Bug Out Bag 101

If you were cut off from everything for 72 hours, what would you need to survive? If you found yourself in the middle of nowhere -- or if you needed to leave a dangerous place -- what would you carry with you? In this episode, your fellow Conspiracy Realists explore the essentials of the Bug Out Bag.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of I Heart Radio. Hello, welcome back to the show.

(00:26):
My name is Matt, my name is Noel. They called
me Ben. We are joined as always with our super producer,
Paul Mission controlled decond. Most importantly, you are you. You
are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want
you to know. This is a little bit of a
of a weird episode for us because in a in
a few of our recent shows, we had touched on

(00:47):
the idea of emergency preparation, right we had, Uh, we
had mentioned building out bug out bags, just just in passing. Remember, um,
we didn't go too into depth. But I don't know
about you guys, I was uh surprised that so many
of our fellow listeners rode into us on you know,
Facebook or Twitter and asked us to make an episode

(01:11):
just about bug out bags. Uh did you guys see
any of that? Yeah? Yeah, that I mean, I think
it's an important thing that maybe we don't think about
in our busy lives all the time, that we need
to be prepared in case something goes down all of
a sudden. Uh. We we learned it personally. I think

(01:33):
we we had a close encounter with something like this
when Snowpocalypse occurred in Atlanta, when we realized, oh, well,
if something does go wrong and let's say our even
your vehicle is has to be abandoned, is there enough
stuff in your vehicle to be safe for a night?
Two nights forty eight hours? And we noticed a response

(01:54):
with with everyone listening that they also wanted to know
this information. Yeah, and uh, this episode is gonna be
a little bit different from some of our our previous episodes.
I don't know about you all, but I don't think
this will include anything quote unquote crazy. But you know,
perhaps we've already drifted past our old definitions of normalcy nowadays. Uh. Anyhow,

(02:17):
in this episode, we're gonna walk through what a bug
out bag is, whether you need one, what you should
put in it, what you should watch out for along
the way, and maybe reveal some of our own hard,
hard learned lessons here. Guys. Uh, you know, we can
see each other right now, but our fellow listeners can't. Uh.

(02:37):
You all look great, by the way, I want to
point out, I'm wearing my old, uh what, my old
old jacket that I used to live in. Seriously, for
three months, I lived in this jacket because I was
not prepared. And it's sort of like a utility belt
of a jacket, right, Like it's got all these pockets
where you can put all kinds of necessities in there.
Right yeah, man, yeah, absolutely, And I never, uh, I

(03:02):
never thought that I would have to use it that way,
but I got caught out because I wasn't planning ahead.
I'm a fan of improvisation, but in this in this
sort of situation, we do need to plan. So can
you tell us just a little bit of like high
level info on what happened or is it a mystery
just about how you found yourself in that kind of situation? Yeah? Yeah, okay, Uh,

(03:26):
I screwed up, Matt, That's exactly what happened. I I
screwed up. I was living abroad, and I thought at
the time that the hostel I was staying in was gonna,
well like a hostile I don't know these people that
I lived with. I thought it was gonna be a safe,
pretty reliably consistent, uh, domicile situation. I traveled to another

(03:50):
town and I couldn't find a place to live there,
so I was sleeping rough unless I literally like made
friends with someone on the street and trusted them enough
to sleep at their house, which you know, I I'm
not a fan of that. So yeah. But but the
your jacket or having something on you that you could

(04:13):
carry a couple of things on you became really important.
Oh yeah, man, this is this is ridiculous. This actually
used to be a different color, but it got so
sun baked and dirty and like I was washing it
in a river and stuff. It was weird. Well, I
think that very much applies to today's episode that where
we're going to be getting into just the concept that

(04:33):
I would say a lot of us, but me personally,
I'll walk around with two pockets four pockets in my
pants and that's about it. I guess there's a fifth,
little tiny one that you can fit a USB driver,
So I'll go for the cargo pants. Matt, you're not
a cargo guy, Well, I I haven't been lately. Maybe
I need to switch over, uh in these times at least,

(04:54):
But most of us, if we're walking around, we don't
have a lot of storage on us unless you got
a really good jacket or something. You know what. I
get a lot of crap for this from my daughter included.
But I am a big fan of a satchel I carry.
I have several shoulder bags and I carry them for
that very reason because I don't want to stuff my
pockets with crap. And if I have like a little, nice,

(05:17):
low profile shoulder bag, I can put all the little
things in it that I might need, whether it's like
no spray or breath mints or you know, a bat,
a rang, what what have you. I've got it all
in there in my little utility satchel. And Uh, I
get a lot of crap for it, but I I
stand by it. You know what Ben got me this.
I think it's called a Supreme bag. I think that's
what it's called. But it's a small bag. It looks

(05:41):
almost like a Fannie pack, but a little larger and
much cooler. But you can put it over your shoulder.
When I was watching my son for about a week
week and a half, uh, that became like I had
to have that. If I didn't have that bag that
had like snack or food for him, water for him,
all the acing necessities. If I didn't have a small

(06:01):
bag like that, I would have been out of luck. So, um,
that kind of thing that you're talking about, Noel, is
could be really helpful. And it's fashionable too, Matt. It's
fashionable too. And no one thing I would point out
about your your satchel strategy is I like that you
also have all your all your bags that I've seen
have these highly adjustable straps so you can put it

(06:23):
really close to your back, which is great in a
um in a situation where you need to keep an
eye on snatching grabs. And it also it kind of
transforms it into a single strap backpack. I think that's
really smart totally. You can wear it up high on
the small of your back if you're riding a bike,
like as a messenger bag. I even have one that
has a cross chest attachment that allows you to really

(06:44):
wear it up high on the back and gives you
more support. Um, I don't know. I'm I'm a big
fan and I will never let uh an eleven year
old bully me into thinking otherwise. So uh so I
I agree, you know, uh, Matt, Paul and I have
your back on that one, of course, but eleven year
old are some of the most powerful, brilliant people in

(07:06):
the world, so we we would have to team up.
But we've got your back. Before we get into today's show,
how about we do a quick, just a very quick
Twitter roll call. Yes, shout out to Grumming six hundred
who posted two conspiracy stuff to let us know the
breaking news as we record this, it's been confirmed UK

(07:28):
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for COVID nineteen.
Did you guys hear about that just this morning? Yeah?
And another secretary that's high level also tested positive. Yeah.
And wasn't there an official that was or maybe an
official I think it was an evangelist who was a
COVID denier has now tested positive as well, called called

(07:52):
karma right there. Yeah, we're getting to the point where,
instead of knowing of famous, notable figures in the world
old getting COVID, you may soon, by the time this
episode comes out, you may personally know someone who is
confirmed to have contracted it. But again, the US, unlike
the rest of the developed world, is not rolling out

(08:12):
testing in in a very efficient way, and so now
that many of us are forced to contemplate the the
sudden and unexpected changes in our day to day lives
and status quo. We also have to think about how
we will adapt if our normal environment, whether that's our
our home space or you know, our neighborhood, how do

(08:35):
we adapt if that place becomes either unsustainable at some
point or dangerous. You know, what do we do if
we have to get out? Or what do we do
if our normal methods of survival like running water, easily
available food, and so on. What what do we do
if they run out and we have to survive until
help gets to us. That's where a bugout bag comes in.

