Send us Fan Mail A podcast side project just turned into something you can actually put on your shelf. Keith from the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast shares the news that Lone Man On The Ridge is becoming a real paperback, and he’s genuinely fired up about it because it only happened for one reason: listeners kept showing up, sending messages, and demanding to know what happens to Jack next. We talk through how the story started as a between-episodes experiment, even though Keith had ...
Send us Fan Mail I went to Chicago for a work trip, had a great meeting, caught a Cubs game, and nothing bad happened. But being 12 hours from home by car meant something I did not expect to feel so sharply: I was 12 hours from my preps. No pantry. No familiar systems. No neatly organized gear. Just what I had in my head and what fit in a suitcase. That low-level hum of awareness kicked off a bigger conversation about something many of us in the prepping community rarely name out loud: the pr...
Send us Fan Mail Night driving used to be a nuisance. Now it’s a threat. We follow Jack as he pushes down I-66 with Rachel and Lily in the truck, watching every overpass and every dead car, knowing that one bad stop can end everything. The only thread he trusts is a strict 0900 ham radio schedule with Stephen, because routine and radio discipline are the closest thing left to security on an open HF frequency. If you’re into post-apocalyptic audio drama, survival travel tactics, and the quiet...
Send us Fan Mail Most “prepper” shows don’t teach preparedness, they sell adrenaline. I’m not interested in the ominous narrator voice, the bunkers-for-everyone fantasy, or the fear-first storytelling that makes normal people roll their eyes and do nothing. I want grounded, useful, real-world preparedness that feels like common sense, because that’s what actually helps you handle disruptions in water, power, food, and everyday life. After getting back from a work trip to Chicago (and spendin...
Send us Fan Mail Gear reviews are everywhere, and I get why people love them. But after years of doing the Common Sense Practical Prepper, I’m more interested in the part nobody can buy: how you think when things go sideways. Before I head out on a business trip to Chicago (and sneak in a Cubs game at Wrigley), I wanted to answer a question I keep getting in my inbox: why don’t I do more gear reviews? Here’s the honest take. We’re drowning in information: videos, lists, “must-have” products,...