Prepping for doomsday (or Tuesday)

Summary

Today, Explained: "Prepping for doomsday (or Tuesday)"

Podcast: Today, Explained by Vox
Date: May 17, 2026
Host: John Glyn Hill
Guests: Dr. Chris Ellis (Disaster/Resilience Expert), Ana Maria Bounds (Sociologist), Amanda Ripley (Disaster Journalist / Author), plus Disaster Preparedness Enthusiasts

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Episode Overview

This episode explores the rising interest in disaster preparedness—or "prepping"—in America, especially in light of recent disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, technological failures, and extreme weather. Host John Glyn Hill and her guests examine the myths around who "preppers" are, the psychology behind disaster response, and practical steps that ordinary people—especially city-dwellers—can take to be more ready for anything from hurricanes to blackouts.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

The New Face of Prepping

• Changing Demographics:
  • Prepping is no longer limited to the stereotypical white male, gun-in-a-bunker character.
  • FEMA surveys show that whereas 75% of early self-identified preppers were white men, recent data puts that at about 55%. Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Alaskan Natives, who are often more isolated, now prepare more on average.
  • Quote [04:11], Dr. Chris Ellis:

    "We're seeing a very large ecumenical portrayal now of preppers, both in the reality and then also their coverage as well. So it is no longer the stereotype that is true."

What Are Preppers Preparing For?

Dr. Chris Ellis identifies five main types of preppers:

1. Homesteaders – Focused on food security and supply chain instability.
2. Sentinels – The "guns and bunkers" types who fear lawlessness or government overreach.
3. Interdependents – Those who see community as key, emphasizing mutual aid and skills sharing.
4. Noahs – Wealthy individuals with bunkers, aiming to save themselves and their close ones.
5. Faithful – Motivated by religious prophecy, preparing for spiritual and societal upheaval.

• Quote [06:08], Dr. Chris Ellis (about the Sentinels):

  "I'm not going to depend on the police to defend me. I'm going to depend on my .308, my .357, my .45 Colt, my AK, my AR."

• Quote [07:22], Dr. Chris Ellis (on interdependents):

  "The great thing about the interdependent is ... people are slowly moving back to that. ... I need to have a community of individuals that really fits the things that I'm weak at."

Prepping: Locations and Essentials

• Where to Prep:

  • Home (aim for 31 days' resilience if possible).
  • Car (accident bag, basic supplies).
  • Workplace (provisions to shelter in place for 24–48 hours).

• What to Pack (Bug-out Bag):

  • Three days of water and food per household member (including pets).

  • $500–$1000 in cash (in case digital payments go down).

  • Emergency documents (in a fireproof folder/easy to grab).

  • Emergency communication device/radio.

  • Basic medical supplies.

  • Quote [10:19], Dr. Chris Ellis:

    "We're not preparing for doomsday, we're preparing for Tuesday. If it increases your agency and decreases your fear, that's the way to prep for sure."

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Urban Prepping: City Stories

The Urban Prepper Perspective

Ana Maria Bounds (Sociology professor, Queens College, New York):

• Urban prepping requires creativity—using limited space efficiently (under beds, couches, aesthetic modifications to storage).

• Pandemic normalized prepping for many city dwellers, underscoring the vulnerability of just-in-time consumer habits (e.g., food delivery).

• City dwellers have a “survival smart” in addition to street smarts, due to lived experiences with terrorism, blackouts, and economic shocks.

  • Quote [14:45], Ana Maria Bounds:

    "Urban preppers... are dealing with reality. They've been through terrorist attacks, they've been through natural disasters, technological failures, and near economic collapse with the Great Recession. ... New Yorkers are used to being very street savvy. Now they're developing what I call survival smart."

• Aesthetic Prepping:

  • Example: Disguising a freezer with wallpaper to maintain apartment aesthetics while storing long-term supplies.

  • Multipurpose: Frozen water bottles double as blackout food preservers and ice packs for injuries.

  • Quote [17:04], Ana Maria Bounds:

    "You just need to think carefully about how you live to learn how to manage your space. … I applied wallpaper to [the freezer] ... I think it looks really cute. ... Food will stay colder longer because we have the frozen bottles of water in there."

