Jennifer Heller: HERE COMES the APOCALYPSE!

[00:00:11] Speaker A: What's worthwhile, worthy of our time, energy, belief and action. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. To me, it's building mind, body and spirit wellness towards peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit. Let's pursue these topics together to find holistic health and wellness. [00:00:31] Speaker B: It's very hard to make decisions when you're triggered when you're upset. And I can't imagine a disaster scenario where I wouldn't be upset. And so having these plans ahead of time will ease that time. In our go bags, we have a change of clothing, flashlights, an emergency radio, some food and some water. I have activity books for my kids and I have earplugs for myself. So physical copies of your documents, such as all those passports. You're also going to need hair dye to disguise yourself. I'm just kidding. [00:01:13] Speaker A: You had me for a second there. I was like, wait, what? Hey there, It's Ramsay here. That was Jennifer Heller. Jen is obsessed with the apocalypse. Well, kinda actually. She's a marketing and design professional who had some family members deal with emergencies and disasters. So she looked the abyss straight in the face and took on the task of making disaster plans. She was horrified not by the disasters, but by the wretchedly boring and daunting government resources available. So she put her design skills and dark humor to work to create Here Comes the Apocalypse, a complete web based guide to help households plan for the worst. We actually had a blast contemplating all that could go wrong and talking about what we should do before it does. I hope you get a lot of useful tips and a few laughs out of this as well. Let's dive in. Hey Jen, how are you doing today? [00:02:08] Speaker B: I'm great. Thanks for having me. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. Thank you for coming out today. I couldn't wait to talk to you ever since I saw your stuff and saw that your website and book were called Here Comes the Apocalypse. But it was with bright colors and like weird graphics and snarky comments. I'm like, I need to talk to this person because I am like totally imagining the yellow wallpaper in your fallout shelter. But what is all. What is this all about? How is it that you approach disaster preparedness with such a cheery demeanor? [00:02:47] Speaker B: Well, I think that I really approach life that way. When I started on this project, I was just bored to tears by all of the preparedness resources online and they were either totally extreme. I read something that suggested that we should bury a refrigerator in our backyard to keep our go bags in there and like plant flowers on top to hide it from our Neighbors. And I just. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Well, did the refrigerator work for Indiana Jones in, like, one of those movies where he was in, like, an atomic blast and he, like, jumped into a refrigerator? [00:03:24] Speaker B: That must have been where she got it. I mean, maybe I'll put the yellow wallpaper in there. Right in my beer refrigerator. [00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that'll fit. It'll be avocado, though. [00:03:34] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, I always think of the Monty Python movie Life of Brian, and at the end, they're all nailed crosses and they're singing. And they're singing, Always look on the bright side of life. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Side of life. [00:03:51] Speaker B: And then they switch. Exactly. They switch to always look on the bright side of death. And I'm like, oh, well, now, that is a fun approach. Right. Because I always say you have to get to dead. You. You know, there's a disaster, there's an emergency. And I also always say that I pray for a swift death, you know, which. You should be so lucky, I think. You know, a lot of times you're in a situation that's pretty dire and you're stuck there. And so having a positive attitude during that and having put some thought into how to handle that is going to set you up for having that positive attitude and being able to enjoy it or enjoy it as much as you possibly can. [00:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So at the risk of things turning really dark, I mean, have you or some of your loved ones experienced some disasters and did everyone make it out okay? I hope? [00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah, everybody made it out okay. So far, knock on wood, I've had two families lose their homes to California wildfires. We're a California family. Most of us are based here. And that's what really set me on this journey was I had my first kid in 2016. And then in 2017, I, my husband's uncle lost their home to a wildfire, and they woke up in the middle of the night, happened to look outside, saw flames, and escaped with their pajamas and their dogs, like, so absolutely didn't get any of their sentimental belongings. Were lucky to survive. And this was Santa Rosa. This was a town. It wasn't, you know, rural community. It was this. A big chunk of Santa Rosa was. Was wiped out. And I'd lived in California my entire life, and I've never had, you know, wildfires weren't even on my radar. I understand they have always been on certain rural residents radars, but not on mine. And so starting