I had the opportunity to get a preview copy of the first episode of the upcoming show called Doomsday Preppers which will be airing next Tuesday, February 7th on National Geographic.

I wanted to take a moment to give you guys an idea about what the show is about and what my initial thoughts and reactions are.

From the introductory scenes I immediately thought that NatGeo was going to paint these preppers in a negative light (which I’ve seen other shows do). To my surprise though I thought they did a great job at staying neutral and just documenting what these various preppers are doing if the SHTF.

The first episode documents three different groups of preppers from vastly different walks of life:

1. A group of 22 preppers from Texas with various skills (military, farming, homesteading etc) with plans of sheltering in a fortified compound capable of being completely off-grid and having 15 years of food storage for all 22 people.
2. A solo surivivalist in L.A. with plans of living off the land using mostly local plants, wildlife and his wilderness survival skills.
3. A young 20-something apartment-dwelling female from Houston who has enough supplies to last the initial 2 week chaos with plans to bug out to Mexico.

The basic outline of the show is as follows: Get a glimpse into the lives of each group of preppers, find out what they are preparing for, what types of preps they have, and what they are going to do when the SHTF. At the end of their segments, each prepper receives an expert assessment from Practical Preppers (a company founded by longtime preppers) who share their experiences and knowledge giving them tips on what they could improve upon. After some time, NatGeo follows up with them to see what types of changes they made after the initial assessment was made.

Without going into details about each group (I don’t want to ruin it for you) my feeling is that overall I really liked the show. Not only did I find some of the preppers inspiring (giving me some great ideas for my own plans) but I felt National Geographic did a great job at keeping the tone of the show very neutral and not condescending in any way.

I’m sure many of the everyday Americans that will watch this show will find some of these people (or maybe all) crazy and extreme, but for me I felt right at home (which maybe categorizes me into the “crazy and extreme” crowd  ).

All in all I give the show a thumbs up and would recommend you all to check it out the premier next Tuesday, Feb 7th 9PM EST.

You can get more details by checking out the Doomsday Preppers official website.

Meltdown, a 4-part documentary by Al Jazeera deals with what caused the crash, how it spread like a cancer throughout the world, who were affected the most, and how the world leaders are (conveniently) rethinking capitalism.

Even though I’m not a big fan of Al Jazeera, they did a great job of bringing to light some of the key players involved in this financial mess (although I feel the rabbit hole does indeed go much deeper).

Each episode is around 45 minutes but well worth it.

Part 1: THE MEN WHO CRASHED THE WORLD

In the first episode of Meltdown, we hear about four men who brought down the global economy: a billionaire mortgage-seller who fooled millions; a high-rolling banker with a fatal weakness; a ferocious Wall Street predator; and the power behind the throne.

PART 2: THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL TSUNAMI

In the second episode of Meltdown, we see how the financial tsunami swept the world. We hear about a renegade executive who nearly destroyed the global financial system and the US treasury secretary who bailed out his friends.

PART 3: PAYING THE PRICE

The third episode of Meltdown looks at how the victims of the 2008 financial crash fight back. A protesting singer in Iceland brings down the government; in France a union leader oversees the kidnapping of his bosses; and thousands of families are made homeless in California.

PART 4: AFTER THE FALL

In the final episode of Meltdown, we hear about the sheikh who says the crash never happened; a Wall Street king charged with fraud; a congresswoman who wants to jail the bankers; and the world leaders who want a re-think of capitalism.

My sister-in-law is a fashion designer and in a recent photoshoot for her clothing line she had featured one of my homemade self-bows. I thought the pictures look pretty cool.

This particular bow was made from a red-oak board that I bought from Home Depot. Thebow is 70″ long @ 45lb full-draw weight. Red oak isn’t the best bow wood around, but you can still make an effective and serviceable hunting bow.

If you guys are interested, I could do a series of posts on how to make one of these. Enjoy!