• Physical Reality Check:

  • If you plan to evacuate, pack and test-carry your bag ahead of time. Practice is essential.

  • Quote [18:47], Ana Maria Bounds:

    "If you're someone who says, well, you know what, in the event of an emergency, I'm going to leave. I'm going to put together a bug out bag. Well, you need to be sure that you can actually carry that ... and that you practice with it."

• The Ultimate Asset:

  • The most important thing is a supportive human network.
  • Quote [19:52], Ana Maria Bounds:

    "My husband."
    "It’s about having a good system of support. ... Your ride or dies."

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Prepping the Mind: The Psychology of Survival

Amanda Ripley (Disaster Journalist; Author, The Unthinkable)

• Three Phases People Experience in a Disaster:

  1. Denial:
     • First instinct is “this can’t be happening.”
     • Quote [23:13], Amanda Ripley:

       "There's usually three phases that most of us go through ... The first one is this very intense period of disbelief or denial."

  2. Deliberation:
     • Social phase—people check with others for cues, usually confirming with around five people before acting.
     • Quote [24:08], Amanda Ripley:

       "On average, people check with five sources before they evacuate before a hurricane, for example."

  3. Decisive Moment:
     • Action or, more commonly, freeze (“negative panic”).

• How to Respond Effectively:

  • Build situational awareness: know exits, practice using them.
  • Cultivate relationships: your neighbors or colleagues are your real first responders.
  • Practice intentional breathing (box breathing)—reduces panic, sharpens decision-making.
    • [27:44], Amanda Ripley:

      "Box breathing ... is a very effective way to ... calm that nervous system response so you can access your higher order thinking skills."

• Reducing Anxiety and Dread About the Future:

  • The more you understand a threat, the less its dread factor.
  • While disasters are more frequent, death rates have dropped:
    • Quote [28:36], Amanda Ripley:

      "The number of deaths has dropped by about two thirds over the past 50 years. So disasters have gotten less disastrous even as they've gotten more frequent. ... It's because humans have gotten better at working together to predict disasters and get out of harm's way."

  • Building strong, trusting communities is more valuable than stockpiling supplies.
    • Quote [30:39], Amanda Ripley:

      "The health of a community, how fair it is, how trustworthy it is, how connected it is, that matters way more, it turns out, than the threat itself."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Prepping’s Purpose:
  [10:19], Dr. Chris Ellis:

  "We're not preparing for doomsday, we're preparing for Tuesday."

• On Support Systems:
  [19:52], Ana Maria Bounds:

  "My husband."

• On Community’s Value:
  [16:16], Amanda Ripley:

  "It doesn't matter how many guns you have or how many MREs you have stored. If you don't have strong communities, you're not going to get very far."

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Introductions / Everyday Prepping Realities: 00:59 – 02:24
• Prepping Demographics & Types: 02:46 – 07:08
• Practical Prepping: At Home, Car, Work: 08:14 – 11:16
• Urban Prepping & Space-Savvy Tips: 13:59 – 19:48
• Building Mental Resilience for Disasters: 22:23 – 28:26
• Community as the Ultimate Prep: 28:26 – 30:47

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Takeaways

• Prepping is mainstreaming, becoming more diverse, and less about paranoia than about agency and resilience.
• Urban prepping requires creativity and can be done without sacrificing style or space.
• Social prep—community and relationships—is as important as food and water.
• The key to navigating disasters is practicing both practical and mental readiness: prepare ahead, reduce fear with knowledge, and take comfort in community.
• “Don’t prepare for doomsday, prepare for Tuesday”—the routines you develop could help, even if nothing ever goes wrong.

Transcript

[Amanda Ripley]

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[Ana Maria Bounds]

I started doing some prep work after the pandemic.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I feel very underprepared for disasters that are always seeming to be lurking around the corner.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

I did go so far as to even purchase it. Firearm just for protection and safety in case the world went absolutely nothing.

[John Glyn Hill]

You guys, it's almost summer. The flowers are in bloom.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

We're now just a week away from the eastern Pacific Basin. Hurricane season starting.

[John Glyn Hill]

Time to treat yourself, plan a vacation.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

And inflation rose about 3.8% in April, according to new numbers.

