Several years into the production of The Survival Podcast I began to assemble a group I refer to as the TSPC Expert Council.  These individuals have all demonstrated some key attributes before they were asked to join.

First – They are absolutely experts in their fields and have a track record of providing spot on, actionable and accurate advice.

Second – They are all community members and have all contributed to our community as members before being given a position on the council.

Third – They are all dedicated to helping others achieve individual freedom and liberty in their lives.

To ask a question of one of our council members, just send an email to me at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with “TSPC Expert” in the subject line.

In the body of your email first tell me the council member your question is for.  Second ask your question concisely in one to two sentences maximum.  Third provide any and all details after that.  This is the formula to give you the best chance of getting on the air.

I do what I can to get as many of your questions as possible on the air but can’t always get to all of them.  Our council is made of a wide variety of experts in everything from the tactical to the practical and everything in between.

The Members of our Expert Council Include…

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Josh the Renegade Butcher – Josh grew up in a homeschooling family immersed in preparedness, herbalism, gardening and home renovation in rural Illinois.  He began his career working in the grocery industry around 16. Eventually leveraging his interest in Amteur Radio, he pursued a degree in Electronics Engineering in Iowa and began a varied career of working on commercial copy machines, then medical equipment.  Raised with a pepper mentality, he found The Survival Podcast while driving for work back around 2008.  Inspired by the entrepreneurial advice of Jack and his community, he started and ran a landscaping/handyman business for 3 years before finally finding an opportunity to move to South East Texas onto a small homestead.

While learning and growing his own skills with raising small livestock, he took a seasonal job at a local deer processor.  Finding a new passion in meat cutting, he learned quickly and became one of the head retail meat cutters and deer processors.  He also immersed himself in Texas style BBQ and sausage making. After several years he took an opportunity at another processor and helped them build their domestic slaughter program, running a kill floor as well as cutting hanging beef, pork and lamb under full USDA inspection.  Eventually seeing many flaws with the modern food system, and a great need for on-site processing, he left to open his own small business helping ranchers and homesteaders process on-site.

Having had many adventures in interacting with the state, as well as finding creative ways to process animals with minimal equipment, he started the Renegade Butcher Show nearly a year ago.  This spawned the Liberty Meat Chat telegram group to help educate and grow the home processing community.  He is active on social media, as well as offering on-site consultations and instruction all over Texas when he isn’t leveraging his passion for cooking to process deer each winter.  His deer processing business has bloomed into a demand for Renegade Butcher Seasoning, and more content on cooking and properly handling meat.  He is also co-host of Lightning For Liberty, a podcast helping to explain new Bitcoin technology to the average non-technical person.

He’s happy to field questions on butchery, home processing, cooking and BBQ, seasonings, entrepreneurship and utilizing bitcoin and lighting as a small business.

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Ramiro Romani – is a technologist, activist, educator, and entrepreneur who dropped his software engineering career to work on meaningful social movements. Now he’s a core member of The Freedom Cell Network, and co-producer of The Greater Reset. He’s helped grow both of these websites & movements to tens of thousands of people while protecting members’ privacy.

In 2021, he launched #TakeBackOurTech (https://takebackourtech.org), an educational initiative that creates free guides and videos showing people how to use friendly, privacy-focused technologies across all their devices. The initiative also touches on subjects like health, applied technology, and applied science as they relate to technology.

Ramiro is also the founder/CEO of Above Agency and the innovator behind the Above Phone (https://abovephone.com), which empowers people to use privacy focused open-source software as a complete product. With its suite of cutting-edge software services and its unmatched customer support, the Above Phone is transforming the relationship users have with their phones.

Take Back Our Tech – Let’s use technology that doesn’t use us.
Above Phone – Free people. Friendly technologies.

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CJ Kilmer – History and Anarcho/Libertarian Theory – Born and raised a Florida Man, CJ Killmer holds Bachelor’s & Master’s degrees in history. He was a college history professor for 16 years, during which time he taught classes in US History, World History, Western Civilization and Florida History, but he never fit in well with conventional academia, because CJ has been a smartass, iconoclast, and a cynical questioner & critic of authority since he was a little kid.

