Speaker 1: Also media.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to it Could Happen Here, podcast
Speaker 2: about the world falling apart and people putting it back together. Today,
Speaker 2: I'm lucky to be joined by Margaret Kildury. She is
Speaker 2: a host of Live the World Is Dying, a podcast
Speaker 2: what feels like the end times, And we are going
Speaker 2: to talk about bug out bags, don't me, Margaret.
Speaker 1: Woo bug out bags or go bags? Yes? Or I
Speaker 1: bet they have other names. Okay, wait, can I tell
Speaker 1: you my favorite? Yeah? I hate me Okay. The first
Speaker 1: preppers I ever met were these like weird cool anarchists
Speaker 1: twenty years ago. They had oh shit gear or OSG
Speaker 1: in their basement. I love that. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2: It's basically what you're talking about, Like, it's the it's
Speaker 2: the thing that you go for when things are going
Speaker 2: to shit.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think the reason we're talking about this
Speaker 2: right is, ay, because it's entertaining. It's always fun to
Speaker 2: engage in hypotheticals. B Because we've got Margaret here, because
Speaker 2: she's very nicement on this stuff, and that's what she
Speaker 2: covers on the If the World Is Dying. If you
Speaker 2: haven't listened to that podcast, you should.
Speaker 1: It's very good.
Speaker 2: It's got lots of like sensible preparedness focused content. It's
Speaker 2: that fair, fair summary, muggret.
Speaker 1: I hope. So, yeah, our whole thing is that we're
Speaker 1: basically trying to talk about community prep I'm not the
Speaker 1: only host in one of three hosts. Yes, we try
Speaker 1: to talk about community preparedness rather than individual preparedness, or
Speaker 1: rather how the two are not at odds with each other,
Speaker 1: like how what's best for the individual is to be
Speaker 1: part of a functioning community, and how like the bunker
Speaker 1: mentality will get you killed. So one of my favorite
Speaker 1: things in the world is talking shit on preparedness done wrong.
Speaker 1: And since most of the preparedness space skews at best
Speaker 1: center right but also far right, there's lots of it
Speaker 1: done wrong that we can talk shit on, Like, for example,
Speaker 1: this is me setting.
Speaker 2: You up for Yeah, yeah, bug out bags there it is. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's like a layup and a dunk. Be basketball, understand.
Speaker 1: It speaking, We're really good at it. Yeah, there's nothing
Speaker 1: that we like more than supportsball.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the reason we're talking about this today is
Speaker 2: because I have spent a lot of time recently in
Speaker 2: refugee camps helping out helping people, feeding people, giving them blankets,
Speaker 2: playing with their children, doing all the things. And obviously
Speaker 2: everyone who who enters these camps comes with a bag,
Speaker 2: right they bring a bag with them. They can generally
Speaker 2: have one sort of carry on size bag when they
Speaker 2: enter custody, and that's generally all you can carry when
Speaker 2: you're moving across the desert mountain ranges of Baja California
Speaker 2: and Serve in California. And I was spend the day
Speaker 2: there and it was cold, and it was wet, it
Speaker 2: was miserable, and I was trying to keep people warm,
Speaker 2: and I was trying to build shelters all day, and
Speaker 2: I was trying to just do things along with my friends. Obviously,
Speaker 2: this is by no means a solo effort. It's a
Speaker 2: great group of people who you've all heard about if
Speaker 2: you listen to this podcast. We've been out there all day.
Speaker 2: And then I got back and just because I hadn't
Speaker 2: you know, had a difficult enough day, I logged onto
Speaker 2: Twitter dot com, Hex dot com because your day to
Speaker 2: get worse, yeah, exactly, I thought, what can I do?
Speaker 2: Let's be pissed off at a fucking stranger on the internet.
Speaker 2: You don't care about and you've never met, but let
Speaker 2: them make you angry anyway, That's what that's what I did.
Speaker 2: I loved on, and I loved on promptly to be
Speaker 2: greeted by some prick with I guess not your fault.
Speaker 2: I suppose it couldn't be a prick whatever, someone someone
Speaker 2: who hadn't quite like someone whose idea of preparedness was
Speaker 2: heavily influenced by the film Red Dawn and not by reality,
Speaker 2: which is like ninety percent of the people in that space.
Speaker 2: But this person had, you know, this this kit with
Speaker 2: a with a gas mask, with a folding AR fifteen
Speaker 2: right with one of those law tactical folding things, so
Speaker 2: you can break the buffer tube with.
Speaker 1: Seven or eight magazines of ammunition.
Speaker 2: Like just like it just the sort of stuff that, yeah,
Speaker 2: sure you would need to do like one sustained firefight
Speaker 2: and then then are you gonna do? But like, it
Speaker 2: just really struck me that the the junctaposition between these
Speaker 2: two things that I have seen people have to quote
Speaker 2: unquote bug out or oh shit or whatever. I myself
Speaker 2: have have had to leave a place where I was
Speaker 2: go to a refuge camp for a few days a
Speaker 2: few years ago and I've never seen a situation where
Speaker 2: a folding assault rifle would be that useful to me.
Speaker 2: And I have seen a lot of people who could
Speaker 2: really fucking use a sleeping bag or a war coat
Speaker 2: or a toy for their child because their child is
Speaker 2: crying to bring any toys, you know, And lots of
Speaker 2: people don't have any preparedness stuff at all. That's fine,
Speaker 2: you know, we'll start somewhere, but like, if you're going
Speaker 2: to do this, I want you to do it in
Speaker 2: a way that might be useful to you. And so
Speaker 2: that is why I have asked Margaret Kiljoy to come
Speaker 2: and help me.
Speaker 1: And the right and the problem of course with this
Speaker 1: scenario that we discussed is that instead of having a
Speaker 1: folding ar, they should have a folding AK forty seven
Speaker 1: because then there's no need to break above.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and you can scavenge ammunition from the Cubans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see what you're doing. Great, yeah yeah no.
Speaker 1: And although actually, if I was gonna fall deep into
Speaker 1: gun stuff and talk about how like people who are
Speaker 1: obsessed with AK forty sevens while living in the United
Speaker 1: States are also not doing preparedness right because anyway.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And actually ak's break all the time. I
Speaker 2: have personally seen that happen, and you cannot, in fact
Speaker 2: not maintain them at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, there's more parts available for a hares. But
Speaker 1: the point is that most of the time you don't
Speaker 1: need firearms for most crises. Many crises are made worse
Speaker 1: by having a firearm. And Okay, so, like a lot
Speaker 1: of your background is with refugee stuff, and you've had
Speaker 1: to you know, escape to a refugee center and work
Speaker 1: in refugee situations all the time. One of my main
Speaker 1: backgrounds is that I lived out of a backpack for
Speaker 1: a long time when I was a crosspunk, right, I
Speaker 1: was a homeless hitchhiker who you know, hopped freight trains
Speaker 1: and slept under bridges and things like that. And I
Speaker 1: come from more of a position of privilege than a
Speaker 1: lot of people who do that. I chose to do
Speaker 1: it as part of an activism lifestyle and stuff, you know.
Speaker 1: And so I'm not trying to like get stolen valor here,
Speaker 1: but I spend a very long time living outside, and
Speaker 1: the people who live outside all the time who have
Speaker 1: only a backpack know what goes in the backpack really well.
Speaker 1: And you don't see homeless people with guns, and it's
Speaker 1: not because they're not legally allowed to have them people.
Speaker 1: I mean, well that's part of it in some situations, right,
Speaker 1: it's you know, you don't have a safe place of
Speaker 1: story and something. It is a lot more complicated, but
Speaker 1: like you're even talking about a group of people who
Speaker 1: often have to resort to violence to defend themselves and
Speaker 1: largely not using firearms to do it, because in most
Speaker 1: situations they're more trouble than they're worth. Because someone who's
Speaker 1: living outside is going to have to deal with cops
Speaker 1: all the time. Someone and this is what you were
Speaker 1: talking about when when we were talking about getting ready
Speaker 1: for this episode. It's like, well, let's say you have
Speaker 1: your your ar and you approach the border.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're getting engaged really fast by like seventy five
Speaker 2: border patrol guy guys who have been training their whole
Speaker 2: life for this, not saying that they're particularly like a
Speaker 2: well trained or a fishing but they have been waiting
Speaker 2: for the one person with an assault rifle who they
Speaker 2: can fire at for a very long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the only purpose of having a firearm is
Speaker 1: if it makes you and the people that you care
Speaker 1: about more likely to.
Speaker 2: Survive, yes, which is doesn't happen if the entire border
Speaker 2: patrol is shooting at you, right, that's bad.
