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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadPrepping channels are full of gear lists. But what happens when you sort through all of them and see what comes up again and again? You get a short list of items that nearly every experienced prepper recommends. That’s what this countdown is about. The 11 items that prepping YouTubers recommend you stockpile more than anything else. These aren’t tactical toys or expensive gadgets—they’re the basics. The kind of gear that should be standard issue for anyone serious about preparedness. Let’s count them down, from #11 to #1. TL;DR: The 11 most recommended prepper…

Sign up for This Happened to Me News on backcountry adventure and wilderness survival. This story, “The Argentine Way,” appeared in the November 1953 issue of Outdoor Life. The author is known for his book, A Northwoods Rendezvous. Mat Strother and I crawled on our bellies through the thin, parched grass of the Argentine pampas with the sun fairly frying our backs through our heavy shooting jackets. Ahead loomed a limitless expanse of flat grazing land, broken only by a near-by open pothole, glittering in the midday sun. But if our eyes stung with sweat, our mouths also watered in…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadFree speech has always come with a price. Unfortunately, now that price has started looking a lot more like a body count. It started off in the 1990s as political correctness. Then, during the COVID years, it evolved into cancel culture, marked by lost jobs, public shaming, deplatforming, and the destruction of businesses, among other consequences. But now? We’re entering the next and far more dangerous phase of silencing people with different opinions. People aren’t just being canceled anymore. They’re being physically attacked—and in some cases, killed—for what they believe, say, or represent. That…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadGroup membership during collapse. It sounds simple until it isn’t. Someone knocks. They need help. You know them—or maybe you don’t. But they’re standing at your front door. They’re tired, scared, hungry, maybe sick. And they need help. You have stew cooking. Their kids haven’t eaten in days. You know that sharing your food is taking away from your family. Every meal you share with other is one meal closer to you and your loved ones starving. That moment is not the moment to start thinking about how your group handles new members. Unless…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadPreparedness isn’t about throwing a bunch of gear into one bag and hoping it works. And it’s not about having a bunch of bags and not knowing which to use. It’s about building systems—layered, intentional, and based on how people actually move through the world. Most preppers focus on bag names—Bug Out Bag, INCH Bag, Go Bag—and that’s where confusion starts. The definitions shift. People get stuck wondering: Do I need different bags? What goes in each? Where do I start? What if instead of chasing names, you focused on time?This episode breaks down…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadPrepping doesn’t have to mean you have to be Tactical Timmy in green cargo pants, a grey Santa beard, and an open-carry Glock on your hip. You don’t have to look or act like a stereotype to be ready. In fact, in today’s world of division, suspicion, and targeted outrage, the smarter move is to stay quiet and stay off the radar. This episode is for anyone who wants to be prepared without becoming a lightning rod with a spotlight on it. That means keeping your opinions, your supplies and gear, and your plans…

The Fourth of July and the signing of the Declaration of Independence severed ties with Great Britain and thus receives its due attention. But it was on July 5, 1776, that the former colonials got down to the nuts-and-bolts of governing and winning a war.One of the first orders of business that day for members of the Second Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia was getting cooking kettles to the militia. The Committees of Inspection and Observation were told to “furnish a good kettle to every six men, and give all the assistance in their power, that the said militia be…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. The first African lion I ever shot was a man-eater. The year was 1993. It was a lioness. I actually shot two of them. I had been working with government officials in South Africa, and one night we killed four problem lions that had been wreaking havoc on villages for weeks. I skinned out those two lions and one is now mounted life-size in my office, while the other was crafted into a rug. But those weren’t the only mementos from…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadPeople often look at preparedness through a basic lens of supplies, checklists, and storage rooms. And, yes, it feels great as our mountain if prepping supplies grows—I love it. That mindset covers the basics. It’s the logical starting point and does a lot of good for getting prepared. But people who go deeper into their preparedness—just like you are doing now, know that preparedness is a thinking game. You know that what works today might not tomorrow, and that rigid plans, like an egg, are easy to crack. If you’re reading this, odds are…