Copyright: Myke Yeager Photography
Make-up: Christy Lavallee
Model: Mara Adriana
Wardrobe: Kate Alves

The main plot of the story (so far at least) revolves around a small band of survivors who call themselves the resistance. Led in part by a former BU history professor (played by Noah Wyle) they wander the apocalyptic aftermath of the Boston area trying to make some sense of their lives. This human underground is forced to find food, necessary supplies, and seek out a meager existence all while plotting how they can avoid and overthrow their occupiers who at this time in the show it is unclear why they came to Earth.

“Falling Skies”, airing Sundays at 9PM EST on TNT, appears to be a pretty solid show and, for you survival-minded folks, it opens up a slew of “What would I do in that situation?” or “How would I react?” questions that good survival stories inspire.

Even though I felt the movie was a bit simplistic and over the top, it was entertaining and thought provoking. As far as I’m concerned, I feel hyperinflation is a definite possibility, although we’re not completely there yet.

It all depends on how long the dollar can remain as the world-reserve currency. That and the fact that since credit is decreasing, it will have a deflationary effect on the economy — but again only for so long.

So check it out and let me know what you think:

The premise of the show is to take these two experts, who have very different philosophies on how to survive in the wild, and throw them into some of the planet’s most unforgiving terrain to demonstrate how the right skills and some creative thinking can keep you alive. It’s pretty entertaining to see how they have to work together — despite the differences in philosophy — in order to reach the common goal of getting out alive.

I’ve been following (and learning from) both Dave and Cody for a few years now. They are both excellent teachers and very skilled at what they do. It’s comforting to finally see some top-rate wilderness survival experts being depicted on these survival shows (although entertaining, I don’t find Bear Grilles show very accurate or educational).

If you’re interested in learning from David or Cody (which I would highly recommend either of their schools), here’s their info:

	David Canterbury owns and operates the Pathfinder School out of southern Ohio. He’s got a great collection of YouTube videos that you can find on the wildernessoutfitters channel. He’s also got some great online classes/certification programs that you can find on his website.
	Cody Lundin is the founder of the Aboriginal Living Skills School. With more than 22 years of southwestern experience, ALSS is one of the premier survival schools to attend if you want to know how to survive in desert and arid environments.

It’s amazing that after many hours of doing the interview and taking video it gets cut down to under 2 minutes! Although I’m not quite sure how I feel about the title, I thought it came across well and didn’t make me out to look like some wacko (although I admit I am a bit strange  ).

Here is the official description:

After Armageddon

What have past acts of destruction taught us about what will happen to mankind after the apocalypse? Is it inevitable that disaster will someday strike America on an unprecedented level? How has history prepared us? History’s most dramatic events – Hiroshima, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and others – are examined and analyzed with hard data gathered from their massive aftereffects. The disappearance of water and food supplies, the effects of deteriorated sanitation and health care on the remaining population, and the increased use of violence as a means of survival – all illustrate how societies have responded and survived.

Here’s the current schedule (in EST):

Tuesday, January 05 08:00 PM
Wednesday, January 06 12 am
Saturday, January 09 8 pm
Sunday, January 10 12 am

Check it out!

What I found really interesting is that according to National Geographic, Ed does not bring years of wilderness survival expertise to the show but instead is only an experienced outdoorsman seeking to test himself in the wilds. This will be very interesting to see how he fares compared to Discovery Channel’s Les Stroud (Survivorman) who has some obvious skill in survival.

One thing that I did notice right away in watching some of the online video clips is the amount of gear that he brought with him — it looks like he’s got a 65 pound pack full of gear, another large duffel with food, some guns, and a canoe among other things. So for you disappointed purists out there, give the guy a break, he is after all doing a show on being alone in the wild, not showcasing his survival prowess.

In any event it will be interesting to watch and I look forward to seeing it when it airs. Despite the gear, 50 days in a ‘survival’ setting is still a difficult task and I have great respect for him. After all, the longest I’ve been out in the wild in a survival situation (I only had a knife, a wool blanket, and a firestarter) was for a week and even that was pretty difficult.