Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC - Full Auto Friday - Round 89

Episode Date: January 21, 2022

Rapid Fire Q and A to finish off the week: 1. My boyfriend is an LEO, how do I deal with my anxiety and worries about the dangers of his job 2. Military members and the books they write 3. Weight loss, diet, motivation 4. What is the spark that will ignite WW3 and what can we do to individually prepare Enjoy

All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's do this. It's Friday. It's Q&A. Before I get into this episode, I almost never talk about when I'm going to be at events or publicly speaking, and people ask me all the time. So, February 5th, I'm doing a combined leadership and entrepreneurial event with Mike Glover and Jack Carr at the Fieldcraft Survival HQ. I can't speak about being an entrepreneur. I don't actually think I'm qualified to do that. Leadership on the other. I'm, On the other side of that coin, I can talk about a little bit. So that's what I will focus on. And Jack and Mike can fill you in on how to make money. I'm better at spending it than making it. You can find the direct link to it in my Instagram profile or mics or probably Jacks. We're on Fieldcraft Survival. And that's it.

Shall we Q&A? I think so. Full out of Friday, 89. Here we go. All right, it's another Friday, which means another batch of Q&A. I have four. Pretty good, diverse questions that we're going to dig into here. Maybe I'll get through four.

Maybe I won't. I don't know. Question one. I'm a longtime listener and love the podcast. I especially love the full out of Friday. And although I'm a 23-year-old female, which is probably not your normal demographic listener, I really enjoy your perspective and content. Anyway, I do have a question.

And I would love your input. So here we go. I come from an EMS background and worked full-time as an EMT for years for an advanced life support service. I recently decided to pursue a career as a physician's assistant and am just finishing up my first year of grad school. It has been a great decision for me, but the program is obviously quite intense. I have struggled with anxiety most of my life and being in a high stakes program has only exacerbated that anxiety. Here is where my main question comes from. My boyfriend is a deputy for a local sheriff's department. I feel that we have

connected well because of our mutual experience as first responders. I get the stuff that they see, as I have seen a lot of the same things, however, obviously in a different role. My boyfriend is wonderful, and I have no doubts that I want to spend the rest of my life with him. However, as things have gotten more serious and the connection has grown, I find myself having more and more anxiety around his job. I can't stand the thought of losing him in the line of duty, and I'm really worried about the future, too. When we get married and have kids, with him in this role. I would hate for our kids, or I would hate for our future kids to lose their dad to his job. I know I'm thinking way far ahead, but that's where my mind is. Shout out to

anxiety. With the pressure of grad school, worrying constantly while he's working has only made things worse, and I recently had to get on or had to go on an SSRI for my anxiety and panic attacks. I'm in therapy and I have been for years, and I do all the basics, good nutrition, exercise, strong support system, etc. I am wondering how I can get past the anxiety of worrying about his safety while he is working. I am to the point where I will listen to his radio traffic on a scanner app when I don't hear from him for a few hours, which is probably unhealthy, but the only thing that makes me feel better when I finally hear his voice on the radio. How do I navigate this anxiety around his job? To add, I don't have much family support and him

and his family seem to be the only family I have in addition to a solid group of friends. My parents got divorced a few years ago and my dad is currently in the trenches of depression to the point where I have obtained legal guardianship of him and have to order him groceries weekly to keep him alive because he won't eat otherwise. It's a very sad situation. He hasn't showered or done any basic hygiene in two years. So that's another major stressor to add to the puzzle. So I have that responsibility on me, and my mom kind of ditched and moved away halfway across the country to be with a new guy.