Israel is refusing to leave Lebanon in peace, not wanting to remove its troops and cease the occupation. It is also considering instigating a new conflict with Syria, even though a condition of the war with Iran ending was Israel’s cessation of its occupation. Israel continues to claim that it is going after Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. But its refusal to withdraw could lead to long-lasting consequences for the US, in a war it already all but surrendered to. Israel has already launched an artillery strike on the village of Abidin in the western part of Syria’s Daraa Governorate, and,…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadLet’s be blunt—your mind is under attack. Not just by algorithms or platforms, but with encouragement from state actors, media networks, and other interests with something to gain by using us. Code. Curated chaos. The attention economy and psyop campaigns thrive on outrage, fear, and distraction, and you’re the product. Every angry scroll, every anxious click, every late-night doom-dive, every bit of influence gained over you? That’s more money and control in someone else’s pocket. And the cost to you? Clarity. Sanity. The ability to focus on what matters most. That feeling of overwhelm,…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadDisaster strikes. The grid goes dark. Infrastructure stops. Your kid goes from eating waffles on the couch to hauling buckets of water up the stairs. Your spouse is trying to cook dinner on a camp stove while rationing batteries. And you’re looking around, trying to figure out how to keep everyone moving forward when the world just hit the pause button. That’s the kind of shift families face in any serious disaster — whether it’s a hurricane grinding the coast or a blackout with no end in sight. And it doesn’t just test your…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. A cold wind hit us as we broke out of timber from our camp near the mouth of Ormond Creek. We kicked the horses out to the gravel bars of the Slana River, which drains out of the great Alaska Range of mountains. It was late September, 1964, and we were heading for a day of hunting for moose, caribou, and grizzly bear. Just as we reached the river bar, my foreman and assistant guide, R. L. Ford, said, “Don, what’s…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThe past five years have been a wake-up call. And things don’t appear to be settling down anytime soon. From disrupted supply chains during COVID and civil unrest to assassinations, ongoing economic instability, and global tensions verging on World War III, we’ve all had a front-row seat to just how fragile our world and the systems we rely on really are. That illusion of stability? Currently, it feels thinner than it has at any point in my life. What happens if things grind to a halt—not just for a few hours or days, but…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadTalking about civil war preparedness isn’t something I enjoy. However, with tensions as high as they are—and nearly half the country believing it’s likely—it’s something we need to consider. A 2024 Marist poll found that 47% of Americans believe a second civil war could happen in their lifetime. When you consider the political anger, the cultural divide, and the daily signs of growing hostility, it’s not hard to see why. Add to that the foreign governments and domestic agitators who benefit from keeping us angry and divided. Then factor in how fast information—true or…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadImagine this: The power’s out. Shelves are empty. The internet is down. And suddenly, the things you quietly set aside—food, fuel, gear, cash—start looking like solutions to everyone else’s problems. Those solutions? They’re exactly what others will notice—and try to grab first. They’re the first target in any crisis. In a true crisis, what you have can make you a target—by anyone. Legal authority already exists to seize what you have or redirect what you need. And if the government doesn’t come for it, desperate people will. Every online order, every debit card swipe—those…

Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadThis episode and article were inspired by a great listener question from E. Hunter, who asked: “As an 18-year-old living with my parents, how would I go about getting my parents onboard with prepping?” That question’s probably not one a lot of you are wondering—especially because, let’s face it, most preppers are old enough to be the parents or grandparents in this situation. That’s what makes this topic so interesting — it flips the usual dynamic. So, Hunter, you’re ready to take preparedness seriously, but your parents? Not so much. Maybe they brush it…

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Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadIf you spend much time on social media, particularly in prepping or survival circles, you’ve no doubt run across the suggestion that wasp spray makes for a dandy self-defense weapon. As the story goes, wasp spray has a range of 20 feet or more and it is severely debilitating to the attacker. On the scale of stupid ideas, this ranks somewhere north of peeing on a fence to see if it’s electric or not. Listen, before we go any further, let’s get this out of the way. The ideal defense weapon in most altercations…

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube

Watch full video on YouTube