In an effort to stop the men who plan to hike into New Hampshire and blow up a railroad bridge, Susan, Paul, and Charon visit Doug. This, so Charon can send a coded message back to his handlers in the Coalition. They reply told of an operative at a farm near Bellows Falls. Now, the three have to concoct a plausible reason for them to be traveling all the way up there (10 hours by horse and wagon). There will be several checkpoints. Charon is less than pleased with Susan's solution.

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Brian, Mic, and Jeff take another look at AI. This time, not in the fictional (and tyrannical) form of Skynet or Colossus, but as a here-and-now influence in our lives. Will AI replace humans for many jobs? Will AI tend to isolate people from each other? For preppers, is AI a good thing, or a bad thing?

Links:

CNBC: Bill Gates says humans won't be needed for most things (after AI)

CNN Business: Tech experts worry we'll rely on AI too much

Psychology Today: How AI could shape our relationships and social interaction

The Stepford Wives: Movie Review

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Susan sneaks out of Boyd's Farm in the dark of night. She meets Charon in the woods outside of the little Deerfield airport. They make their way to the plane without being detected. Charon plants his explosive under the wing, but people start coming from the house. He has to cut the fuse very short and run for cover. The plane explodes just as the people arrive. They put out the subsequent fires quickly. There was no detonation of the Feds' explosive cargo. It was not aboard the plane yet. The airport boss tells the pilot and two helpers that they will have to carry the explosive package in on foot and blow up a bridge themselves.

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Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss the challenges of staying prepared when traveling long distances. They share a few of their travel "horror" stories too. With TSA's restrictions on what can be brought as carry-on, a prepper is more limited in their travel EDC. The guys discuss what they have done to stay as prepped as they can while traveling.

Links:

Official TSA page: What's allowed and not allowed in baggage.

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Susan, Paul, and Charon set out to a farm near West Dover, VT with a load of manure. That, as cover for them checking out the small plane that the Coalition sent Charon to deal with. En route, they encounter checkpoint guards and a skeptical farmer who had no idea why they were there.

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The eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano is one of those mega-disasters that some preppers worry about. Mic, Brian, and Jeff discuss two movies, one with the irresistable title of Volcanic Doom. The second is Supervolcano. The latter actually being about the catastrophic eruption of the Yellowstone volcano. They use those movies as jumping off points to discuss some of the realities of a huge volcanic eruption. 

Links:

Movie: Volcanic Doom — Free YouTube version. (original title: Magma: Volcanic Disaster (2006)

Movie: Supervolcano (2005) BBC/Discovery faux-documentary about the Yellowstone volcano erupting catastrophically.

Movie review: Crack in the World (1965) — a similar global crisis as in Volcanic Doom, with a similar solution. (Nukes)

Article about 1816: The Year Without a Summer.

USGS Page about predicted Yellowstone ash fallout.

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Charon's presence is almost discovered by a surprise inspection of area homes following reports of strange sounds over the village of Marlboro. Charon is hidden just in time and inspectors search for clues. After they leave, Charon outlines his mission -- to find and neutralize the small plane that has been hindering Coalition efforts in the backcountry of upstate New York.

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In a grid-down situation, people will turn to alternate means to cook, for lighting, and to heat their homes. These alternates often involve fire — propane stoves, candles, propane heaters. These pose a higher risk of starting a fire in your home. And, at a time when the fire department probably isn't coming. What can you do?

Mic's special guest for this episode is Brian Duff, a prepper and former fire fighter. He, Mic and Jeff discuss grid-down fire dangers.

Links:

Brian Duff's Mind4Survival.com website.

Brian's Book Mind 4 Survival on Amazon.

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Susan and Paul prepare a night landing spot for the Coalition operative. He arrives in a not-quite-dignified landing. It's Charon. They gather up his paraglider gear and return to Paul's house. While Charon urges them to destroy the glider gear so it can't be discovered, Susan feels the gear is too valuable as a resource. She and Paul must figure out ways to hide the gear.

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As a nod to winter, Mic, Jeff, and Brian, all watched the 2018 movie, Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen. He is the pilot of an airplane that crash-landed somewhere in the arctic. His survival skills have kept him alive for several weeks. When a rescue helicopter arrives, it too crashes due to storm gusts. Only the copilot — a young woman — survived, though gravely injured. He then tries to get her to medical care. The boys key off of this movie to discuss winter preparedness in general.

Links:

Movie, Arctic — (YouTube free version. What little is said, is dubbed in Portuguese)

IMDb Page for Arctic -- Writer, Director, star list. Reviews.

WinterReady tips from Ready.gov

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