Speaker 1: That's a worse time. Yeah. No, it's like it's like
Speaker 1: I always carried a legal knife, you know. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: wherever I was, I have a legal length knife and
Speaker 1: that was fine. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Fishing, Yeah, look into knife flaws though before you before,
Speaker 2: like a knife flows in America almost as complicated as
Speaker 2: gun laws.
Speaker 1: And you live in California, you can have a cane sword.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. But I can open carry a large
Speaker 2: machete on my belt as long as I don't attempt
Speaker 2: to conceal it. Oh yeah, regularly.
Speaker 1: I used to hitchhike with a machete, so yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there are times that I've been doing stuff
Speaker 2: with a machete. Yeah, exactly, I needed I was campaign.
Speaker 2: I did actually once get a I think that's a
Speaker 2: pod ranger of someone like I was coming in from
Speaker 2: free diving, and when you free dive, you always have
Speaker 2: a knife, because I've experienced this. Actually, when you dive
Speaker 2: and you get tangled in fishing nets and your breathold diving,
Speaker 2: you need.
Speaker 1: To get out so you don't die. Yeah, you have
Speaker 1: a knife and you cut yourself out, You're supposed to
Speaker 1: have that knife. So yes, yes, I'm supposed to have
Speaker 1: that knife. So yeah, you can open carry a knife.
Speaker 1: It just depends on the county. You're in California, but
Speaker 1: Sandy a good county, Okay. So to talk about bugout bags, though, yes,
Speaker 1: what we do want them for is going to be
Speaker 1: a different person a person. And what I recommend that
Speaker 1: any preparedness minded person or any person I hope more
Speaker 1: people become preparedness minded, is to think about the crises
Speaker 1: that could happen that are likely, and think about what
Speaker 1: you would want and how you would deal with them.
Speaker 1: And my argument up front is that this can reduce
Speaker 1: anxiety if you do it right, if you fixate on
Speaker 1: these things forever. Like a lot of people don't engage
Speaker 1: with barness because they don't want to be anxious about it.
Speaker 1: They don't want to think about a forest fire. Right.
Speaker 1: But if you I've said this before, maybe even on
Speaker 1: this show, I'm not sure. It was like when I
Speaker 1: lived in a cabin really in the woods, like I
Speaker 1: currently live in a house in the woods, but there's
Speaker 1: like a little bit of buffer. But I you know,
Speaker 1: built a twelve by twelve cabin and like in that,
Speaker 1: I cut down two small trees and built a cabin, right,
Speaker 1: And so I worried about forest fire, and so I
Speaker 1: thought about what to do, which was make sure that
Speaker 1: I always had like you know, some sort of radio
Speaker 1: and or cell communication available to me, keep a bag
Speaker 1: ready with all the stuff I need, keep, make sure
Speaker 1: that my car is half a tank of gas. And
Speaker 1: that's it. That's all I was going to do to prepare.
Speaker 1: There's more you can do, That's all I was going
Speaker 1: to do. So I stopped worrying about forest fire, and
Speaker 1: so I think, done right, a go bag or a
Speaker 1: bug out bag or preparedness in general can reduce their anxiety.
Speaker 1: And the thing that I think people get wrong is
Speaker 1: that for mo most people, moving over land by yourself
Speaker 1: and surviving in nature is not a likely response to crisis. Yes,
Speaker 1: there are some times where that will be true, and
Speaker 1: even like you're talking about, like working at you know,
Speaker 1: on the border, where people are having to like build
Speaker 1: shelters and things like that. But for most people, I
Speaker 1: don't even say put a sleeping bag in your go bag,
Speaker 1: because size might be more important than that. Yeah, having
Speaker 1: other warm stuff and emergency blankets and things like that.
Speaker 1: I do absolutely advocate, you know, but then again, I
Speaker 1: often make sure that I have a sleeping bag around
Speaker 1: because I do live in the middle of the woods,
Speaker 1: and if my cars were broken and there was a
Speaker 1: bad thing, I would have to go over land ten
Speaker 1: miles to get anywhere. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because us situation is not the same as evidence,
Speaker 2: and I think that's right.
Speaker 1: But for most people, I advocate that you think about
Speaker 1: your bug out bag as your get out of town
Speaker 1: for a weekend bag. It is the you live in
Speaker 1: a hurricane area. It is a a blizzard's coming. It
Speaker 1: is your stalker X is in town and you don't
Speaker 1: want to be around. It is a I decided all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, I'm going to go visit my family,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to pack, you know, it is
Speaker 1: just a it's you're more likely to spend a night
Speaker 1: in your car on the road somewhere, like in a blizzard.
Speaker 1: Let's say, you know, so, what do you need to
Speaker 1: spend the night in the car in your car in
Speaker 1: the snow, And the answer is not that much. You
Speaker 1: need water and you need warmth. Food is like great, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can kind of. I mean, you should have a
Speaker 1: little bit of snacks to so why not have snacks around?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's in a stressful situation, having something to eat,
Speaker 2: it helps, it calms you down, It helps you do
Speaker 2: with that stress.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And one of the other things that we were
Speaker 1: talking about is we're talking about how you know, Okay,
Speaker 1: so like the basic level that I advocate, I advocate
Speaker 1: actually even more than having like your your bug out
Speaker 1: bag is having a smaller pouch that is your emergency
Speaker 1: bag and that goes into whatever other backpack or purse
Speaker 1: or anything else you're carrying around. And I actually like
Speaker 1: make these and distribute them to my friends and stuff.
Speaker 1: Oh here's a fun tip. If you're the prepper in
Speaker 1: your family or friend group when it comes time to
Speaker 1: holiday presence, if you give them preparedness stuff that has
Speaker 1: to be on top of whatever else you give them, I.
Speaker 2: Guess you can't just give them your weird niche stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like you have to give them what they want as
Speaker 2: well as the wind.
Speaker 1: Up radio, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fair if sad and you can't
Speaker 2: just recycle gear that you wanted to try to just
Speaker 2: give it to your aunt till sent thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can you just also give other stuff.
Speaker 1: You can just each a bad nissoor nephew or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: non binary trying sibling. So I say that these emergency
Speaker 1: kits are three different things. They're a hygiene kit because
Speaker 1: like the thing that I need the most off and
Speaker 1: when I'm suddenly didn't prepare and I'm suddenly somewhere and
Speaker 1: I'm staying out late, is like a folding toothbrush, right yeah,
Speaker 1: or like some wet wipes in a packet or you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like nail clippers or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like if you I'm a person who used insulin, right, so,
Speaker 2: like I have a lot of bags insulin in and
Speaker 2: there it's in most of my bags because I'm up
Speaker 2: shit Creek without it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is better to have it, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm very lucky to have access to incilin
Speaker 2: and even have some spend what everyone does, because pharmaceutical
Speaker 2: industry is terrible.
Speaker 1: It is. Yeah, that's actually one of the hardest things
Speaker 1: when talking to people about preparedness is like getting more
Speaker 1: of your medication is very complicated and a lot of
Speaker 1: the methods that people should consider are not legal and
Speaker 1: I'm not going to advocate them.
Speaker 2: It is legal to buy medicine, I think for your
Speaker 2: own personal usage in countries that are not the United
Speaker 2: States when you're traveling there anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, So you want hygiene, you
Speaker 1: want a basic first aid kit, like kind of on
Speaker 1: the like booboo kit level, right, which is as if
Speaker 1: it's not important, but actually, like you just don't want
Speaker 1: infections can get real bad. So you just want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you have the ability to clean a
Speaker 1: small wound and treat it right. And uh, what is it.
Speaker 1: It's hygiene, it's medical, and then it's survival stuff. And
Speaker 1: for me, this is just like tiniest amounts of One
Speaker 1: of the cool things about preparedness is that the little
Speaker 1: first things you do are so much more likely to
Speaker 1: be useful than the complicated things later, Right, Like having
Speaker 1: a big lighter is so much more likely to be
Speaker 1: useful than flint and steel and fire starter and all
Speaker 1: of the bells and whistles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you left my flint steel? But you're right,
Speaker 2: it is, oh, I exponentially more useful. Like I've been
Speaker 2: so look, I've been at the border a week. Right,
Speaker 2: people are called it's very windy. I have a flint
Speaker 2: steel in my truck. I have used that zero times.
Speaker 2: I have gone through an entire eight pack of big lighters.
Speaker 2: I've refilled my Zippo twice, given away all my lighters. Yeah,
Speaker 2: because yeah, one you'll call in fact, you're not inclined
Speaker 2: to start shaving little pieces off a large metal rod.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And like I keep little bits of fire
Speaker 1: starter and things like that in these emergency kits. Basically,
Speaker 1: anything that is like light and cheap and useful goes
Speaker 1: under these kids for me, you know. But the stuff
Speaker 1: that I prioritize is stuff like the first lighter is
Speaker 1: more useful than the second one, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Margaret, do you know what's probably not like,
Speaker 2: certainly not cheap and rarely useful.