Don't get me started on that. But he basically tried to get my mom to disown me for obtaining my concealed carry and purchasing a handgun because he is very anti-2A. Strained relationship there. I have basically been on my own without parental support since 20 when I graduated college and now have taken on the role of basically being a parent to my own. to my own dad. Anyway, I just feel that my boyfriend is the best person in my life, and I don't want to lose him to his job. Additionally, he is not very open with communicating his feelings and keeps everything inside,

and I'm worried that will take a toll on his mental health through the years. How do I get him to open up to me about his feelings about what he sees on the day-to-day, and additionally keep myself from worrying so much when he is at work? I appreciate any insight or advice. damn that is potentially one of the most packed emails that I've ever that I've ever read on a Q&A hopefully I can give you some advice on a little bit on a little bit of this there's a few things that jump out to me getting your husband to open up to you about the feelings that he has about what he sees on the day to day may not be the best goal for you getting him to open up to

someone, I think is essential, but he may not see you as a neutral party because he may not want to burden you with what he has to deal with in his day today. And there's nothing wrong with that. Don't look at that negatively. I would use success or the metric for success in this particular instance or in this particular portion of your email is that he is opening up to someone. So don't be upset if it's not you. But make sure. that he is at least, well, don't make sure, because you're not going to be able to force anybody to do anything. I would say consistently support him

and try to nudge him as softly as you can towards talking to somebody. I would say, looking at it from his perspective, he just may not feel comfortable sharing those things with you, and I think that's okay and perhaps healthy for your relationship. Just make sure he's not bottling all of that up and never letting some of that out by talking to somebody because what happens when you do that,

eventually it explodes, of course, at the wrong time. time. Your relationship with your parents sucks that your parents went through a divorce. They are, you know, what is the statistics now in the U.S.? One out of every two, which is shitty. And for whatever reason, recently I have been talking to a few people about it. And they basically say, hey, well, what's the point? You know, fuck marriage. I don't want to involve the government in my life. And I know this has nothing to do with your question. But since it kind of came up in here, I'm going to rant on this for a second. And a part of me wants to say to them, hey, you know what? I totally agree with you.

Fuck marriage. And that's exactly how I felt when I was going through my divorce. But I've landed on a place that the institution of marriage is not flawed unless you enter into that institution of marriage with the wrong person. So don't hate the system. Just be cautious of entering into that system with the wrong person. Because if you do, that system is going to eat you up, chew you up, spit you out. Maybe the top end, maybe the bottom end. I don't know.

Use your imagination. but it's not going to go well. If you enter into it with the right person, I think it can be everything that you want it to be. I digress. You're not being a parent to your parents is what I'm going to say to you. It sounds like you're being a caretaker. There's a lot more to being a parent than just providing things to people. And I'm not saying this to you in any negative way, shape or form. What I'm trying to highlight for you is that it's not your role to be your parent's parent. So don't think of it in those terms. Your father, as you described him, going through the trenches of depression, if he hasn't done any basic hygiene in two years,

no shower, any of that stuff, I am not an expert, but I'm going to say there might be a touch of mental health issues going on there as well. I think the longest time I've ever gone without showering was 90 days, and that was because I had no access to being able to shower. It was very busy at the time in a place that didn't have clean water. So I couldn't stand the smell of myself. I can't even imagine two years. And if you're able to deal with that and just ignore that, yeah, I get depression to a degree. I don't think I've ever felt a clinical level of depression, but I'm trying to empathize with where he may be. I feel like there might be just a little bit of a touch of mental health issues there. But you're not raising your dad. It's not your job to

raise your dad. It was your dad's job to help raise you. It sounds like right now you're just in that straight caretaker role, which I would take that same role if I were you too, but I would shift in my head how I think about that, right? It's not your responsibility to be a parent to your father. You're trying to take care of him to the best of your ability, but he's going to have to work his way out of that trench. And he sounds like he might need some professional help and assistance in that. Going back farther up into the email. All right, the anxiety that you have around your boyfriend's job. I am going to say that listening for his voice on the app that you use, what did you describe it as on scanner app? I don't think that that's a good idea.

And this was an issue that I saw sometimes overseas. There were people that I found or thought. This is completely anecdotal and just my own personal opinion. But there would be people who I would say wildly overcommunicated. They were emailing every single day. They were trying to get on the sat phone every time they possibly could. If there was Wi-Fi, they're trying to do FaceTime calls, whatever it may be, constant and consistent communication. If there was a gap in that communication, though, the other party would start to get extremely worried because it would be communicate, communicate, communicate, and then a gap and nobody, well, the military member knew what was going on, but the other person on the other side really got habituated to that and it can create issues. The other side is drastically undercommunicating.

