having a
Speaker 1: canister of matches. I'm not gonna bother having you know,
Speaker 1: a lighter, because it needs fuel. I'm just gonna carry
Speaker 1: a flint and steel striker ca. Those things work, man,
Speaker 1: but they are they're a pain. I personally have some redundancy.
Speaker 1: I have a I have a lighter, a striker kit,
Speaker 1: and a little thing of waterproof matches, just because I
Speaker 1: don't want to need a fire and not be able
Speaker 1: to make it. Also a little life hack there, if
Speaker 1: you have access to a home washer dryer, you can
Speaker 1: collect dryer lint. I think somebody also mentioned this, and
Speaker 1: here's where it gets crazy. You can collect dryer lint
Speaker 1: and compress it into a into a really small container.
Speaker 1: Maybe take like an old prescription bottle or something. Just
Speaker 1: stuff that with dryer lint, and then you can use
Speaker 1: that as your tender to make a fire.
Speaker 2: Oh that's a great idea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna do that today.
Speaker 2: And it's a good you know. You know, it's like
Speaker 2: clean out your dryer trap. It's so fun. You're like,
Speaker 2: I don't want to throw this away. This stuff is
Speaker 2: like gold. There must be a use for it. And
Speaker 2: there there we are. There's a use for it.
Speaker 1: So, Matt, you and men. First aid supplies, first aid supplies,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it. You can. You can find some
Speaker 1: some good pre made first aid kits, but you can
Speaker 1: find even more mediocre first aid kits. What you want
Speaker 1: to do, Yeah, and a lot of the like really
Speaker 1: good comprehensive ones are going to be fairly expensive, especially now,
Speaker 1: so I would recommend making your own kit. Get any
Speaker 1: necessary medicine that you will need, bandages, disinfected, painkillers. You know,
Speaker 1: some people include stuff that other people consider unnecessary, like
Speaker 1: a lot of people have, Like if you have a tourniquet,
Speaker 1: you are you might be considered a little too extreme
Speaker 1: for some people. But you know, you might also be
Speaker 1: in a situation where you say, hey, I have a
Speaker 1: real possibility of losing a limb.
Speaker 2: You know, no, that's true.
Speaker 1: We're going to pause for a moment for a word
Speaker 1: from our sponsors, and we're gonna come back in and
Speaker 1: run through our essentials before we get to the nice
Speaker 1: stuff and the extreme stuff. All right, we're back. Next
Speaker 1: stuff A flashlight. Some people say a headlamp. I would
Speaker 1: say a flashlight. It works. If you're in a car,
Speaker 1: you might want to put in signal flares, you know,
Speaker 1: roadside accident kit stuff. But if you're on foot or
Speaker 1: you're on a bike or something, it's good to have
Speaker 1: a flashlight with you. But remember a flashlight is only
Speaker 1: as useful as the battery power. So if you decide
Speaker 1: to have a flashlight, you are also deciding to have
Speaker 1: extra batteries or some sort of charging mechanism for that.
Speaker 1: Be careful, you know not. I mean, like we've all
Speaker 1: seen the horror movies. Maybe some of us have personally
Speaker 1: encountered it, but there's nothing quite as discouraging as being
Speaker 1: in the dark and seeing your flashlights start to flicker.
Speaker 1: It's never a good look.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my recommendation would be a some kind of led
Speaker 3: flashlight that doesn't use a ton of power just to
Speaker 3: make it work correctly, and just a few extra batteries
Speaker 3: considering how long you want your bag to function.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Then you know water purification tabs work. You're
Speaker 1: also going to want to carry at the very minimum
Speaker 1: containers for water or a water bladder. Some people use
Speaker 1: like a camelback for instance, but you have to have those.
Speaker 1: That's non negotiable. One difference would be some people say, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't I just carry that? Why don't I just
Speaker 1: have the container itself? And other people say, no, I
Speaker 1: want to already have water stored in there. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of different reasons people make that decision. But
Speaker 1: if you decide to just carry a bladder or a container,
Speaker 1: then make extra show were that you know you will
Speaker 1: be able to have water that to find water that
Speaker 1: you can put in that container. Otherwise you're just lugging around,
Speaker 1: uh something empty, you know what I mean. So I
Speaker 1: think you can tell by the way I'm talking that
Speaker 1: I'm a proponent of already having the water with you.
Speaker 2: But I guess the drawback there is that you know,
Speaker 2: water is heavy, exactly.
