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Doo-do-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo. DUM!
0:03
Hey, I'm Mike Rowe, and I've got nothing against celebrities. In
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fact, I just interviewed Rob Lowe Jason Alexander
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a year. grand a year, the first responders
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who risk their lives to save complete and
0:16
total strangers, and the mad scientists who
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0:20
better mousetrap. Those are the kinds of people
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finance agreement due. I am
1:00
prepping for solar flares, asteroids, government fallout, because
1:02
our government is going to collapse. You're
1:04
not prepping for a power outage
1:06
or some bad weather. You're
1:08
prepping doomsday. I have a fortress where
1:10
I'll be able to survive. I'm
1:13
prepped to withstand almost every
1:15
event besides the end of
1:17
time. You have AR-15s, 15 block
1:19
50 AR -15s, 15 block, 19s,
1:21
AK -47s. When does
1:23
being prepared turn to paranoia?
1:35
Well, well, well, tonight
1:37
are diving into bunkers, sifting
1:39
through stockpiles and discussing
1:43
why America leads the
1:45
world in doomsday
1:47
prepping. Now
1:50
once considered paranoid, cultish, conspiracy
1:52
theorists, doomsday preppers have
1:54
become mainstream. In
1:57
fact, roughly 33 %
2:00
of Americans now identify as
2:02
being preppers, up from
2:04
only 6 % 15 years
2:06
ago. This begs the question,
2:08
with growing political divide,
2:10
mistrust in our government, reaching
2:12
a fever pitch, and
2:15
many who believe that the
2:17
armed conflicts in the
2:19
Ukraine, Israel, and tensions between
2:21
China and Taiwan would
2:23
lead to World War III
2:25
are preppers to smart
2:28
ones. When does being prepared
2:30
turn to paranoia? And
2:32
where is the line
2:34
between practical emergency readiness and
2:36
unhealthy hoarding and fear?
2:39
Now, my first guests, Landon
2:41
and Amanda, say they're
2:43
prepping their family to survive
2:45
these apocalyptic times. Take
2:47
a look. I'm
2:49
not prepping for doomsday. We're not
2:51
gonna be here. I'm prepping
2:53
up until doomsday. I'm surviving the
2:55
end of times, because they
2:57
are coming. Look at Noah's Ark,
2:59
they got on the boat.
3:01
I am prepping for solar flares,
3:03
asteroids, government fallout, because our
3:05
government's gonna collapse. This
3:07
upcoming year, I believe we are gonna
3:09
have total anarchy in the United States
3:11
of America. Look at
3:13
our border, it's broke. We are getting invaded.
3:17
So for about two years, I was
3:19
designing my own bunker for West
3:21
Virginia. I ran across VEVOS shelters. It's
3:23
like a five -star underground hotel. It
3:25
gives us a safe place to
3:27
go, and a peace of mind for
3:29
us and the kids. I
3:32
have a gun room at my home.
3:34
Can't get in there without your fingerprint.
3:36
My gun collection is probably worth from
3:38
about $160 mind $200 ,000, and it ranges from
3:40
pistols to ARs to Oozies. I got
3:42
a Tommy gun, squadron automatic weapon, which
3:44
is a saw that is actually a
3:46
belt -fed gun, so you can shoot more
3:48
rounds if you're going into a large
3:50
crowd. Look at 17 cameras in my house.
3:52
Five are just in the one room,
3:54
and all my stuff's kept together. Everything's
3:57
locked up. I have a military vehicle.
3:59
I'm not going to be driving a Kia
4:01
Soul. I'm going to be driving a
4:03
fortified truck that I can smash through
4:05
things And and to have my family with
4:07
me and other friends and we're all
4:09
going to have AR -15s. If something
4:11
was to happen, we would pack
4:13
up as quickly as we
4:15
can and load the truck up
4:17
and drive to Indiana. Before
4:20
I started prepping I was always anxious.
4:22
Now when I see that I know
4:24
I have a plan. And
4:27
prepping gives me peace of mind. Landon,
4:31
Amanda, thank you both for being here.
4:33
Now, you guys are not prepping
4:35
for a power outage or some bad
4:37
weather. You're prepping doob's day, true?
4:39
True, but there could be multiple events.
4:41
I'm not so much prepping for
4:43
the apocalypse because we're not going be
4:45
here for that. I'm prepping for
4:48
all the events that are gonna happen
4:50
before then. You said I.
4:52
you're with him on this, right? weren't
4:54
at first, but you are now. I
4:56
am now, yes. So body on
4:58
a hundred percent. Yes. Do you think
5:00
that this is going to happen? I'm
5:02
not really sure I hope it doesn't
5:04
I mean something definitely gonna happen. We
5:06
don't know when. We don't
5:09
know the hour, but it's better be
5:11
safe than sorry. Anybody will say that
5:13
at some level you should have flashlights
5:15
and drinking water and certain things around
5:17
your house, but you've gone way beyond
5:19
that. And you say it's not the
5:21
apocalyptic event, like if a nuclear bomb
5:23
has dropped, you say we're not going
5:26
survive that, right? Not if it hits
5:28
our home, no. But let's just say
5:30
a new kits in Israel. Let's just
5:32
say Russia bombs Israel, I'm gone. I'm
5:34
not waiting. And I have
5:36
a fortress where I'll be able to survive.