Speaker 1: Gold? God, that's right yet gold. You've knowed it. But
Speaker 1: let's hear about gold.
Speaker 3: All right, we're back.
Speaker 1: That was an ap something you don't need.
Speaker 2: But Margaret was about to pivot, I think, to telling
Speaker 2: you some more things that you do need, right, if so,
Speaker 2: go ahead, Margaret.
Speaker 1: Okay, so tiny little emergency kit put it in everything,
Speaker 1: and it's just like it's always useful, and it's like
Speaker 1: everyone I give these two is always a little bit like,
Speaker 1: oh thanks, And then about a year later they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: I was at this protest and someone cut themselves or
Speaker 1: just some really minor strange random thing. They're like, it
Speaker 1: always comes up that it's really useful that I have
Speaker 1: this tiny little flashlight in a bag always right, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and and Okay, so there's that. And then
Speaker 1: if you want, you could have a designated bug out
Speaker 1: bag and you keep it in the front closet, or
Speaker 1: you keep it under your bed, or you keep it
Speaker 1: wherever is like kind of useful to you. Some people
Speaker 1: might keep them in their vehicles. That really depends on
Speaker 1: where you live. I wouldn't necessarily advocate it in a
Speaker 1: lot of places because vehicles are more broken into and
Speaker 1: also have more temperature fluctuations, and things like advil and
Speaker 1: like over the counter medications aren't like they don't do
Speaker 1: so great with like wild temperature fluctuations. Okay, so you
Speaker 1: get yourself a bag, and what kind of bag really
Speaker 1: depends on what you're talking about. Like we were showing
Speaker 1: each other our bags before it. Yeah, that's what this
Speaker 1: a little insight into our interactions off mic there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I'll describe mine, then you describe yours, okay, and
Speaker 1: I'll describe mine. You describe yours, and then say why
Speaker 1: you have it, and then I'll say I have mine. Okay,
Speaker 1: you got that. I basically have like a regular day
Speaker 1: pack computer bag. It just there's no waist belt. It's
Speaker 1: just it's designed hole the laptop. That's my bug out bag.
Speaker 1: What I have is say it's a thirty two liter bag.
Speaker 2: It's called a scree thirty two for those of you
Speaker 2: who want to be just like me. And I have
Speaker 2: it because I really like the carriage system. Mystery round
Speaker 2: us is just like a yoke, so it carries like
Speaker 2: a frame backpack, but it isn't big and bulky.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's cool. I've used it, Like I think
Speaker 1: I've used this bag on every continent in the world
Speaker 1: apart from the Antarctic. Like, it's just.
Speaker 2: A bag that I can put stuff in that is
Speaker 2: a size that it's not obnoxious, and it works for
Speaker 2: me for almost everything. I day hike with it, I
Speaker 2: go on urban nights with it. I use it with
Speaker 2: my carry on on the plane. Yeah, it's just a
Speaker 2: useful bag that is not covered in molly and multi caam.
Speaker 1: And such things. Yeah, and I know it works for me,
Speaker 1: Like I've used it for a long time, and I
Speaker 1: know that it's suitable for my body with heavyweights. Yeah no,
Speaker 1: And like I love I love bags, and I will
Speaker 1: happily geek out about bags, and like that bag is
Speaker 1: a me too. It's pretty nice. And this is like
Speaker 1: my least favorite backpack, right, I have like other backpacks,
Speaker 1: Like my day hiking bag is like a twenty five
Speaker 1: liter you know, actually has a waste strap, and I
Speaker 1: like really like it, but I keep it packed with
Speaker 1: my day hiking stuff, you know. And so you do
Speaker 1: a lot of outdoor sports, yes, yeah, yeah, and so
Speaker 1: it really easily doubles as all of that, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Like I'm you know, most weekends, you know,
Speaker 2: I try and sleep outside at least.
Speaker 1: Once a month. So yeah, you know, I just sort
Speaker 1: of have that stuff anyway because it's part of my
Speaker 1: day to day life. And mine is designed from the
Speaker 1: period of my life where I basically would go to
Speaker 1: whatever anarchist coffee shop was in whatever town and just
Speaker 1: hang out there and work all day, right yeah, and
Speaker 1: so like and I was like, and I used to
Speaker 1: have a bug out bag that was like a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger. It was like a tactical bag. It was
Speaker 1: a three day assault pack, you know, and yeah, perfect,
Speaker 1: And to be fair, I lived in a cabin in
Speaker 1: the woods and it was twenty twenty in the odds
Speaker 1: of major military crisis were much higher, and you know,
Speaker 1: but like, but right now, I'm just like, this is
Speaker 1: my bag that comes with me when I go to
Speaker 1: my friend's house or when I go see my family.
Speaker 1: And because it's the important thing is that you have
Speaker 1: the bag that is available. Like it, the piece of
Speaker 1: gear that you have is always better than the piece
Speaker 1: of gear you don't have. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: have to save up two hundred bucks for you know,
Speaker 1: a mystery lund urn, no spray bagay, right, but if
Speaker 1: your thing is being outside all the time, like you know,
Speaker 1: you should have those things, right yeah, And okay, so
Speaker 1: what I put in the Everyone's gonna have a really
Speaker 1: different stuff in their bug out bag. But some of
Speaker 1: the lists that I have as my like kind of
Speaker 1: like core of it that I would recommend that most
Speaker 1: people would want to have some version of. And you
Speaker 1: should add things and we could talk about these things. Yeah,
Speaker 1: your passport and print copies of any essential records such
Speaker 1: as your animal's rabies vaccine card and medication and things
Speaker 1: like that. This is the stuff to help you ease
Speaker 1: bureaucracy as you move through the world. This is actually
Speaker 1: a thing you need to be careful with because then
Speaker 1: sometimes you don't want to bring your passport everywhere you go, right.
Speaker 1: You don't want to lose it, you know. But if
Speaker 1: it's your bug out bag that's waiting for you in
Speaker 1: case of an emergency, I think that's a decent place
Speaker 1: to keep it. Yes, I agree. You want an encrypted
Speaker 1: USB stick with copies of all these important documents such
Speaker 1: as your driver's license, your passport, house and vehicle titles
Speaker 1: or rental agreements, insurance information, contact information for family and friends,
Speaker 1: vaccination records for your animals, and the like. It clearly
Speaker 1: shows that I have an animal or nut kids. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's other stuff that you would Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is just making me think of I
Speaker 2: ran into a guy the other day who had come
Speaker 2: to the US with his dog or a patrol wouldn't
Speaker 2: process him alongside his dog, so volunteers kind of looked
Speaker 2: after his dog while he was protested, and then returned
Speaker 2: to his dog to him. Yeah, but now he's going
Speaker 2: to have to go through the process of certifying the
Speaker 2: dog's vaccinations. Maybe the dog will have to get them again. Luckily,
Speaker 2: he and the dog are on a road trip to
Speaker 2: their final home or the place where they want to live,
Speaker 2: where they're meeting up with friends and families, so that
Speaker 2: they're having a great trip across the country right now.
Speaker 1: Yah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that just having easing that transition through bureaucracy by
Speaker 2: having those documents to hand, I'm sure would have been great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And like, honestly, the more I read about people
Speaker 1: dealing with refugee crisis and like, oh, I don't know
Speaker 1: the right to return various places, the more you can
Speaker 1: prove like the ownership of the stuff you own and
Speaker 1: things like that, Yes, it can be very easy to.
Speaker 2: Become Like I understand that lots of the bureocracy exists
Speaker 2: to make people legible and therefore taxable by the state. Right,
Speaker 2: if we're talking from an anarchist perspective, I understand why
Speaker 2: it exists. I've been reading James Scott a lot recently.
Speaker 2: If that hasn't fair enough there, but I in a
Speaker 2: scenario where the state exists, which is the one we
Speaker 2: are in. Then there are advantages to being legible and
Speaker 2: then distendable by the state, and certain disadvantages to being
Speaker 2: eligible to the state when you're trying to get your
Speaker 2: house back and even like.
