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A podcast about leading a more self-reliant, resilient life in the face of 21st century climate change, disasters, pandemics and government policy. A series-based thought provoking discussion on important topics, with humour, candour and facts. Your host Jeff is an Army veteran, holds an MA and PhD in Emergency Preparedness and is the Principal Researcher at Preparedness Labs Incorporated.
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Preparedness is the totality of physical and cognitive initiatives that permit the navigation of exogenous shocks. Many have a narrow view of preparedness, the limited ideas of shelter in place, have a plan, be informed and have a kit. This episode discusses the idea that the current understanding of preparedness represents 20% of the concept. The …
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Preparedness extends far beyond kits, plans and information, the focus of government communications. The remaining 80% of adopting a prepared life is found beyond that spectrum, where strategic thinking aids in understanding the environment in which you operate, the risk and hazard profiles and provides roadmaps to mitigation. Cyber exposure is no …
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Preparedness plans are the logical start point of beginning the journey to accept responsibility for your outcomes and protect you and your family from exogenous shocks. Throughout the process, there will likely be times when you lack a capability or equipment to exectute a task you determined was critical for your family's plan. Natural Disaster S…
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Fun discussion into a culturally structured socially acceptable practice - how do you introduce yourself to someone? Is it context specific, different in the club versus the workplace, at the sports field or with your friends at a venue? Do you introduce yourself as a title, defining your success and accomplishments with a certain level of the orga…
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Simple right, everyone knows that. So why, after decades of preparedness communications do so many families remain in difficult situations and not ready to navigate crisis? The question is how do we define preparedness? Our response is three elements: personal responsibility, attitude and strategic thinking, which collectively translate to you acce…
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SOE are enacted to provide the government to expedite normal processes to address the needs of a rapid onset event. However, there is a political side show of politicians racing to the stage in their crested jackets to look in command, to demonstrate prowess under duress, to look like they're in control. The reality is that all of this is not requi…
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There is a persistent ideological frame in emergency management that it lies within the public and NGO sectors, leaving significant assets outside response. We chat with Kris about the role of contracted firefighting in the wildland urban interface fires of 2023 and the capabilities within the private sector to meet the expanding needs of the publi…
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There are four responses to every emergency event - public sector (1st responders), your family, the community neighbours and the corporate world. Largely uncoordinated, these will each occur to some degree whenever a disruption occurs. With an average ratio of 5500-1 for traditional first responders to residents, it is difficult to rely upon being…
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The role of preparedness is to wrap your life in a blanket of insulation, to mitigate against exogenous shocks, to allow you to continue to rock an incredible life and pursue your dreams. This episode is about the rationale for choosing your life, to do what you want for an income, to pick your leisure activities and to be incredibly happy. It is a…
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Do you need to go without food for a few days to understand hunger? Not drink for a day to feel extreme thirst? Not change clothes for a week to see whether merino wool will eventually stink? Probably not. So do you need to turn off the power at home to practice a power outage drill? Evacuate the home on short notice to see whether it will work? We…
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Preparedness week is upon us, with a plethora of offerings from the government. Digest these, embrace the ideas they espouse - to inform your plan. There are two strategies to preparedness, be a professional victim or to create an independent plan. Public sector resident facing preparedness communications ask you to be ready for 72 hours, have a pl…
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Becoming a veteran is a cultural shock, entering a society that is not hierarchal, structured and with your life planned is confusing at best and disturbing. When your career ends, and everyone's will, you need to figure out what is your next iteration, the new you, what you will do and accomplish. Humans are driven by activity, we strive to learn,…
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if you consider preparedness to be about disasters and readying to response to shocks, you're at the 20% point. Preparedness is about a lifestyle, adopting a lens through which you intent to protect your family, economic viability, health - physical / mental / financial, corporate sustainability and political independence. amongst others. We discus…
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EM has an ideological frame that it belongs in the public service or the not for profit field. There is a barrier to permitting the corporate world to enter the field, a fear of embracing the profit motive. Let's be clear, there is profit in the NGO / nonprofit world, in salaries, benefits and full cost pricing. To be an entrepreneur, you need to b…
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The world is chaotic, fraught with danger and loss. Either political, economic, warfare, cultural or other forces of disagreement, there is no shortage of rage, frustration, sorrow and loss in today's headlines - how do you navigate this? There are different perspectives - micro, meso and macro. Each level having a different focus, representing dif…
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Exhausted, overwhelmed, the world is overpressure, despite your best efforts, you dont see yourself getting ahead. Tired of all the motivation, discipline, morning routines etcetera that fester on the Internet? This is my story, of what I did when I hot that wall, the exhausted point. How I looked myself in the mirror, decided to change and then se…