[John Glyn Hill]

Life is great.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

Ukraine has become a testing ground for robotic warfare.

[John Glyn Hill]

Okay, I consider myself a glass half full kind of person, but even I'm not that naive. That said, I'm woefully unprepared if things go left. You, on the other hand, if there

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

ever is something like a nuclear strike

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

or war, whatever, we are right down

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

the road from the interstate so we

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

can get outside of Massachusetts to a more rural area.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

I do have a go bag ready for hurricanes.

[Commercial Announcer]

I got an old school paper map, a satellite communicator, a power bank with every adapter and cord you can imagine.

[Amanda Ripley]

It doesn't matter about guns. How many guns you have or how many how many MREs you have stored. If you don't have strong communities, you're

[Ana Maria Bounds]

not going to get very far.

[John Glyn Hill]

Living on high Al can be absolutely exhausting. But if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. I'm Jon Glyn Hill and this week on Explain it to Me from Vox. We're prepping without the panic to start. I talked to someone who's a prepping expert and that's putting it Mildly.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

My name's Dr. Chris Ellis. I am a disaster resilience, civil defense, homeland defense Expert. Got my PhD from Cornell University, have four master's degrees, and been doing this work for about the last seven for the military, for those skills that I just listed.

[John Glyn Hill]

What made you want to start going down that path in the first place?

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

So a few things. One, as I was growing up, I was told, this is back in the 80s, that the only time that I would see polar bears would be in zoos because we had global warming at the time. The ice caps were going to melt and, you know, climate apocalypse was coming. And then from my father's side, he was an evangelical Christian, and he told me that we needed to be ready for the Antichrist and to get ready for, you know, kind of the end of days. As I went through my life, I joined the military and I kind of saw man's inhumanity to man. So all of those various things, economic collapse, the Y2K threat, et cetera. I really started looking at preparedness more and more and found that it was exceptionally rational. And I wanted to kind of bust some of the myths that are involved in it. And you can only do that if you kind of get really into the practition of the thing.

[John Glyn Hill]

When most of us think of prepper, we might think of a man, probably white, with a lot of guns in a bunker somewhere in the woods.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

I have enough food stock to last 20 people for three months.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I'm preparing my family for the imminent

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

collapse of the United States economy.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

I'm prepping for a terrorist attack on

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

our electrical grid that will send our society into chaos.

[John Glyn Hill]

Are we getting this wrong?

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

What we're finding right now, and this is one of the myths that I wanted to debunk based on hard statistics. So what I found is that back when the data was being released by FEMA, they did this national household survey between 5 and 7,000Americans for several years and release the raw data. So when I looked through that, I actually saw that the number of white men was about 75% of preppers back when they first started releasing the data. And now it's only about 55%. We're actually finding that other ethnicities actually prepare more on average than whites do. For example, those that are isolated, so native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Alaskan Natives, et cetera. And so we're seeing a very large ecumenical portrayal now of preppers, both in the reality and then also their coverage as well. So it is no longer the stereotype that is true.

[John Glyn Hill]

What are these people preparing for? What are the most relevant disasters that are likely to come our way?

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

So what I found is that there are five main heuristics of individuals that kind of do these things. I've been them into five groups and it's not just America, it's actually across the world. So one group I call the homesteaders. These individuals are concerned with just food security. Maybe they're afraid of genetically modified organisms or just want to be able to eat on a regular basis because they've seen famines in the past. Certain foods are pretty high in price. The supply chain still hasn't recovered in many cases. Right now, 63% of America is in a drought. There's a fear from the Strait of Hormuz about fertilizer. And so they're food prepped. Well, we just finished harvesting all of our storage crops from the season. They keep about 10 pigs year round. So I have about 400 pounds of meat in the freezer at any given time. Another group of the sentinels. These are kind of the more stereotypes group. These are the gun group. They're afraid of either a, without rule of law scenario, lots of crime, as

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

simple as opening up a drawer and

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

there's your protection or government overreach and, you know, and tyranny. I'm not going to depend on the police defend me.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I'm going to depend on my.308, my.357, my.45 Colt, my AK, my AR.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

Another group are the interdependent. These are like your friendly neighborhood Spider man kind of folks.

