About the Author

Why I started this site

I keep seeing the same thing happen to my own family, friends, and people I care about: they want to be ready for the day something goes wrong, but they don’t know where to start, and they don’t know which of the products marketed at “preppers” are actually worth buying. In this economy, you can’t afford to guess. The wrong gear isn’t just wasted money. It’s the gear you’re counting on when it matters.

I’ve been interested in emergency preparedness since around 2016, but it stopped being a passing interest and became something I took seriously in 2020, when I watched how quickly stores, supply chains, and even government support buckled during the COVID-19 pandemic. That was the moment prepping stopped being theoretical for me.

What I’ve seen firsthand

My perspective on this isn’t theoretical. I’ve worked as a volunteer humanitarian medic in Syria, providing emergency medical care and general family medicine to people living through the Syrian Civil War, in places where government services and infrastructure had simply stopped functioning. Most days we had no electricity at all (maybe an hour or two, if there was enough diesel to run a generator) and no running water. Every drop we drank had to be hauled in and filtered by hand.

I spent three years in Ukraine doing similar work: humanitarian aid, medical instruction, and volunteer medic work, including delivering food, clothing, and winter heating supplies to families who’d lost access to basic services. During my last seven months there, I served as a medic and medical instructor with the National Guard of Ukraine. I also spent two years as a medic and medical instructor in a volunteer battalion under the command of the National Police of Ukraine. I experienced repeated attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid firsthand: extended power outages, loss of running water, and more than a few nights spent underground in the metro with my wife because it wasn’t safe to stay in our apartment. I always kept a go-bag ready (power banks, a flashlight, MREs, protein bars) plus a second bag just for making a night on cold concrete a little more bearable. I don’t call myself a combat veteran; I simply did what was needed to help protect the people around me. But that experience is exactly why I don’t write about emergency preparedness as an abstract exercise. I’ve lived without power, without water, and without a functioning safety net, more than once.

Who this site is for

I picture two people when I write: a parent in an apartment with a couple of kids and a compact car, trying to figure out what actually belongs in a car emergency kit, and someone brand new to prepping who’s overwhelmed by fear-driven survivalist content and doesn’t know where to even start. Both of you are who this site is built for.

A lot of prepping content online leans on fear to make a sale, without ever explaining why you need something or what the real basics of survival look like, for a natural disaster or a man-made one. I’d rather you walk away from an article feeling clear-headed and a little more excited about getting prepared, not scared into a purchase. My rule for every recommendation is simple: life safety first, convenience second, always with a real budget in mind.

How I test gear

When I can, I take a new product on an actual camping or hiking trip and use it the way you would in a real situation. When that’s not possible, I test it at home: outside, or right in my apartment, depending on what it is. Some merchants send samples when they have the budget for it; when they don’t, I buy the item myself if I’m able to.

I’ve personally used and carried gear like Buck and Schrade knives since I was a kid, North American Rescue tourniquets, ATN night vision devices, Bushnell binoculars, Survivor Filters, and Faraday bags I relied on for digital safety while I was in Ukraine. I used LuminAID lanterns during actual power outages there, not as a product demo. A tourniquet is the one piece of gear I never leave home without.

I’ll pass on a product when the cost doesn’t match its real usefulness, when the quality isn’t good enough for me to trust my own life, or my family’s or friends’, to it, or when the company behind it doesn’t stand behind its own customer support.

My family, and why comfort matters too

I have a wife, and she’s a big part of why this site exists. Planning for her safety pushes me to think beyond just my own needs, and once the basics of survival are covered, I’m also looking for real comfort and convenience, not just the bare minimum to get by.

I grew up near the Four Corners area of New Mexico, running around the desert and picking up desert survival skills and bushcraft basically by accident, long before I called it “prepping.” These days, outside of work on this site, you’ll usually find me hiking, hunting, fishing, or traveling to fairly remote parts of the world: along with our one very opinionated housemate, a black cat named Cleocatra.

I’ll be honest about my own mistakes too: the biggest one is not keeping my own supplies organized, and not pulling everything out to check it for usability and expiration dates as often as I should. If you catch me writing a guide on rotating your stockpile, that’s exactly why.

How this site works

You can also find me on Instagram @theremotemedic.

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