5:38
So the bunkers in people's backyards, they're
5:40
only going withstand certain events. I'm prepped to
5:42
withstand almost every event besides the end
5:45
of time. And how far do y 'all
5:47
live from the bunker? We're in
5:49
Florida, so that's in Indiana.
5:52
Wouldn't you want to get something a little
5:54
closer? I've thought about it. But these kind
5:56
of bunkers we have, they're built by the
5:58
United States Army Corps Avenger. They were World
6:00
War II shelters that were built. Yeah.
6:03
How long long it take you to get there? 15.
6:06
15 hours probably. could take longer. could take two days depending
6:09
on how bad I mean what I've done is
6:11
I took a map I did three different
6:13
ways to get there. That's why you got
6:15
the truck. 100%, yep.
6:17
My percentages of surviving went
6:19
up tremendously. You got parked
6:22
at the house? That's parked at the shop.
6:24
Oh, okay. You don't want that parked that parked
6:26
the out. yard. your hard drive. ha, ha,
6:28
ha. don't think would go
6:30
for part of the house. You
6:33
have a lot of guns. Yes,
6:36
quite a few. You have to
6:38
50 AR-15s and 15 50 AR -15s and
6:40
15 Glock 19s, AK-47s, bulletproof vests.
6:43
that to shoot at an invading army or
6:45
is that to hold off the neighbors
6:47
who are now desperate? I buy a
6:49
lot of the same stuff, because
6:51
we are going to have a lot of people that
6:53
are coming with us, my family. So everybody's going to get
6:55
a gun. Everybody's going to get a pistol when we get
6:57
to the bunker. not shoots guns. We're going to want to
6:59
train them. We're going to want
7:01
to give them a gun gun because one guy
7:03
can't. survive. You gotta
7:05
be. stronger together than a
7:07
part. Yeah, and like neighbors aren't doing
7:09
all this. No, they don't even know I do
7:12
it. it. They do did now. Not
7:14
at all. ha, ha, ha. cat's out of
7:16
the bag. I I
7:19
hate to tell you, but you see
7:21
these squares around here. ha, is are
7:23
continuing Those are cameras and hooked to satellite. It's actually
7:25
a good thing. I mean, you watch the
7:27
news, look at what's going on on our border.
7:29
We're getting invaded. This is a good plan
7:31
to have. Everybody should have this plan. All
7:33
right, look, look, gonna take a break. before
7:35
we go to break, I wanna ask each
7:37
of our audience members a question. You have
7:39
a voting device under your seat, so grab that.
7:42
So after watching so far, What
7:44
kind of prepper are you? You
7:46
have four choices. One, I'm
7:48
I'm not. Two, I I
7:50
have an emergency kit and
7:52
some food supplies. Three, I I
7:54
have a bug out plan And and four,
7:56
I have a a bunker. Which
7:58
one is closest? in
8:00
describing you. Results
8:03
are in. 51 .6
8:05
are option number one,
8:07
which is I'm not
8:09
a prepper at all.
8:11
Number two was I
8:13
have an emergency kit and
8:15
some food supplies. 40 % of
8:18
you were that choice. 6 .7 %
8:20
says I have a a bug
8:22
bag and a multiple month supply
8:24
of food. And 1 .3 of
8:26
you said I have a
8:28
a bunker. We're talk about this
8:30
more. All right, we'll be right back. Well,
8:33
national surveys reveal that of
8:35
Americans Americans are stockpiling food,
8:37
water, guns, ammunition to
8:39
prepare to survive what they
8:41
see as the inevitable
8:43
downfall of this country. Now,
8:46
and Amanda say they
8:48
shares in a 10
8:50
,000 square foot, two story underground
8:53
shelter that looks
8:55
like a really four hotel.
8:58
I was on the couch and I turned to
9:00
my wife and said, hey, I don't believe it,
9:02
but I found a luxury five hotel underground
9:04
bunker. It's called Vevos, Indiana. Next thing you
9:06
know, we're hotel flying out and doing a
9:08
tour of the bunker. We have a security
9:10
team, we have doctors, we we doing have
9:12
nurses, we can perform surgeries, we can grow
9:14
plants for salads and tomatoes underground. We
9:16
have enough food to feed 80 people for
9:18
two years, but if everybody doesn't come up,
9:20
that could be five or eight years.
9:22
You have to talk to doctors because you
9:24
don't want to get somebody who has
9:26
a mental disorder and they go down there
9:28
and tear everybody apart. We'll
9:31
have a jail down there for that reason. I
9:34
was shocked. Landon kept reassuring me, is gonna
9:36
be okay. You You know, this is where we're
9:38
gonna go if something is to ever happen.
9:40
I put in a total of $172,000 ,000
9:43
to purchase this underground shelter. It
9:45
is expensive, but there's no price
9:48
too high to be able to
9:50
protect our family. Cyber
9:55
Monday is here, and so are amazing deals at Amazon, you'll
9:57
save so much on holiday. it gifts the
9:59
kitchen, like appliances and cookware, you'll
10:02
have money left over for
10:04
a sauce pot so you can make
10:06
your mom's famous gravy recipe. Yeah. Or
10:09
at least try to, or that cutlery set,
10:11
so you can carve up the turkey with
10:14
surgical precision. Oh,
10:17
what fun it is to save.
