The Disaster Diaries

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse

By: Sam Sheridan

Narrated by: Donald Corren

Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Sam Sheridan has been an amateur boxer, mixed-martial-arts fighter, professional wilderness firefighter, EMT, sailor, and cowboy, and has worked in construction at the South Pole. If he isn't ready for the apocalypse, we're all in a lot of trouble.

Despite an arsenal of skills that would put most of us to shame, when Sam had his son and settled down, he was beset with nightmares about being unable to protect him. Apocalyptic images filled his head. If a rogue wave hit his beach community, could he get out? If he was forced outside the city, could he survive in the wilderness? Let's not even talk about plagues, zombies, and aliens. Unable to quiet his mind, Sam decided to face his fears head-on, embarking on a quest to gain as many skills as possible that might come in handy should the world as we know it end.

Each possible doomsday required a different skill set. Trying to navigate a clogged highway when everyone is trying to leave town? Better go to the best stunt-driving school in the country. Need to protect your family but have no ammunition? Better learn how to handle a knife. Is your kid hurt or mentally strained? Better brush up on emergency medicine and study the psychological effects of trauma. From training with an Olympic weightlifter to an apprenticeship in stealing cars with an ex-gang member, from an intense three-week gun course in the 100-degree heat of Alabama to agonizing lessons in wilderness survival, Sam left no stone unturned. Would it be enough if a meteor rocked the earth? Who's to say? But as Sam points out, it would be a damn shame to survive the initial impact only to die a few days later because you didn't know how to build a fire.

This is participatory journalism at its finest. A rollicking narrative with each chapter framed by a hypothetical doomsday scenario, The Disaster Diaries is for everyone who wants to know what it might take to make it through a cataclysmic event - or just wants to watch someone else struggle to find out.

©2013 Sam Sheridan (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

"Sheridan, an amateur boxer and mixed-martial-arts fighter, uses a collection of stark disaster scenarios to wise up the reader on how to live through those final times…. As a quirky survivalist primer, Sheridan’s work spells out how to stay alive when the world goes topsy-turvy." (Publishers Weekly)

"How to survive any possible disaster, from aliens to zombies to everything in between…. An upbeat and entertaining survival guide for the end of the world." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This is no mere guide to surviving disaster; it's also the author's personal account of learning to prepare for catastrophe…. A clever and very useful guide to getting ready to face the unknown." (Booklist)

Soooooo good!!!

I wasn’t to sure at first, but man am I glad I held on for the ride. This is such a fantastic book. If you at all are a prepped, know one or are just prep curious, you need to listen to this book.

self reliance mandatory reading

This was a fantastic book. well researched and written. the author gives both a fictional narrative and his research and training that mitigates the situation. Great read!

great stories

This was a different take on prepping and a welcome one at that. The author does a great job explaining why we prep.

The Disaster Diaries is a Great Audiobook

If you could sum up The Disaster Diaries in three words, what would they be?

It is a fun, realist, and well rounded look at prepping for the worst for the layman.

Which scene was your favorite?

Sam's trip to Canada. I liked how he went out of his element and the way he described people living an almost subsistence lifestyle.

Any additional comments?

I heard of this book from a JRE podcast interview that Sam Sheridan did. It was a great podcast and the audiobook did not disappoint.

Thinking Man's Survivalism

Gripping. Half mocking, half seriously hung against a Hollywood backdrop, Sheridan takes you through the joy & pain of primative skills, with psychological insights for Lexus back to the landers & slaps upside the head for hillbilly preppers too.

Chapter 2 provides a compelling description of how the human animal regresses under stress.

More primative functions - mental & physical - displace advanced. Fine motor skills decline, perception & thought narrows, leads to missing hazards & making bad decisions.

In the last chapter he makes the point that despite how civilization's "thin veneer" comes apart under millenia long disasters, data shows that amid the worst shorter term disasters - death camps, Katrina, the Haitian earthquake - survivors maintain human dignity. Cut off, affected populations in fact make it thru by working together. The "lone survivor" doesn't.

That popular media, irresponsible news reports & cop training that portray a state of nature, with victims preying on each other requiring armed intervention - in fact are the primary cause of violence & death.

Larger society are the ones with a "hellish state of nature" mindset projecting it onto fellow citizens in trouble. People break into supermarkets on week 2 of a disaster are feeding people. Those shooting them to "protect property" are the wolves.

There's a real need for a hippocratic type "First do no harm" credo in disaster response.

Perspective

This book gave me a better understanding about self reliance and the shtf situations. Recommend it for pondering your next skill on your way to being self reliant.

A balanced view on being prepared.

The book gave an in depth look at ultimate prepping but then backed off and analyzed a balance between being prepared and being paranoid!

A grounding listen

Even though this guy is condescending to anyone who isn't like him, I get the point he was making. I hope we never have an event to prove him wrong, but if we do, I hope even more hes right.

Who besides a writer or an actor has the time and resources to go on all of these specialized and very expensive trainings. Sure if my budget was endless and I retired at 36, ya! But his concept of preparedness is as far away for most of us commoners as having 100 Mountain farmable Acres that has a house, shop, storage barns, a bunker, 5 highly trained German shepherds with horses and stables. Still a decen listen.

A different take on the apacolypse.

The author definately had a new take on the end of the world. It's all about the preparation. He concentrates on the skills and the knowledge necessary to survive and thrive. A must read for every doomsday prepper.

Amazing

What made the experience of listening to The Disaster Diaries the most enjoyable?

I loved every minute of it! So much useful information! I would have never conceived all of the possibilities so interesting.