your survivalism stories

readers respond to 'how to survive anything'

Hello dear readers and happy (?) Mercury in microbraids -

Thank you to every brave soul who submitted their response to my story on becoming a covert survivalist and low-key prepper. I’ve combed through the submissions and presented a selection here for your viewing pleasure. I’m so moved by our communal courage, our knowledge shares, our collective commitment to not abandon ourselves in these treacherous times. Thank you, as always, for your vulnerability.

🌿

I do love watching Alone—which always strikes me as not only about wilderness prep, but the human spirit and how we can live in relation to our environment. In the spirit of that, and rejecting dystopian narratives, I’m focused on gardening in a collective. This is different from community gardening, although it takes place in one. 15 of us are growing food together on a large-ish plot of land to share amongst ourselves (and the food shelf when we have excess). This has been a practice in self-governing too, and imagining how to do that in a way that is holacratic and rooted in an abundance mindset. We love doing this and think more people should, that it builds a strong sense of community and place. Those among us who are writers hope to write a book about it one day.

I also took a woodworking-heavy trades course for women provided by a local non-profit. It was six weeks long and gave me a lot more confidence around power tools and problem-solving in a new way. Definitely trying to become a useful person who, as Marge Piercy writes, “moves in a common rhythm” when the work must be done.

I really want to learn about seed collecting and seed saving. I’m working on staying in Rome. It’s a big decision for me, maybe one of the few I’ve made that’s not motivated by careerism. I think careerism, for anyone who’s not a techno-futurist, may have ended when Pluto left Capricorn. On the one hand the decision to stay is soul-driven, and on the other hand it’s also a survival strategy. I feel both pulled and pushed toward it. The pull feels really grounding, fantastical, and spiritually guided. The push is disorienting when I remember “These things are really happening in the country I come from. I am actually American. I am actually trying to emigrate somewhere else to get out of my country.” YEAH. That realization comes in and out and when it hits me, I have to remind myself to expand my vision even more for what my life could look like or be about. I don’t know what shape my career will take, but I’m really trying to make the next steps with “vocation” in mind. Vocation feels like it’s more grounded, more resourceful and local, and tied to a day-to-day way of valuing and enjoying life. I think redefining success is a huge part of survival. Trying to attain historical visions of success, which may no longer be available in this century, could stand in the way of both literally surviving and also psychologically thriving in ways that are responsive to our actual reality.

- Lex

Just this week the items for a survival bag I'd carefully researched, had bookmarked, tried to talk myself out of buying as a waste of money, a hysterical reaction, started arriving. It is hard to buy a physical map (not on Amazon) now! How long does a meal replacement bar last? Should I splurge for the preprogrammed walkie talkies? With the online dedication I used to compose and order special occasion outfits, I now troll Reddit for go bag advice, attempting to find the balance of just enough and what's "too out there." I live in Brooklyn, NY in 2025 and I am making real plans for when the power goes down, if there's a massive bleeding injury, what my dog needs if we're out of our home for days, weeks, who knows where.

I grew up in the wilderness of Alaska, but spent most of my adult life in cities and I'm embarrassed to say I don't know how to start a fire, I can't catch a fish, or butcher a deer. I think it's because I spent so much of my childhood indoors reading, often dystopian fiction - which feels like preparation of it's own kind, something that has made it possible to imagine all kinds of worlds and events that other thought outrageous, paranoid, impossible.

I'm about to move to Anchorage and I'm hoping to learn those skills now - there's a series of women's gun courses I plan to sign up for, my future roommate is an avid gardener and I can't wait to learn from him. I want to learn the basics of a combustion engine, how to filter water, how to prepare for wildfires, more advanced first aid. I want to get into better shape so my body can handle more, and I want to learn to calm my nervous system - and teach that to my daughter as well. But more than anything I want to weave us both into a community. We already have the beginnings of it in Anchorage, it's one of the reasons we're moving there. I'm excited to meet more people, put myself out into the community, and host events to bring disparate groups of people together to create more connection - one of my very favorite things to do.

Took a local cert class a couple yrs ago in la (free through the fire dept!) mostly bc I was scared of earthquakes. Feeling generally unprepared for how bad things could get but it’s hard to mobilize and prep. I garden and have strong community.

I’m a newbie prepper. Really enjoyed group living by Lola Milholland. Learning so much from Parable of the Sower and adrienne maree brown’s accompanying podcast (Octavia’s parables). Also love her podcast with her sister. In my next to read stack is Shock Doctrine (Naomi Klein), Emergent strategy (amb), it was vulgar & it was beautiful: how aids activists used art to find a pandemic (bc I think we need to reup creativity in protest and find new forms of protest), and the senior co housing handbook (bc it will be imperative for our generation to develop new forms of aging communities - it won’t be a nursing home for me!)

I don't know if this counts as survivalism, but I'm hoping to survive by relocating in 2028. I'm just starting to visit potential new homes; just returned from a 10-day trip to Costa Rica. I'm also considering Panama and Colombia. Wherever I land, I want to make sure I'm giving more than I'm taking by being there. But it's a very slow, long process; I'm taking my time, in part because I'm trying to finish revising my novel (due April 11!), while also still doing speaking/reading events to make money, while also working on developing a new tv show (also to make money). During all of this, I'm trying to be conscious of consuming less as well as acquiring fewer things that are not perishable. I'm trying to set myself up to literally pack light when it's time to move. But that will require me to give away and donate so many things that I'm attached to. I'm so used to hauling things around. So I'm working my way towards a whole new mindset.