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that you have is not just Not
10:59
just... kind of
11:01
a storage facility underground. You're
11:03
talking about four foot walls, right?
11:05
I mean, this is substantial. It
11:07
It this could withstand a
11:09
20 kiloton blast, not
11:11
a direct hit, of
11:14
course, but it could
11:16
withstand a substantial event. And
11:19
you say 80 people would be in this one?
11:21
Yes. If they can get there. If
11:23
they can get there. If they get there.
11:26
They're spread all over over United States. There's
11:28
still shares left. Was this expensive to buy
11:30
a a share? $25 ,000 is
11:32
what I got into it for per
11:34
share. Okay, and per share
11:36
is a person? it's a person. Per
11:38
person. Okay, and are you required
11:40
to bring your own supplies? You're
11:42
not required, but it's it's beneficial. know,
11:44
we can only stock so much,
11:46
but most definitely like you get
11:49
your own room and there's
11:51
families. We want families. We don't want
11:53
single people. We want people who got
11:55
sets. But no single men? No,
11:57
not at all. Why? that
12:00
cause too, That's not what we're looking for
12:02
in there. That would just cause chaos.
12:04
I wouldn't be accepted, right? You
12:06
might. You and your wife. Well,
12:08
you don't like older people.
12:11
That doesn't bother me. But they're
12:13
not preferred in this community. It's
12:15
kind of like Noah's Ark, They had
12:18
the boat. They had they had everything in there.
12:20
We allow the pets. and our goal
12:22
is to repopulate if something happens.
12:24
That is the vision here in this
12:26
exact shelter. And everybody has to bring
12:28
something to the table. Yes, Yes,
12:30
100%. To repopulate and so they're gonna
12:33
have sets and bring supplies
12:35
and have something to contribute.
12:37
Of course. Yeah. What
12:39
made you uncomfortable about this
12:41
at first? I've never
12:43
been into, weapons and, know, weapons
12:45
and I'm not into
12:48
the worldly news and stuff.
12:50
So when I met Landon
12:52
he was into all that,
12:54
it just sorta, was
12:56
nervous. And I was like, okay, how
12:58
am I I gonna with this? But I did,
13:01
we've been together been years years, and just sorta
13:03
came naturally, but it was, you know,
13:05
scary at first. Have you become proficient in
13:07
firearms? Not
13:09
yet, no. no. Not yet? Does
13:11
bother you, scare you? It
13:13
does, yes. yes. And I asked
13:15
are these firearms to fight
13:17
off an invading army or are
13:19
they to fight off people
13:22
that didn't prepare and get in and
13:24
breathe the air and eat the
13:26
groceries and all that you've
13:28
prepared for? Those weapons
13:30
are to fight off any intruder. It could
13:32
be an army. Maybe our army goes against
13:34
this, I don't know. That's in problem. the But
13:36
it could be your neighbors. It could be
13:39
your neighbors. Could be anybody, yeah. Because you
13:41
got 200 guns down there including a
13:43
tripod, belt -fed machine
13:45
gun. I'm wondering who you're gonna shoot at.
13:47
That's more to get to the place. So
13:49
we go through, I mean, if you, anarchy, the
13:51
in New York, you see that kind
13:53
of stuff? Could you imagine our family and
13:55
our children and that military vehicle coming through
13:57
Atlanta and people are trying to get in
13:59
the vehicle. vehicle, that's what it's used for. I'm
14:02
gonna be out of my neighborhood pretty
14:04
quick because our community, we have a
14:06
network and an email network, so when
14:08
things happen, we have people that are within
14:10
the Army Corps that they still work with
14:12
the Marines. So they let us know, hey
14:14
look what's going on in Israel. So
14:16
we can leave when we want. Landon
14:18
says prepping is a man thing and
14:20
he spoon feeds information to Amanda because Women
14:23
do not grasp prepping
14:25
and scare easily. So I'm curious
14:27
what Robin's thoughts are on
14:29
that. I'll ask
14:31
her when we come back. My squadron
14:33
weapon is a belt -fed gun. So if
14:36
you need to do crowd control,
14:38
that is one of my biggest
14:40
pieces in my prepping, my survival. Sometimes
14:43
watch Landon, he'll get one
14:45
of his guns unloaded obviously,
14:47
and then Grayson will
14:49
have Nerf guns they will just
14:51
run through the house and pretend like they're
14:53
in a a war. They're playing but they're also
14:55
learning at the same time. And this
14:57
truck is made to go through
14:59
just about anything. it's not
15:01
computerized, it can experience an EMP
15:03
blast, this big beast here
15:06
will run. for Prepping gives
15:08
me more peace of mind than
15:10
anything else. Tonight
15:13
we're talking about prepping for
15:15
an apocalyptic event. And I'm
15:17
here with Landon and Amanda, who
15:20
recently bought $4 ,000
15:22
worth of food. for
15:24
their underground bunker. How
15:27
much is $4 of food worth of
15:29
food in terms of length of
15:31
time it would sustain? So
15:33
it's MREs that I purchased to bring
15:35
to the bunker you can literally eat
15:37
one and and last you all day.
15:39
Yeah, have you eaten any of these?