Speaker 1: Again my time as a crusty traveler my twenties and
Speaker 1: into my thirties, the single most useful thing that I
Speaker 1: carried was my driver's license without warrants because I used
Speaker 1: to have my idea run every single day. Because actually
Speaker 1: it's actually part of the reason I have a stranger
Speaker 1: version to carry in a hiking style backpack around often
Speaker 1: is because I learned when you look like a punk
Speaker 1: and you have a travel like a hiking backpack, you
Speaker 1: are now the cops main target. Yes, yeah, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and so like whereas when I have like a computer bag,
Speaker 1: I'm not the cops main target, and that makes my
Speaker 1: life easier. You know. Okay, small amounts of emergency food
Speaker 1: such as protein bars that you want to like swap
Speaker 1: out every couple of months. I recommend putting in the
Speaker 1: ones that you don't like because otherwise you'll eat them,
Speaker 1: because otherwise you'll be like, oh I could go tasty snack.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, this is sorry. Just before we recorded a
Speaker 1: bar from this bag that I've been showing you. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a product called a Humanitarian Daily Ration, which
Speaker 2: is a vegan emory that they give to refugees.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, Yeah, there's great. Everyone can eat them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, They're very good to have, And I have those
Speaker 2: for emergency food because if one can eat them, ready,
Speaker 2: do I feel like I want to eat them?
Speaker 1: So? Yeah, I've been recently keeping I haven't eaten one yet.
Speaker 1: I've been keeping these flavorless emergency ration bars, like the
Speaker 1: lifeboat rations. Yeah, they're just like I think, like oil
Speaker 1: and sugar and flour or something, oh towns. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's like, you know what, it's three days worth of
Speaker 1: food at twelve hundred calories a day. Barely three days,
Speaker 1: but whatever. Yeah, okay, So I recommend having that and
Speaker 1: you know, making sure to swap that out. Overall, I
Speaker 1: advocate not putting in things that will go bad, because
Speaker 1: you are going to forget about this until it becomes
Speaker 1: a habit for you to check it every month or so. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1: A travel hygiene kit with toothbrush, floss, toothpaste, moist toilettes, foam,
Speaker 1: earplugs for sleeping in noisy environments that one is like
Speaker 1: way more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I am. And it's a time in
Speaker 2: my life when I was mostly living in my car,
Speaker 2: traveling around France racing bicycles. I got caught in a
Speaker 2: snowstorm along with a number of other people who would
Speaker 2: travel in various vehicles, and some of them were traveling
Speaker 2: in order to make an asylum claim, and we all
Speaker 2: got to this refugee camp where basically we're sleeping on
Speaker 2: the floor of a large building and I did not
Speaker 2: sleep for days because people had children and you know,
Speaker 2: it's loud, and like, yeah, those air plugs would have
Speaker 2: been the most important thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And it was like I actually started carrying
Speaker 1: them just because of going to shows when I used
Speaker 1: to do that more. And then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: these are really useful in all kinds of situations. They
Speaker 1: cost like nothing, and the savior hearing the bang for
Speaker 1: your buck, the non bang for your buck is very good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the buck is great. Nail clippers, your daily wear, makeup,
Speaker 1: and anything else you might need goes in your hygiene kit.
Speaker 1: Any prescription or over the counter medications that you rely on.
Speaker 1: And one thing that came up from a doctor friend
Speaker 1: of mine recommended. When I was first started making these
Speaker 1: kids for my friends, I was like buying bulk aspirin
Speaker 1: and putting it into little drug baggies, you know, yeah smart.
Speaker 1: And my friend was like, you need to put blister
Speaker 1: packs in instead blister packs being the like little yeah,
Speaker 1: individually individually labeled ones. Yeah. Yeah, to explain this thing, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're professionals because the police have less cause for suspicion
Speaker 1: if you are searched. And this is clearly advil, it says,
Speaker 1: so it is packaged in a way that is not
Speaker 1: convenient for people to make their own packages and so
Speaker 1: and actually it's funny is that of all the ones
Speaker 1: that I put into people's things, the only thing I
Speaker 1: haven't been able to get blister packed is caffeine. Because
Speaker 1: I put caffeine into these things because a lot of
Speaker 1: people are addicted to it, and also because it's useful
Speaker 1: to be able to stay awake in certain environments. And
Speaker 1: so I actually put in like different like caffeine powder
Speaker 1: drinks or caffeine gum or other things. Yes, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: going to say, get MRI caffeine gum. Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: also and I give them to my friends who are
Speaker 1: about to drive sleepy is like, yes, and that's the
Speaker 1: main use that I have had. It's amazing I don't
Speaker 1: drink caffeine. It's amazing how much caffeine I have on
Speaker 1: me at any given time. Yeah, a change of socks
Speaker 1: and underwear, and these should be like climate appropriate, especially
Speaker 1: like wool socks are like the most useful thing in
Speaker 1: the world. Just as a general rule, I think that
Speaker 1: a packable rain jacket and or poncho is incredibly useful here.
Speaker 1: A lot of people like the ponchos that are sort
Speaker 1: of a slightly more military style because you can use
Speaker 1: them as a tarp and make a shelter if you need.
Speaker 1: That might be overkill for your particular environment. You might
Speaker 1: also just have like your hiking rain jacket that goes
Speaker 1: in there. A puffy packable warm top is a little
Speaker 1: bit of a like bonus item. It's I think having
Speaker 1: a warm upper layer is really important for a lot
Speaker 1: of it's until you've slept outside without a sleeping bag,
Speaker 1: you have no idea how cold it is in the
Speaker 1: summer to sleep outside. Yeah, on the ground, especially whenever
Speaker 1: I'm watching movies or really books, and like the kid
Speaker 1: runs away from home, or they're like on that and
Speaker 1: they go and they sleep in the woods. I'm like,
Speaker 1: the fuck they did if they didn't sleep that night?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you lie on your side, holding yourself, wondering what
Speaker 2: you made these choices in life.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I might add that if you're going to have
Speaker 2: a specific like a puffy jacket for this, and you
Speaker 2: don't own a puffy jacket, Yeah, a couple of things
Speaker 2: to consider that Germany compressing down will help make it
Speaker 2: lose some of its loft, so it will be less lofty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So you don't want to keep that stuff compressed for
Speaker 2: a very long time or super compressed, right, don't cram
Speaker 2: it into the smallest ball. Remember that when you buy
Speaker 2: down jackets or the baffles which are the sewing lines
Speaker 2: across it, like, those are areas that are not insulated, right,
Speaker 2: So you don't actually want the ones with the with
Speaker 2: one hundred little baffles going down them.
Speaker 1: Oh interesting, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then synthetic insulation does a lot better with
Speaker 2: with with with wetness.
Speaker 1: It retains some of its insulating properties. And my final
Speaker 1: thing with down jackets, I think a lot about down jackets,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, is get one that is a size bigger
Speaker 1: than you would normally get for like, oh yeah, because
Speaker 1: you don't.
Speaker 2: Really want to be taking stuff off when you're cold.
Speaker 2: You want a jacket that you can just put on
Speaker 2: over all your stuff. We call it a ballet parker
Speaker 2: in a sort of mountaineering community. But it's like a
Speaker 2: static thing, right, So you're hiking your mount to climbing,
Speaker 2: you stop, you immediately check that thing on over everything
Speaker 2: that keeps you warm until you start moving again.
Speaker 1: That makes sense to me. I advocate personally. I advocate
Speaker 1: for synthetic. I advocate because it's cheaper, you can leave
Speaker 1: it compressed, and because it insulates better in the wet
Speaker 1: and it is much heavier for its and larger for
Speaker 1: its insulating value. But for me, like having spent a
Speaker 1: lot of my life like sleeping and sleeping bags with
Speaker 1: no tarp or whatever and just being like I'll just
Speaker 1: fucking deal whether it's not raining that hard, you know.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yeah totally, Like I have fucked some really
Speaker 2: expensive downsleeping bags, even the oil on your skin, and
Speaker 2: will actually eventually closet that down to Yeah, like that
Speaker 2: you really have to baby some ultra light down stuff,
Speaker 2: which is fine, Like if I'm mountaineering. If I'm not
Speaker 2: that i will baby my bag because I don't want
Speaker 2: to carry extra shit.
Speaker 1: But this is not that exactly. Like if you are
Speaker 1: trying to do a through hike, you might look at
Speaker 1: this very differently. And there's a version of the world
Speaker 1: where your crisis might involve moving over the mountains in
Speaker 1: winter to get out of a country that has just
Speaker 1: elected a fascist who says that he wants to kill
Speaker 1: all the communists or whatever. Yeah, I've spoken to those people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so like in that situation, get the mountaineer and shit,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, yeah, okay. Other stuff to have in
Speaker 1: this bag a heavy duty trash bag. You can put
Speaker 1: all your stuff in it to keep it dry. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like all these like arguments about how to keep
Speaker 1: your bag dry and overall. And I'm curious if this
Speaker 1: has been your experience. People have been moving away from
Speaker 1: like pack cover where you cover the pack and instead
Speaker 1: just put everything inside the pack into something that's waterproof.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what I've done for a very long time.
