.jpg)
Zombie Book Club
Welcome to Zombie Book Club! We're a Podcast that's also a book club! We talk about Zombie / Apocalyptic horror novels, TV and movies.
Zombie Book Club
How to Prepare for the Fall of an Empire | Zombie Book Club Ep 90
In this episode, we discuss the warning signs (hyperinflation, climate disasters, failing infrastructure) and debunk the myth of the lone survivalist. From Rome’s collapse to today’s crises, the real key to resilience? Community. We’ll explore mutual aid networks, food sovereignty, and decentralized solutions that actually work—because when systems crumble, cooperation outlasts competition.
Featuring insights from the organizers behind @thegeneralstrikeus, we’ll share actionable steps to prep now—from growing food to building local networks. Plus, why the Land Back movement and Indigenous survival strategies offer a roadmap for what comes next.
Relevant Links:
- Collapse Preparedness Guide From GeneralStrikeUS on Instagram
Kayla Hicks (Author of Escape City)
- Website: kayla-hicks.com
- Instagram: @kaylalhicks
The General Strike US
- Strike Card Signup: generalstrikeus.com/strikecard
- Instagram: @thegeneralstrikeus
Additional Resources:
- Mutual Aid Networks: mutualaiddisasterrelief.org
- Land Back Movement: landback.org
Zombie Book Club Links
Sign up for our Newsletter!!!! --- https://zombiebookclub.io/newsletter/
Join the Brain Muncher’s Zombie Collective: https://discord.gg/rn3nPDa4CB
ZBC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zombiebookclubpodcast/
Dan's BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/danthezombiewriter.bsky.social
Zombie Book Club Voicemail: (614) 699-0006
Zombie Book Club Email: ZombieBookClubPodcast@gmail.com
Our Secret Website That Isn't Finished: https://zombiebookclub.io
Our Merchandise Store (Where you can find our Evil Magic Chicken Zombie Shirts): https://zombie-book-club.myspreadshop.com
Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is an empire and the empire is burning. I'm Dan, and when I'm not watching an empire burn to the ground while playing a violin, I'm writing. The book is an empire and the empire is burning. I'm Dan, and when I'm not watching an empire burn to the ground while playing a violin, I'm writing a book about an empire and the brink of destruction. Then people start turning into zombies and it really speeds up the process.
Speaker 2:I thought you only knew how to play guitar.
Speaker 1:I can't play either very well. You can play the violin, probably.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I just outed Dan the violin probably okay.
Speaker 1:Well, we, I just outed dan. He's an imposter. I'm an imposter of a violinist. I am to the highest degree, as in. I've never played one before.
Speaker 2:But now you are. Insist that I can. Yes, while the empire burns. I'm leah and I named our dog nero after a roman emperor who burned rome to the ground intentionally, so I think that tells you how I feel about empires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Empires are great, aren't they? We love them.
Speaker 2:They make great kindling when you're winning. That's true, so much to burn.
Speaker 1:You know if you're trying to start a fire. It's hard because a lot of people don't know. The thing that you should do first is build an empire, and then you can use the empire to stoke the embers, to make a proper campfire, to make a pyre, yeah, funeral pyre of all of the uh very rich people we can't say things like that it's a funeral pyre.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying how they died yeah, okay, I'm just saying yeah, that we're it's. We're honoring their death with a funeral pyre.
Speaker 1:We're going to prison.
Speaker 2:Today we're talking about empires and zombies and whatever the fuck else. We feel like Zompires, zompires yeah, that sounds more fun Because it's a casual dead.
Speaker 1:It is a casual dead. We're tired.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're tired from a long weekend of resting and not doing a lot. Yeah, naps really take it out of me. Consumed a lot of edibles.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been a good weekend that way yeah maybe that's why we're so sleepy you know, this might, this might be the last week. I can do that because I gotta go back to I gotta go back to work, which we'll talk about. We'll get there, yeah, but before we get to that, I would just say we release episodes every Sunday, so scub, scooby, dooble, do that's. That's what Leah wrote.
Speaker 2:Subscribe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, also give us a rating and a review, remember when I just said subscribe and then Ali took personal offense that I literally just said the word subscribe, yeah, no.
Speaker 2:It's important that we never get it right.
Speaker 1:He messaged us and he was like this is incorrect.
Speaker 2:They were devastated, I think. Also, oliver, I have an apology for you, which is I'm sorry that I did not tell the Steve Urena of creator of zombie date night that you are the originator of the term zombie, although I think you need evidence of this fact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, present your evidence in discovery and then we will put together a jury and we'll find out who has rights to zombie.
Speaker 2:Oliver also claims to be the originator of zombie bestie. Yeah, I believe that I do too. Yeah, zombie, I'm not so sure we'll see.
Speaker 1:We'll see in a court of law. That's right um leah. Do we have any groans from the horde? I see it in our notes we have an excellent groan today.
Speaker 2:We have an elevator pitch today, an elevator pitch from kayla hick, somebody we've been following for a while. Yeah, she's joining us in the elevator. We're going somewhere. Let's get in the elevator. This is episode 90. This is a very tall skyscraper. Oh, wow, yeah, it is a tall I think we should go down a few floors because I'm afraid of heights. Let's go downtown, going downtown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we can go down. Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker 2:Nobody can tell us what to do in our elevator.
Speaker 1:This is true.
Speaker 2:Let's go to ground floor, okay, we're going to go to the lobby. We're going to the lobby because we're going to enter Kayla Hicks' escape city. Yeah, on the ground floor, can we?
Speaker 1:go to the taco restaurant that's in the lobby of our giant building first, before we go into Kayla's city.
Speaker 2:What if it's already overrun by zombies when we get there? Oh, good point, we better check it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, I'm hitting the button.
Speaker 2:Okay Well, let's listen to.
Speaker 3:Kayla Hicks' pitch. My name is Kayla Hicks and I'm a multi-genre indie author. I've been writing since 2014, and my first novel was a young adult dystopian book called Kale Stone Outlier's Tale. Since then, I have been able to stick to one genre and I've gone on to publish numerous other books, now totaling up to 18, in genres such as in adult, various sub genres, superhero fiction and children's books. I've also made several appearances around the Lancaster Pennsylvania area, such as festivals, schools and even the rain community chat show.
Speaker 3:Escape City is my first horror thriller young adult book. It's not something that I thought I would ever write, but with my love of zombies, I really want to try to give a go at it. It's highly inspired by things like Westworld and Army of the Dead. I love the Walking Dead, so anything zombie. Oh, and Shaun of the Dead is one of my top favorites. So all of these kind of influence this book in some way. But I kind of felt like there was a little bit of a gap for young adult audiences, so I wanted to give Escape City a try.
Speaker 3:So what is Escape City about? In the glittering world of social media, five affluent influencers Noah, josie, rue, jackson and Naya are accustomed to luxury and attention. When Noah, heir to an amusement park empire, invites them to experience his family's newest venture, escape City, they eagerly anticipate a thriving zombie escape room adventure in Las Vegas. But Escape City isn't just an amusement park. It's a living nightmare. As the simulated experience spirals into chaos, the friends find themselves trapped in a dystopian city overrun by the undead. What was supposed to be a game quickly becomes a battle for survival as they navigate deadly challenges and unravel cryptic puzzles to escape, with the lines between reality and illusion blurring, their once carefree lives crumble in a world where every decision could be their last. Will their friendship and resourcefulness be enough to survive the horrors lurking within Escape City?
Speaker 3:This book also includes some special features. In the very back I've also included a survival guide that kind of gives readers a special sneak peek of how they could survive their stay in Escape City were they to book it for their three-day stay. I also have a short story in the back called when the Game Plays you, which also gives a perspective for the readers from one of the employees' standpoints, jen, who they meet later in the book. You follow Jen and her co-worker Brandon as they start the Escape City stay with the five influencers and show how it progresses from the employee standpoint and how everything goes downhill. Thanks so much for listening to my little bit of a talk on Escape City, which releases on January 31st.
Speaker 2:Kayla, that's awesome, wow. But I'm now very afraid to get to the ground floor. I think we've just arrived. Can we hit the button where the doors close? I don't want to go out there, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't want to go out there. Oh yeah, I don't, I don't want to go to escape city.
Speaker 2:Read the book. Yes, go there. No, I mean I might go. Yeah, yeah, check it out. I like the idea of affluent influencers being the main characters. I'm really curious to see how that um influences the way that they function.
Speaker 1:That definitely sounds like there's potential for comedy. Yeah, you know, like like shot of the dead, one of the influences of of this. It's just like kind of normal people, normal friends, going out into the world. But affluent influencers are hilarious on their own. Just the concept of them, the fact that they exist in the world, is sorry to all the affluent influencers, listening right now do we have any affluent?
Speaker 2:if we have an affluent influencer, I'm gonna create a patreon just for you like, like people can we'll have the affluent influencer category.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah oh, so they can give us money, yes. Okay, I thought you were going to raise money for them. No, I was confused.
Speaker 2:No, they're already affluent.
Speaker 1:I'm saying share the wealth.
Speaker 2:I thought you wanted them to be more affluent. Did you not hear my intro?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I thought maybe you just wanted to just burn it down.
