Bunkers

Flightless Bird

David Farrier

Comedy, Flightless Bird, Documentary, Society & Culture, David Farrier

5 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Flightless Bird, David descends underground into the world of preppers and bunkers, learning that 40% of Americans believe that stocking up on supplies or building an underground shelter is a better investment than saving for retirement. Joined my Monica Mouse, David discovers that humans have wanted to live underground for the last 2000 years. David interviews ethnographic researcher Bradley Garrett about the mindset of the American bunker enthusiast since Covid, and finds out why Brad was arrested on the tarmac back in 2012, spending two years marooned in the UK. David finds out about the American man who wanted to buy an nuclear bunker with 56 bedrooms, and calls up a bunker company to find out what’s in their million dollar bunker package.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm David Farrier, and New Zealand are accidentally marooned in America, and I want to grasp
0:05.9	what makes this country tick.
0:08.0	And what I've grasped is that a lot of Americans are planning for what to do when this country
0:12.4	stops ticking.
0:14.0	You trust your home to keep your family safe,
0:17.0	but there are many threats that don't stop at locked doors and brick walls.
0:21.0	Your house isn't made to withstand uncertain danger.
0:24.1	It turns out 40% of Americans believe that stocking up on supplies or building an underground shelter
0:30.0	is a better investment than saving for retirement.
0:33.0	But what are people worried about?
0:35.0	Well according to this ad I got served on Facebook for a bunker building company, a lot of things.
0:40.0	Natural disasters, home invasion, or social unrest.
0:43.9	Now a few years ago I would have put America's passion for prepping down to paranoia.
0:48.8	But then the pandemic happened.
0:50.7	I saw how quickly that toilet paper disappeared off the shelves. Since the pandemic, some surveys
0:56.1	have 45% of American spending money on survival materials, up 20% on pre-Pandemic 2019.
1:04.0	Building a bunker is a step further,
1:06.0	but a step that isn't just in the domain of Wacky Reality TV anymore.
1:10.0	And all that worry and dread has meant bunkers are now a multi-billion dollar a year industry.
1:16.0	So, grab as much tin food as you can and say goodbye to civilization as you go underground into your heavily fortified
1:23.2	subterranean space because this is the bunkers episode.
1:28.0	Fightless,
	...

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