in 2017 was the first year that we actually had weeks of summer where we couldn't go outside because the air was so bad. And we couldn't breathe because of all the wildfires here in California. It's actually gotten a little bit better lately. They've gotten better at managing the wildfires, which has been great. So it's been really nice to not have that air problem. But this was really a wake up call for me. And you know, having kids also really changed the game. It made me more concerned about what was going to happen because now I had somebody, had a little tiny tyke who I loved more than anything that I was really worried about and I worried about their future more so than my future. Since then, my in laws actually also lost their home to a California wildfire. So it's, it's definitely a prevalent disaster that happens here in California and elsewhere. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, so on this podcast on what's worthwhile, I talk a lot about peace of mind. And peace of mind means a lot of things to me. But certainly right up there on the list is, is thinking things through and understanding, you know, your real situation and, you know, dealing with it directly. And preparedness just absolutely falls like dead smack in the middle of that. Um, and, you know, looming possibilities of danger and disaster are kind of exactly in opposition to something like having peace of mind. And they're really, I think it's, it's generally really intimidating and, and daunting to even try to prepare for this stuff. So I think, you know, leaning heavily into the, the dark snarky humor is, is one attempt, lighten that up and make it less daunting. But from a practical sense, how does your approach make disaster preparedness less daunting and intimidating? [00:08:18] Speaker B: You know, for the one thing, we break it out step by step. You know, I spent three years just reading everything I could get my hands on and devouring kind of the prepper resources online. And it was impossible to find out what a disaster plan even was. I remember going to ready.gov and they said, use our form to make a disaster plan. And I was, you know, halfway through this project or something and I was like, oh, great, they figured it out. I don't have to do this project anymore. And I went to the website and I, I clicked on the link and I was like, great, I'm going to enter my form. I'm going to make my, my plan. And the form was a text box and it said, enter your disaster plan. [00:09:06] Speaker A: Ah. [00:09:07] Speaker B: And they didn't tell me, right, they told me what a disaster plan was. They didn't give me examples. And that's what I really set out to do with Our resources at Here Comes the Apocalypse was guide people through it so that you don't have to do all that research and you don't have to try to figure out what a disaster plan is. Because when we tell you, and I'll tell you now, that, you know, a disaster plan is not just gear, a lot of people think, oh, well, I've got a generator, I've got some food, I'm good, and that's great. And everybody should have, you know, some. Some plan for power and a plan for food and a plan for water. But it's also more just as important, coordination, you know, planning with your family, especially if you've got kids, where designated meeting places where you would meet up if you can't go home. Having a communication plan. A lot of the time cell phone towers are really jammed and you can't reach each other in the event of a disaster. And I don't want to be in a situation where I'm trying to reach my husband and to figure out who's going to get the kids if something like that happens. I. We have already talked about it. We know I'm getting the kids, he's getting the cats, you know, and that's our delegation of duties. And so I don't have to spend any time worrying about that. And it's very hard to make decisions when you're triggered, when you're upset. And I can't imagine a disaster scenario where I wouldn't be upset. And so having these plans ahead of time will ease that time. And of course, of course, I'm hoping that it never happens to me. Right. I don't want it to happen to me. I don't want it to happen to you. I don't want it to happen to anybody. But the reality is that it is happening and it's happening more and more often. And so it's really important that we all take some time to think about what will happen if you can't get home, if your kids are at school, if you're traveling. All of these different scenarios are scenarios to consider. [00:11:28] Speaker A: And do you feel like people these days are in some ways more vulnerable than they had been in the past? You know, I'm thinking of like our digital world and how we have stuff online and how you can order anything and get it delivered and how people sort of do that all the time. What are, what are the impacts of that kind of lifestyle on, you know, what happens in a disaster? [00:11:54] Speaker B: Great question. You know, I think about it a lot because those meal kits where you get all the ingredients sent to you and then like a recipe card that teaches you how to make it. That to me is such a testament to the fact that we have lost our way. We can't do the things that we used to be able to train. We were used to, trained to do that by our moms. Our moms taught us to cook. We, you know, we learned how to bake. We learned