60 Minutes segment this Sunday Nov 6 about TP and how sane prepping has gone mainstream!

John AdamaStaff - November 2, 2022

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Edit: The segment is streamable here, but we don’t know how long it will be public/free.

Excited to share that 60 Minutes is doing a major piece about the modern prepping community, featuring TP and myself! It premiers this Sunday Nov 6th right after the evening NFL game on CBS (west coast might see local news first). So it depends on the game, but might be around 7:30pm Eastern. We are slated as the third 15-minute segment in the show, of which I should be around 4-5 minutes. It will be available to stream on Paramount+ starting the next day.

Our friend Dr. Bradley Garrett (author of the Bunker book) is also featured, along with some ‘sane’ families showing how they’ve embraced this lifestyle. Here’s our past interview with Brad. Another friend Col. Chris Ellis, PhD, also contributed to the data analysis (he’s posting updated FEMA survey/demographic data in the forum soon!) 

We’ve spent the last 8 months working with the CBS news team on this segment, and while I haven’t seen the outcome yet, I’m optimistic — the team truly understood what’s happening in our community and sincerely wanted to show that in a non-sensationalist, rational light. (Although I’ve heard the marketing folks have made some more cliche bunker-ish type promo teasers to air during the morning shows and NFL games… sigh)

Personally, it’s been refreshing to see a mainstream news source put so much effort into getting it right, fact checking, etc. — we’ve spent months just on fact checking what I said on tape, like how the number of US preppers has crossed 20 million people.

Tune in! Hopefully I did a good enough job representing us, but I appreciate your forgiveness if not 🙂 

In the meantime, three weeks ago some of the same folks at CBS did this segment about Taiwanese civilians learning resilience skills, such as austere first aid, to prepare for the eventual Chinese invasion: https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/OnkKy0mQ3p1HNzMhGH84MGsKQwDy__n1/

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The video and transcript are on the CBS website.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/preppers-60-minutes-2022-11-06/#app

 

Paramount+ has a free 7 day trial and is $5/month after that, I look forward to watching you guys.

 

Good tip!

 

Thanks for that— I don’t have a TV, just stream everything on my computer!

 

You know that one family member who you keep trying to encourage to be more prepared but just don’t seem to do anything about it? 

Invite them over to watch the game, and then afterwards… “Well would you look at that!”

 

I wish it were that easy. My family are hostile towards me when I calmly mention preparedness or even trying to sketch out a brief plan for us as a family in different “in case of…” scenarios.

 

That has got to be discouraging and I am sorry that is happening to you. When done rationally, prepping brings comfort, peace, stability, resiliency, and safety when things go bad. Know that you are doing a good thing. 

 

Right? It’s scary (gut wrenching) at first–dealing with reality, but then it brings comfort. Anger is fear. Being less afraid makes me less angry. It’s a good thing 🙂 

 

Omg! I can relate! I had to evacuate my parents in a fire. They were completely unprepared to leave despite me updating them all day long with evacuation zones creeping up on them. They figured they’d just get in their motorhome and drive away. Which they did, but in a goodness knows how old clunker that had traffic backed up behind it going 35 mph up a hill in a 50 mph zone. All I could think was this is how people die! Cars trying to maneuver around them and then accidents blocking evac routes. It’s a terrible position to be put in. My parents are possibly going to get me killed, but how do I let them die? 

My dad still laughs at me when I talk about landscaping with food producing plants (figs in the most recent case) but he’s starting to stop that as I turn him onto conservative podcasts that he’ll listen to.

 

I so hope & pray they can properly represent the less radical preppers out here.  I hope & pray… but I expect they gotta throw in some bunker talk.

 

Yeah, sounds like the marketing folks just had to sprinkle the bunker crack on it. 

That’s truly what derailed the CNN documentary last year. Jeff Zucker personally intervened and renamed it to “Bunker Boom” and told them to recut the trailer to be all about the bunker voyeurism. Totally hurt the film, and audiences tuned out, because yawn what an old silly story. The filmmaker herself refused to promote it because of how far away the marketing/recut took it from her intention.

Although IIRC that CNN bit brought fantastic people like @Eric into the community, so it wasn’t all bad 🙂

 

“Although IIRC that CNN bit brought fantastic people like @Eric into the community, so it wasn’t all bad”

Sure did! My wife sent me the bunker video as a joke. And I noticed that one guy in the video didn’t sound crazy.

