The End of the World as We Know It

CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh returns with an examination of the rapidly growing doomsday prepper movement in North America.Once considered a fringe movement, preparing for disasters and long-term emergencies has become increasingly mainstream, with an estimated 20 million Americans now identifying as preppers and the community expanding to include younger and more diverse followers. In this hour, Paton Walsh embarks on a months-long journey across North America to explore both the survival tactics and mindset behind prepping. Drawing on his 25 years of experience covering conflict and its aftermath around the world, he puts his own survival skills to the test, immersing himself in the worlds of those preparing for a range of catastrophic scenarios."It is extraordinary how the world of prepping suck you in to its emotions – that fish antibiotics, crossbows and ferro rods suddenly feel like something you need to have under the bed at home," Paton Walsh said. "But its mainstream emergence is all a very real reflection of how vulnerable people feel – in the climate emergency, political eruptions, and sense of endless war – to the omni-crisis around us. One thing I learned was the stereotype of going it alone in the woods is still a bit nuts. You are going to need other people when the world as we know it ends."Along the way, Paton Walsh explores a converted nuclear missile silo in Kansas, transformed into a luxury survival bunker. In the mountains of Colorado, he visits a survivalist community designed to shelter more than 100 people in the event of a collapse. And on a remote island off the coast of Mexico, he learns the fundamentals of wilderness survival, from building shelter and starting a fire to finding water and food.