Speaker 2:I also have to say writing since 2014,. 18 books, Kayla, that is wild. Yeah, that's more than one per year. Yeah, how? That's a lot more than one per year. It's been 11 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Dan's working on book one. Everybody has their own style. Some people are prolific. Yeah, it sounds like Kayla, you're one of those people. We would love to have you on the show. It's been a long time coming, so let's talk about escape city soon.
Speaker 1:Let's, uh, let's, let's get that, let's get that popping yeah, kayla, come talk with us.
Speaker 2:I also heard that you were a library kid and uh, libraries are awesome, so we should talk about that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's talk about libraries yeah, library I went to had a lot of marble lions outside the front. That's a very fancy library, it's? Yeah, I mean that was the.
Speaker 2:That was the watertown library, that was the big library if we were going on the weekend the library that I went to as a kid was basically one small room and, like it, uh, kind of had double wide vibes. I'm not really sure it was very, very humble, the woodville library, but I loved it there.
Speaker 1:The library that was actually in my small town was a shed that was rotting, oh, and nobody actually worked there. Were the books also rotting? I don't know. I mean, there were books in there, but it wasn't like a place that you could actually check books out of. I'd have to learn more about it. It's kind of a weird situation. That is a little weird. Yeah, it's like technically a library in name, but like if you went there there'd be a padlock on the door. It's weird. I think it's mostly a storage room for books.
Speaker 2:This is very odd. We have a great library here, yeah, hey.
Speaker 1:Leah Uh-huh Life updates.
Speaker 2:This is like when my colleagues ask me how my weekend was and I'm like I don't remember. I'm in a state of pretty much constant dissociation right now, playing katan. Yeah, that's, that's what I've been. I live in dissociation nation, yeah, and then I've been doing some things that I can't talk about on the podcast, like what nefarious things you're doing nefarious things no okay, other things other. No Okay, other things Other things Wink, wink, wink.
Speaker 1:Oh, that answers everything. You can cut that part out. No, I Leah. Yes, dan, I unfortunately am going to be going back to work.
Speaker 2:I know because I've been having a lot of nightmares about you leaving me and I'm pretty sure it's because I know you're going to be leaving me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for work, I'm leaving you for work.
Speaker 2:Wow, I never thought that would be the third in our relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it unfortunately becomes that way because of the nature of work. I hate work, all right. Why do I have to do it? I don't think it's fair.
Speaker 2:Because, empire baby, I don't think it's fair. Because, empire baby, you gotta work. You gotta work to make that money.
Speaker 1:you gotta work to make your boss richer it's true, and my boss needs to be richer so that he can I don't know hang out with cool rich people.
Speaker 2:I mean, we know that he does, that he does, yeah, we know that he's part of the circle of the people that have horses around here, one of them being, yeah, the very rich ceo of a company. I probably shouldn't say, because then maybe one day this would get back to them somehow, and I'm not going to do that because vermont is two people wide.
Speaker 1:Oh, well, I'll just cut that part out.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't think we named any names. We're okay, but it is very sad that you're going back. Yeah, um, how are you feeling about it? Are you any part of you excited to go back to work?
Speaker 1:no, um, I don't, I don't even know when I'm going back, like I I was given a return to work date, but that's always just kind of like this hinging uh concept, um, so I I don't I've actually gotten any type of message you got a text from your boss being like do you still want to work for me?
Speaker 2:And you're like, yeah, yeah, I guess so.
Speaker 1:Begrudgingly. And then he sent me a video of his new Rivian electric pickup truck that he chained to one of the other people that works at our shop His big truck. And then they did like a tug of war inside of the garage.
Speaker 2:So my boss is very responsible yeah, and he can afford a rivian electric truck, yeah electric truck and he couldn't afford to play tug of war with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool cooperative.
Speaker 2:Yeah, take it over, dan, take it over. This is your time seize. Seize the means of production, the riffian, the company. Oh, seize it, take it. Yeah, do communist things. I'm just joking. I would never be a communist united states government this is all.
Speaker 1:I'll just cut that part out. Yeah, um, yeah, it's a bummer. I you know I could be going back to work in three weeks. I could be going back to work next week, I don't know. I have no idea at this point. And it sucks because I don't want to go back ever, but I have to you have to because it's a part of our financial plan yeah, and also because there's nothing else I can do yeah, do you know?
Speaker 2:I just got a quote speaking of our financial plan to be debt-free. I just got a quote for our driveway, to get our driveway fixed thirty five hundred dollars wow, yeah, that's a lot, it is, let's not let's just let it get worse. Yeah, okay, okay. So, um, what impact do you think this is going to have on the podcast? You being back to work?
Speaker 1:oh, it's gonna make it hard. Um, I know that, you know, last last year was when we decided to go two episodes per uh, two episodes per week. What I meant to say was, uh, an episode per week instead of an episode every other week. And, um, you know, I I just thought that we would do that for the winter, but then we just kind of carried it on through the summer season, yeah, when I'm at work, and we made it work, but it's a lot also last summer was like the birth of all of like becoming more of an interview show.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's sort of my biggest concern is like we really really love talking to y'all out there who are indie authors and creators, and we know our listeners really enjoy it too, and I've tried to read every single thing we've talked about it.
Speaker 1:And I'm having anxiety that that is no longer going to be possible, with you back to work on a bi-weekly basis. Yeah, yeah, that that part will have to slow down quite a bit. Yeah, um, yeah, it just sucks, like you know. Work this is, this is the problem with our current system is that there are so many people out there that have so much creativity, so much talent um, not not to say that I'm one of them, but there's people out there that have so much creativity, so much talent Not to say that I'm one of them, but there's people out there that if they didn't have to claw and scrape and scream into the void every single day just to survive, they could be creating some really amazing things.
Speaker 2:I bet you that's a lot of people listening right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I bet there's at least a handful. I would love to know, folks, if you had universal basic income and your basic needs were cared for, so you know, you had a place to stay, you got food every month, you got your basic stuff, you got health care, what would you do? Where would you spend your time? Would you still be doing the same thing? What would you do differently? I would you spend your time. Would you still be doing the same thing. What would you do differently? I think it's an interesting question to ponder. We were talking about it as a family, actually with Simon this weekend and I was like I think that all the jobs that nobody wants you should be like extremely highly paid. It should be reversed from what it is today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, I had a small amount of hope that I could get there, because I'm a veteran and I have a lot of injuries and I was on the pathway to getting to 100% disability. So right now I'm at 50% and I get paid a certain amount, but it's not enough to live. So I still have to work, which is fine. I love getting that compensation. Most of my adult life I got nothing getting that compensation. Um, I had, you know, most of my adult life I got nothing.
Speaker 1:And now they're like you're broken enough, here's some money. Yeah, this money will help those injuries. And I'm like oh, thank you it. Does you apply it directly to the injury? Is what you do Just rub the money into your back shattered? Yeah, I like to coat it in a thin layer of icy hot and then kind of like plaster it along my back. That's what I do. Anyways, you know, if I got to 100%, then I could, you know, potentially quit my job and should, because that's kind of the idea behind 100% disability is that you are 100% incapable of providing for yourself because of your injuries that you've sustained yeah, and this is where I think I said this before in the podcast, but I'm gonna keep saying it because I I think it's important for people to know that while dan is working, he should not be working yeah in the traditional way of the 40 hour work week, plus with his job, yeah, um, because it is physically damaging to you every time you get in that truck.
Speaker 2:So there's that dread too. It's just like knowing. For me, it's like knowing that you're going to come home every day in pain, um, and that you're going to need the weekends to basically just sleep yeah and heal yeah, and I apologize to any guests we're about to have in the summertime.
Speaker 1:Yeah I'm a I'm a special kind of delirious in the summertime, yeah, yeah, so I'd had some hope that that would happen. But of course, you know, if you've been paying attention to what's been going on with the government, you would know that the VA is under attack, literally under attack, by the administration. Right now. They're trying to just completely destroy it. Um, that's their goal. Not to replace it with anything, just make it so that it doesn't work anymore and veterans now have to pay for their treatment out of pocket. Um, you know, I I imagine there's a plan for just stopping benefit payments to veterans as well.
Speaker 1:Pensions they probably want to get rid of pensions. Yeah, also, that billionaires can just get a nice tax refund this year. That's the whole point. A tax refund for a group of people who, historically, don't pay taxes. Yeah, which is hilarious. Maybe they'll report some earnings this year just so that they can get their big tax refunds. Uh, but yeah, so that's up in the air, like the like I'm. It's not gone yet, but I don't have a whole lot of faith that it will stick around. So, like, I was hoping that that would happen and then I could do all the stuff here at home that I want to do yeah, instead of, you know, killing myself 60 to 70 hours a week.
Speaker 2:I'm really sorry you have to go back. Yeah, but this is why you know I got to say obviously, like jobs, I have some level of fear about my job just because of the state of the world, not because of anything. At my job Specifically, I think we're actually pretty well positioned, but that doesn't mean things can't change like. This is a really clear reality jack that anything can change. But if things go well, if we pay our debt off, then we can scrape. We can scrape by. We just have to get rid of anything fun in our lives.
Speaker 1:But I think it would be worth it for you to be home yeah um, and then we would definitely need a patreon for the podcast we've been told that we should have a patreon and like part of me is like, yeah, that sounds great, but also I, I don't really I've. I've liked that this has always just been a free thing that we do me too um, wow, this, uh, this life updates has really gone down a heavy down a rabbit hole heavy times to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we're also making emergency exit plans to leave for canada it's.