Naturally, these attitudes have influenced his take on history, which CJ often summarizes as a combination of George Carlin & Murray Rothbard. In the summer of 2014, CJ started the Dangerous History Podcast to serve as an outlet for some of his more radical takes & deep dives on history topics that didn’t always fit into the courses he was teaching at the time. What started as a hobby grew into a side-hustle and, eventually, a full-time vocation. The Dangerous History Podcast is dedicated to sharing history that the Establishment would rather you NOT know, so you can learn the past and thereby better understand the present & prepare for the future.  Check it out at http://dangeroushistorypodcast.com/

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Amy Dingman – Homeschooling, Parenting & Family Relationships – Amy Dingmann gets to answer your questions about homeschooling, parenting, and family life/relationships. Amy’s always been one to think harder and dig deeper to do things differently, and felt pretty much at home when she finally listened to “that one podcast by that one guy Jack” that a friend kept suggesting she check out.. As a parent, Amy ignored the naysayers and chose to homeschool her two sons all the way through their education, running the gamut from super structured to full on unschooling and everything in between.

Her kids survived having her as a teacher and are now thriving in their own adult adventures. Amy wrote for many years about their homeschooling adventure at her website TheHmmmschoolingMom.com, and also wrote The Homeschool Highway books – a super honest series about deciding to live life as a homeschooling family.

Known for equal parts honesty, humor, and sass, Amy talks about homesteading adventures, lifestyle design, and personal development at her Farmish Kind of Life website, podcast, and video channels. She has written several books and also sends out a monthly snail mail newsletter (The Farmish Papers) full of tips, tricks, and deep thoughts about life—homesteading and otherwise. You can find out more about Amy at  A Farmish Kind of Life.com.

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Ken D Berry, MD – Health, Nutrition, Medical Issues, Keto/Low Carb –  Ken is a Family Physician, Speaker and Author based in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, in Animal Biology and Psychology, from Middle Tennessee State University, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in 1996.

He received his MD from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, in Memphis, Tennessee, in 2000.

Ken has been practicing Family Medicine in rural Tennessee for 20 years, having seen more than 25,000 patients in his career thus far. He is board certified in Family Medicine, and has been awarded the degree of Fellow, by the American Academy of Family Physicians.  Ken is the author of LIES MY DOCTOR TOLD ME: Medical Myths That Can Harm Your Health and he has a very successful YouTube Channel and is active and accessible on Facebook

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Jessica Mills – www.HomemadeWanderlust.com – Jessica “Dixie” Mills is an avid backpacker and YouTuber who has completed the Triple Crown of Hiking (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail). She is excited to answer your questions about backpacking/hiking, planning brief outings or extended trips, gear, general enjoyment of the wilderness, leave no trace principles, vlogging in nature and pursuing dreams.

Jessica, better known by her trail name “Dixie”, first dreamed of thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail when she was 4-5 years old while on a family vacation in North Carolina. As most childhood dreams do, this idea was pushed to the back burner. She graduated from Auburn University in 2012 with a degree in Biosystems Engineering and a minor in Agronomy and Soils.

After years of listening to TSP, Jessica realized she had gotten caught up in society’s plan and wasn’t designing her own life. It was then at the end of 2014 that Jessica quit her job as an engineer in Colorado and go take a 6-month walk on the Appalachian Trail (2,189 miles). She decided to capture her journey and share it with others by vlogging on YouTube. In 2017 and 2018, she completed thru-hikes of the Pacific Crest Trail (2,650 miles) and Continental Divide Trail (3,000 miles) and also documented those hikes.

Jessica currently resides in Opelika, AL with her two dog children when she isn’t being a stinky hiker. In the off season, her channel, Homemade Wanderlust, is dedicated to helping others learn more about backpacking. To follow her adventures or learn more about backpacking, visit her channel: www.youtube.com/c/HomemadeWanderlust and her website at www.homemadewonderlust.com

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Shawn Mills – HackMySolar.com –

Shawn can answer your questions on off grid living, appropriate technology, and homestead automation design.  His primary expertise is in solar thermal, solar photo-voltaic, and rainwater catchment systems and COST EFFECTIVE implementation of those systems.  Shawn has been an active member in the TSP Community since 2013.

