ZERT Coffee & Chaos 96 – Highlights From 2024 Podcasts

you're about to listen to a podcast from the Firearms Radio Network. For more, visit firearmsradio.net.

Welcome back to the dessert Coffee and Chaos podcast show. We talk about anything and everything relating to what it means to be a survivalist and a prepared individual in today's society. I'm your host, Chris Bartigo and ZP002, back with me on the show today. My co-host Jamie Franks, Jamie, welcome back to the show. Thank you. Good to be here as we record this. I don't know if you were going to say this. It's New Year's Eve as we record this. Yeah. It's going to ask if

Are you a New Year's resolution guy? I don't know this about you. I don't know if you are or not. No. Not a New Year's resolution guy. I'll touch on that in a second, but to just go back to what you just said, today is obviously New Year's even. This will be the first time in a while that we have actually recorded a show

And released it in the same week so today's the reason for that is because of the topic of today's show so if you guys are listening to the show and thankfully hopefully you are and thankfully you are listening to the show we recorded this week and we decided to do the show as a special occasion as we wrap up 2024.

It is amazing that we are wrapping up 2024. Not because it doesn't happen. Happens every year, guys. But I literally remember wrapping up 2023 and starting this year. And somehow we're here at the end of it. And we are at, right now, at this minute, 12 hours away from the new year. And for me, well, it's not for you.

We're 12 hours away from you. Oh, I thought you said 20 hours from the New Year and like, no, we're not. No, no. Well, for you, for you, it might be 15 hours from 15. So 12 hours away. So, you know, I am not a New Year's resolution guy, but we did have a Christmas party a couple of weeks ago as a group of friends and we were all sitting around and they wanted to play this. I don't know. It's the new solstice or whatever that all that.

jargon is but we all had to write something down on a piece of paper and then we had to throw it in the fire and we were basically writing writing down what we wanted to leave behind in 2024 let go of in 2024 and I did participate in in that I did write something down on a piece of paper that has been obviously weighing on me a lot and I and I did put that into the fire will that come to fruition

I mean, no, probably not. Just because I know that there's still things that need to be handled with that situation. But if people out there, if you guys out there believe in that stuff and you weigh heavily in that, then lean into it completely. And whatever it is that you want to leave behind from 2024, do it. Whatever New Year's resolution you have, whatever thing you want to change in your life, change it, we are

given one shot at this thing we call life, and it is a short time that we are here, even though it seems very long as a year just went by in the blink of an eye. And as we get older, family members get older, and there's some of that happening in my world right now, and it's very hard to see. So don't waste time.

do what you want to do, get that tattoo you want, go buy the gun that you want, go travel, do those things. So that's my piece of advice, if you will. I like New Year's resolutions. I use them. This is something we've talked about in many different

avenues on this show, but like, you know, kind of always with the goal in mind of, of identifying a deficiency and, and correcting it, you know, identify a whole linear in your game, if you will, and, and then take steps to correct it. So, like a couple of years ago, I said, like my New Year's resolution was no more AR 15s. And it's like, it's because

You know just in terms of scope I have enough weapons to arm a you know a company of Marines headed out into the field so I'd like I arguably don't quote-unquote need any more guns, but So I decided a couple of years ago that no more AR-15s I already have way too many and they're all set up different for you know I tell myself for different things and for different scenarios and different whatever but really it's just because I like them and

And so I made myself like kind of a pro. It's like, that's the way I look at a New Year's resolution is that I'm kind of making myself a promise to do something different or change something. And so I made myself a promise that, you know, I can buy more guns, but everything I have, everything from now on that I buy has to be something cool and interesting. So like no more glocks, no more ARs. So I'm expanding my firearms.

There you go. Exactly. That is a new direction or a different direction, I guess. But like this year, because I was thinking about it last night, because I knew we were going to do the show this morning. We've talked about it before and like, I'm kind of embarrassed about this. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I am like my go bag or my get home bag.

You know, my car got broken into and my my kit home bag got stolen out of my and I haven't really replaced it Yeah, and so I like that's that is one of my I guess New Year's resolutions for this year is I'm gonna rebuild my my get-home pack or go back whatever you want to call it and And also and I think we'll get into this once we actually get into the topic but

Everything I know about radio communications is what I've been taught in the military. And I don't think that is sufficient. So I think that is a pretty large hole in my game. And so one of my goals for 2025 or New Year's resolutions, if you will, is I'm going to get my ham radio license and actually start spending time actually learning that craft.

Yeah. And we've got some great assets in the Zert community that are really dialed in when it comes to ham radio and comms. And, you know, obviously a lot of these states do these check-ins. But it's funny you mentioned that, you know, I'm torn with obviously with pistols and I'm not getting any new pistols right now. I mean, I'm leaning into what I have. And one of the pistols that has come out of the the safe

for testing and evaluation has been a, or has been a firearm I've had for a couple of years now and I've only shot it once. And it is my key app a revolver. I, every once in a while, I'm like, I want to carry this revolver today. And I don't carry it.

Not because it's a whopping six rounds and then you've got to carry some kind of strip loader to load six more. It's because I haven't shot it enough, of course, but six rounds of 357 Magnum might be enough.

I haven't spent a lot of time with a revolver and shooting a revolver is definitely different than shooting a semi-automatic pistol here in place. Definitely is. I am not a revolve like as as good of a shooter as I claim to be and think I what however you are in that like I am again like my.