Speaker 1:It's true, um, you have to have a plan. Like we don't want to leave. No, we have a house, we have all of our stuff is here, our bed's here, yeah, yeah, but, um, you know, the us is showing itself to be more and more and more dangerous every single week.
Speaker 2:Um, and like, of of the groups of people who are in danger, uh, we're the safest, for sure, so, uh, so we, we have, we have that luxury, we have the privilege of being able to wait it out and see where it's going, yeah, and the privilege to have the option of being able to wait it out and see where it's going, yeah, but and the privilege to have the option of an escape hatch, which most people don't yeah, most people don't, but uh, but it is something that that, uh, that we think about because, like there's, there is a possibility that there is a time where it's like we gotta go, or who knows what will happen to us I think a lot of people are in this place because this is a friend of mine, actually, this last week that I was talking to it's like I feel like we need to be prepping, I feel like we need to have like food stores and be thinking about building community and like do I need to go buy a bunch of toilet paper, leah? And I just looked at her and I was like, yes, yeah, I think what I'm hearing from a lot of people is like yeah, also, that's great, assuming you have power or are part of the municipal water system, that it's still up, but it will be useful. Um, but anyways, I think there's a lot of people I've heard this refrain is like am I right to be this scared? And I'm going to tell you yes, you are um. And if you're asking yourself the question, am I right to be this scared? I'm going to tell you, yes, you are um. And if you're asking yourself the question, am I right to be this scared? I'm going to imagine that things have not happened to you or someone you love directly yet, um, but I think we're all watching the news and we all see what's happening and, um, I don't want to leave this country at all. But if I have to, I will, because that's an immense privilege that we have an option to. But right now I still want to stay. But it's really scary to realize free speech is dead and like one of my big life updates is um.
Speaker 2:For those of you who've been following me for a while, you know I got my citizenship last may and I was really excited about it because I was going to be able to go protest again. And now I'm like um. You know I didn't go to the last two because I wasn't well enough that you went to um, but I really want to go to one. But then I also think, like I don't know, that my citizenship really means anything very much right now. I think the fact that I'm white and english speaking will get me a lot farther than my citizenship at this time. But if I'm going to, if I put myself in a position where I'm actively and openly dissenting, all they have to do is prove that something on my citizenship wasn't 100% correct, basically yeah, or just say that I'm an enemy. They can do whatever they want. I mean.
Speaker 2:that's why we're seeing people doing whatever they want and so it's pretty fucking scary and we've been talking about this shit on the podcast for a long time, been talking about this shit on the podcast for a long time, um, and I'm choosing to still keep talking about it, even though I think there's some for all of us.
Speaker 2:There's some risk in speaking up and I think that's why we need to keep doing it, and even louder, especially people like me, who have some degree of risk, but not anything close to many other people. Yeah, um, but yeah, I, I know it's bad. You know it's bad when you're like you learn your brother's getting married and then you think, fuck, I've got to cross the border to see his wedding and that is scary and I I the whole point of getting citizenship for me other than I want to stay here and I love being here is mostly that the border is always fucking terrifying when you don't have citizenship, even with a green card. It was stressful, it was really stressful. I had just a work visa and it was awful when I didn't have anything and I was just visiting a lot. So that's my dark life update.
Speaker 1:Yeah, life updates right now are pretty dark.
Speaker 2:Well, I have one bit of good news Eric of inaugural zombie game show 2023 game show, eric is coming to visit us, yeah, in april, and that is going to be an incredible light, uh, in this dark time, so I'm very excited to see him. Yeah, that will be exciting and we're hoping to record an episode with him here. So there will be some kind of shenanigans episode coming for you all yeah, um, I have some, uh, a little bit of writing update.
Speaker 1:You know this is coming out a week after, but we did an April Fool's.
Speaker 2:We did, and I already feel bad about it, even though it hasn't happened yet, as of this recording. So we're recording this on Cesar Chavez Day, labor rights organizer. That is a federal holiday that Barack Obama, when he was president, put into place. Most people don't seem to celebrate it, but my work's awesome, so I have it off, and this coming week is April 1st, so when you hear this, it'll be like the first Sunday of April, and I'm sorry, this was my idea, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:Leah literally just started asking me questions while recording me with her phone while I was just a few edibles in, yeah. And then we had the bright idea hey, what if this was an April Fool's joke? What we're talking about is a video on Instagram. I should say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you haven't seen it, go watch it Now. You know it's not true, but you'll still enjoy it. It's funny. Yeah, and for the persons that I'm not having any other names, there's a few people that I knew were gonna be really devastated by this. I'm so sorry. I want you to know that oliver encouraged us to do it. Yeah, it's all, and actively contributed. Yeah, it's oliver's fault. Oliver, ollie eats brains.
Speaker 1:For those who have not, uh, heard of ollie eats brains before, you should go check them out, yeah um, but yeah, since, since we pranked everyone, I feel like I I should give an actual, real writing update. Yes, uh, first thing is that I submitted a few chapters to megan, who is uh starting up a um, she's she's doing some freelance work as an editor. Hmm, um, laforma designs on Instagram. We'll put a link in the show notes. Um, I did. I, I asked Megan, and here's the thing about Megan Megan is very, very, very humble, extremely humble, and uh, and said that she didn't want me to feel like I owed her anything by giving her a shout out, but I want to give her a shout out because she worked really hard for free.
Speaker 2:And did a great job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I haven't been able to go through all of it, but she gave me a lot to go through, so I'm going to be going through that in the next couple of weeks. So I have a few chapters that have been edited by the very professional, megan, and if you are also looking for editing, you should give Megan a message, say, hey, you still doing that thing. I imagine at some point she'll want to be paid money for it.
Speaker 2:So jump on in quickly. Yeah, and she understands the genre.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's a member of the book club.
Speaker 1:That's the big thing and that's the thing I'm most excited about is that this is a person who understands the zombie apocalypse. I don't know if we did an episode about this, but I've had a long-standing belief that if you look at the zombie apocalypse medium it doesn't follow the same beats as a normal, you know 15 beat, 3x story. There are things that a zombie apocalypse fan is going to expect differently than, um, than than your typical, your typical novel that has dragons in it. Um, you know, one of the one of the things that I noticed right away. I'm like, wow, the all those lost moment happens right away, right at the beginning, and then it's kind of just an upward, upward momentum for quite a while. You know it's. It's kind of just an upward momentum for quite a while. You know it's very different.
Speaker 1:So like having somebody look through your work that understands that this is different from everything else will probably save a lot of time having to explain that to an editor. That's just like, yeah, I don't understand the appeal of this story, it's not my thing, but you know, you should make it more cohesive in these areas. And it's like, no, you don't understand the appeal of this story. It's not my thing, but you know, here's you should. You should make it more cohesive in these areas. It's like, no, you don't understand. So, um, I think, uh, I think, I think that's going to be pretty good. Whenever I've got more to go with, I'm definitely going to reach back out to megan and uh and get get the full, the full package yeah, and without revealing anything about your book, she gave you some really good advice, but one part that I know has had your wheels turning yeah, yeah, there's definitely.
Speaker 1:There was something like right at the very beginning and I'm like am I being too heavy-handed with this?
Speaker 2:and megan was like yes and that's the sign of a good editor, realness, yeah, oh, an editor is going to tear your heart out.
Speaker 1:That's, that's a sign of a good editor Realness, yeah, oh, an editor is going to tear your heart out. That's. That's the truth of the matter and the the way that I look at it is that I, the measure of my competence as a writer, is my ability to have my heart ripped out by an editor and be like those are some good ideas.
Speaker 2:Just so you know, Megan Dan was not crying, no, he was actually like that was a really good point and I really like the suggestion she made, which is a I want to say it, but I can't yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, we'll probably talk about it at a later point In the future. You know what? I'll just say that I had a very direct, direct character in the very beginning who was very clearly Trump. Oh, you're going to say it. I'm just going to say it because I'm going to change it now. Okay, based on Megan's suggestions. Megan had a lot of really good ideas, so I'm going to go with that and kind of rewrite the very beginning, the prologue, if you will. That's what they call it, that's what the kids call it the prologue. But yeah, I mean, luckily, like I didn't. I didn't, I was kind of like gambling with that part because I knew I could rewrite it at any moment. The most important point was that, like, that was my opportunity to put out a lot of information without having it to you know, reveal it over several chapters yeah you know, I could just have somebody that's talking like a fucking lunatic.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna find a new way to do that, but yeah, but you know, megan told me what I needed to hear, and that's, that's the important thing.
Speaker 2:It is, and this is the part where I get to tell you that Megan doesn't like compliments. So, megan, just Megan, you did a great job. This leads us to our main feature for today's, casual Dead, something that you suggested, dan.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I suggested this.
Speaker 2:So you may have noticed that we use the word empire quite a few times in our intro. We're going to talk about how to prepare for the fall of an empire based on lessons from history, and it's created by. It's a thread on Instagram created by at traumatized underscore thriving, but it's also a collaboration with the General Strike US, which is a great organization we'll talk about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I signed up for the General Strike.
Speaker 2:Me too. Yep, yep, they need a lot more. Maybe we'll talk about. Let's talk about that now. First, what's the general strike, dan.