(08:58):
So here are the facts. Uh, this is a question
that I had. I'd never heard this term before, bug
out bag. I'd love to explore a little more about
where that comes from. But another term for it is
a go bag. Um. At its most basic essence, it's
really just a bag that contains those bare necessities that
you really need to have handy, and the contents can vary.

(09:18):
We're gonna get into that. But here's some of the
reasons you might need to have one of these ready. Uh.
The one I always think of is if you know, uh,
you're you, you're some kind of high level criminal and
you've been found out and need to go on the lamb,
or maybe change in identity. That's sort of the more
like alarmist fiction any type one, but it's it's not
entirely fictional. UM. So maybe you need to leave one
location for another. UM. Or you're stranded in a location

(09:41):
like you said at the beginning of the show, Matt
with the snow apocalypse UM and being able to need
to survive using your car as a temporary domicile, UM
in really difficult conditions UM climate wise, UM. Or you're
forced to be mobile for some amount of time. That's
a little more of the potential on the lamb or
just a potential, like you need to be on the

(10:03):
move for whatever reason. There's many reasons this could be
the case. Well, well, yeah, the the whole point is
there are endless reasons that you may need to do
one of those things, be mobile, if you get stranded,
or you just need to leave for one reason or another.
And it could be due to a natural disaster, some
kind of you know, I mean like the reality of

(10:26):
maybe an active shooter somewhere near you, your car breaks down,
maybe you're in the middle of a pandemic and civilization
seems to be collapsing all around you. The whole idea
is that when you have access to a bug out
bag that you have prepared carefully, this thing can keep
you safe and healthy for at least a temporary amount

(10:46):
of time. And we'll talk about exactly how long you
can essentially set your go up, your bug out bag,
or your go bag to last you. Yeah, yeah, that's
that's a key part here. It is meant to keep
you safe and healthy for a temporary amount of time
because one of the golden rules is that you you

(11:06):
typically want to be able to pack no more than
you can carry for a sustained amount of time by yourself,
even if you have friends and family with you. So
to that question, where does the term come from. I've
heard it called a bug out bag, a go bag,
and go home bag, but the origin of bug out
bag is largely believed to come from what was once

(11:29):
known as a bailout bag used by pilots n aviators
in the military. So back in the day, the bailout
bag had a couple of items that were critical for
pilots if they were shot down or if they they
experienced the engine malfunction and they landed in the middle
of nowhere or even enemy territory, and things like a knife,

(11:50):
you know, compass basic survival gear of course. You know,
remember when you're putting together your bug out bag, you're
probably not going to be being out of a plane.
You're probably not going to commandeer an island or do
any sort of you know movie stuff that John Wick
mission and possible type situations. You're just making sure that
you're as safe and healthy as possible while you either

(12:13):
reach permanent safety or get emergency assistance. Uh, what other
seed want to plant here? The old bailout bags used
in air forces did used to contain at least according
to the stories, did used to contain um a a
small amount of like gold or silver bullion. And that's

(12:33):
been the subject of a lot of alarmist uh prepping
industry sales points now, you know, but we'll we'll get
back to that. So another question you would probably have
to ask, in a question many of our fellow listeners
have received in the past, is is it crazy? Is
it overkill to have a bug out bag? The answer is,

(12:53):
in general, no, no, it's not. It depends on how
weird you get with it. You will get reactions though
from maybe a lot of depending on who you're surrounding
yourself with. I just know my immediate family and friends
are like, you you have what? What's? What do you
have in your car? What? Why would you do that?
And then you have to explain And then a lot

(13:14):
of times you'll notice people are um a little more
understanding I guess after you give them all the reasons.
But yeah, I would say I have encountered that sentiment
quite often. What's one of those things that's really easy
to pass judgment on until you know the situation reveals
itself where you were actually the smart one, you know,
I mean, like what we're in right now, or the

(13:36):
snowpocalypse situation. I mean, I don't think anyone would judge
you if you had made the right preparations and then
that that situation presented itself and you were much more
able to take care of yourself and your loved ones
than others who maybe thought that was a wacky idea.
So I think reducing the stigma things like this is
really important because it's not just some kind of doomsday

(13:56):
prepper thing, you know. I think maybe the term bugout
bag makes you think like, oh, I'm bugging out, I'm
freaking out. Everything's crazy, you know. But um no, it's
absolutely just good emergency preparedness, right, it's a it's an
emergency preparedness set. There you go. That sounds a little
more legit. I like to maybe we just call it, um,

(14:18):
maybe call it an improvisation kit. I don't know, something yeah,
something yes and bag, yes and bag. There we go.
That's good. So yeah, it's possible, like any anything, it's
possible to go overboard when building out kit like this.
But most of the most of the stuff at least
that we would cover or that we would we would

(14:39):
recommend looking into is pretty reasonable. And a lot of
it depend on the time you want to put in
UH and your level of UH mcguiverants depending on your
mcgeiver factor. A lot of this can be made with
easily obtainable supplies. That's really important. Right now as we
record this, there's a lot of information out there about

(15:00):
a paredness about bug out bags, and some of it
is misinformed. UH. Some of it is coming from a
place with an agenda. It's coming from folks who want
to sell you something, and this can lead to overkill
More importantly, it can lead to spending a lot of
money on things you don't need or like bone broth. Yeah,

(15:21):
like bone broth or your gold bullion or uh, you know,
paying paying out the wazoo for something that's kind of
cheaply made and may actually break if you ever use
it on a regular basis. So like for an overkill thing,
you don't need to pack huge amounts of heavy equipment.
You need stuff you can carry and you can use.

(15:41):
So this gets us two different like types of bug
out bags. Matt. You mentioned there was a tradition. Traditionally
they're defined by the amount of time, right, what what
is that amount of time for you guys? Well, usually
it goes by hours, but it's really like a day,
Like you do a twenty four hour bug out bag. Um,

(16:01):
that's kind of your just standard. This is the absolute
minimum that I would need to be okay for a
full day and night, um, and then you it generally
goes from that to two days, like forty eight hour
bug out bag. Um. The cool thing about these things
is that let's say you've got a twenty four hour
or forty eight hour bag set up as a singular thing.

