Cramming for the Apocalypse Podcast

Charm of the Wilderness Ep. 1 Nature Education with Allison Depuy

Welcome to the Charm of the Wilderness podcast! I’m thrilled to release our inaugural episode featuring not only an incredible educator, but one of my oldest and best friends, Allison Depuy. If you’re listening to this on the Cramming for the Apocalypse feed, make sure to Subscribe to this podcast at Charm of the Wilderness [https://open.substack.com/pub/charmofthewilderness] on Substack or you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. In this episode, we talk about innovative ways to bring the outdoors to the classroom and how we can inspire our kids to be engaged in nature. Additionally, Alli helps me introduce the podcast and what Charm of the Wilderness is all about. About Alli Alli DePuy is the CEO of Inspired Classroom [https://www.inspiredclassroom.com/], is an accomplished educator, curriculum designer, and EdTech innovator with 25 years of experience. Through Inspired Classroom, she collaborates across the public and private sectors to design and implement project-based education experiences, innovative technologies, and mentorship programs that engage learners of all ages. Her work is widely recognized across Montana and supported by educators, organizations, the Office of Public Instruction, the Office of the Governor, and other state leaders. Connect with us about Curio Camp In this episode, Alli and I discussed a project that we’re working on, an interactive card deck for kids to be inspired and excited about nature. These decks include prompts for games, meditations, fun facts, and other ways to engage kids in the places they’re visiting. Curio Camp is in the Beta stages and we are looking for families of elementary-age kids traveling to state or national parks this summer to help test out the product! If this describes you, COMPLETE THIS FORM [https://form.jotform.com/260698394880070] and we will be in touch! to Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cramming for the Apocalypse at crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

"Here Comes the Apocalypse" with Jennifer Heller

Did you know this Thursday, October 16th is The Great ShakeOut [https://www.shakeout.org/]? It’s a day to focus on getting ready for an earthquake. However, we at “Cramming” are using it as a day to get ready for all disasters. So we’re coming at you with a special bonus episode to introduce you to another great tool out there. But first, don’t forget that also on Thursday, we are hosting a virtual workshop called “Get Your Go Bag Together” in partnership with MakeWith PDX. This virtual workshop is on Thursday, October 16th from 5-7pm Pacific Time. We have sliding scale pricing AND we’re offering a special opportunity to purchase some go-bag essentials. REGISTER HERE [https://www.hisawyer.com/makewith-hardware-learning-center/schedules/activity-set/1634911] Now, onto my discussion with Jennifer Heller. “Here Comes the Apocalypse” In this conversation, I talk with designer and fellow “liberal prepper,” Jennifer Heller about a really great resource she created for regular people to not feel super overwhelmed by preparedness. You can learn about Jennifer in this episode. In the meantime, check out here website HERE AT www.herecomestheapocalypse.com [https://herecomestheapocalypse.com/]. There you can get her really exceptional (and dare I say fun?!) Disaster Playbook. Additionally, we spoke about a story I wrote about the North Coast Emergency Food System Partnership for Civil Eats—you can find that story here [https://civileats.com/2025/08/26/local-food-cant-reach-communities-post-disaster-this-groundbreaking-group-is-helping-change-that/]. Thank you for listening! Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cramming for the Apocalypse at crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep. 11 - Talking About Preparedness

Y’all, it’s our last episode of Season 2! My how time flies! Before I get into it, a respondent to the survey I sent out the last few weeks mentioned that it would be nice to have the toolkit in one space. Well, guess what, you’re in luck! Last year, we compiled the full toolkit in this handy-dandy workbook where all of this can be found in one place. It’s helpful to reference the original posts, but this will help you walk through each step of the process. I’ll note that I’ve intended to do some updating and editing of this workbook, but haven’t had the time or capacity to do it. I’ll let you know if it gets a refresh. In this week’s episode we talk about how to have conversations about preparedness and how essential that is for community preparedness. You can find our original post about this topic here: In the meantime if you want to review any of our past episodes, you can just navigate to the “Resources and Toolkits” menu at the top of the main page [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/t/resources]. This has been a true pleasure recording this series with Brekke. As I noted in the episode, we really are going to try to record some bonus episodes. But as we head into summer, we know that extra time is not going to be afforded to us moms so nothing is planned as of yet. You can stay tuned here on the Substack for updates on those episodes. In the meantime, let us know what other topics you want to hear about at crammingfortheapocalypse@gmail.com. Thanks for being along on this ride with us! Happy prepping! Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cramming for the Apocalypse at crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep. 10 - Community Preparedness

