The Art of Manliness - Episode #48： Survival And Prepping With Creek Stewart

00:00:00.000 This episode of the Art of Manliness podcast is brought to you by Huckberry. Huckberry is my

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00:00:32.000 code art15 to save 15% off your first purchase. Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition

00:00:53.220 of the Art of Manliness podcast. Now let's say you were plopped in the middle of the wilderness

00:00:58.380 with nothing but your wits. Would you know what to do to survive? Or how about, let's say there's

00:01:04.880 some sort of natural disaster. Power's cut off, gas is cut off, water's cut off. Would you know

00:01:10.940 how to survive those hours, days, maybe even weeks without those amenities? Well, our guest today

00:01:18.080 has dedicated his life to helping people prepare for those sort of wilderness survival or emergency

00:01:23.200 situations. His name is Creek Stewart and he is the owner of Willow Haven Outdoor. It's a

00:01:28.940 survival school in Indiana. And you might recognize Creek. He's written a lot of articles, some of our

00:01:34.120 most popular content on the Art of Manliness, how to build a survival shotgun, how to build a 72-hour

00:01:39.080 kit. He's also written a few books. He's out with a new one called The Unofficial Hunger Games Survival

00:01:45.500 Guide. So in the off chance, we have societal collapse and we have reality show where it's the last man

00:01:52.520 standing winds. This book will tell you how to survive. And we're going to talk to him today

00:01:56.760 about his book and also some other advice on how to prepare for emergency situations. Stay tuned.

00:02:05.660 Well, Creek, welcome to the show. 1.00

00:02:07.900 Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited.

00:02:09.720 Yeah. So, I mean, we were just talking about this earlier. This is the first time we've actually

00:02:12.700 talked on the phone like before. I mean, you've written so many great articles for us. We've never

00:02:17.280 actually gotten together to chat. So this is a first.

00:02:21.920 I know. It's great to put a voice with all the emails that we've sent back and forth. So

00:02:26.600 that's modern technology for you, I guess.

00:02:29.140 Yeah, for sure. All right. So let's do a little background about you. You are a professional

00:02:33.880 survival instructor and that's what you do for a living. I'm sure there's a lot of guys who are like,

00:02:39.480 man, that sounds like the dream job. I mean, how did you become a survival instructor? Did it

00:02:44.220 started as a hobby as a kid and then you just somehow managed to figure out a way to make a

00:02:49.920 living off this? Tell us your story. Yeah. You know, I mean, you're exactly right. It certainly

00:02:55.740 hasn't been an easy road and one without hurdles and bumps like most people's stories, I guess,

00:03:02.860 who probably pursue their dreams. But, you know, I grew up in scouts, longtime scout, you know,

00:03:08.700 Eagle Scout and always loved the outdoors, always had a passion for self-reliant skills and always

00:03:16.940 knew I would end up in an outdoor related profession or business somehow, somewhere.

00:03:24.080 I mean, when I was in college, you know, really trying to find my way, I ended up writing a small

00:03:31.340 self-published wilderness survival manual about the skills I knew at that time. I was 21. So it's

00:03:38.620 about 15 years ago. And I took that little manual and I sold it to Boy Scouts. I took out an ad in

00:03:45.100 the back of Boys Life magazine and I was going around from troop to troop and, you know, kind of

00:03:50.640 hawking this little survival manual about the skills I knew at the time. And that little manual led to

00:03:58.680 me holding some two-hour courses on my parents' farm in southern Indiana. And those little two-hour

00:04:06.020 courses led to me holding one-day courses. And, you know, then I started doing more and more courses

00:04:12.620 and, you know, invested the next kind of five to six years really taking my skill set seriously,

00:04:20.540 you know, because you can only teach the skills if you're proficient in them yourself. And so I took

00:04:28.360 some time and really invested in training and making sure my skills were up to par. And I was

00:04:35.040 a mobile business for a long time. You know, I was an old explorer with a trailer and I would drive

00:04:41.040 from rental land and farmland and state parks and, you know, for the longest time while working

00:04:48.240 a full-time job and sometimes two full-time jobs. And, you know, about three or four years ago,

00:04:55.020 I decided to really, to really go deep. And I invested in a facility and a building. And so

00:05:01.560 I have 21 acres and a beautiful lodge. And, you know, that's when, you know, my business really

00:05:07.100 changed, you know, when I had a facility and I could hold three-day courses and people could spend the

00:05:12.260 night. And so that's kind of my story in a nutshell.

00:05:15.460 That's a really inspiring story. I mean, it just seems like it's a lot of hustle that went on there.