Speaker 1: Nail on the head. Speaking of nails, what about a
Speaker 1: what about a repair kit? You know, we mentioned things
Speaker 1: are different if you're if you're thinking about something you
Speaker 1: store in your car, But even if you're on foot.
Speaker 1: You want to have, uh, you want to have some
Speaker 1: amount of rope or binding implements, five point fifty pair
Speaker 1: of cord maybe some uh what do they call carabiners carabiners?
Speaker 1: I never remember out of I think it's beaners. Beaners. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want to have some care beaners. Uh. And you
Speaker 1: want to have duct tape. It's duct tape is not
Speaker 1: I know we're based in the South, but please don't
Speaker 1: think duct tape is somehow just quote unquote for rednecks,
Speaker 1: duck takes chrome. It's so useful, it's so versatile, I got,
Speaker 1: you know, and you can.
Speaker 2: Use it if you hurt yourself in a pinch. You
Speaker 2: could use it to wrap a wound, you know, or
Speaker 2: use it to create a makeshift brace. Like if you
Speaker 2: have like a piece of a stick or something, you
Speaker 2: could like use the duct tape to attach it to
Speaker 2: a fracture in multiple locations. And it wouldn't be perfect,
Speaker 2: but it would definitely get the job done in a pinch,
Speaker 2: right absolutely.
Speaker 1: And you know, you might be in a situation where
Speaker 1: you have to get the job done in a pinch.
Speaker 1: You might be someone who bought a bargain basement first
Speaker 1: aid kit and you get a serious injury and you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't have the means to stitch something up. I
Speaker 1: guess it's the duct tape because these band aids aren't
Speaker 1: going to do it, you know, no offense Johnson and Johnson.
Speaker 1: You also want some sort of emergency shelter. This is
Speaker 1: This can be a tough one for people in relationships
Speaker 1: because sometimes we have different definitions of what an acceptable shelter.
Speaker 2: Is, right, Yeah, like one of those fire festivals, theesic
Speaker 2: domes or something, you know.
Speaker 1: Right, and then someone else might say, well, I am
Speaker 1: not gonna live like a hobo sleeping with a tarp
Speaker 1: on the ground and a tarp between these trees.
Speaker 2: Right, I need a bespoke, you know, heated tent.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, I'm a glamper, not a camper. Rightly, you'll
Speaker 1: you'll That's why you'll see things like emergency blankets great
Speaker 1: to have, especially if you're in a situation where things
Speaker 1: are very cold, or where somebody might be exposed to water,
Speaker 1: or you know, their body temperature, the core temperature might
Speaker 1: be dropping. There are some chemical handwarmers that that work well,
Speaker 1: but they're single use, so after you've cracked them open,
Speaker 1: they'll and after the after their first use, they're gonna
Speaker 1: be useless to you. I I personally, I keep a
Speaker 1: tarp and a small tent and a in an emergency blanket.
Speaker 1: But that's it, and that's that's just me, and that's
Speaker 1: because I still have that in my car.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say a tarp and just a small
Speaker 3: spool of twine goes a long way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that you can because the tarps have little
Speaker 2: little uh gramets on the sides, so you can use
Speaker 2: it to attach to a tree like a makeshift shelter.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't like, let's let's just make it clear,
Speaker 2: you don't have to like sleep directly on the ground
Speaker 2: covered by the tarp. You can kind of rig it
Speaker 2: up so it creates almost like a little awning kind
Speaker 2: of and then you're sheltered from the rain. And then
Speaker 2: you can kind of like lay a blanket out underneath it.
Speaker 2: And it's a pretty solid little makeshift shelter.
Speaker 1: And if you're in if you're in an environment where
Speaker 1: you can take found materials like sticks in the woods
Speaker 1: or you know, whatever you find laying around in an
Speaker 1: urban environment, you can you can position your tarp when
Speaker 1: you string it up like you just said, Noel, you
Speaker 1: can position your tarp to c leckt rain water and
Speaker 1: go into one of those containers for water that you
Speaker 1: have with you, and that of course only works if
Speaker 1: it rains and if the rain is not poison So
Speaker 1: there are a couple of biffs there. Hopefully we're not
Speaker 1: in the poison rain stage.
Speaker 2: I don't know this, Ben, but but do you think
Speaker 2: there's maybe something that would filter rain, if like, like
Speaker 2: something you could add to a container that maybe would
Speaker 2: filter rain if there is any impurities like that and
Speaker 2: make it guaranteed more safe to drink.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you'll still want to boil it if you
Speaker 1: can't just in general. Yeah, but put in water purification tabs.