And both of them are a choice. And I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong, but I think there's consequences to both. an under communication where you're never communicating with that other party, I think creates a gap and a divide where you have the opportunity to potentially start growing apart. And I've seen that happen, just like I've seen issues with overcommunication. I think that there's a balance, but of course every relationship is unique and should be treated as such. But for me, I would try to get on to, you know, once or twice per week. and depending on whether or not how busy we were, I would front load and say, hey, you know,

I'm probably not going to be able to call for the next few days or call for the next week or so to kind of lay the expectation. I can't even imagine the anxiety associated with listening on a scanner app trying to hear your loved one's voice. I don't think that's a good idea. I think a better idea might be to on the days that your boyfriend is working, expect that you're going to hear from him less, as opposed to seeking out this constant reaffirmation that everything is going okay. What you're describing is you're already dealing with enough anxiety. Going and listening to that scanner app is only going to be adding to that. So set some expectations between the two of you and maybe even some boundaries.

Like a boundary for you may be you're not going to reach out to him multiple times on the days that he's working. You'll allow him to reach out to you and facilitate the communication when his schedule a lot. lots for it because then you're not going to be worried about a text or a call that you put in. You don't get an answer back for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour or two hours because he can't answer. He's dealing with a catastrophe or a situation that requires all of his attention at that time. You're not going to be worried, but then you'll also be very appreciative when you get communication from him. And you guys can go back and forth a bit, but allow him to drive that because he knows the demands of that role and when he is working. Now, the anxiety and of itself that you have of potentially losing your boyfriend to his job. What I'll say to you is this. If your boyfriend potentially sounds like future husband continues to be a sheriff, there is a chance that he is going to lose his life in the execution of his job. However, if your boyfriend slash potential future husband decides to go and become a grocery

store, shocker at Safeway. Did I say shocker? Stocker is what I meant. At Safeway, there's a chance that he could be killed on the way to his job. The odds of that, I think, are way lower than probably losing your life as a law enforcement officer. But my point in saying both of those things is it's impossible to remove risk from human life. Can you analyze, assess, and mitigate risk? Yes, absolutely can. But if you think you're going to get it to zero, I don't know what to tell you other than I don't think nature respects that number. 100% and 0%. To me are two numbers that I have found at least in my life that the real world and nature have absolutely no respect for. So the risk is always going to be there to some degree. That doesn't mean you shouldn't worry, right?

It doesn't mean you should ignore that risk. But what I would suggest for me and the way my mind works, a lot of this, when I look at either something that I want to do, maybe an activity that I want to learn, a new hobby perhaps, is I can actually break down the risk very black and white and look at the probabilities in this case, you know, loss of life on the job. the odds are actually drastically in your boyfriend's favor. And it's important to remember that. I know that what is often reported in the news is the exact opposite, right? Well, in the current era of media, depending on what you might define that as, what's going to lead is catastrophe. You're not going to probably ever see a news story that opens with.

Today, deputy fill in the blank had an amazing day on the job and had an impact. and had an impact on X number of people's lives and had X number of interactions with the citizens that he is paid to serve and had a spectacular lunch, worked for a 12-hour shift, and went home at the end of the day and had an amazing evening with his significant other. I've never seen that story, but that story plays itself out with almost every single first responder, almost every single day. And it's important to remember that. It's very easy to focus on the things that are constantly and consistently thrown in your face. And it's unfortunate. And I do it sometimes to them as guilty as anybody else. You can think that that's the only thing that's happening.