If we're running a qualification course, I'm going to lose a few points on the revolver stage. Yeah. So that is one of my goals for this year is to put a little bit of time through that revolver. Now that we have the range, now that we have blue trail range available to us, and for those of you who don't know,

We'll put a little bit of that information out coming very, very soon, but I'll give you a little bit right now. Blue Trail Range is a range here in Connecticut that has decided to work with ZERT and provide us an outlet for A, training, and B, doing some content creation or video.

on products that we will be testing and evaluating. So one of those firearms, the reason why it's coming out of the safe is because I plan to do a video on the Kiappa Rhino 30 DS. So it is their three inch barrel, chambered in 357 slash 38 special. Two things on that is you're not affiliated with them or anything, are you? Kiappa? Yeah.

No. Okay. So on top shot, uh, we tried to use those guns for a challenge and like they would not work. Like we, we, we had like 10 of them and we couldn't get two of them to work long enough to, to complete filming the challenge. So we had to like scrap that challenge. And then they, we ended up doing it with a gun that does work a SIG. Um, and so not, well, not a, no, no, we ended up doing it with a,

I think they ended up subbing in the SIG P229 because they needed to be able to get a quickly source of gun that actually works. Those rhino revolvers, I do think that whoever provided them sent like 10 of them to the show because we only needed two of them.

Interesting. But out of 10 guns, we could not get two of them to work long enough to make it through the challenge. So based on that, and based on the fact that Grantham's last video is some ridiculous revolver video, those two things combined reinforce my thought that I do not need to waste any time trying to become better on a revolver because they're stupid. Clearly, Grantham has run out of ideas.

Um, well, yeah. So, and I don't know where those, you know, at what point in the timeline of evolution, those kyappa rott, uh, rhino revolvers were produced and used for that show. That show was, that was, it was when we filmed that was, uh, early in 2013, or I guess kind of like mid year, 2013. And, uh, and the guns were brand new. Uh, so. So that might have changed, but, um, uh, even, even so, so that's just some of the stuff. And you know, at,

As we get into what we're going to talk about today, I'm excited to do stuff like that. I'm excited to have access to that range because it's going to allow us to do more shows here. I can tell you that as, and today's book, today's show obviously is a, what we are going to do is a reflection of 2024's year of podcasts here on the Zert Coffee and Chaos podcast.

For those of you that have been here for the entire year, you know already that we publish our shows on Thursdays on Spotify and Apple and then we release the video portion on our YouTube channel at a later date. If you have not already gone over to the YouTube channel, please do that and subscribe to the channel, like some of the videos and hit the bell notification so you get

notified when we do drop a new video, whether it is the podcast or a product review or something else. I know that I just did the video on the magpultimag and I am curious to see that continue to get traction and hear what people have to say. That being said, I always

start and end these shows with a big thank you to you guys the audience because without you it would just be Jamie and I talking to each other and we do that enough on the phone so here we can speculate that people are listening and stats do show us that so thank you for all of to all of you for your entire

length of time listening to the show however long that may be hopefully you're listening for the entire hour that we do this and like I said I have said in the past we always try to keep it to an hour. 2024 was our first full year of recording. We started this podcast in 2023

And at the time of this recording, which will be Thursday show, I believe it will be episode number 96.

So 96 episodes, obviously, if we had two full years, we'd be on episode 104. So we have four episodes away from 100, which we will have to figure out what we can do to make it a big celebratory event. Episode 100 will start season three of the Zert Coffee and Chaos podcast. So we are wrapping up season two, if you will. With that being said,

Jamie and I spend a lot of time and I also spend that time with Paul to come up with topics for conversation. We try and sprinkle in stuff that we are passionate about. We want to inform you guys about or is in the news and seems to be a hot topic.

We would love to hear topics that you guys want to learn about or hear more about. And if, as I've said in the past, Jamie said in the past, if there are things you want to hear about, please do not hesitate to comment on a video, comment on the podcast, or send an email to info at zertnation.com. With all that being said, here we go. 2024. Obviously,

Well, this is it'll be 52 episodes, right? So I mean, we start our first episode was published on January 4th. So just after the new year. And we've published one every week. We do not miss a week here, folks. So if you are looking for consistency on hearing the soothing sounds of our voices, you get it every week. But

Today, we wanted to talk about our favorite shows or our most interesting shows from the past year, what we took away from those, what we may have talked about and now look at and be like, wow, we were way off and we could probably revisit that. But I don't know, do you have a handful of them? I mean, out of 52 weeks, how many did you kind of write down?

I did write down five because you did throughout the idea of each of us saying our top five. However, two of my five are... I'll just jump into one of them.

I've mentioned before, I rarely listen back to the podcast, the ones that you and I do. There were a couple of times where I've listened back to them because I thought I sounded dumb or said something dumb and I wanted to listen back to it to see how it sounded.

But most of the time I don't listen to our podcast, but I do actually, I really enjoy listening to the podcast with you and Paul. But my first, that's what most of my list is actually, is the podcast you did was not me, but the first one on my list is the,

It's not one podcast. I think we did four of them. The survival skills podcast, we did purifying water and water collection, backcountry water collection, survival water collection, primitive firemaking, emergency shelter construction, and then we did one on knots and ropes.

