If we lost everything tomorrow—gear, plans, stockpiles—and had to start prepping from zero in 2026, what would we actually do first?

After more than a decade of podcasting about preparedness, we break down what truly matters, what we’d skip entirely, and how we’d rebuild in the smartest, most economical order possible. This episode isn’t about doomsday fantasies—it’s about building a prepared life that works for the world we’re actually living in and heading into.

🧠 Why Threat Assessment Comes Before Gear

Why gear-first prepping wastes money and creates gaps

Personal risks matter more than global apocalypse scenarios

How Your Personal Apocalypse shapes smarter decisions

📋 Plans Before Purchases

Why written plans prevent panic buying and redundancy

Household plans for evacuation, shelter-in-place, comms, and reunification

The importance of documentation, inventory lists, and backups

💰 The Most Economical Prep Order

Why finances are one of the first real preps

Emergency fund > ammo

Reducing monthly fragility through debt, subscriptions, and dependencies

Buying quality gear slowly instead of panic-buying junk

🏠 Securing the Home You Already Live In

Why most emergencies are weather, utility, or safety related

Low-cost home hardening that actually matters

Fire safety, CO protection, lighting, locks, and redundancy

Why water access beats most gear purchases

Apartment, suburban, and rural considerations

🚗 Movement & Mobility Reality

Vehicles as your most important preparedness asset

Get-home planning vs bug-out fantasies

Seasonal realities people ignore

Why maintenance beats mods early on

📦 Simple, Modular Gear

Why complexity increases failure points

Modular systems for water, food, medical, and power

Multi-use gear over niche survival items

Building slowly and testing often

🧑‍⚕️ Health, Fitness, and Medical Reality

Why health is one of the most ignored preps

Injury, illness, and fatigue as real-world failure points

First aid knowledge over first aid gear

Fitness as preparedness without calling it “prepping”

📡 Using Tech—Without Trusting It

Smart tech use vs tech dependency

Where tech actually helps (alerts, mapping, power)

Why analog backups still matter

Planning for outages, updates, and failure

🧠 Skills, Hobbies, and a Normal Life

Prepping that doesn’t feel like doomsday living

Skills that overlap with hobbies and daily life

Community as a force multiplier

Avoiding burnout and paranoia

🌍 Prepping With One Eye on the Future

AI, automation, and increasing system fragility

Why adaptability is the most valuable prep

Flexibility beating specialization in unstable systems

🔁 How We’d Pace the First Year

What we’d focus on in the first 30, 90, and 365 days

Avoiding overwhelm

Building habits instead of hoards

Why slow prepping actually sticks

BattlBox – Get solid, tested gear without the junk

Poncho Outdoors – High-quality flannels and western shirts built for real life

LMNT – Electrolytes for performance, endurance, and readiness

Sanitary pads can function as effective wound dressings

Studies show some brands are as bacteria-free as sterile dressings

Useful for packed wounds, orthopedic padding, and bleeding control

A low-cost, overlooked medical prep