all of this stuff because we were more self sufficient as a family. And we've become very, very dependent on processed food and grocery stores. And that makes me really terrified in case things really, really went bad, what would happen to our society here in the U.S. i think that, so for the, that's one way. And then also I think the fact that we have so much stuff in the cloud is, could be a pretty big problem. If there were significant disruptions in the power grid, we would not be able to. Most people don't even know any phone numbers, right? They probably don't even know their, their partner's phone number. [00:13:09] Speaker A: It's in my phone. [00:13:10] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Let alone how to contact the school. One of the steps we have people do is write down all of your contact information addresses too, so that you've got a physical copy of all these different phone numbers and addresses. So that if things really, if as they say, shit hits the fan really badly that then you, you have these resources to look at and to reference, which again, nobody wants that to happen, but just in case. [00:13:48] Speaker A: But it can and it does and it might. So. All right, so let's, you know, some of the most sort of obvious scenarios pop into my head are things like wildfires. You mentioned floods, power outages, severe storms, whether it's like a hurricane or a tornado. What do kind of all of those have in common in the sense that what are sort of the basic fundamental things that people ought to be sort of, sort of ready for, preparing for. Let's start with things that, things that people should have on hand. So what, what is some of that gear? What are some of those supplies? [00:14:37] Speaker B: Absolutely, yes. So your go bag, right? The bag that you grab if you have to leave and leave fast. And so a lot of those scenarios you just listed, like a flood, you would, if you lived in a low level home, you would want to get to higher ground quickly. I live in an area that could potentially have a tsunami, so I am ready for us to evacuate and go to higher ground if needed. [00:15:06] Speaker A: And in the movies, like in the movies you always keep in your go bag your passports from three different countries with your different identities and your cash from, with different denominations. But, but what should you actually have in your go bag? [00:15:21] Speaker B: Well, I do think that cash in small amounts, small bills is really, really important. We also ask people to make physical copies of all of their important documents. Insurance, insurance certificates, health insurance. If you've got medical needs, prescriptions. When my mother in law lost her home, I heard her on the phone for hours trying to get her prescription refilled and she couldn't reach her doctor because the hospital had also burned down. And so she, she needed these prescriptions and she could not get them refilled because she could, she just couldn't. There was just no way. And so if she'd had a copy of her prescription, she would have been in a much better situation. So physical copies of your documents, such as all those passports, you're also going to need hair dye to disguise yourself. I'm just kidding. [00:16:22] Speaker A: You had me for a second there. I was like, wait, what? [00:16:25] Speaker B: No flashlights, an emergency radio, some food and some water. I have a bunch of things to make my kids comfortable. Right. Like I have, we have in our go bags, we have a change of clothing. I have activity books for my kids and I have earplugs for myself and a sleeping mask because I have sleeping challenges. I always picture being stuck in a high school gym. Right. Because that's the type of place that they turn into evacuation shelter. And I imagine being there with my kids. And what are we going to need? We're going to need distractions. So we have books, we have, you know, crayons and coloring books and things that'll make it seem a little bit more normal and a little bit less terrifying. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Okay, makes sense. Now how about if you are in a situation where you're going to be like sheltering in place if you're in your house. [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yes. So then you're definitely going to want food and water. Right. And a lot of the same gear. Emergency radio, flashlights. This is where it really depends on the type of disaster that you're going to be expecting. Expecting or anticipating? Hopefully not ever expecting. But you know, I know that people who live in tornado country are really, really adept at tornado prepping. And so there's, it's just kind of a long list. Now I will say that one of the things that I think is really important and a step that is often overlooked by people is to test your gear. You want to make sure regularly that your gear works. And so that emergency radio that you get, open it up, make sure you know how it works. Make sure that your flashlights still work. I can't tell you how many flashlights I've bought that then in less than a year stop working. And it's not just because my kids, you know, play with them and drop them all over the house. It's planned obsolescence. Right. Things are not made as high quality as they used to be so that we buy more of them. And from a preparedness standpoint, this really makes me very angry and frustrated because we want to buy a high quality flashlight that we can count on. So it's there in our emergency kit and we know it's there. [00:19:01] Speaker A: One of the batteries go bad too, right? [00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And one of the tricks is to actually tape the batteries around the outside of the flashlight because if you have them inside, it slowly drains the batteries. So in our go bags, we have batteries taped around the outside and batteries inside. So theoretically you've got two sets of batteries. You're also going to want a charging cable for your phones in both your go bag and stay bag, and ideally a solar powered power bank so that you can charge those in the event that the power supply stays out for a long time. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Yeah. What are your thoughts about food? [00:19:48] Speaker B: Yes. Well, I have a lot of emergency food that I don't ever want to eat, but I also have a stockpile of packets of ketchup and soy sauce and hot sauce, and I've got salt and pepper so that if I do have to eat it, at least I'll be able to add flavor. [00:20:11] Speaker A: So fresh ingredients like ketchup? [00:20:14] Speaker B: Yes. Well, my daughter will eat ketchup for every meal we ask her. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, sure. [00:20:20] Speaker B: And every night it's ketchup. Please. I'm like, no, we're not having ketchup. [00:20:25] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure it's a vegetable. Isn't that what we learned in, like, what was it, the Reagan administration? Anyways, okay, so food. But there's, so there's, you know, there's crates of food that you have to rehydrate and, you know, goodness only knows. But what about just like stocking your cupboards? Like, you know, we do a lot of shopping at Costco out here and I try to keep a fairly good supply of just the things that I eat all the time. So I don't feel bad about having an extra box of whatever sort of in the back of the cabinet. And then it's sort of in rotation too. Right. Because it doesn't, you know, it doesn't sit in the back of my closet. And get really old. How's that for like a. Just sort of a really accessible kind of food strategy? [00:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's brilliant. I think that that is actually absolutely what you want to do. I, I know people who go to the store every day to get food for their household. And that scares me, you know, because you see these empty shelves, right. In the event of a disaster or an coming storm. And I don't ever want to be that person running to the store to get, to get just food to survive. Right. So having that, that stockpile just. I mean, they say three weeks of food is a good rule of thumb to have on hand. You know, I personally also have a vegetable garden in front and I live in zone nine. So even though it's March, I have some vegetables growing. So I have that available to my family as well, which I know that a lot of people can't do that. But making sure that, I think making sure that you've got all your basics all the time is really good general preparedness. [00:22:23] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and you know, when you, when you talk and think about food, there's different ways of getting it. There's. And you know, I believe in getting locally sourced food and sustainable agriculture and growing your own food at home and all of those things I think contribute to self reliance and they contribute to being able to be resilient through disruptions. Because, you know, even just a few years ago with COVID we had some massive sort of supply chain disruptions. Right. And so that kind of, I hope like people got sort of a lesson because it. In 2020 we were in very much in the. Just in time sort of space in terms of like societal. And I think we, we sort of learned a little bit of that lesson. Oh, just in time is great except it has its limitations like when supply chain disruptions. But we were talking about food. I was also going to say that, you know, we like to, you know, get a bunch of beef from a local ranch and keep that in the freezer. And so, you know, it, of course you need power to your freezer, but having stuff like that in supply is also a good means of general food security. I think. [00:23:50] Speaker B: Yes, I agree. And I think that knowing your, the local farmers and the local production is a really wonderful step for preparedness. And that's beyond, you know, just preparing for a disaster, but making sure that we've got local supply chains set up in the event that the global supply chain is threatened in a major way. You know, so much is. Comes on container ships and as we see Bigger and bigger storms. I very much worry about how we're going to be able to continue to get all of the supplies that we're used to getting that come via container ship. We don't know that we're going to be able to continue to get those. [00:24:41] Speaker A: And yes, it's interesting because in, we live in this global world, but it's all still a local world and we still have to eat what's in the real world in front of us. But you know, in terms of preparedness, like I think a lot of families, you know, my own included, we sort of are really spread out, you know, living in different cities, you know, maybe you're in different countries. What