I was proud of those. I think we did put out really good information. A lot of times, you know, I'm I'm known as a shooter. I'm just kind of.

because I'm a firearms instructor and I was on top shot and all that stuff. But my survival knowledge goes way beyond that. And I heard a saying recently that said, where shooting is concerned, it does not matter how much you train and how good you become if shooting is your only skill. So those other skills are important. And like I said, I was proud of those podcasts because I think we did a really good job and put out some really good information.

about some things that people don't do. And I know we've talked about, we both enjoy the Outdoor Boys YouTube channel. And I have found a new one that I really, really like. It's Desert Drifter. And one of the things that stands out to me, this guy goes on these long solo hikes through the American Southwest.

And a lot of times he, you know, he's out there for several days and he only brings like a couple of bottles of water because he relies on his ability to find and, and purified, you know, his own drinking water from the wild. And when I was making this list last night, it occurred to me that like that's one of those things that if you've never done it before,

I think you're going to be a little bit scared of it. You're going to be a little bit hesitant about it. You're going to be nervous about it. You're going to ask yourself, is this going to make me sick? Is this going to be okay? Can I really drink this water that I just scooped out of this creek? And the answer is yes, you can. And the more you do it, the more comfortable you're going to become with it. And that's why I like that saying it doesn't matter how much you train if shooting is your only skill because you do in a survival situation. If you, if you do truly fancy yourself as a, as a prepared individual, which is, is the,

the orientation of the show, you need to be comfortable doing those kinds of things and understanding how to purify water and how to make your own drinking water out in the backcountry and that it's totally fine. But that's just one example. I thought those were good episodes that we did.

Yeah, let me let me jump in there just for a quick second here. I think that that couldn't be more of an accurate statement. And that's why I have attempted and tried and continue to push

this brand, this ZERT pass just firearm centric stuff. I mean, it's been the core, I guess the core mission of ZERT to push firearm safety. Obviously, they've done some other stuff in the past, but you know, you and I talked about the firearm industry and I talked about it with our friend the other day. I mean, becoming a survivalist company in a prepared community is the main focus. So providing those

those data points in those shows, I think is great. And it's one of my most favorite ones too, because you and I can talk guns. Paul and I can talk guns. All three of us can talk guns and we say it all the time. And there was a couple of times where Paul wanted to do a show and I was like, we just did a firearms show. We just did a firearms show. Can we do something else? And some of my favorite ones have been ones that Paul has had something that has happened to him

that has turned into a show, like the episode number 51, Unleashing Your Inner Warrior Embracing Industrial Fortitude, you know, like, I think that one came up during a situation where there was cold weather training and people bailed on it. And it's like, if shit goes down, you don't have a choice to break down during summer months.

You don't have a choice to be stranded in Florida in October when it's 70 and no humidity. Like these things are outside of the realm of your control. So be prepared for the shit situations. But go ahead.

What not i didn't mean to cut you off like i'm laughing not because what you're saying is funny but. The first item on my list was that collection of episodes we did about the kind of the primitive survival skills or the backcountry survival skills whatever we call them and then yep item number two on my list was all of those that that collection of episodes that came from paul and you know i.

On my notes, I specifically called out the one about intestinal fortitude. You guys did one that you just called life prep, like, you know, like front loading yourself to prepare for adverse situations in life that don't necessarily pertain to survival. You know, I don't want to sound like a colonial pen insurance company, but like those kinds of things, like setting your life up for success. And, you know, Paul, you and Paul did one that I, it was, um,

Turning obstacles into opportunities and then and and you did a episode just about task management which you know task management or was that us we do that one. I don't know I mean I have to go back and look like even that one it seems mundane but.

you know, managing the task load of your daily life is a direct through line to survival or, you know, we talk about, you know, SHTF shit at the fan situations or emergency situations, like understanding how to prioritize and execute your, your daily task load is a direct correlation to being able to do it in an emergency situation or survival situation. So that was my second item on my list. That's why I was laughing was, was those, those episodes, those kinds of, um,

unconventional episodes that you did with with Paul about those kind of

I like, you know, one episode specifically was called Life Prep, but I think all of those episodes could fall into a category called Life Prep, you know? Yeah, no, I agree. Um, you know, one of my, uh, and then obviously we'll just kind of go back and forth with this. One of my favorite episodes, um, I mean, I, and I do like as much as I love having our, you know, regular scheduled program.

I love having other people on the show. I love talking about those and exposing or introducing new brands.

One of my favorite shows, and it was never a video one, but it was the one with Kyle Lam about knife making. You know, that whole entire trip was prefaced on going down there and getting some content and shooting some sigs. And as soon as I got down there, we were introduced with shit weather. And he was like, have you ever made a knife? And he is so

forward facing on this knife making right now. Like that is his thing. He loves doing it as much as he loves shooting. And so to do that with him for two days and then to do a podcast out of it. And the reason why I like shows like that is because

That show highlights people that I never even knew were listening to the show. I get a text message from a buddy of mine, Jack, who runs a store up in New Hampshire, who knows Kyle. I think he used to work at SIG and all of a sudden I get a screenshot of that show going, dude, this is so awesome. I can't believe that you did this. That was so cool to me. It was a show

Two days after I just spent making a knife, you know, like I love that those kind of shows like stuff like that.

Obviously, all of the introductions with these other companies, like having Faraday defense on, having test from high biz on, having John from Rad Palm on, all of these brands are Zert affiliate brands. And it's important that Zert members hear those names, understand what those companies are, and that those are some of the benefits of becoming a Zert member, like getting discounts to companies like those.