15:43
I tried some. It
15:45
It horrible. They're not
15:47
the best. Gag a
15:49
gag a maggot? It was pretty gross, but
15:51
I mean if I had to, you know,
15:53
that was what I had to eat or survive,
15:55
I definitely would. You do it. You say you have to
15:58
spoon this. to
16:00
women in general, because they don't
16:02
grasp this. Would
16:04
you, what? I'm
16:07
already offended. What
16:11
do you think about that? Well,
16:13
I am offended. I I
16:15
really resent the fact that
16:17
you were spoon feeding the information that
16:19
affected our entire family and
16:21
our life and and future. So
16:24
no, I would not like that. You
16:26
wouldn't want to be spoon fed? No, no. Information
16:29
about our future and survival? I would actually want to
16:31
know more than you did, because
16:34
we're in this together. So
16:36
I want to know everything
16:38
that's going on, because, again, we're
16:40
a team, and it affects our
16:43
family, our future. So no,
16:45
I want to know everything. I can
16:47
handle it. Um. I
16:53
bet all I I gather, she's a better
16:55
shot than you are. She's
17:00
very firearms proficient. That's good. I'll ask
17:02
the women in the crowd, would you
17:04
want to know what was going on
17:06
straight up? Yeah. Raise hand if
17:08
you would. Yeah.
17:11
could you handle it? Yes.
17:14
Yeah, I mean, are there specific things you
17:16
haven't told her? Yeah, a lot about the wars
17:18
just everything that makes me do what I
17:20
do. And that's what I, like tried to talk
17:22
to people in my family. This is why
17:24
I have this feeling, because they just don't want
17:26
hear it. Oh, I'm just, I I
17:28
don't want to hear that. Well, you Well, you need to, look
17:30
going on. Well, apparently you don't need to because
17:32
you're not telling her. Well, I've tried to talk to
17:34
her and I just don't want to scare. her. Yeah,
17:36
you have one of those, what do
17:39
you call them? televisions? Yes.
17:42
I watch the every night. And I watch
17:44
a little bit with them too. Yeah,
17:46
because you can gather information and
17:48
you can go to the internet and gather
17:50
even more information. Some of it's even
17:53
true. If I were you, I'd want
17:55
to know what the hell was on
17:57
with it. If you have children, right? Absolutely.
17:59
And you. You're to protect them and
18:01
know what's going on. But of the of-
18:03
stuff is scary that's going on in
18:05
this world with our borders and our
18:07
wars going on and our government
18:10
with each other. She's listening.
18:12
No, No, I know, and I've
18:14
listened and I've learned over
18:16
the years, but but I've I
18:20
mean, do I, I guess more, like I don't
18:22
want something to happen. So
18:24
I'm trying not to believe, you
18:26
know, like could
18:28
happen, you you know. It's real. If It's something's happen,
18:30
we just don't know when. Could be this year,
18:33
it could happen, be next year. It's
18:35
better to be prepared and it's better to have a
18:37
good solid plan. Know where
18:39
you're going. Solid foundation, food,
18:42
weapons, ammunition to
18:44
support your family and where you're going.
18:46
Are you prepared to shoot the neighbors
18:48
if need be? I
18:50
have used a gun before, yes.
18:52
I mean. But But the neighbors. No,
18:54
if I No, if I to, yes, I
18:56
could. Okay, you would shoot the neighbors
18:58
if you needed to. If I
19:00
had to, yeah. Well, you 'all are gonna
19:02
be popular on your street when you get home. No, if I
19:05
know what you're saying. If If comes down
19:07
to it, you have to protect your
19:09
family. Yeah. All right, next
19:12
gonna talk to a former
19:14
military intelligence officer who says
19:16
he started his own survival
19:18
community and above ground bunkers.
19:20
Because if the president and
19:22
Congress kept safe in a
19:24
doomsday scenario, why can't average
19:26
Americans as well? We're gonna
19:28
meet him when we come back. Dr.
19:31
Drew Miller spent over 20
19:33
years as a military intelligence
19:35
officer specializing in threat assessment
19:37
to the U .S. He
19:39
says he started prepping individually realized
19:42
that for his family to
19:44
survive, he needed a community.
19:47
So he started Fortitude Ranch 10
19:49
years ago. Take a look. I'd
19:52
served in the Air Force on
19:54
duty as an intelligence officer. As
19:56
intelligence officer, we track threats and
19:59
the threats actually increasing. We powers
20:01
that can make a threat
20:03
more so in the bioweapons era
20:05
today. That's really a much
20:07
bigger threat than war. Bad guys
20:09
can more lethal viruses. Modify
20:12
H5N1, for example. When H5N1
20:14
becomes human -human transmissible, a a billion
20:16
may die of the virus. More
20:18
will die from the collapse
20:20
that results. When you're starving,
20:22
you'll do what's necessary to keep you
20:25
and your family alive. And a lot
20:27
of people, if necessary, will kill to
20:29
survive. I've
20:32
been a prepper for about years. years.
20:34
I looked into survival communities. so set
20:36
up Fortitude Ranch as an organized
20:38
survival community business. I've been with Fortitude
20:40
Ranch. We started it up a
20:42
little over a decade ago. Our
20:45
staff is largely former military people, a over lot
20:47
of former law enforcement officers. And the collapse
20:49
on that occurs, we'll go through a a
20:51
lot more weapons training and defending behind our walls
20:53
practice. We have now a big group to
20:55
raise food, guard the compound, keep everyone
20:57
alive so we can survive a long collapse.