Speaker 1:The general strike is basically basically, this is a union for everyone. It doesn't have any dues or anything, but what they are hoping to do is to get 11 million people to say yes, when you declare a general strike, we will all go on strike. We're going to shut down the economy because there's a, there's a belief that there's a, a rule. Um, I want to say it's like the three percent rule it's actually re.
Speaker 2:There's been research that shows us three and a half percent of the population. When three and a half percent of the population strikes, they have never failed to bring about change and I think this is going to be important.
Speaker 1:And at first I was afraid to put my name on a list, but then I I thought about it and I realized my name is probably already on 10 to 15 other lists too. So I'm going to put, I'm going to sign my name up to this general strike and when the time comes I'm just going to be like all right, boss going on strike, no hard feelings, nothing about you, but I got, I got. I'm not coming to work, yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's really good information on the website. We'll have it in the show notes about. Just like there's really good information on the website, we'll have it in the show notes about. Just like you know, people ask like how long will this go on for? Could be a day, could be up to a month.
Speaker 2:Typically, the folks who put this together are pretty well researched in how these things have worked elsewhere, and so they have a framework for that. But it's also decentralized. You can start your own general strike chapter in your community, something, dan and I have not done yet. But just to give you a context of like some real evidence of how they know this, this three and a half percent of the threshold of a population actually matters. Here's some examples In 1986, millions of Filipinos took to the streets of Manila in peaceful protests and prayer in the people power movement and the Marcos regime folded on the fourth day. Wow yeah. In 2003, the people of Georgia ousted Edward. Oh no, I didn't look at this person's name, so I apologize, edward, although I guess three, the people of georgia ousted edward.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I didn't look at this person's name, so I apologize, edward although I guess you weren't great because you've been ousted. Edward sounds like an asshole. Edward shivar nazi through the bloodless rose revolution in which protesters stormed the parliament building holding the flowers in their hands, and in 2019, the presidents of sudan and algeria both announced they would step aside after decades in office thanks to peaceful campaigns of resistance. Those are just a few examples from a BBC article that the General Strike US website references, but I'm down for it. I mean, I think the big thing to prepare for is to maybe just be like how can I make sure that I can survive for at least a week, yeah, without working? And they also answer questions on the website about, like well, am I going to lose my job? You know, like, what are my protections?
Speaker 1:and actually you have the right to strike yeah, it's true, you have the right strike, you have the right to protest yeah, so if you inform them that you're you're not like, I'm not, I'm going on vacation without consent.
Speaker 2:If you say I'm, I'm part of this strike, they cannot fire you. Yeah well, I they can, but they can't legally fire you.
Speaker 1:It is a right to work state.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I think again this comes down to like if you're in a position with enough privilege where you know that you could do that, you can make that discipline stance and probably still keep your job, or you can make that stance and you know that you can have enough supplies on hand for the last, for a few weeks. Please join us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it probably won't last for a few weeks.
Speaker 2:please join us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it probably won't happen for a very long time.
Speaker 2:They started the website in 2022, after Roe v Wade was overturned.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, yeah, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it is going to take a while, yeah or not, right? That's why we're spreading the word about it, or not? Yeah, we'll put a link in the description, make it easy peasy, but in the meantime we should all be preparing for the fall of an empire.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because that's what's happening. How do you prepare for the fall of an empire Leah?
Speaker 2:Well, lucky us, we have somebody who did some research and wanted to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that me? Well, I know you don't like to read, so I can read. Oh, no, I'm okay with reading. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So okay, yeah, um so little known fact. Every empire in history has fallen.
Speaker 1:No one knew that before us now, you know, including the person who wrote this. Yeah, it came as a complete surprise. The person who wrote this, they typed it and they're like whoa, really, but yeah, so, uh, obviously, the ones that are still um, that are still around, just haven't fallen yet, but they will. History has shown us that every empire falls, and this one is next, the one that we are in right now. We're in an empire. If you don't know, leah, do you want to tell people what an empire is?
Speaker 2:I need to Google that Wasn't prepared for this really important question. Well, dan, I was not prepared to uh give you a lecture today about empire. There's a really great book called empire by hart and negri which talks about this empire, but it's actually referring to the broader global empire of which the us is a part, um, which is essentially really wealthy people, plutocracies that we're in, like the united states, um, but basically an empire. According to the britannica encyclopedia I just googled it, I just searched it one day I will stop say googling, one day it will be gone from my um thing. And, by the way, I actually did not google it, I used duck, duck go uh is a major political unit in which the metropolis or single sovereign authority exercises control over territory of great extent, or a number of territories or peoples, through formal annexations or various forms of informal domination. That's the official description of an empire. Oh, yeah, so we're in an empire.
Speaker 2:Yes, because the united states, since basically world war ii, has been the dominating force, both within its own borders, obviously, but globally, like, for example, um the world bank and the international monetary fund, which are responsible one of them is responsible basically for um ensuring the markets don't totally go off a fucking cliff and everything falls apart. And also for um, supposedly. This is all a lie. I would just like to say but this is how they talk about themselves that they are helping um develop nations who need their support through these things called structural adjustment programs, which are loans which essentially get the country to open up all of its borders, um, and get rid of any tariffs, and then rich people come in with their companies and destroy any local industry.
Speaker 2:That was there previously fun, yeah, anyways, these are two major institutions that rule the world. The united states has, uh, the most voting power in both, because it's vote per dollar, not vote per person or group or state, and the united nations has no teeth. Let's be real, that's true, it it's it. It hasn't had teeth, probably ever, but I think it was crystal clear to me back in 2001, after 9, 11 and then when I think it was was it 2003, when war was officially declared? Dan?
Speaker 2:in iraq yeah, yes, in 2003, and war was declared and the united nations said that's a war crime. We do not vote for you to invade iraq. And the united states did it anyways, and there wasn't shit they could do. And bush can go to any country he wants to in the world and he's not going to be arrested as a war criminal. And we see it happening right now with israel, where netanyahu is also, um, through global systems, been named a criminal, a war criminal, and it doesn't matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter because he's he's backed by the united states, so we have a lot of power in this country and we've heard a lot of people, um, and so, yeah, it's about to fall.
Speaker 1:I think we've all felt it as millennials this like impending doom of like knowing this can't, this can't last forever you know, I wonder if if part of our obsession with the zombie apocalypse our entire lives has just been that we've just been seeing how this is slowly going down and where it's heading and also kind of wishing it would.
Speaker 2:That's the hard part. You know that there could be a better system. You know the system that we have now harms people, but you also. It's. The hard part is like you know that there could be a better system, you know the system that we have now harms people, but you also.
Speaker 1:It's the one, you know, yeah, yeah, and it also benefits some people aka me white person.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's, it's uncomfortable in that way, and there's a really great organization called whiteness at work and they had a webinar a few weeks ago about the poly crisis, which is what they're calling. We're in right now where there's just like intense crises constantly happening over and over again.
Speaker 2:And the world is feeling very unstable, specifically for Americans, in a way that we have been exporting that instability elsewhere to prop up our wealth, particularly the wealth of obviously the really, really rich people. I think it's often sobering when people come here for the first time from other countries and think, like this is the land of opportunity, and then realize that, like, most people can barely afford their rent. Um, but that was a random tangent, yeah, about empire.
Speaker 1:Well, um, good news, leah. Uh-huh, this empire is crumbling, rocking. Well, are you ready? I think it's good. Are you ready, leah?
Speaker 2:See, that's the thing is that I know something different is needed. I just will keep saying it. I think it's too bad that this is how it's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's too bad. It's how it's happening, but the reality is is that collapse was inevitable, but destruction is also transformation. Yeah, and this thread is a really great resource to think these things through. We'll also put that in the show notes. But the very first quote on the second page is those who survive aren't the wealthiest, but the ones who build strong, interdependent communities. So how do we prepare? What has worked before and what hasn't? Let's break it down. Yeah let's break it down, leah. All right, dan, do you want to read the next slide?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does collapse look like?
Speaker 2:Oh, there we go. See, why did I have to define anything? This is much better.
Speaker 1:It's not just a sudden event like a zombie apocalypse.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's why we like it because it's quick and it's over, instead of this horse shit. Well, this one is where people are questioning themselves like, should I be worried?
Speaker 1:And I horse shit. Well, this one is where, like, people are questioning themselves, like should I be worried? And I'm like, yes, yeah, you should be worried, but yeah, it's not just a sudden event. In fact, it's already happening. So here's some things to look for if you are questioning whether or not you are in a collapsing empire, uh leah, do we have hyperinflation and unstable economies?
Speaker 1:oh, yes, we do, yes, we do yeah, um, I don't know how much food and water shortages we have right now, but I feel like we're looking at a lot of them depends on who you are.
Speaker 2:People have been living without access to um grocery stores in their communities for decades. Yeah, because of the food apartheid. And water shortage too, where, like you have to, you can you pay your water bill or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how much water are you going to get access to? There's the people in Flint, michigan, whose water is flammable Exactly. There's the people who live outside of the data centers that have been recently built in Texas, who don't have any water pressure and the little water that comes through is like a murky brown shit that came directly from the facility.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, water is like a murky brown shit that came directly from the facility. So, yeah, water shortages, I'm I think I think we're gonna see a lot more of those, but they definitely exist. And, um, yeah, if you live in a, in a in a city that's like a, uh, a food desert, as they call it uh, you know, all it takes is a few missed, a few missed truckloads and you'll be feeling it yeah, I mean a lot of.