And most important is hearing the stories of those brands. Sure, it's great to understand that fair day defense will get you EMP protection, but to hear the history and the about section that you read on the website, but to actually hear it and

Learn about it from a person at the company is is huge. So those are some of that's another couple of my favorite shows. I mean, I think what I don't know if we actually put a number on, you know, our top five. It's a challenge to do it, but it's better to do it when it's a series like you did. So I wrote down five things because I know like I could write down two things and you and I could talk about it for an hour. So I didn't want to bite off more than we could chew in an hour or so. Right. Right.

But so my next one is the, the, the navigation series that we did. You did two land nav episodes with Paul and you did one, like kind of over water, open water navigation episode with me. And the reason I like that one, just to be honest with, with our listeners and with ourselves, I don't think

In and of themselves, I don't think those were particularly great episodes, but it was they were great for highlighting that people that don't know navigation and people that don't know like actual like on foot over land, you know, open terrain land navigation, people that that don't know that.

I think don't realize how much they don't know. And so just trying to jam all that information, even into three one hour episodes is really kind of a fool's errand. Like there is so much to know and learn with, with navigation. Like the, I went to a course in the military. I went to a land nav course in the, in the, I'm in the Navy. So it was a Navy school, but all the instructors were, um,

I think there was one instructor out of the whole instructor cadre that had been a former SWIC guy, Navy SWIC guy, all the rest of the instructors were former Green Berets, former Delta and former British Special Forces that were the instructors for the course. It was six days. It was four eight hour days in the classroom.

So that's, that's 32 hours of, of instruction on land now. That's insane. Then we did like a little, uh, just kind of like on base kind of, uh,

really light field problem on on Friday that Friday because of Monday through Friday. So Monday through Thursday, we were four eight hour days solid in the classroom. Then we did like a little very controlled field problem like on the base. And then then we did a 24 hour field prop land nav problem. It was, you know, where we had to I was like 50 miles or something that we went through some really

uh, remote wilderness, uh, wooded terrain, uh, to, to finish the course and pass the course, but that's an entire week. I mean, I think if you, if you probably added all that up, I mean, that's like 60 or 70 hours or something worth of training and, uh, cause there is a lot to know, especially if you actually want to be.

Realistically legitimately good at it and it's way way way more than can be fit into a into a couple of one hour podcast episodes. So.

Hopefully, if anybody got anything from those navigation episodes, which were good information, they were just jam-packed because there's so much information that needs to be understood. So hopefully that scratched people's itch to get out and do those things that you're not practiced in, that you're not an expert in.

And learn something new and learn something that's like very, very useful and applicable, but it's not sexy. Like, you know, it doesn't out there practicing land out with your buddies. That doesn't look as good on Instagram as me doing a cool drill at the range. Well, yeah. So.

Now and I think it can be but I'm gonna I'm gonna agree with you and You know folks when we put these shows out and I'm actually gonna do a video about this podcast and it's just gonna be a short video on YouTube But when we put these videos out we never really know how they're going to Come together. This is not a scripted show. We don't have a like I don't

give a script to Jamie and say, this is how we're going to approach this. There are times where I'll send some notes over and be like, this is great. The next item on my list. And that's what makes it, for me, or at least I think it makes it a good show is because it's just natural flowing conversation. So we don't know what they're going to be like when it's all said and done. And even to go a step further,

Unlike Jamie and I think even on my call I don't go back and listen to any of these shows now. That's because I listen to it for a short period of time while we are doing the post and I do the editing but I don't go back and I don't listen to the shows because I mean I you know.

I don't know. Maybe I just don't want to, I don't want to experience that. I don't want people to be like, oh yeah, you know, this is what they hate about it or this is what they don't like about it. But I do remember all of the shows that we've talked about. And I do remember if they at the end of them, at the end of them, I felt like they flowed properly. And you're right, there was a lot of information in those. But

With that being said, we always let people know that these shows are not the end all be all these shows are designed to make you think, make you question, make you go to the Google box and do your own research and learn more. And if we can do that, then that is what is important to me and why I continue to do these.

Yeah. And that, that episode too, those navigation episodes that it's also like another, it brings to light like another blind spot that I think a lot of people have. And it's, if you have gear that you don't use it, that doesn't make you cool. Like, and you know, in the tactical sphere, this isn't one of my, this isn't even in my notes, but like in the tactical sphere, you know, people that go out and you, you know, you spend $10,000 on night vision.

And, um, you know, in one of my Afghanistan deployments, we spent a lot of time in pre deployment training and on the deployment working in night vision. So I have a lot of experience, uh, you know, using night vision in the real world, so to speak, you know, and a real combat environment, everything, but I own night vision goggles. I have personally not actually gone out and trained with my night vision goggles in about two years. Um, and so like,

That could be for somebody else that, that even doesn't have the experience I have to kind of lean back on. That could be time and money that's way better spent practicing something like land nav because okay, you saw, you saw a.

a YouTube video of this guy that's a former special, whatever. And he has a compass on his gear. So you went and got a compass and put it in your gear. But it doesn't make you cool to have gear that you don't know how to use. So again, like I think the navigation episodes are a good example. Hopefully, like you said, and it's, I think I've said it, I feel like I've said it a hundred times on this show. That is always my goal with all of these episodes that we do is to, uh, to kind of bait the hook and, and

motivate or prompt people to go, even if you think I'm wrong about something, that's going to motivate you to go look that thing up. And 100%, you know, so yeah. Fact check us all you want. Another one, obviously, you know, having Vincent Vargas on the show was pretty awesome.

