Inside the New Era of Emergency Readiness

Summary

WSJ What’s News: Inside the New Era of Emergency Readiness

Date: October 26, 2025
Host: Caitlin McCabe
Focus: Exploring the expanding world of emergency preparedness—from government policy to personal “prepping”—in response to rising global threats and growing uncertainty.

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Episode Overview

This episode of What’s News Sunday dives into the evolving landscape of emergency readiness. Once the domain of so-called "doomsday preppers," a shifting global risk environment has prompted governments, businesses, and individuals to take preparedness more seriously. The show examines official government guidance, business adaptations, and grassroots prepping from Europe to Asia and the United States—ultimately highlighting the growing importance of both personal responsibility and community resilience in facing modern disruptions.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. From Fringe to Mainstream: Why Prepping is Going Global

• Changing Perceptions: Prepping is no longer seen as just for the paranoid—today, it’s considered prudent due to escalating risks like extreme weather, geopolitical tensions, and technology-driven misinformation.
  • “In a world filled with increasing threats, governments and people are increasingly finding that being prepared is just plain prudent.” — Caitlin McCabe (00:27)
• Global Examples of Recent Disruptions:
  • Russian drones over NATO countries.
  • Threat of Chinese invasion in Taiwan by 2027.
  • Power blackouts in Spain and Portugal.
  • Ongoing recovery from major wildfires in California.

2. Government-Driven Readiness Initiatives

• Europe’s 72-Hour Rule: EU and local governments now urge citizens to stock enough essentials for three days.

  • “The European Commission earlier this year advised residents in EU countries to build a stockpile of essential supplies that could last for at least 72 hours.” — Caitlin McCabe (01:40)

• Denmark’s National Guidance:

  • Official recommendations sent to all households: water, canned food, first aid kits, cash, wind-up radios, etc.
    • “Dane should be able to take care of themselves for 72 hours in case of a crisis occurring.” — Tostenszak Pillarsen, Danish Minister for Resilience and Preparedness (03:59)
  • Public compliance initially low—until drone incursions stoked fears and led to runs on canned goods and freeze-dried food (04:45).

• Business Collaboration:

  • Volt (owned by DoorDash) created online prepping goods categories due to surging demand.
    • “Our point of view is that…we might as well play on all the possible ways of solving a crisis like this... we can be an extra add on to how we as a society prepare for darker times.” — Cern Svensson, Volt General Manager (05:21)
  • Danish government exploring “emergency grocery stores” that could function without the internet or payment systems (06:19).

• Tech Challenges:

  • Businesses like Volt acknowledge limitations (such as reliance on electricity or online payments), and consider backup options, e.g., cash.
    • “As of now, I think it's definitely worth considering. Can we potentially accept cash in our world market stores in case of emergency? But we don't have that plain set in stone yet.” — Cern Svensson (06:58)

3. Preparedness Beyond Europe

• Japan’s Steadfast Culture of Readiness
  • Decades of disaster prep have saved lives from earthquakes and typhoons.
• Taiwan’s Go Bags and Crisis Planning
  • Updated government handbooks emphasize evacuation kits tailored for adults, kids, elderly, and pets.
    • “There are different types of go bags that people actually prepare for different needs.” — Zhou Yu Wong, WSJ Taipei Reporter (08:13)

4. Grassroots & Personal Prepping

• COVID-19 as a Wake-Up Call
  • Toilet paper and food shortages during the pandemic exemplify the need for basic readiness.
    • “That's the kind of situation that Dan Goss in the United Kingdom is trying to avoid for the next time crisis strikes.” — Caitlin McCabe (09:36)
• Everyday Approach to Prepping
  • Focus on practical, local, and mutual-aid models—not just extreme prepping.
    • “It's got to be quite a sensible, close to the ground approach at the moment.” — Dan Goss, Start Prepping UK (10:02)
  • Community education and collective resilience emphasized.
    • “The more people that are prepared, the better off we all are collectively.” — Dan Goss (10:31)