Speaker 1: That's why you want to have those, you know. It's unfortunately,
Speaker 1: it's it's safe to assume that you should have some
Speaker 1: kind of purification filter or process between you and water
Speaker 1: that you find in the wild. Now, like it's if
Speaker 1: you're like we have the Chattahoochie here, and you know,
Speaker 1: if things can't worse the worst, people would probably go
Speaker 1: to the river and try to drink or get potable
Speaker 1: water from there. But even then you would want to
Speaker 1: boil it, or you would want to purify it somehow.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, let's say you've got water again. That's
Speaker 1: the most important thing if stuff starts going south here.
Speaker 1: If you think you're going to lose access to water
Speaker 1: at your house, just start storing it, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I'll say it. Maybe I'll get in trouble
Speaker 1: about this, but if we're getting to a point where
Speaker 1: utilities might no longer be feasible, forget your water bill,
Speaker 1: fill up the tub, and fill up the tub. You
Speaker 1: can also empty out the I know it sounds gross,
Speaker 1: but it's okay. You can also empty out the top
Speaker 1: tank of your toilet if you have one with that design,
Speaker 1: and you can boil that. We're not at that point yet.
Speaker 1: Just things to be aware of. But what good is water?
Speaker 1: If you don't have food, you'll die and I think
Speaker 1: you'll dive of starvation in about two weeks without food.
Speaker 1: But in this situation, you're probably moving around, You're probably
Speaker 1: in a very stressful environment, which means that your caloric
Speaker 1: activity is probably going to increase.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're gonna need to keep that in mind
Speaker 2: and uh pack some sort of high calorie and compact food.
Speaker 2: Uh So that would include things like you know, granola
Speaker 2: bars or any of those energy type bars that you
Speaker 2: know that have a lot of protein built into them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, or you can go the prepackage route like in
Speaker 3: good old fashioned m R. Those generally are pretty big, uh,
Speaker 3: but they are really great for actually getting a ton
Speaker 3: of calories into you.
Speaker 2: Ben.
Speaker 3: The MRU gave me was, I don't know the size
Speaker 3: of a nice tome, like a large tome.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've got it. I've got one. I've got
Speaker 1: to give you.
Speaker 2: Oh thanks, but I appreciate it. Yeah, No, I could
Speaker 2: see that would definitely be something you would you would
Speaker 2: want to consider, or anything that you cook on a
Speaker 2: small you know, gas powered camp stove, right m hm.
Speaker 1: Also very important and you'll like this point, Matt, very important.
Speaker 1: People on our fellow listeners will kill us if we
Speaker 1: don't mention this very very important for any of that
Speaker 1: survival food. Pack your own hot sauce. Have hot sauce
Speaker 1: with you. I know it sounds like a cutesy joke
Speaker 1: thing or something, but it can improve a lot of
Speaker 1: notoriously bland food. And if you put hot sauce around
Speaker 1: on the outside of some of your food containers, it
Speaker 1: can it can help repel a certain wildlife.
Speaker 3: See I don't have hot sauce, but I do have
Speaker 3: red pepper flakes in mine.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 3: Nice, but it's only for taste. I didn't think about
Speaker 3: any of those things ben actually repelling things.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Also, I don't know. We could talk about MRIs all day. Actually,
Speaker 1: Nola and I did with Jacqueline Riposo on a different show,
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History. We did a history of MRIs, So tune
Speaker 1: in if you want to hear that. And if you
Speaker 1: have MRI easy you're like, this is this is too
Speaker 1: big for me to put my my backpack comfortably? Then
Speaker 1: you can open it up. Go ahead, open it up,
Speaker 1: break it down, and just take the stuff that you
Speaker 1: feel like you need.
Speaker 2: What about like ramen noodles or something that'd probably be
Speaker 2: a good one. You could easily do that over a
Speaker 2: camp stove, and they can be pretty compact, those little
Speaker 2: bricks you know, or even even the cups.
Speaker 1: It just takes more prep right, Well, you could crumble
Speaker 1: it up if you just took the you know, the
Speaker 1: dry squares, you can crumble it up so that you
Speaker 1: can store the bag more easily, and then you can
Speaker 1: just make you know, you'll just beaten short ramen noodles.
Speaker 1: That's it. Change of clothes. Change of clothes. Make sure
Speaker 1: there's seasonally appropriate. Remember extra socks and underwear. Also, if
Speaker 1: you don't typically wear durable shoes, then you know, if
Speaker 1: you have room, I would say include some footwear in there.