Speaker 2: You can spend a lot of money on stuff sacks
Speaker 2: like the event ones that see to some make a
Speaker 2: cool because they have a one way breathable fabric, so
Speaker 2: you squeeze them and the egg goes out rules it
Speaker 2: doesn't go back in. It's pretty cool, but then you
Speaker 2: end up with these really hard bricks of clothing or
Speaker 2: whatever that like you can't kind of make them fill
Speaker 2: the space, right, They just end up being like solid,
Speaker 2: so sometimes they don't pack as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I have used three milimeter contract grade bin bags for
Speaker 2: years the mountain into the deserts. You can sleep in them.
Speaker 2: You can make them into a poncho, you can fill
Speaker 2: them with brush and make them into a sleeping pad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great items, and it's sketchy, but a lot of
Speaker 1: people who are stuck living outside in very cold environments
Speaker 1: will wear them close to their skin for like a
Speaker 1: really intensely heating insulating layer. But it's sketchy because then
Speaker 1: you sweat like hell and you can freeze it stuf
Speaker 1: if you really careful. That's some like that's some life
Speaker 1: or death ship. Yeah exactly. I'm not telling you how
Speaker 1: to do that on air here, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Google, But yeah, they have a lot of usage
Speaker 2: you to gather water too, I've done that before.
Speaker 1: Oh that makes sense. Cash cash is really useful. The
Speaker 1: amount of cash you want to carry has to do
Speaker 1: with the amount of cash that you're willing to put
Speaker 1: into a bag that just sits there for it does nothing,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, gold of course, yeah, totally. Uh have
Speaker 1: so many thoughts about Golden Air. Yeah yeah, yeah. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's beside the point. That's where home prepping. Okay, you
Speaker 1: want to spare USB battery and charging cables, I would
Speaker 1: advocate an octopus cable that has like mini USB c
Speaker 1: and lightning charger all on one cable so you don't
Speaker 1: have to keep track of multiple cables for multiple devices. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right right here, I'm trying to look what the brand
Speaker 2: is of mine, because I got one recently. When I'm
Speaker 2: working in places that are conflict zones to suspect places
Speaker 2: where I think I might have to go like peace
Speaker 2: out to a bomb shelter for a few hours, days whatever,
Speaker 2: I like to have a little pouch with all my
Speaker 2: charging and medical and essential stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah. This is called a leave a cable, and I
Speaker 1: found it to be very handy, okay, because it's like
Speaker 1: stiff and it doesn't cables get twisted and frayed a lot, okay,
Speaker 1: doesn't do that. Yeah, Little Buzz Marketing for you there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now I'm going to look into those later because I
Speaker 1: as much as I'm like, oh fuck all the gadgets,
Speaker 1: know what I'm trying to say, you don't need all
Speaker 1: the gadgets, but they're kind of cool and like, and
Speaker 1: the size of extra battery you have is depending on
Speaker 1: what you're doing. You know, like, if you're reasonably sure
Speaker 1: you're gonna be around power, just have a little one
Speaker 1: and because like, you know what, you're gonna be the
Speaker 1: one who saves the night when everyone's drunk at the
Speaker 1: bar and someone's phone is dead and they're the only
Speaker 1: person who has uber set up right, and you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I've been trying to advocate that per snacks are
Speaker 1: the best example of prepping and that everything that like
Speaker 1: men are trying to do is like catching up the
Speaker 1: fact that like women are actually culturally in our society
Speaker 1: like better prep in. Yeah, but okay, I put a
Speaker 1: miler emergency blanket in. These are these like you know,
Speaker 1: they seem almost gimmicky. They are these incredibly light little
Speaker 1: plastic tarps.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: One probably saved my life when I was thirty, like
Speaker 1: on my like twelfth or thirteenth birthday, when I like
Speaker 1: woke up getting hypothermia five miles from the road in
Speaker 1: a wet tent. So I'm just like, yeah, no, eyes
Speaker 1: are great, Like, yeah, they're great.
Speaker 2: They that you can do a hypothermia wrap with them,
Speaker 2: use them for signing if you're in a different kind
Speaker 2: of situation. We can't use them in the refugee counts
Speaker 2: and working because one of them floated into a transformer
Speaker 2: and that oh wow that Yeah, so yeah, that's your
Speaker 2: that's your caveat there doing some around high voltage power.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there's things you're not going to get anything
Speaker 2: warmer for that size. It's the size of a couple
Speaker 2: of credit cards stacked on top of each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. And like in mind, I have like a
Speaker 1: slightly nicer one because I don't have a sleeping bag.
Speaker 1: In mind, I have like an emergency bag sleeping bag.
Speaker 1: I've never used it. I don't.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the like there's a company called Survive Outdoors,
Speaker 2: like funk. I'm saying a lot of companies today by
Speaker 2: autu you have a shit you want, I don't care.
Speaker 2: There's company called Survive Outdoors Longer that makes one that's
Speaker 2: like about the size of a beer can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's yeah, I think, yeah, those are great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I've sucked up at night one of those when I
Speaker 1: was doing like the like look how ultra light I
Speaker 1: could be stuff. It's not great, but like, but here
Speaker 1: you are recording here, I am not defintely with my
Speaker 1: full set of digits, so like I can't really complain,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, exactly. And those things won't float off
Speaker 1: into a power transform. They're a bit heavier. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that would be yeah, it would be an advantage of it.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. And on the other side, so again, people
Speaker 1: will see you, right, which a contrary to what you
Speaker 1: might have seen on YouTube. You want people to see
Speaker 1: you most of the time. Most crises you're going to encounter,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be hiding. Right. Sometimes when you're
Speaker 1: like hitchhiking and shit, you do have to not be seen.
Speaker 1: And then I get really noticing how bright all the
Speaker 1: tents are, and so I kind of want one of
Speaker 1: the new bullshit Camo ultra light tents. But yeah, that's
Speaker 1: I don't hitchhike. I have a fucking truck. It's bullshit.
Speaker 1: I'm fine a full water bottle. I think it's always
Speaker 1: worth having a full water bottle in your in your bag.
Speaker 1: This is the heaviest thing in your bag. Water is
Speaker 1: just fucking wonderful and you need way more of it
Speaker 1: than you think you do when you're exerting yourself. I
Speaker 1: have been historically advocating a single wall steel canteen so
Speaker 1: that the water can be boiled in an emergency directly
Speaker 1: in it. But a lot of people have a preference
Speaker 1: for lighter weight and that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: And also even having something that just looks a little
Speaker 1: bit more civilian also makes a lot of sense. The
Speaker 1: Ultra light I actually think the Ultra Lighters might be
Speaker 1: right on this one. And they use the to use
Speaker 1: a brand name. They all get those smart waters, but
Speaker 1: then they don't keep drinking smart water. They drink one
Speaker 1: and then they clean it and refill the bottle with
Speaker 1: tap water.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we say the Sawyer filter fits on top of it,
Speaker 2: which is very handy, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The thing I do like about a single walls Chaine bottle.
Speaker 2: A the smart water bottles, you fill them up and
Speaker 2: then they freeze. They can break right and B I
Speaker 2: like to do like the analoge and baby, you know
Speaker 2: where you you boil some water put it in that
Speaker 2: thing and you are cold, that comes into bed with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's very pleasant experience. Yeah, no, that that makes
Speaker 1: sense to me. I don't know what happened to full
Speaker 1: water full full steel water bottle. Someone on the head
Speaker 1: with it. Yeah, they're not coming back from that. Even
Speaker 1: the guy with the folding ar, he's not getting up.
Speaker 1: You give him a couple with the well. And if
Speaker 1: we're going for cross punk, I also recommend a lack
Speaker 1: attached to a chain. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, well just
Speaker 1: so if you have a bicycle. True, that's true. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: areas of our interest. Yeah, okay, A but tane, lighter,
Speaker 1: a bit lighter, an emergency whistle. This is the most Like.
Speaker 1: I was at a firearms training and we were talking
Speaker 1: about a bunch of stuff and people were like, all right,
Speaker 1: and this is how you like signal the following, you know,
Speaker 1: like like range clear kind of stuff, like use a whistle,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. And everyone's like, I didn't bring
Speaker 1: a whistle. I'm like I got three in my bag,
Speaker 1: Like what are you doing? Yeah, amateurs, Yeah, if they're
Speaker 1: light and cheap and useful, Like the number of people
Speaker 1: who wouldn't have died in the woods because if they
Speaker 1: had a whistle, like more than anything else. Because people
Speaker 1: think that the solution to our problems is fix it yourself.