00:05:20.560 So now you have, um, this facility so people can come out to your places in Indiana, right?

00:05:27.080 It is central Indiana.

00:05:28.600 And basically learn how to be a mountain man, essentially.

00:05:33.740 Yeah. I mean, we definitely teach manly skills. So, I mean, we teach primitive survival skills,

00:05:39.140 you know, how to meet your basic core human survival needs, shelter, water, fire, and food.

00:05:44.040 Yeah. And one of the things I like about, uh, your style and your approach, I mean,

00:05:49.320 you're just very approachable with this material. Cause I know for a lot of people,

00:05:52.300 sort of the layman, uh, who, who's completely new to prepping and survival stuff, it can be kind

00:05:58.280 of intimidating, um, to, cause it's, it's a different kind of group of people who are interested

00:06:03.820 in it. Uh, but this stuff's important for everybody. I just love how you make it accessible

00:06:07.640 to everyone. So, um, kudos to you for doing that. Um, what do you, let's talk about some,

00:06:15.240 let's talk about that sort of barrier, that intimidation. There's a lot of prepping terms

00:06:18.840 that, um, like jargon, right? That if you didn't know what it meant, you're like, what,

00:06:24.180 what is that? You know, for example, like bugging out is a common one and then bugging in, um,

00:06:29.780 what's the difference between bugging out and bugging in and how do you prepare for those type,

00:06:34.240 different types of situations? Yeah. Well, I mean, they're opposite ends of the spectrum.

00:06:39.720 You know, the, the definition of bugging out is when a disaster of any type, whether natural or

00:06:46.300 man-made strikes your area and it's no longer safe to stay at home, the decision to stay at home is

00:06:52.720 actually, you know, life threatening. So in response to that, you have to evacuate your home

00:06:59.220 in search of a safer destination and head from point A to point B. And that decision,

00:07:04.240 is what, what we refer to in the survival industry is bugging out. Um, now bugging in is,

00:07:11.680 you know, an ideal scenario in a disaster situation because it's, it's the exact opposite. It's,

00:07:18.520 you decide maybe in a severe storm, it's not life threatening, but your lights are out.

00:07:26.580 You may not have electricity. You may not have gas. You may not be able to drive around. Maybe

00:07:31.680 there's ice covered roads. And so your decision is to hunker down, close your doors and provide for

00:07:38.460 yourself inside your own home for, you know, anywhere from, you know, extended period of time,

00:07:44.000 anywhere from maybe 12 hours to three days, maybe even two weeks. Who knows?

00:07:47.660 Yeah. We, uh, in Oklahoma, we get like these really wicked ice storms. And a few years ago,

00:07:53.100 there was one and the electricity was out for over a week and, uh, you couldn't go anywhere.

00:07:59.940 And it was kind of scary cause like you had, we had, you know, stuff on hand, but then you started

00:08:03.600 getting to that point where like, Oh, you know, we're, we're reaching that limit where we should

00:08:06.880 have had some more. Um, so yeah, being prepared for that was, I guess that would be a bugging in

00:08:12.380 situation. It would absolutely. And you know, Oklahoma had a bug out situation. What about a

00:08:19.040 week and a half ago, you know, those tornadoes came through people, you know, all of a sudden

00:08:23.420 staying in the path of a tornado is, you know, a life threatening decision. So people had that kind

00:08:29.780 of bug out. Yeah. So part of the, the essential part of bugging out is having a bug out bag.

00:08:34.880 And it seems like there's just, people are just talking about this, you know, all over

00:08:38.980 the internet, what, you know, you got to get your bug out bag. And you in fact wrote a just

00:08:41.540 a fantastic, uh, article post about how to build a bug out bag. And you even published

00:08:46.660 a book on, on how to build a bug out bag. Um, which I highly recommend you guys get. It's

00:08:52.080 awesome. I'm using it to build my own, my family's bug out bag. You know, Creek has these

00:08:56.820 awesome lists where he like tells you exactly what you need, how many of you, of those things

00:09:01.240 you need, um, based on the number of people. So we, my wife and I've been slowly putting together

00:09:06.020 a bug out bag with his book, but Creek, can you give us kind of a, just like a basic rundown of

00:09:10.460 the sort of items you'd want in a bug out bag? Yeah, absolutely. You know, the most important

00:09:16.320 aspect of a bug out bag is that it's a bag, it's a backpack, you know, it's gotta be something

00:09:22.100 mobile, uh, because just because we're leaving our home doesn't mean that we may be able to do so

00:09:27.500 in a vehicle, you know, and especially in big cities, when everybody leaves their residence

00:09:32.220 at the same time, um, it ends in nothing short of traffic jams. And so traveling by foot may be a

00:09:39.860 necessity. So, um, the bug out bag first and foremost has to be mobile. You gotta be able to

00:09:45.140 carry it. Um, all, all teaching I do and any survival kit I think about, or, you know, talk about,

00:09:53.780 it always starts with four categories and that's what I call the core four. It's shelter, water,

00:10:01.020 fire, and food. So the first four categories of any survival kit, including a bug out bag,

00:10:09.180 should include tools and gear and things to help you meet your core basic survival needs

00:10:15.900 in the shelter, water, fire, and food categories.