Speaker 1: But remember that stuff can be heavy, like boots, be
Speaker 1: real heavy.
Speaker 2: It can. But you got to think about like what
Speaker 2: that's that's where you start getting really cold and gross.
Speaker 2: Is if your one pair of shoes is soaked through,
Speaker 2: you know, to your feet, and it's cold and raining,
Speaker 2: you might really consider making room for like a nice
Speaker 2: pair of like gortex boots or something that are like
Speaker 2: very very weather resistant, or just wearing those on, just
Speaker 2: wearing them from the start exactly. Yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is another one. This is something that
Speaker 1: stood out, Matt. You mentioned this a stash of cash.
Speaker 1: So some people will tell you to carry gold bullion
Speaker 1: around because of that old bailout bag pilot story. But
Speaker 1: sometimes be very careful about this. Sometimes the people or
Speaker 1: institutions advocating that are the same people trying to sell
Speaker 1: you that gold, So do be skeptical of them. I
Speaker 1: have cash stashed away. I don't think there's anything wrong
Speaker 1: with it, But I do, I do think that we
Speaker 1: have to be careful not to pin all our hopes
Speaker 1: on that, because you know, there may be situations where
Speaker 1: cash doesn't matter, right, Like we like here in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: we've seen a move toward a cashless society that we
Speaker 1: somewhat predicted in a previous episode. We just didn't see
Speaker 1: it happening this way. Remember that one, guys, Yeah, I do.
Speaker 3: What I would say is even if you find yourself
Speaker 3: in that situation where cash doesn't matter anymore, that's gonna
Speaker 3: be worst case scenario, right, I mean, that's absolutely worst
Speaker 3: case scenario. And in most scenarios where you would need
Speaker 3: to go a go bag, having a little bit of
Speaker 3: cash is just gonna help you either you know, get
Speaker 3: whatever extra thing you need for that night or for
Speaker 3: those two days, or to even make not a deal
Speaker 3: with someone, but to get someone to help you. I mean,
Speaker 3: that is a real thing.
Speaker 2: Another thing that's really helpful to pack in your go
Speaker 2: bag is the gift of gab, you know. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's really important to be able to like negotiate yourself.
Speaker 2: I'm only half kidding, Like it really is important, and
Speaker 2: Ben and you matter both fantastic at this being able
Speaker 2: to kind of talk yourself into an out of tricky
Speaker 2: situations and convince people to help you. And it's not
Speaker 2: to say that you're manipulating people or being, you know,
Speaker 2: in any way duplicitous, but to be able to plainly
Speaker 2: and simply state your case and put it in a
Speaker 2: way where people can understand and can actually help you
Speaker 2: and feel compelled to help you.
Speaker 1: Well, we all all three of us are podcasters, so
Speaker 1: I think that applies to you as well. Noel, thanks
Speaker 1: you saying yeah, just you know, just to run through
Speaker 1: these other ones. These are all easy ones. To the
Speaker 1: earlier point you made, Noel about charger bricks, would I
Speaker 1: would recommend, in addition to those, or at the very
Speaker 1: least in replacement of those, have a solar powered crank
Speaker 1: charged radio and phone charger of some sort. Yes, they're inexpensive.
Speaker 1: You can also power up the bricks with that as
Speaker 1: long as you have sun.
Speaker 2: Like I would argue, I would tend to bet there
Speaker 2: are new ones that maybe even have USB ports built
Speaker 2: onto them. I'm just guessing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's the kind I have. Also, I would recommend,
Speaker 1: of course, like like you said earlier, Matt. One thing
Speaker 1: you nailed that a lot of people don't think about
Speaker 1: is a hygiene kit. Even if it's just like a
Speaker 1: little travel bag that you got from the from a
Speaker 1: distant relative for the holidays, it's better than nothing. You
Speaker 1: have to remember good hygiene is the first step in
Speaker 1: good first aid.
Speaker 3: Especially now that we know washing our hands is so
Speaker 3: important because we all forgot for a couple of hundred years.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, it's gonna be the biggest takeaway from this
Speaker 2: whole crisis is wash your damn hands.
Speaker 1: And if you're in a long term situation, you know,
Speaker 1: people can assure you the things that get you are
Speaker 1: the are the small things that you didn't exercise preventative
Speaker 1: medicine on, like a toothache turns to something where you
Speaker 1: need a root canal. Right, especially now here in the US,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of dentistry has been considered non
Speaker 1: essential and people are being told to put it off.