and anybody that has been involved in the firearms industry or remembers the article 15 days when they were a t-shirt company and you had Matt Best out there doing his rap videos every week and that bitch I operate that had a video and all and

But then to see Rocco's kind of transition past that into a TV show that I watched for four years or four seasons, if you will, after watching Sons of Anarchy, and did still

I mean, I've been friends with him, social media friends with him for, I don't know, eight, nine, almost 10 years, probably going back to the article 15 days. And he is still the same guy that runs that, like that's still his page. Like I would send him a message and he would answer it, you know, which is cool, right? Like here's a guy who's done TV shows, done a couple of movies and trying to break into that. But to then talk to him,

and talk about family life and, you know, he's got a podcast out there and to listen to his podcast.

And for him to talk about his daughter, and just the other day, he's got a daughter in Ohio that someone broke into her car and they messed up the door handle pretty bad. And we just happened to have a POC in Ohio that's in the same area. And he was able to, I text Rocco and I was like, give me some information about the car. I'll see if I can help and got that information out there to him. And hopefully he got that taken care of. I don't know if he did. I'll check back in.

You know, having those people on the show is important to me and learning about their situation and then learning about how they are in a prepared situation and, you know, understand and hearing him at the end of it saying, I might have to get with you on some of my family's preparedness because, you know, they highlighted some holes in it. Um, shows like that. I mean, I love shows like that. I got to tell you, I love having dessert members on the show, you know. Um, but there's been some really, really,

great ones that I, as I look back at the title of the show, I remember what we talked about and I remember it just like, you and I have, we and I have hit end record on these things and we're like, I think that really went well. I think a lot of information got out there and it's usually over an hour, I've got a

send you a private chat on here, be like, stop talking. You're talking shut up. We need to end this. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, we can go on. And there's times when, and those are the best shows, in my opinion. But some of those have been, have been huge. You know, the stuff about the natural disasters, the stuff that we, you know, that we did the hot topic stuff, like after the Trump assassination, you know, those are all. Attempt.

attempted assassination. Sorry, I apologize. Number the first one, let's also let's just really put it all out there. The first attempted assassination. People are going to listen to this on Thursday and be like, fuck, what did I miss? Yeah, what exactly? We put information out there about that based on what we know. And then kind of based on our, on our feelings, if you will, about it, you know, after we did the insurance CEO assassination,

talking to people after that. And it's kind of like, you know, like the one question is, oh, Apple or Android or Mac or PC. Now it's like justified, not justified. And it's just like, you can really engage in a very in-depth

debate on that subject. You ask a lot of people out there. But those are the ones that really stick out to me. I do like the essential skills series that we did. And we should probably bring that back in 2025 and see what we need to revisit. What we've talked about that can be refined in this year. What we've learned may be different.

Um, you know, every time I watch the outdoor boys channel and watch him build another shelter, I am more and more inspired and inclined to go out there and, and do it myself. Um, he's got some, he does some wild stuff man with, with very little gear. So, well, yeah. And that, that, that brings up another point that, um,

just kind of in general that relates back to many of our episodes. If this is something, again, I feel like I harp on it all the time, is if you don't go out and actually use your gear, because you're right, we talk about a lot of things on this show, and a lot of the stuff is our feelings or opinions about something, but

your opinion has to be based on something. And if you don't go out there and actually use your gear and actually use it like actually out in the backcountry and not just in a campsite where there's a RV on both sides of you, actually getting out and doing like remote kind of off the grid backcountry, you know, camping and practicing this stuff. If you don't use your gear, you're all, I would almost say you're like not entitled to an opinion.

But you bring up the outdoor boys. That's a perfect example because he goes out there with next to nothing. But it's because based on his real world experience, he knows that that's all he needs. And I've seen this. I've seen this in shooting classes and I've seen it out camping and I've even even seen it to a certain extent with myself, like where.

You know, years ago, before I was anybody well known in the firearms shooting space, I was pretty well known in the off road community. I was the vice president of a national off road club.

And, you know, back in those days when I was first getting started, I had, you know, my, my truck bed would be full of stuff. And then as, as I went more places and as I gained more experience, like I start to notice, oh, I don't use this thing. I can get rid of it. Oh, I use this thing a lot. Maybe I need one that's a little bit bigger. And, and you see that with, with gun owners and, you know, with their tactical gear, like the first time somebody comes to a class, their, their gear is just like,

Totally decked out with all this crap. They don't need I probably don't know how to use and the more experience you gain and the more of those actually Qualified opinions that you start to develop from using your gear you'll notice that you start to slim stuff down and This isn't unnecessarily an apples to apples comparison, but like you see

Every Memorial Day, their pictures pop up on social media because they're deceased. Adam Brown was a former Dev Group Navy Seal and Chad Wilkerson. Like I said, they're both deceased. Every Memorial Day, their pictures circulate on social media, but you look at their gear and they're wearing hardly anything.

a pretty minimalist, like, you know, plate carrier with just a few magazines and a radio and a med kit and whatever. And like, I have these guys, they're going out pretty much knowing for a fact that they're going to get into a gunfight today. And they're wearing less gear than people show up to my classes with. So, yeah. So, you know, that's, you, you bring up a really good point with that.

with your last statement. My next one kind of plays into that. And it's something I referenced when I was talking about like my New Year's resolution is the episode you did. And I think it was with a certain member about off grid communications and ham radio. And because

And there's a lot of weird stuff going on right now, man. Like I was actually, I was going to bring this up at the top of the show, but like, you know, we did an episode on the drone thing, which is still ongoing as we record this. Now there's this whole thing about the dusty fog. Have you seen this?