Speaker 2:Uh, it used to be called food deserts. Most recently folks are calling it food apartheid, because there are these. There's like a clear division of places that can will have a grocery store where there's access to things like vegetables and fruits and fresh foods, or just convenience stores, and is anyone going to be surprised when I say that that is along racial and economic lines? So, even as an example of where we were living before, there used to be a Kroger, which is a main grocery store chain in the South, in downtown Augusta, which is also where there's a lot of poverty and a lot of black people live, and they got rid of that one. So if you don't have access to good transportation and can drive 15 to 20 minutes, you're gonna get your food from the convenience store you know what I love?
Speaker 1:uh love seeing that we'll probably talk a little bit more about uh later in this presentation is a lot of urban farmers, especially in places like atlanta, a lot of, a lot of black urban farmers that are growing food inside of cities because they recognize how little power you have over your situation when you don't have access to fresh food. Yeah, so they're taking a little bit of that power back by growing food in their backyards.
Speaker 2:I love urban agriculture. In fact, my mom shout out to my mom she's taking her entire front yard and making it into a garden. That's great and I love that. I think that makes her cool. Yeah, this one feels very pertinent for our times Increased state violence and surveillance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've been feeling that a lot lately. Yeah, a lot of my anxiety comes from this bullet point. What I hate about the state violence is that it's it's sanctioned.
Speaker 2:You know it's, it's okay that's why it's called state violence that's a good point um, let me remind you that war is state violence. It's sanctioned violence.
Speaker 1:Yeah and, uh, it very much feels like the government right now is at war with its own people and that's a scary thing because I've been on the other side of the war fighting machine and I know what it's capable of. That's scary. I know what it's capable of when we were following the rules. Yeah, I can't imagine what it'll be like when the rules no longer apply.
Speaker 2:Ie now well, yeah, now we're in a state where if you dissent against, uh, israel's genocide of the palestinian people and you write about it in a paper, you can get detained yeah uh, if you happen to be an immigrant and you can have a perfectly legal visa.
Speaker 2:There's been a lot of examples of that recently, where people with all of the right papers which I want to remind you are fucking so hard to get okay, so this is not making it any more acceptable with those who are not documented or getting deported or detained and mistreated. I'm just saying that even people play the rules, play by the rules. They're still at risk, yeah, um, and hence why I am a little scared again knowing that I have more privilege than others who are immigrants, but that still, that makes me think like, oh, yeah, I mean, really, the only, the only uh factor that they're taking into account is whether or not your skin is white.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah next was internet and power grid instability. Again, this is an example like depends on who you are and where you are. We've talked about Highland Park, michigan, which is in the Detroit area. Literally, the power company took their lights away because it was a poor neighborhood and people were having trouble paying their bills, so their solution was let's just remove their power. So this community had to come together and create their own solar microgrid, basically to survive. So if you haven't experienced power grid instability, I wouldn't say that you are not at risk of experiencing the same, especially as things become more unstable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, texas experienced a lot of power grid instability Good point Due to a lot of decisions made by texas, but also that's like a good example of like how that's going to go down. It's like there's going to be decisions made that we don't have control over and that's going to affect whether or not we a have electricity or b if it suddenly costs us like ten thousand dollars a month for electricity because they just decide to hike the the rates yeah, which is all connected back to climate disaster.
Speaker 2:Uh, which I don't. I do we even need to talk about that. Have anybody watched what's going on lately?
Speaker 1:some. Some people probably don't know about climate disaster yet well again.
Speaker 2:If you haven't been impacted by it yet, that means you're lucky, essentially at this point, because even here in beautiful vermont, we have had lots of climate disasters two years of major flooding and damage in a row. There's a hurricane a few years back. That's something unseen. In vermont we had an ice storm literally this weekend, lost power and had an electrical fire in our neighborhood. Um, actually, while uh, recording an episode with rowan and Erica for days worth living, which you'll hear about soon, the power went out midway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, luckily we record on a device that has a battery backup, and our, our Internet also has a battery backup. Yeah, so that's cool. We were OK in the dark, but OK.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you haven't, we've already. We've had wildfire, smoke here, we've had a drought here. It's already not great, yeah, and it's not going to get better. Sorry to bring that news and Vermont is a pretty good place when it comes to climate.
Speaker 1:So, like the fact that those things have happened in such regularity, like the first two years that we were here was a drought, yeah, and then the following I don't know about the following year, but I know the like the last two years we've had floods. We've had three floods massive floods, yeah, that like took out destroyed towns yeah, destroyed towns like wiped out entire roads.
Speaker 2:they started having nightmares of our house sliding down the hill and like falling because of how wet everything was, which obviously didn't happen, but was clearly a response to watching the rest of the world get flooded. But I like this last little statement here. It says ignoring the signs won't stop them from happening, but collective preparation will soften the impact. And this is where I say again to you if you're going about your daily business, you're getting your morning cup of coffee, you're going out for lunch with friends, you're going to work, you're listening to this podcast while you're doing your workout or something, I don't know what you do when you listen to this podcast, doing dishes, and everything feels like it's kind of normal, and so part of you is like oh, I think it's okay. It's not okay. We need to prepare. We're not okay.
Speaker 2:And the things that we're about to suggest, that are evidence-based from this thread, are things that we should all be doing anyways, to the degree that we are capable, and I know that it's a lot to ask when we're all really busy, but, as always, it's all. It's about picking one. Just try and pick one or like move towards it in some way yeah, also this, uh, what we're going to talk about next.
Speaker 1:um, I mean honestly, as, as zombie fans, we already know these things and uh, and it's what we, it's what we dream about at night, so it shouldn't come as any surprise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, every single one of these is a theme in a zombie apocalypse story.
Speaker 1:So, uh, actually, the next thing is what let's talk about what hasn't worked? Yeah, um, when it comes to surviving a crumbling empire, first one hoarding resources. This comes up a lot in zombie apocalypse fictions. Like I gotta get all the supplies. I'm gonna go there with my shotgun to the CVS and get all the toilet paper, yep, and I'll shoot anyone that wants toilet paper too, because I'm not competing with them. That's mine. I need that.
Speaker 2:It's the panic toilet paper Competing with them. That's mine, I need that. It's the panic toilet paper, whereas the preparedness version is. Every time you go to the grocery store, buy some toilet paper.
Speaker 1:So hoarding resources leads to competition and violence.
Speaker 2:Actually, you know that's a lot of zombie movies, negan's entire model was to create an empire yeah, which fell by the way it fell, but he was about hoarding resources.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the next thing relying on which fell, by the way, but he was about hoarding resources yeah, the next thing relying on the state oh, I'm at fault for this one, because I was hoping the VA would come through for me and provide a more comfortable life. So the systems of power prioritize themselves, not you. Yeah. So yeah, like depending on those systems. Like sometimes you have to Like those systems are there for us, but then sometimes they disappear and there's nothing you can do about it. Scream into the void all you want, but they're gone. So you got to find something else that works, ignoring the warning signs. I'll be honest, honest. This last week I have avoided social media like crazy, because it was driving me crazy. It was I. I could not handle all of the bad shit that was going on all at once.
Speaker 2:Our little brains are literally not prepared for this. Yeah, and we had our first like dispute I wouldn't call it like there's no yelling involved that we've had in a long time because we decided to go for a walk around our property because it finally had no snow and I was like, oh, look at this part, we can build our garden terrace in this way for the vegetables. And dan just looks at me and he goes what if we have to leave? And I was like, oh my god. I was like I don't want to think about that right now. Right, which is, am I ignoring the warning signs by saying I don't want to think about that? Are you like? I think there's a tough balance we're trying to figure out, which is trying to be prepared, uh, and also enjoy our lives and plan for the future we hope for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, ignoring the warning signs. Collapse is gradual before it's sudden. I think we're at that slope where it's becoming a little bit like the. We're at the top, where the roller coaster starts to speed up while it goes downhill.
Speaker 2:But it's fell so fast already. I want to get off this ride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're on the Superman ride and it's about to go straight down. Yeah, um, last bullet point of things that have hasn't worked individual individualism and isolation.
Speaker 2:No one survives alone we had an entire episode. This called the myth of rugged individuality. Yeah, don't remember what episode number it is. I think it was 74.
Speaker 1:Good job, dan um, yes, people have told us that those are often their favorite episodes, like the rugged individuality one, the toxic masculinity one. We hear about a lot. Um, I think we got to revisit some of those I do.
Speaker 2:I think it's a good time to revisit them. But basically, people, if you're doing any of these things, you're preparing from this place of fearsome, fear, fierce fierce. Yeah, there'll be a catwalk, uh, from fear and scarcity, and like if elon musk was a regular person, these are the things that he would do yeah because that's what he's doing now in his extreme state of wealth, is he is hoarding resources.
Speaker 2:He is taking control of the state for his own means. Yeah, and he definitely is an individualist yeah, definitely. So, yeah, don't be like Elon Musk. I think when you're having those moments, you want to get all the toilet paper that's available in front of you at the grocery store. Be like would Elon Musk take all the? Yeah, I'm not going to take all the toilet paper.
Speaker 1:Fear and scarcity are the enemy. Yeah, that's what will be the hardest thing to deal with in the future.
Speaker 2:Our entire system is currently set up on fear and scarcity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true. It's the reason why we go to work. Yeah, we go to work because we're afraid that if we don't go to work, we won't be able to pay for our house, and then we'll be homeless.