If you haven’t yet taken the survey about virtual classes we’re hoping to offer in the fall, there’s still time to complete it! In our penultimate episode of Season 2, we talk about the topic that I write about all the time in my newsletter: community preparedness. This is a much less tangible element of preparedness and isn’t one you’re going to accomplish over as weekend or even a few weeks. It’s a long-term process of relationship-building. Hopefully this conversation that Brekke and I had helps to give you some inspiration and motivation to help you begin to branch out with neighborhood preparedness. Here is the written version of this topic from last year to reference back to it. Additionally, we mentioned a few FEMA resources that, as of this writing, are still on the FEMA website, but as with everything on federal websites right now, there’s no telling what will be removed and when. So here are a few downloaded PDFs that might be helpful: * Community Resilience: Using a Religious Literacy Primer to Improve Engagement with Faith Communities [https://cone-bumblebee-sddj.squarespace.com/s/fema_faith-communities-lessons-learned.pdf] | FEMA * National Disaster Recovery Framework [https://cone-bumblebee-sddj.squarespace.com/s/fema_national-disaster-recovery-framework-third-edition_05062025_0.pdf] | FEMA * Disaster Resource Identification [https://cone-bumblebee-sddj.squarespace.com/s/fema_disaster_resource_identification_fact-sheet.pdf] | FEMA And last, Brekke mentioned the idea of having a book club serve as the convening activity for you and your neighbors. Here are some great books to get your started: * A Paradise Built in Hell [https://bookshop.org/p/books/a-paradise-built-in-hell-the-extraordinary-communities-that-arise-in-disaster-rebecca-solnit/11725474?ean=9780143118077&next=t] by Rebecca Solnit * Generation Dread [https://bookshop.org/p/books/generation-dread-finding-purpose-in-an-age-of-climate-anxiety-britt-wray/21203824?ean=9781891011214&next=t] by Britt Wray * The Great Displacement [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-great-displacement-climate-change-and-the-next-american-migration-jake-bittle/18751578?ean=9781982178260&next=t] by Jake Bittle * The Light Pirate [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-light-pirate-lily-brooks-dalton/18790441?ean=9781538708286&next=t] by Lily Brooks-Dalton * Ministry for the Future [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-ministry-for-the-future-kim-stanley-robinson/14532414?ean=9780316300148&next=t] by Kim Stanley Robinson * The Future [https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-future-naomi-alderman/19830305?aid=99452&ean=9781668025680&listref=adult-climate-and-nature-fiction&] by Naomi Alderman * Cloud Cuckoo Land [https://bookshop.org/p/books/cloud-cuckoo-land-anthony-doerr/16076948?aid=99452&ean=9781982168445&listref=adult-climate-and-nature-fiction&] by Anthony Doerr Also, I write the occasional book review in my newsletter, so if you want some other recommendations or want to check back, you can just go to the “Book Club” tab [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/t/book-club] from the main page. Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cramming for the Apocalypse at crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Ep. 9 - Evacuation Plans and Go Bags

Before we launch into the podcast, I wanted to let you know that I’m currently working with MakeWith Hardware & Learning Center [https://www.makewithpdx.com/] here in Portland to develop VIRTUAL workshops that help guide you through aspects of preparedness. If you are interested in taking such a class, we’d love for you to take a very quick survey to get a sense of the topics you’re interested in and some other aspects of what we could offer. Also, answering the survey just helps us gauge whether there’s enough interest to offer it, so just taking the survey is info in and of itself. If there’s ample interest, then we foresee launching these sessions next Fall 2025, so stay tuned! This week is the one many of you who have tuned in because of the LA fires have been waiting for: planning for evacuation. And yes, this has the list for what to put in your Go Bag which you can also find in the original post from last year. Also, we had a fun riff on what might go into a $5 Go-Bag, so if you’re reading this and want to partake, we’d LOVE to hear what you were able to put in your $5 Go-Bag (hint: grocery bag + dollar store finds would probably do the trick). Cramming for the Apocalypse is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Cramming for the Apocalypse at crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe [https://crammingfortheapocalypse.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]