00:10:19.360 Gotcha. So just like have an extra pair of clothes, um, maybe have a tarp for shelter.

00:10:27.740 Yeah. So if, if you want to, if you want to kind of delve in a little bit more specifically,

00:10:32.280 like shelter category for my bug out bag, I use a lightweight backpacking tent. You know,

00:10:37.240 I like the idea of a tent that closes you off from the rest of, you know, what might be happening

00:10:42.060 around you, but you know, definitely a sleeping bag, definitely some kind of a tarp, maybe a backup

00:10:48.140 emergency survival blanket, um, uh, maybe a backup, uh, rain poncho that could be configured

00:10:55.200 into the shelter configurations. So shelter is, you know, in extreme conditions, humans can live for

00:11:01.340 three hours without shelter, three days without water, and three weeks without food.

00:11:06.800 So shelter is really important. And hypothermia is the number one outdoor killer in this country.

00:11:15.160 More deaths related to hypothermia than any other outdoor related deaths, falling, climbing accidents,

00:11:21.580 four-wheeler accidents, snake bites. I mean, it is a, it's a huge silent killer. So shelter is very

00:11:27.340 important.

00:11:27.860 And then I guess water, just have some, some, just kind of the basics, have an extra bottle of water

00:11:33.760 perhaps, and then...

00:11:34.920 Exactly. Exactly. You know, you know, the ideal timeframe for a, the average disaster lasts 72 hours

00:11:41.260 where, you know, we're in the absence of the utilities that we depend on so much, like electricity

00:11:47.380 and water and food and things like that. So plan for 72 hours worth of water, which a good estimate

00:11:53.500 is three liters, you know, and because water is so critical and you can move through it pretty quickly,

00:11:59.720 a backup solution to water, whether it's a, you know, affordable life straw or lightweight backpacking

00:12:05.660 pump for a, you could source water from a creek or a pond. So just some kind of backup to the three

00:12:11.140 pieces you already have.

00:12:13.640 Gotcha. And what I find, what I found interesting about the bug out bag is that a lot of people just

00:12:16.980 already have this stuff laying around their house.

00:12:19.480 Yeah.

00:12:19.740 It's just a matter of putting it all in one place. So when something does happen, you can

00:12:23.900 just grab it and go.

00:12:26.160 Exactly. You know, that's the whole concept because, you know, the last thing you want to

00:12:29.580 be doing in the sometimes seconds that you have of being notified of a large scale disaster,

00:12:37.280 the last thing you want to be doing is trying to pack.

00:12:40.720 Yeah. Yeah.

00:12:42.120 And, um, it's just, it's a great, it's a great kit to have just in case mother nature or man gives

00:12:50.760 you very little to no warning.

00:12:52.960 Yeah. And I guess the bug out bag can also serve as sort of a bug in bag in some situations too,

00:12:57.740 right? Like if water's out, then you can use the resources in your, your bug out bag to, uh,

00:13:03.540 fulfill that need.

00:13:05.360 Absolutely. I dig into my bug out bag all the time, you know, whether, especially when I,

00:13:09.980 sometimes I'll grab my bug out bag. If I'm going on a long trip, you know, I'll have that,

00:13:14.000 the car with me and, you know, I'll dig into my bug out bag when I'm at home, when the lights go

00:13:18.160 out for, you know, a large storm or a windstorm or something like that. It doesn't have to save

00:13:23.760 your life to be really useful and practical.

00:13:26.660 Yeah, definitely. For sure. Yeah. It's funny. You mentioned the, the car thing. My, uh, my dad's

00:13:31.940 man, several years ago, I mean, it's been almost over 20 years ago, he got stuck in a blizzard

00:13:37.320 between Amarillo and Oklahoma city and, um, he had to pull to the side of the road and yeah,

00:13:43.800 he was there for like a day. Like he had to, but like, thankfully he had a bunch of stuff in his

00:13:48.540 car where he was able to, you know, feed himself, stay warm. Wow. Uh, so yeah, kids, uh, make sure

00:13:55.520 you have something in your car cause you never know what, when it can happen. Happened to my dad.