20:59
The reason we don't like to be all
21:02
underground is because there's a virus going
21:04
around. You could all die from the virus.
21:06
You can't just hide out in a bunker.
21:08
There's really no downside to prepping. And
21:10
the upside is it can save your life.
21:12
There's a lot of bad things that I
21:14
think could happen this year, but you
21:16
need to get started right away. If you're
21:19
not prepared and a collapse occurs, then you're
21:21
going to have to suffer the consequences, which
21:23
could be death for you and your
21:25
family. Drew,
21:28
Drew, you say there
21:30
are over 50 scenarios
21:32
where the U .S.
21:34
collapses. What's on the short Filler,
21:36
Filler is over 50 that we track
21:38
threats, and any threat that's really bad
21:40
could lead to a collapse, meaning the
21:43
economy of not functioning, widespread loss of
21:45
law and order. The one that's worried me
21:47
the most is bioengineering. So H5N1,
21:49
which is still called avian or bird flu,
21:51
you shouldn't call it that anymore.
21:53
Right now, if you were to catch
21:55
H5N1, it's 60% lethal. it's 60 %
21:57
lethal. So it's nothing like COVID -19.
22:00
And when that happens, no one's going to
22:02
work. There's not going to be be food
22:04
production or delivery. People will start starving. They're
22:06
going to start looting and stealing to survive. And
22:08
that occurs, but it's not just bioengineering.
22:11
Our electric system is a disaster
22:13
waiting to happen. It's the Achilles of
22:15
the United States. And all our
22:17
enemies know it. Artificial intelligence. I mean, mean,
22:19
Elon Musk and folks like that,
22:21
every day they're talking about the
22:24
artificial intelligence threat. We have municipal
22:26
water systems and we're highly vulnerable
22:28
to the collapse. And government is doing absolutely
22:30
nothing to prepare for it
22:32
other than protecting themselves. aren't
22:35
even warned that, hey, you need to
22:37
get prepared. Our government is grossly irresponsible.
22:40
So do you think people should do about
22:42
this? One, I
22:44
would encourage your government to require
22:47
them to harden the electric grid. They've
22:49
had decades to do it, haven't yet. There
22:51
was an effort in Texas last
22:53
year to get the Texas grid
22:55
hardened. Those introduced, speaker got it
22:57
killed. This former chief of staff
22:59
is a lobbyist for the utility industry.
23:01
This happens over and over again. Legislators,
23:03
priority is getting reelected, not working
23:05
to prepare us to survive a
23:07
disaster. And I'm in
23:09
favor of term limits as a result.
23:11
We need to stop elected officials focusing on
23:13
reelection. should come in for one term, do
23:16
the job of protecting us and get
23:18
out of office. That's one change
23:20
I would like to see made. One
23:22
of my theories is that we have people
23:24
in charge of solving problems. that
23:27
aren't really interested in solving the problem.
23:30
because they solve the problem, and
23:32
they're out of a job. North
23:34
Korea today could take down
23:36
the US electric grid. All they need
23:38
is one long ICBM. They've got
23:40
them. Necroepin does blast, thermal radiation. These
23:43
were designed to have maximum EMP
23:45
output. So a small yield. weapon
23:48
North Korea growing off basically anywhere over
23:50
the U .S. at a wide range latitudes.
23:52
It doesn't have to be accurate. It
23:54
can take down our electric grid for
23:56
at least a year, possibly several years.
23:58
It seems to me that if we... we
24:00
put real incentives on
24:02
solving some of
24:04
these problems that
24:07
get the problem solved. Well, we're
24:09
gonna take a break, and so
24:11
can all be depressed. We
24:14
We back, Drew's gonna tell us
24:16
more about why he started
24:18
Fortitude Ranch. And I
24:20
also wanna hear why he thinks
24:22
Landon's underground bunker could very well
24:25
be a death trap. Not a
24:27
safe zone. We'll be right back. Drew
24:30
says that Fortitude Ranch
24:32
was built and priced for
24:34
middle -class families as a
24:37
place for people to
24:39
get to to survive. Fortitude
24:41
Ranch is not a
24:43
location. There are many,
24:46
correct? Yes, sir. How many? We
24:48
have seven now operating in the are the U.S. more
24:50
coming We're franchising now to open up more
24:52
rapidly. If there's a pandemic, people aren't
24:54
gonna go to nuclear reactors to
24:56
turn them off and you don't just turn
24:58
the key is, you know, that water has
25:00
to keep flowing. have a lot
25:02
of people to shut them down. so
25:05
So the if people aren't coming in a
25:07
pandemic to nuclear reactor, there's a good
25:09
chance you're gonna have nuclear reactors
25:11
that have accidents, blow up, release radiation.
25:13
So underground facilities for radiation shielding are
25:15
worthwhile. That's That's just show it on
25:17
the video behind you. That's an underground facility.
