S1E69 - Margaret on Go Bags Part I

Episode Summary

On this week's Live Like the World is Dying, Margaret and Inmn talk about what goes in a go bag, or bug out bag as they are sometimes called, and how being oogles might have set them up for being preppers. They talk about the different purposes one might make a go bag for, the different smaller kits that make them up, as well as other kits that are helpful to build alongside go bags. Tune in next week for part two.

Host Info

Margaret can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. Inmn can be found on Instagram @shadowtail.artificery.

Publisher Info

This show is published by Strangers in A Tangled Wilderness. We can be found at www.tangledwilderness.org, or on Twitter @TangledWild and Instagram @Tangled_Wilderness. You can support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness.

Transcript

LLWD: Margaret and Inmn on Go Bags

Inmn 00:15 Hello, and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I am your co-host today, Inmn Neruin, and I use they/them pronouns. I'm obviously a new host, and today I have with me Margaret Killjoy who is, you know, the normal host, and we're gonna do some fun role reversal here. Instead of me teaching Margaret something about prepping, because I don't really know much about prepping--well, I mean, you know, I know generally about prepping, but a lot of the specifics I'm newer to, a lot of the technical stuff I'm newer to. Strong ideology. Low tech. But, Margaret is going to teach me about how to put together something that has daunted me a lot, but that I understand the importance of, and that is go bags. This podcast is also a proud member of the Channel Zero Network of anarchists podcasts and before Margaret talks to me about go bags, we're going to hear a jingle from another lovely show on that network. Doo doo doo doo, doo.

Inmn 02:35 Okay, we're back. Margaret, could you introduce yourself on your own podcast that you started,you know, with your name and your pronouns and just a little bit about what you're here to teach me about today?

Margaret 02:50 Yeah, my name is Margaret Killjoy. I use she or they pronouns. You might know me from such podcast as Live Like the World is Dying. But, maybe this is your first episode. In which case, welcome. We have many hosts now on Live Like the World is Dying, which is very exciting. So, I'm going to be talking today about go bags, sometimes called bug out bags, or as I first heard them called, oh shit gear or OSG. No one really calls it that anymore. But some of the first anarchist preppers I ever met like 20 years ago called it OSG. And my background for this is that well, I'm sort of a prepper. I also have lived off-grid more years as an adult than I've lived on-grid. I do currently live on-grid. Before this, I lived in a cabin. Before that I lived in a barn. Before that I lived in a van. Before that I lived in a minivan. Before that I lived out of a backpack. And so I do feel like I have a fairly strong basis in what you need in a backpack to live out of because I did that for about 10 years. But it is a different context, right? And we're going to talk a lot about that today, the context of being traveling crust punk versus having to go bag and all the other different contexts. Yeah, that's my background.

Inmn 04:11 Wonderful, and we're also trying to connect it, I believe to this lovely new book that you just put out through our publishing collective Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness and the importance of go bags, you know, not only in our completely real tangible lives and these very fictionalized versions of our lives like Mankiller Jones', to which there are absolutely no similarities. There are no similar threat models. Nothing. Nothing like that.

Margaret 04:48 Yeah, for anyone listening, I my most recent book is called "Escape from Incel Island" and the protagonist is a nonbinary afab person, named Mankiller Jones, who's trapped on an island full of incels--thus the name--and needs to escape using their wits and the help of friends.

Inmn 05:09 And their go bag?

Margaret 05:11 Yeah, although okay, I'm actually going to argue that there is a difference between a go bag--I'm going to talk about some different types of bag systems you might have for living out of, right. So there's the go bag, and I'll get to that last I would argue that most...a soldier or mercenary or someone in a tactical situation, the primary objective of their thing is combat or evasion or, you know, something in a very militaristic setting. Usually, that might be called a rucksack. And it might be called like rucking. And you're going to have a very different load out of gear for, you know, your tactical situation. You're going to use probably a different type of bag. You're going to use it a lot of different stuff. So, that's like one context. It is a context to consider in these United States of America that are considering a national divorce, and there's a lot of people who want to murder all the trans people and you know, people color and all that shit. So, it is worth considering that and we'll talk a little bit about that. Okay, some of the other contexts that are not go bags, but are in form all of this, you have backpacking bags, right? And within that, basically like, I'm going to go and camp for a couple nights and hike, right? A backpacking bag is designed for two things. It's for hiking, and for camping. And within that you've traditional backpacking, and you have ultralight backpacking. Traditional backpacking, you're going to be carrying like 20 to 50 pounds of stuff. Whereas like rucking, you might be carrying 30 to 80 pounds of stuff, you know. And then there's ultralight backpacking, which is defined as less than 10 pounds before you add like food and water and shit to your bag. And that is like to make the hiking easier, right? But those have a specific purpose and it is not bugging out. It is not going. It is backpacking, right? And then you would have something called a bushcraft pack and I'm making that term up. And this is closer to the tactical bag because it is going to be very heavy, probably, and a lot larger. And bushcraft would be like "I'm going out into the woods to go live in the woods," right? If you need to build shelters, you're going to need different equipment, right. For example, in ultralight backpacking certainly and most traditional backpacking, you're not bringing a saw or an ax. However, if your goal is to survive in the woods for an indefinite period of time, a saw and an ax. are very important tools to have available. Okay, so those are, I'm gonna-go-spend-a-lot-of-time-in-the-woods bags--or desert or whatever. And then you have a go bag. And it's really easy to kind of conflate these things. But they really are a very different purpose. I would argue that your primary goal with a go bag--this is the bag that is in the closet by the door, or is by the door, or lives in your vehicle, or is packed and ready to go at all times in case an emergency takes you out your door for an unknown length of time, or even unknown length of time. And so this is the one bag you grab when your house is on fir