00:13:59.700 Yeah, exactly. Classic. I mean, just a classic textbook example of what I call sudden and

00:14:07.820 unexpected survival scenarios. Cause there's a big misconception that, you know, this doesn't

00:14:13.080 happen. This will happen to me. This only happens to other people and people on the news. But, um,

00:14:18.020 you know, I mean, I don't, you know, when I teach survival skills, I don't talk about zombies and

00:14:22.860 meteorites and alien invasions. I mean, I talk about the real stuff that happens to real people,

00:14:28.520 just like you and me on a regular basis. And I guess that must be the biggest barrier

00:14:33.600 from, to, in preventing people to start preparing or getting ready for those types of things. They

00:14:38.940 just don't think it happens, right? They just think, Oh, it'll never happen to me. It'll

00:14:42.820 happen to someone else. So I'm not going to do anything about it. I mean, is that the biggest

00:14:46.200 barrier for folks? That is certainly, that is certainly on the top of the list. You know,

00:14:51.080 just the mentality that it's not going to happen to me. You know, there's just such a naive,

00:14:55.680 we're just so comfortable, you know, in, in especially the U S and I know you have an

00:15:00.860 international audience as well, but you know, we're just so comfortable here, you know, and

00:15:05.360 it's, it's so hard to imagine that, you know, our basic human survival needs aren't, you know,

00:15:11.860 just around the corner or the flip of a switch, but it happens. It absolutely happens to people.

00:15:17.700 And I would say the number two barrier is people are busy. Their schedules are hectic and it's hard

00:15:24.420 to carve out time for yourself sometimes, let alone putting together a kit, which is certainly

00:15:29.380 an investment of time. Definitely. Um, let's talk about you. So you mentioned, um, the, Oh,

00:15:36.060 well I was going to talk about, yeah, like that whole mentality. I love the, uh, the phrase that you

00:15:40.920 use to sign off on posts and your emails. It's like, it's not if, but when, right? I love that.

00:15:46.360 Cause yeah, you always think, Oh, you know, if it might happen, then I'll do this. But it's

00:15:49.360 like, it's, if it's so conditional. Um, and it, when you think about, you know, when it's

00:15:55.580 more immediate and more pertinent and it brings things, that sort of mentality, uh, I guess 0.78

00:16:00.540 it gives you like lights a fire under your butt to get, get things going. Um, yeah. I really

00:16:05.980 believe that too. I really believe that, you know, we have a pretty high probability of at

00:16:12.540 some point in our lives, finding ourselves in some kind of sudden and unexpected survival

00:16:17.400 scenario, you know, just like those cruise ships that bring, you know, two huge cruise

00:16:22.340 ships in the middle of the ocean shut down for seven days, you know? And I bet those

00:16:26.900 people never thought in a million years when they left on their vacation, they'd be fighting

00:16:30.620 for their basic human survival needs for a few days.

00:16:33.600 Yeah. Cause I mean, yeah, cruise ships, like it's like mad, everything kind of magically

00:16:36.500 happens for you. You have like all the, all you can eat buffet you've got, I mean, it's

00:16:40.560 just, everything's catered towards you. And like, as soon as that's gone, you're like,

00:16:43.380 okay, what do I do now?

00:16:46.500 Right. Seriously. Right.

00:16:48.200 That's gotta be scary. Um, so you talked about, uh, for your bug out bag, you need to think

00:16:52.920 about the core four. Um, let's take that concept of the core four to skills. I'm guessing the

00:16:59.840 most important skills that a person should work on developing, um, center around those core

00:17:05.900 four. So fire building, uh, shelter building, are those like the most important?

00:17:10.320 Hard skills?

00:17:12.240 Absolutely. You know, I mean, top three hard skills are understanding basic sheltering principles,

00:17:19.740 you know, understanding what your dangers are, what your threats are, uh, with sheltering

00:17:25.080 and how to kind of combat those in a, in any type of a situation, whether it's wilderness

00:17:30.020 or urban. Um, number two set of skills, you know, the top three, it depends on the circumstances,

00:17:37.820 what's one, two, or three, but the top three are shelter, water, you know, understanding

00:17:43.340 how to purify water, understanding how to find water, how to track water. And number

00:17:49.860 three, fire, because fire can be so relevant to shelter and water. You know, if for some

00:17:56.240 reason you don't have the resources or the knowledge to erect or configure a suitable

00:18:01.240 shelter, all of a sudden fire becomes your number one resource for regulating core body