And the reality is it's almost never happening. But you just hear about it every single time that it does because we're so interconnected that we can't avoid the information. So food for thought. I'm not necessarily saying that that's going to help with your anxiety, but maybe looking at it from an analytical perspective as a opposed to an emotional perspective and realizing that the odds truly are so deeply in your favor and then avoiding, you know, putting those boundaries in when he's on shift, will, I think it could potentially help you. And the last thing I'll say to this is in this paragraph that you wrote to me, I would like for you to, if you ever listen to this or watch this, whatever it may be, sit down

and just take a deep breath for a second, close your eyes and realize that right now, just based off what you described in this email, you are going through a lot of shit. You have grad school. You're trying to start a career as a physician's assistant. You have somebody that you care deeply about that has an occupation that carries a higher risk than other occupations. You've dealt with anxiety in your past. You have some issues when it comes to your parents and your relationship with your parents. you are going through a lot right now. And while you're going through a lot right now, you're also worried about your future, which I think is totally natural. But there's no reason that everything that is going on right now has to negatively impact your future. So what I'd want you to do is

take a deep breath, sit down and realize that where you are right now is not where you're going to be in two years or three years or five years. You may be looking back. You may be looking back, at almost all of this with a completely different runway or road in front of you. And when you get to that point, kids might be a totally different option for you. You might have an amazing job as a physician's assistant and your boyfriend, now husband, could have a different role inside of the sheriff's department. Maybe he is now doing internet crimes against children. Maybe he's working on human trafficking. Maybe he's a detective or a role that has less risk than he does right now. So I can understand the weight that you probably feel on your shoulders.

It's not going to last forever, though. And this is where I default back to something that I learned early on a life. I talk about it all the time. And the reason I talk about it all the time is it absolutely fucking works. And that is keeping your world as small as possible in biting off things in digestible chunks as opposed to allowing this paragraph that you wrote me to make it. feel as if the power of gravity has increased three or four or five fold because it hasn't you're just working with a lot right now so deal with the days as they present themselves to you and worry a

little bit less about that future you're going to get there i promise you you will and when you do i think all of these things that you have gone through it's going to shape you are as a person it's going to shape your decision-making process how you're going to be as a significant other how you're going to be as a parent. Trust me, your relationship with your parents right now will absolutely inform how you are going to be with your own kids. I don't know how many people that I know of that I've had on this podcast who say that they had the most horrendous upbringing with parents. And all they wanted to do was get out of the house. And I'm not saying that this is your situation at all. But what I'm saying is their exposure to their parents, what it ended up doing was changing

how they thought about being a parent. And they didn't want to repeat any of those mistakes. So I know what you're dealing with right now with your parents is hard, but it actually in the end could make you a better parent when you have kids because you're not going to want to pass that bullshit on. I don't want anybody to have to go through that, but people, I hope, realize that by walking through that crucible, you actually can be a much better person on the other side of it. And you could be a better parent, a better partner, and a better and a more effective contributing member to society. So that somewhere in there, I think, was some advice, I hope. And hopefully it helps you. Question two. I'm curious what's your perspective on

Mark Owens. And if you ever would have him on your podcast, I just finished listening to the four-part series Jack Carr did with him. And for people listening, if you don't know, Jack Carr is an author. He's been on, I believe, three times now. We went through buds together until he was was unable to continue in my bud's class because it was too difficult for him and he wasn't able to physically or mentally perform at the level that was required. So he rolled back to a class that was considered to be one of the easiest in the history of seal training. But that's a different story. He hosts a fantastic podcast called Danger Close. He's actually an incredibly close friend. I'm honored to have actually served in the military at the same time. And you

should absolutely check out his podcast to include the four-part series. He just did with Mark Owen, back to the email. I've gathered that you don't have a positive outlook on him, and I think you're referencing Mark at this point from passing comments on your podcast, but I'm curious if your perspective has changed with time, especially based on the idea that the top ranks in government and military release books as soon as they're done with their service. I grew up reading military books, and I don't see why those books should stop now. The firsthand perspectives are always the best. Obviously, nobody likes to listen to a blowhard brag or talk about stuff they were never a part of. I spent a stint in the Army National Guard. I spent a stint in the Army National Guard. never did anything except maybe it helped me at least follow along when you guys talk about the military. Yeah. So Mark Owen is obviously, what would that be? An nom de gear, a nom de plume. It's a pen name.