(16:24):
Let's say in your trunk you keep extra supplies that
would turn that into a ninety six hour or longer
bug out bag situation, just because you the only things
really that are limiting you there would be your um,
your food, your water, things that would run out because
a lot of the tools and things you keep in
a bug out bag aren't gonna limit you by a

(16:46):
number of hours, right. Uh, the the hour limitation or
the our definition there is gonna really hinge on three things.
It's gonna hinge on well, let's call it three point five.
It's gonna hinge on the amount of food you need
to survive every twenty four hours, the amount of water
you need, which is even more important, and uh, the

(17:09):
amount of medication you need if you're on a regular
uh medication schedule that's vital to your health. So this
means that a bug out bag can be defined also
by what it's not. It is not a long term
survival kit, you know what I mean. You're not gonna
take this stuff in here and build a cabin and
just live there forever. It's not a boating or aviation

(17:33):
emergency kit. You can put it in the trunk of
your car, but for an auto survival kit specifically, there's
going to be things in that kit that you don't
need to have in a bug out bag, right, Like
you don't need fix a flat in your bug out bag.
You don't need uh, you need in your car, but
you do need it in your car, absolutely uh. And

(17:54):
you can carry more in your car too, obviously. I
think that's a really smart way of looking at it then,
because no one would ever begread you keeping supplies in
your car, you know, for the event of a breakdown, right,
But yet people seem to look askance if you have
some sort of like contingency plan bag for like some
other you know, larger emergency that is not automotive related.

(18:15):
So I think that's a really good point. It's weird
because I guess it's all in presentation, right, Like the
the stuff that I would keep in my car, I
do have it, I do have it separated out. But
there's the car stuff, you know, like the signal flares,
that kind of that kind of thing, jumper cables, and
then there's the bag you can grab, but it doesn't

(18:37):
look as crazy if it's in your trunk, right, because
everybody's got weird stuff in their trunks. But hey, speaking
of trunks. Uh, guys, why don't we why don't we
start going through like what we have. I'd love to
give you guys a rundown of my bugout trunk. Uh,
you know, before we get on two further in this.

(18:57):
But before we do that, maybe let's take a quick
word from our sponsor. Alright, we're back, Matt. I'm intrigued.
What what's are you going to give us the rundown?
Are you going to do it unboxing video? Okay, so
before we get into no, I'm not gonna do it

(19:18):
out boxing video, but before we get into you know
what you should probably be thinking about putting in your
bug out bag. I just want to kind of give
you my rundown. And i'd love to hear you, guys
just what you keep with yours, if that's okay. Um, So,
first of all, I've got an old, old old Toyota
that I ride around in, and in the trunk, I've

(19:39):
got sleeping bags for my family, blankets, jackets, bottled water
for at least two days, energy bars for at least
two days, a fully charged battery powered generator back there,
and and those are just the basic things in like
if if the car breaks down or something and we
need to walk all ah, a snowpocalypse or something like that.

(20:00):
Then we've got uh my bug out bag itself. Should
we go over that yet or should we do? Do
you mind? So I've personally got closed for two days
for myself, a lighter, a flashlight with batteries, small knife, scissors,
just basic toiletries like travel toiletries for that will last for,

(20:21):
you know, whatever, a week or something, wet wipes of paper, towels,
contact lenses, passport, two dollars cash, spare house key, spare
car key, a sharpie, black pen, and extra eyeglasses. And
here's the things that I'm putting in here that I
need to put in there, which is something that I

(20:44):
hadn't really been thinking about, but while prepping for this episode,
I'm thinking I should probably get a small tent of
some sort or a tent that could sleep up to
three people, just when I'm thinking about my family and
if we're traveling together. Um. And the other thing I
don't have in there is um a really good first
aid kit that's compact. I'm looking. I'm in the market

(21:05):
for one of those, So if you find a good one,
let me know. Now here's a question for you, Matt,
why not have a small compact handgun in there? I'm
I'm not being I'm not joking. That is more of
a personal question to my family situation, and just it's weird,
right having a small handgun and having a four year
old or you know, a young child. It's like you

(21:28):
can either protect your family or something terrible can happen
in the statistics show that it's more dangerous in most
scenarios to have a handgun around a younger child. Um,
even if you're trying to protect yourself from other people
with handguns. So that's a personal, very personal choice. UM,
And it is not my decision. Actually, I gotta defer

(21:49):
to the most powerful person in this relationship, which is
my wife. So she doesn't want it, so it's not
gonna happen. Um. I would very much like to have
something like that, but it's not gonna happen anytime soon,
got it? So? UM, With with that in mind, I
think you've done I think you've done a good job. Met.
I want to make sure I didn't miss this. Do

(22:11):
you have like a multitool, like a leatherman or anything
like that in there? That is exactly what I need.
It's exactly what I need to I've got that on
my list of needs, as well as um purification tablets
I don't have right now, or any kind of masks
or a good antibacterial sanitizer just given the circumstances. And

(22:33):
the last thing that I absolutely need that I don't
have is a life straw. I was just about to
ask about that. Yeah, Ben, you were always seeing the
praises of life straws. You want to remind listeners what
that what those are? Yeah, life straws are a pretty
handy invention. They are, or were relatively inexpensive things that

(22:54):
allow you to drink water from say a puddle or
something without necessarily having to boil it. Uh. And the
cool thing about the filter is it really is it's
a cylindrical It looks like a cylindrical overly thick straw
or tube. And the way the filter works is such
that you can sip directly from the water source. It

(23:16):
will go through the filter and be safe to drink
in most circumstances. Now, it doesn't filter out everything. In course,
you're not going to show up to Chernobyl and UH
find and a radiated puddle and drink from that. But
it is great to have in a pinch. Uh. It's
no replacement for having those purification tabs though, Uh so
you would. I would ideally recommend having both of them.

(23:38):
But that goes to the question what should be in
my bug out bag? We ask each other to answer that.
We have to talk about a couple of very important things.
There's no silver bullet bug out bag. There's no like
one stop pantasy for everyone because we live in different
parts of the world. Yeah, and that being said, you

(24:01):
really have to consider your surroundings. That's that's the big
number one. UM. Do you live in a cold, arid
part of the world humid hot region? Uh? You'll need
some different things depending on where you are and what
season is it. Um. Secondly, you need to keep in
mind how long you want your supplies to last you.
The typical bug out bag is seventy two hours, like

(24:23):
we said, but you can plan for more or less.
If you think twenty four hours is fine, it seems
like a bare minimum to me. Are you packing just
for yourself or like Matt, are you having to consider
a small child and and another human being another full
grown adult? Um? This is these are very crucial questions
and you're gonna very much change, um the trajectory of

(24:43):
of of the project. Um. All of these factors are
going to play a huge role in your construction of
said bug out bag. You'll also want to check back
in on your bag every six months to make sure
that everything still works. UM, do a little maintenance, make
sure everything's expired, and everything remains seasonally appropriate. You do
not want to have your car break down the middle
of nowhere, at the height of summer, only to find