Speaker 1: So brushing your teeth can make things a lot less
Speaker 1: painful for you in the long term.
Speaker 3: And this sound this may sound kind of silly, but
Speaker 3: the difference between having like brush your teeth fairly recently
Speaker 3: and not brushing your teeth for several days and then
Speaker 3: walking up to someone that you need help from. It
Speaker 3: psychologically can make a difference. I'm just saying that, and
Speaker 3: it may not necessarily be true, but it could push,
Speaker 3: you know, push you towards success a little bit.
Speaker 1: People are judging jerks. No, I agree with you. It
Speaker 1: does make It does make a difference. And that's not
Speaker 1: even being jerks. It's just maybe it's a subconscious thing.
Speaker 1: Last two things, A survival guide. I go for military publications,
Speaker 1: but there are a lot out there. You can also
Speaker 1: find free PDFs for more long term stuff. But one
Speaker 1: field manual I would recommend is FM twenty one seventy
Speaker 1: six Survival, Evasion and Recovery from the Department of Defense.
Speaker 1: It's a field survival guide and has a lot of
Speaker 1: valuable information there. Also, remember all of those government published
Speaker 1: manuals are yours. If you live in the US, you
Speaker 1: pay taxes. That's something that you are able to read,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's not secret. It's not
Speaker 1: controversial for you to get one. You can find the
Speaker 1: free PDF and print it out. You can order a
Speaker 1: physical copy. You can go to well it's tricky to
Speaker 1: go to a physical bookstore now, but you can find
Speaker 1: these easily. Last thing I would say is essential a
Speaker 1: small notebook and some sort of writing implement for any
Speaker 1: number of reasons, even if it's just your personal sanity,
Speaker 1: even if you need to document important dates anything. It's
Speaker 1: good to have one of those. It doesn't take up
Speaker 1: much room, it doesn't weigh a lot, and it gives
Speaker 1: you some It gives you some sort of outlet. Things
Speaker 1: that are nice to have. We can just laundry list these.
Speaker 1: These all sound cool.
Speaker 3: I mentioned this earlier and actual tent with all the
Speaker 3: things that come with her, like steaks, extra cord, to hammock,
Speaker 3: something like that, or just you know, a pop up
Speaker 3: tent whatever it is, that would be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, a sleeping bag and a sleeping pad, like
Speaker 1: you said, Nola camp stove, some sterno y, or.
Speaker 2: Like some nice collapsible pots and pans and cutlery. I
Speaker 2: mean you've seen those where they literally kind of Russian
Speaker 2: nesting doll inside of each other. And I believe the
Speaker 2: cutlery is even included in some of those collapsible sets,
Speaker 2: which is pretty cool. Like a small handsaw. You can
Speaker 2: get really compact ones of those hiking poles. I've always
Speaker 2: thought those were silly. But after taking a pretty significant
Speaker 2: hike in Los Angeles with my daughter up to Griffith
Speaker 2: Park Observatory, she kept seeing these folks with hiking poles
Speaker 2: and she became obsessed with finding a stick so that
Speaker 2: she could brace herself. And it really does take some
Speaker 2: of the stress off, you know, if you have a
Speaker 2: third point of contact, it's a big deal, especially if
Speaker 2: you're at it for a long time, or god forbid,
Speaker 2: you're you're injured in anyway.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, I would also add, I think it's nice
Speaker 1: to have a burner phone. I think it's nice to
Speaker 1: have something that is unattached to whatever your regular phone is,
Speaker 1: but can also be charged by that crank charger. It's
Speaker 1: it's just good to have an alternative of communication.
Speaker 3: There. Gotta love those prepaid minutes he gots you.
Speaker 2: Although, like you know, people look askance at burner phones
Speaker 2: now because of everything we know from like breaking bad
Speaker 2: on the wire, But for this situation, I could totally
Speaker 2: see it. Ben, I have to say when I when
Speaker 2: I saw this next note, my mind immediately went to
Speaker 2: an actual tomahawk. Yeah, exactly. Or like I said at
Speaker 2: the top of the show, a batter rang of some
Speaker 2: sort or perhaps a grappling hook, but no, we're talking
Speaker 2: about some kind of high end GPS that doesn't need
Speaker 2: a continuous Internet connection that actually uses Ping's satellites. Ben
Speaker 2: remember when we were in the quiet zone with car
Speaker 2: stuff and we had one of those. It was a
Speaker 2: game changer. It actually was an old school garment that
Speaker 2: Scott Benjamin insisted on bringing along for that very reason.