5. The Vital Role of Community

• Self-Reliance over Government Aid

  • Preppers see individual and community responsibility as key, especially amid declining trust in institutions.
    • “The government cannot [be responsible for everyone]... Ultimately it is not the government's role to take care of us.” — Jonathan Jones, Utah prepper (10:56)
  • Experimenting with Self-Sufficiency
    • Joneses conducted a 90-day no-shopping challenge—relying on trading and local resources.
      • “...we would exchange garden produce... for fresh milk... because we can't do it alone.” — Jonathan Jones (12:20)

• Practical Starting Points

  • Focus on basics: water, food, fuel, shelter, and security.
    • “If you get those basics covered, you can be okay.” — Jonathan Jones (12:45)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Prepping is a way to make our society more resilient… authorities can focus on the real problem…instead of bringing bottled water and toilet paper to the suburbs because people didn't take the personal responsibility.”
  — Tostenszak Pillarsen, Danish Minister for Resilience and Preparedness (04:10)

• “You start to see the immediate day-to-day utility in being able to respond to unexpected situations as they come up.”
  — Dan Goss, Start Prepping UK (10:02)

• “It doesn't take much to meet your basic needs… get those basics covered, you can be okay.”
  — Jonathan Jones (12:45)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:17 – Theme introduction: modernizing emergency preparedness
• 01:40 – Recap of recent global crises shaping policy
• 03:23–07:20 – Denmark’s prepping drive, business response, and government-business collaboration
• 07:30–08:54 – Japan & Taiwan: national contexts and specific prepping guidance
• 09:36–13:00 – Individual and community prepping in the UK and US; practical advice

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Tone & Language

The tone is informative but practical and accessible, with both experts and everyday people sharing grounded, actionable insights.

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Summary for Listeners

“Inside the New Era of Emergency Readiness” unpacks how global instability, new technologies, and lived experiences like COVID-19 have erased the stigma from prepping. From pantries in Denmark to go bags in Taiwan, and mutual-aid prepping in the UK and US, the episode reveals a universal shift: resilience is now a shared responsibility among governments, businesses, and individuals—and your first step might be as simple as storing a jug of water or getting to know your neighbors.

Transcript

[IBM Narrator]

So your AI agents make your team more productive.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Right.

[IBM Narrator]

But if they're not connected to the rest of your business, how productive can they really make your teams? IBM helps smarter businesses get more from their AI agents. Let's create smarter business. IBM.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Hey, what's news, listeners? It's Sunday, October 26th. I'm Caitlin McCabe for the Wall Street Journal and this is what's new Sunday. On the show this week, we take a look at prepping the expanding universe of survival prep. For decades, preppers were cast as people who were building bunkers or stowing away resources for a looming apocalypse. But in a world filled with increasing threats, governments and people are increasingly finding that being prepared is just plain prudent.

[Dan Goss]

I can imagine people would want to adapt to that increasing uncertainty by trying to get themselves more prepared.

[Tostenszak Pillarsen]

If critical infrastructure were to fall out, whether it's man made or it could be a natural disaster, it is important that most of the people are able to take care of themselves.

[Jonathan Jones]

This is new territory. This is like, okay, what do I really need to do to mitigate for this?

[Caitlin McCabe]

At the start of this year, a risk report from the World Economic Forum found that the more than 900 experts it surveyed had grown increasingly pessimistic. Pessimistic amid a multitude of extreme weather events, growing societal polarization and new technologies ramping up the spread of misinformation. But events lately have put global risks into sharper focus. Suspected Russian drones have recently been spotted flying over NATO countries 5,000 miles away. Taiwanese leaders are preparing for what they see as the possibility of a Chinese invasion by 2027. Meanwhile, it wasn't too long ago that the lights went off in Spain and Portugal for a day during a massive blackout. And California is still recovering from devastating fires at the start of the year. So how do you manage this new, seemingly riskier world? The European Commission earlier this year advised residents in EU countries to build a stockpile of essential supplies that could last for at least 72 hours. And the Taiwanese government recently updated its crisis response handbook featuring a go bag packing for locals on the island. Preppers themselves say government guidelines are an important starting point, but they're also taking matters into their own hands. We'll chat with two preppers from both sides of the Atlantic after first exploring how governments and businesses are stepping up. Just a few weeks ago, something rather unusual happened in Poland. More than a dozen Russian drones entered the European countries airspace. Then not long after, drones appeared in Denmark and then Germany. The incidents have prompted a rethinking among European countries and Companies of how to defend against drones flying through their skies, but also how to prepare residents on the ground. Our Sandra Kilhoff recently headed to Denmark to get a sense of what's happening in the usually steady nation.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