It's not his real name. I know the individual's real name. I don't actually know the individual that well. And I don't think I've ever actually spoken about him on the podcast. I have been asked about Rob O'Neill on the podcast. and I don't actually think I have, or actually I don't have been asked about them. I don't think I've addressed either of them. And full disclosure up front, I have not read either of their books.

Because for me, and I don't mean this in a negative way towards either of them, I don't care about that particular topic. I know enough people who were there that day that I've heard quite a few firsthand accounts. And I just, quite frankly, I don't read seal books. I'm sorry. It's the least interesting topic to me. Now, I obviously understand that I'm coming from that community, so I am also not the target audience for those type of books. So, I understand.

Before people, like, explode in the comments, like, it's no written for you. I'm like, no shit, Sherlock. Okay. I get that. For other people, though, I think they can be incredibly entertaining. And the only issue that I have with seal books, and not all seal books are like this, but quite a few of them are, is they take great creative liberty with what I like to call the truth. And I'm not saying that Mark did that and I'm not saying that Rob did that. What I am saying is you have to use with caution the books, I think, from post- GWAT, the global war on terror, because I know some people who have written some books about some shit that happened, and they weren't actually there. I'm sorry, I'm not going to go

into detail, because, again, it's not a topic that I give a fuck about. Yeah, the top brass in the government, they oftentimes do release books about their time and service. And here's my theory when it comes to writing books. The experience that you gain throughout your life and the military is yours to do with what you want. All I ask is that you respect the truth. So would I have Mark Owens or Rob O'Neill on the podcast? I would be open to it. But I would want to figure out what we were going to talk about other than the bin Laden raid because I don't think either of them solely wants to be known for that. I certainly don't want to solely be known for being a an ex-team guy, which is idiotic, meaning the occupation itself is idiotic in many ways and not

something that I want to hang my hat on and have as my only like, you know, pull a business card out in 30 years and be like, Andy Stumpf, ex-Navy Seal. Like, I would rather, I would rather wheel myself into oncoming traffic in a wheelchair than do that. But that's just me. So I would be open to it. People can write books if they want to write books. what I'll say is a lot of times things are written for entertainment as opposed to education. And when the two get confused, it can get a little bit murky. What I do want is a history of our country and our military actions. And I do believe that firsthand perspectives are the best. But what I'll say is this. If you get six people into a room, there are six different perspectives. And that can get murky.

Everybody experiences combat and combat situations slightly differently. I've been in situations where there's four seats at this table. We can have four people who are in the exact same situation describe it differently. Who's telling the truth? Is a tough question to answer. I think all of the parties are probably trying to. But then when the narratives are compared, there's deviations. And it's easy for people to point those out and be like, well, who's lying?

That's a lie. And this didn't happen. And that didn't happen. And it just gets messy. and I think at the end of the day, that's probably why I largely avoid the topic. Those podcasts with both of those individuals, like they're out there. I don't feel the need to reach out to them to have a recycling of a conversation that's largely already been had. But what I'll say is this, open invite if they want to.

We just have to discuss what it is we're going to talk about. Question three. I've recently come off an extreme weight loss of about 80 pounds in which I pretty much start. myself in quite an unhealthy way. I'm feeling better now, though, and in the last month, started Jiu-Jitsu about six times per week. Now that I'm a more healthy weight, I see that I sometimes eat more than I should and convince myself that it's okay as I'm going to need the calories for BJJ. However, I'm starting to see a bit of weight gain, and I'm fearing putting the weight back on. Any advice on how to stay true to my diet and keep motivated. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

All right, before I say anything about this, let's be very clear. I'm obviously, not a trained professional when it comes to exercise or nutrition. I can give you some basic advice that I've seen work in my own life. And what I am really fortunate to have is smart people around me, guys like Rob Wolf or John Wellborn or Kelly Storette. And when I bounce up against questions when it comes to nutrition, trust me, I'm going straight to Rob Wolf. When it comes to picking up heavy shit, I'm going right to John Wellborn. When it comes to mobility, stretching, which I don't think you should do. He and I disagree on that point. Anything like that, like body maintenance, I'm going straight to Kelly because they're experts and I'm not.