[John Glyn Hill]

Don't worry, ma', am, everything's gonna be okay.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

They want to help other individuals very much in their preparedness skills and are very widely based as what their threats are. The fourth group are the Noahs. These are usually exceptionally well off individuals. And what distinguishes them is that they have a bunker.

[Amanda Ripley]

This is the fat boy. This is the largest bunker we make.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

And then the fifth group is the faithful. The faithful and the Noahs are a bit different. The Noahs are concerned about saving their skin. The faithful are concerned about saving their souls. They're the more religiously oriented. Jesus, of course, has repeatedly told us

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

throughout the New Testament to be prepared

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

to be watchful for his coming. So it really kind of depends about what prepper you're talking about. There's no one size fits all, and many people fit into multiple groups. There's not just one. But these are not like hardcore solid bins in which someone is in.

[John Glyn Hill]

Is there a group that sort of Gets it right. I don't know. Like you said, people can go into multiple bins. But I don't know, maybe I hang out with some interdependents. They sound pretty like a winning team to me.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

What I will say is this is the more kind of facets that you have, the better you are off. One of the great things about the interdependent is that the American style of prepping has been very individualized since basically the 50s and 60s. And that's been kind of pushed. We're a very efficient economy and it's kind of, you know, this is a western way of doing things, which is why prepping in America is more expensive. But the interdependent have looked back and said, Pre World War II, how were we as societies? And we were as societies, we were very community resilient. So the interdependents are really reaching out to that community based preparedness mindset. And that is the next evolution. People are slowly moving back to that. I'm seeing a lot of individuals that are getting into the prepping movement saying, hey, I can't do all of this alone. I need to have a community of individuals that really kind of fits the things that I'm weak at.

[John Glyn Hill]

What are the different ways we can prepare?

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

So the three main areas are really location wise. The preparedness you have at your home, and that's for staying so the power gets knocked out because of winter storm or tornado, whatever it is. How can I be resilient within my house without publicly provided water, power or transportation? And that's usually your largest prep. I encourage folks at home to have at least 31 days if they can, after they've really gotten into this. And a multiple set of factors. The next place is in your car when you're traveling. That is your really your car accident bag. And if you were to run out of gas, if you were to get T boned, whatever, you're out of cell phone service, what would you need to be able to walk home or hail an Uber or something along those lines? And then the third place is at work. At work, you may have to shelter in place for 24, maybe even 48 hours. So a change of clothes, a few protein bars, things along those lines. Things that don't need any cooking skills or cooking energy, I should say. So the priority is just what I said, home first, then your bug out bag, your car bag, and then the office.

[John Glyn Hill]

What is a bug out bag different for every person.

[Dr. Chris Ellis]

So there's a thousand examples out there. Some people like to have A whole bunch of guns and ammunition because I think they're gonna have to go out and shoot deer, bears or fend off the looters, etc. I'm not too martial in my bugout bag. I would say that the basic bugout bag, you should keep it in your mud room or right by your garage so if there's a disaster, you have to go right now, you can grab it. So the things that would be in that would be three days of water and food for everyone in your family, pets included. I would have probably 500 to $1,000 in cash just in case you go to a hotel and the system is down, but they're still allowing bookends. Or again, you just need the cash on hand. I would have where your emergency documents, let's say you're at the threat of a big flood or a mudslide or something along those lines. Your emergency documents, your birth certificate, your marriage certificate to the kids, birth certificate, et cetera. Very quickly accessible and in one single fold. You can just open up that fireproof safe, grab it, stuff in your bugout bag and go. Also, some sort of emergency communication device, an emergency radio can be found very cheaply. There's a lot of them out there as well. But those kinds of things when you're covering all the bases is what is in the normal bugout bag. Medical supplies as well. Everyone should prep. But here's what I tell folks. You can't do it fear based. If you do it fear based, that's the, that's your limbic system, that's your lizard brain, you know, firing off. And it keeps you in a state of fear rather than a state of agency and hope. And you know, the saying is, we're not preparing for doomsday, we're preparing for Tuesday. So doing things that make you feel like you can have more agency over your life, that you can have more actions, that you can, you know, take positive steps to better yourself and better your community is a good thing. If it increases your agency and decreases your fear. That's the way to prep for sure.