Shawn has worked in and around the power generation industry since 2000 and decided shortly after the Great Recession to build a lifestyle that was more self-sufficient.  He has lived on his off grid homestead with his wife and two children since 2012 utilizing solar pv and rainwater catchment systems he designed and installed himself.

In 2017 Shawn started a consultation company “Hack My Solar” to help others demystify solar and other alternative energy systems and implement them in their own lives.  in 2023 Shawn rebranded to HackmyHomestead.com and expanded consultation to include other Homestead design needs.  His customers have included new construction projects, remote hunting properties, and existing homes and outbuildings with a variety of installation types.  Shawn’s designs are based on customer’s overall goals and a holistic view of energy use AND cost of implementation where sometimes the “appropriate” answer is generator and gasoline rather than newer and more expensive technology.  Check out his website at HackmyHomestead.com

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Patrick Roehrman MTKnives.net – Patrick Roehrman is a knife maker and bladesmith from Missouri, where he and his wife Emily home school their children. He can answer all your questions on knives, edged weapons, tools, and tool sharpening.

After his first child was born Patrick wanted to be able to work from home and be there with his family. even pass his skills on to his children. It took 14 years for his dream to come true. In 2010 he started making knives as a hobby, he soon had enough work to keep him busy but not enough to support his family full-time. Patrick worked as a lineman, always on call, cleaning up every storm. If the lights were out, he was out  too.  With help from Jack Spirko and the TSP community through MTKnives’ stakeholder program, he was able to run his MTKnives business full-time.  All 100 positions sold out in less than 6 minutes.

Next came the knife sharpening video, Beyond Razor Sharp. Patrick knows how to make sharp knives and keep them sharp. He has accomplished some amazing feats such as shaved a balloon with a knife, and splitting a hair three times in the same spot. Patrick loves to share his knowledge and has traveled around the country teaching his skills.

As not all can afford a custom knife, and Patrick’s desire to have a quality knife in the hands of more people, he expanded his business to include some really cool neck knives. They were featured in 2015 in the Blade magazine  Check out his site at MTKnives.Net

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Nicole Sauce – LivingFreeInTennessee.com – Nicole can answer your questions on homesteading entrepreneurship, marketing, web development, and on turning major projects with insurmountable obstacles into achievable goals. Nicole can also take questions on working with (or getting around) public policy makers and local governments, increasing liberty in your life and local community.

Nicole’s foundation in liberty began when she was three. She stole a chocolate egg from a grocery store. Her mother soon discovered this and made Nicole go back, return the egg, apologize and pay the store owner. Despite this early lesson on personal responsibility, Nicole leaned toward socialism – communism, really, as the best means of organizing society. Then she took her first steps in a public policy issue – mass transit – after realizing that state-run systems are simply unfair. This launched a career working with free-market think tanks around the country bent on developing policy strategy, issue campaigns and putting a face on reform.

She has taught in a public high school, worked as executive coach for Fortune 500 companies and run a nonprofit organization, shaping her perspective on liberty, homesteading entrepreneurship and lifestyle design. Nicole cultivates her interest in learning to do things from absolute scratch – thanks to parents and grandparents who claimed you can learn to do anything you want. Nicole sang in a rock band for fifteen years, has fancy college degrees, and uses her podcast, Living Free in Tennessee, to help spark liberty and self-reliance in those who want to be all they can be.  Check out her website at LivingFreeInTennessee.com

 

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Doctor Bones and Nurse Amy – DoomAndBloom.net – Joe Alton, M.D. is a retired (due to extreme old age) but actively licensed medical doctor and Amy Alton, A.R.N.P. is an advanced registered nurse practitioner and a certified nurse midwife. They’re medical preparedness writers and are here to answer all your medical questions regarding just about anything, from disasters to epidemics to mass casualty incidents. Everything they write about assumes that some disaster has occurred and there are no doctors and no hospitals. Joe and Amy’s mission: To put a medically prepared person in every family.