should we do in terms of disaster preparedness sort of together if our families are in, you know, very different places? [00:25:21] Speaker B: One of the most important steps to do is to designate an out of town contact. So that's some person in your family that lives somewhere, excuse me, not where you are, right? So in case the cell phone towers are jammed where you are, you perhaps might be able to get a text message to, through to somebody who's not local. And so if you have this out of town contact set up that then everybody in your family, no matter where they are, texts that person to find out what's going on, right? And that person is the communication hub. So they keep everybody apprised and they can research, you know. Okay, so you, you know, if my family. So we're a family of four, right? So let's say we're separated more than we normally are and something happens. And then we all text and Carolyn, and then, and Carolyn texts my husband, oh, Jen's here and texts me to update me on, you know, where my husband is. And so that person is relaying all the community, all the communication and also can be research researching shelters, researching free transportation, you know, options if bridges are down, which is another scary thing to think about if you travel via bridge every day to wherever you work. And so, you know, if your family's scattered, then that's a way for everybody to have one stop shop to keep track of each other. And I think, you know, making sure that if your kids are grown and they've moved on that they do spend some time thinking about their disaster plans and their designated meeting places for their, you know, local family, which is probably their friends, right? If they live with roommates or some closer family so that they have at least a little bit of forethought put in to what would happen if something really went wrong. I know when I was in my 20s, I was not thinking about any of this. Right. I did make myself an emergency kit and it had some peanut butter that is would have been very expired if I ever had had to eat it. [00:27:48] Speaker A: You still have that jar of peanut butter somewhere, don't you? [00:27:51] Speaker B: No, I recently got rid of it. I am happy to report. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Good job. [00:27:56] Speaker B: So I don't have to ever eat rancid peanut butter. That's a good goal in life. Don't ever eat rancid peanut butter. [00:28:05] Speaker A: I don't know. I like me some rancid peanut butter. It's an acquired taste really. [00:28:11] Speaker B: Well, hopefully we don't reach the point where that's what we're enjoying because supply chains break down that badly. [00:28:20] Speaker A: Hopefully not. I mean we've been talking about, you know, really kind of practical stuff and local scale emergencies. But I mean, you're the one who used the word apocalypse. So I kind of have to ask. I mean, what do you see? Like, do you think about the big stuff in terms of, you know, major sort of societal level calamities? I mean, what, what bounces around inside of your head? [00:28:48] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I try not to because I did, I did start a whole business around this and sometimes regret it because I do have to. As a result, I pay attention to the news and to the extreme weather events and sometimes I'm just. It's too much. It can be too much. But I actually think of apocalypse in a, in a different way than I think more people, most people do. I think that anything can be an apocalypse. An apocalypse is really a world changing event. Right. So when my in laws lost their home that. Absolutely. They lost their whole town. The whole town burned down, which was a teeny town, but that was a total apocalypse. But you know, if you lose a loved one, that's an apocalypse too. Right. You know, your life is now completely different than it used to be. And so I think there's personal apocalypse, there's extreme weather that causes apocalypse. And yeah, when it comes to total societal breakdown, as they say, you know, I do think about it. Right. I'm not gonna lie. We've got some booze that we will never drink in our garage that we refer to as our emergency booze for trading. Right. Like we're hoping to barter it for like supplies if things get really bad. [00:30:11] Speaker A: Right on. Good thinking. [00:30:13] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm also working with my neighborhood group to fortify ourselves if things really were bad. So we're going to have lists of, you know, the local medical personnel that we could probably Call on. We have a list of everybody who has extra water, who has extra food, who's got a backup generator and you know, really large power banks, backup batteries. So we're creating those lists and also creating a lot of local community around it so that if things were really, really bad, we could have a little tiny microcosm of functionality in this world or that's the hope anyway. [00:31:05] Speaker A: No, that's really terrific because if we have a wide scale grid down scenario, depending on how it happens, it could take literally months, if not longer, if not, maybe not ever to bring it back up to scale based on what infrastructure we lose. And you know, I'd say most of society is in this country is not prepared for the idea of not having electricity for a long, extended period