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Journalism in its purest form is a key to a free and democratic society, though you'd be hard pressed to find that in any nation today. With governments desperately funding traditional media in hopes of saving them, it reminds us all of protectionist cities saving the taxi industry abasing Uber / Lyft irrespective of the resident's wishes. With the…
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The stoics nailed control, there is but one binary choice, you are wither in control of something, or you are not. Paraphrased, it means you are in control of very little and that is precisely enough. Political ideology has much of the world fired up, creating breaks in the fabric of society, causing many people to lose connections and generally ha…
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The world is chaotic, crazy even. The exogenous shocks are numerous, impactful and all beyond our control. So how do normal families, living normal lives in reasonably modern nations navigate these times? We do so with mitigation, the long term systemic changes to our lives that insulate us from external effects. We add preparedness, the pre-event …
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Welcome to episode 251 and season 1o intro, where we discuss the upcoming seasonal focus on interviews with practitioners, discussion of news and impacts on individual preparedness and scenarios related to exogenous shocks. Whether it is a bridge collapse in the USA, war in Gaza or famine in Africa, preparedness sets us up for a greater probability…
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Thank you, this has been a journey, I am privileged to be in your lives and deeply thankful for your patronage over the years. This milestone episode is about the journey, how we got here, the reasons to start the podcast and the parent company, as well as the ideas championed on the episodes. Our goal here is to be your source of accurate, evidenc…
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You want to chase your dreams, to rock an incredible life, to be all that you want - but the world continues to throw exogenous shocks at you, to seemingly be working to counter your best efforts, to limit your successes. The reality is that you are in control of very little and that is precisely all you need. The 2020s are a chaotic decade for ver…
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The chaotic world extends locally, there are nefarious individuals in the world, who would take an opportunity to relieve you of your possessions and wealth. While we wished that was not the case, it is incumbent upon us to learn how to mitigate the effects of others, to enact that which is within our control. As the stocks say, very little is with…
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Very little is within your control, that's precisely all you need. The stoics understood that by championing your own physical, mental and financial health, you were independent of the world and could navigate whatever exogenous shock sent your way. You cannot assume responsibility for family and friends if you are in need yourself and you most cer…
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No one is coming to help, whether you're a fan of classical novels from the 1900s like Dale Carnegie or Stephen Covey, or modern motivational series from then likes of David Goggins, Mark Manson, Mel Robbins or others. Simply put, in the positive world, the actual one you live in, it is your responsibility to ensure that you, as a human, are best p…
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We live in a modern, technologically enabled society that requires the ownership of physical goods to operate. The reasons we choose to acquire goods are generally within four categories - the item exists for a defined purpose (golf clubs), just in case (fire extinguisher), sentimental (Dad's picture) or we were persuaded by a version of the modern…
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Preparedness planning is free, only an investment of time and energy. Beginning with personal responsibility, defining family, building a shelter in place strategy and creating the trifecta of preparedness plans. The Internet is saturated with YouTube and online personalities that present a list of things to stockpile - the top 10 for the new prepp…
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We know they're are a number of influential variables when emergencies occur. We know that a well understood and rehearsed preparedness plan will permit your family to execute their roles without needing instructions, that confusion cell calls or texts in the middle of chaos ar not required. Your family will be doing, while others are thinking. How…
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EDC, Bug out bags, get home bags - we've heard it all. What are the practical considerations for preparedness when we are away from our home, when accessing our shelter in place plan is not immediate. We being with a review of the first half of the ten weeks of practical preparedness, reviewing the trifecta of preparedness plans and the involvement…
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Your risk profile informs your life, it influences the decisions you make and the outcomes from those choices. Whether you're risk adverse and skeptical of society or you're an all-in individual who rolls with the punches, risk informs. We discuss how risk tolerance informs you preparedness timeline, your shelter in place plan and preparedness mobi…
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Risk is everywhere, there is no methodology that permits risk to be lowered to zero. No personal, no business or lifestyle choices come risk free. So how to we understand the risks we face in this chaotic decade? How do we build a profile that informs our choices and aids in identifying the the risks we're exposed to? First, understanding that risk…
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Preparedness is the totality of efforts undertaken in times of peace and calm that increase your readiness and ability to navigate through exogenous shocks. The intent is to have better post events, that is to have a far less impact from the disruption and to resume normal operations at the earliest opportunity. Your goal is to be prepared so that …
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We live in a technologically enabled modern and connected society. We wake daily assuming a host of services and systems will function, from the power grid to the sewage system, from the cell network to the healthcare facilities. We assume away a host of risks that exist - to build a personal preparedness plan you need to understand the risks to wh…