Speaker 1: Usually the solution to problems is get help.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, and that's a great Like you're going
Speaker 2: to use a lot of energy whistlingly shouting. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: most if hiking backpacks will have a chest buckle that
Speaker 2: is also a whistle, and if they don't, you can
Speaker 2: probably change it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that rules. That's the kind of shit I
Speaker 1: like to see. Yeah, it's well thought out, it's cover. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we love it. And when I when I lived on
Speaker 1: a LAMB project, I made everyone put the hurricane whistles
Speaker 1: by their door so that like we didn't always have
Speaker 1: a good cell reception or what of her, and so
Speaker 1: that there's an emergency, we can everyone has a whistle
Speaker 1: loud enough to be heard by everyone else on the
Speaker 1: large product. Oh yeah, you know spot. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: lot less money than a ham radio, which is something
Speaker 1: I've been right and like I'm not anti having like
Speaker 1: you know, good walkie talkies and stuff, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: sometimes you're just like, no I have I have a
Speaker 1: hurricane whistle or even I just have a regular whistle. Okay,
Speaker 1: a folding knife. You print them? What's that? You could
Speaker 1: three D print them? Pretty good ones. Oh that's cool,
Speaker 1: like three to printing me give them out, now, that's cool,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. I keep a folding knife in these bags.
Speaker 1: I also usually just have one on me. But and
Speaker 1: you know, the least weapon looking knife you can get
Speaker 1: is going to be a bang for your buck in
Speaker 1: terms of like being able to go with you lots
Speaker 1: of places. Obviously this isn't going to your carry on luggage. Yeah,
Speaker 1: A rechargeable headlamp or flashlight, and then a basic first
Speaker 1: aid kit. That's my you know, there's a there's all
Speaker 1: kinds of other stuff. If you're going to be hiking,
Speaker 1: if you're and if I know I'm going to be
Speaker 1: like in a lot of situations, one of the first
Speaker 1: things I would add as a tarp and a sleeping bag.
Speaker 1: That would be like, yeah, the next things to go
Speaker 1: in sleeping bags are pretty big. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I generally have that stuff in a general sense, both
Speaker 2: for doing this and for generally enjoying outdoors stuff. It
Speaker 2: really helps if you can have your shit organized in
Speaker 2: stuff sacks and labeled so that you know if if
Speaker 2: you should you need to leave your house in an emergency, right,
Speaker 2: it's going to be more comfortable if you have a
Speaker 2: sleeping bag and inflatable pillow and at top you can
Speaker 2: grab them in ten seconds if you've got them labeled right,
Speaker 2: and it's this will also help you.
Speaker 1: Like I like to camp. The worst part about camping
Speaker 1: is packing.
Speaker 2: So if I have all my stuff, I can just
Speaker 2: be like, Okay, I've got a sleep system, I got
Speaker 2: to cook e system.
Speaker 1: Yeah, twenty four hours of food. I'm ready to rumble.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, it makes sense. But you know what who
Speaker 1: else is ready to rumble? Oh? Yeah yeah, they're ready
Speaker 1: to fight at all times. Yep, here's an ad for fighting.
Speaker 1: We're back and we've now learned to fight thanks to
Speaker 1: the adverts. Yeah yeah, so Tye bj J. Actually that's
Speaker 1: it's fun. Yeah yeah, that's that's it's cool.
Speaker 2: Kraft Maga Yeah yeah yeah, the.
Speaker 1: The Reagan Gold of martial arts. Yeah okay, so what
Speaker 1: do you Okay, So I have other stuff that I
Speaker 1: keep in my ad my bag that is like more
Speaker 1: fun or I think incredibly useful, but not in the
Speaker 1: like dead basics that I keep. But what else do
Speaker 1: you keep. Do you have any like fun stuff or
Speaker 1: other stuff that I didn't mention, Yeah, a couple of
Speaker 1: other things. I think. One of the things I use
Speaker 1: the most.
Speaker 2: This is my little bag that I have if I
Speaker 2: you have to go to area, shelter or certain thing.
Speaker 1: It's very very small. It's like I don't know, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's the size of a small paper book. Is would
Speaker 1: go into a bigger bag.
Speaker 2: But one of the things that I use, I take
Speaker 2: on trips with me and I use everywhere I go.
Speaker 2: And this is like a quarter inch bit driver. Oh nice, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it spins, It spins, and it's just a tiny
Speaker 2: screw driver where you can change the bits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I have a set of bits. Ye.
Speaker 2: So like I use this bad boy all the time. Right,
Speaker 2: I use it when I get water in my podcast equipment,
Speaker 2: which is a thing that I am wont to do.
Speaker 1: Uh, you have to.
Speaker 2: This is my this is my this is my laddism. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm breaking the frame of big podcast.
Speaker 1: You keep a sledgehammer specifically for breaking frames?
Speaker 2: Yeah, machine frames if you run out, Yes, Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: one thing I fucking hate. It's a weaving machine and
Speaker 2: I take them down whenever I can, but this this
Speaker 2: guy is really useful, right Like you know, you could
Speaker 2: be staying with you could be.
Speaker 1: There are a million things right there. Your bed in
Speaker 1: your hotel is loose and you need to tighten it.
Speaker 2: You need to take a part of your podcasting machine.
Speaker 2: There is you know that there's something wrong with your phone.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is like a screwdriver and a few little bits,
Speaker 2: super handy. You want to help your friend put together
Speaker 2: some my kea furniture, not a problem. So it's very
Speaker 2: very small. It's you know, the size of pretty the
Speaker 2: size of a cigarette and then the sort of bits
Speaker 2: and the size of another cigarette. Very easy to carry
Speaker 2: around with you everywhere. I am an appreciator of sporks.
Speaker 1: Oh that's on my That was on my follow up list.
Speaker 2: Tooh excellent good. Yeah, I'm a person who thinks about
Speaker 2: sporks a lot. You guys can read my sport reviews
Speaker 2: at backpacking dot com if you want to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's not a joke. It's just a reflection
Speaker 1: on the sad person I am. So yeah, Okay, are
Speaker 1: you a long handled spork or regular spork?
Speaker 2: See the long handled spook is nice for when you're
Speaker 2: going into an m e type meal. How often you
Speaker 2: go to no mo re type meal compared to like
Speaker 2: the pocketability of a normal spork Right now, that makes
Speaker 2: sense to me. Yeah, the MR spoon is the best
Speaker 2: bargain eating device. It weighs six grams, which is less
Speaker 2: than a titanium spork. Okay, you can dip into hot water.
Speaker 2: It doesn't melt, it doesn't break like a like a
Speaker 2: traditional plastic like. It's not like a fast food plastic spoon.
Speaker 2: It's its best bang feed back when it comes to spoons.
Speaker 1: Okay. And when I asked shape when I was, when
Speaker 1: I was more of a crosspunk, Yeah, always on my
Speaker 1: waist belt was a titanium spork with a P thirty
Speaker 1: eight can opener key chain to it. Yes, because no
Speaker 1: matter what I could get into a can of Amy's chili.
Speaker 1: It's the amount of people I've seen.
Speaker 2: And I took camping a lot. Sometimes I'll go with
Speaker 2: my trucks, sometimes I go by myself on my feet.
Speaker 2: The amount of humans I've seen with very expensive overlanding setups,
Speaker 2: trying to open a can of food on a rock,
Speaker 2: It's a lot of humans. Yeah, I can opener is
Speaker 2: a very handy thing.
Speaker 1: No and the P thirty eight or P fifty ones.
Speaker 1: These are the tiny military ones. They weigh nothing. They're
Speaker 1: like ten of them would fit on a credit card,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have six my truck.
Speaker 1: But yeah they're very small. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Tens of other things I do, like zip ties, ziptize,
Speaker 2: very small, very handy. Yeah, you can always fix it
Speaker 2: with zip tize. I'm just looking at this bag in
Speaker 2: front of me and thinking what else I have.
Speaker 1: That's remarkable. I save the day with ziptize when when
Speaker 1: I was driving in the woods with my friend when
Speaker 1: some part of her exhaust system fell off of her van,
Speaker 1: and oh yeah, I was like dragging on the ground.
Speaker 1: And I didn't normally carry zip tizes, but my dad
Speaker 1: had always been like, zip tize They're amazing, And I
Speaker 1: was like sure, dad, whatever, So like I had some
Speaker 1: in my truck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, very hand jiptize and duct tape certainly in your vehicle.
Speaker 2: You can fix most stuff that wants fixing with zip
Speaker 2: tize and duct tape. I just like to wrap that
Speaker 2: handles of my stuff, like I have a little bit
Speaker 2: lighter here and I just wrap that in duct tape
Speaker 2: and then I have the duct tape yeah, and I
Speaker 2: have the bit lighter. Duct tape also is great tinder.
Speaker 2: You can start a fire with it, so okay, really
Speaker 2: has many many uses.