Now, based on the many conversations I've had with them over many years, I do have some suggestions for you, but these are based off my own experience. The way you lost the weight to begin with, starving yourself, as you described, is actually quite unhealthy and it's not sustainable. You can actually really jack up your endocrine system by doing so. And you can throw your body into a famine mode by doing that. By just drastically reducing your calories, it can really change the way that your body uptakes, stores, and then delivers your, the calories that you have. And again, I'm not an expert in how that works. I'd go to Rob Wolf on stuff like that. But I know the way that you lost those 80 pounds is not what I would describe as optimal. Okay. You start,

I started jujitsu about six times per week. It says in the last month you started jujitsu about six times per week. I'm going to make an assumption that you just started jujitsu. And it's not something that you were doing before because I feel like, and again, this is an assumption that you felt like you needed to lose weight before you started, which is a common narrative, which I disagree with. I think you should just start. Your body is going to lose weight along the way.

So for people listening and they think they're too heavy or they're too out of shape, to start doing jujitsu and they need to either lose weight or get in shape first, get rid of that and just get in there. But I also think if you just did start jujitsu and you're going six times per week, I also think you're approaching it from an unsustainable path. I do jujitsu as many times per week as I can, oftentimes six, but this is three plus years into it now and I started off at two times per week and then built myself to three times per week, then four times per week and five times per week. And what I'm talking about, though, is not days, weeks or even months. It took me. It took me a few years to get to that point. It is an extremely arduous activity, especially when you have

almost no efficiency, meaning when you're first starting, because you have to figure out, you have to learn a new language, for lack of the better term. Eat more than you should because you convince yourself that it's okay. You're going to need those calories for BJJ. Well, how do you know that? How do you know how many calories you actually need? I had this same question because guess what? I can lie to myself too with the best of them. So what did I do? I actually, went and I got a whoop strap. And I have no relationship with this company whatsoever. I was curious, though, to try to figure out what type of exertion I actually was having on the mats. So I could get a better idea of what I actually needed to eat versus what I wanted to eat.

And in the research, the whoop strap, it came with the ability to put it on the inside of my bicep. And it also came with the neoprene sports sleeve that you could pull up your arm. both of those I used the strap that went on my wrist. I would use that on my arm and I used the knee apramed sleep. Both worked well. There were some other options. There was, I think it's called an aura ring, O-U-R-A. Again, no relationship with them whatsoever.

But it provides you better actual analytical, you know, data-driven feedback as opposed to, hey, I feel like I worked really hard. So I'm going to go crush a cheese pizza because I'm calorically in the hole. And what I found. spoiler alert was that how much I wanted to eat was far more than what I actually needed to eat. I was burning about a thousand calories in two hours doing jiu-jitsu, and that is an hour of class with varying levels of intensity and then an hour open mat afterwards. And I actually really enjoyed getting that feedback. I did it for about six months until I realized that the data set kept replacing itself and replacing itself and replacing itself without a huge. amount of deviation. So at that point, it was a little bit of a, you know, pain in the ass to put

the thing on and make sure it was charged and all that, right? Like first world problems for sure, but I had the data in front of me. It was consistent. And I felt comfortable making decisions off of that. So if I'm burning 1,000 calories in that hour, I don't need to go slam four protein shakes and six slices of pizza, which is what I would want to do. Actually, I wouldn't want the protein shakes, I would want the slices of pizza. Or like, hell, man, I just busted my ass. I am going to go out with some people after class, and we're going to go get a burger in fries, which is like 1,600 calories. So you can do the math on that one right there. Not a genius, but I think when you put in more that you burn, you know what's actually going to happen.