00:18:06.840 temperature. So your fire building skills are really important. And on the same line

00:18:12.300 against water, you know, if you can't, if you don't have a modern pump or chemical purifiers

00:18:18.220 or a life straw and you don't have potable water, all of a sudden boiling becomes your

00:18:25.380 number one way to purify drinking water. And obviously you need fire to boil water. So

00:18:30.800 those three are the, definitely the top three skills to focus on. Um, fire building is probably

00:18:37.520 the most time consuming because it is truly an art, but regardless of which survival skill

00:18:43.160 we're talking about, there is only one way to learn a skill and it is through practice

00:18:48.580 and repetition. You can read all the books, you can watch all the videos and even train

00:18:53.500 with some of the best instructors in the world. But until you get on your hands and knees and

00:18:58.060 start doing these skills with your O2 hands and trial and error, it is the only way to learn

00:19:03.540 them.

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00:20:10.300 StrenuousLife.co. Hope to see you in the next enrollment the week of June 15th. And now back

00:20:15.120 to the show. So that's a great point. But how do you, you talked about being busy, right? That's

00:20:21.080 one of the things that prevents people from doing that. Any suggestions you have for the average

00:20:25.960 person out there who's listening? They're like, man, I really want to practice. I want to develop

00:20:29.360 these skills. How do I work those in to my schedule? I mean, do you have any like suggestions on

00:20:35.500 that? Absolutely. You know, there's a huge misconception that in order to practice survival

00:20:41.940 skills, you have to go into the remote wilderness for two weeks and put yourself in a survival

00:20:49.480 situation to actually practice the skills. I get that all the time. Why don't I have 80 acres? How

00:20:54.220 do I, how can I practice? Well, you practice this stuff at your backyard. You know, you don't need

00:20:59.500 any, you could practice it. If you live in an apartment, you could practice 99% of the skills

00:21:03.820 you need to know to save your life in the wild can be practiced on a five square foot patio

00:21:09.400 in the back of an apartment. You know, the misconception is that you need wide open spaces

00:21:14.040 and all this land to practice some of these skills. And it's just not the case. And quite

00:21:18.720 frankly, they're not really that time consuming, you know? And I've never ever, for anybody who

00:21:23.640 has kids, you know, or young people in their life. I've never, ever met a kid who doesn't

00:21:29.300 absolutely love spending time with someone learning outdoor skills. It is an excellent way to just

00:21:37.040 bond with people. And, you know, if you go camping, you can incorporate some of these fire building

00:21:42.020 skills or shelter building skills in a camping trip. It doesn't have to be a dedicated survival

00:21:48.540 skills weekend. You know, a lot of these things can be incorporated into activities that we do on a

00:21:53.300 regular basis. You know, instead of, instead of starting the fire and, and the barbecue with the

00:21:58.600 lighter this week, maybe you do something a little bit different. Maybe you do something a little

00:22:02.960 primitive and can try to strike it with a ferro rod or a, or a piece of man-made or a piece of

00:22:08.200 natural found tender or something. That's a, that's some great stuff right there. That's just

00:22:12.200 giving me some great ideas. I've got some ideas bubbling in my mind right now. It's to do with like

00:22:16.200 my son's two, but he's, I mean, I'm like one looking forward to the age when he gets a little bit

00:22:20.080 older where I can like do stuff with him and just going to the backyard and just like, Hey,

00:22:24.880 we're going to set up a tent today, or Hey, we're going to learn how to start a fire with a magnifying

00:22:29.640 glass. I've never met a boy who doesn't want and love to build a fort. Oh yeah. That'd be awesome.

00:22:38.380 You know, and you follow the fort instead of a survival shelter. And all of a sudden I start

00:22:43.120 lighting up. Okay. Well, so those are the hard skills, uh, shelter building, fire building,

00:22:49.680 uh, water, but are there any like soft skills, like, you know, any things you need to do to

00:22:55.880 mentally prepare for a survival situation or psychologically or socially? I mean, is there

00:23:01.280 a soft component to survival as well? Sure. Absolutely. You know, I mean, I don't know the,

00:23:08.720 the percentage, but you know, a high, high, high 90% of survival is mental. You know,

00:23:15.680 what, what your mind decides your body will do. And so if I had to pick, if I had to just pick two

00:23:22.400 kind of mental survival skills that people can work on, you know, as they go about their daily routines

00:23:29.740 or daily activities, number one, and I believe your most important survival skill is this. It will

00:23:37.420 always be your ability to improvise. Because if there's one thing I can promise you about a sudden

00:23:45.660 and unexpected survival scenario, it's that you won't have everything you need. That kind of defines