Speaker 2:And you try to accumulate wealth and more wealth and more wealth, because we're afraid that we're not going to have enough one day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one day we're not going to be able to get any more wealth and we'll have to just live off of the gold that we piled up in our basement. Tasty gold nuggets, gold nuggets. Let's talk about what has worked in the past and honestly, this is my favorite list because it gives me hope. Um, local, community-led networks uh, these would be things like creating mutual aid, bartering, skill sharing, uh, trading um, this is something that I've not been super good at. I've I've always been reluctant to people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's trauma, yeah, but you know what, here on the zombie book club, we've already created a community on the internet, so this community already exists, um, and then all you have to do is just apply that to more things. You need more communities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the same friend who I was talking to about toilet paper and whether or not they should be scared was the same friend that we made a plan to start having survivor parties not the TV show, but we're going to have like little gatherings where it's for fun, but then somebody gets to share a skill that they have. And the first thing she says to me is, like I don't think I have any skills to share. I'm like, think about it a little bit more. Yes, you do. Yeah, yes, you do. Just you might be surprised at what that is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know, I'm seeing a lot of the skill sharing already happening on the internet, like on Instagram, for example. The video I'm thinking of is a guy that teaches mixed martial arts and he says to not punch a Nazi. Yeah, because, you know, maybe you're out of shape, maybe you're not very strong, maybe you don't want to break all the bones in your hand, but you do want to hurt the Nazi somehow, right? Yeah? So what he suggests is the kick stop, and what that is is kicking somebody directly in the knee until it goes backwards. Oh, oh, ow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so he's skill sharing, you know, and he's doing it in a an approachable way, something that everyone can do For a much more lovely one, which is Alexis, which is at the Black Forager oh, pretty much everywhere who freely shares how to forage and what to forage. That too, yeah, that's more what I was going for, but I guess you know. If you need to kick a Nazi's knees in, yeah, then do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's all kinds of ways to to share skills food and water sovereignty, growing, food learning, foraging, water purification no, all of these are things that you're going to need to do in a zombie apocalypse. Yeah, and would be helpful to do now, which is why I was talking about planning our garden and dan was talking about escaping to canada, and we had a moment where we were like which one are we doing? Because right now, I'd really like to just plan the garden.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think this is super important because you know, like the list said before, one of the things that we'll notice when everything's crumbling is food scarcity and there's going to be so many hungry people. And if you can build community and also grow food and maybe everybody in your community is also growing food, maybe you don't have a very good growing summer your community can step in and help you and then you can help them in a later season when you are better at growing things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I also like that. It's got foraging here. If you want to hear more about that, we talk about it in. Can Vegans Survive the Apocalypse episode? And water purification really an under um thought about thing? I think I don't. I don't read a lot of like stuff in zombie apocalypse books or movies where they talk about getting sick from the water or water purification in general. We have a life straw on hand, um, I have a really fancy pump that I can stick into like swampy water and get clean water out. Doesn't taste good but it's good and we're very lucky to have a well, but it is important to know how to how to clean your water yeah, um, and there's a lot out there that you can, that you can follow for that um I've, uh, I've been building a vertical hydroponic grow farm.
Speaker 1:Uh, I've been 3d printing it with my printer. That gives me a certain amount of relief. It feels like it feels like I'm becoming more prepared with each piece of it that I print. It takes an insane amount of time to print a whole one and and, uh, you know, I'd, I'd love, I'd love to be able to print just a whole bunch of them, but it's gonna take a lot of time. I'd love to be able to print just a whole bunch of them, but it's going to take a lot of time, unfortunately. But I'll put it out there. If anybody doesn't have much growing space and they need to grow some food let's say you have one square foot area and you need a solution for that I could possibly print you one and send it to you. If you're in need and this is the community part yeah, yeah, let us know. If you need one, send me some filament, that's all I need Some.
Speaker 2:PLA and it's much cheaper. These systems on the internet are like wildly expensive. You'd need a bucket and what is it? Like a water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, expensive, you'd need a bucket. And what is it like? A water, yeah, so I I can print almost everything except for um a, the silicone hose that goes in the center. Uh, a little fish water pump for pumping the water up through the the hose. And uh a uh like a regular five gallon bucket that you would get at like tractor supplier um some other place. That's not horrible.
Speaker 2:Runnings is the one in our neighborhood that at least we can't figure out who they donated to. So that's at least nice yeah.
Speaker 1:All the Shonzo, right, I'll get Ace hardware. Ace hardware, yeah, I'll get. I'll get an Ace bucket, um, but yeah, I figured I'd put that out there. If you are in need, I can possibly put aside the time to do it.
Speaker 2:Well, to be frank, if you're in need and you can't afford food, you should just reach out to us. Yeah, if this is going to be the difference between you eating or not eating, please let us know. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, this is about preparedness. Yes, this is a different thing.
Speaker 2:It is and I don't know who's listening. It is and I don't know who's listening, so just want to offer that help. Decentralized energy solutions, solar, wind, water powered energy alternatives this is a hard one because if you don't have a lot of sun more importantly, if you don't have a lot of money, this one can be hard to do. Just, you know, uh, go online, go on duck, duck go or some other search engine that you like mojique, ecosia, at least plant some trees and search a community solar program and then, like in my neighborhood or in my area, and you might be surprised that you could subscribe uh for your power to come from solar and a solar microgrid instead of from your typical supplier. Uh, and that is one way you could contribute to that kind of a world. And if you have your own home and you have sunlight on your roof relatively regularly I mean here in Vermont it's very effective, even for us Right now and it's looking like it's one of the things that's going to stick for a while there is an incredible 30% tax credit for putting solar on your house, for getting heat pumps, for getting battery storage.
Speaker 2:All of these things are possible, more possible financially now than they have ever been. And I would say, if you can afford it, do it now, do it while you can, while it's available, because these things definitely don't feel very guaranteed in the longer term. And you can also get. I'm not saying people should go into debt, but if you're afraid of the initial upfront cost, you can get loans where basically they figure out how much your power needs are and what your power bill is, and the cost of the solar is essentially the same as what your typical power bill would be, and so there are ways to do this even if you don't have a ton of money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with inflation going the way that it is, you know, if you spend like 15 grand on a solar system, that might be like your future minimum wage salary what the terror is coming through.
Speaker 2:I mean, the reality is most solar panels are coming from overseas, particularly china, so that's great. So, yeah, do this now also get lumber now.
Speaker 1:Sidebar uh, let's move on. Okay, this next one I like a lot because it's exciting Indigenous survival knowledge Learn from communities that have resisted empire for generations. There's so much knowledge out there that you can get, and this includes a lot of knowledge that our society has kind of kept us from the idea that medicine comes from nature, the idea that you can go into the woods and find food. Yeah, I remember talking to somebody and they were just realizing that where they lived in LA, they walked past a lemon tree and they just realized that the lemons that grow on the tree are the same as the lemons they buy in the store, like there's no difference.
Speaker 1:You can pick a lemon off the lemon tree. It's probably tastier, it's better, it's absolutely better than what you buy in the store. And then they're just like yeah, I didn't know that, they just grew, I never thought about it. And that's the type of things that our empire has tried to erase from our minds, because they want us to pay for that lemon. They want to monetize everything, including lemons that grow on trees. They want you to not know that the lemon tree is out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they want you to think you have to buy water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's going to be the next big thing. You want clean water. You're going to have to pay for it and then, after that, air.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's already true in a lot of places with water. Yeah, cooperative economies this is what I was referring to for you, dan. Try and convince your boss to release the means of production and let it be a worker-owned business, wow, where everybody shares the profits.
Speaker 1:I don't think it's going to go for that.
Speaker 2:These are real businesses. There are businesses where the owner wants to retire and they decide to let it be a worker-owned cooperative. This is a thing that people can do. You can say, if you're the business owner, let's change this, let's make it a cooperative, so everybody benefits instead of just one person. Barter systems, resource sharing I think what's missing here is the gift giving economy. The original way that humans took care of each other was through gifts and it was not about an immediate exchange. Bartering is about deciding that my woven blanket is of roughly the same value as your. What are you trading with me? Three duck eggs, three duck eggs. Not very vegan of you, but we'll go with it. I would say here let's mock it. I don't agree with that. I think I need three duck eggs plus two ducks to make this a worthy trade.
Speaker 1:You're going to take my ducks. Yeah, how am I supposed to get the eggs? I'll give you five duck eggs, but no, you're not getting a duck.
Speaker 2:Okay, ten duck eggs and you can have the woven blanket.
Speaker 1:Okay, seven and a half duck eggs.
Speaker 2:I'll settle for eight.
Speaker 1:All right, you got a deal.
Speaker 2:That's bartering right, also not very fun. Some cultures are really good at bartering, but I didn't learn how to do it very well, although I think I just did win there. Maybe I guess that you both feel like you've won if you've done a good job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a successful business arrangement is one where both parties leave unsatisfied.
Speaker 2:I disagree. I think both parties should leave satisfied. But my point is that bartering is a negotiation and there's an instantaneous transfer. Gift giving is about community and it's about saying hey person, I noticed that you could use some blueberries, here's some blueberries. And that is when you, when you just offer something without an immediate exchange and like anticipation, they're going to give you something back. That is where you build trust. And then that person, when they see it's raspberry season and they go get raspberries, we're like you know I think I'm gonna share this with jill, who gave me blueberries and, uh, gift giving economy is the original economy yeah, I, uh.