[John Glyn Hill]

Prepping can look different depending on who you are and where you live. Up next, prep in the city. Support for this show comes from Quince. You make difficult choices each and every day. So why does your outfit need to be one of them? Instead, you can try effortless, comfortable, sleek and well put together clothes with the help of Quint's. Quint's has all the wardrobe staples for spring. Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from $34 lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still look put together and clean. 100% Pima cotton tees with a softness that has to be felt. Everything is priced 50 to 80% less than what you'd find at similar brands. Our colleague Andrew Melnyzyk has gotten some

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[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

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[Dr. Chris Ellis]

basketball games, a couple concerts, a few dinners, and even just meeting up with some friends.

[John Glyn Hill]

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[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

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[John Glyn Hill]

I'm Jacqueline Hill, back with more Explain it to me. Ana Maria Bounds is a sociology professor at Queens College in New York.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

For me, the most fascinating thing as a sociologist is taking a look at how regular people manage to prep in very small apartments. You know, trying to maximize, trying to think of creative ways to better protect their families. And I think during the pandemic we all kind of became preppers, right? We had to figure out how to protect ourselves with limited means and limited Resources.

[John Glyn Hill]

How different is prepping in an urban environment from prepping in, say, the suburbs or out in the country?

[Ana Maria Bounds]

I would argue that the, with all due respect to suburban and rural preppers, urban preppers, particularly in this city of New York, are dealing with reality. So in other words, they've been through terrorist attacks, you know, they've been through natural disasters, they've been through technological failures, and they've been through near economic collapse with the Great Recession. So New Yorkers are used to being very street savvy. You know, they're used to having street smarts. Now they're developing what I call survival smart. Yeah.

[John Glyn Hill]

You know, I am talking with you from my apartment. I actually refer to it as the babe cave, my little bachelorette.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

Oh, that's right, it's a babe cave.

[John Glyn Hill]

But I admit, you know, I have all these comforts. I love my house plants, I love all my little day to day snacks, but I am 0% prepared for a disaster. Where should I start? What do I need to do?

[Ana Maria Bounds]

One of the things with, you know, the city is we're used to having what we want when we want it. But the idea of prepping, though, and with, especially during the pandemic, things slowed down. People realized that they had to rely on themselves. So if you're interested in prepping, one of the first things that you need to do is you need to take a look at how you eat and how you can store it in your apartment. And I'm saying this because unfortunately, during a disaster, doordash doesn't deliver, and we're all used to that. So for New Yorkers, the idea of just having a completed pantry with canned goods and, you know, rice and flour and salt and, you know, tinned meats, all of that, that's very foreign to us. Prepping makes you real. Well, what happens if I don't have any water? What can I do? Well, maybe I should store a little water. You know, maybe I need to take a look at some, make some extra space underneath my bed, under my couch. You know, there are all sorts of creative things, you know, that, that preppers do that I've seen.

[John Glyn Hill]

Okay, I understand you've become a bit of a prepper yourself. Can you walk me through your setup? Because from what I can see, you've been able to do this in a way that is very aesthetically pleasing. I realize that's not the most important thing during a disaster.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

It is important. Listen, you live in a babe cave, you know, it's important.

[John Glyn Hill]

Yeah, okay.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

It is important because the Whole thing is there's another myth about prepping, is that people think that, you know, that means that you have to have a whole room dedicated to stacks of toilet paper and rice and, you know, spaghetti sauce. Absolutely not. You just need to think carefully about how you live in to learn how to manage your space. In the living room, in the corner, I had a white freezer which looked absolutely ridiculous. I thought, you know what, I can do better than that. So I applied wallpaper to it and, you know, I think it looks really cute. It looks just a little box, like a little storage box. And the things that I keep in there are. Are varied. I keep several different types of meat. I have some uncooked, and then I have some that are cooked and sliced and, you know, that I've cooked and ready to go and I've packaged them. We have vegetables, we have pasta, and we have soup. We have pot pies and extra bottles of water. Because the idea is this is easy place to store water. And in the event of, you know, a blackout, our freezer will stay. Food will stay colder longer because we have the frozen bottles of water in there. If we get an injury and I need to place something cold on our leg or on our back, we could use that. And I certainly do actually relied on that more than, you know, one time. So, yeah, it's a real asset.