(25:05):
that your emergency change of clothes is like a sweater
and some gloves or something like that and some leg warmers.
I am definitely guilty of that. For a while, my
bug out bag looked like like a gym bag or
something you know, with like like the minimum amount of clothing.
And then it got into the winter and I was like, oh,
I haven't changed to this, but it's okay. Well, full

(25:28):
full disclosure to you guys. I'm learning a lot here
because my bug out bag literally is a gym bag. Uh,
and and and then it's just a gym bag. And
I don't even go to the gym very often, so
I am going to take some cues from you guys
along with listeners hopefully. UM so I'm really ready to
dive in even further. Yeah, I want to go ahead
and preemptively give a shout out to all our fellow

(25:48):
listeners on here's where it gets crazy, specifically, uh shea
or shay s h e a, uh Parisino. And here's
where it gets crazy. Who asked people what they put
in their bug out bags. There's a great conversation going
on around that, and you'll see that not everybody agrees,
and you also see that people are in very different

(26:09):
situations to your point. Noll uh. So let's let's say,
like the one rule is you ideally want to have
this ready before you need it. So we've got a
list of what we consider more or less essentials, and
then we've got a list of things that are nice
to have but not mandatory. And then we've got a
list of what I would call extreme things, so essentials.

(26:32):
Backpack container. You know, I would say this can be
anything that works for you as long as you're able
to carry it easily under your own power, and it's
something that is waterproof, A that's not negotiable or water resistant. Uh,
I don't you know, not everybody agrees on this, but
I would say backpacks are backpacks are gonna be great

(26:54):
because if they have two straps, it's gonna be less
fatiguing on your body to carry it over a long
period of time. You know, if you've ever carried something
really heavy in like I have messenger bags, and if
you walk around um for hours with those, then you
have to switch to different shoulders and it can start
it can start wearing on you differently. That's a good point, ben,

(27:15):
I can speak to that personally. Yeah, And a nice
kind of camping type backpack would probably be the way
to go because they're usually just a giant, big kind
of like empty area without too many pockets and you
can just like fit as much stuff in there as
you possibly can and then just sense it up at
the top. And then sometimes there's pockets on the side.
Like I have a pretty nice camping backpack that's just

(27:36):
one big, huge cavity in the middle and then a
couple of small pockets on the side and one big
pocket on the back and that's all you need. You
don't need anything super fancy. Yeah, And a lot of
those backpacks are expandable a bit in case you do
find yourself in a situation where you need to expand
your kit. So I would say that's a really good call.
Now let me ask you this, listeners. Have you ever
found yourself in a situation where you were physically panicking

(27:59):
because your phone was about to die and there was
no electricity nearby and you rely so heavily on your
phone for everything from communication, to directions to just like
peace of mind. Um, that's something you really need to
take into consideration. I mean, I would add to this
list if you, if you are gonna need to lean
on your phone, bring several of those like, you know,

(28:20):
bricks that you can always recharge your phone with without
having to you know, have any electricity. But more importantly,
you need to discount your phone entirely and have a
physical map and a compass, you know, analog technology. Right.
This stuff holds up uh splendidly. I mean it's it's
it's really crucial. You might have a regional map um
or a particular city or US atlas, but the compass

(28:44):
is gonna be key because it doesn't require any electricity.
It's absolutely lightweight, easy to carry around, and it can
absolutely be the difference between life and death. If you're
say lost in the woods and you need to find
your way out to the highway or whatever. There, it's
just a crucial piece of kit for for for sure.
You know, Ben, do you have a good compass? I
I do not have one in in my kit right now. Yeah.

(29:07):
I have my Oh well, I say it's good. It's
just hasn't broken yet. Uh that's great. Yeah, I have
my old, my old, reliable. I haven't dug dug it
out of my bag yet. I'll get the brand name
and and look it up. But I would say that's
a good point. A compass is a good investment. You're
gonna see there. There's some things, especially multi tools, that

(29:32):
are next multi tools are survival knives are sometimes called
that's another essential there. There's some of those that will
include maybe a little uh dinky compass on on the
end of the knife handle or whatever. But a compass
is lightweight enough that you want a dedicated one that
that just does that. Even though I'm a huge proponent

(29:52):
of things with multiple applications, you want a compass that
is just a compass, because if you get that's just
sort of an add on to an existing multitool or apparatus.
Then it's the odds are it's not going to be
as well made, which means it won't be as durable,
which means at some point, you know, I don't know.

(30:13):
There there's some different kind of like bag grills type
things you can do to make make your own quote
unquote compass in the wild, but just by one if
you can, because they're not going to break the bank.
What are we talking like bucks? Uh? Les, Yeah, you

(30:33):
can find some used ones for less if you go
to like your local camping or military or if you
go to your local military surplus store, you can find
some used ones for less. Uh. You can also find
I mean, like anything there, there's a wide range there
for but I wouldn't I wouldn't pay like I wouldn't
treat a compass like a fancy watch. I wouldn't not

(30:56):
pay a premium for one. You just need it to work.
There's definitely some look like fancy watches, and they're in
the like seventy dollar range. But there's one called a
Silva Guide Explore two point out compass that you can
get it Cabella is it twenty five bucks and it
looks pretty pretty sturdy, and there's there's a whole range
of them, so absolutely whoa on Amazon, I just found

(31:16):
it's a parachord bracelet with a fire starter and a
compass on it. And and that parachord bracelet is one
of the ones where you can disassemble the bracelet and
it becomes like a piece of rope that you can use.
Isn't that the deal? Yeah? Five fifty parachord. It's Uh,
it's it's kind of a gold standard for that sort
of stuff because you can use it to bind, you

(31:37):
can use it to help hang up a tarp. Uh,
that's actually on the list later here, but I don't
want to lose that a knife for a multi tool
or if you're if if you're so inclined, a machete
of course, Uh, multi tools are great, you you know,
the multi tool is probably most familiar with people is
going to be the stereotypical, uh, the iconic Swiss army knife, right,

(32:00):
But that's that's just the beginning. Like Leatherman has some
great multi tools, but they're they're in the pricier range,
you know, think like a hundred dollars plus for some,
but they include things, Uh, they include like nineteen or eighteen.
Different things like a leather all, a small saw, you know,

(32:22):
pliers of course, tiny scissors, things like that, a can opener,
right you. Basically a multi tool is a great example
of uh, something in your bug out bag that fulfills
multiple uses restricting you know, it lowers the amount of
weight you're carrying because if you had to carry a screwdriver,

(32:44):
a pocket knife, a corkscrew of can open all this
other stuff separately, it gets heavy very quickly. And weight
is your enemy here. That's why with fire starters next
on the list, Uh, you'll see people who say, I'm
not gonna bother having a canister of matches. I'm not
gonna bother having you know, um, a lighter because it

(33:06):
needs fuel. I'm just gonna carry a flint and steel
striker kit and those things work, man, but they are
they're a pain. I I personally have some redundancy. I
have a I have a lighter, a striker kit, and
and a little thing of waterproof matches just because I

(33:26):
don't want to need a fire and not be able
to make it. Also a little life hack there, Uh,
if you have access to a home washer dryer, you
can collect dryer lent. I think somebody also mentioned this,
And here's where it gets crazy. You can collect dryer
lent and compress it into a into a really small container.
Maybe take uh like an old prescription bottle or something.