Speaker 1: You can use one lighter to light the other lighter
Speaker 1: on fire. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: You could also take the tape off your lighter if
Speaker 2: you wanted to avoid lighting your lighter.
Speaker 1: All right. If you did light your lighter, you'll get
Speaker 1: a moment of excitement when it goes poof, unless you're
Speaker 1: holding it, which case you'll get a moment of pain,
Speaker 1: which could be exciting. Yeah, it could be exciting. Hopefully
Speaker 1: you're close to a hospital. Yeah. Yeah, I like to
Speaker 1: carry it like a little pre made There's a I
Speaker 1: like to. I do like to vacuum seal stuff. It's
Speaker 1: the thing that I enjoy.
Speaker 2: I recently got a vacuum seiler, been getting really into it,
Speaker 2: so like I'll vacuum see your little packets of pills,
Speaker 2: little little plasters, band aids for American listeners into little
Speaker 2: packs and give them to people or keep them places.
Speaker 2: It maybe helps them with aging a little bit. But
Speaker 2: having having a bag at that you could just open
Speaker 2: in an emergency. It's super handy.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I like and largely.
Speaker 2: This is just because I go to places and I
Speaker 2: have these tiny little fishing chem lights. They like they're
Speaker 2: designed for certain fishing floats, so very good if you
Speaker 2: need to like see something and so that's.
Speaker 1: Glow sticks for the non tactical crowd, yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: or silooms for the British tactical crowd. They're very handy.
Speaker 2: You need to mark something at night, right, Like, They're
Speaker 2: not going to be great for like I have flares
Speaker 2: in my car. My car breaks down in the dark,
Speaker 2: grown and I don't want people to pile into the
Speaker 2: back of it.
Speaker 1: For smaller things, you're going around.
Speaker 2: A campsite and you want to be like, oh, like,
Speaker 2: you know, there's a a piece of rebar sticking out
Speaker 2: the ground here, right, you can crack one of those
Speaker 2: bad boys and light it up. That makes They're also
Speaker 2: just a way to bamboos or young children. If you're
Speaker 2: around kids at night and you can suddenly make light appear,
Speaker 2: just make sure they don't eat them.
Speaker 1: Okay. But see, this actually gets to something that you
Speaker 1: brought up earlier. A lot of crazy situations, an awful
Speaker 1: lot of them you're not alone, and then an awful
Speaker 1: lot of them things like being able to entertain kids
Speaker 1: and things like that is like, yeah, a genuine need,
Speaker 1: like a very useful thing. And so like I know
Speaker 1: people who keep you know, like I mean usually people
Speaker 1: who have kids, but they keep a stuffed animal or
Speaker 1: something like that in their bag.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like I was, so there are a lot of
Speaker 2: children in these camps down the border, and that's very
Speaker 2: fucked up. But like I realized I didn't have any toys.
Speaker 2: So I got loads of these tiny little stuffed animals
Speaker 2: someone had donated. Dude, Like they're about the size of
Speaker 2: a golf ball, and it gave each child an animal right,
Speaker 2: so they could play with the little animals, and animals
Speaker 2: could be in community with each other.
Speaker 1: Oh that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They were so pumped. And it wasn't just that kids
Speaker 2: were like, yeah, I got a toy. The parents were
Speaker 2: like thank fuck, like yeah, they are so bored, right,
Speaker 2: or like I have a small finger puppet that using
Speaker 2: the other day to entertain them. I don't where I
Speaker 2: found it. I found it in one of the vans
Speaker 2: we were using. It's like a seal and something like
Speaker 2: that makes all the difference when you have nothing to
Speaker 2: do with your kids, and I guess like along those lines,
Speaker 2: when I am bored, I have a Kindlap on my phone.
Speaker 2: I think it works with all the phones. Obviously, Jeff
Speaker 2: Bezos is a ball end, but like that's a it's
Speaker 2: a British word. Yes, it's a British word. We don't
Speaker 2: like beis. Yeah, it's always the end of a dick.
Speaker 1: The tu messcent Park, Yeah okay, yeah, for those who
Speaker 1: weren't clear in the audience, but yeah, Jeff Besis is
Speaker 1: a dick.
Speaker 2: But the kindlap is nice. You can also have PDFs
Speaker 2: of books on your phone, but it's again, like I'm
Speaker 2: telling you from personal experience, when you're sitting in a
Speaker 2: giant warehouse with nothing to do for a few days. Somewhere,
Speaker 2: I have a picture of building a fort with this
Speaker 2: little you know, she's like three or four, you know,
Speaker 2: and her folks who had come folks are refugees and
Speaker 2: we were just bored. So we built a four out
Speaker 2: of my level. But someone had an inflatable ball which
Speaker 2: we just played with for hours because you're so bored.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, just having like an app on your phone
Speaker 2: where you can read books, it's probably going to be
Speaker 2: more useful to you than that shore barrowed rifle that
Speaker 2: you have to pay two hundred dollars tax stamp and
Speaker 2: that effects come into your house.
Speaker 1: For Yeah, every every crosspunk I knew you always carry
Speaker 1: what you need, and then you carry something and you
Speaker 1: almost like set your personality around this, Like like I
Speaker 1: knew a guy who was not an ultra lighter and
Speaker 1: his name was Pogo Dave and a fucking pogo stick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: an old metal like rusted pogo stick and I almost
Speaker 1: broke my knee with that thing. Oh yeah, in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know if younger listeners will be familiar with
Speaker 2: the pogos. I think that's like do you think the
Speaker 2: zoomer is in the audience?
Speaker 1: I have no idea there. Yeah, they're probably looking up kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, and so having something And it's funny too,
Speaker 1: because every like prepper manuals, like and a deck of
Speaker 1: cards and this is like technically true, but I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what. People actually plays hot dice, having some like
Speaker 1: six sided dice to play this really annoying game called
Speaker 1: hot dice, or like bring some D and D dice
Speaker 1: and just start playing like role playing games with people.
Speaker 1: You know, Like there's like having the entertainment things and
Speaker 1: then the other thing. I think it's really worth considering
Speaker 1: having a small musical instrument. I find that, like there's
Speaker 1: a reason that crossbunks play music everywhere they go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: are you about to pull out the harmonica?
Speaker 2: I have a harmonica in a pistol magazine pouch that
Speaker 2: I take on the side of my bag when I
Speaker 2: go to places.
Speaker 1: Hell yeah, yeah, we took me.
Speaker 2: So when Rubb and I did on the m Moo Trepe,
Speaker 2: I left my harmonica with the the people who you're
Speaker 2: going to hit singing at the start of our show,
Speaker 2: they played they guitar and song for us cool.
Speaker 1: I left them the harmonica and they play it now. Yes,
Speaker 1: harmonica and then harmonica. The one thing that I have
Speaker 1: in my bug up bag that's all little bit extra,
Speaker 1: but I swear by I have a Nintendo Switch and
Speaker 1: a bunch of physical game cartridges for it. Because when
Speaker 1: twenty twenty hit, I lived in a cabin in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere. I was off grid. I barely had
Speaker 1: any electricity. I basically had to walk half a mile
Speaker 1: to my car and like charge things in my car
Speaker 1: for a while until I like got together enough money
Speaker 1: to get some solar panels and some batteries and stuff, right,
Speaker 1: because I had not planned on having my cabin be
Speaker 1: suddenly where I lived well like full time, not going
Speaker 1: anywhere else lived. And the first thing I got was
Speaker 1: a little tiny it's called a bit boy and it
Speaker 1: is a like tiny game boy that has every single
Speaker 1: Nintendo and Super Nintendo and Psychogenesis game pirated onto it.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and.
Speaker 2: Immediately ordering that off to the podcast and it costs
Speaker 2: like forty I don't know how much they cost now,
Speaker 2: but they're not expensive because they're little weird three D
Speaker 2: printed pirated.
Speaker 1: Things and they like use almost no electricity and so
Speaker 1: it uses way less electricity in a cell phone. And
Speaker 1: that saved my sanity. And then when I finally got
Speaker 1: my shit together enough to get a Nintendo Switch and
Speaker 1: I could play Skyrim like and it's not that I
Speaker 1: had nothing to do. People are like, oh, you don't
Speaker 1: need to entertain yourself in crisis because you're busy. It's like, look,
Speaker 1: you can probably only physically work on building your house
Speaker 1: to get it ready for the apocalypse. You think you're
Speaker 1: living in for maybe fourteen hours a day, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe ten to fourteen hours. Yeah, and if you don't
Speaker 1: do manual labor right now, then it might be a
Speaker 1: lottle less en. Yeah, like you have downtime, not always
Speaker 1: in every situation, but like injured need to sit around
Speaker 1: and do something or you'll you know, like entertainment is
Speaker 1: like actually really useful. Yes, And if you bring a paperback,
Speaker 1: and I recommend it, bring one that you've already read
Speaker 1: because you know you like it. I like, normally don't
Speaker 1: reread books all that much, but when I need to
Speaker 1: turn my brain off, a book that you've already read
Speaker 1: for a lot of people is going to do better.