Now, I've gone to Denmark because one, I'm Danish and I like to visit my family, but also because I wanted to find out how Danes are feeling about recent drone incursions and what that means for prepping. I have friends and family that have all stocked their kitchen pantries or sheds with the recommended water, canned food and first aid kits. My mom even brought a wind up radio so she can get updates from the government in the event of a crisis. All of these essentials, including keeping a bunch of cash to hand, are part of the official recommendations the Danish government sent to everyone living in the country last year.

[Tostenszak Pillarsen]

Dane should be able to take care of themselves for 72 hours in case of a crisis occurring.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

That's the Danish Minister for Resilience and Preparedness, Tostenszak Pillarsen.

[Tostenszak Pillarsen]

I think if you saw the TV pictures from Spain and Portugal when they had their power bag out just some months ago, you could see that they were running to the supermarkets and emptying them from water bottles. So prepping is a way to make our society more resilient and it's a way to make sure that authorities, they can focus on the real problem when a crisis occur instead of bringing bottled water and toilet paper to the suburbs because people didn't take the personal responsibility of following the guidelines from the authorities.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

At first, many Danes ignored these guidelines, but then came the drone incursions. Last month, all of a sudden, canned mackerel was sold out across the country. And the delivery app Vault, which is owned by DoorDash, saw a spike in demand for freeze dried camping food. So we're at Walt's headquarters here in Copenhagen about to have a conversation about prepping with you. Today I met with a couple of Volt's general managers, Cern Svensson and Miguel Freisleben, to talk about prepping, because the company last month created a category for prepping goods on their so you can get your water and canned food delivered to your door in just 30 minutes.

[Cern Svensson]

Water is of course extremely important, but also things that you can stay warm with. So you need matches to light a fire, you need candles to have light, you need canned food, things that are easy to prepare without a lot of the current amenities, things with long shelf lives. And the demand has been surging in the last couple of weeks. Our point of view is that as a society we we might as well play on all the possible ways of solving a crisis like this. We are not here to say we can replace all other options, but we are just one extra way of making life go on after a crisis. 70% of today's households can buy supermarket goods from our platform, assuming there's electricity. So we believe we can be an extra add on to how we as a society prepare for darker times.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

Because of that heightened threat assessment in Denmark, the government is encouraging businesses to help. Here's the preparedness Minister Pilsen again.

[Tostenszak Pillarsen]

Just a few weeks ago I invited the Danish supermarket or grocery shops to a meeting because I'm inspired of what they've done in Finland for a number of years where they are preparing to have emergency grocery stores that are able to make sure that the citizens they can get necessities in a crisis situation, even though there might be no electricity or no payment system working.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

But a crisis in the form of a massive power outage that takes out the Internet would render most tech firms unable to do business. I asked Zaan Zvenson how Volt is preparing for such a hybrid attack.

[Cern Svensson]

We do what we can, but there are limitations. As of now, I think it's definitely worth considering. Can we potentially accept cash in our world market stores in case of emergency? But we don't have that plain set in stone yet.

[Sandra Kilhoff]

But it's something you're interested in potentially.

[Cern Svensson]

I think we owe ourselves and the society that we find a way to solve that problem.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Sandra Kilhoff there reporting from Copenhagen.