 

No way— that’s a great TP origin story!

 

Oh FFS I just saw the promo trailer/materials: https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1589014788281098241 and https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ready-or-not-sunday-on-60-minutes/

More of the same stupid, outdated, cliche bunker and LARPing bullshit. “Let’s go film the exact same underground pool at the survival condo that’s been shown in the media consistently for the last 6 years!”

It’s not just that it’s tired and outdated, but it directly contradicts the actual story here. Sigh.

Really hoping the producers didn’t lie to us. We’ll see. 

 

The bunker approach is described as something for rich people. They might be setting up a contrast with your approach for people who aren’t rich.

Unfortunately, once they’ve advertised this as a show about doomsday, there’s no way to keep the show itself completely sane. And the trailers didn’t even mention your part of the story.

The silver lining is that some people will see through the editor’s theme and listen to what you’re actually saying. I did.

 

I don’t have a great feeling about this when the trailers only show bunkers, fences and armed guards.  Come to my farm and you won’t see any of those but I bet I’m better prepared than most.  Sure, I don’t have an underground pool but I do have a pond stocked with thousands of pounds of grain fed catfish.  I wonder what is better for prepping… a swimming pool or a catfish pond?  But no, lets put the swimming pool on TV.  

 

It’s good coverage that makes the case for sane prepping and gives some tips for getting started. Bunkers are mentioned briefly, but with John and another rational prepper putting them in appropriate context.

Aside from the trailer, which didn’t represent the segment well at all, 60 minutes did a great job. Congrats to John, Bradley, and Heidi, who contributed to this segment.

 

Thank you. IMHO the saving grace was that they kept my bit about “bunkers are fringe, and focusing the narrative on them does a disservice.” 

Edit: This part

“I really dislike the bunker narratives because it takes away from the conversation that we should be having, which is how do we make our existing homes and our existing communities more resilient?” John Ramey tells @jon_wertheim. https://t.co/4n05LHqx21 pic.twitter.com/A89DFsDLGY

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) November 7, 2022

 

Super job, John.  I think you represented mainstream prepping better than I’ve ever seen.  Glad to see the trailers completely misrepresented the actual story.  I really enjoyed the homesteader lady.  You need to get her on this site.

 

“In the foothills of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountains, we met Heidi Keller in her vegetable garden. A restaurant supply company worker by day, she lives alone and calls herself a homestead prepper, ready to hunker down – or bug in – in a crisis.”

I haven’t found any online presence for Heidi Keller so far.

 

@Redneck Thank you! 

“You need to get her on this site.”

Agreed! She was badass. Interviewer tried the same shit with me as he did her (forcing the opsec issue), and I’m glad she kept saying no.

 

Awesome news, John! We’ll be watching!

 

This is terrific. Thank you for all the time you spent getting to this point!

 

“three weeks ago some of the same folks at CBS did this segment about Taiwanese civilians learning resilience skills, such as austere first aid, to prepare for the eventual Chinese invasion”

Good video. Just wish it were longer because I’m curious about the curriculum. But I think the most important part was why they prepare. Not just for the skills, but for the resolve to do what needs to be done if/when the time comes.

 

Since that video was labeled as a bonus, I suspect there’s a fuller segment somewhere, but perhaps behind their streaming paywall.

 

I am very pleased to be sharing some airtime with you again, and giving credit where credit is due to the incredible work of Dr. Ellis. Just finished building a shed on my Big Bear, CA property which won’t appear in the episode, but it’s providing an incredible space of resilience. (Still need to build the stairs though!)

 

Nice cabin, thanks for showing! Skip the stairs and it will help with the personal fitness part of preparedness haha 🙂

Likewise, glad to share airtime with you on this — us being the two experts in the interview shows that the producers did want to at least try to do the story right, rather than picking some cliche whackos.

 

It looks like you put a lot of love and care into your cabin/shed. That’s a project I would like to work on in the future.

Looking forward to watching the show on Sunday!

 

Brad, that cabin looks great.  Thanks again to you and John.  Best wishes for all your future endeavors.

 

It was very cool to see you Bradley Garrett and John Ramey on the show. Oh how cool it would be to spend the day with you guys and just absorb the vast amount of knowledge you both have. 