of time. [00:31:35] Speaker B: I absolutely agree. You know, and a lot of our bridges and other infrastructure, like the railways, you know, all of this was constructed quite a long time ago and we haven't really been prioritizing maintaining it. Mostly because it's not sexy, it's not fun. Like the, the politicians don't want to do it because it takes a long time. You know, nobody will see the results while they're, while they're in office and then they have to run for re election and say, oh, I did all these things. Well, these are long term things that need to happen. We need to be prioritizing them. And the way our government works in actually causes us to deprioritize them because they're so long term and because of how short our elected politicians, you know, how, how short they're in office. [00:32:29] Speaker A: Yeah, no, infrastructure is a big deal and infrastructure is very difficult to maintain and prioritize and expensive. And very expensive. But you make such a great point about how it's, you know, planning within our family and our household. Yes, absolutely. But planning with your neighbors, with your community members, you know, it's just one more reason to actually be involved with your community and know who lives nearby and you know, get to know your neighbors and understand how your local systems work. Because, you know, this is one more reason, one more time, one more opportunity where it's going to become really important. You know, if there's only certain things that you can do virtually and if virtual goes away, then there are certain things that you absolutely have to do in real life. And if IRL is all you got, then in real life is pretty important. [00:33:31] Speaker B: And going back to, you know, are we better prepared or not? You know, I'd say that one of the things that makes us really poorly Prepared is that we've lost a lot of mom and pop stores, you know, a lot of small stores, like, like hardware stores and small grocery stores. People who, who would be there. Right. I mean, right now where I live, Walgreens is closing all their stores, like all except two. And I'm in a, you know, I'm in the Bay Area. There's a pretty big area. Maybe, you know, I'm sure there's more than two in the Bay Area, but in the East Bay, they've closed most of them. And so I don't understand where they think people are going to get their prescriptions and, you know, just other goods that they need, like shampoo and stuff and then cvs. Everything is behind locked cabinets. Every single thing. I went in there to buy some stuff for my emergency kit. I wanted to have, have toiletries, more toiletries. Right. Because I, again, going back to the high school gym, I do not want to be stinky. And so I want to have, you know, soap and face moisturizer. You know, I mean, these things that I'm used to that make me feel like a human, I want to have those. And if I'm stuck in these situations and I couldn't get anything because it was all behind glass and it's like. [00:35:04] Speaker A: So did you, did you add a baseball bat to your go bag? [00:35:10] Speaker B: That is a good idea. No. Yeah. I am pointedly not prepared defense wise. I'm not a gun fan or a violence fan, so I'm just hoping that the offer of that earthquake booze will, the emergency booze will. Will save me. [00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a whole different area of conversation around preparedness in terms of self defense and weapons and everything else. But. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Well, and I think that's the. Where a lot of people go first. Right. Is like, I'm prepared. I have this stuff and nobody's going to take it from me because I've got my guns. And. And you know, the community preparedness is sort of the opposite of that. Right. It's like, okay, I know I have rain barrels. I have three of them. They're full. I have a industrial strength water purification system so that I can hydrate everybody. I want people coming over for water. I want, I want to have community at the other side. And I think that when you're focused on, you know, this is my stuff and my gear, and it's like, who. You're not going to have community on the other side. You're just going to have, you know, your guns. And I mean, maybe, hopefully you'll have your family. Right. But a family doesn't survive for very long without more. Without a community to support it. [00:36:43] Speaker A: Well, and I, I see it too, as. What are your, what are your strongest emotions? What are your motivating factors? If you're, if you're looking for guns and ammo, then potentially you're acting out of fear and you're, you know, and that fear may well be justified because lots of other people have guns and ammo, too. Absolutely. So no judgment there. But, you know, if you're leading into love and community and working together with your neighbors to get prepared, then hopefully that fear might be dissipated. And also, I think, you know, the people who are likely going to be a threat to you in a disaster situation are probably being motivated out of desperation in a lot of ways. And yeah, agreed to some extent. But, you know, they're going to be looting somebody's store. So it's going to be the, it's going to be the ones who are hungry and who are scared, who are going to be threatening the ones that have sort of done the preparation. And so I think