Speaker 2: It was actually the only thing that worked when our
Speaker 2: phones would not work, it continued to work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and luckily there hadn't been a lot of construction
Speaker 1: in that area of the world because those maps it
Speaker 1: was using were from the nineties. But that was amazing.
Speaker 1: It got us out of there. To your point about
Speaker 1: how you first literally thought it was a tomahawk, I
Speaker 1: would say I would like to recommend those some sort
Speaker 1: of survival shovel multi tool. They're really great. You can
Speaker 1: find they're like a camp shovel that can also be
Speaker 1: an axe or a hatchet. It folds down, it doesn't
Speaker 1: take a lot of weight, and it has a multitude
Speaker 1: of functions. So check those out. There are a couple
Speaker 1: of different brands. They're not all created equally, but do
Speaker 1: check them out. They don't belong in our lists. They're
Speaker 1: nice to have if you can get them. Our next
Speaker 1: list the list of extreme things.
Speaker 3: A gun or some kind of firearm, And if you
Speaker 3: are going to carry that with you and plan on
Speaker 3: using it, you're also gonna want ammunition. And how about
Speaker 3: a cleaning kit to make sure it would actually function
Speaker 3: if you did need it?
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And then you would think of like high grade emergency
Speaker 1: kits for traumas, and I mean like hospital level injuries.
Speaker 1: A guy I know a guy who has a bullet
Speaker 1: wound kit. For some people, that's very extreme for him,
Speaker 1: it is not. We also, you know, you might run
Speaker 1: into people who have heavy duty painkillers opioids that would
Speaker 1: normally only be prescription things of that nature or very
Speaker 1: specific medical equipment.
Speaker 2: And for the advanced user. We talked about this earlier,
Speaker 2: how it might be useless to folks like like you
Speaker 2: or I, but sutures and the ability like to really
Speaker 2: stitch up you know, a bullet wound, like if you
Speaker 2: or if you needed to do that to yourself and
Speaker 2: keep it from getting infected. In all of that, things
Speaker 2: like hydrogen peroxide and then iodine and stuff you know,
Speaker 2: like that would really come in handy as well. And
Speaker 2: then we get into things like body armor that's real
Speaker 2: extreme because that is not lightweight at all, and that
Speaker 2: would take up a lot of room and you would
Speaker 2: really this would be much more in that on the
Speaker 2: lamb or being chased by the cartel kind of situation.
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah, absolutely, hopefully most people will not need body armor.
Speaker 1: It's if you already have some. It's good to have it,
Speaker 1: especially if you put it in like your house, or
Speaker 1: you put it in your vehicle or something, but carrying
Speaker 1: it around your best bed is going to be just
Speaker 1: to be wearing it, you know, and don't try to
Speaker 1: buy it now.
Speaker 3: I would say, if you're a high roller, there is
Speaker 3: some clothing that is like somewhat bullet resistant and very
Speaker 3: interesting and not as heavy, but only if you're a
Speaker 3: high roller.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's that stuff called? Like there's a particular type
Speaker 2: of fabric.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure. I've got a tactical shirt. It made
Speaker 3: it really is?
Speaker 2: It made me through.
Speaker 3: It's really interesting. Probably not my favorite thing that I've
Speaker 3: ever purchased, but uh, you know, you can get them.
Speaker 1: What was your price on that? If you don't mind me.
Speaker 3: Asking, I honestly don't know. It was a gift, so
Speaker 3: I didn't buy it. Well, I didn't buy it, but
Speaker 3: my money was used to buy it. Oh man, that
Speaker 3: makes sense.
Speaker 2: There is a website called Bulletproof Zone dot com and
Speaker 2: they have a MC armor Level concealed tank top and
Speaker 2: it costs seven hundred and eighty nine dollars. A Bullet
Speaker 2: Blocker Lightweight flight jacket is eight hundred and seventy nine dollars.
Speaker 2: And then we have a Tallos Ballistics Phoenix BBL compression
Speaker 2: tank top for one hundred and sixty four dollars, but
Speaker 2: it is upgradeable to level three.
Speaker 3: A Okay, so my stuff was not this expensive. Just
Speaker 3: so you know, this is real armor.
Speaker 2: This is deal. They got a suit jacket that's eight
Speaker 2: hundred bucks, and then they've got like one of those
Speaker 2: nice puffy vests there. They're referring to it as a
Speaker 2: casual vest.
