Cramming for the Apocalypse Podcast

In the Charm of the Wilderness book project, I’m using the natural elements to shape the narrative. That theme guides each park or trip. The first of all of those was a trip to Yosemite National Park I took last year that centered on fire. The two guys I interview this week played a big role in understanding the landscape of fire and fire management in the United States and the National Park Servi...

As you’re reading or listening to this, I will be exploring Yellowstone National Park with my family. It’s the perfect on-theme activity for this series! So while I’m out with my family exploring America’s first national park, please enjoy a couple more episodes of the Charm of the Wilderness series. In the meantime, I hope you’re off on some fun summer adventures and I’ll be back with more writte...

In the aftermath of what’s been dubbed the “Valentine’s Day Massacre,” where the Trump Administration unceremoniously fired thousands of federal workers, Will C. De Man ’s social media platform skyrocketed thanks to a post on Instagram expressing his empathy for the park rangers who lost their jobs. As a seventh-grade history teacher who also wrote the book A Short History of the National Parks: T...

In January 2021, The Smithsonian Magazine published an article called “ The Lost History of Yellowstone .” I was already in the middle of an awakening about the origins of how the land of North America became settler land (i.e., it was stolen from Indigenous peoples). The article interviews and follows researchers who had recently uncovered artifacts that proved what is now called Yellowstone Nati...

Hello Crammers! I’m excited to bring you the rest of the Charm of the Wildrness podcast directly to your feeds! We’ve gotten some great traction over on the podcast platforms, but many of you haven’t had the chance to hear from the amazing people I brought to the podcast, so here we are in your feed. I’ll be publishing a couple of episodes per week, so you get to hear all 9 episodes of this series...

Welcome to the Charm of the Wilderness podcast! I’m thrilled to release our inaugural episode featuring not only an incredible educator, but one of my oldest and best friends, Allison Depuy. If you’re listening to this on the Cramming for the Apocalypse feed, make sure to Subscribe to this podcast at Charm of the Wilderness on Substack or you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. In this epi...

Did you know this Thursday, October 16th is The Great ShakeOut ? It’s a day to focus on getting ready for an earthquake. However, we at “Cramming” are using it as a day to get ready for all disasters. So we’re coming at you with a special bonus episode to introduce you to another great tool out there. But first, don’t forget that also on Thursday, we are hosting a virtual workshop called “Get Your...

Y’all, it’s our last episode of Season 2! My how time flies! Before I get into it, a respondent to the survey I sent out the last few weeks mentioned that it would be nice to have the toolkit in one space. Well, guess what, you’re in luck! Last year, we compiled the full toolkit in this handy-dandy workbook where all of this can be found in one place. It’s helpful to reference the original posts,...

If you haven’t yet taken the survey about virtual classes we’re hoping to offer in the fall, there’s still time to complete it! In our penultimate episode of Season 2, we talk about the topic that I write about all the time in my newsletter: community preparedness. This is a much less tangible element of preparedness and isn’t one you’re going to accomplish over as weekend or even a few weeks. It’...

Before we launch into the podcast, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently working with MakeWith Hardware & Learning Center here in Portland to develop VIRTUAL workshops that help guide you through aspects of preparedness. If you are interested in taking such a class, we’d love for you to take a very quick survey to get a sense of the topics you’re interested in and some other aspects of what...

This week is a fun one because we’re talking all about your poop! But also we’re talking about how not to get sick if your sewer system goes down. Those of us living in higher income countries can take our functioning toilets for granted, but it should not be taken lightly when we’re preparing for an emergency. In fact, in this paper published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine Clinics of North...

This week is the very unsexy conversation about finances and documents. The conversation also took a very dystopian turn when we discussed all that the current Administration is doing to harass and deport people who look to them like an immigrant and what Congress is doing to limit voting rights. What a world we live in. Nonetheless, here is the original post which includes a full list of the docu...

