Prepping Academy

Send us Fan Mail Area Study Map Training | The Prepping Academy Podcast Most people know almost nothing about the area they live in. In this episode of The Prepping Academy, Forrest Garvin explains how Area Study Map Training helps preppers, homesteaders, and families understand their local area, identify threats, locate resources, and build real preparedness plans using modern mapping and intelli...

Send us Fan Mail From Overwhelmed to Prepared | The Prepping Academy Podcast Millions of people know they should prepare… but most never start because they feel overwhelmed. Feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world? In this episode of The Prepping Academy, Forrest Garvin breaks down how to move from fear and confusion to confidence and preparedness using practical steps, mindset shifts, faith...

Send us Fan Mail Join Grid Down Comms Up for another episode of The Prepping Academy. Today, JJS, founder of AmRRON (American Redoubt Radio Operators Network), joins us for an update on AmRRON's annual grid-down exercise, T-REX. A national exercise where radio operators take to the airwaves for a three-day event tracking a fictional scenario, moving welfare traffic, and pressure-testing our c...

Send us Fan Mail AI, will it bring about the apocalypse, or just change the world? AI is making headlines daily. It is changing how we create online content, make web pages, buy products, receive medical care, invest in the stock market, etc. Will this tech bring about the end of the world if left unchecked? Will it just make early adopters wealthy? Forrest and Patrick dive into this cutting-edge...

Send us Fan Mail Skynet Is Here — Your Every Move Is Being Tracked Forrest and Patrick join forces to dive into the current privacy issues facing the globe. AI, age verification, new vehicles, and big data are all working together to make privacy a thing of the past. Forrest offers some great tips for maintaining privacy in an ever-changing world. This is a rapidly evolving situation that will req...

Send us Fan Mail What Will SHTF Really Be Like the First Year Forrest and Patrick join forces to discuss what the first year of a national grid-down situation might be like. The EMP Commission states that 90% of the population wouldn't make it through the first year. How would you survive the first year of chaos? Are your plans prepper fiction, or a real plan to survive and begin rebuilding a...

Send us Fan Mail In this special episode, Forrest Garvin joins the Church Dads Podcast for a powerful conversation about biblical preparedness, Christian leadership, family legacy, entrepreneurship, and living intentionally in uncertain times. Forrest shares his personal journey of faith, how preparedness aligns with scripture, and why fathers today should take seriously the responsibility to prot...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we discuss one of the most important preparedness topics facing families today — food security in today’s economy. With rising grocery prices, inflation, supply chain disruptions, economic uncertainty, and increasing concerns about the stability of the food system, more Americans are asking serious questions about how to protect and provide for their families long...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we dive deep into the world of solar cooking with the new My Solar Oven — a family-owned, veteran-owned, Made in the USA solar oven designed for preparedness, off-grid living, homesteading, emergency cooking, camping, and self-reliance. If you have ever wondered how solar ovens work, what foods you can cook with solar power, or why thousands of preparedness-minded...

Send us Fan Mail Our critical infrastructure faces multiple threats from physical security, cyber security, rust, and corporate profit over resilience. In this episode of Grid Down Comms Up, we discuss some of the threats our communications systems face to better understand how they might fail and how we can plan for those failures. Grid Down Comms Up takes listeners for a brief peek behind the fr...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin breaks down one of the most important—and overlooked—steps you can take to protect your digital life: Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Most people rely solely on passwords, but they get stolen every day through data breaches, phishing, and simple attacks. This episode explains how 2FA works, why it’s so effective, and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin discusses one of the biggest problems in the preparedness community: people stop preparing when things feel normal. When shelves are full and life feels stable, most people drift away from preparedness. But that’s exactly when you should be building skills, strengthening your plan, and staying connected. This episode...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin breaks down 7 simple steps you can take right now to regain control of your online privacy. Most people don’t realize how much of their life is being tracked, stored, and sold—from emails and searches to phones and smart devices. This episode walks you through practical, real-world actions to reduce your digital footp...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin introduces The Last Scenario —a preparedness game he created to train decision-making when everything goes wrong. This isn’t entertainment. It’s a real-world simulation designed to expose the gaps in your planning before a crisis happens. Most people focus on gear, food, and supplies—but when pressure hits, they freez...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, we discuss the impacts of food production caused by the war in Iran. Natural gas from the Middle East is a key component in chemical fertilizers. What would a world without chemical fertilizers look like? How long would it take us to convert to regenerative farming practices? Are you prepared for the disruptions in toxic agriculture? What are some practica...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Patrick from Grid Down Comms UP looks at an awesome new software to move your Area Study into the 21st century. No more kindergarten crayons and construction paper, a real solution to your Areas Study mapping needs.  Area Study Map is a personal reconnaissance tool that runs entirely in your browser — no accounts, no cloud, no data leaving your machine. Map popula...