Speaker 1:I watched this guy on on instagram and I always forget what his name is um. But if you look, um, if you look up project stardew, he's building a shed, an off-grid shed. He's a cool guy. Um makes great videos, uh, and one of his most recent videos he has so many eggs. Because he has chickens, he has more eggs than he could ever possibly. He has 19 dozen eggs. Whoa, that's too many.
Speaker 1:And um know, in the world that we live in, you would think, oh well, yes, you got to start up an egg stand and make money off of those eggs in this time of egg shortages. You know you could charge $6 a dozen for those eggs and people would be glad to pay it Him. On the other hand, he says, no, I want to give these away. I'm giving them to my friends, to my family. He's still going to work. He's going to work at some big box store that he makes, minimum wage, basically, and he's handing them to his coworkers like, hey, you want a dozen eggs? I have so many eggs, here's eggs. He's giving them out to the people that he knows.
Speaker 2:I'm resisting the exploitation of the chicken.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's that.
Speaker 2:Um, I don't yeah but metaphorically I'm okay with this.
Speaker 1:Yeah uh, but I guess if he didn't get rid of the eggs he would probably go from having 20 chickens to like having a hundred chickens no, he can feed the eggs.
Speaker 2:the eggs back to the chickens, because they've been selectively bred to create so many eggs so frequently which is not what they're supposed to be doing that it is depleting for their bodies and might sound creepy, but they love to eat their own eggs. Yeah, also, you could just give them to the Ravens into wildlife. They'd be happy about it too. That's true.
Speaker 1:But I was. I was more about this gift-giving economy thing, I know.
Speaker 2:As an example, my internal vegan had to ruin it.
Speaker 1:Yes, you make good points and, as a fellow vegan, I concur. Okay, so history shows us that those who center cooperation over competition are the ones who rebuild. And this makes me feel so good, because I don't want to be in competition with my neighbors. I don't want to be like as much as I want to build a Mad Max monster truck and wear spikes on my shoulders and a coat made from old winter tires. I don't actually want to like starve my neighbors out and like threaten them every time I need to go, uh, collect some pine cones to make a pine nut hummus, you know yeah, even our most annoying neighbor just done enough nice stuff for us that I would take care of them if they needed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true. Yeah, yeah. Uh, there's real life lessons from past empire collapses to learn from. These are just a few that this thread goes through. Um, there's not a lot of detail here, but obviously you could dive into this if you're curious. But you know, I think you could probably think about your favorite zombie shows, and a lot of these things are what are happening in. The communities are succeeding. So the fall of rome, people who built local governance structures survived best. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they figured out how to connect and govern themselves.
Speaker 1:I admittedly don't know a whole lot about the fall of Rome, but recent events have made me want to learn.
Speaker 2:I think it would be interesting to spend more time learning about those things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Great Depression. Who knew Our current empire has crumbled multiple times. Yep, Worker cooperatives and mutual aid sustained entire communities. Yeah, there was. I mean the Hoovervilles. They called them the little shanty towns where people lived in shacks and tents because there was no money and they were just kind of like traveling from place to place trying to find work. They called them Hoovervilles because of President Hoover, who they held solely responsible for the economy. Yeah, they were just giant tent cities basically, where people lived and they governed themselves because nobody else was looking after them, so they had to take care of each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Indigenous resistance. Many indigenous nations have survived genocide and settler colonialism by preserving land-based knowledge and communal care Again, big reminder. That might be feeling a little bit like the apocalypse for folks like us who have been doing okay for a while, but the reality is this country was founded on genocide and the transatlantic slave trade and slavery and slave people. So there's lots of folks who have lots of practice with resistance, indigenous folks definitely being one of them. And I think what's interesting there is do you know what land you're living on and whose traditional territory you're a part of? Have you learned any of their cultural practices that are open practices they're willing to share? It's worth learning.
Speaker 2:I have a great book. It's an Anishinaabe wisdom book. The book is called Plants have so Much to Give Us. All we have to Do is Ask, and it's Anishinaabe botanical teachings. Anishinaabe people were the traditional land stewards and continue to be the land stewards of the place where I grew up, and so that's why I got this book, and it's a really beautiful and powerful book, and there's lots of stuff like this available at your local library right now to learn about the people who have cared for this land for time immemorial and might have something to teach us, I don't know. There's a a little bit.
Speaker 1:Speaking of community, you can start with your local library.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the other thing to say that it's a time of figuring out what things to protect and hide and what things to say out loud and to push back on, because a lot of the traditions of native folks on this continent has survived because they've had to protect them and hide them, and so, again, like I think it's really important to practice things that have to learn things, and practice things that are openly shared and respect the ones that are closed, practices that you're not invited to, so you'll know if you've been invited or not. You will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the the important thing to remember in all of this is that you don't have to start from scratch. The blueprints have been left. Yeah, there's. There's information everywhere, and it's not just you know the. You know there's a lot of indigenous knowledge out there. There's also a lot of knowledge from people in our past who have had to live this way as well. You know to live this way as well. You know there's people in West Virginia who have, who have kept up with the traditions of like hunting and trapping and fishing and living off of the land, because West Virginia has been kind of fucked for a really long time. Yeah, because it's a. It's a resource extraction environment. Because it's a resource extraction environment, you know they're not selling their coal and making money from it. They're just going to the coal mines, making their whatever wage they agree to, and then dying from lung cancer, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then the coal is going somewhere else, it's being extracted. So they've always had a hard time in those areas, so they've kind of kept a lot of their old knowledge yeah.
Speaker 2:I like looking back to our ancestors the most, and I mean our ancient ancestors, because it's a good reminder, first of all, that we're all here because other people made it through some really difficult stuff, stuff that we probably can't even imagine and we don't even know about because it's not in history books. And also, the United States is how old.
Speaker 1:Like 250 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little baby. Humans have been around for around 200,000 years. We've been doing this for a while. Empires have only been around for a few thousand years. This is a bunch of bullshit. Anyways, we can survive. Well, let's return to some of our more um, nature-based and nature-connected ways yeah, let's talk about some, some strategies for, uh, for being prepared.
Speaker 1:This is kind of. This is kind of like a little little review, little review time. Yeah, um, first one food independence Grow your food. Forage. Start growing if you can Learn how to forage. There's a lot of information out there. It's something you have to practice at and start today.
Speaker 2:Learn one thing you don't have to learn it all Learn one thing yeah, because you also have to remember that you're one member of a community. So if you're really good at foraging, maybe somebody you know is really good at food preserving which is why the next one, building community networks, is so important. You don't have to be able to do all of these things. I just want to say that You'll be able to do a few things and then share them with the people around you and they'll help you, like Simon is excellent at preservation.
Speaker 1:I don't have to do all this yourself, no, you know, uh, you just have to find your community, and your community has to, has to look out for each other yeah, start your own little survivor parties or do what.
Speaker 2:I wish I could remember who it was on the internet that I saw was doing this, but I love it, which is like have a party and then be like surprise, we're all learning how to preserve food now. Or surprise, we're all learning how to secure our phones so that we can protect ourselves from the surveillance state.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's one thing that I want to say about like learning how to preserve food and like things like, um, like canning food, right? Um, I think I've, like I've talked to a lot of people about canning food and I've found that a lot of times the mentality is like yeah, once, once my garden grows some cucumbers, then I'm going to pickle them in a, in cans, and you don't, I don't. I would say that don't wait until your garden is grown before you start learning how to preserve, because it is a science and you can literally just go buy cucumbers at the store and do a crash course and learn how to pickle them Before you spend two or three months looking after plants and fighting you know, fighting off slugs. Yeah, you want to know how to do it before the time comes.
Speaker 2:Plant something that the slugs like better than what you're trying to plant to grow. Yeah, marigolds, I have a whole bunch of them that I'm hoping will sprout. We'll see.
Speaker 1:I just learned that recently. Marigolds are a sacrificial plant. You plant them in your garden and a lot of the pests prefer to eat the marigolds, so they'll eat the marigolds and leave everything else untouched.
Speaker 2:I didn't know this. Now you know why. I have a billion seeds in some dirt right now and none of them have come up yet. But hopefully some will, because it's still got time Also.
Speaker 1:apparently, the seeds of marigolds are hallucinogenic.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:I learned that when I was in high school. I haven't tested it. I think we should.
Speaker 2:Let's eat some marigolds. I think we need a mom, though, to take care of us. Who is not, who is sober? Yeah, who can?
Speaker 1:drive us to the hospital and be placing ourselves.
Speaker 2:Back to more useful skills. Learn off-grid skills. Like we said water purification, solar power I was talking about all the big systems, but you can buy little systems.
Speaker 1:yeah, you can buy something small water purification could literally just be buying iodine tablets yeah, I'd recommend something more than that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because that will only last you till your tablets run out, but it's a good start.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, um, you know, collect, collect rainwater. You know there's some States that it's illegal to collect rainwater and to those States I say fuck off.
Speaker 2:A lot of those States are are water poor States, and so it's about collective resource of the water, but the truth of the matter is that that water is then being used for mass growing of food.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's complicated. That's a whole other conversation around, but, if you should, we be living in mass amounts of people in areas that have an aquifer that is currently very close to depletion. Maybe not.
