Variety program designed for fun and staying alive.
With summer heating up in Arizona, survival instructor Cody Lundin is well aware of how quickly a day hike can turn into an emergency situation. Having taught survival skills to thousands of people – ages 7 to 80 – for more than 30 years from his Prescott-based Aboriginal Living Skills School, Lundin is “deadly serious” about survival. Along with his many courses, he now offers a playful, yet informative, variety show. Like a good daypack, “The Survival Show with Cody Lundin” is neatly packed, with life-saving tools and tips for all ages.
“I’ve wanted to create a survival show that gives viewers accurate information for years,” said Lundin, “while still holding a viewer’s attention. As teachers, that’s a challenge that we all face.”
Part caveman, part businessman, Lundin hosts the program authentically as himself – in braids and a bandana – and has one goal: “To teach you how to stay alive. Self-reliance training will never go out of style,” he says.
Set in the 1970s inside a Streamline travel trailer with green shag carpet, The Survival Show has groovy visuals, eccentric co-hosts and occasional Elvis appearances. Lundin balances the silliness with segments like Bushwhacking with Cody for survival lessons, interviews with scientists and outdoor experts, practical advice about dealing with inconveniences such as poison ivy and even what to do with a dead body.
An Awesome Place to Explore, An Easy Place to Get into Trouble
Lundin calls Arizona an awesome place to recreate, where outdoor enthusiasts can go from what looks like Canada to what looks like Mexico, but much of it is arid landscape. He says one must drink water and know where it is “because you’re dead without it.”
He adds that there are a lot of myths about drinking your urine or putting a spicket into a barrel cactus to get water. “Of course, that’s not true and it could cost you your life.”
The classic way to die in the Arizona desert is hyperthermia, he says. “It’s a rise in core body temperature from 98.6 to a dangerous temperature, and dehydration is the ugly brother that goes with hyperthermia.”
What we can do in a desert survival situation with urine or water that’s not drinkable, he says, is wet elements of clothing, like a bandana, to cool down our head and neck. “The head area especially because you have a lot of blood vessels up here. The neck, you have the carotid artery and the jugular veins, highly susceptible to heat loss and gain. So, if you had to pee, pee on a bandana and wrap it around your neck and you’ll get a vital cooling effect from that. I know it sounds nasty, but we’re dealing with people’s safety.”
The World’s Foremost Primitive Expert
With years of on-air experience, Lundin is an outdoor survival celebrity. He has been called “The World’s Foremost Primitive Expert” and has appeared on a great number of national television programs and in publications. The extensive list includes The Today Show, Good Morning America, NBC Dateline, CNN, the BBC, The Donny and Marie Show and The New York Times. In addition, he co-hosted and co-produced the hit TV show, “Dual Survival,” for four seasons.
Lundin also is the author of two best-selling books, “98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive” and “When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes.” Through the COVID-19 pandemic, his book sales spiked.
In them, Lundin gives straightforward scientific information about how the brain works when the body perceives a threat and what happens physiologically: blood vessels constrict, breathing becomes shallow, judgment is impaired. He also discusses how hypothermia and hyperthermia impact motor skills. And, he teaches how to control fear by what he calls “cultivating rational insanity.”
“You need to be rational in the respect of ‘OK, here’s what’s going on with my body,’ but then you kind of just need to be like a kid in a way. Kids don’t have limitations or boundaries. When your life’s on the line, you might be expected to do stuff you never thought you could do. So, when you have the science down pat, get ready to expand your boundaries and be more of an animal than a human or like a little kid and be able to push your mind through areas that you didn’t think you could go before. There are a lot of survival stories out there about regular people who survived situations by having nothing more than the goal of wanting to see their mom or their dad or their family. So having that thing that you want to live for is huge for that positive attitude to stay alive.”
Lundin says everyone needs basic survival skills. His courses include urban preparedness, modern outdoor survival skills and primitive living skills. His intention is not to scare people, but to help them stay calm, think logically and start out their journeys being prepared and educated. “These are not just outdoor survival courses, they help make us stronger, more resilient in the face of change.” FBN
By Bonnie Stevens, FBN
For more information about “The Survival Show with Cody Lundin,” or his books and courses, visit codylundin.com. For more tips and scenarios, watch Zonie Living, “Surviving Arizona’s Extreme Environments and Emergencies with Cody Lundin” on
Courtesy Photo: Survival instructor Cody Lundin teaches survival skills to people of all ages and skill levels, from children to Search and Rescue teams.