No, I have not seen that from across the southern United States. There's been like this really weird, unseasonal, like heavy fog. Okay. And people are going out with like night vision cameras and really bright flashlights and stuff at night. And it's not really fog. It looks like dust.

And people are saying that it's like the smart dust and then of course that sent me down a Google rabbit hole googling smart dust Where it's it's this this dust that you see is actually like these little nano

No, no, no robots, but yeah, it's a real thing. But drones and like now and in certain parts of the world, they're seeing these humongous like right now Peru is getting hammered with these gigantic waves and nobody knows why. And so there's lots of weird stuff going on right now as we record this in the world. But off grid communication, if

If anything, because in today's society, I think more than any other period in human history, we are reliant on communication and we're reliant on this thing right here, most of all, your cell phone. And so in an actual emergency, when people's cell phones don't work anymore, that is going to be a major issue for most people. So understanding,

And having a plan that allows you to communicate with your network, whoever that is, your friends, your family, your little, your squad of dudes. Right. Being able to make communications without the use of your cell phone, if there ever is a major emergency. And like I said, there's some weird stuff going on.

That's going to be a major factor. And just, again, I didn't have this in my notes, but on Christmas Eve, I went and saw the movie Homestead and that movie perfectly illustrates a lot of the stuff that we're talking about here, including that. The guys that kind of the main characters in the movie, they are able to kind of have a leg up, if you will, or an advantage over

all the, you know, the quote unquote regular people because they had a comms plan and they're like, they're in their vehicles talking on their radios, you know, get to the rendezvous point. And then once they're all at the rendezvous point, they all set out like kind of as a convoy and they have radio communications when

your average Joe that's in your Tesla doesn't have communications anymore. Because all you have is yourself. Anyway, that was great. I'm going to go see that movie tonight on New Year's Eve. How about that? That's what I'm going to do for New Year's Eve. But B, just to add to that story, I was talking to a buddy of mine who is looking for work right now and went and sent in a job application.

After the resume was uploaded, there was a box underneath it that said, check this box if you want to opt out of AI reviewing your resume.

And we've done an episode on AI and artificial intelligence. I don't think it was this year. I think it was last year. But that's a real scary thing. So you're talking about communication. You're talking about these little computers that we have in our pocket. And I mean, the new iPhone that just came out, they're boasting with about Apple intelligence and all of this stuff. It just really leads you into that. We've done episodes about

this and I believe that it's probably a smart thing to do those episodes again or redo them. There are a lot of scary things. We're definitely going to have to talk about that smart dust. But one of the other things about some of these shows that I've done in the past is, or that we've done in the past when I go in and look at these are and why I like them, are ones that make me remember what we talked about.

I believe it was with you, but remember, like the one that we did, it was episode 70, and it was the CDK global cyber attack that happened to car dealerships. Now, during that show, we speculated on, okay, your information was leaked. What happens that? What can they do with that? Has anything further

come from that i mean it would be a great thing to revisit but you know some of these things we just we put out there and we're just never sure what the final like and what the final resolution was or result was we may come back to uh this recap next year and and we're going to talk about the drone stuff and realize that it was just a group of

Uber nerds who were fucking with the entire country for a long period of time. But and you make another good point that I hope we that this statement could apply to many of our podcasts is that the the quote unquote subject of that podcast was this cyber attack against cardiovascular ships, but really

that episode turned into an episode about importance on protecting your own privacy electronically and otherwise because a cyber attack on a network of car dealerships is seemingly innocuous and somebody that's

that just reads that headline might say, so what, who cares? But when you call by a car, you're opening your Pandora's box of personal information. And so like that's a great episode. I'm glad you brought that one up. I forgot about that one. That was a great episode that it started about one thing and then kind of morphed into something else about the importance of safeguarding your private information, which is that does play into preparedness. And so yeah, and as Paul would say, life prep,

Yes. Um, some of the other ones that I really, really love are the ones that include mindset. Um, whether, whether it is like, um, Episode 67, where we did every day carry it, you know, it's more than just items. It is the mindset, um, that you have, uh, your,

You're basically your survival plan. Now that wasn't one that we did this year. I think it was one that we did last year. But again, it is all about your survivalism, your prepared mindset, and understanding what that is. Every time I talk to somebody, I make sure to highlight

OK, yeah, you want to be prepared. It starts with a plan and it starts with your mindset. Like, you have to understand what your plan looks like. If you think the world is going to end tomorrow and you're going to get on your cell phone and check Google to see what's happening and be able to send a text message to your friends, meet here, and we'll just get, you know, we'll go to the grocery store. Like, no, all of that is wrong. So, you know, the mindset episodes are really some of my favorite ones as well.

