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Building a MAG: Finding Good People Before You Need Them

Building a Mutual Assistance Group (MAG) is one of the most important—and often overlooked—parts of preparedness. Food, water, gear, and supplies are important, but no one can do everything alone. In this episode, Forrest Garvin explains why building relationships before a disaster is far more valuable than trying to find help afterward.

You'll learn what a MAG is, how to identify trustworthy people, where to find like-minded individuals, and the common mistakes that can weaken a preparedness grou...

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Is your personal information already on the dark web? In this episode, Forrest Garvin explains what the dark web is, how stolen email addresses, passwords, phone numbers, and personal information end up there, and what you can do to protect yourself. You'll learn how data breaches happen, warning signs that your information may have been exposed, and practical steps to improve your privacy and security.

Forrest also shares how to check your own exposure using YourDigitalExposure.com. Use coupon code PRIVACYCK to receive your dark web exposure...

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What Threats to Communications Systems Should We Prep For?

On this episode of the Prepping Academy Podcast, Grid Down Comms Up takes on a listener question. A PrepperNet member asked me, "What communications threats should we prep for?" I realized this was a great topic for a podcast. All of us like new gear. New prepping toys provide excitement and inspiration. New toys also bring a requirement for commitment to training and skills if they are going to be useful. 

New threats appear every day targeting our communications and u...

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The world is changing faster than ever, and the biggest risks aren't always the ones making headlines. In this episode, Forrest Garvin shares the five threats he's watching most closely right now and explains why every family should be paying attention. From economic uncertainty and cyber attacks to power grid vulnerabilities, natural disasters, and growing geopolitical tensions, you'll learn how these events could affect your daily life and what practical steps you can take to prepare.

This isn't about fear—it's about becoming more prepared, more self-reliant, and more resilient. Forrest br...

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Choosing Land for Preparedness in 2026: The Biggest Mistakes Most People Make

Thinking about buying rural land for preparedness? Don’t sign the paperwork until you hear this.

In this episode of The Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin explains how choosing survival property has changed in 2026 and why many of the old rules no longer apply. From water availability and soil quality to community, security, access, and long-term sustainability, you’ll learn the critical factors that separate a smart preparedness investment from an expensive mistake.

Yo...

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Bug In vs. Bug Out: Which Survival Strategy Actually Works?

Should you stay home during a crisis or grab your bug-out bag and leave? The answer isn’t as simple as most people think.

In this episode of The Prepping Academy Podcast, Forrest Garvin cuts through the myths surrounding bugging in and bugging out. You’ll learn why Hollywood and social media have given many people unrealistic expectations and how to develop a practical preparedness plan that works in the real world.

Discover the...

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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 intelligence tools.

In this episode, Forrest Garvin breaks down the importance of Area Study and why understanding your local area may become one of the most valuable preparedness skills...

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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, and real-world planning. Learn how to simplify preparedness, avoid burnout, and build a solid foundation for your family’s future.

In this episode, Forrest Garvin talks abou...

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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 communications systems. We also discuss JJS's new book, Partisan Operators Volume 2, the second of his multipart series chronicling events after an attack on US soil that spirals the country into a complete grid-down. 

Partisan O...

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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 topic, discuss how they are using it, how they have tested it, and their predictions about the future.

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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 require constant vigilance to maintain any privacy in your daily life. A total grid down is a black swan; SKYNET is around the corner unless we take ac...

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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 after the first year?

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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 protect and lead their families spiritually, physically, and financially. The discussion covers practical preparedness, Christian business principles, family resilience, and the importance of building a lasting legacy rooted in biblical stewardship.

Topics discussed include:
- Biblical examples...

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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 term.

We explore practical ways individuals and families can improve food security through preparedness, home food storage, gardening, bulk purchasing, freeze-dried foods, food preservation, and developing self-reliance skills. This episode breaks down why food secu...

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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 families are turning to solar cooking, this episode is for you.

We discuss the history of solar ovens, the benefits of cooking without electricity or fuel, and why solar cooking has be...

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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 fragile veil of our communications systems. Preview: The systems we built during the Cold War are being rapidly replaced by less resilient, more profitable systems every day.  

Area Study M...

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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 how it can stop the vast majority of account takeovers.

You’ll learn the different types of 2FA, which ones are secure, and which ones to avoid. From aut...

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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 breaks down the cycle of prepping, why complacency is dangerous, and how to stay consistent even when there’s no immediate threat.

Topics covered:

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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 footprint and protect your personal information.

This isn’t complicated tech talk. These are straightforward steps anyone can follow to stop being the product and start taking...

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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 freeze. Why? Because they’ve never been forced to think through real scenarios, make hard decisions, or face uncomfortable outcomes.

The Last Scenario changes that.

In this ep...

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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 practical steps you can take to start building healthy soil and building topsoil to grow some part of your own food?

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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 population density, mark water sources, log supply caches, and build layered intelligence overlays for the terrain that matters most: yours. When cell towers go dark and roads clo...

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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 insights for those eager to learn from his real-life ordeal.

Through his online writings, Selco offers an unfiltered view of the brutal realities of survival in extreme conditions. With candid assessments of e...

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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 this case, Winter Storm Fern. The leadership in your area has a massive impact on recovery, and political parties and the urban vs. rural mindset determine your outcome. Last, we discussed tips and...

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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 insights for those eager to learn from his real-life ordeal.

Through his online writings, Selco offers an unfiltered view of the brutal realities of survival in extreme conditions. With candid assessments of e...

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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. Are you ready? Observations from the recent Verizon outage include second- and third-order impacts of a fragile telecommunications system, and considerations as our systems become more fragile and have lower uptime than the...

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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 online writings, Selco offers an unfiltered view into the brutal realities of survival in extreme conditions. With candid assessments of effective strategies and lessons learned from his trials, he also discusses contemporary preparations for...

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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 information at http://disasterpreparer.com.

EMF Beacon:  https://emfbeacon.com/

Dr. Bradley's New Book:  The Watchman- https://amzn.to/46GGWwn

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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.

Forrest breaks down why your inbox is the #1 gateway for data collection, surveillance, and hacking attempts — and how to protect it. You’ll learn how major tech...

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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 name appearing on public records.

Forrest explains how data brokers, trial lawyers, and even online stalkers use state business registries to track ownership, target individual...

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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 conversations.

Forrest breaks down how automakers, insurers, and tech partners harvest massive amounts of personal data every time you start the engine. He explains how this in...

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In today's episode, Patrick with Grid Down Comms Up lists some of  his favorite prepper Christmas gifts. If you are looking for a present for your significant other, children, mag group member, or anyone else on your gift list, there is something here for you! We focus on practical gifts that have real value, whether the grid is up or the world has come crashing down. 

From books to power tools, precious metals, and beyond, the perfect gift idea of the prepper in your life awaits.  

https://www.amazon.com...

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This special “Spy Christmas” episode is your complete holiday guide to the best privacy, security, and spy-themed gear of the year. Forrest breaks down over 30 hand-picked tools and gadgets for anyone who loves preparedness, digital security, or covert everyday carry. Whether you’re protecting your home, securing your digital life, or shopping for the privacy-minded person in your life, this episode is packed with practical, real-world recommendations.

You’ll discover the top spy gadgets, concealed-carry tools, covert recording devices, encrypted communic...