00:23:52.880 the survival scenario, kind of gives you the definition of that scenario. So you all of a sudden

00:23:59.600 have to make do, have to meet your needs with what you have. And oftentimes that's with what you have

00:24:06.240 in the car, like your dad did, uh, in your pockets, in a purse, in a backpack. And it's using

00:24:13.580 oftentimes everyday items and trash in a different way. It's looking at things, what I call through

00:24:21.420 survival tinted goggles. So a good, just kind of a fun exercise to do with your family or your buddies

00:24:29.180 is to throw a random product, a random product from a table and then just brainstorm as many

00:24:34.460 things as you can think of as how, how that product could be used to meet one of your core

00:24:40.600 four basic human survival needs. That's awesome. You'd be surprised. Yeah. And you'd be surprised at

00:24:46.760 the list. You know, the first few to come out are always a little crazy, but once they start coming

00:24:51.520 and people start brainstorming, you'd be surprised at all the crazy ways, regular everyday items that

00:24:58.260 we see in the, you know, in ditches along the road can be used to meet our core basic survival

00:25:04.500 needs with a little bit of creativity. Well, you've actually written some articles for the art of

00:25:08.940 manliness, this sort of thing. Like it's one of some of our most popular articles, the, uh, the

00:25:12.960 survival tampon, uh, is an example. Classic example. Yeah. I mean, who would have known that this is like

00:25:19.260 the, what do you call the tactical survival tool? What does tampon mean? Yeah. I, uh,

00:25:25.360 comfort did exactly what it was, definitely tactical outdoor adventure tool or something

00:25:30.120 like that. Yeah. And then you also did it with the cell phone, right? Like you have a busted cell

00:25:33.940 phone, like here's different ways you can. So yeah, I mean, so I guess your, your suggestion is

00:25:38.900 like, just take stuff you find in your house, plop it on the table and say, all right, find as many

00:25:44.240 ways you can to use this as a survival instrument. Exactly. And it's actually pretty fun to do,

00:25:51.100 you know, and, and like any skill, whether the hearts, you know, we talked about the hard skills,

00:25:55.920 how practice is important, you know, thinking outside of the box and being creative is a skill

00:26:00.900 and if that's encouraged, and if you encourage your mind to think that way on a regular basis,

00:26:05.840 you'd be surprised at how quickly you start develop the ability to improvise and kind of look at

00:26:13.000 products through that, through those survival tinted goggles that I talk about.

00:26:17.800 That's awesome. All right. So let's talk about your new book. Uh, you got a new book out. Uh,

00:26:21.740 it's the unofficial hunger game survival guide. Uh, who's this book geared towards? What's your goal

00:26:27.780 with this book? Well, I tell you what, I always told myself I was never going to write a primitive 0.62

00:26:34.140 survival skills manual. Um, there's so many on the market and quite frankly, I didn't really feel like

00:26:40.820 I could add to the content that was already out there. I mean, there's only so many different

00:26:46.340 ways you can present how to build a shelter and how to do a bow drill and how to start fire with

00:26:51.400 sticks. And, and there's a lot of great primitive survival skills manual in the market. So I always

00:26:57.200 told myself that's been done numerous ways before, and I'm never going to write one. And then the hunger

00:27:03.340 games came along, which if no one knows what the hunger games are, then I don't know what to tell

00:27:09.620 you. Yeah. You've been sleeping under a rock. Yeah. Seriously. That's putting it lightly. Um,

00:27:16.200 it's huge, huge young adult survival themed fiction book series. There's three books in that series.

00:27:23.640 Number one book series in probably the world for the past year and maybe even a couple of years.

00:27:30.760 And it gave me an opportunity to reach, to present primitive skills in a totally different

00:27:39.620 way and reach an audience that necessarily does it, that doesn't necessarily go out and pick up,

00:27:45.640 you know, your traditional primitive skills survival manual. So while this book does have a hunger

00:27:53.260 games theme, it is certainly not, it is certainly not only for hunger games fans. You know, it, uh,

00:28:00.420 it is at its core. I teach all of the survival skills and more mentioned throughout the book series,

00:28:07.320 the hunger games book series, but at its core, it is a primitive skills manual. You know,

00:28:12.480 these are real, these are not fictional skills. These are real skills for real people in real

00:28:17.740 situations. So whether you're a hunger games fan or whether you're a survival fan, it's an awesome

00:28:24.320 read. It's, um, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's not, it's full pictures, which I love.