That was the last one I had on my list of the five I wrote down was one you did with Paul, it was knowing your limits and breaking the barriers. And it, it exactly, it talks about everything you just referenced, which again, that kind of, you know, leads back to my point that, you know, we, we might be making a pretty decent podcast here because I think the statement that you just made could apply to many of the podcasts we did. But on that one, knowing limits and breaking barriers, you know, Paul was talking about, again, the, the subject of the episode,

It started because he was planning or he's talking about how he was planning this 186 mile hike. And then when you have to you have to break that down into its pieces.

you have to figure out where your limits are. And a very basic example of that is what we've already talked about with gear. Like, yeah, cool. If you have all the survival gear in the world, great. But now you have to carry it. And can you carry all this crap for 186 miles? No, you can't. Spoiler alert. So now you have to figure out what you can get rid of, what you have to get rid of.

You have to make choices and make sacrifices. And then, you know, but again, using that episode specifically, can you walk 186 miles? Well,

I don't know, can you? And so then you have to break that down into bits. Uh, can I, if I, if my goal is to do 10 miles a day. Cool. I can go walk my dog for 10 miles a day, but I need to be able to walk 10 miles a day carrying 55 pounds a gear on my back. Oh, and I need to be able to walk 10 miles a day carrying 55 pounds a gear over.

Natural terrain where there's not a sidewalk or a paved trail. And so that was a really good episode of Paul because he talked about identifying those limits, figuring out how to break them, how to overcome them with the end goal in mind of doing this 186 mile point-to-point overland hike. So that was the last one I had on my list.

And then one of the final episodes that I have on there is episode number 76. And it was the why critical thinking in high stress situations is important. And again, it started from an incident that, and that was an episode with you. And it was the one that had the road rage incident where caught on video, dude took a

took a blast to the face there and dropped dead because he was not able to think straight during a high stress situation. And like I said, it started from that piece in the news and then kind of we were able to extrapolate that and kind of

pick and prod and put it in different situations in everyday life that makes sense. We broke down that situation and from our perspective and how it all went wrong and when it went wrong to everything that guy did wrong and everything the other guy did right.

Again, looking back at that, now that episode was back in August, middle of August. Now, well, that's when it aired. The situation happened in July, and here we are in December. I would have to go back and maybe we should have done that, gone back and added some follow-up notes in today's show about that.

You know, as far as we knew back in July and then August by the time we published it, the person that ended up in or that was in the truck that ended up shooting and killing that one man, I believe he's probably still enjoying his freedom. You know, his

every day freedom. Who knows what kind of mental jail he is in in his brain and is conscious that for him and whatever God he chooses to figure out. But I know that I'd probably be completely

okay with the decision I made that day for the safety of my family and myself. So yeah. And another good point from that episode was that we have the luxury to watch it over and over and over and over and analyze it. But if you're ever faced with a high stress situation like that, you only get to watch it once as it's happening to you. So you have to have a foundation to make a good decision in the moment, you know, the one and only time that you get to

Have a run through. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, we definitely don't. We don't get to do it. And that's kind of what I said in the beginning, like we don't get a do over in this life. So as we wrap up today's episode and we reflect on some of these things in this year, I think that's a pretty good point to focus on here. You don't get second chances.

You don't always get the opportunity to capture a, well, no, you don't get a second chance to capture a missed opportunity. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen. I think we've all can probably highlight a time in our life where we missed an opportunity the first time and then we got to the chance to take it a second. It's just very rare. And, you know,

Get out there, do these things, don't waste any time in doing them. Ask that girl out, climb that mountain, blah, blah, blah. Just do it, man. You never know when some crazy shit's gonna happen. Live your life, enjoy it. Listen to this podcast, watch these videos, join Zert. Link up with this community. You get to have some awesome, awesome time.

I love doing this podcast. I really do. I often get asked and I hate to discuss these things and because Zird is not a business to me. Zird is a community. It's an organization. It's a brand.

The cert members are never customers. They are members. And I often get asked, like, well, how much do you make doing the podcast? And I'm like, I have no idea. I don't. And that's being real with you guys. I have no, I, well, no, I can tell you, I know exactly nothing. Zero. I don't. Yeah, I was about to say, I have to wait. No, my check. Right.

Yeah, I don't make $1 from this. Jamie does not get paid for this. Paul does not get paid for this. I don't get paid for this. There is no, this is all volunteer time because we enjoy it. Well, I know that I do. I believe that you do. And I believe that Paul does as well.

And i don't i don't love it because i love hearing my own voice that's for damn sure i don't like seeing my face on camera i hate editing this the reason why i don't go back and listen by being fully transparent parent is cuz i hate listening to my own voice after it's been recorded.

Lighting and camera angles and good cameras make me look better than I look probably in real life. There's no makeup here, but I do this because I love to do it. I love to provide this information. I love to have this kind of engagement back and forth.

So that's what this podcast means to me to be able to go out there and put out 52 shows this week and close in on a hundred episodes. According to our friend, we are in the top 1% of podcasts in the world because we've got this many episodes. He says that, you know, there's, there's times where people they, I'm going to have a, I'm going to have a podcast. I'm going to put out a podcast and it gets nowhere.

It doesn't get to traction and then they get defeated and they kind of move past it. Right there, you just hit the bullseye as they get defeated. And maybe it isn't that the podcast is going nowhere and maybe it isn't that the podcast isn't going to go anywhere. But a lot of people, this kind of speaks to the same thing that we were talking about a minute ago. People's reliance on cell phones, it's just a

It's just kind of how our culture is now. Everybody wants instant gratification now. You know, when I was a kid, when I collected my flag points off the back of my GI Joe packages and you could collect when you got enough flag points, you could mail them off and you'd get a free limited edition figure that wasn't available in stores.