You know that food you stocked up for after Episode 3? Well now we have tips on how to prepare how to cook said food. This week we talk about the various ways to illuminate, heat, cool your home and fuel your cooking implements when the grid goes down, which is becoming a much more common prospect than it once was. We also include some bonus action step recommendations not just on the preparedness...

We’re back after a couple week Spring Break! This time we’re talking about first aid and medication for preparedness. But first, since we’re talking about health and healthcare, a couple disclaimers. Disclaimer One: Brekke Wagoner and I are NOT medical professionals. None of the information within should be considered medical advice. If you have any questions that are specific to you and your heal...

Food storage is, hands down, the thing most people ask me about with preparedness. So without further ado, here is your full episode about food prep. Also, check out the Prep Series post on food storage that is complete with a one-week dinner menu and tips and images of what Brekke and I use for food storage in our own homes. Additionally, we won’t be releasing an episode next week because it will...

Water is the most important thing to think about for preparedness. We can live weeks without food, but no more than three days without clean water. In this episode, we talk about how much water to stock up on is ideal, storage options, treatment options, and sneaky water sources in a pinch. We discuss all of this in this week’s podcast. You can also find all the content in our toolkit post from la...

Given that we’re in what feels like “unprecedented times” (to borrow a way-too-overused phrase), we wanted to address it. What we are experiencing is, to be clear, a coup that is happening in plain site and being allowed to happen by some pretty cowardly people who do have the power to stop it (ahem, Congress). While on the surface it might not feel like this coup is related to preparedness, it is...

This week’s episode is short and sweet and here for you to start wrapping your mind around what it means to be prepared. This is week’s episode is all based on Week 1 of our preparedness series. If you want to refer back to anything that we talked about, you can find the resources there! Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the good. Additionally, each week, we’ll offer you specific action items to...

We’re so excited to announce that we are back for a second season! This season will be a little different from the first one in that it will all be about practical preparedness. We will be going through the Preparedness Series that Brekke Wagoner and I put together last year and bringing the toolkit to you in audio from. Each episode will cover topics from water and food storage to evacuation plan...

This is a fun episode where Helena Hjort one of the co-founders and co-owners of Swedish adventure travel company, Do The North, talks with me not just about the trip I took with them last year, but about Swedish and American culture. It was a fun conversation that moved from describing the incredible beauty of the St. Anna Archipelago on the Southeastern Coast of Sweden to an existential discussi...

In honor of Earth Day (which is next Monday, April 22nd), I’m publishing this conversation I had with Leonard Barrett, co-president of the climate justice organization, Families for Climate, here in Oregon. I’ve been working with Leonard and FFC for the past year or so on their communications and it has been an amazing source of inspiration. Learn about Families for Climate at www.familiesforclima...

On this week’s episode I bring you my liberal prepper pal, Brekke Wagoner. She’s the creator and host of the Sustainable Prepping YouTube Channel where she aims to educate through a holistic approach to emergency preparedness. She provides tips and resources in an action-oriented, forward-focused community to empower working women and their families to face any crisis with calm and confidence. I g...

In the Fall of 2022, I participated in the Wilderness Awareness School’s Wild Women’s Retreat. It was two days filled with learning skills from fire-making and plant medicine to building an awareness in the outdoors and nature play. While the entire weekend was inspirational and beautiful, and above all, super fun, one of the sessions that stuck with me most was the fire-making class. So much so t...

Exciting podcast news! The podcast is now monthly. And because of that news, I’ll be publishing it in addition to weekly newsletter posts. So you’ll receive this podcast in your inbox the first Friday of each month in addition to weekly newsletter stories on Tuesdays. What’s even better—all of this is offered to all subscribers for free. Hooray for more content! I’m so excited to share this month’...

Awhile back I came across a class by AASHE (The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education) that was uncannily up my alley. It was called Climate Anxiety to Action: Tools to Build a Radical Imagination and it was taught by Kat Davis. It turned out that Kat Davis happened to be the Climate Justice Advisor for the very school district my son goes to school in, Portland Pub...