Speaker 1: And if you haven't, so you should get a jump
Speaker 1: start on this by reading my book. Is inul Island
Speaker 1: a magnificent All right? Thanks? Yeah? Yeah, So so you
Speaker 1: can do the tabletop roleplaying game that we did. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a Escape from Insult Island tabletop roleplaying game that's
Speaker 1: coming out next to you. Well, there's this little zine
Speaker 1: version of it that I think you can download now,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be slightly better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could keep that in your bag. The other
Speaker 2: thing I was going to plug that I forgot about
Speaker 2: was download the Google Maps on to your phone. Yeah,
Speaker 2: or whatever brand, apps you want, maps you want, and
Speaker 2: have a watch that that doesn't need a battery. I
Speaker 2: think that's super handy. You can use the watch to
Speaker 2: tell the direction of south, which we'll seek if you
Speaker 2: other compass directions if if you really need to, but
Speaker 2: you can tell the time. You would again be surprised,
Speaker 2: how like people might imagine that I have to X happen,
Speaker 2: say it needs to tell the time, so it won't match.
Speaker 2: You probably will need to tell the time in most
Speaker 2: of your crises, you know, even to know if something
Speaker 2: has happened or it's not happened right, And so being
Speaker 2: able to do that it's very handy. And having a
Speaker 2: watch that powers yourself is a way to do that.
Speaker 1: No, that makes sense. I use one that doesn't power itself,
Speaker 1: but it like lasts three weeks or so on a
Speaker 1: charge and like vaguely charges itself from the sun, but
Speaker 1: not very efficiently. There's also and I know there's like
Speaker 1: now we're getting into the ways. Okay, here's the other pitch.
Speaker 1: It's fun when besides doing the basics, you can nerd
Speaker 1: out about it, and you can do it cheaply because
Speaker 1: nerding out about it is free. You can find your
Speaker 1: other friends that want to talk about this bullshit and
Speaker 1: talk about with this bullshit. You don't have to go
Speaker 1: out and buy fancy crazy shit. Sometimes you want the
Speaker 1: fancy crazy shit, but most of the stuff we're talking
Speaker 1: about is super cher and then you can have the
Speaker 1: joy of talking about the ship and getting into the
Speaker 1: weeds with it. But there's a there's an app I
Speaker 1: think it's called Keywicks, and it lets you download Wikipedia
Speaker 1: and read it on your phone offline. Yeah, that would
Speaker 1: be good.
Speaker 2: I've just remembered one more thing that Mark and I
Speaker 2: talked about off Michael a while ago, because this is
Speaker 2: the kind of people we are. Yeah, it's called bank line.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So the tactical crowd a very into power cord because
Speaker 2: it's a little bit stronger and you can pick out
Speaker 2: the inside lines and stuff. Is also very shiny and
Speaker 2: could be annoying to not sometimes if you get some
Speaker 2: bank line and you need to construct a shelter, which
Speaker 2: is relatively unlikely, you can. If you need to repair
Speaker 2: your clothes and you have a needle, you can pick
Speaker 2: it apart and use.
Speaker 1: It for that. But if you're bored, like every everyone
Speaker 1: should know a few knots. You know, if you know
Speaker 1: how to do like a I guess figure eight, not
Speaker 1: if you know how to do a truck has hitched
Speaker 1: a bowl and knot and you're probably pretty good if
Speaker 1: you could do those, honestly, Like, you can do a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff to justice prussic, maybe another friction hitch.
Speaker 1: You can practice those when you're bought. It's fun.
Speaker 2: It's okay. It may not be as fun for you
Speaker 2: as it is for me because I'm that kind of person.
Speaker 2: But if you like to learn stuff and then you
Speaker 2: can share that with someone else, right, it's fun to
Speaker 2: teach people and then they can teach you. A couple
Speaker 2: I have taught and learned not from people from half
Speaker 2: a dozen nationalities in the last month, and it's fun anyway.
Speaker 2: It's cool to share.
Speaker 1: It's also like when you're in a ship situation, being like, huh,
Speaker 1: having a moment where you're not thinking about the ship
Speaker 1: situation instead of thinking about that's cool. I learned that
Speaker 1: not it's very nice actually, and so yeah, like a
Speaker 1: Brazilian rodeo guy taught me a couple of knots.
Speaker 2: That's the other day. Yeah, it was sweet. We were helping.
Speaker 2: We had dumpster dive some tents that Susan g Coheman
Speaker 2: was throwing away, and so we were helping put those
Speaker 2: up and in one case we had their fly sheet
Speaker 2: but not the tent, so we were trying to work
Speaker 2: out how to make them to top. Did some different knots.
Speaker 2: It was fun, and bank line is cheaper than para code.
Speaker 2: Probably don't need the paracode with a fishing line inside
Speaker 2: in ninety nine percent of circumstances to get some bank
Speaker 2: line number thirty six bank line.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then the other the crustpunk challenges. You just
Speaker 1: start fixing your clothes at dental floss. Oh yeah, Fluss
Speaker 1: is great for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah Yeah, I get a sale needle and dental flosh
Speaker 2: and you'll smell minty fresh.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And when I make my emergency kits, I take
Speaker 1: little there's sort of sewing needle vials. I like them
Speaker 1: better than the little slidey kits where everything gets lost
Speaker 1: all the time. Yeah, And I just get these little
Speaker 1: tiny vials. They're clear so everyone knows what's in it.
Speaker 1: And I put safety pins, regular sewing needles, and leather
Speaker 1: sewing needles into them. And then when you're sewing with leather.
Speaker 1: The other thing that I recommend people carry it. Okay,
Speaker 1: like in two thousand and three, if you are a crustpunk,
Speaker 1: the things you need to have on you are at
Speaker 1: all times. You need a folding knife, you need a headlamp,
Speaker 1: you need a multi tool with pliers, and you need
Speaker 1: a sleeping bag and like and a spork and it
Speaker 1: can opener, and that's kind of it in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways.
Speaker 2: Yeah, don't combine those things. It be the person with
Speaker 2: the spark multi tool. Now you'll get beans in your
Speaker 2: knife and fucking.
Speaker 1: Well, actually that's called a hobo tool. There actually are
Speaker 1: multi tools that are but oh sorry, spork but then
Speaker 1: it's a spoon and it's a spoon and on one
Speaker 1: side and a forecast the other. Yeah yeah, yeah, those suck.
Speaker 1: Don't anything that folds. Anything that folds, you should keep
Speaker 1: it away from food. Yes, folding knife is going to
Speaker 1: get so gross. I mean you'll do it anyway, but
Speaker 1: I think we're kind of probably at time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I could keep going. That's going to get tweezers.
Speaker 2: But okay, yeah, this is enough stuff. Yeah, if you
Speaker 2: want to hear more of this kind of content, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Mago just a whole other podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh I was gonna say that I'd trick them into
Speaker 1: having me on to talk about this stuff more. But yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll we'll have you back.
Speaker 2: We'll do a whole other one film. But Margaret also
Speaker 2: has a whole other podcast which you should listen to.
Speaker 2: What's it cool and where can people find it?
Speaker 1: Margaret? Well, okay, so the Prepper one is called Live
Speaker 1: Like the World Is Dying, your podcast where it feels
Speaker 1: like the end times. It comes out every Friday. And
Speaker 1: I also have a cool Zone Media podcast called cool
Speaker 1: People It's Cool Stuff, where I talk about history and
Speaker 1: about cool people who did cool stuff. And James has
Speaker 1: been on both of these podcasts. So if you want
Speaker 1: to hear us continue to banter about things, there's so
Speaker 1: many more available options available to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe download them for those terrible times when you
Speaker 2: just need the calming voice of me and Margaret talking
Speaker 2: about bags.
Speaker 1: That's right, Well, just like just to like it's okay,
Speaker 1: you're going to get through this. I know that things
Speaker 1: seem bad right now, and they are bad, but it's okay.
Speaker 1: We'll just still a big hour of that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: to an hour of that. I'm proud of you. Yeah, totally, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we will be your anarchist affirmations. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Cool, that's another podcast. This has been It could Happen here.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Margaret that it was wonderful time.
Speaker 1: Fine. It could happen here as a production of cool
Speaker 1: Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit
Speaker 1: our website cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts. You can find sources for It could Happen Here,
Speaker 1: updated monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening.