The Prepper Broadcasting Network - PBN Roundtable What Makes a Prepper Menking, Buford, Walton, Dane

Episode Date: December 14, 2025

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It came from the archives. Good evening, folks. James Walton with you tonight. It is not the I Am Liberty Show. I repeat, it is Wednesday live. It is hump day. It is James Walton, but we are not having the regularly scheduled I Am Liberty show. Instead, if you've been paying attention on social media or other places, you know that tonight we are having our latest prepper roundtable. And if you remember, we had one of these, I think about, six months ago, and it was moderated by Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, and we had a great time. It got a lot of play around the prepper community, and it really is a way for us to sort of tap the background and the intelligence of the hosts and really sort of pulled the hosts out of their, you know, their comfy spots behind the microphone when it's their show and they're running the show. So you get to see them in sort of a different light. I'm really looking forward to it tonight, guys. We have what makes tonight really special is also the fact that we have Stephen Menking with us from On The Objective.org. Steven's been on the show before I've been on his show.

Just a great guy who, I don't know, man, he was kind of born for this kind of stuff. I've been on his own preparedness roundtables, which are all available. Really, you can find them at prepperbroadcasting.com. Every time we do one, I post one up there, or you can go to On the Eighty. objective.org and see those if you're into that kind of format, the roundtable, kind of nonstop action format. For those of you who listen to the I Am Liberty show, you know that my show's kind of the antithesis of that, right? It's me droning on for two hours. But looking forward tonight, as I said, we're going to go the full two hours. We've got a ton of topics to touch

on. We're going to see if we can get around to everyone and sort of get there two cents. What we're really focusing on tonight is what makes a prepper. You know, so, you know, our, our mission at Prepper Broadcasting Network is truly to redefine the 21st century prepper. And I don't know how many people are going to be excited about this little announcement or not, but I have a phone call tomorrow with someone from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. And nothing, you know, it is just a conversation. It could be an important conversation. It could be, you know, a conversation where we go our own separate ways.

But it's important to me to not only establish sort of what a prepper is in their eyes, but also to redefine that idea in the community's eyes on a whole. And I don't mean just the prepper community. I mean in the culture of America on the whole. I have to talk about this real quick, and I don't eat up too much time because we've got a lot to do. But there was a lieutenant colonel of the National Guard who was arrested, I think, today. Or no, it was the 15th of February, but the story came out today. And he was essentially a right-wing extremist who had a lot of plans to do a lot of heinous things.

And in reading the article, the dangerous thing about these stories, if we don't take the time to redefine the time to redefine the article. If we don't take the time to redefine what a prepper is and to give people permission to stockpile food and water and emergency supplies in a way that makes sense, in a way that helps us get through disasters, you know, comfortably. If we don't redefine the name, you'll go through and read this article. I read it up on the Drudge Report. It's up there right now.

But you'll go through and read this article. and you'll read about his motivations and you'll say, oh, what a sick monster. He wanted to kill Democrat leadership. He wanted to, you know, poison food supplies. It seems something like that. The guy seemed to be kind of all over the place, neo-Nazi connections. But also in the article was mentions of stockpiling food,

stockpiling survival tools, stockpiling water. And I think even back up electricity. So in the sort of atmosphere we live in now, even myself, my eyebrows perked up and I said, hmm, a little prepperish. So I think it's important. And what I really want to get out of this roundtable is for you to get to know the hosts and to understand what really makes a prepper. When you say the word prepper, do you think right-wing extremists who stockpiles guns, ammo, water, food, yada, yada, yada, survival gear. you know because that's kind of how it can be right extremist christian that type of thing right these

people that really hardly exist and really are in the fringe when you really think about it but that story came out like literally read it just before i got on today but i had to bring it up because in the eyes of the media in the eyes of pop culture there are real ties between preppers and a monster like that and what we're looking to do over here at prepper broadcasting is to sort of begin to cut those strings so looking forward to it what makes a prepper is is the name of the game tonight and uh we've got a ton of topics i'm not going to go into them but what i would like to do is bring our host slash moderator stephen men king of on the objective dot org on and uh he's going to get this show on the road for us tonight folks we're going to have a ball so thanks so much

stephen for joining us thanks so much for taking on the uh the extended responsibilities that just before the show. We might have to talk about that some other time and laugh about it. I'm glad you could be with us tonight. Well, James, it's a pleasure and a privilege, as always, to be here with you and the rest of the Prepper Broadcasting Network hosts. And I'm looking forward to a fantastic conversation. And as you point out, in terms of this news article and many other things, it is a critical conversation that we have at this moment and time in this generation. Because if we are not able to communicate a message about the importance of critical thinking, strategic planning,

and just all around common sense, than the labels that are being applied and have been applied by various organizations and institutions and people who, in some cases, don't know any better, but in other cases who are seeking to demonize an entire group of the population for political, ideological, or cultural reasons, then they're going to win. And so it's our job not necessarily to avoid these stereotypes and dance around these issues and talk, you know, in closed quarters and walk on eggshells. But it is up to us to boldly proclaim the truth of what it means to be a prepper in this day and age to understand what goes into it. And that's one of the many reasons why I'm thrilled to be here with all of these fantastic hosts tonight. We're going to be talking

about a variety of different topics, but really just illustrating that we're just normal people who want to make sure that the safety and security of our families is taken care of to the extent that we can. And we are regular people trying to get that word out to give people tools that they need because in an information age that is a wash with all manner of pieces of advice and books and kits and everything else that money can buy as well as time to watch on YouTube, there's still this personal element and we would love to invite you into our conversation to talk about the personal element

and the common sense that we have going on in terms of the decisions that we make. So again, I'm Stephen Menking. I'm going to be moderating here and hopefully that is as hands off as possible but in the meantime you can find all of my materials as well as the rest of the content that our podcast network puts out

by going to ontheobjective.org as James mentioned as well. as by typing it on the objective into YouTube and Twitter to stay up to date. But enough of that, we have a fantastic group here, and I want to start with a rapid fire round. So let's try and keep things pretty brief. I want to go around, make sure everyone has a chance to talk, and then we're going to get into some of the meet here. So I'm going to pass it over to Jordan first.

Jordan is the host of a family affair on Prepper Broadcasting Network. Jordan, if you could tell us what time and how people can access your, your broadcast and then anything else about getting in touch with you. And then finally for our rapid fire question, apart from the resources that are directly at Prepper Broadcasting Network, what is your go-to resource for news or for information about prepping? Oh, man, I should have known you were going to ask that. I had someone asked me that the other day, and I couldn't give him an answer because

there's so many resources. But real quick, so I'm Jordan, who are also known as J. Ferg, on the Saturday night show of Family Affair. I am on at 8 p.m. Central, 9 p.m. Eastern Saturday nights. And the big thing about our show is showing everybody that everybody in the household can do it from adult to toddler, because, as we like to say, everybody has a role to play. What am I missing? Is that it? I'm trying to do. Well, if you're going to pass on the resource, if you want to, you could give me two or three. you know that's totally fine um you know i do a lot of research i probably do more books than i do

actual online i'm still i still look online but i'm definitely one who loves uh back to basics that's one of my favorite absolute favorite books i love uh the human anatomy books if it comes to first aid and i refer back to the basic military training books so i mean i'm definitely a paper and and hard back cover kind of girl. So resources, there's a little bit of everything. I definitely check out some of the stuff that my other host posts, as well as some of the other pages that we are promoting. So I look everywhere, but books are my big go-to.

All right, fantastic. Thanks, Jordan. Great to have you here. Let's pass it over to Ryan and Colin Buford of the next generation. Fellas, you can handle this however you'd like. We'll figure out how to divvy up the time as we go further into the broadcast. here this evening, but when is your show airing?

How can people get in touch with you? And what's the best resource you use most often for either news or prepping information? All right, well, I'll go first and kind of let folks know about the show. So, like you mentioned,

the show The Next Generation is both me and my son, Colin. And it airs live every Sunday at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 o'clock Eastern Time. And, of course, you know, all of our social media contacts and everything are on the show page at Pepperbroadcasting.com if you want to get a hold of us. But I think with regard to the first question, I would say I get news from two sources. One of them is a social media through Twitter.

I actually, I tend to scan through there and see what feels rather than. relevant and kind of self-mediate what's going on because it gives me a more global approach to prepping. And then the other portion that I use for news is actually the guys at work. We communicate with each other every day at a set amount of time or a set time for about a half hour. And during that time, we have some free time to be able to talk about simple things. and what's going on in the region. And I don't have a TV, I don't watch TV, I don't have news access for newspapers and things like that.

So a lot of the garbage that's in the news generally is out of my scope. And what seems relevant to local people winds up getting filtered through the guys at work. So I don't have to do any of the reading and I kind of get brought up to speed on some of the stuff that's pretty major going on. And, of course, Colin, he's on the other end. What do you say, buddy? Yeah, well, I'm the co-host of the next generation. Like dad said, I'm just kind of the ride-along.

I go along with whatever, you know, just whatever we're talking about. But a lot of the stuff that I learn about when, like, prepping-wise, It's just the stuff that I come across when researching the topics themselves, when I research our projects that we do for the week, or the stuff that, you know, dad wants me to collect information on. But other than that, I don't really have anything to stay up to date on. Definitely a different take as we think about news.

And for many, this is similar to what you might think of in medicine as iatrogenics, basically. the process of healing and renewal by removing poison. And that's an incredibly important component. And so it's good to know that there are people who manage to survive in this world and to proceed in the course of their lives without being overwhelmed and ingesting as much information as possible because that does seem to be the default solution. So thank you, fellas. Great to have you here.

Let's go over to James Walton, your intrepid commander. at the Prepper Broadcasting Network and the host of the I Am Liberty Show. James, thanks for bringing us in here tonight and for organizing all of this, any particular information about the show that people should be aware of if they are not already.

And what is your go-to source of information for news or on prepping topics? I absolutely in love. What did you call me, the intrepid commander? Don't take it too seriously. I mean, I can come up with all sorts of different things,

but we can lead it to that. I think I might keep that. That's a good one, Stephen. I like that. It's a little Star Trek-y, but you got it. I dig it. I dig it. So, yeah, this is usually the time slot for the I'm Liberty Show, so I certainly won't take up too much time on explaining who I am and what my show's all about. You guys, who are here with us tonight, for those of you who might not be,

I am the Wednesday live host at Prepper Broadcasting.com. So to get to know me is to come back next Wednesday. And yeah, you'll hear, I don't really know what to tell you. You might hear what the show title says, and you might not. My show's kind of all over the place, and it has its benefits, and it has its downfalls. So what I like to do is to keep it real and to just talk about what I'm into at the moment. So if you're into that kind of thing, feel free to join me. Thanks to all the usual suspects who are here in chatting, who are here listening live.

I always appreciate it. As far as news is concerned, I don't know if I'm going to blow anybody's mind, but Future Danger is a buddy of mine, FutureDanger.com. I think he does a real good job at compiling Doom News, if you will. You know, you can definitely go to FutureDanger.com and walk away feeling a little either motivated or terrified. Definitely a big fan of the Drudge Report, even though I know it's, you know, you go there and it's like rage-inducing.

Todd Sepulveda over at Prepper website.com is where I go when I really want to dig into what people inextricably tied to the Prepper community are writing about, working on, and that sort of thing. I've got a few talking heads that I follow on YouTube, but to be honest with you, they're a little more for entertainment and passing the workday than they are for true sourcing of news information. I'd say that's about it for me, Steve. Those guys are my go-to for news. Perfect. Thanks, James. Last but certainly not least, let's pass it over to Dane at the Gun Metal Armory. Dane, can you tell us about your show a little bit and the exciting giveaway that you have going on right now? How can people get in touch and what were you so excited to share with us earlier today?

well my show is on every Thursday night at 7 o'clock Pacific which I think is 9 o'clock Eastern it's a gunmetal armory we talk about gunsmithing we talk about firearms we talk about ammunition we talk about survival stuff sometimes we talk about escape and evasion sear stuff and we go all over the map we talk about tactics we talk about you know building survival stuff even survival rifles which you know segues into my announcement. On prepperbroadcasting.com, we are going to be giving away

Henry USA, or the makers of the Henry Leber Action Rifles, has very generously donated a Henry U.S. survival pack to Preper Broadcasting and myself to give away on Preper Broadcasting.com. The package includes a

Henry Survival Rifle. It includes a pack for the Henry Survival Rifle. It's an Allen case. It includes paracord, a SWAT tea tourniquet, a space blanket, and SE fire steel. So you can make, or you can make fire or tarcloth or whatever. A water filter, some Day Trek food bars, and a buck folding knife. So it includes all that stuff along with the rifle. We're going to be setting up the giveaway on prepperbroadcasting.com, so keep your eyes out for that. You guys will basically click on the link, which will take you to my email. You're going to send me your name and your birth date. You don't have to send me a copy of your license yet, but if you win, I am going to need a copy of your license because I need to make sure that you're 21 years of age or older, because this is a firearm.

And the next thing that the winner has to be able to do is accept a firearm. and accept it legally. So I need to be able to ship it to an FFL in their location or a federal firearms licensee in their location, which would be like a local gun shop, a local small gun shop, or, you know, like Cabela's or someplace like that. We just need a federal firearms license holder that we can send the package to. Okay. But yeah, we're going to be giving that away.

The MSRP on that is $550. so this is one of the first and one of the coolest big giveaways that we're doing on prepper broadcasting.com so guys definitely you need to get on this one and of course I'm sure all the other hosts will be talking about it as well on their on their shows and reminding everyone don't forget to enter don't forget to enter um as far as uh that that pretty much does it for that as far as what news sources I go to um you know I'm the gun guy I'm big into into firearms because I'm a gunsmith and, you know, firearms instructor, rifle instructor.

That's all the stuff I do. So I usually go, I go to Armed American Radio a lot. I listen to Mark Walters a lot for Second Amendment news and things like that. My wife has basically barred me from going on and looking at, you know, any of the alphabet soup networks like Fox or anything because she says I start to spend too much money when I get paranoid about what the news is talking about. So I'm not really allowed to watch those networks anymore. The Mr. Some Metal has kind of put a kibosh on those.

But all kidding aside, I do listen to Mark Walters. There's a couple of different websites I like to go to to check stuff out. You know, I'll check Twitter. But most of that stuff I really, I don't pay much attention to. I figure if something really bad is coming, I'm going to know. I'm going to find out about it from somebody at the gun club. I'm going to find out about it from somebody I know pretty quickly. And if it's something really, really bad, the power is going to go out.

Your phones are going to be shut off. And you're not going to have any internet. You're going to know something's about to happen. So it's pretty obvious, at least in my opinion. So anyways, that's basically the gist of it as far as gunmetal armor goes. That's great, Dane. Thanks again for joining us. And can you remind our audience one more time?

How do you enter and how do you enter to win this setup? wait what did you say again how do you make sure that you're properly entered to win the setup that you're giving away um we're going to put a link on to uh prepper broadcasting dot com it's probably going to be on the front page or the home page uh you'll click on the link and that'll take you that'll basically allow you to email me or it'll take you directly to my email and you just send me your name and your birthday and if you want to in the subject title you can write giveaway or something like that but um That's basically how you enter, and I'll just put everybody on a list, and then we'll do it a random Excel randomizer to choose the winner.

All right. Fantastic. So whenever the Intrepid Commander gets around to doing that, those submissions will be live. And in addition to that, you can find my content over on Prepper Broadcasting Network under the Reliance banner. There are new episodes every Sunday, and I promise at some point in the future we will make sure that the, the show page doesn't just redirect back to the homepage, but it's been a great blessing to be invited by James to talk about practical spiritual content and some biblical decision-making patterns and other kinds of things in tandem with my brother in Christ, Pastor Mike Spalding, and hopefully a larger cadre of hosts moving forward to put that content out. So let's get right into it. One of the things that I want to do is make sure that we're discussing the day-to-day,

practical and what actually is done, what goes through the mind of a prepper and what do people do? Are we out doing ropes courses? Are we digging bunkers all day? All these other things. So what I'm going to ask is that people give us a basic rundown of what a normal day looks like. And I know that's kind of a weird question because for most of us there aren't any real quote unquote normal days. but what would a daily routine look like and how does that time break down sort of work given everyone's individual situation? So let's go over to James first. James, what is a typical day look like for you if that's even possible to articulate? But what's your daily routine, your daily habits?

Yeah, sure, no problem. Well, like most Americans, I mean, I work for a living and take kids to school and from school and that type of thing. So a lot of, I think a lot of sort of what is done during the day is pretty similar to most people. I think it's kind of like the ancillary pieces that go along with those hats. Well, I guess one of the first things I do is go out and let the chickens out and feed them. So that might not be like the average person. But anyhow, I think when it comes down to these sort of. daily habits. You know, it's not like I wake up and take inventory every day. Nothing crazy

like that. But I think when you're talking about people with a preparedness mindset, there really is a lot to be said about sort of personal awareness and probably some level of EDC. So we most likely, I know I personally leave the house more prepared than probably the average person. You know, I personally, I carry an everyday carry bag. And that bag contains a bunch of different things we really don't need to go into in this conversation in particular. And, you know, when you enter the world, it's a lot different, I think, than the average person who has their face buried in the phone or, you know, whatever other method they're using to deal with their life. Many of those, right? Some legal, some illegal.

and I think a big part of daily habits as someone with a preparedness mindset again is sort of what you carry and how you represent yourself out in society you know big day another big daily piece for me maybe not every single day but pretty much I try every single day to do some form of physical fitness and I think that's a very important part of uh I really think that's a very important part of prepping. And for a long time, it was something that was frowned upon. And I used to take a lot of heat for talking about fitness in the preparedness community. I would always get told that, you know, my gun is my fitness plan type of thing. And now, naturally, now we know that a healthy body equals a healthy mind in the whole nine yards. So it's, it's kind of a no-brainer.

And another big part, another big daily habit, I think, for those of us who are, This is not limited to those of us who are sort of preparedness minded, but it is to take time to appreciate what you have and spend time with the people that you love. You know, it's not, in a way, it's not preparing you for any great disaster, but in a way it is preparing you for any disaster. And that's, you know, knowing how to communicate with your spouse, knowing how to communicate and enjoy your children, these are big things. and for me, these are daily habits. Mindfulness is a big one. And, yeah, I mean, you know, I could go down a big, I could break out my, I have a little phone app

that make sure I stay on track with all the things that I do want to do on a daily basis, but I think we're looking for higher level stuff on this question. So I'm going to end it there. You know, it's sort of not about the tasks themselves because I think we're all kind of pigeonholed in what we have to do, right? We all have things that we have to do, but what do you take with you both in mindset and, you know, in gear?

Absolutely. So the picture that you're painting is less like doomsday preppers and less like always getting ready for a zombie apocalypse and more like a normal everyday American father who is taking care of responsibilities and making sure that he's planning ahead for the future. So that's what we like to hear. That's definitely in line with what is the,

making of a prepper. So let's pass it over to Jordan. How about from your perspective, obviously, there's a lot going on in your life, Jordan, in terms of kids and in terms of farm and everything else like that. So can you walk us through what your daily routine is like and what occupies your attention and your focus throughout the course of an average day? Oh, absolutely. I will say this, it's never dull. I guess, you know, Just like everybody else, I get up, get ready for work. I have to juggle. And thank goodness, you know, my children are pretty well self-sufficient enough

that they actually tend to their own breakfast in the morning just so we can get everybody out the door at the same time. So, but I guess a big thing for me, kind of like what James said, is it's, you know, I have what I carry every day. And I have to keep in mind of where I work or, you know, the federal regulations and laws with where, what the type of work I'm in. And so, you know, it changes what I am and am not allowed to carry as far as self-defense. But it is something I am always mindful of, you know, I always check my car.

Even though I know my bag is in my back seat, you know, I have to look back. My bag is there, double check, you know. My children, they have bags, but their bags are in the house. But it's just one of those, you know, just making sure you have your everyday things. You'd laugh at me, but unfortunately right now I'm actually carrying a purse instead of a little carry-a-ball. bag that the one thing I'm always checking to make sure in my purse is not only my wallet, some cash and my knife, but a bandana. I always have a bandana on me no matter what the situation is. You know, with kids, it's a handkerchief or it's a bandage. So as far as like with the

tendon to animals, I'm fortunate enough that with how my days are, I normally don't have enough time during the week to deal with that, but to take care of that on the weekend. So I really have to try to manage, micromanage my time between work, home, dinner, chores, and then on the weekends, tending to my family and helping my friends with their farms, as well as taking care of putting meat and food in my freezer. That's fantastic. And, of course, like you said, there's never a dull moment because when you're, when you have so many different responsibilities, there's always things that are going to come up.

And to a certain extent, our time is never really our own. but that is okay and that has to be the way that we're built because I know for me personally when I have a plan on how I want my time to go and it doesn't end up going that way for whatever reason, then in the past I would have gotten very frustrated with that at a low level or even at a high level. But what I've been growing in is this understanding that there are certain things that are outside of my control. And as much as I would love to set time aside to read for an hour and not be disturbed, sometimes that's just not an option. And so that's a matter of compromise

with all of the people and all of the important tasks around us. But it's also a matter of responsibility and something that requires our attention. So thank you for that, Jordan. Oh, yes, sir, not a problem. Just real quick, though, is definitely you got to learn to roll with it. But, you know, every day, I make sure I have an hour for myself as the parent. as I'm sure you and everybody here as an adult sometimes we need just one hour a day just unwind so you know it on the head man yeah got to got to take some time away one of the most relaxing times I had recently was literally just driving around I was on my way to an appointment with the with student because I work as a private tutor and you know usually I'd be listening to podcasts or

other things like that but I just decided to turn every turn everything off and just enjoy enjoy the peace and quiet, which is hard to come by because I'm in New York City now, and Lord knows there's not a ton of peace of quiet in my neck of the wood. So let's go over to Dane. Can you talk about your daily routine, any particularly noteworthy aspects? How do you budget your time and what keeps you occupied? Well, first, you know, when I wake up in the morning, I do a back foot out of bed. And I agree.

Impressive. Fire about 50 down. range, tight spread, then, you know, brush your teeth? Exactly. While I'm brushing my teeth, that's exactly how I do it. Forgive me, please. No, I just, I usually get out of bed, and this is the God's honest truth. I grab my Glock or my 1911, and I walk around the house.

I make sure all the doors are still locked. My son kind of comes and goes as he pleases, so I like to make sure that everything is locked up, and I get up and I move around the house quite often at night. There's never any set time. there's never any you know any time of the night that I do it it's just whenever I get up and go I better go look around real quick and that's just something that's been ingrained in me my whole life is always check and make sure that your family's safe that is one of my habits when I get up I do the same thing but I'm I'm pretty normal too when I get up usually I'll have something to eat and you know I'll sit down and probably watch a little bit of TV while I'm eating eating and then I get up and I set out all my stuff on my bed that I'm going to take with me. Usually, I'm a lot like the rest of the preppers on here, but, you know, some of the stuff I carry with me might differ a little bit. Of course, I have a firearm. Usually I have anywhere

between two and three guns on me every day. I usually have anywhere from three to four knives on me every day. I have an escape invasion kit on me. I have a fire starter on me, water purification tablets, multiple magazines in my bag. I carry extra ammo. I carry a first aid kit. I carry an IFAC in my bag and I carry a miniature first aid kit on my person. And basically everything that I have on me, my bag is basically a get home bag. But everything that I carry on me, if I lose my bag, it's all redundant on my person. So it's not something, if I lose my bag, it's okay. If I can't get into my truck, it's okay. It's not a big deal because I have all the same stuff on me already.

But other than that, you know, usually I'll get up and I'll go to work at the gun range or at the other job that I work. And, you know, I'll spend all day telling people how to shoot correctly or making sure that people are safe on the range and don't end up hurting each other. That's, that's it. And then when I drive home, I'm constantly looking behind me. I'm constantly looking around me. I see probably five or six people get in, almost get in accidents every day.

it's it's kind of like being in condition yellow all the time it's always thinking about something you know that's basically that that habits for me one thing that i guess i'll tell you one of the things i try to do as often as i can when we get to another aspect of the show but yeah i mean i guess that's where i'll end it that's that's basically what i do yeah that's great dan and i appreciate the emphasis on situational awareness just making sure that that, you know, it's not necessarily a checklist, like, because then before you do anything, every time you would be saying, all right, just make sure I'm situationally aware, even though, of course, that might not be the worst thing in the world, but there are these

overriding states of mind that could be less described as habits and more properly classified as mindsets and just sort of frames of awareness. So I appreciate the emphasis on that. So let's pass it over to Ryan and Colin. So gentlemen, You two are obviously a father and son duo here, and the expectation might be on behalf of our audience that your daily routines and your habits would be wildly different in terms of just the stereotypes. Is that correct, but would we be surprised to see how similar your routines are if you could walk us through a typical day in each one of your lives, that would be fantastic? Yeah, why don't you go ahead and go first, buddy? All right. Well, my daily routine as a said pepper could be as boring as it gets because five days out of the week, I pretty much just get up, get ready for school, and then I go to school for six hours, come back, do my homework, and then, you know, I just kind of like repeat. It's pretty much it. So there's not a whole lot of different exciting stuff that happens outside of school as far as prepping goes.

Of course, you do work on the show on the side, and he helps me out a lot. I think he's not given himself quite as much credit as he deserves. You know, on my side, you know, and I think a daily routine when it comes to, You know, because Colin, he's 13, so a daily routine to someone who's not quite an adult is something that's regimented for them. And as you progress into adulthood, that changes, you kind of set your own routine based on your responsibilities. And I think to me, my daily routine generally starts by, I mean, I'm up, but usually

4.30 in the morning. I generally check whatever I can, anything that's come through either social media or work contracts. I work with people all around the world and sometimes stuff comes in while I'm sleeping. So I kind of take that world approach and just kind of absorb what I can for the first half hour of the day and then do a little bit of work in the morning before everyone else gets up and then I'll wind up getting ready, taking care of the dogs and heading out the door. Once out the door, I generally pay close attention to, and this may come off is kind of strange, but I pay really close attention to the animals around me and what they're doing. And for those folks who have heard my show, I mean, it tends to pop up fairly often

and this theme of animals and what's going on. And a big part of that is because, you know, I feel like we can learn a lot by paying attention to what the animals around us are doing, everything from the geese overhead forming chevrons and flying south or north, you know, whether it's fall or early spring, depending on what's going on.

The way the sparrows eat their food, whether or not I see an owl in a tree versus a hawk. You know, it sometimes I, I tend to see coyotes where we live and sometimes I see deer sometimes I see dogs out and about and all these different things mean something different

and when you can tune in to that level of awareness you will learn more from what's going on in the animal behavior around you than in some cases the human behavior around you or even nature so beyond that what I generally do is check myself.

A lot of times I'll, I mean, I'll obviously go off to work. I'm a normal guy. I work a normal job just like everyone else or most folks out there. But I think it's important to note that, you know, I put on my pants one leg at a time just like everyone else. And, you know, when I turn around to come home, I kind of look in the rearview mirror and just, kind of check myself and make sure that, you know, I've done what I can for the day and I've

tried to provide for my family the best that I can. And, you know, by the time I get home, I make sure to be thankful to the dogs that protect my home and be thankful to the family that's still there for me when I get there or take care of things like today. You know, we just got six inches of fresh powder on the ground and I needed to get the four-wheeler out with the plow to make sure that my spouse could get in, just because that's the way things roll when you live on a homestead sometimes. So, I mean, the routine isn't that much different from a normal everyday person. And I think all in all, with all the other hosts, it's kind of hard to follow some of the things

that these guys have said just because of the impact and the truth behind them all. But, I mean, at the end of the day, we're just normal people leading normal lives. absolutely and thank you both for for that perspective it really is helpful and i certainly appreciate ryan the emphasis that you're placing on having an approach of gratitude for the things that are there the things that you have and a job well done just because when we are in charge of a variety of different aspects in our own lives and responsible for the well-being of others it is incredibly easy to stay focused on the things that don't go perfectly or the new things that will come up. And this is just things that, you know, these are things that everyday homeowners face,

regardless of your stance on prepping and those other decisions. And so I thank you for the emphasis on gratitude here. I think that's really important. And another important concept that I think is critical for us to understand and to articulate a bit is that of communication. I know that this has been a continual emphasis of pretty much everyone here on Prepper Broadcasting Network. And on top of that, you can sort of see that it is a passion because, well, if you're hosting a podcast, then you are, frankly, spending a good deal of time communicating, perhaps more so than a regular person.

But I want to pass it around the horn here to get people's thoughts on modes of communication in terms of what works and what doesn't. for speaking with people who don't share the mindset, particularly those who are close to you, as well as what works and what doesn't for people who do share the mindset. So this is a really broad category that people could get into, but sort of best practices for communication, take it wherever you want. We're going to start back around with Dane.

Dane, I know you have to go at the top of the hour here. So give us your best shot with the communication, angle and let us know how you approach this aspect of preparation and how would your tactics differ or change or what kind of mistakes do people make any it's all it's all fair game it's a it's a wide topic and so take it wherever you feel so can you can you can you kind of explain that again you want me to tell you how I communicate with people or so when you're when you're talking about things that are related to prepping whether and I you know You presume from the angle of gunsmithing, let's say.

So when you're talking about the Second Amendment to people who would not share that ideology, how would your communication approach differ from when you talk with people who do share that ideology? Or from a different angle, if you'd prefer, let's say, what are some of the mistakes that people make in communication, given that it's so important? I think one of the things that people don't realize, and I'll just use, guns as an example just because it's what I know. I think people fail to realize just how many people out there that are against guns are actually deathly afraid of the gun itself. I think people don't understand that at all. We've had numerous people come into the range and I've had

people come to me privately and say I am deathly afraid of guns. I've been a, you know, Democrat my whole life. I've been taught that they're bad, you know, but I know that it's getting worse out there and I want the best technology possible to defend myself. What is that gun? What is that? What gun am I looking at? What do I need? So, I mean, I don't get paid for this part, but I'll spend hours of my off time with them. showing them AR-15s, showing them AK-47s, showing them 1911s, Glock's, smaller handguns, smaller rifles. But the first thing I do with them, when I'm standing there or when we sit down and we start talking, is I take the gun off of my hip, I unload it, and I set it down on the table, and I say, what do you think logically is going to happen to that gun while it's sitting there? And they usually kind of look at me with one eyebrow raised.

And I say, do you think that gun's going to get up, load itself, and run out the door? And I'm not trying to make you feel stupid. I'm asking you, honestly, is that going to hurt someone? And they're like, well, guns are very dangerous. And I said, so is your car. But it's not going to go drive itself and hurt anyone. It has to have a driver. it has to have someone behind it it is not the car's fault and that's why we don't sue car companies

when people are you know someone gets hurt so most people start to understand that and one of the main driving ideologies behind you know gun grabbers or people who hate guns is that all guns are bad and that the gun is the problem and if we just didn't have any guns Well, if we didn't have guns, it would be crossbows. We didn't have crossbows, it would be spears. It wouldn't spears, it would be rocks with a sling. It doesn't matter what the weapon is. People are evil.

Some people are evil. And they're always going to find a way to hurt each other. So when I have to communicate with someone like that, I break that down for them. I say that. You know, if it's not this, it's going to be this. If it's not that, it's going to be that. You know, you've got to realize you can't run and hide from these things. You have to be willing to protect yourself.

And right now, a firearm is the best technology available. Maybe someday later it'll be lasers or, you know, I don't know, a satellite dish from your phone. I don't know. But, you know, right now this is what's best. Oh, and I have a quick note for Colin. If you're so bored when you get home, man, if you want to write the gunmetal armory for me, I got nothing better to do, man. So if you want to write my show, if you're that bored, feel free to write mine too.

I'm just kidding, of course. I don't know. Colin, you want to write my show too? It's a good attempt to get some more, get some more time in your day and to collaborate here. But I definitely appreciate the common sense approach. And your point about having a visual or something tactile for people to grab a hold of is, I think, important to the idea of communication because you can give people thought experiment or something else, something else like that. But oftentimes if they can see something, if they can touch something that carries a lot more weight. Because when we're just dealing in the realm of ideas, as clear as we may think something is, it could get lost in a mesh of other ideas or different worldview or even propaganda masquerading as knowledge and information.

So thank you for that. Let's pass it over to James. I know that communication and unity and community are an important thing for you. My friend, so important that you wrote a book about it, but in this situation, what are maybe some of the mistakes that people make in terms of communication and how do you, what have you found to be effective in terms of handling communication either with people who are anti-prepping or indifferent or even like-minded preppers? sure uh i should preface this was saying that and it's embarrassing to say but for a lot of my life i was i was most certainly an appeaser and a yes man in the workplace and i got you know it worked and for a long time i was that way and i think one of the big reasons why it was that way is because i was scared to talk about the things that i actually wanted to talk

about because my belief system was dangerous to talk about, you know, just from a conservative, you know, right-leaning person, even before prepping got tied into my lifestyle. I grew up and a lot of my professional life was in that time when that sort of conservative lean started to get people in trouble. But I did learn something from that. I don't have to do that anymore now, which is so wonderful, which is so wonderful. But there, but, so something that's important for those out there listening to this, you can get down on yourself, you know, and you can get down on yourself a lot nowadays because you're not standing up to people the way maybe you think that you should or maybe the way that people you listen to or read say that you should, but I mean, the reality of what a lot of people face, Stephen, is they have bills and they need their job, you know, and it's a sad situation. to see that we're not allowed to speak freely in the workplace or out in public without getting crazy looks from people if we believe a certain thing or say a certain thing. But that's the

reality. And for people out there who are struggling with that, I just want to let you know, I struggled with that for a long time. You know, it was this idea that I'm on a steadily upward trajectory and I better really watch my words carefully so that I don't mess that up. And, you know, the best way to get out of that, obviously, is to change your career and do something you really want to do and surround yourself with people who are like-minded, you know, and that's easier said than done, I'll tell you that. But that being said, once you sort of get the preface out of the way, I find that the best way to have a conversation on almost any subject, even if it's one as touchy as prepping, politics or God, is to find common ground first. That's always my number one technique.

You know, so one of the things that I always like to do is listen first, right? I might throw a short statement out there and see what comes out of a person. And then I'll spend time listening and asking questions, and I like listening. It's funny coming from a guy who talks for two hours straight on Wednesday nights. But to be honest with you, I really like listening more than talking. especially real people i mean podcasts are good but you know a one-on-one conversation with a real person telling you about their life and their dreams and their hopes is about as it's about as magic a thing as there is to me so i enjoy sitting back and listening and one of the

things that i'm always listening to no matter what we're talking about is those things that i can speak to from from a commonality standpoint you know like oh i jive with that i get that i can understand that and of course they're going to throw some things at you that are going to go right over your head or or maybe hit you in the solar plexes a little bit and you've got to be careful of that too you know you've got to be you've got to be not afraid to ask questions when you don't understand something and also not one of the most common mistakes i think that people make are they nowadays we see it a lot is people go off the rails when when when someone makes one statement that they don't jive with and i've seen that on

both sides. You know, it's easy to say that that's a sort of a progressive thing because it most definitely is, but I've seen it on both sides. I've seen people go crazy on people after making one, you know, one simple statement that's opposed to their views. So for me, if I'm going to have a conversation with someone about preparedness and about prepping and what it means to me and what benefits it can have, I'll probably start talking about news, about weather, about natural disaster and then I'll shut up and I'll let them talk and I'll let them tell me about an experience that they had with a natural disaster and I'll let them tell me about their fears and I'll let them you know and then once I find that that sort of once we establish that we're on

the same base here and we're on common ground then we can start exchanging ideas right because then you can't you can't look at me and say well you're really different than I am Because we've got a whole early conversation set up that was, look how similar we are. And I find, for me personally, that's the best way to communicate, particularly around touchy subjects, but any subject, really. That's kind of my method. I think that's a fantastic point there, James. And in terms of the common ground, I would echo that by talking about something that I discuss frequently, And that is the idea of being able to ask the right question or being able to articulate someone else's position to establish that kind of common ground.

Because oftentimes when people are talking, when they're having a conversation, they're really sort of still just exploring territory in their own mind and they're trying to get to a conclusion. I think that when we have conversations with people, particularly if they can have a tendency to become adversarial, then, it's a significant hang up for us because we can often like jump on the first word that we hear that is a scantz or you know and and then that sort of derails the rest of the conversation and when we view it as just a couple people or maybe more in a larger group trying to explore territory and figure things out together placing everyone on the same team is a is a great mindset to have more meaningful conversations. So thank you for that. Let's pass it over to Ryan. And Colin, if you're still here, any thoughts on communication? I'll pass it over to Colin first before you

have to go. I know you have to run at the top of the hour as well. So any ideas there? As far as communication on, well, what do you? Sure. So like, do you have opportunities to talk about prepping or kind of related concepts or the projects that you do with with your friends or with your peers people around you and you know if not what might help that out oh yeah yeah sure so um that i like bringing up the the podcast and the fact that um i am a prepper so to speak and um you know i i bring it up to my teachers and uh if it like if it comes up in every day life if i can connect my life to the show outside of the show itself then um i try and people i don't know people usually find it pretty interesting um but mainly it's my friend's parents

that are are the most interested that um that i'm not, you know, out playing video games. I'm out talking on a prepper podcast. That's great. I think it's a wonderful opportunity. And can you give any additional insight into how you handle those conversations? Do you kind of just keep it real and try to talk about the things that the things that you're doing? Or do you notice any patterns that come up in the things that people are particularly interested in and ask you about a lot? Yeah, so for the people that are actually interested, I just basically give them the gist, and when it comes up, a big thing that people are

interested in all the projects that I do, because most of the times are pretty cool. you can see all of them on the on our instagram page um but yeah i mean i just you know tell them the website and just the general gist of what it is what we talk about yeah very cool and it seems like when you're having conversations about this you can't just force the issue if if people ask you about it or if you bring it up in the course of natural conversation then who knows where it could lead, but, you know, you just got to keep on planning those seats. So thank you for that, Colin.

Ryan, any follow-up here in terms of the approach that you have to communication about prepping topics, whether we're talking about people who don't share that worldview approach or people who might even think it's either irrelevant or sort of have an antithetical view towards it? Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things that I would. wanted to say here. So first off, I mean, I almost teared up when Colin said that because it's really the whole show the next generation is about engaging and involving youth in being

prepared for the sake of being prepared. And to hear that Colin is able to go out and talk to his teachers and talk to his friends and spark that same level of interest in adults, that I'm trying to spark in kids, that just blows my mind. I mean, that deserves a mind-blown emoji right through the radio. So, I mean, I got to say that's, that's to me what the whole point of our show is. And when it comes to communication, we can do that to a certain point on a podcast. We can demonstrate it with the projects that we do. We can talk about it with the subject matter that we bring up every week.

And we're talking, and it's almost like we're preaching to the choir because our podcast asks go out to folks who are already preppers or they're interested in being preppers or they're just interested in being prepared or engaging their own families. So as a podcast, we're able to do that at a very isolated level. At a real world level, I can give you an example for like when I go to work. And I mentioned earlier, I sit around with a handful of guys. I think there's eight of us that we sit around for about a half hour every day and just talk, you know, just talk about what's going on in the world, what we're doing, what, you know, who's handling what, what kind of life things that people are going through and stuff like that. And I'm generally pretty excited when I make changes around the homestead. And, you know, this summer we're going to be getting engaged in chicken rearing and animal husbandry. We've already started an aquaponics system and we have, you know, 42 fish live, full-grown tilapia in one of my outbuildings that we're going to be using for an entire aquaponics setup.

And when I start talking to people about these things, obviously I'm excited about it. but um there are comments like oh wow well like i guess if there's an apocalypse then i know where to go and to me that kind of it kind of does nothing but raise a brow because the idea that what i'm doing in just being prepared or taking an extra um you know taking a different taking preparedness to a different level on my own in my own personal life uh is something that other people could learn from, it kind of changes the game for me at a personal level. So when I try to have conversations, I guess I attempt to communicate by what I'm excited about and what I'm doing and allow other people to either demonstrate interest or not. If people aren't interested in the

plants that I'm growing or the animals that I'm raising or the projects that I'm doing with my family or you know the things that I do just to keep a home and keep things safe and secure I generally don't bother with it and a big part of that is because I don't the thing is with preparedness is it's not something that I feel needs to be sold I'm not here to sell a product or an idea or an ideology preparedness is to me a lifestyle And if someone wants to learn or mimic the lifestyle that I'm leading because they want to better their own families, then I'm happy to help them. But if they decide that that's not their path or that you don't want to get involved in it at all, I mean, I let them do their own thing. It's not something that is a two-way conversation at that point.

Absolutely. I appreciate that, Ryan, and the point that you're making about, like, look, this is a, it's a lot. lifestyle, not a product. There are certainly things that people can do from a material perspective to increase the preparedness level and increase the resilience to certain outcomes in certain situations. That's always part of it, but thank you for mentioning that and for taking that kind of approach. It's critical for these ideas to be communicated and for people to be more cognizant about making practical practical solutions and

you know it doesn't it doesn't take an apocalypse for making a few extra correct decisions and thinking about things in a practical and common sense kind of way for that for that really to to pay off and so you know it's it's a good thing to have

yourself and like-minded people all around this table thinking about things in that same way so let's pass it over to Jordan, your thoughts about communication styles and what works and what doesn't when talking to people who either share the prepping mindset or don't, any context from there? Oh, absolutely. You know, the one thing I've ran into with my life being the vast different fields I've worked in,

I've never been able to water down my personality for anybody. What you see is what you get. I'm loud, I'm straightforward, and I don't have a very good edit button, and I have never been good at sugarcoting. So I have ran into where sometimes that can be a conflict, but a lot of times it works to my favor. I've ran into a few people who are very, very set on the fact that the fact that I do kill my own food or I help a friend out and kill and end up with food in my freezer. to them is outlandish and old fashion, but that's how I grew up. You know, it is like exactly like Ryan said.

It is a lifestyle. This isn't a fashion or a faux paw. This is really a way of living. Knowing that you can be self-sufficient and self-reliant and be able to take care of your family, I feel like for us gives us that extra level of security that other people, I feel, have a thought. sense of security of, if that makes sense. But as far as communication, I have never really

had a difficult issue of talking to anybody. I am a stranger to no one at times, which can or cannot be a good thing or a downfall. A prime example, I won't say where I talked to two young gentlemen, but I had to make a call, dealing with some stuff, and I came across two young men. Very approachable very nice very very very southern uh and not because they're southern i've talking to northern people this way too we got onto it i asked my my simple is an emergency bag what happens uh being where they lived with the flooding or the hurricanes or wherever it be and and bringing up a question of how do you handle that situation brought more questions and i'm pretty sure i have those two young men now being listeners trying to to do things for themselves and but you also as

prepper or ask someone in my situation or is any of the other host, we have to also know when to fold our cards. I'll have people who will try to argue with me and say that it doesn't make sense. We don't live in the Stone Age. And I'll tell them, well,

you know, we can agree to disagree. I have my lifestyle and you have yours. And I'm not criticizing someone for their high-tech age of self-indulgence. You know, I'm not going to cut them down, I ask for in return the same amount of respect. Now, whether or not that's given,

that's neither here and or there. But yeah, I feel like being able to be open about who I am and not sugarcoat it in my favor shows that I'm not going to back down for my personality or my way of life just because someone doesn't agree with it. I'm not going to try to start a fight, but I am going to stand my ground. And that's what I want my children to be, is confident in who they are in our lifestyle and the way we live. I mean, it's just like with our faith. We stand behind our faith, and we're not going to let someone falter us from that because they don't agree with our views. You know, I think that's a big problem with today's society is everybody wants everybody else to bow down, but no one wants to understand that, hey, we're different people in a vast world, you know, a big world with vast amount of people in it.

So nobody's two decisions are alike, and I wanted to point out, you know, Ryan had mentioned that people, people look at you. And I have had the same thing said as, oh, well, if the world ends, you can take care of yourself. And absolutely, well, I would hope that I can. I believe in enough confidence that I could get further than most. I have had people ask me, well, I'll come to you when stuff happens. And I've had to actually, I'm the kind of person. I've even told my best friend, no. If you can't contribute to the community and help, I can't take care of someone when my own children are. pulling their own weight. So, I mean, it's very, for me, it's very blunt and very forward. Oh, thank you. Okay. But I don't know. Did I cover that or is that a little too harsh? Oh, no. No, it's a, it's a great perspective because it points us to the idea that in terms of communication, your personality and your confidence play a huge role in it. And it's an important thing

to note because we have to understand for ourselves if we're introverted or extroverted and how we can handle these situations and we have to build up our own confidence so that we can be more comfortable in our own skin so that our words can carry the weight of authority because we walk the walk in addition to talking the talk and it's easy for people to see someone who is communicating from a standpoint of inauthenticity. And you can smell someone who's just faking it, and particularly if they're in your face talking things, you just know, like, this isn't real,

this isn't something I should pay attention to, and most people are sort of tuned out until they see something that is different. Like, okay, this person has the courage of their convictions and they're doing things that they believe in, and they're not like deliberately harming other people. And so maybe there is something there. So the communication style and personality is definitely something that is important.

So thank you for that, Jordan. Right. I'm going to add in there real quick if you don't mind. But being confident in what you believe in who you are will actually open the door to a lot of people approaching you with questions. I mean, that is a very common occurrence, whether it be the last job or this job. and being surrounded by people who are comfortable and willing to ask you question shows you that you have the ability to teach others, even if it's something small. So I just wanted to throw that in there.

That confidence does expand to the people around you. And if they see that, then they will actually start asking questions because they want to learn. Yeah, absolutely. And I can contribute another idea to this from the five years that I've spent as a tutor. when people have questions, perhaps many different times throughout the course of their life, they have been used to asking a question and then being made to feel like the question was either stupid or unnecessary or it doesn't matter. And, you know, that can unfortunately come from teachers and parents and other people in influence. And it creates a significant trust issue

even if that's not the intention of the person who's sort of brushing them off. And this starts from an early age where kids will ask why, why, why over and over and over again. And it gets obnoxious to the parents to the point where those questions just start getting shut down. And so when you demonstrate that you are capable of hearing a question, handling it, with the understanding that other people are not operating with the same base of information, and you handle it confidently and appropriately, that can open a door that people are really thirsty for information and knowledge and the truth

and to do things better and to take on responsibility. And it's a, it's a, it's keenly lacking in our society. So if you're one of the rare people who can communicate in that fashion and be welcoming in terms of your answers and identifying these questions as important and validating people while perhaps even steering them in a better direction, and that's going to be a recipe for effective communication. So thanks for all those answers there, everyone.

That's an important part. We're through the halfway point of our roundtable discussion here. I don't know, Dane, if you're still with us, but I wanted to go to you first on this next question, and it essentially just concerns our title here. I'm just going to ask everyone going around, what makes a prepper? Is it a stockpile of material?

Goods? Is it a mindset? Is it a firm belief that the world's going to end tomorrow? Is it a community of like-minded people? Dane, thanks for sticking around. But in your mind, what does, what makes a prepper? Well, first I've got to say, I do have to sign off after this. So this will be the last one for me. But, you know, I think what makes a prepper is drive.

It's a drive to learn things that you don't know. it's drive to want to provide for your family beyond what you're already doing. I mean, bringing home a paycheck is awesome, and that's a really good thing. But you're not just looking at your next paycheck. You're looking at a year from now. You're looking at two years from now. You're looking at when your kids grow up and teaching them skills now. You're looking at the entire scope of your life instead of just a

small aspect of it. Okay, what groceries do I need this week? I think a prepper is somebody who even if you haven't started preparing, you're someone who does think about the future. And I think a prepper is also somebody who even if they don't have the money to train, you know, like I do at the range, I mean, I'm sending anywhere from 300 to 400 rounds down range every month, you know, but if you don't have the money to train like that or the sponsors or whatever you know one of the biggest things that i do you know that makes me a prepper is i train as much as possible and one of the biggest things that i do that almost no one else i know does as far as training goes is tracking you know uh if if you learn to track not only is it going to be useful for hunting but

it's also going to be useful to check the perimeter of your property you know when when you are on your retreat property it's going to be useful for finding an animal that might be injured it's going to be useful for finding any kind of animals that might be free range or or eating around your property I mean there's just so many reasons to do that kind of training but you know that's just a general aspect and one of the things that I like to do as far as training goes but I think you know a brepper is somebody who who trains a lot who thinks about the future all the time and who takes action to make sure that that preparedness is not in vain. That's my personal opinion.

But I am going to have to sign off, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I'll see you guys. I'm not going to have a show tomorrow night because we're going to be getting 8 to 12 inches of snow. So I'm not going to be on tomorrow night.

But I will see you guys next week. Okay. Thanks so much, Dane. We really appreciate all of your contributions and for joining us here and for those who are interested in Dane's giveaway, keep an eye out on the Prepper Broadcasting website, prebroadcasting.com. You'll see a link there, and you can get in touch with Dane

and make sure that you're properly entered for that drawing. So thanks again, Dane. Really appreciate your time here tonight. Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you. I'll talk to you all soon. Thanks a lot. All right, take care.

And let's continue our conversation here by passing things over to Ryan. So, Ryan, in your mind, from your, from your standpoint, what makes a prepper? What makes someone a prepper? Well, you've got the standard definition. I don't have it in front of me. I'm sure someone out there could recite it if they had to,

essentially someone who expects that there's the potential for something to go wrong and takes precautions to avoid it or to live through it. and I mean prime example about I think it was actually last week I sent out a message on social media and this is what it said in wide out day four power held out until a few minutes ago my house is warm from the wood stove my belly is full from food stores my devices allow contact because of backups and my family family's safe because we are prepared. This is why I'm a prepper. And I was shocked at how many people responded to that one message. To me, I think the idea of being a prepper or being prepared is simply taking care of your family. What makes a prepper is the heart behind that.

and kind of like Dane was saying you know you've you've got your it's that that spirit that goes behind it and I think when you as an individual recognize that you are responsible for another human being or whether it's your yourself or your wife or your kids or whatever that may be you realize in that moment that you have have to take care of something other than yourself. You have to grow beyond yourself. You have to be able to sustain and survive. And for some people, that's as simple as going to work. For other people, like, you know, the preparedness community, it goes well beyond that into something that's, you know, some people might take to an extreme level, but in all reality, it's just a matter of knowing certain things and handling things appropriately.

so that you can wake up and look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that, yes, I am prepared. I am prepared for the day before you start. Before you go to bed, you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, I'm prepared for tomorrow. That's what makes it preparer. Thank you for that, Ryan. And while you were talking, I figured I'd look up the dictionary definition.