25:19
And you're concerned about vulnerability of
25:21
living in there. And
25:24
you say these underground
25:26
bunkers like Landon invested in,
25:28
in fact, have great
25:30
vulnerability. Why? So you have
25:32
to defend on the surface. If you don't
25:34
defend on the surface, people can discover
25:36
you underground and you've gotta have
25:38
air vents. They'll cover up your air
25:40
vents. You know, you've got wind mills and
25:42
solar panels, they're on the surface. You
25:44
have to be on the surface to
25:46
protect your facility from a marauder group
25:48
or you won't have one. Okay, so
25:50
somebody can come in, cut off the
25:52
air supply, trap down there and suffocate them,
25:55
and then go in and take all
25:57
their supplies. Correct, but they don't have to
25:59
do that. They can defend. on the
26:01
surface, that's what you should do. So you
26:03
come out and and fight off.
26:05
Correct. Yeah. Is
26:07
this affordable for the
26:09
average American? Yes,
26:11
sir, it it is. So So we're dual purpose. Our
26:14
motto is prepare for the worst, enjoy the
26:16
present. So good times,
26:18
you can come to Fortege Ranch as member
26:20
and vacation there. But in bad
26:22
times, we turn into survival community. But
26:24
the cost is affordable because one,
26:26
our facilities are not, you know,
26:28
deep underground, ICBM silos a very expensive. We
26:31
don't have a lot of fancy equipment
26:33
and our rooms are not, it's not
26:35
fancy rooms. We're pretty rustic. So for
26:37
couple thousand dollars down payment and then,
26:40
you know, a a couple thousand dollars a
26:42
year depending on your family size going
26:44
forward, you can afford to be a
26:46
member. So that's one of the ways
26:48
we tried to design this to be
26:50
affordable for the middle class. Okay, I wanna
26:52
ask you all another question. So grab your
26:54
voting device again and
26:57
the first question is how
26:59
much food do you
27:01
have stored? Two days worth,
27:03
a week's worth, a month's worth,
27:05
three to six months worth, or one
27:07
year or more is worth of
27:09
food. Results are in. So
27:12
7 .3 have two days
27:14
worth, 32 .5 a week's of
27:16
you have a week's
27:18
worth, 38 .5 have a
27:20
month's worth of food, 18
27:22
.4 % have three to six
27:24
months worth of food and
27:26
3 .4 have a year's
27:28
worth of food. So that's
27:30
interesting. Okay, next, we're gonna
27:33
add a prepper who says
27:35
if his community keeps being
27:37
so secretive, people will keep thinking
27:39
they're insane. My next
27:41
guest says he grew up
27:43
around a religion where being self
27:45
-sufficient rather than relying
27:47
on the government is
27:49
encouraged. He says that his
27:51
upbringing shaped his current
27:53
prepping lifestyle. Prepping me
27:55
started on 9 -11. That was
27:57
the day everyone in this country realized.
27:59
bad things happen to people, the
28:01
world is a dangerous place. When
28:04
I was about 14, my father
28:06
gave me a book that was
28:08
about a group of people coming
28:10
together to prepare for the collapse
28:12
of society. It gave me a
28:14
lot of starting blocks of things
28:16
to think about, like how to
28:18
defend myself. I have
28:20
a larger selection of tools to
28:23
choose from, whether it's a
28:25
combat shotgun, long -range rifles.
28:27
For people who aren't prepping,
28:29
having to 3,000 to three thousand
28:31
rounds is really alarming, but
28:33
in more rural areas. That's
28:35
a weekend of target shooting.
28:38
With the MREs I have on hand, they would
28:40
last me two to three months. The
28:42
MRE stands for Meals Ready Eat.
28:44
They are just meals that
28:47
are long -term shelf sustainable, like
28:50
12 to 25 years. 25 years.
28:52
Today my main focus is
28:54
on protection and transportation.
28:56
I studied cultures like the
28:58
Australian Outback, where they have
29:00
to go hundreds of
29:02
miles without any kind of
29:04
resupply. So I bought
29:06
a Suburban and set it
29:09
up following the way they
29:11
set up their vehicles with extra
29:13
gas, extra supplies. I
29:15
feel like it's incredibly naive to
29:17
not prepare to some degree All
29:20
empires fallen. It's inevitable
29:22
that the American
29:24
Empire will fall. The
29:26
best time to start prepping is yesterday. The
29:29
second best time is today. You've
29:32
been listening to everything we've been talking
29:34
about here, right? Yes, sir. this
29:36
consistent with your
29:38
mindset and ideology?
29:41
In general, yes. I
29:43
think it's a little out of
29:46
touch for most Americans. This
29:50
mentioned being able to spend to
29:53
$3,000 $3 ,000 to come to
29:55
his ranch, but 45 Americans
29:57
of Americans don't have $1 ,000.
29:59
that are saved up. for
30:01
their transmission breaks down. And
30:03
you grew up in a
30:05
community, a religious community, where
30:08
self -sufficiency and growing your own
30:10
food, not relying on the
30:12
government. being of insular
30:14
in the community was a way of life,
30:16
right? Yes, sir. And You
30:18
think that serves you well? Oh,
30:21
100%. 100%. Yeah. And
30:23
you talk about something called operational
30:25
security. What do you mean by
30:27
that? Operational security is
30:29
just the concept of. keeping
30:32
your resources and supplies
30:34
secret so that you are
30:36
blending in. in to protect
30:38
those resources. You
30:40
say even so within
30:42
the community, there's a lot
30:44
of distrust? In my
30:46
experience, yes. Like don't talk typically
30:48
within the overarching community. You
30:51
train with the people you're close to
30:53
or practice skills with the people you're
30:56
close to, but there's not a lot
30:58
of cross-community training.
