Why Practical Prepping Stays Above Politics

Politics can be fascinating, but it can also hijack your time, your mood, and your focus. We talk through why we keep preparedness nonpartisan and why that choice is not about ignoring reality, it’s about staying useful. If your goal is practical prepping and emergency preparedness that works under stress, the fastest path is to stop treating outrage as a substitute for readiness.

We dig into how current events can still matter to your plan without turning the show into a voting guide. Energy prices, inflation, supply chain disruptions, and international conflict all affect what you pay and what you can find on the shelf. A real example is the instability around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, where even rumors and short-term restrictions can ripple into oil prices and gas prices. You may not control any of that, but you can prepare for the impact by tightening your budget, prioritizing essentials, and staying disciplined with your purchases.

We also answer listener questions about platform choices, including why we stay audio-only instead of producing a full YouTube video version, and why we avoid Facebook posting. When online spaces get toxic, beginners stop asking questions about basics like water storage, solar panels, chickens, dehydrating food, and first aid. That hurts the whole preparedness community. Our focus stays on what matters when the power goes out: a 72-hour kit, clean water, basic medical gear, and the habits that keep you calm and effective.

If you like this practical approach, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a positive review so more people can find it. What’s one prep you’ve done lately that beat doomscrolling?

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Updates

SPEAKER_01 0:02

You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper. Buzzard my duct tape. The real duct tape. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. From border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hey y'all, welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast for Sunday, June 28th, 2026. Before we get started, I want to thank everybody for the positive feedback that I have received on Lone Man on the Ridge, the little post-apocalyptic audiobook that I'm putting together, basically just for kicks and giggles. I owe you guys episode 10. Things at work have been super, super busy, and I have not had the chance to actually sit down and go through and write out what I want to record for episode 10. But rest assured, I will endeavor to get that out to you all as soon as I can. So for this episode, let's do a mini mailbag episode that will lead directly into what I want to talk about. So the past several weeks, I've received several emails commenting about me leaving political content out of the podcast, as well as a request asking why I don't talk more about politics. It's a fair question. So I'll address that here in just a second. Also, just the other day I was looking at the podcast rankings. And currently the podcast in the UK is sitting at number 31, Canada 68, and in the United States, number 92. So a big thank you to everybody out there that listens to the podcast. Like, subscribe, leaving a review is probably the best way, as long as it's a positive review, it's probably the best way to get the podcast to move up in the ranking. So I really do appreciate everybody's

Why The Show Stays Audio Only

SPEAKER_00 2:17

support. I also got a question from someone asking about the podcast on YouTube. So the podcast, all the episodes are currently on podcast, but it's just the audio version, obviously, with a static image. And they've asked if I ever thought about taping the podcast live or taping it and then posting it on YouTube afterwards. So I'll answer this one first. Posting on YouTube is very time consuming. My channel is not monetized. I don't trust the YouTube algorithm. And with my busy career currently, keeping an audio only lets me get more content out to you all on a consistent basis. Now, if I had a huge following on YouTube or sponsors were reaching out, then maybe I would consider doing that video version. But right now, I want to stick with audio only.

Why Facebook Feels So Toxic

SPEAKER_00 3:18

And another question, speaking of social media, another question I got was someone asked why I'm not active via the podcast on Facebook. Why I don't post any links or any shares on Facebook. So the scoop is that I find Facebook to be very toxic, almost as bad as Reddit. And that is saying something. When you're on Facebook, it doesn't matter what topic you're posting about: chickens, solar panels, prepping, dehydrating food, freeze-drying food, whatever it happens to be. People immediately start attacking each other, acting very condescending, going full keyboard warrior on people that just ask a simple question. It's tiring, and I really don't understand it. I have seen people actually pull back and refuse to post or post a lot less on Facebook because of the way they're treated. You would think if someone had a question about anything, like I said, chickens, gardening, you would think their question would be welcomed as opposed to, well, you don't deserve to have chickens, or you can't set up a solar panel that way because of X, Y, and Z. I'm an expert because I do A, B, C. Again, everybody's an expert on the internet. So, long story short, that's why I stay away from Facebook, and that's why definitely stay away from Reddit. I do have a Facebook profile, but I think I belong to two groups. I have my little K truck, my K van, and I follow a couple K vehicle groups because I'm curious about parts and how you fix this and how you order that. That's basically it. I really don't think I have anything else on Facebook.