Speaker 1:If you calculate the amount of of roof surface area and the amount of rainwater that lands on a roof versus all of the land around around, it's not enough of an impact for people to be like no, don't do it, because you're taking the water away from the ground. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:It's fucking bullshit I'm not prepared to debate this with you, I am, I'm ready, I'm ready to fight from a broader size, from a broader societal question.
Speaker 2:their water rights, especially out, are a very problematic thing, but I still think it often comes down to corporations, especially water-hungry data centers, which are both skyrocketing the need for power right now all across the country and overusing water, like you talked with the brown sludge. And if you're seeing your power bill go up, you should look and see if your state's one of the states that's encouraging data centers being there, because do you want to know who is paying for that increased need for power? You are. It's getting offset to you, to the customer. They're not paying more. So fun facts. I know because of my job.
Speaker 1:This last one is the one that a lot of people have been thinking about mostly. I think it's the scariest one, but it's also an important one, and, depending on who you are, you might not want to do this one, or maybe you should, I don't know. That's up to you. Resist and reimagine. Challenge oppressive systems while creating new ones. Resist and reimagine Challenge oppressive systems while creating new ones, going back to the very beginning. You know, this isn't like the fall of empire, isn't about destruction. It's about an opportunity to rebuild, and that's what I've got my fingers crossed for right now is that, while all of this shit is going on and a lot of pain is coming, a lot of pain is heading our way. My hope is that, when the dust clears, we are left to rebuild and we make something that was better than the United States was.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's going to be challenging. It's going to take everyone, I think.
Speaker 2:It may also not look like the United States.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It could look like something different, which is a scary thought, but also very possible States as a political organization, a form of organizing people politically where, basically, the thing that makes a state a state is that there's a territory, a geographic territory, that's being defended. Then there's all kinds of ways of having a state have only been around for around 5,000 years, and the ones that have had the longest survival rates are ones where there's a very long culture and the territorial lines align conveniently with, like this, very strong cultural identity. And when you try to get 300 and some odd million people to agree on how to live, I think we're not doing so well. And again, I'm not saying I want the United States to disintegrate. I'm just saying we shouldn't expect it to always look like this. It may look different, it may need to look different.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is that scary to hear, Dan? Not really.
Speaker 1:It's not scarier than our current situation, true, not really. It's not scarier than our current situation, true? Yeah, it might mean that we might live in the democratic socialist country of Vermont.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or the Northeast yeah. If they call it New England, I'm leaving because I hate it. It'll be New England.
Speaker 1:For real. It'll be New England.
Speaker 2:Well, we're going to fight back against that, because I don't want to live in New England. Yeah, it's kind of a stupid name. Yeah, hey, land back. That is a real thing. What if we return the stewardship of the land to its original owners I shouldn't say owners, because they wouldn't call themselves that. I'm just saying it doesn't have to be this way. Yeah, it could be something different. Maybe better be this way. Yeah, it could be something different, maybe better?
Speaker 1:yeah, I'd like better. Yeah, what would what would land back look like? For most people who aren't familiar with the idea, like, what are we talking about, um, us white people getting back on the mayflower? No, um. Or are we talking about the, the the nations, uh, the, the the abenaki nation? Um, setting up their own governance over the land that we live on and then we live under that?
Speaker 2:that's closer, um. So sometimes land back uh, means like a parcel of land. This is something that even um a good friend of mine did, where and this is not really land back because she had to buy it back, but she bought back the land of her ancestors and obviously a small portion, but like where her farm was for her family other versions of land back. The bigger picture is exactly what you're saying. Where these are, lands are returned to the people who have stewarded them for generations, much longer than this country's existed, and then that becomes our political form of governance and there's little things you can do towards land back. Like some places, some native groups have voluntary tax that you can pay for being on that land to help contribute to the rematriation of the land. Towards that that tribe. So and I'm saying tribe because I'm in the United States, so Canadians don't come at me, they don't call themselves First Nations here as often. So this is one description of land back from the Indian collective, which is the NDN collective. Again, it's just one.
Speaker 2:Native folks are not a monolith, but they say that it is a reclamation of everything stolen from the original people's land language, ceremony, food, education, housing, healthcare, governance, medicines and kinships. This is their manifesto. It's a relationship with Mother Earth that is symbiotic and just where we have reclaimed stewardship. It's bringing our people with us as we move towards liberation and embodied sovereignty through an organizing, political and narrative framework. It's a long legacy of warriors and leaders who sacrificed freedom in life. It's a catalyst for current generation, organizers and centers, the voices of those who represent our future. It is recognizing that our struggle is interconnected with the struggles of all oppressed people.
Speaker 2:It is a future where black reparations and indigenous land back coexist, where BIPOC collective liberation is at the core. It is acknowledging that only when a mother earth is well can we, her children, be well. It is our belonging to the land. Because we are the land, we are land back. So that's like a broad philosophical statement. It can also be things like fighting to get the return of quote unquote federal lands or there was a pilot, or something tells me it's no longer in existence based on how national parks are being traded, treated right now, but of like co-managing land between the national park and the tribal nation that has a claim to it yeah, all right, I'm, I'm all for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do it, I think, the thing to remember. Uh, a friend said this to me once and I think it's worth repeating now I am pro land back, but that's not because I think that the systems and the ways people lived before the united states existed on this continent are necessarily always perfect, or better, they're flawed people too, with lots of great cultural attributes, but at the end of the day, we're on stolen land, yeah, so the right thing to do is give it back. Yeah, yeah and no, we're not going to get kicked out.
Speaker 1:They're not going to put us back on the May 4th.
Speaker 2:We're not. You know. All the things that we're the most afraid of as white people are the things we do to people already.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Detain them and deport them and send them to El Salvador and put them in horrible conditions right now inside the United States. So like, why are we being afraid of a group of people who have never done those things to us when we're the ones actively doing it to them to us, when we're the ones actively doing it to them, and including trying to get rid of birthright citizenship, specifically to attack tribal rights and the rights of citizens of tribes too, like it's fucked out there right now? So, yeah, I'm pro land back wabanaki confederacy in our neighborhood. Yes, I would gladly pay my taxes to you. I think you'd do a better job yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm all for. So just a little bit of review. Here's the things that don't work when it comes to surviving a crumbling empire, hoarding isolation, trusting the state to save you oh my God, I am trusting the state to save me. Every week, I'm like they're going to save you. Oh my god I am, I am trusting the state to save me. Every week, I'm like they're gonna save us. Yeah, the, those federal judges, they're gonna. They're gonna figure it out. Um, uh, maybe they will, but we can't count on them to do that. We have to look after ourselves. So the things that do work are cooperation, mutual food and energy sovereignty and decentralized networks. So you don't do all these things on your own. You do them with a community.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And if you can't find a club or a community, you can start to create it. It can be as simple as being like let's all have a party and then learn how to can something, yeah. Or if you're not a big fan of parties, you'll have two people over and learn how to can something, yeah, or you help somebody out with their garden.
Speaker 1:Maybe if you help somebody out with their garden, if they have room for a garden and you don't, you can help somebody out with their garden and maybe they give you a little share of that.
Speaker 2:Let's close with this quote from Frantz Fanon, who we referenced in our Black History Month episode a couple weeks ago. Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it. So what's our mission, Dan? What is our mission? To transform what has been into something better. Yeah, Build back better. I hate to use a Joe Biden slogan right now, but I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it sounds good to me yeah.
Speaker 2:Fight fascism, form community. I think that's the mission of our generation right now.
Speaker 1:It's better than doing scary, dangerous stuff. Sure, yeah, but yeah, there we go that's. That's how you prepare for the fall of an empire.
Speaker 2:Have fun while you're doing it.
Speaker 1:Have fun. Thanks everybody for joining us on the Zombie Book Club. Kind of a different episode today, I would say, but also kind of right up our alley too. Yeah, I feel like we've had some episodes similar to this. If you want to give us some support, you can leave a rating or a review. We love those Helps us out immensely. You can also send us a voicemail up to three minutes long, like Kayla did. The number is 614-699-0006. You can follow us on Instagram at Zombie Book Club Podcast, or join the Brain Munchers collective on discord. Links are all in the description down below. Also, there's a funny link there that says email newsletter that you can sign up for and yeah, be in community with us.
Speaker 2:We can't we can't rely on the Instagram to stay connected with you, so that would be great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, there might be a time where we have internet instability and we're going to need to rely on things that are not like social networks, things like email maybe, maybe even like a regular mailing list. Do you want a regular?
Speaker 2:do you want a letter? Do you want? Yeah, I, that might be fun. Do you want us to send you a letter? We could, with a sticker. You want a?
Speaker 3:zombie sticker.
Speaker 2:Now that you're going to have to pay for that. And don't forget, support your indie authors. Go check out Kayla Hicks. Their website is Kayla-Hickscom. H-i-c-k-s-k-a-y-l-a. With a dash in the middle.
Speaker 3:We'll be in the show notes. Also will be the show notes.
Speaker 1:Also check out Megan LaFarma Designs on Instagram. She's also on Discord and she is looking for people to do editing work for. Yeah, so even if you're not finished with what you're writing, she'll look at what she got, like she did with me.
Speaker 2:Dan, it might sound crazy, oh no, but the end is nigh. Bye, bye, bye. Don't die. One day you'll sing it with me.
Speaker 1:No, bye, bye.