Miriam Webster says that the definition. of a prepper is a person who prepares something or prepares for something. That's the kind of generic thing. So we always need to be preparing for something because something is going to happen, regardless of whether it's the status quo and its continuation or it's going to be a disruption in what we would consider our normal everyday routines and the things that we often take for granted. Now, more specifically, they do provide additional context for a person who gathers materials or makes plans in preparation for surviving a major disaster or cataclysm. And so A major disaster or cataclysm is certainly one of the things that can be prepared for to a certain extent.

There are certain things that regardless of your level of preparation, you won't be able to fend off or deal with properly. But to your point, Ryan, I think this idea about having a solemn responsibility for the well-being of not just yourself but for other people, those you love, whether it's your family, your friends, your community, that that requires you to think about. the risks and to think about the threats and to think about the potential things that can be done in an efficient and a manageable way in order to take advantage of the resources that we have that we work for and that we're given to make sure of those things. It's a it's a frame of mind. It's it's all of the above. So I really do appreciate your perspective there. yeah if i could say one thing what makes a prepper is not the guy that james opened this entire show about that guy in my opinion is absolutely in no way a prepper yeah true just for those of us

joining us or for those who may have forgotten it took me a half a second to click back into the story about someone who was stockpiling stockpiling things and was arrested with all sorts of different, you know, threats and other things. I'm not 100% familiar with the story, although I did hear the headline. It was to use the materials that have been presented

for the purpose of harming others, and I would agree with you, Ryan, wholeheartedly, and I know that everyone else would hear would as well, that that is completely antithetical to preparation and to the prepping mindset, because it's just the exact opposite, Instead of, you know, to try to bring harm and disruption to others as opposed to create an environment where people can be preserved and to flourish despite obstacles and challenges, it's just so far against the mindset. And we want to make sure that here on this broadcast, we're drawing that line definitively and distinctively.

So thanks for bringing that up, Ryan. Jordan, over to you in your mind, based on your experience, because of all the, let's say, difficulty and challenge with the way that this label is being portrayed and the mission of Prepper Broadcasting Network to retake the pragmatic, down-to-earth, adult, responsible, just common-sense version of the term, what to you makes a prepper? oh wow see everybody else has explained it so good i don't uh you know i don't think of prepper is necessarily someone who has all the gadgets and the training i think it's it's definitely a you know part mindset part action definitely where you want things to go uh for me being prepared is something as far as making sure that my children children can survive without me. I'm not saying in a catastrophic event because God forbid I would hope that doesn't happen. But if it were, you know, at least I know they can make it. And hopefully to

prepare them enough as adults, that they'll be decent human beings that that will respect what they've learned, that they will learn a sense of pride and joy out of the hard work and laborist work that they've done. For me, prepping was not a word I grew up with. It was being country. You know, the first word I ever heard and heard the most criticism for being prepared for anything was a survivalist. And that right there, when it first came out, was a word that meant you were willing to break the law at any means. And, you know, that was something I even had an argue with my mother is No, unless I have to absolutely protect my family, I do not plan to go to links of breaking the law. So it's teaching my children that there are ways to do things right, whether it be, yeah, we do, we do store food.

And my biggest argument with that for people who try to say prep and, oh, you're waiting for the zombie apoculose, I said, no. Why should I have to wait for that to prepare? I tell them, what happens when your power goes out? Not uncommon here to get storms that knocks people's power out for over a week or two. You know, tornadoes are very common in this area. What happens if you have a fire or you're hurt and you can't work? Where is that money and food going to come from? You know, these are things you want people to think about is I'm not preparing for the world to end.

I'm not preparing for the next Civil War. I'm preparing for everyday life. For me, it is a matter of living every day and making sure, because I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. I don't know what next week is going to bring. You know, prime example, I tell everybody and I repeat over and over, my child was hospitalized for a week. My husband received second and third degree burns the next week and was out of work for several weeks. If it weren't for the little bit of money I put up in the extra and the month or two extra amount of food I put up, I don't know how we would have made it because without his check and without. my check because we were tending to everybody you know that that's stuff people don't think about

you know yeah you can have a savings but if the bank goes down or the power goes out you know it's good to have a little cash on you i keep a little 20 dollars in my car every day so god forbid if i forget my wallet or i break down i have enough money to get gas so i can get home you know it's stuff being prepared is thinking at a level for every day that people just don't consider or think about I mean, it's that simple. Yeah, it really is, and I think that captures the essence of what we're going for here quite well, because when the definition I read talks about preparation for a major disaster or cataclysm, I mean, that doesn't have to be of a global sort,

and perhaps we've been inoculated by Hollywood and by entertainment to view all disasters as being sort of the day after tomorrow or apocalypse now or you know the walking dead these these different kinds of metastatic disasters that are you know global in scope when in fact the grand majority of meaningful impact events could be just the kind of things Jordan that you mentioned someone getting sick in your family someone being out of work a car accident And all of these things are to the people who are experiencing it, a major disaster or a cataclysm. And so it really is incredibly important there when we talk about the mentality and when we talk about just making the practical decisions. Because there are, there's only so much you can do to, you know, get ready for a hypothetical nuclear war, God forbid.

But there are things that you can do to get ready for situations when your power goes out. or when there aren't as much, there's many financial resources or when there's a disruption of one form or another. And chances are those things are all going to happen at one point or another. And so it's incredibly important here, incredibly important to think about things at that level, the everyday, the practical, the things that families and individuals and even communities deal with. So when we think about this, I want to emphasize here from the prepping standpoint,

that just think back over the last five years in your life. Was there ever a time when things were disrupted? Was there ever a time when you had to change your plans or things got disrupted for one reason or another? And I mean, if not, praise God for it. But it just means that there's always that possibility. And by the law of large numbers, it becomes inevitable that you'll have to deal with something like that.

It's something unexpected if you don't actively make the common sense decisions to get ready for it. James, pass it over to you. You are the ringleader of attempting to reclaim the label of a prepper. So I'm coming to you last so that hopefully you've been able to think of the world's most articulate answer on this subject, my friend. But James Walton, what makes a prepper? Well, first off, Ryan had a proud father moment with Collins' answer earlier in the show, and that was very cool. I think I'm having a proud, intrepid leader moment with all these great answers about what a prepper is, not just because, I mean, naturally with the hosts on the network, I know they're very passionate and very thoughtful in this pursuit, not just of redefining the 21st prepper, but also of their individual shows. But to hear it, I think what's hitting me hardest right now is the fact that,

the message that we're looking to convey here at the network is it was something that we talked about and it is something that we talk about but it's clear now more than ever that that mindset and that's sort of what makes a prepper is it's a shared mindset here at the network and yeah those answers were about as perfect as could be i mean even dane hit it off with drive you know what makes a prepper there's no doubt that drive is what makes is a definitely a piece and a big piece of what makes a prepper and you could say that the large majority of people who are unprepared simply don't have the drive after work and after everything that we all have to do i mean we all have schedules that are maxed out and uh you know that little bit of extra drive is often what what sort of divides us but my turn so the word The word is kind of like something that's been changed out over time, and the reason I stuck with Prepper and why I wanted Preper to be sort of what we believe in is because I think it's the word of the time that takes us furthest to whatever it means

to be what we've always been anyway. So this Prepper phenomenon that gets these crazy cross looks and these questions and this, even this infatuation. I mean, I think Colin really spoke to an infatuation with this idea that it's, I don't know that it's wasted on the youth, but I think the youth don't, it's hard for the youth to have the sort of vision of why it's so important. You know, I think in Colin's case, he has a great father who's really molding the idea around his mind, and he's sort of understanding that at a very young age.

But I think, and from a demographic standpoint, you know, if you're really targeting the prepper market, you are targeting people who are further along in the game of life for that reason, I think. But what we're talking about, the things that we're talking about, many of the things that we do on a regular basis and the things that we attribute to prepping are ancient. They're ancient ideas. You know, they are really what a prepping. What the prepper is and what makes a prepper is what made humanity and what kept humanity around forever. That's what really blows my mind about this whole thing. We're talking about doing the things that our ancestors did maybe two to three generations ago and forever before that.

You know, it's, it's the, we look at preppers and we look at people who are self-reliant nowadays because we've been inundated with convenience. Only 60, 70 years or whatever. And maybe a little longer. Not much, though. And we look at those people who've been, who are doing it the way that humanity has always done it. We look at them with crossed eyes, as though they're the weird ones, right? not the guy who orders his groceries from Amazon and never leaves his house, right? That's something that, like, you could definitely understand that.

I can understand that person easy, but I don't know about this guy who cans his own food. I don't know about this guy who generates his own power. You know, I don't know about this person who goes out and kills animals and eats them. It's like what it means to be a prepper. And trust me, I could go on a diatribe about short. term and long-term disaster preparedness and the journey of prepping and, you know, how it starts as a sort of a checklist and evolves into this truly a journey, right, of rediscovering what a human being had to be from its inception. You know, in order to overcome the dire wolves

and the hyena dons and all the monsters that we had to face. Right, from the time we decided we're going to climb out of the trees and do this thing on the ground. From that time forward, all the building blocks of what it is to be a prepper, maybe not everyone, because certain things weren't around, but most of those building blocks and most of those belief systems of, winter's coming, we better be ready or we're going to die. You know, we better have weapons and we better have a means to protect ourselves from the threats that exist out in the world. You know, I can't think of anything more human than that, right? It literally is the story of humanity. It's how we're sitting here talking through microphones to people who are spread out across the entire nation, literally. And it all starts from that sort of readiness mindset.