(33:49):
Just stuff that with dryer land, and then you can
use that as your tinder to make a fire. Oh
that's a great idea. Yeah, I'm gonna do that today.
And it's a good you know, you know, it's like
clear after your dryer trap. It's so fun. You're like,
I don't want to throw this away. This stuff is
like gold. There must be a use for it. And
and there there we are. There's the use for So, Matt,

(34:10):
you had mentioned first aid supplies. First aid supplies, I'm
gonna say it. You can. You can find some some
good pre made first aid kits, but you can find
even more uh mediocre first aid kits. What you want
to do? Yeah, and and a lot of the like
really good comprehensive ones are going to be uh fairly expensive,

(34:35):
especially now. Uh so I would recommend making your own kit.
Uh get any necessary medicine that you will need, bandages,
disinfected painkillers. Uh. You know, some people include stuff that
other people consider unnecessary, like a lot of people have.
Like if you have a tourniquet, you are you might

(34:55):
be considered a little too extreme for some people. But
you know, you might also be in a situation where
you say, hey, I have a real possibility of losing
a limb. You know, we're gonna pause for a moment
for a word from our sponsors, and we're gonna come
back in and run through our essentials before we get
to the nice stuff and the extreme stuff. All right,

(35:23):
we're back. Next up, a flashlight. Some people say a headlamp.
I would say a flashlight works. Um, if you're in
a car, you might want to put in signal flares,
you know, roadside accident kit stuff. But if you're on
foot or you're on a bike or something, it's good
to have a flashlight with you. But remember a flashlight

(35:45):
is only as useful as the battery power. So if
you decide to have a flashlight, you are also deciding
to have extra batteries or some sort of charging mechanism
for that. Be careful, you know not. I mean, like
we've all seen the horror movie, maybe some of us
have personally encountered it, but there's nothing quite as discouraging

(36:05):
as being in the dark and seeing your flashlights start
to flicker. That's that's never a good look. Yeah, my
recommendation would be a some kind of led flashlight that
doesn't use a ton of power just to make it
work correctly, and just a few extra batteries considering how
long you want your bag to function, Yeah, exactly. Then

(36:28):
you know water purification taps work. You're also going to
want to carry at the very minimum containers for water
or a water bladder. Some people use like a camel
back for instance, but you you have to have those.
That's non negotiable. One difference would be some people will say, hey,

(36:50):
why don't I just carry that? Why don't just have
the container itself? And the other people say, no, I
want to already have water stored in there. There are
a couple of different reasons people make that decision. But
if you decide to just carry a bladder or a container,
then make extra sure that you know you will be

(37:12):
able to have water that to find water that you
can put in that container. Otherwise you're just lugging around,
uh something empty, you know what I mean. So I
think you can tell by the way I'm talking that.
I'm a proponent of already having the water with you,
but I guess the drawback there is that the water
is heavy. Exactly nail on the head. Speaking of nails,
what about a what about a repair kit? You know,

(37:35):
we mentioned things are different if you're if you're thinking
about something you store in your car, but even if
you're on foot, you want to have, uh, you want
to have some amount of rope or binding implements, five
cord maybe some uh what do they call carabiners, carabiners
and never remember beaners. Yeah, you wanna have some carabiners. Uh,

(37:57):
And you want to have duct tape. It's duct tape
is not I know we're based in the South, but
please don't think duct tape is somehow just quote unquote
for rednecks. Chrome. It's so useful, it's so versatile, you know,
and you can use it to rap if you if
you hurt yourself, you can in a pinch. You could
use it to wrap a wound, you know, or use

(38:18):
it to create a makeshift brace, like if you had
like a piece of a stick or something, you could
like use the duct tape to attach it to a fracture.
In multiple locations, and it wouldn't be perfect, but it
would definitely get the job done in a pinch, right absolutely,
And you know, you might be in a situation where
you have to get the job done in a pinch.
You might be someone who uh bought a bargain basement

(38:44):
first aid kit and you get a serious injury and
you're like, oh, I don't have the means to stitch
something up. I guess it's the duct tape because these
band aids aren't going to do it, you know, no
offense Johnson and Johnson. You also want some sort of
emergency shelter. This is This can be a tough one
for people in relationships because sometimes we have different definitions

(39:05):
of where an acceptable shelter is. Yeah, like one of
those fire festival geodesic domes or something, you know, right,
and then uh, someone else might say, well, I Am
not going to live like a hobo sleeping with a
tarp on the ground and a tarp between these trees, right,
I need a bespoke you know, heated tent. Right. Yeah,

(39:28):
I'm a glamper, not a camper. You'll you'll that's why
you'll see things like emergency blankets great to have, especially
if you're in a situation where things are very cold,
or where somebody might be exposed to water, or you know,
their body temperature, the core temperature might be dropping. Uh.

(39:49):
There are some chemical handwarmers that I that work well,
but there's single use, so after you've cracked them open,
they'll and after the after their first use, they're going
to be useless to you. I personally, I keep a
tarp and a small tent and a an emergency blanket.

(40:13):
But that's it, and that's that's just me, and that's
because I still have that in my car. Yeah, I
would say a tarp and just a small spool of
twine goes a long way. Yeah, So that you can
because the tarps have a little little uh grommets on
the sides, so you can use it to attach to
a tree like a makeshift shelter. You know, you don't like,

(40:34):
let's let's let's just make it clear. You don't have
to like sleep directly on the ground covered by the tarp.
You can kind of rig it up so it creates
almost like a little awning kind of and then you're
sheltered from the rain. And then you can kind of
like lay a blanket out underneath it, and it's a
pretty solid little makeshift shelter. And and if you're in uh,
if you're in an environment where you can take found

(40:57):
materials like sticks in the woods or you know, whatever
you find laying around in urban environment, you can you
can position your tarp when you string it up like
you just said. No, you can position your tarp to
collect rain water and go into one of those containers
for water that you have with you. Uh. And that
of course only works if it rains. Then if the

(41:18):
rain is not poison So there are a couple of gifts.
They're hopefully we're not in the poison rain stage. I
don't know this bend, but but do you think there's
maybe something that would filter rain it like like something
you could add to a container that maybe would filter
rain if there is any impurities like that and make
it guaranteed more safe to drink. Yeah, yeah, you'll still

(41:39):
want to boil it if you can't. Um just in general. Yeah,
but put in water purification tabs. That's why you want
to have those. Uh, you know, it's unfortunately it's uh,
it's safe to assume that you should have some kind
of purification filter or process says between you and water

(42:02):
that you find in the wild. Now, Like it's if
you're like, we have the Chattahoochie here and you know,
things can't worse. Came to worse, people would probably go
to the river and try to drink or get potable
water from there. But even then, uh, you would want
to boil it or you would want to purify it somehow. Uh.
Speaking of that, let's say you've got water again. That's

(42:24):
the most important thing. If stuff starts going south here.
If you think you're gonna lose access to water at
your house, just start storing it, you know what I mean.
I'll say it. Maybe I'll get in trouble about this,
but if we're getting to a point where utilities might
no longer be feasible, forget your water bill, fill up
the tub and fill up the tub. You can also

(42:45):
empty out the I know it sounds gross, but it's okay.
You can also empty out the top tank of your
toilet if you have one with that design. Uh, and
you can boil that. We're not at that point yet.
Just things to be aware of. Uh, But what good
is water? If you don't have food, you'll die. And
I think you'll dive starvation in about two weeks without food.