Send us Fan Mail Selco Begovic - Survivor of the Balkan War - SHTF Expert!  PART 2 Interview Selco Begovic, a survivor of the tumultuous Balkan war in the 1990s, endured the daunting challenges of living in a besieged city without access to necessities like electricity, running water, and food distribution. Today, he shares his firsthand experiences through physical courses, offering invaluable in...

Send us Fan Mail Patrick with @griddowncomms - Winter Storm Fern Patrick with @griddowncomms takes the microphone again for an after-action report on winter storm Fern and a few rants along the way. In the communications portion of today's show, we discuss shortcomings of some popular but perhaps misguided online communications advice. Next up, we discuss the political impact of disasters. In...

Send us Fan Mail Selco Begovic - Survivor of the Balkan War - SHTF Expert!  PART 1 Interview Selco Begovic, a survivor of the tumultuous Balkan war in the 1990s, endured the daunting challenges of living in a besieged city without access to necessities like electricity, running water, and food distribution. Today, he shares his firsthand experiences through physical courses, offering invaluable in...

Send us Fan Mail In today's episode, Patrick with Grid Down Comms Up discusses winter preps and observations from last week's Verizon Wireless outage. With a massive winter storm on the horizon, determining how much heat and fuel you need is critical to being prepared. Electricity for critical power needs from batteries and generators can keep us operational and provide a bit of normalcy...

Send us Fan Mail Selco Begovic, a survivor of the tumultuous Balkan war in the 1990s, endured the daunting challenges of living in a besieged city without access to basic necessities like electricity, running water, and food distribution. Today, he shares his firsthand experiences through physical courses, offering invaluable insights for those eager to learn from his real-life ordeal. Through his...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Arthur Bradley - NASA Engineer & EMP / CME Expert Dr. Arthur Bradley is a NASA engineer and the bestselling author of the Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family, the Prepper's Instruction Manual, Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms, and the post-apocalyptic series, The Survivalist. Visit him online for free disaster preparedness...

Send us Fan Mail Privacy Email — Taking Control of Your Inbox In this episode of The Privacy & Freedom Podcast , Forrest Garvin pulls back the curtain on one of the most overlooked privacy vulnerabilities — your email address . That single piece of digital identity connects your banking, shopping, social media, and even government records. If your email isn’t private, nothing else truly is. Fo...

Send us Fan Mail Anonymous LLCs — Separating Your Name from Your Assets In this episode of The Privacy & Freedom Podcast , Forrest Garvin takes you deep into one of the most powerful — and misunderstood — tools for modern privacy and asset protection: the Anonymous LLC . Also known as a “Ghost LLC,” this structure allows you to legally own property, businesses, and assets without your personal...

Send us Fan Mail Your Car Is Spying on You In this episode of The Privacy & Freedom Podcast , Forrest Garvin exposes a truth most people never consider — your car is one of the most powerful surveillance devices you own. From built-in GPS trackers and microphones to data-sharing apps and telematics, modern vehicles quietly collect your movements, contacts, driving habits, and even conversation...