Only in the last, like I said, 70, 80 years have we lived in this fog where we believe. that we can get up every day and really think about as few things as we want maximize our pleasure time and fall into a pattern of sort of meaningless meaningless endeavors day in and day out resting on the comfort of convenience in our society so what makes a prepper really is

what makes up humanity You know, it is kind of, I think those who are deeply ingrained in homesteading, in prepping, in survivalism, they're all drawing from the same fountain, Stephen, they're all drawing from the same thing that has kept us going as a civilization since the dawn of time. well James if I am hearing you correctly you might just be part of the resistance to the technological utopia that our gracious leaders are attempting to bring in over us I got a lot of well I got a lot of thinking to do about that well that's a that's an appropriate an appropriate answer my friend I would I would echo your sentiments entirely and I would say that in order for someone to be a complete person, you have to have enough of the traits that we would identify with preparation so that you might as well call yourself a prepper. And I will go so far as to say that a complete person has to be a prepper. A complete person is someone who has taken responsibility for their lives and those around them. A complete person is someone who has constructed and has tested and has built their worldview through study and experience.

someone who has dealt with a variety of different circumstances and who is battle-hardened in a metaphorical or even a literal sense, someone who understands their place and their purpose and who derives meaning from taking care of making the decisions that are necessary for the perpetuation, not just of their own lives, but of society as a whole, I would say that without any predisposition, or regret that in order to be a complete person, you have to be a prepper, not just in one form or another, but in a complete form. And so I think that what everyone has been talking to here is a combined set of ideas and principles that are critical for us to take with us. And so we're into the final furlong, so to speak, not necessarily the final sprint just yet, but I want to go around the horn and talk about something that is personal.

And I want to ask people about the biggest mistake or the biggest misconception that you made when you were new either to prepping or to whatever you're doing in terms of a homestead or the role that you're currently filling. and I'll do everyone a favor to sort of get this ready and I'll start with myself. When I made the change from being an agnostic that I had been for my entire life and became a born-again Christian by placing my faith in Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in May of 2014, coming up on five years now, it was at that time that I was simultaneously having a veil pulled back from my eyes about the way that the world functioned.

And it was at that time that there was a lot of hoopla about a variety of different scenarios that could or many would say would be coming to pass in the near future. And so for me, I went into making decisions in overdrive. I made serious and significant changes to the way that I approached things. And I would say that all of those changes that I made in that time were positive. with a couple of exceptions. So the first thing that I would say is that my course correction in terms of evaluating the probability of what was to come in the future went from sort of default status quo and then we'll see what happens to there's guaranteed to be a hyper major disruption and there's no way that the status quo can continue even for another six or 12 months. And so, you know, for me, that was, that was a jarring kind of conclusion. And so it spurred me to action. And as I, as I went through this process and certain things that people said was going to happen didn't actually take place,

what I had to do was I had to recalibrate to adjust the level of my thinking as well as the, as well as the perspective I was taking to rely on the discernment and guidance of the Holy Spirit. And so that doesn't mean that those things that people thought could have happened, you know, that they were impossible or that they were, you know, were even out of the question or that they weren't being planned for in many cases. But by people who wanted to orchestrate these different things, whether we're talking about economic collapse or war or deep cultural divide or civil war here in the U.S. or biological outbreak or natural disaster, all these different things. My point was I essentially said, all right, I'm going to go from a 99% status quo, 1% rare outcome event, to a mindset that said status quo 1% in an immediate time frame and rare event that I don't know about, 99%. And so that time frame and that approach was, it forced me to make some decisions, and that was good. but it was a bit too jarring and so it changed the way that I level set my expectations about things in a way that in a way that was difficult but it's the kind of thing where if I hadn't gone through that kind of a transition maybe I wouldn't have made those other kind of changes that are

that are largely positive like nothing nothing overly negative came came out of that as a result but I can recognize that the extreme nature of a change in viewpoint can create a situation where your thoughts and anticipations about what's going to happen changes significantly as well and maybe overshoots in the other direction. So that was a mistake that I made and a misconception I had was that when I'm speaking to different people about a variety of different issues, whether we're talking about faith or the way that the world works, I had all this information that I, you know, I had all this information that I had learned and I had I felt a profound duty to share it and to spread the word and

I did and I still do but perhaps for some it was it was shared in a way that wasn't designed or wasn't engineered to get the to have the greatest impact it was me sort of a sharing forth of what I had what I had learned and what I had developed when in fact it was kind of me assuming that because I had gotten to a certain place in my understanding of the world, that other people would be aware of that same information or would be able to get to that same place. And so, you know, I'd have a couple conversations with people about faith and the world and different things like that. And then all of a sudden everyone's like, well, you must be nuts. And so it takes a little bit to recalibrate those sorts of things. So I made some mistakes in my own expectations as well as my own

communication style but for me it was all part of a learning experience that has led to a course of maturity where I can say that I've been led into a place of healthy contentment and balance and decision making so I wouldn't trade it for for anything because I've been able to learn from those mistakes but just in case someone is new to this to this whole thing and you can learn from the mistakes that I made then you know more more power to you and I pray that you would be able to avoid those so you can make different mistakes of your own and learn and learn from those the best thing we can do is to learn from other people's mistakes and with that with that in mind I will pass it over to Jordan for for a conversation there so Jordan was there a particular

error or misconception that you had when you were new to what you were doing anything that stands out in your mind in particular I'm just trying to I was trying to think back as you were given your example, and I think the biggest misconception that I can refer back to, and it wasn't necessarily my mistake, but the mistake of my mother and those around me, because we all remember Y2K, right? That was it. Computers and everything was going to stop, and I believe to a point, she believed it was going to happen. You know, I'm trying to think back, because that's been a while now. And I kept thinking, well, nothing's going to happen. Nothing's going to happen. And then seeing all these people flip out over, over this huge, you know, we were going to go

be set back what? All electronics were going to stop and the age of technology was done or whatever that hype was. And it didn't happen. And for me, it was a thing of, okay, well, then you had, what was it, the Aztec calendar. Now they're saying, it was wrong and it's 33 years more away and to me I think it's kind of like you said is I'm not looking at the big event I'm not saying that a big event isn't going to happen or isn't imminent but I don't I'm not going to run on the theories of what was it in grade school oh my god an asteroid's going to hit the year and hit the earth and year we'll say 2020 or something like that you know if you think about that you'll never actually be able to get your mind in the right situation

of being prepared on the same level because for me it's almost like an imminent death sentence for those who focus on that. I did do like you did. I had to look at the smaller picture. I had to look at day-to-day life, you know, there for a while, you know, being a young woman working in construction, then being a single parent working in construction, and then being a married woman, you know, it takes a level to step back. Uh-uh, don't, don't pluck that in. Sorry. It takes a level of stepping back and realizing that, you know, start and small. Start small. You don't have to be, take a big giant leap into it. Start small. I mean, that's something I tell people from my own experience. Start with an emergency bag. Start little. Don't go for the biggest, newest equipment. Fit it to your needs. So I think that was another thing is, you know, you see people doing the military, military grade. Not everything. has to be military spec. Believe it or not, go simple. Go low tech, because most of the time that will work in your favor better than the big picture. I mean, I kept MREs in my car,

but I also had to look at realistically, a case of MREs is anywhere from $60 up. So, okay, you know, I remember Canaan as a child helping making jellies, taking that as an adult, and it expanded that to Canaan vegetables and soups. And so, you know, you've got to look at what's within your means. And that was definitely something that as a parent and as a young woman, fending for myself, I had to look at what I was capable within my means and my tight income. So I think that's what I took for myself was learning,

hey, you know, you can only do so much. So start where you can afford it, but make it efficient. Make it reasonable, but make it work. Absolutely. I really do appreciate that mindset. And just to echo this idea from the hype cycle perspective, Y2K or otherwise, oftentimes we'll buy into something in an explanation that is in an area that we don't understand very well, that we don't have an expertise. And so we'll look to others to explain it. And when we look to others to explain it, it's hard to evaluate their level of expertise and those motivations, because frankly, generally speaking, people don't have time to do all of that research or if they do the research goes in a particular direction and then you get sort of locked into this to this viewpoint and to this false sense of certainty about a variety of different things just because simple things add up to creating this apparent mosaic of information that leads you to one particular conclusion and then once you get there

it's hard to get out of that bottleneck to see to see any other kind of kind of approach or any other kind of way to the point where you end up in a cognitive dissonance trap and all of the above. But don't want to spend too much time on that. But thank you so much, Jordan, for that perspective. James, back to you, a mistake or a misconception that you made or that you had when you started getting involved in prepping? Just one? Well, you know, give it a shot. Man, I was so lost, you know, coming in.

I think I was about 27, what was it around 2011 or 2012, I was, and I was just, I wasn't really even a man yet, Stephen, to be honest with you. I didn't have, I didn't, like, when you get, I always imagine now that like when a man figures out how vulnerable, he and his family are and starts down this journey of preparedness, that they have a base that they've built already. I mean, to really sum it up best, when I moved into the house that I live in now, the home that my wife and I purchased, my father-in-law gave me a hammer. And it was my first real tool that I ever owned. He's like, you're going to need a lot more than this, but here's a hammer. And I remember, you know, at the time, it was like, okay, whatever, a hammer. What am I going to need this for? and looking back it's like I was so far behind the eight ball so then going from that sort of standpoint and rushing forward into now I need everything now the world's coming to an end in a

week and I need everything I need silver I need the biggest thing that I would warn new preppers about or preppers who are or people people who are considering getting into pro whatever whatever the biggest mistake that you can make early on is is what I call the panic purchase right and it's it's reading articles it's listening to podcasts it's reading news and freaking out getting that adrenaline rush and then rushing to make a decision because I did that I did that on several things you know things I read in books things I read on the internet and became scared terrified panicking and feeling like if I don't have this by next week then you know we're going to be eaten wood so I think the biggest mistake and I

made a bunch of them but to sort of categorize them all is be very careful about panic and be very thoughtful about spending money and planning because these things require thought in time and it's not just let me hurry up and fill a hole that can be very dangerous it sure can just because if we make decisions based on our emotional state of being in our you know particularly when it's driven by fear then we're not going to have the proper conviction we're not going to have the proper confidence we're not going to have the proper understanding so even if we get something right directionally in terms of where we need to be allocating our resources. We're going to make a mistake somewhere along the road, even if it's just like, you know, you're doing the right thing,

but you're freaking out. And so you're upsetting the people, the people around you and not communicating it properly. And so that can damage a relationship. And it requires things to, things to be done about that sort of set you back. And so being more methodical and thoughtful and all of that is an incredibly important piece of advice, James, that I would echo from my own experience. So let's pass it over to Ryan for an answer on this question. Same concept, same idea. What was a meaningful or important or even valuable mistake or misconception that you had, Ryan, previously that you've learned a lot from and that would benefit our audience here? Yeah. And I think, you know, it's kind of hard to follow James and Jordan on this question because both of their answers were pretty much spot on and I don't know, you know, what more I could add. But if I could add something, you know, so Jordan talked briefly about time, you know, the idea of being locked to a clock, like a doomsday clock or whether you're locked to that kind of time concept or the iPhone that you're staring at every minute of every day while you're getting on a.