(43:06):
But in this situation, you're probably moving around, You're probably
in a very stressful environment, which means that your caloric
activity is probably going to increase. Yes, you're gonna need
to keep that in mind and uh pack some sort
of high calorie UM and compact food. Uh So that

(43:27):
would include things like you know, granola bars or any
of those UM energy type bars that you know that
have a lot of protein built into them. Yeah, or
you can go the pre package through OUTE like in
good old fashioned m R E. Those generally are pretty big, uh,
but they are really great for actually getting a ton

(43:47):
of calories into you. Um. Ben, the m R you
gave me was, I don't know the size of a
nice tome, like a large tome. Oh yeah, I've got,
I've got and I've got it gives you know as well, thanks,
but I appreciate it. Um Yeah, No, I can see
that would definitely be something you would you would want
to consider, um or anything that you could cook on

(44:11):
a small you know, gas powered camp stove. Right. Also
very important and you'll like this point, Matt, very important.
People on our fellow listeners will kill us if we
don't mention this very very important for any of that
survival food. Pack your own hot sauce, have hot sauce
with you. I know it sounds like a cute see

(44:33):
joke thing or something, but it can improve a lot
of notoriously bland food. And if you put hot sauce
around on the outside of some of your food containers,
it can it can help repel certain wildlife. See I
don't have hot sauce, but I do have red pepper
flakes in mine, but it's only for taste. I didn't

(44:54):
think about any of those things been actually repelling things. Well. Also,
I don't know I we could talk about m R
e's all day. Actually, Nolan I did with Jacqueline Riposo
on a different show, Ridiculous History. We did a history
of m R e s. So tune in if you
want to hear that. And if you have m R
e s and you're like, this is this is too
big for me uh to put my my backpack comfortably?

(45:18):
Then you can open it up. Go ahead, open it up,
break it down, and just take the stuff that you
feel like you need. What about like ramen noodles or
something that'd probably be a good one. You could easily
do that over a camp stove, and they can be
pretty compact, those little bricks you know, or even the
even the cups. It just takes more prep right, Well,
you could crumble it up if you just took the

(45:39):
you know, the dry squares, you can crumble it up
so that you can uh store the bag more easily,
and then you can just make you know, you'll just
beating short ramen noodles. That's it. Change your clothes. Change
your clothes. Make sure they're seasonally appropriate. Remember extra socks
and underwear. Also, if you don't typically wear durable shoes,

(46:02):
then you know, if you have room, I would say
include some footwear in there. But remember that stuff can
be heavy, like boots can be real heavy. You can,
but you got to think about like what that's that's
where you start getting really cold and gross. Is if
your one pair of shoes is soaked through, you know,
to your feet and it's cold and rainy, you might

(46:23):
really consider making room for like a nice pair of
like gortex boots or something that are like very very
weather resistant, or just wearing those from the start exactly. Yeah. Yeah,
so this is another one. This is something that stood out, Matt.
You mentioned this a stash of cash. So some people
will tell you to carry gold bullion around because that
old bailout bag pilot story. But sometimes be very careful

(46:46):
about this. Sometimes the people or institutions advocating that are
the same people trying to sell you that gold, So
do be skeptical of them. I I have cash stashed away.
I don't think there's anything wrong with it, but I
do I do think that we have to be careful
not to pin all our hopes on that, because you know,

(47:07):
there may be situations where cash doesn't matter, right Like
we like here in Atlanta, we've seen a move toward
a cash list society that we somewhat predicted in a
previous episode. We just didn't see it happening this way.
Remember that one, guys, Yeah, I do. What I would
say is, even if you find yourself in that situation
where cash doesn't matter anymore, that's gonna be worst case scenario, right,

(47:30):
I mean, that's absolutely worse case scenario. And in most
uh scenarios where you would need to go go bag,
having a little bit of cash is just gonna help
you either, you know, get whatever extra thing you need
for that night or for those two days, or to
even make not a deal with someone or to get
someone to help you. I mean, that is a real thing.

(47:53):
Another thing that's really helpful to pack in your go
bag is the gift of gab, you know. I mean,
it's really important to be able to like negotiate yourself.
I'm only half kidding, Like it really is important. And
and and Ben and and you matter both fantastic at
this h being able to kind of talk yourself into
and out of tricky situations and convince people to help you.
And it's not to say that you're manipulating people are

(48:15):
being uh, you know, in any way duplicits, but to
be able to plainly and simply state your case and
put it in a way where people can understand and
can actually help you and feel compelled to help you. Well,
we all all three of us are are podcasters, so
I think that applies to you as well. No thanks, yeah, uh,
just you know, just to run through these other ones.

(48:36):
These are all easy ones. Uh. To the earlier point
you made Nol about charger bricks, I would I would
recommend in addition to those are uh, at the very
least in a replacement of those have a solar power,
crank charged radio and phone charger of some sort. Yes,
they're inexpensive. You can also power up the bricks with

(48:58):
that as long as you have, Like I would argue,
I would tend to bet there are new ones that
maybe even have USB ports built onto them. I have.
I'm just guessing, yeah, that's the kind I have. Yeah. Uh.
Also I would recommend, of course, Like like you said earlier, Matt,
one thing you nailed that a lot of people don't

(49:18):
think about is a hygiene kit. Even if it's just
like a little travel bag that you got from the
from a distant relative for the holidays, it's better than nothing.
You have to remember, good hygiene is the first step
in good first aid, especially now that we know washing
our hands is so important because we all forgot for
a couple of hundred years. Great, it's gonna be the

(49:40):
biggest takeaway from this whole crisis is wash your damn hands.
And if you're in a long term situation, you know
people can assure you. The things that get you are
there are the small things that you didn't exercise preventative
medicine on, like a uh toothee turns to something where

(50:01):
you need a root canal, especially now here in the US.
You know, a lot of dentistry has been considered non
essential and people are being told to put it off.
So brushing your teeth can make things a lot less
painful for you in the long term. And this sounds
this may sound kind of silly, but the difference between um,