[John Glyn Hill]

You know, I'm pretty fit. I try to go to the gym. Are there things I need to be prepared to do in a disaster?

[Ana Maria Bounds]

If you're someone who says, well, you know what, in the event of an emergency, I'm going to leave. I'm going to put together a bug out bag. Well, you need to be sure that you can actually carry that, that you can, you know, that it isn't too heavy, that you edit what you have in there carefully and that you walk and that you practice with it. That was a really important part of, as an ethnographer, spending time with preppers is that they would do exercises where they would bug out, you know, and you would spend, you know, the weekend, you know, outdoors, which is unusual because for a lot of city people, you know, they're not interested in camping. Whatever it is that you decide is going to be best for you in an emergency, okay, don't try it out during the emergency. You need to practice it, okay. Because you need to get over your fear of whatever it is you're doing, because that's part of the game. You have to be confident. You have to be calm. Will you be perfect? No. But the idea is that you'll have your bearings and this won't be something new to you.

[John Glyn Hill]

What have you found to be the most important thing to have on hand?

[Ana Maria Bounds]

My husband.

[John Glyn Hill]

Oh, I love that. Oh, I love love.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

No, seriously, you know what? No, honestly, we went through the pandemic together and, you know, we've been through September 11, we've been through the blackout. So I think it's not just having supplies. It's about having a good system of support. You know, having people that you can work with, people you can depend on, that you can learn from during easy times and difficult times. Your ride or dies.

[John Glyn Hill]

Coming up, how to prep your mind.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[John Glyn Hill]

It's jq. This is Explain it to Me. When we think of prepping, we often think of items, stuff like canned goods or clean water tablets. But Amanda Ripley says to survive a disaster, that's not all you need. She wrote about it in her book the who Survives When Disaster Strikes and why.

[Amanda Ripley]

I learned from covering disasters as a reporter that survivors have these incredible insights into what it actually feels like physically, socially, mentally to go through a disaster. There's usually three phases that most of us go through, and sometimes we circle in and out of all three of them over and over again. But the first one is this very intense period of disbelief or denial.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

Did that Just happen. That did not just happen.

[Amanda Ripley]

Where your brain will work very creatively to convince you that everything is fine.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I'm just imagining things. Everything is okay. Everything is fine.

[Amanda Ripley]

That is important to plan for. And the second one is deliberation. So after denial, you tend to get very social and you look to the people around you.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

Did y' all just hear that?

[Amanda Ripley]

The people in your circle?

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I'm not sure, but I think it's over there.

[Amanda Ripley]

Strangers on a train or a bus, wherever you happen to be co workers. And you tend to move in groups and you will remain very loyal to that group even if you didn't know them before.

[John Glyn Hill]

I think you're right. I'm seeing what you're seeing.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

I've got you.

[Amanda Ripley]

And that is a very normal reaction that we share with, you know, chimpanzees and other higher order mammals that we form groups and we tend to be very pro social, almost courteous to a fault.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

After you. No, after you. No, please, after you.

[Amanda Ripley]

And we check with each other before doing anything. So this phase is really important. On average, people check with five sources before they evacuate before a hurricane, for example. So the wisdom of that group really matters. So after denial and deliberation, you have the decisive moment.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

Okay, I think it's really time to go.

[Amanda Ripley]

And that's where you take action. Or in many more cases than you might expect, you shut down and sort of freeze or stop moving or move very, very slowly, which is sometimes called negative panic. And so that is much more common than what we tend to expect, which is, you know, hysteria or antisocial behavior or panic.

[John Glyn Hill]

Our brains are really these amazing machines, how they protect us. But sometimes what they do doesn't always work in our favor. What are some things we should be doing when disaster strikes? How can we take control of our brains in that moment so we can do what we need to to survive?

[Amanda Ripley]

I think there's three things that I have learned and still take with me in my everyday life. And the first one is to have a little more situational awareness of the places where I spend time.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

Right.