00:28:30.880 Yeah. And it's, uh, it's not heavy reading, you know, it's real light reading. Uh, I, I'm a very

00:28:36.320 light kind of, you know, very light writer and my, my writing is easy to read and, uh, and this fits

00:28:44.700 right in there. So it's presenting primitive skills in a really different and unique way that's never been

00:28:50.900 done before. Awesome. What sort of skills, um, inspired by the movie will we find in the book?

00:28:59.260 We've got some pretty cool ones. I mean, we definitely talk about twitch up snares. We

00:29:04.680 definitely talk about how to build snares, but I've done a great post for you for the art of

00:29:09.400 manliness on snares too. Yeah. Oh, we, we definitely talk about wild edibles. Um, a big theme of the

00:29:19.180 Hunger Games is Katniss, this main character, actually Katniss is named, that name is named

00:29:25.860 after a wild edible tuber, the Katniss plant, also known as the Arrowhead plant. So the, the Hunger

00:29:31.620 Games book series has a wild edible theme. So I talk about a lot of the wild edibles that those

00:29:36.300 characters might have been harvesting and gathering, a lot of different hunting tools and techniques.

00:29:42.860 Um, there's kind of a cool scene in the book where Katniss is preparing a, a warm soup for this other

00:29:48.840 character.

00:29:49.180 named PETA. And she heats this soup by putting in sun warmed rocks to heat this soup. And there's a

00:29:58.220 part in the book where I teach people how to make a coal burned container out of wood and then use

00:30:04.960 hot rocks to actually boil and purify water in a wooden container.

00:30:09.860 Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. So it's, uh, applying a lot of those skills mentioned and, you know, really fleshing

00:30:16.940 them out so that people can, you know, practice them and understand them. And hopefully one day

00:30:21.600 if they ever, if they ever need to use them.

00:30:23.640 Well, speaking of which one day, what are the chances, you know, as a survivor expert, um, what

00:30:31.840 are the chances you think will end up like Panem where, you know, there's societal breakdown in the

00:30:37.400 United States and the country's divided into 12 districts and we make teenagers kill each other. 0.97

00:30:43.200 Um, what are the chances that, uh, that'll happen that your, your book will actually, you know,

00:30:49.800 the skills you teach will actually be applicable in, in the, the arena, so to speak?

00:30:53.960 Yeah, seriously. Well, you know, I mean, I'm the kind of guy that never says never. So, um, you

00:31:01.540 know, probably slim, you know, but all, all great superpowers have fallen. And, um, you know, one,

00:31:08.820 you know, the chances of maybe Panem are pretty slim, but the chances of being thrust into a sudden

00:31:18.380 and unexpected survival scenario are not so slim. You know, I really, I really, I really,

00:31:23.960 I really believe that this stuff, this stuff happens to people on a regular basis. I mean,

00:31:29.000 we see it on the news and I really believe that these skills are important. You know,

00:31:33.760 we're not the society that we were 150 years ago, where a lot of this is common knowledge.

00:31:40.200 We have become accustomed to our basic needs being provided for us rather than us providing them.

00:31:48.300 And a lot of people are very uncomfortable when, when faced with a scenario like that.

00:31:53.960 So, you know, even though it may not be a complete societal collapse, it only takes three

00:32:00.640 hours to die and then sometimes less. So basic primitive skills and modern skills with tools

00:32:08.460 are, will always have their place regardless of what society is like or what the world is

00:32:13.720 like. As long as we're on planet earth, mother nature will always be our greatest adversary.

00:32:18.100 For sure. All right. So Creek, um, final question. What, what can we expect from you in the future?

00:32:25.140 I mean, I'm always amazed that you've, you seem to get all these projects going on. What are some of

00:32:29.020 the, the ones we can look forward to that you got coming down the pipe?

00:32:33.280 Well, I, I try to stay busy. I always try to put out good survival content, man.

00:32:38.520 And so I'm, I'm constant, I'm trying, I'm constantly just trying to come out with,

00:32:42.820 you know, good writing and good, good content for people, you know, that's going to make a

00:32:48.620 difference someday. So I, I try to be entertaining at the same time and I try to, I try to do stuff

00:32:54.440 that's valuable. Um, you know, one of the product projects I'm most excited about right now

00:33:00.300 is I've, I've written my first, it's my first survival fiction novel. It's a, it's a young

00:33:08.580 adult novel. Um, it's probably one of the, one of the projects that I've found most excited about

00:33:15.060 my whole career. Um, it's a, it's a really great story. It's, it's about a, it's about a boy, 17

00:33:21.760 years old. Uh, the name of the book is Rugosa. Um, it'll, it'll be out in a few months. Uh, you can

00:33:27.660 obviously get more, more information on my website, but, uh, it's about this 17 year old boy

00:33:32.620 in kind of a collapsing society travels from Eastern West Virginia on foot to save this girl

00:33:40.600 that he loves who's trapped in Philadelphia. And it really goes through everything that this kid's

00:33:50.120 experiencing, both hard skills and soft skills that we talked about to get her and

00:33:57.260 start that journey back. It's the first of the three book series. And it is just everything

00:34:02.600 that I ever wanted to read in a survival fiction story. So I'm, I'm really super excited about it.