Speaker 1: That's six. So this I would also include a list
Speaker 1: of extreme stuff is all the action movie things that
Speaker 1: we like to think about using when we watch Mission Impossible,
Speaker 1: when we watch you know, Take In or something right.
Speaker 1: But you unless you have been using nunchucks for years
Speaker 1: and years and years and years, there's no reason to
Speaker 1: keep them. You probably don't need grenades, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, even if you found a great deal on
Speaker 1: some at a military surplus store. I'm calling myself out there,
Speaker 1: don't You don't need to drive around with grenades in
Speaker 1: your car, Which brings us to this what should not
Speaker 1: be in your bug out bag? Honestly, a ton of
Speaker 1: creature comforts need to go. We have to think about
Speaker 1: that thing. Our parents always told us, the difference between
Speaker 1: what we want and what we need. If you love
Speaker 1: to read books, I read all the time. If you
Speaker 1: love to read books, then take a kindle and use
Speaker 1: that with your solar power charger instead of lugging around
Speaker 1: a miniature library.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like carrying gas around could be tricky, but
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're really in a pinch and found
Speaker 2: yourself needing gas, you could do that that old siphoning trick.
Speaker 2: Not to advocate stealing other people's gas, but absolutely could
Speaker 2: could do that if you are really really in a
Speaker 2: desperate situation. Carrying it around would be prohibitively heavy.
Speaker 3: Or if you do have that extra cash on hand,
Speaker 3: you could stop by a place that maybe has gas
Speaker 3: or trade just seeing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and unless you are already in an environment where
Speaker 1: civilization or the normal rules of the day to day
Speaker 1: of collapse. Don't carry anything illegal in your bag, because
Speaker 1: you have to remember you're ideally gonna have this sitting
Speaker 1: around for a while. So if you have, for example,
Speaker 1: a gun that you do not have a license to
Speaker 1: carry or to transport, then don't have it in there.
Speaker 1: If you have an illegal recreational drug or some sort
Speaker 1: of illegal medicine in there, take it out because you
Speaker 1: never know. You might forget about it months down the road.
Speaker 1: You might get in a jam if the authorities find
Speaker 1: it and say like, hey, why is this I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know, what's a crazy drug? Like why do
Speaker 1: you have this jar of ether in your trunk?
Speaker 3: Sir?
Speaker 1: I mean, why would you have a jar of ether? Anyway?
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, it's an anesthetic. I mean, maybe
Speaker 2: you're just thinking ahead in case you do get you know,
Speaker 2: shot with some you know, rock salt or something.
Speaker 1: Or like marijuana. If if you are in a state
Speaker 1: or a part of the world where that's illegal.
Speaker 2: Or any any medication you do not have a prescription for.
Speaker 2: Let's leave it at that, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally, that's a good way to put it. So
Speaker 1: there's not a here's where it gets crazy moment in
Speaker 1: today's episode at all. We're dealing with some stuff that
Speaker 1: can kind of crazy and frightening for people anyway. But
Speaker 1: there is an important warning we have to we have
Speaker 1: to close with it. Is this, A lot of those
Speaker 1: pre made prepack survival bags are garbage garbage, full stop.
Speaker 1: The supplies are cheaply made, they don't have some very
Speaker 1: important components, and they're often, especially now overpriced. If you
Speaker 1: buy one, that's fine if that's how you want to
Speaker 1: approach it. If you do buy one, make sure you
Speaker 1: go back through it with a fine tooth comb, and
Speaker 1: you have to be prepared to sub out any of
Speaker 1: the stuff that you need, and don't be don't be
Speaker 1: surprised when you see a lot of disappointing stuff in
Speaker 1: the bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's not to say that all of these
Speaker 2: are complete ripoffs. There's a site that I found called
Speaker 2: stealthangelssurvival dot com that they don't seem incredibly gougey. They've
Speaker 2: got a lot of verified reviews. It seems like the
Speaker 2: materials that are in the bags or the kinds of
Speaker 2: things we're talking about, like the handwarmers or you know,
Speaker 2: certain flares and things like that. So as long as
Speaker 2: you can guarantee that the stuff that's in there is
Speaker 2: the same caliber that you would buy if you bought
Speaker 2: each piece individually, maybe it is a fine way to go.
Speaker 2: But I do agree with you, Ben, I think the
Speaker 2: smartest way to go is just to buy every piece yourself,
Speaker 2: because then you know exactly what you're getting.