[Amanda Ripley]

So even in a hotel. Right. I'll try to take the stairs down. I know that sounds crazy, but sometimes you end up in some weird places, like you end up in the kitchen. But it's really helpful to have some muscle memory for how to get out of the places that you're in. Right. And so that includes if you work in a tall building or if you live in a tall building, just going down the stairs, having that muscle memory, because it'll be really, really hard to find the stairwell for the first time under extreme stress. So having a situational awareness, but then also really trying to build connection and rapport and relationship with the people that you see every day. Right. I mean, I know that sounds very basic, but those are the people who are always going to be there in a disaster. It's not first responders. Right. They just cannot get to you quickly enough. Usually in big disasters, it's days or weeks if you ever come into contact with a first responder. So it is really important to know who on your block is elderly and might need someone to check on them in an extreme heat event. Or who on your block is a nurse. Right. In case you need help or someone else does. Just knowing that kind of thing and building those connections. I love that advice because it serves you. Even if nothing terrible ever happens.

[Commercial Announcer]

Right.

[Amanda Ripley]

It just makes life better to have connections in the place where you live and build those connections. And then the third one in the immediate moment. So once you've maybe you're trying to push through denial, deliberation at a decisive moment. The most effective way under stress to access your nervous system on purpose and calm yourself down a little bit, which is what we need. We need to kind of calm ourselves down, not all the way, but a little bit, is through conscious, intentional breathing. So that is really the only way to do that in the moment. One thing that I do is just as a normal everyday practice when I start getting stressed out, you know, when I'm, you know, trying to pay my taxes or dealing with traffic or whatever, I do box breathing, which is something that is taught to, you know, everyone from soldiers to people doing, you know, yoga. Right. So it's in for four counts.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

One, two, three, four, hold for four,

[Amanda Ripley]

exhale for four, hold for four. And it's a very effective way to get in the habit of lowering that nervous system response so that you can access your higher order thinking skills so you don't get tunnel vision. Right. So you don't lose eye, hand, coordination. All the kind of things that start to degrade under extreme stress.

[John Glyn Hill]

Us, you've given us a lot of good information and a lot of good tips here about what to do during a disaster. But what about preparing for one? How do you live daytoday in this uncertainty?

[Amanda Ripley]

Well, the technical term for this kind of anxiety about disasters is dread, which I think is a great term.

[Ana Maria Bounds]

Yeah.

[Amanda Ripley]

And there's an equation for dread. There are certain variables that dial up or down your dread level, and one of them is unfamiliarity with the threat. The less exotic and strange a threat is to you, sometimes the less dreadful it is. So one thing you can do is understand the threats that you're most likely to face and understand that while it is true that disasters are very frequent now, at the same time, and this is really important and I think often gets missed, the number of deaths has dropped by about two thirds over the past 50 years. So disasters have gotten less disastrous even as they've gotten more frequent. And so why is that? Well, it's because humans have gotten better at working together to predict disasters and get out of harm's way just in the nick of time. So as an example, in 1990, the National Hurricane center could predict the path of a hurricane only 24 hours in advance. Now you get 72 hours. So that's a very big deal. But all of this progress and all the future progress we can make, which is huge, depends upon trust. We need to work on trusting each other as Americans and building institutions that we can trust. So in the longer term, if you're thinking about preparing. For me, I don't do a lot of stockpiling of resources and that kind of thing. And for me, I try very hard to find opportunities to try to build human trust and connection. The stronger your neighborhood or family or school is before a disaster strikes, the better you will recover. And so that health of a community, how fair it is, how trustworthy it is, connected it is, that matters way more, it turns out, than the threat itself.

[John Glyn Hill]

That's it for us this week. We have a show coming up about infidelity, what counts as cheating, and why it makes us so angry, even when we're not the one that got cheated on. But we want to know, have you ever been unfaithful? Why'd you do it? And what do you make of that Choice now? Tell us. 1-800-618-8545 or email askvoxox.com Also consider becoming a VOX member. VOX members get to listen to this podcast ad free. Head over to Vox.com members to learn more. This episode was produced by Dustin DeSoto. It was edited by Jenny Lawton, fact checked by Melissa Hirsch and engineered by David Tadashore. Our executive producer is Miranda Kennedy, and I'm your host, John Quillen Hill. Thank you so much for listening. Bye.

[Disaster Preparedness Enthusiast]

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[John Glyn Hill]

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