00:34:08.640 That is, that's really awesome. Did you ever think that you'd, you know, like six years ago

00:34:12.640 that you'd be a fiction author?

00:34:15.840 No, never. You know, I always have enjoyed survival fiction. I mean, I grew up reading

00:34:21.240 My Side of the Mountain and Hatchet and, you know, I mean, Wolf, you know, what's, uh, White Fang?

00:34:30.500 White Fang, yeah.

00:34:31.160 You know, just, I just loved survival fiction and those, you know, it's, it's just a, such a part of

00:34:37.100 how I think and who I am and kind of what shaped my childhood. And, you know, I never thought that I

00:34:45.000 would, you know, be writing survival fiction, but it's been a really fun, it was a fun, fun,

00:34:53.020 it's been really fun writing, writing those stories, man, because you don't, you're not

00:34:57.320 necessarily, you know, confined by facts and things. So it's just been, it's just been really,

00:35:03.100 it's just been a really fun opportunity.

00:35:05.240 I'm looking forward to it. We're going to, we're going to take down The Hunger Games and then

00:35:09.140 we'll have a movie made based, made based off of your books. We're going to, we're going to make

00:35:13.900 it happen.

00:35:15.340 Yeah, well, I tell you what, I got to give mad props to Suzanne Collins, who wrote The Hunger 0.98

00:35:20.960 Games, because it's only because of that book series that, you know, I had the opportunity

00:35:25.820 to write this book and she has opened up the doors of opportunity for so many other people,

00:35:31.240 as have you. And, um, you know, exposed an entirely new audience, the young adult audience

00:35:37.700 to survival skills that I believe are important that may have not otherwise had an interest in

00:35:43.660 those. So I've definitely seen a spike in young adults and teenagers at my courses. And, uh,

00:35:50.080 and I think that's huge. And I give a lot of credit to her in that series. So.

00:35:54.060 Very good. All right. Well, Creek, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much

00:35:58.120 for your time.

00:36:00.520 Hey, Brett, man, I appreciate all that you do. I'm a huge fan of you and your site and, you

00:36:06.360 know, I, I eat up your content. So the pleasure is all mine.

00:36:09.900 Well, thank you, sir. I'm, I'm humbled and honored.

00:36:13.480 And just so you know, I'm at the blade show and I've met probably five or six. I was only

00:36:18.980 in there for a couple hours. I'm at the blade show in Atlanta, Georgia. And I've met five

00:36:22.720 or six guys who come, who've come up to me and said, dude, are you, are you Creek from

00:36:27.680 the art of manliness from the guy who writes on the art of manliness? So you have got art

00:36:31.560 of manliness fans walking around at the blade night show in Atlanta, Georgia today, Brett.

00:36:35.860 That's awesome. Well, tell them, well, if you're serious, man, that's all. If you see

00:36:39.520 any more, give them a, a firm handshake for me.

00:36:43.260 I certainly will. I certainly will. I told him, I said, I'm getting ready to get on the

00:36:47.320 phone with Brett from the podcast. And I think they were, I think they were a little jealous,

00:36:51.720 but I couldn't fit them all in the, in the conference room.

00:36:55.300 Our guest today was Creek Stewart. Creek is the owner of Willow Haven outdoor. You can find

00:37:00.040 more information about a survival school at willowhavenoutdoor.com. And his latest book is the unofficial

00:37:05.660 hunger game survival guide. And you can find that book on amazon.com.

00:37:12.100 Well, that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast. For more manly tips and advice,

00:37:17.280 make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com. And Hey, did you

00:37:21.640 guys know we have a store? We do. It's store.artofmanliness.com. You'll find all sorts of art of manliness

00:37:28.160 goodies there, t-shirts, posters, um, with illustrations by Ted Slampiak stationary, and we're adding new

00:37:35.100 products. So love for you to check by, pick something up. It'll help support the podcast

00:37:40.040 and the website and keep it going. So thanks. So until next time, this is Brett McKay telling you to

00:37:48.380 stay madly.

The Art of Manliness - April 04, 2014

Episode #48： Survival And Prepping With Creek Stewart

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