That 30 minute response time to evacuate is very impressive Bradley. You have inspired me to do a dry run and time how long it would take me to get loaded up. My gas tank is less than 1/4 full right now which already is a huge issue, only allowing me to get 50 miles away before I run dry. Stopping to fill up is also a delay I shouldn’t have to do. I will work harder on keeping that topped off. 

 

“Oh how cool it would be to spend the day with you guys and just absorb the vast amount of knowledge you both have.”

You should drop by the next “prepper chat night.” Just a few days ago John was telling us behind-the-scenes stories about how this film was made.

https://theprepared.com/forum/thread/prepper-chat-nights-come-chat-with-us-on-the-first-friday-of-the-month/

 

Robert, you have any way to store a 5 gallon jug of gasoline?  I never let my truck get below 1/4 full but also keep around 10-30 gallons of gasoline on hand, as well as diesel.

 

Thank you for the personal invitation Eric. Life is pretty hectic right now and I can’t commit but it would definitely be fun to chat with people on there.

And thank you for the gas can recommendation Redneck. I do have a 5 gallon can and could use that to top things off if I had to quickly evacuate and my tank happened to be low at the time. You remind me that it’s about time to rotate my gas in there.

 

 Very cool! I know several people who laughed at my preparedness over the past few years & have recently told me they’re now prepping too. It’s nice to see pieces like this where it’s about common sense & preparedness & not about extremism because that’s really what makes people take an interest & give it serious thought instead of immediately disregarding the idea of prepping.

 

Nice! You might like to read https://theprepared.com/blog/warm-not-smug/

 

Swedish Civilians have also been training and prepping for a potential Russian invasion for a few years now. They also have super bunker structures underneath their cities where people can go. 

I’ve had an interest in Prepping since maybe the 2018? Climate Report, but it can all be overwhelming if you work odd hours and live paycheck to paycheck. Also, I hate to say the Youtube Algorithm really pushes fear-mongering/fascist-leaning Preppers, but it does. I get stressed just reading their ‘headlines’ over and over again. It’s not that things aren’t true, but designing stuff to push emotional buttons is truly not helpful. I’ve found some ‘news’ based videos give the same or similar information but in a factual manner or as mini-documentaries. This gives me the knowledge, but without the added emotional stress or product pushing. 

I’ve found I really need to organize my life and home more, and get control of my finances, but it’s difficult with 3 cats, rent, etc.  I used to have a fairly tight control on my finances until 2020, and I’m still working on getting myself back to a tighter frame-work. But I’ve never been perfect, to be honest.

I set my DVR to record tonight’s 60 Minutes, so I hope the Prepper Story is done well.

I’m watching Mrs. Miniver on TCM, and they do a good job setting up normal life before it all starts going to hell with the Blitz in WWII. “You ought to put in some tin foods in case of emergency.”  They were encouraging “preparations” back in the day. 

 

Well said on all.

“I hate to say the Youtube Algorithm really pushes fear-mongering/fascist-leaning Preppers, but it does.”

That’s entirely true, and the main reason why TP was started as a standalone website rather than a YT channel (or FB group, etc.) 

Re: your WW2 point, we often say modern prepping is simply what our grandparents (ie. before post-WW2 abundance) considered part of normal life. Know how to change your own tire. Have some extra food at home. Know how to make wild water safe to drink. And so on.

 

Yes, there are some good Youtubers on prepping, but then something weird will pop up, or you’ll find a few in the comments wanting to go kill or lynch people, right now, not in the future, but right now, and it gets a bit disturbing. 

I’ve found some channels like DW (German News) or CNBC or PBS have some good mini-stories on important or interesting topics, such as food, water, climate, weather, how inflation works etc. 

I’m thinking I found The Prepared through an article or article resource or something. 

 

Looks like I’ll be watching this one old school! 😀

I asked my wife if she’d already setup some way to watch CBS, knowing that she tries to keep a lot of information sources available. She reminds me that she setup a TV with antenna for local channels. And apparently CBS is broadcast locally.

Looking forward to watching the show!

 

The video and transcript are on the CBS website.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/preppers-60-minutes-2022-11-06/#app

 

I am hoping that I am one of many too join you on your forum and blog.

 

Welcome, C Johnson!