31:01
I think a lot of people or
31:03
a lot of individual communities are
31:05
scared to be labeled like a militia.
31:07
One of the things that you
31:09
two have in common and have talked
31:11
about is. Lots of
31:13
guns and lots of ammunition. They're
31:16
tools just like any other. I can
31:18
hunt with an AK or an AR
31:20
and if I need to protect myself with
31:22
it, I can. Sir, if I could jump
31:24
in. Please. You cannot survive in a a
31:26
big city in a collapse. When the grid's down,
31:28
no municipal water systems, any
31:30
kind of disaster, if there's no food deliveries, you
31:32
can't survive in a city. So you leave. So
31:34
are you gonna go? Everyone's gonna
31:36
think oh, all run to the forest
31:38
and survive there, yeah. Tens of millions,
31:40
hundreds of millions potentially running into
31:42
our forests. You're to be looking for
31:45
deer to hunt. Well, I can tell
31:47
you, as soon as the collapse starts, every fortitude
31:49
ranch, we're shooting every animal we can, deer,
31:51
et cetera, wild boar in Texas. We're
31:53
shooting everything we can. And we're making jerky
31:55
out of it to get more food.
31:57
And a lot of people are going to
31:59
lot that. of So by the time you get
32:01
from the city into the forest, there's not gonna be
32:03
a whole lot of deer left, most likely. And there's
32:05
gonna be a a lot of other people there you
32:08
in the forest with the same
32:10
plan, I try to survive out here.
32:12
And there's just not enough food out
32:14
there to keep people going. So or
32:16
later, you're gonna run into another marauder
32:18
group or other starving people. And so that's
32:21
why he does have a lot
32:23
of great weapons. And the people who
32:25
wanna outlaw AR-15s -15s and military capable
32:27
weapons, you know, from the prepper perspective, they're
32:29
lunatics. They're working
32:31
to help marauder groups if
32:33
they do that. But rather natural,
32:35
our -manipulated means or a laboratory
32:38
accident, Wuhan, for example, it
32:40
could happen tomorrow. And when
32:42
that happens, it's gonna be, if
32:44
it's H5N1, it's the worst disaster
32:46
in mankind's history and massive
32:49
starvation and people trying to stay
32:51
alive through marauding. And
32:53
you say the death rate
32:55
will be what? I think
32:57
most, depending on how long it lasts,
33:00
most of the population will die in those
33:02
situations. They'll start to death or they'll be
33:04
killed by other people trying to get
33:06
food. How is your ranch
33:08
survive a nuclear blast? So we were
33:11
saying nuclear blast by staying away
33:13
from targets. So we're in really
33:15
remote rural areas. You could drop
33:17
a nuclear weapon 10 kiloton, know, Hiroshima size
33:19
over me and with three feet
33:22
of earth, I'm okay. That's
33:24
all I need. Well, a lot
33:26
of people have questioned why would you wanna
33:28
survive a nuclear Holocaust?
33:31
But fact
33:33
is you can survive. You
33:35
can, and you'll read all. I mean, the fallout,
33:37
yes, it contaminates, but it doesn't
33:39
permanently destroy the soil and it's not
33:41
everywhere. All right, next,
33:44
a man who spent three years
33:46
embedded with extreme preppers, he
33:48
says there is one thing that
33:50
actually shocked him about them. We're
33:53
find out what that is after the break. Dr.
33:56
Bradley Garrett three years
33:58
studying extreme preppers. and even wrote
34:00
a book about it
34:02
called Bucker Building for
34:05
the end of times. Doctor, you spent
34:07
a lot of time, three years with
34:09
different groups. And you said that something
34:11
really jumped out that was kind of
34:13
common among these groups. What was it?
34:15
I spent three years, went to eight
34:17
different countries, interviewed about a hundred people.
34:19
Some of them, as you say, were
34:22
quite extreme in their preparations. Others
34:24
were worried about more on the practical
34:26
prepping side, you know, putting things together so so
34:28
could get through a blackout for three
34:30
days, learning how to grow their own food.
34:32
But the thing that really struck me is
34:35
I expected people to be
34:37
anxious and paranoid and
34:39
of obsessed with the idea of being
34:41
able to mitigate these future disasters. What I
34:44
actually found is that is that of the
34:46
preppers that I ran into, they were actually
34:48
full of hope, because if you don't
34:50
believe that there's going to be a future,
34:52
there's no point in preparing for it. So
34:55
when I spoke to them about
34:57
their preparations, they said, look, gives
34:59
me a sense of peace and security,
35:02
but it also is altruistic in
35:04
some in some ways Because if
35:07
you've got your preparations in place you're taking some
35:09
strain off of the system. if
35:11
something does go wrong, you don't need to
35:14
be rescued anymore. and in fact, you might
35:16
be in a position that you can
35:18
help someone else because you've got your preparations
35:20
in place. So So, you know, this is
35:22
the beauty of doing research, especially long -term
35:24
research is often you you end
35:26
up learning something you absolutely didn't expect to
35:28
learn. Yeah, you weren't looking for that, but
35:31
you found out a completely different mindset.