So my point in all of that is, I recommend you do this for yourself. Find a way to actually get data-driven metrics and then make your decision off of that. How much people, want to eat versus how much people need to eat, I think is usually a huge distance between the two. And more often than not, for most people, you're eating far more than you actually need to. You're eating to like extreme satiation, almost discomfort with the amount of food that you're eating versus what your body actually needs. And then guess what? You end up with a little bit of a flat tire around the waistline. And then the next thing you know, you can barely get your pants on. And that sucks, right? I think you should be able to see your dick when you're naked, looking down.

If you can't do that, lose some fucking weight, right? You're not helping anybody to include yourself, and at the end of the day, you're going to become a burden on the health care of society. So I don't know how the hell we got on that, but that's my metric. See your dick when you're naked at a minimum. Because then maybe other people will want to as well, you know, and that's a good thing, I think, for rest and relaxation. I don't know. I'm going to end this question before we go any deeper down the rabbit hole. Question four.

Part one, what do you foresee is the spark that ignites World War III? What countries are involved? and how does that first 30 days of the war play itself out? And part two, what can we do individually to prepare for this inevitability? I have no idea what the spark would be that would ignite World War III. The countries that would be involved, the major players, I think it's probably, it's going to be World War III. In my non-professional estimation, I would assume it probably would be a nuclear power that would be involved in that in some way. it would be a country that is vying for as much control as possible at a global scale.

And maybe it could be something that we do as the United States. But I could say probably the normal players that I hear about often from whether that be Russia or China, it doesn't have to be necessarily in that order. There's instability oftentimes in the Middle East. I think it could be any of those things. I don't know what this bar could really be, though. I mean, World War III, I don't know if we're ever going to get to a place where World War 3 is going to kick off.

So for your part two, I disagree with you. I don't think it's an inevitability. I don't think it's in an inevitability at all. But what I do think that everybody could do is in your question. What can we individually do to prepare? Well, you can do exactly that. You can make yourself and your family as self-sustaining as possible. And I'm not saying you need to go off the grid and dig trenches and have like pungy pits and early warning devices.

But the ability for you to provide for yourself to be able to meet the basic requirements for life in a survival situation. Or how about just if for 30 days, let's say World War III does kick off. And for whatever reason, everything goes dark in this country for 30 days. And this country, I mean U.S., obviously. Supply chains are drastically interrupted. What would you do? Would your family, is your family right now completely beholden to somebody else to provide everything that you need to sustain life? If the answer to that question is yes, you don't need to freak out, but maybe that's something that you could recognize and change.

So it's an 80, 20, 70, 30, 60, 40, 50, 50, and you keep working your way towards the ability to be self-sustainable if needed and necessary. I think you should at all times have in your head the mindset that you are, your own first responder. Cell phones are great, right? I got one sitting right here in front of me. The ability to call 911 is amazing. I love our EMS system and our first responders. But what if you live in a place like I do up in northwestern Montana, especially where I live, which is farther out of town than most? I'm talking 30 to 45 minutes to a 911 call unless they launch a heli. And depending on if I'm backcountry and let's say there's nowhere for it to land, that might not even solve the problem in and of itself.

So the ability to be your own first response, your own first responder, I think is essential. And at least develop the skills necessary that you could survive, not necessarily thrive, but survive if there is a large detachment from supply chain or society or civilization for a little bit. Like I said, I'm not saying you need to go off the grid. But the number one survival tool that people are ever going to have is their brain. when it comes to those situations, don't think that you're going to be a game time player. You need to learn, practice, and prepare. I don't talk a lot about it because there are people who specialize in this.

And for something like this, I'm pointing you guys right at Mike Lover and Fieldcraft Survival. It's literally what they do. It is not what I do. So I'm not going to pretend that I do. I would point you in that direction. And that is all I have for this Friday. Eight and nine of these suckers. It's been a fun ride.

I really enjoy these Friday episodes. Please keep the questions coming because it allows me. me to keep doing. See you guys Monday.