Did you find us because of today’s 60 minutes coverage?

 

Yes I did. 

 

Awesome— so glad you’re here!

 

You’re most welcome! Definitely not the only one to join up tonight. So far about 10k people have visited while the show’s airing.

 

I joined a couple others and got disappointed because they only were out to sell me something, but they didn’t teach much.  Good info on the Internet is hard to find.

 

I too in the past have been involved on other prepper forums, but there was too much fighting.  You will not see fighting here.  

 

You’ve come to the right place! There are excellent free guides here, and the beginner guide is an especially good place to start. This is also a friendly and knowledgeable community.

 

I second that. I’ve found this place very friendly, active and helpful!

 

I am glad you feel that way because I was going to ask if anyone thought of putting a workable plan together to help people out in case they have to leave home quick because their home is not safe because of local political strife and conflict?  just askin. lol

 

“leave home quick because their home is not safe because of local political strife and conflict?”

Sounds like you might be interested in the guide to civil unrest.

https://theprepared.com/emergencies/guides/civil-unrest/

 

Bradley, I really liked how you presented the bug out concept in the context of a real wildfire. Especially the part about packing in a hurry and trying to find important documents… Bugging out is often portrayed as one of the weird prepper behaviors but you made it more understandable/relatable.

 

Yeah, I mean, isn’t “bugging out” just slang for “evacuation”? To the extent that there is a difference, I feel like it’s just that the person who is “bugging out” was aware that they might have to do it one day, whereas “evacuate” covers situations in which the evacuees prepared AND situations in which they were taken by surprise. Regardless, I feel like Bradley’s example really connects the dot of prepper jargon to something recognizable as “normal”. 

 

“Yeah, I mean, isn’t “bugging out” just slang for “evacuation”?”

Yes, they’re identical, and the slang just makes a good idea sound weird. I’m more than happy to replace “bug out bag” with “evacuation pack/suitcase.”

 

“Slang just makes a good idea sound weird.” Nailed it.

FWIW, I like “evac pack”.

 

I’ve been avoiding such jargon for a while now in kit builder.

 

Using slang, I prefer Get the Hell out of Dodge Bag, but maybe I’m showing my age using that slang.  🙂

 

I can’t say that I agree pnwsarah and Eric.  I see the overlaps and parallels and also perhaps have been biased by our media culture 🙂 

• Evacuating covers a larger spectrum of leaving home situations and includes packing half the house to take with me or going quickly with less as Bradley had to do.  Evacuating implies a known temporary situation (storms, fires, chemical spill) and smaller/limited geographic impact.  There is a safe place and civilization to evacuate TO. In a nutshell – it’s more civilized.
• Bugging out covers leaving with more uncertain knowledge and more widespread geographically impact (earthquake, terrorist attack, military invasion).  This situation has increased potential need to provide my own shelter/food/water/transportation because it’s affected more people and infrastructure for much farther.  In a nutshell – it’s less civilized.  
• Otherwise, I’m sheltering-in-place or bugging in.   😉

When I evacuated for a fire, I went to work the next day.  I don’t expect to do that in a Bug out scenario.  The BOB is helpful in both.  

 

I’d like to do a survey of random people at the grocery store and ask “What do you think of when you hear someone is a prepper?”

Then for those who respond “Some gun nut in a bunker with shelves of food storage.”

I would then respond “Do you store more than a week’s worth of food? Do you have a fire extinguisher? … Do you consider yourself someone who prepares?” I think people will realize that we all prep.

It nice that the definition and mindset is changing. The Prepared has seemed to be a leader of that movement of changing the definition and it seems to be paying off.

 

If I ever get the time and funding, I have a survey experiment designed to get after this aspect of prepping and social contagion/influence.  Based upon the findings, it could influence how FEMA and other organizations like the Red Cross message to the masses.  

 

Thank you for your reply. I wish you the best of luck in getting that time and funding, it sounds like it will be a worthwhile experiment that will have a big influence. 

 

I’m curious about your approach. Is there anything we’d be allowed to see?

 

It’s a simple study.  Randomly divide people into a control group and the experimentation groups.  Ask them how many days of preps do they currently have?  Then, give the standard disaster pitch.  Control group gets the standard info of 3 days (FEMA) or 14 days (Red Cross). 