(50:23):
having like brush your teeth fairly recently and not brushing
your teeth for several days and then walking up to
someone that you need help from it psychologically can make
a difference. I'm just saying that, And it may not
necessarily be true, but it could push, you know, push
you towards success a little bit. People are judge jerks, No,

(50:45):
I agree with you. It does make it does make
a difference. And that's not even being jerks, it's just
maybe it's a subconscious thing. Uh. The last two things
a survival guide. I go for military publications, but there
there are a lot out there. Uh. You can also
find free PDFs for more long term stuff. But one

(51:06):
one field manual I would recommend is fm T one
seventy six Survival, Evasion and Recovery from the Department of Defense.
It's a it's a field UH survival guide and has
a lot of valuable information there. Also, remember all of
those government published manuals are yours. If you live in

(51:27):
the US, you pay taxes. That's that's something that you
are able to read. You know what I mean. It's
not secret. It's not controversial for you to get one.
You can find the free PDF and print it out.
You can order physical copy. You can go to uh
well it's tricky to go to a physical bookstore now,

(51:48):
but you can find these easily. Last thing I would
say is essential a small notebook and some sort of
writing implement for any number of reasons, even if it's
just your personal sanity, even if you need to document,
import dates, anything. It's it's good to have one of those.
Doesn't take up much room, it doesn't weigh a lot,
and it gives you some it gives you some sort
of outlet. Things that are nice to have. We can

(52:10):
just laundry list these. These all sound cool. I mentioned
this earlier and actual tent with all the things that
come with it, like steaks, extra cord, a hammock, something
like that, or just you know, a pop up tent
whatever it is that would be great. Yeah, yeah, sleeping
bag and is sleeping pad like you said, Nola camp stove.
Some are like some nice collapsible pots and pans and cutlery.

(52:33):
I mean you've seen those where they literally kind of
Russian nesting doll inside of each other. Um. And I
believe the cutlery is even included in some of those
collapsible sets, which is pretty cool. Um, like a small
hand saw. You can get really compact ones of those
hiking poles. I've always thought those were silly, but after
taking a pretty significant hike in Los Angeles with my

(52:54):
daughter up to Griffith Park Observatory, she kept seeing these
these folks with hiking poles, and she became obsessed with
finding a stick so that she could brace herself. And
it really does take some of the stress off. You know,
if you have a third point of contact, Um, it's
a big deal, especially if you're at it for a
long time or god forbid, you're you're injured in anyway. Right. Yeah.

(53:17):
I would also add I think it's nice to have
a burner phone. I think it's nice to have something
that is unattached to whatever your regular phone is, but
can also be charged by that crank charger. Uh, it's
it's just good to have an alternative of communication there.
You gotta love those prepaid minutes. He got to Although,
like you know, people look askance at burner phones now

(53:39):
because of everything we know from like breaking bad on
the wire, But for this situation, I could totally see it. Ben,
I have to say when I when I saw this
next note, my mind immediately went to an actual Tomahawk
of these, yeah, exactly, or like I said at the
top of the show, a battering of some sort, or
perhaps save grappling hook. But no, Um, we're talking about

(54:00):
some kind of high end GPS that doesn't need a
continuous Internet connection that actually uses um pings satellites. Ben,
remember when we were in the quiet zone uh with
car stuff, um, and we had one of those. It
was a game changer. It actually was an old school
garment that Scott Benjamin insistent on ringing along for that

(54:22):
very reason. It was actually the only thing that worked
when our phones would not work. It continued to work. Yeah,
and luckily there hadn't been a lot of construction in
that area of the world because those maps it was
using were from the nineties. But that was amazing. It
got us out of there. Um to your to your
point about you how you first literally thought it was
a tomahawk, I would say I would like to recommend,

(54:46):
uh those some sort of survival shovel multitool. They're really great.
You can find the there like a camp shovel that
can also be an axe or a hatchet. It folds down,
it doesn't take a lot of weight, and it has
a multitude of functions. So so check those out. There
are a couple of different brands. Uh, they're not all
created equally, but do do check them out. They don't

(55:09):
belong in our next list. They're nice to have if
you can get them. Our next list the list of
extreme things. A gun or some kind of firearm. Um,
and if you are going to carry that with you
and plan on using it, you're also gonna want ammunition.
And how about a cleaning kit to make sure it
would actually function if you did need it. Yep, And
then you would think of like high grade emergency kits

(55:33):
for traumas and I mean like hospital level injuries. A
guy I know a guy who has a bullet wound
kit for some people that's very extreme for him and
is not we also you know, you might run into
people who have heavy duty painkillers opioids that would normally
only be prescription things of that nature or very specific

(55:57):
medical equipment. And for the advanced user. We talked about
this earlier, how it might be useless to to folks
like like you, you or I, but sutures and and
the ability like to really stitch up, you know, a
bullet wound like h like if you were if you
needed to do that to yourself and keep it from
getting infected. In all of that, um, things like hydrogen
peroxide and then uh iodine and stuff you know, like

(56:17):
that would really come in handy as well. And then
we get into things like body armor that's real extreme
because that is not lightweight at all, and that would
take up a lot of room and you would really
if this would be much more in that on the
lamb or being chased by the cartel kind of situation. Right. Yeah, absolutely,
hopefully most people will not need body armor. It's if

(56:38):
you already have some, it's it's good to have it,
especially if you put it in like your house or
you put it in your vehicle or something. But carrying
it around your best bet is going to be just
to be wearing it, you know, and don't try to
buy it now. I would say, if you're a high roller,
there is some clothing that is like somewhat bullet resistant
and very interesting and not is heavy. But only if

(57:02):
you're a high roller. Yeah, what's that stuff called? Like
there's there's a particular type of fabric. I'm not sure.
I've got a tactical shirt. It's really interesting. Probably not
my favorite thing that I've ever purchased, but you know

(57:22):
you can get them. What was your price on that?
If you don't mind me asking, I honestly don't know.
It was a gift, so I didn't buy it. Well,
I didn't buy it, but my money was used to
buy it. Oh man, that makes sense. There is a
website called Bulletproof Zone dot com and they have a
M m C Armor Level concealed tank top UH and

(57:45):
it costs seven eight nine dollars. A bullet Blocker Lightweight
flight jacket is eight hundred and seventy nine dollars. And
then we have a Tallows Ballistics Phoenix BBL Compression tank
top um for a hundred or sixty four dollars, but
it is upgradeable to level three A. So, so my
stuff was not this expensive, just so you know, this

(58:09):
is real. This is a real deal. And they got
a suit jacket, Uh, that's eight hundred bucks. And then
they've got like one of those nice puffy vests they're
they're referring to it as a casual vest. That's six.
So this I would also include a list of extreme
stuff is all the action movie things that we like