When Politics Hits Gas And Supply

SPEAKER_00 5:10

All right, so back to the original question and the original topic for the podcast. Why I leave politics out, or why I rarely inject politics into the podcast. So it's kind of a tightrope if you think about it. And I've said this before prepping does not happen in a vacuum. Supply chain problems, inflation, energy prices, and international conflicts all affect how we prepare. Take the current situation in Iran. Whether you believe they had a nuclear weapon or not, it does not matter in this context. What matters is that the United States is directly involved in an armed kinetic conflict with Iran, primarily over the Strait of Hormuz. That's what's being directly affected. The price of gas is going up and down, the strait is open, it's not open. Iran and the U.S. signed an MOU. Some people believe in it, some people don't. The hardliners say no. We're going to launch a few drones, we're going to blow up a few ships, and we're just going back and forth. Every single person in the world is directly affected by the strait being closed or restricted. So we can argue all day, should we be involved, should we not be involved? But at the end of the day, I have to drive to work, I have to pay for gas, so I need to be prepared for the price of oil to spike, and in very short order, the price of gas will also increase. Politics does not create the need to be prepared. It makes the world more unstable and unpredictable. The need to be prepared has always existed. Governments come and go, politics rise and fall, but the fragility of human nature and of modern systems remain constant. Political decisions can certainly accelerate the problems, whether it's inflation, supply chain, energy shortage, international conflict, but the underlying reason we prepare would still exist even if politics disappeared tomorrow. Alright? That's a lot, so let's break it down. Natural disasters don't care about what political party is in office. Grid failures don't check which way you voted. Empty grocery store shelves don't care about your political affiliation. We prep because the world is inherently fragile. Politics just tends to make that fragility more obvious. Let's talk about the geography of prepping, which is very important. This show is listened to in a lot of different countries, from the United States and Canada all the way down to Trinidad and Tobago. We have listeners in big countries, little countries, medium-sized countries. Because of that, I have to assume we have people across the entire political spectrum listening in left, right, socialists, conservatives, communists, libertarians, you name it. It makes no difference who is in power. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter which party is in power when the power goes out. In fact, wait a second. It doesn't matter which party is in power when the power goes out. That sounds like a book title. I like don't steal that. I may okay, I'm gonna leave it in, but please don't steal it. It doesn't matter which party's in power when the power goes out. Let me write that down. Hold on a second. So when the shelves are empty, nobody's going to ask you who you voted for. When you're sitting in the dark with no running water, it doesn't make any difference who you voted for. The only thing that matters is are you prepared or not? And that is what I focus on. The moment you start strongly taking a political side, you instantly lose a third of your listeners, half of your listeners, you're gonna lose them. I've seen it happen. I've listened or watched a lot of YouTube podcasters, primarily focused on prepping. And as the show develops, you can see politics kind of creeping in. And I would eventually lose interest, and I assume other people would. The number of followers tend to decrease. You want to talk politics, all sorts of YouTubers out there. You want to talk politics, all sorts of podcasters out there. But I don't want that for my show.

Keeping Prepping Practical And Nonpartisan

SPEAKER_00 9:58

So let's talk about how politics make people worse preppers. Here is what I've seen over the last few years. When people get too deep into politics, you spend more time being angry at the person on the other side of the aisle than actually worrying about your preps and being prepared. Facebook, Reddit, wherever, every day people are arguing about the current administration here in the U.S. You agree, disagree. But what are they not doing? But what haven't they been spending their time on? That's having a 72-hour kit. They'll rage about politics for hours, but they won't spend that time learning how to purify water or getting a basic first aid kit together. The politics have become the hobby, which is a terrible hobby in my opinion, not being prepared. So my rule is pretty simple. I'll talk about current events, current situations. I'll never tell you who to vote for, what political party you should be affiliated with. That is not my role. I am definitely going to stay in my lane and talk about being prepared. If something is affecting the supply chain, prices, I'll talk about that. But I'm not going to stand here and blame a politician or a political party for the price of X, Y, and Z. My job here is to help everybody be more prepared, not tell you who to vote for.

Prepper Camp Plans And How To Help

SPEAKER_00 11:34

As always, folks, thank you for stopping by. If you want to reach out, the best way is through email, practicalprep podcast at gmail.com. Again, I'll be at Prepper Camp August 14th, 15th, and 16th down in North Carolina. I'm presenting all three days, run, hide, fight. I'm also going to put together a giveaway for the folks who attend my class that listen to my podcast. So if you're coming, make sure you show up at, well, not all three. I'd love to have you come to all three, but if you're going to listen to me ramble for 45 minutes, you don't need to listen to me ramble for 45 minutes all three days. But if you attend one of my classes and you're a listener of the podcast, I'm going to put together some sort of giveaway. I haven't quite figured it out yet. And if you want to support the show, check out the Augustin Farms affiliate link in the show notes. And again, folks, thank you so much. I appreciate every single person that listens to the podcast. I know you guys are very busy. You have a million other things you would rather be doing, but I really do appreciate you all taking the time to listen to me ramble on about being prepared. And as always, please be careful out there. Take care of one another, and until next time.