bus or train or getting into a taxi or making sure that you get to work on time or whatever or if you're actually paying attention to the sundial um and to me you know you've got that concept of time that has has been kind of evaded in a lot of ways in modern society and then here's james talking about the tools you know the you know the hammer was an excellent example because how many people are handed to actual tools that they need. Well, when you combine these two things, you can have a concept of time and you can have a concept of tools,

but if you don't understand the experience that backs those two things, you won't be able to deliver what you need to when it comes to preparedness. And here's what I mean. So I decided five years ago, four years ago, something like that, to leave an urban environment and set up a homestead in the middle of a farm field. And I have a small garden out back. And every year we've planted a garden and every year I've failed to some extent. The first year I was able to harvest some things. The second year I was able to harvest a little bit more. And now this year, I'm looking to harvest

even more and be more efficient and be able to make some long-term preservation meet some long-term preservation goals. But that missing piece, that missing piece of experience is something that is something that had a huge misconception on because I figured, well, you know, I'll be okay. I can go and plant a garden and three months later I'll have all the food that I need. sure enough i had all the food that i would need but i didn't have any of the experience to be able to can it or preserve it properly and much of it went to waste i might have had the soil i might have had the tools i might have had the time i might have seen the recognition or had

the recognition that these two things working together would produce something for me but without that little bit of experience without that little bit of knowledge backing it i was lost and i've had to relearn a lot of these things. And I've had to try and preserve some of these thoughts and these skills. And it's when it comes to preparedness, recognizing that your ability to survive may be limited to the amount of experience that you have, which means the majority of folks out there who do not have the experience of whether it's harvesting an animal or harvesting a plant, they may not be able to do it and you know you can't really just go out there and expect to go into the woods and survive for a year by yourself because if that's your survival plan chances are

you're not going to last very long if gardening is your survival plan if you've never planted a garden you don't have four years to figure it out and I think you know for me that's the biggest misconception that I've had in and trying to, you know, wade through the options and what's going to work best for me and my family, I'm fortunate to have the land to be able to experiment. And I've also been fortunate enough to be able to have resources like a grocery store to go to when my experiments fail. And I think when it comes to long-term preparedness, the ability for someone to step up and really take care of their family. Like James mentioned, you know, 70, 80 years ago, that experience is all but lost.

And recapturing that is really at the heart of what we're trying to do as preppers. Recapture it, share it, and spread that knowledge for as much as we can. Amen to that. I think the idea is that even if the learning curve isn't super steep, it's long because it does take experience and trial and error to deal with your local situation to figure out how to fill in all of those gaps in experience. It's tacit knowledge. You have to learn it on the ground. And so we are now officially in the home stretch here.

So I'm going to pass it around to everyone for another rapid fire round. If you could keep it to a minute or so, that would be great. And then then I'll take it out. I'm going to pass it to James, the intrepid commander here because this is going to be a tough question, James. So usually it's preppers are associated with. the worst case scenario. What's the best case scenario for our country and our nation in a, let's say, five-year time frame? Best case scenario for America in its current state. Is that what you're saying? Well, I assume that we would say that the best case scenario would be that there

would be changes from the current state. But yes, in general. Okay. So if the starting point were today, hmm, that's a good one. Let's say, well, you know, the funny. thing is the trajectory of the world is on and up and up to begin with, you know? So I want to start with that, right? As far as, I mean, yes, because of our reliance on convenience and things like that, we are more susceptible to getting whacked by something big and it having a serious effect, right? But what's happened, like the potential for that is real, but what's happening is, you know, it's better than it's ever been. I think the best-case scenario for the nation within the next five years is for more people to sort of find their way out of the kind of cubical lifestyle that we've been bred for and designed for and use technology and use this incredible reach that we're using right now to find out how.

to make a living and make a life doing what it is that they love and what it is they're passionate about. I mean, that's an opportunity in the age when we spend so much time talking about equal opportunity and equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. That's an opportunity that nearly every person has at their fingertips. So I think best case scenario is that, you know, endeavors like ours at pepperbroadcasting.com, and Devin's like on the objective, push people to realize that they can follow their hearts and their dreams and hopefully make a living and more importantly make a life doing those things. I like it. I like it. Ryan, back to you. What's the best case scenario for this country in a five-year time frame?

sorry i couldn't find the mute button my apologies i'd say that um you know in a five-year time frame the best case scenario uh i don't know if you've heard of a book called the tipping point um but i think if america and really nations around the world reach that tipping point where the citizens recognize that they need to be self-sufficient and prepared is, you know, once they've reached that point, I think that would be the real drive for everything. You know, the fact that you can sit and enjoy the product of what you not only have either collected or, set aside, but you can actually share that with other people. And I think the idea of being prepared is something that people, if it gets going to a point where people recognize it as a way of life, things around the world will change because there won't be as much of an impact on,

you know, services or, you know, a need for overarching government or whatever it may be. And I think reaching that tipping point would be, you know, the kind of the, what do you call it, the utopia, I guess, over the next five years of everything were to go perfect. I'll take it. That would be, that would be a magnificent thing indeed to behold. Jordan, on your end, what would the best case scenario look like for a five-year time frame for America? Honestly, more tolerance. The fact of maybe our nation getting out of being so self-indulged and so intolerant of each other is, I think, really what makes it difficult as a nation to be able to become unified or have that sense of camaraderie. I think I agree with both Ryan and James that we do need a sense of more self-sufficiency because we're,

don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen, but I mean, what's going to change tomorrow. So in five years, I would like to see that there's more tolerance and understanding and more people trying to be efficient in a way that they can take care of their family regardless of this situation. But honestly, my biggest thing I would love to see in the next five year is a nation reunited with that commodity and tolerance. That's the biggest issue I think I see as a proper now is there is little to absolutely no tolerance, mind you, your point of view or your perspective as a human being. So I would like to see us join together again as a front. Thank you, Jordan. I certainly appreciate that. And it does seem like we would,

we have to be in a better situation if we can have conversations with each other that are based on respect and the mutual dignity of the person. So in addition to this idea of, self-sufficiency. I'll add five things that for me, I think, is honestly the, honestly the best case scenario. I would say spiritual awakening, the removal of corruption, sound money, school choice, and no more abortion. If we could see those in five years, man, I would give all the praise honor and glory to God for what must be a succession of incredible miracle. So with that note, We are going to bring our broadcast, our roundtable to a close. Again, this is what makes a prepper on the Prepper Broadcasting Network.

I have been your moderator, Stephen Menking. You can find me at On The Objective.org. Just go to YouTube and type in On The Objective. That's the best way to get in touch with me. And our channel on behalf of Dane at the Gun Metal Armory, Jordan at a family affair, Ryan and Colin Buford at The Next Generation, and James Walton, who I actually will pass it over to to close out this broadcast. So take it away Intrepid Commander.

The Intrepid Commander has arrived. Listen, Stephen, I want to thank you first and foremost, man. You did an incredible job tonight. Yeah. Well, when I thought about this thing from the get-go, I said to myself, I have a lot of good ideas, and I have a good vision on how this could go. but I think there's a man who could make this thing go smoother and better than I ever could.

And that was you, Steve, and you hit the nail on the head tonight. So thank you so much for everything tonight, first and foremost. My pleasure. Always a blessing to be here with you and your audience. I thank you for the opportunity. It was a great conversation. I learned a lot, and I hope everyone else did as well. So thanks again for that, James, take us out, and we're kind of overtime here.

I guess it's your network so we can do whatever you want. Yeah, we can do whatever I want. I do like that freedom. Secondly, I'd like to thank the listening audience, guys. I know I say it a lot, but this is your show. You know what I mean? You are the reason that we do this as long as you keep showing up and keep sharing things, and please do me a favor and share this because these are rare in the prepping community.

They really are. And it's a format that I absolutely love, and I'm a little biased with this one in particular because it's all my friends but please share this thing around the best you can and do me a favor and go check out on the objective.org also if you like this format again uh Stephen has over six hours of preparedness and homesteading roundtables with some of us and some people you need to get to know and you really need to check those out if you enjoy this preparedness roundtable and finally thanks to the wonderful hosts you know the the the cog wheels in the engine that drive the prepper broadcasting network i can only i can only convince lady liberty to let me do

one night a week for two hours so without the hosts we have no network so i thank all you guys for taking the time again after your busy life is already all stitched up and you're here with you know sunken eyes i'm sure doing this for me i really do appreciate it and uh we'll do another one soon but thanks so much guys we'll talk later and i'll be back next week with joe Jim from Vigilantwolf.com. That's what the I.M. Liberty Show will be next week. We'll be talking about EDC and workplace preparedness from the standpoint of a man who has quite the commute to deal with each day.

So it'll be an interesting take on that. But thanks again, Stephen and everyone, and we will see you next time, guys. Are you prepared to be the family doctor in a disaster or emergency? This is the Intrepid Commander, and I'm holding the Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W. Forgey, MD. In this great book, you'll learn how to prepare for medical care off the grid. You'll learn about assessment and stabilization. You'll even deal with things like bioterrorism response, radiation,

and how to build the off-grid medical kit at home. Look, 2020 taught us a lot about the limitations of our medical infrastructure in America. Get the Prepper's Medical Handbook today at Amazon. Again, that's the Prepper's Medical Handbook by William W.40.