The Altons are the No.1 Amazon bestselling authors of The Survival Medicine Handbook, NY Times bestselling authors of The Ebola Survival Handbook, designers of an entire line of disaster medical kits, plus a board game SURVIVAL! that was awarded the Teaching Preparedness Resource of the Week by the Prepared Family Blog.

You can find the Altons, as Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, at their top survival medicine website at www.doomandbloom.net, their YouTube channel at DrBones NurseAmy, Twitter at Preppershow, Facebook at Doom and Bloom, and on their podcast “The Survival Medicine Hour” on blogtalkradio.

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Ben Falk – Whole Systems Design – Ben can answer questions related to permaculture, site planning, energy efficient design and construction, modern homesteading and regenerative design.  He is specifically an expert in cold temperate climates.  Ben developed his landscape architecture studio Whole Systems Design, LLC to apply the productivity of farming and homesteading with the intelligence of ecology to home, school and public spaces.

Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings. His home landscape and the WSD studio site in Vermont’s Mad River Valley align with his larger 175 acre silvopasture farm serve as a proving ground for the regenerative land developments featured in the projects of Whole Systems Design.

Ben has studied architecture and landscape architecture at the graduate level and holds a master’s degree in land-use planning and design. He has conducted about 250 site development consultations across New England and facilitated dozens of courses on permaculture design, property selection, microclimate design, and design for climate change. Ben is the author of the award-winning book the Resilient Farm and Homestead (Chelsea Green, 2013).  For more, see Ben Falk’s recent TEDx talk.

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Darby Simpson – DarbySimpson.com – Darby can answer all your questions on full time farming for profit and livestock management.  Specifically on pastured poultry, pork and beef.

Darby grew up on his family’s seventh generation farm located in Central Indiana, just 25 miles outside of Indianapolis.  However he never learned anything about the family business.  He began his own farming enterprise in 2007 after reading “Pastured Poultry Profits” by Joel Salatin as well as several other sources of information pertaining to small scale pasture based meat production.

The operation produced 150 pastured broilers that first year that were quickly sold and generated a base of avid customers who were left clamoring for more.   In 2008, the enterprise grew to 1,000 birds while pastured pork was also added, with the hogs all being spoken for thru successful marketing to the existing customer base.

By 2012, the farm was producing up to 3,000 pastured broilers, 125 turkeys, 60 hogs and 12 beef per year while using less than 20 total acres.  The farm now financially supports Darby and his wife Brandy, along with their two young boys, Ethan and Zach.   His success shows it is possible to build a business from scratch with little or no knowledge of what Joel Salatin affectionately calls “lunatic farming”.

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John Pugliano – The Wealthsteading Podcast – While I personally manage my own investments, I consider John to be my most trusted financial adviser, period.  He is a true professional, fully switched on and on top of it as a prepper himself that knows your preps are part of your life long financial stability.

John is a long time individual investor and late blooming entrepreneur.  He is the money manager and founder of Investable Wealth LLC.  Investable Wealth LLC. is a hands-on investment advisory firm that specializes in helping clients build wealth with active portfolio management.  Their primary investment philosophy is tactical in nature, taking advantage of current market conditions with trend trading methodologies.

On top of all this, John is an all-around great guy with a cutting view into modern business and economics along with being a licensed HAM Radio Operator.

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Geoff Lawton – GeoffLawtonOnline.com– Geoff Lawton is “the man” when it comes to permaculture in all climates and indeed all over the world.  I personally consider Geoff to be my greatest mentor in the world of Permaculture and consider him responsible for my full indoctrination into the discipline.

In October 1997 Bill Mollison, upon his retirement, asked Geoff to establish and direct a new permaculture research institute on the 147-acre (0.59 km2) Tagari Farm. Lawton developed the site over a period of three years and established The Permaculture Research Institute as a global networking center for permaculture projects. The institute is a non-profit company limited by guarantee. It is currently located at Zaytuna Farm at The Channon in Northern NSW, Australia where Lawton is managing director

At his website Geoff provides opportunities to take his PDC to a limited number of students annually and some of the most incredible free permaculture videos ever produced.

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