Okay, what's the most intense drive for all life, whether it's now 100 years ago, 100,000 years ago?

It's survival. Now, say the apocalypse is approaching, either because of stuff we do to each other,

the stuff we do to the planet, or the dreaded onslaught of bigger, smarter, more powerful

beings from another world.

How do you want to protect yourself, your family, and if you're nice, maybe even humanity?

I'm Patty Steele, Doomsday Bunkers, for all tastes.

That's next on The Backstory.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

The backstory is back.

We have for hundreds of thousands of years as a species tried to protect ourselves, right?

Lately, there's been a lot of anxiety about survival.

Talk of war, lack of affordable food and fuel, the environment,

even weirdly, the possibility of aliens circling and drawing a target on our little blue dot

in the universe. What happens when we feel threatened? Well, it's the old fight or flight response,

right? And admit it, fighting seems like a crummy choice if you have a place you can flee to.

Now, personally, if there's an end-of-the-world scenario here, I want to be the first one taken out.

But it turns out a lot of folks have been quietly preparing some sort of destination to get away to,

where they can wait out what's happening

above ground and hopefully emerge ready to do life all over again. Let's start out with a more

inclusive plan for saving our lives. It's called the doomsday seed vault. Huh? Seeds? Well, here's

the thing. If you're choosing a place to protect humanity's future,

scientists say you'd want to protect the food supply, and do it somewhere isolated, cold,

...