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Our relationships are the key to preparedness, it's a lifestyle not a stockpile. We build our social connections based upon norms of reciprocity - that people will do good for you, if you've done it for them, as well as trust - you'll do what you say. Those are the foundation of social capital, which is the potential resources that exist within you…
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We know disasters, natural and man made. We've seen their impacts, but there is another catastrophic event that is often overlooked and ignored in preparedness discussions - loosing your income. It doesn't matter why, whether it be another pandemic, a fire at the business, an owner's decision to retire, or you were simply not part of the restructur…
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Evacuation is the most dangerous event in preparedness for a family, the most impactful and life changing. Have a plan - a well rehearsed plan that you and your family understand. Evacuations are mandatory or voluntary, immediate or slow burn and they happen at the most inconvenient of times. The only practical advice is to have an evacuation plan …
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The totality of scenarios that may affect a family are on a spectrum, from the most likely, power loss, to the most dangerous, evacuation. We have all watched the panic evacuations from wildfires online, seen the interviews with families that have lost everything - this is terrifying for anyone. Hence, a well understood evacuation plan is one of th…
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This first week of practical preparedness comes to a close with a discussion of a power loss scenario and the cascading impacts on families and society. Considerations from access to cell and internet, to point of sale systems, transportation, fuel, potable water in high density housing and a host of other impacts. Your employment may pause and in …
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Power is the most important sector of critical infrastructure, the one that supports all the others and facilitates our modern integrated and technologically enabled society. Without it, we have significant disruption in our lives, so what can you do? These 5 practical tips, based upon understanding your minimum power profile, are the foundation of…
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Happy New Year. Welcome to season 9, where we bring the theory and ideas from the first 8 seasons and translate those into a practical, 10 week presentation of actual and reasonable executable tasks for you to build a household emergency preparedness plan. We've spent the last 3 seasons championing the idea of personal responsibility, that you and …
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Every year comes to a close, some with great memories and some with significant challenges. If we wish to grow and learn, we need to reflect on the year that was, warts and all, embrace decisions made, opportunities turned away and in essence, review to our best ability our annual performance. If you did not have a personal strategic plan, then you…
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Rocking 2024 requires no money, only an investment of time. Economic barriers are a myth. This is the time where the social media feeds are deluged with ideas and recipes for everyone to become their greatest self in 2024. Happens every year, non stop. However, each one of these are not based upon you, your dreams, or your definition of success. Ou…
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We're going there, the quintessential preparedness foundation, the ubiquitous bug out bag that is the gold standard of idiocy in the prepper space. The kits are constructed principally for mental health, to provide a sense of security, the idea that you've taken steps to ready yourself and your family to navigate disruptions. But you haven't. Prepa…
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Leave the World Behind is a popular new film on Netflix, depicting the failure of modern society, the collapse of communication and the struggle of seven humans to navigate a situation. We discuss the film through the lens of each character representing an element of US society, and the greater western world, and how each of those choose to react t…
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Community is your sense of belonging, of place; it's spatial, not bounded by geography, but crossing municipal boundaries. It may be based upon a faith group, service organization, extended family or your physical neighbourhood. Knowing that preparedness is the totality of attitudes and actions that empower you to navigate exogenous shocks, connect…
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Preparedness is a foundation, a lens through which you examine the world. The future is unknown, though 2024 will be a challenging year with economic, conflict, political and humanitarian strife. These are difficult things to navigate, the shocks are impactful and significant. They are also beyond your control. In this episode we examine what is li…
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Thriving vs surviving - our goal is to encourage you to thrive, to provide advice that will encourage you to create a preparedness plan that facilitates thriving in an emergency, vice surviving. Thriving is achieved when you are capable of conducting your full suit of normal activities despite the incident, your personal and professional life remai…
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Stress is worrying about the future, something that has yet to happen, likely will not and in any event, is probably beyond your control. In fact, we as individuals control a scant amount of events that we're expose to, an incredibly tiny fraction of what is going to happen is within your control, yet most of people choose to worry, stress and fret…
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Leadership is the art of persuasion and influence, to encourage and motivate employees and colleagues from compliance to commitment. Our episode on becoming the CEO of your life was the foundation of leadership, this episode discusses the how - how do we "do" leadership. Strategic thinking is the skill, the competency to look forward, to see the wo…
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Whether you're new to preparedness or you consider yourself a prepper, we should periodically reflect on our why, what is it that we're doing and the reasons for the efforts, a first principles review. That means returning to the foundation of the idea, that preparedness is about accepting responsibility for your outcomes, that it is about insulati…
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