Speaker 3: And really quickly, Guys, when you are looking to get
Speaker 3: stuff to put in there, don't let anybody sell you
Speaker 3: snake oil, please, because that is something we have seen
Speaker 3: consistently just through making this show. That stuff exists. And
Speaker 3: I'm not saying, you know, obviously not real snake oil,
Speaker 3: but just things that are too good to be true.
Speaker 3: There are products out there on the internet that you
Speaker 3: can buy right now that will fulfill a lot of
Speaker 3: the purposes that we've talked about in this episode, but
Speaker 3: a lot of them are too good to be true.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, watch out for anything that is like bring clarity,
Speaker 1: you know, super pills, get off the grid, you'll be
Speaker 1: awake for thirty six hours, You'll you'll k bone broth,
Speaker 1: you know. Watch out for that stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, and specifically kind of what you're saying there, have
Speaker 3: been about the prepackaged go bags, a lot of them. Really,
Speaker 3: I've seen several opened up and looked at them, and
Speaker 3: it's just not it's I wouldn't trust my life or
Speaker 3: especially my son's life with a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 3: And this is a really good time for us to
Speaker 3: be thinking about this kind of thing. But this is
Speaker 3: not and let me repeat this, this is not the
Speaker 3: time to go out and buy a bunch of survival supplies.
Speaker 1: No, absolutely not, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't
Speaker 1: don't do it. Price scouging on everything from Ammo to
Speaker 1: packaged food and even camping equipment is getting out of control.
Speaker 1: So see what you can put together at home. Write
Speaker 1: to us if you have any ideas life hacks about
Speaker 1: how to repurpose something from everyday life into your go
Speaker 1: bag or your go home bag. And and really I
Speaker 1: appreciate that point you're making about price scouging, Matt like
Speaker 1: Ammo and specifics out of control. It always goes out
Speaker 1: of control when in times like these, a lot of
Speaker 1: packaged food, like dehydrated food. So like you see, you
Speaker 1: see this, this is a I'm just showing I'm just
Speaker 1: showing the guys here, this is a case of Mountain House.
Speaker 1: It's like a twelve pack case of dehydrated survival food.
Speaker 1: And well this is like this was bargain basement stuff.
Speaker 1: This was not very expensive until you know, the prices
Speaker 1: started jumping a few weeks ago. So if you are
Speaker 1: trying to buy stuff like that, remember you can you
Speaker 1: can get if you're buying dehydrated stuff, you can get
Speaker 1: some of the same deals by just finding food that's
Speaker 1: already dried, like dried beans or rice, and you can
Speaker 1: work with that.
Speaker 3: That's a really good point man.
Speaker 1: Well, well we'll see. Hopefully it's a point no one
Speaker 1: ever has to use. But this brings us to the
Speaker 1: end of today's show. No, we went a little long,
Speaker 1: but we hope that you enjoyed it, found some constructive things.
Speaker 1: We want to hear from you. What's in your bugout bag?
Speaker 1: Let us know on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Speaker 3: And write to us if you want to know what's
Speaker 3: in Paul Mission Control decans buck out bag. He's been
Speaker 3: making one the whole time we've been recording this episode.
Speaker 3: I could hear him in the background gathering all his materials.
Speaker 3: You can find us on Twitter and Facebook where we're
Speaker 3: conspiracy stuff on Instagram. We are conspiracy stuff show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can also you know, we are also individual humans,
Speaker 2: all in this together. If you want to check us
Speaker 2: out what we're up to when we're not on the podcast,
Speaker 2: you can do so. I am at how Now Noel
Speaker 2: Brown on Instagram.
Speaker 1: And I am at Ben Bullen on Instagram. I'm also
Speaker 1: at Ben bollin HSW on Twitter. Go to Twitter to
Speaker 1: check out a new show that I circumstances have me
Speaker 1: starting called Strange News Daily. New episodes out every Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday. And if you have a story you'd like
Speaker 1: on the air, just hashtag it Strange Daily.
Speaker 2: It's a great time for that show, Ben, because there
Speaker 2: actually is strange News literally daily.
Speaker 3: It's true, hey, and it's from the creators of stuff
Speaker 3: they don't want you to know. And that's us.
Speaker 1: Oh man, oh god, it's the end of the world. Okay, Matt.
Speaker 1: Some people don't like social media. How do they get
Speaker 1: to us?
Speaker 3: Well, give us a call. Our number is one eight
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