Experimentation groups get different numbers.  For example, maybe they are told prepping in America is rising and 30 days is the number to shoot for.  Follow up with them 90 days later and ask them again the days of preps they have.  If social contagion is a thing, then the groups that received the higher numbers should report higher average days of preps.

It’s like the toilet paper contagion early on in COVID.  We do things because we see/hear about others doing them.

 

So you’re basically testing alternative FEMA sales pitches… FEMA wants more resilient citizens. They ask for only 3 days, because if they ask for too much it will seem unachievable. But 3 days is also a ridiculously low number…

Anyone who goes shopping once per week, and runs out of food right before the next trip, meets the FEMA standard on food storage for half of every week.

So if you can prove that asking for more days results in getting more days, then FEMA has a way to improve the sales pitch. Sounds like a good move.

 

I like the survey idea 🙂 I feel like prepping is WAY more mainstream and accepted these days. I think the “big C” event helped that… I remember seeing “how to survive the apocalypse” magazines show up right in the front of the grocery store… lol

 

Wow, great segment John & Bradley.   I was so glad that they brought up the hurricane & wildfires.  It really helped to reinforce that preparing should reflect what happens in real life and not the “zombie aliens” as you said John!  Eric – thanks for the link, it worked perfectly.  

 

I’ve really been prepping best I know how since the pandemic. Lots of websites and such out there, but it’s overwhelming. My friends and coworkers have generally snickered at what I’ve been doing or it freaks them out so they don’t like to talk about it. Then the 60 Minutes segment aired and one of my colleagues said they thought of me when they saw it.

Now coworkers are talking about prepping in the same way that got me started. Paradise fire first (evacuation routes, practicing evacuating, having real supplies in my go bag) and then the pandemic with no food on the shelves, supply chain disruptions, no back up water, etc.

I’m more into it in regard to climate and social collapse at this point, but having them recognize prepping isn’t just for “off-gridders” anymore is really cool and enjoyable for me. And I now have one site to visit and learn from instead of not knowing and being overwhelmed.

I also think this is a great community forum. Social media isn’t a place for serious people anymore in regard to whatever realm one once used it to glean information and meet like minded people, in my opinion, so I hope to make authentic connections here.

 

Welcome to ThePrepared, and I hope you find what you’re looking for here.

Any idea what led to friends snickering before? Or what they saw in the show that changed how they think about it?

 

Snickering in that they thought I was overreacting or turning extreme (I live where off-gridders growing pot in the tops of trees and cooking meth with security fencing and stockpiles have been “prepping” for decades) or they make comments like the US is indestructible despite supply chain disruptions, or they think that since we’re in California others might not have access to resources, but we do/will ignoring no snow on the mountains and coming crop failures in a heat wave. It’s a combination of nervous laughter and outright denial.

The 60 Minutes segment just made them think, since it was about prepping being more mainstream now. I think the Professor who talked about fire was most poignant for them. We live in fire country. Also, the single woman. I’m a single woman. Basically the people interviewed were intelligent regular people (not meth manufacturers or old school cultivators) who said what I’ve been saying.

I’ve almost always been years ahead of curves, so since 60 Minutes is mainstream they’ll listen to it more than a seer, you know. I’m used to it. Whatever it takes. I’m happy to not feel like such a pariah in the staff.

 

“I think the Professor who talked about fire was most poignant for them.”

Yes, it’s hard to think of Bradley as overpreparing when the thing he’s preparing for just happened last week.

BTW, scroll up a bit and you’ll see that Bradley and John, two of this show’s stars, are here in the conversation with us. They’ve both put a lot of effort into addressing the misconceptions you spoke about, and instead presenting prepping as normal, responsible behavior.

 

Another thing that happened, speaking of nervous laughter and outright denial, is I attended a community forum that was on how our county is dealing with the effects of climate change and interagency action plans. Community leaders were on the panel – a County Supervisor, a head of the water department and farmer, a head of the Tahoe Nat Forest. Very few people attended that and no one wanted to engage in convo about it with me later. Again, the 60 Minutes segment just made people around me go, oh this is really a thing, not just for “crazies”.

 

That’s a great story J, of how many people want to do some prepping but may have had some hesitation to express it until they see that others are doing it. Really glad to have you here on the forum! It is a great and very helpful community.