Blame it on the Pandemic, Zombie movies or video games, but today’s doomsday preppers are a far cry from the lonely survivalists, living on the fringes of society with an irrational suspicion of government surveillance. Today they include young professionals, with timeshares in luxury underground condo bunkers and are the anti-thesis of the persona that populated the public imagination about 10 years ago. So what made preppers go mainstream? Was it politics, natural disasters, or inspiration from television and film? We talk to Bradley Garrett, social geographer, worldwide adventurer and author of Bunker: Preparing for the End Times (Scribner, August) about the rise of prepper culture in pop culture.
So grab your bug out bag and hunker down for another stellar episode of Alt.Pop.Repeat.