35:33
When you were talking to these
35:35
people in these different
35:37
countries was a consistent belief
35:39
system? in terms of what
35:41
was going to trigger all of this
35:43
preparation they had done. People were prepping
35:46
for a wide range of things. And
35:48
And course, in different countries, you
35:50
might have more of a a safety
35:52
net or you might have more
35:54
influence from the state. And in Switzerland,
35:56
for instance, they've got space in
35:58
their bunkers for every. person
36:00
in the country. And that was mandated by a
36:02
a law in 1963 at the height of the
36:04
Cold War. They started building that infrastructure. In
36:07
the United States, it just, it wasn't feasible.
36:09
know, the country's too big. We had too
36:11
many people. In terms of what they're preparing
36:13
for, it's a wide range. A lot of
36:15
people were very concerned about the climate crisis.
36:17
That's more of a practical prepping day -to -day
36:19
scenario. And others are worried about an
36:22
EMP or war, you know, much,
36:24
much larger scale concerns. In
36:27
of these countries where guns
36:29
are not so prolific, how
36:32
were they going to defend all
36:34
of the things that they had accumulated
36:36
to survive with? Was that a
36:38
concern there the way it is here?
36:40
In many of the places that
36:42
I visited, there was an expectation that
36:44
they weren't just prepping for themselves. They
36:47
were prepping for the community. And
36:49
so the resources that they had
36:51
stockpiled would be shared out.
36:53
And the expectation was if everyone
36:55
is prepping, everyone's in a
36:57
better position to help everyone else.
36:59
Did you come away from
37:01
this being more optimistic or did
37:03
you have more hope after
37:05
being around these people or did
37:07
you think they were overreacting, paranoid?
37:10
How did you come away from it?
37:12
A lot of people were overreacting
37:14
to what I thought were essentially conspiracy
37:16
theories. But tell
37:18
you, I lived in an apartment that I
37:20
was renting before I wrote this book. Now I
37:22
live on a five ranch. There
37:24
was so much practicality in what
37:26
they were telling me about
37:29
becoming more self -sufficient, understanding
37:31
where your your comes from, where
37:33
your water comes from, being
37:36
able to stockpile enough food to
37:38
get yourself through just small period of
37:40
time. I think that's something that all
37:42
of us can take away. And
37:44
I do think that before I wrote
37:46
this book, I had an unreasonable
37:48
expectation that else was
37:50
going to take care of me in
37:52
a disaster. And many Americans have experienced
37:54
this throughout COVID. So I think that was a,
37:57
was a wake -up call for a lot
37:59
of people going through that. and realizing
38:01
that there might not be someone there
38:03
to save you in the event of
38:05
a terrible disaster. That is really interesting.
38:07
I'm so glad you did that. And
38:09
we're gonna put a link to the
38:12
book on our website so people can
38:14
find it and read it and see what's
38:16
there because it's interesting observations. And
38:19
well, I think I wanna ask the
38:21
audience of one final question. After
38:23
being part of this conversation, what
38:25
will you do? So one,
38:27
will you store more food? Two, purchase
38:30
purchase will weapons ammo? Three,
38:32
build a bunker buy into one
38:35
or four? Do nothing
38:37
different. All right, well the results are
38:39
in And 49.4% says, I'm
38:41
gonna store .4 % says
38:43
I'm gonna store more
38:45
food. 10 .7
38:47
is I'm gonna buy some weapons.
38:50
4 .3, I'm gonna build or buy into a
38:52
bunker And 35% 35 %
38:54
of you say I'm not gonna do
38:56
anything. I think that says that this
38:59
conversation has had an impact on
39:01
you and I'm glad. I I
39:03
mean, it's a provocative conversation, right? I've
39:06
written a book called We've
39:08
Got Issues, how Americans can stand
39:11
strong for our country's soul
39:13
and sanity. And it takes
39:15
a much more optimistic view
39:17
of the future of mankind.
39:19
Fortunately, this is not an
39:21
either or scenario. My attitude
39:23
is that we can fix
39:25
what is broken in this country.
39:27
We have issues, there's no
39:30
doubt about that, but the human
39:32
spirit really burns bright. And
39:34
if we commit, if if
39:36
we decide to live several of
39:38
the principles that I set
39:40
forth for a healthy society, I
39:42
believe we can heal the
39:44
divide that's in America. That
39:47
doesn't say that you shouldn't
39:49
be prepared. Absolutely, I I
39:51
think it makes sense to
39:53
do a level of preparedness
39:55
that makes you feel good about
39:58
what you're doing. I say
40:00
be who you are on purpose.
40:02
That's my number one principle and that
40:04
means you live with intention. If
40:07
you want to prepare, if you want
40:09
to do the things that are
40:11
important to you, then do them, be
40:13
who you are on purpose. The
40:15
second principle I have is focus on
40:17
solving problems rather than winning arguments. We
40:19
got too many people trying to
40:22
win arguments and we need to stop
40:24
that and start working on solving
40:26
problems and that is a very different
40:28
mindset. And
40:30
it requires that you do the
40:32
ninth thing I in there
40:34
which is work hard to understand
40:37
the way others see things.
40:39
We really, really have to start
40:41
listening to each other. I
40:43
thank you for being here tonight and
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