to your point, the more that you work with the people around you to build up your base, then you can sort of offer a hand to many of those folks who would otherwise be desperate. But I don't know, what do I know? [00:38:09] Speaker B: Well, that's, that's absolutely my attitude. And that's what I hope would come to pass if, if, you know, the worst. [00:38:19] Speaker A: If we hit a Mad Max scenario. [00:38:21] Speaker B: Exactly. And you know what? I think that brings up an interesting point, which is that I think that we are, our civic responsibility to think through what our families are going to do and to talk about designated meeting places and to think about your emergency communication plan, because there are not that many first responders. Right. And I always think about those first responders have families, too. Right. So if things are really bad, they're really worried about their families. And I can imagine a scenario where things are so bad that they're not even doing their jobs. Right. And they're just going home to their families because things have hit so such rock bottom. Right. And I want to take care of myself and my neighbors so that those first responders are free to take up the. Take care of the people that didn't have the privilege to think about this because so many of us are completely overwhelmed. We're, you know, underwater financially, where, you know, barely surviving in this world that really isn't supporting a lot of the people in it. And so if you do have the time and space to consider how your family can respond to a disaster and emergency. I, I really, truly believe it's your civic responsibility to do so. [00:39:47] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that, that makes a great point because, you know, many people are struggling just to hang on in the best of times. [00:39:54] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:55] Speaker A: And so, you know, it doesn't take much to kick them into their own apocalypse, as you were saying before, their own version of disaster. And so if something is societal wide, you know, those folks are going to be the, are going to be hit the worst and the hardest. So those of us that have the ability to prep for that, we, we should do it. Oh gosh, such heavy topics. [00:40:21] Speaker B: I know. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Anything lighter? Anything lighter. Anything that you are looking forward to coming up, Anything you're excited about? [00:40:29] Speaker B: Well, I have a community event this weekend. My kids are going to put on costumes and there's going to be a play and a big. [00:40:37] Speaker A: So good. [00:40:39] Speaker B: And you know, as we've talked about, I mean, I think, you know, action is the antidote to fear. Right. So when things are scary, take some action. You know, even if it's just a little bit of action that can help you to feel, to feel more in control and more powerful. And you know, community is so important. Right. So the more people that are, that are prepared and the more prepared we are in community, the better off we all would be. [00:41:08] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm a huge fan of kids in theater and putting on costumes and doing fun stuff like that. So that's great. That's great. Speaking of action, how can people learn more? How can they get a hold of you? What can they do to reach out to you and get started? [00:41:29] Speaker B: Fabulous. So on my website we have a five day kickstart your prep challenge. And this will guide you through five of these steps that aren't usually talked about, you know. So this isn't about gear, this is about coordination and organization. So our website is. Here comes theapocalypse.com and the. So we have a kickstart your prep challenge and our full system of organization for preparedness is called the disaster bundle, which is available on the website and it guides you through step by step, what to do. It's in paper because like we've talked about, we can't necessarily count on our phones long, you know, in the event of an emergency. So we want to have everything printed and available to you. You create a customized disaster plan for your family. Think through all of these elements, like your communication plan, all of that. We guide you step by step. [00:42:33] Speaker A: That sounds great. Well, Jen, thank you so much for coming on. You're doing really important work and I just love the fact how you are just going out of your way to lighten up a serious topic in a way that people can get a laugh. You know, it's a high, shrill laugh that turns into a scream at the end, but it's a laugh. Absolutely. [00:43:01] Speaker B: We're laughing to keep from crying, let's be honest. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Well, let's keep it up. Best of luck to you. Thanks for coming on today. I appreciate it. [00:43:09] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Where to Go from here visit whatsworthwhile.net to learn more about me, Ramsey Zimmerman and please reach out to me and let me know what you think. I don't want this podcast to be some message in a bottle thrown out to sea. I want to hear back from you. Please send me a message or an email or hit me up on X, LinkedIn or Instagram. And please leave a rating and review for the what's Worthwhile podcast on Apple, Spotify, Iheart or Amazon. Thanks.