Once you collected the flag points and mailed them off, do you remember how long it would take? Oh, it was a while, right? Six to eight weeks, I remember, because as a kid, I was like, oh, God, six weeks. I know, right? Now, we live in a time where you order something on Amazon today. I mean, in certain instances, I can order it. If I order it early enough in the morning, I'll get it this afternoon, but yeah.

Nowadays, you don't have to wait six weeks for anything hardly. Yeah. But anyway, but like I do, as where it pertains to podcasts, I think a lot of people get defeated way too quickly and, and, but hey, you know, that's, that's just another leg up for us, I guess, but, um,

But I think people have this mindset where if I don't start a podcast and start making a million dollars in the first 10 episodes, then then fucking I'm just going to, I'm going to quit. And I think that's, that's why we're in the top 1%. It's not because

It's because other people get defeated so quickly and we didn't come into this expecting to make a million dollars out of it. And yeah, to answer your question, I like doing this podcast because I do like sharing my knowledge with like-minded individuals.

And I hope I don't come across as I know it all because I don't know it all. I think I've talked about this before probably in the earlier episodes. When I was a kid, like honestly, this may sound goofy, but the path that my life has taken is because when I was a kid, I used to watch, you know, James Bond movies and I used to watch, you know, Rambo movies and Commando and all and like, I would watch movies about these guys that could seemingly do anything, you know,

Rambo can shoot a machine gun and he can go in the woods and make all these booby traps and kill a wild boar with a knife and then have it for dinner and then jump in a helicopter and fly a helicopter to rescue these dudes. Like James Bond can do all this stuff. He can fight and he can shoot and he can get women and he can swim and he can dive.

And as a kid, I was like, that's the kind of man I want to be. I want to be the kind of man that can do anything. And as goofy as it sounds, that was the compass bearing that I had in my life from a very early age. I decided that I wanted to be a guy that could do anything. And again, referencing back to the land nav episodes, I learned land navigation

when I was a teenager, like that's, that's when I kind of became an expert in land navigation was when I was like 14 or 15. I didn't wait until I joined the military. So, but yeah. And just for, just for clarification, Kevin McAllister and Trudy Lightstone can also make booby traps.

And if you've watched Home Alone or Violet Night, you would know that. And I know you have. But just to your point, I got a notification three hours ago. It was before we were in our, before we started the show, and it was a notification from Spotify and said, congratulations on this milestone for dessert coffee and chaos, 2500 streams on Spotify. Now, I don't know. So here's the other thing.

I don't like everyone asks, well, how many listeners do you have? I've got no idea. We were on Spotify through Spotify, and then we are on Apple podcasts through the Firearms Radio Network. And it gets published through their systems. So I don't know what my analytics are. And I'm an analytic guy. I like to see those numbers. But to see that,

Obviously, it was a milestone because Spotify sent it to me. So we've had 2,500 streams of on Spotify in 90. This is 95 episodes because obviously we haven't released today yet. So I don't know what that means, but it seems like it's a good thing. And I'm glad that we've had 2,500 streams on Spotify. I would love to see what that looks like in totality between all of the places that you listen to podcast.

Maybe one day I'll get that. With that being said, it doesn't matter to me. If it was only 10 streams.

I just like to get this information out. Maybe in five years, someone will listen to some of these podcasts and think we've got something cool here and reach back out to us and want us to keep doing it or come on their show. But I do this because it's a passion for me. And I hope that you guys see that. And I hope that you see that it's a passion for Jamie and I believe for Paul as well.

Again, as I end the episode, as we end the episode, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for putting your, sharing some of your time with us and because I know that time is a precious commodity. And while you can listen to this, while driving, it's still, you could be listening to other things like Mariah Carey's Christmas music, which

might be what you like, but instead you're listening to us. So thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for being here, being with us for the past year. And we look forward to giving you another year of this Zird Coffee and Chaos podcast. Until next time, Jamie? No, have a happy new year. Be safe.

I would encourage you as we go forward into 2025 to do those things I talked about at the top, like, you know, take an objective look at yourself, identify where your shortfalls are. And in 2025, make an effort to fill some of those gaps. My sign off is always, it's easy to be hard. It's hard to be smart. But another thing I say all the time is that there's no free lunches. And with us sitting here talking about our favorite podcasts and our favorite topics of discussion for the last year of 2024,

uh, one of the things that are, you know, one of the kind of through lines that I realized on, on almost everything we talked about, um, there are no free lunches. Like on one hand, like everything's give and take is, is what I mean by there's no free lunches. Uh, on one hand, you shouldn't have to rely on anybody else for your preparedness, but at the same time, you know, you talked about joining the joining a community at the same time, you know,

long-term preparedness or survival on your own is really not possible. So at the same time, you need to be filling those gaps so that you don't have to rely on other people, but at the same time, you need to be finding a network of people that you can rely on. So think about that going into 2025 as well. Don't try to be a one-man wolf pack. Awesome. All right, guys. You guys stay safe out there. Hope you had a happy new year. We'll talk to you soon, ZP002.

This podcast has been a production of the Firearms Radio Network. For more, visit firearmsradio.net.