(58:29):
to think about using when we watch Mission Impossible, We'll
watch you know, take in or something. Right, But you
unless you have been using nune Chucks for years and
years and years and years, there's no reason to keep them.
You probably don't need grenades, you know what I mean,
even if you found a great deal on some at

(58:51):
a military surplus store. I'm calling myself out there, don't
you don't need to drive around with grenades in your car,
Which brings us to this what should not be in
your bug out bag? Honestly, a ton of creature comforts
need to go. We have to think about that thing.
Our parents always told us, the difference between what we
want and what we need. Like if you love to
read books, I read all the time. If you love

(59:14):
to read books, then take a kindle and use that
with your solar power charger instead of lugging around a
miniature library. Yeah, and like carrying gas around could be tricky,
but I mean, if you're really in a pench and
found yourself needing gas, uh, you could do that. That
old siphoning trick. Not to advocate stealing other people's gas,
but um, absolutely could could do that if you were really,

(59:35):
really in a desperate situation. Carrying it around would be
prohibitively heavy, or if you do have that extra cash
on hand, you could stop by a place that maybe
has gas or trade just saying yeah. Uh. And unless
you are already in a an environment where civilization or

(59:55):
the normal rules of the day to day of collapse,
don't carry anything illegal in your bag because you have
to remember you're ideally gonna have this sitting around for
a while. So if you have, for example, um, a
gun that you do not have a license to carry
or to transport, then don't have it in there. If

(01:00:16):
you have an illegal recreational drug or some sort of
illegal medicine in there, take it out because you never know.
You might forget about it months down the road. You
might get in a jam if the authorities find it
and say like, hey, why is this. I don't I
don't know. What's a crazy dry Like why do you
have this jar of ether in your trunk? Sir? I mean,

(01:00:39):
why would you have a jar of ether? Anyway? Well,
you know what I mean, it's it's an anesthetic. I mean,
maybe you're just thinking ahead in case you do get
you know, shot with some you know, rock salt or something,
or like marijuana, if you if you are in a
state or a part of the world where that's illegal,
or any any medication, you do not have a prescript

(01:01:00):
and for let's leave it at that, right, Yeah, totally,
that's a good way to put it. So there's not
a here's where it gets crazy moment in today's episode
at all. We're dealing with some stuff that can kind
of be crazy and frightening for people anyway, But there
is an important warning we have to we have to
close with it. Is this A lot of those pre
made prepack survival bags are garbage garbage, full stop. The

(01:01:23):
supplies are cheaply made, they don't have some very important components,
and they're often, especially now overpriced. If you buy one,
that's fine, if that's how you want to approach it.
If you do buy one, make sure you go back
through it with a fine tooth comb. And you have
to be prepared to sub out any of the stuff
that you need. Uh. And and don't be don't be

(01:01:45):
surprised when you see a lot of disappointing stuff in
the bag. Yeah, and it's not to say that all
of these are complete rip off. There's a site that
I found called stealth Angels Survival dot com that they
don't seem incredibly gaugey. They've got a lot of verified reviews.
It seems like the materials that are in the bags
are the kinds of things we're talking about, like the
handwarmers are you know, certain flares and things like that.

(01:02:07):
So as long as you can guarantee that the stuff
that's in there is the same caliber that you would
buy if you bought each piece individually, it maybe it
is a fine way to go. But I do agree
with you, Ben, I think the smartest way to go
is just to buy every piece yourself, because then you
know exactly what you're getting and uh, really quickly, Guys,
when you are looking to get stuff to put in there,

(01:02:27):
don't let anybody sell you snake oil, please, because that
that is something we have seen consistently just through making
this show. The that stuff exists. Um. And I'm not saying,
you know, obviously not real snake oil, but just things
that are too good to be true. There are products
out there on the internet that you can buy right

(01:02:48):
now that will fulfill a lot of the purposes that
we've talked about in this episode, but a lot of
them are too good to be true. Mm hmm yeah, yeah.
Watch out for anything that is like brain clarity, you know,
super pills, get off the grid, you'll be awake for
thirty six hours, You'll and you'll drink bone broth, you know,

(01:03:12):
watch out for that stuff. Well, and specifically kind of
what you're saying, there have been about the prepackaged go bags,
a lot of them, really. I've seen several opened up
and looked at them, and it's just not it's I
wouldn't trust my life, or especially my son's life with
with a lot of that stuff. Um. And this is
a really good time for us to be thinking about
this kind of thing. But this is not and let

(01:03:34):
me repeat this, this is not the time to go
out and buy a bunch of survival supplies. No absolutely
not no no no, no, no no, don't don't do it.
Price scalagy and everything from Ammo to packaged food and
even camping equipment is getting out of controls to see
what you can put together at home right to us.
If you have any ideas life hacks about how to

(01:03:55):
repurpose something from everyday life into your go bag or
you go home bag, and and and really I appreciate
that point you're making about price gouging. Matt, like Ammo
and specifics out of control. It always goes out of
control when we're in times like these. UM, a lot
of packaged food, like dehydrated food. UM, so like you

(01:04:17):
see you see this, This is a I'm just showing,
I'm just showing the guys here. This is a case
of UM Mountain House. It's like a twelve packed case
of dehydrated survival food. And well this is like this
was bargain basement stuff. This was not very expensive until

(01:04:38):
you know, the prices started jumping a few weeks ago.
So if you are trying to buy stuff like that,
remember you can you can get if you're buying to
hydrated stuff, you can get some of the same deals
by just finding food that's already dried, like dried beans
or rice, and you can work with that. That's a
really good point man. Well, well we'll see. Hopefully it's

(01:05:00):
a point no one ever has to use. But this
brings us to the end of today's show. Uh No,
we went a little long, but we hope that you
enjoyed it. Found some constructive things. We want to hear
from you. What's in your bug out bag? Let us
know on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and write to us
if you want to know what's in Paul Mission Control
decans buck out bag. Um, he's been making one the

(01:05:21):
whole time we've been recording this episode. I could hear
him in the background gathering all his materials. You can
find us on Twitter and Facebook where we're Conspiracy Stuff.
On Instagram we are Conspiracy Stuff show. Yeah, you can
also you know, we we are also individual humans all
in this together. If you want to check us out
what we're up to, um, when we're not on the podcast,

(01:05:42):
you can do so. I am at how Now Noel
Brown on Instagram, and i am at Ben Bulan on Instagram.
I'm also at ben Bullan hsw on Twitter. Uh go
to Twitter to check out new show that I circumstances
have me start being called Strange News Daily. New episodes

(01:06:03):
out every Monday through Friday. Uh And if you have
a story you'd like on the air, just hashtag it
Strange Daily. It's a great time for that show, Ben,
because there actually is strange News literally daily. It's true. Hey,
and it's from the creators of stuff they don't want
you to know. And that's us. Oh man, oh god,

(01:06:25):
it's the end of the world. Okay, Matt. Some people
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(01:06:46):
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(01:07:15):
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