[Zhou Yu Wong]

Now.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Outside of Europe, some governments have long operated with a preparedness strategy. In Japan, disaster management began in the 1960s following what is still the most deadly typhoon to have ever hit the country. This culture of preparedness has saved countless lives from earthquakes and tsunamis. In Taiwan, the government recently revised its strategy, asking locals to pack a go bag so that they can evacuate in the event of a natural disaster or if. If as many predict, Chinese forces cross the Taiwanese strait and blockade or invade the island. Zhou Yu Wong is the Wall Street Journal's reporter in the Taiwanese capital Taipei.

[Zhou Yu Wong]

So we basically trying to tell people how they should prepare for a crisis. For example, like what they should do if an air raid sirens goes off, what kind of supply they should keep at their homes, but also including how they should prepare their go bags, which is not just for yourself, but also have specific tips for if you have a pet or if you have elderly family members and also for smaller kids or even babies. So there are different types of go bags that people actually prepare for different needs.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Coming up what does preparing for unknown disruptions look like for the everyman? And what role should your community play if real risks materialize? We take a look at those questions and more after the break.

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[Caitlin McCabe]

Prepping can sometimes sound like something out of an apocalypse movie, but it wasn't too long ago that we all found ourselves facing an extraordinary disruption. COVID19 think back to those early days when supermarkets were briefly out of toilet paper and dry pasta and cleaning products. That's the kind of situation that Dan Goss in the United Kingdom is trying to avoid for the next time crisis strikes.

[Dan Goss]

As I've grown up, become an adult and had a family of my own, you start to see the immediate day to day utility in being able to respond to unexpected situations as they come up. I'm a long way off nuclear bunkers and self sufficient compounds, so it's got to be quite a sensible, close to the ground approach at the moment.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Dan is the founder of Start Prepping uk, which he describes as a grassroots resource to help others get started with prepping.

[Dan Goss]

I'm trying to essentially treat it as a piece of mutual aid, helping people to become more resilient and more prepared for disaster as a general way to lessen the severity of those disasters. I feel like the more people that are prepared, the better off we all are collectively.

[Caitlin McCabe]

Community is a big focus for Dan and many preppers for that matter. Here's Jonathan Jones and his wife Kyleen, preppers from Central Utah.

[Jonathan Jones]

I think there is that perception out there that this is the government's responsibility and the government will just take care of us. And that's a very unrealistic expectation because the government cannot, and I agree there are governments that are more proactive in encouraging people to have some food, some water, the ability to evacuate if they need to. Ultimately it is not the government's role to take care of us.

I think it's my responsibility to make sure that I can feed my family and take care of my family. If something happens, I don't expect somebody else to come in and do that. I expect to be able to help my neighbors and for my neighbors to help me.

[Caitlin McCabe]

The Jones Focus on self and community Resilience comes at an interesting cultural moment with trust in the government hovering near all time lows. According to the Pew Research center, only 22% of Americans last year said they trusted the federal government to do what is right almost always or most of the time. That's down from nearly three quarters of Americans in 1958. For preppers like Jonathan and Kyleen, that has meant running a series of experiments over the last 15 years to test their survival skills. One such test included a 90 day no shopping challenge during which they couldn't go to the grocery store or eat at a restaurant. So when they ran out of milk, they turned to bartering.

[Jonathan Jones]

One of our friends had a milk cow and so we would exchange garden produce that we were producing form fresh milk and there were different things that we did like that that was amazing because we can't do it alone.

[Caitlin McCabe]

That doesn't mean you necessarily need to begin bartering. Dan, Jonathan and Kyleen say there are simple ways to get started.

[Jonathan Jones]

It doesn't take much to meet your basic needs. I mean, you need water, food, fuel and shelter, security. Those are the basics. And if you get those basics covered, you can be okay.

[Caitlin McCabe]

And that's it for what's new Sunday for October 26th. Today's show is produced by Zoe Culkin with supervising producer Sandra Kilhoff and Deputy editor Chris Sinsley. I'm Caitlin McCabe and we'll be back tomorrow morning with a brand new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

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