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June 23, 2025 - Health Ranger - Mike Adams
31:17
Tim Garcia joins Mike Adams to talk off-grid survival, fire-starting skills...
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Time Text
Welcome to today's interview.
If you're interested in not just surviving, but thriving, you're really going to love our guest today because he's the founder of a company called Uberlieben.
And we'll talk about what that name means.
His name is Tim Garcia, and he joins us by video to talk about this solution product line from his company that helps people survive and thrive off-grid, especially during emergencies.
So welcome to the show today, Tim.
It's great to have you on.
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, thank you for being here.
And just for our audience to know, we've partnered with your company to carry your product line because of the quality of the solutions that you offer.
We'll talk about that.
But just give us a brief overview, if you would, please, about what your company does and the product line that you have.
Yeah, so all of our products are, well, I'll just get into Überlieben as a name because that's always the first question that comes up.
But Überlieuven is a German word meaning to survive, literally, or to live well.
So our focus has always been on less on the survival and more on the living well.
So incorporating these products into a lifestyle.
So yeah, I founded the company in 2016.
And I've always just had this passion for getting outdoors and doing all the outdoor stuff.
And for me, this product line that we produce is all about just simplifying and reconnecting with the elements.
So fire has always been a big part of that for me.
And yeah, the whole brand is built around just slowing down, simplifying and reconnecting with these like lost ways, things that we've disconnected with over the years, like building a fire.
Okay, that's really great to hear because we live in such a modern technology driven world that most people don't know how to start a fire.
Right.
If not for like a BIC lighter or whatever, but those lighters leak.
They leak lighter fluid all day long.
Right.
And if I mean, I've made that mistake.
I've bought lighters, put them on the shelf for a couple of years, came back to try them.
No fire.
No fluid.
Right.
So you offer the Faro bars.
Talk to us about that.
And also, I noticed your quality is much higher than sort of the cheap garbage that is sold on Amazon and other places.
So talk to us about that.
Yeah.
So for people who don't know what Ferro Serium is, it's a mishmetal mix of metals, but it's very similar to what you have in a Biclider.
There's a little tiny piece of metal on there that it's like the flint that throws the sparks.
What Ferroserium is, it's like a whole piece of that.
So the benefits to Ferroserium are, I mean, it's going to last a very, very long time.
It's going to work when it's wet.
It's going to work when it's windy.
It's going to work in any weather condition.
So it's very sustainable.
Like it'll always work.
And three, it's actually not that difficult to use.
So people think about, you know, like using a bow drill or some of these other ways of building a fire in a survival situation.
The benefit to a ferrocerium rod is that anybody can throw sparks with it.
So you do have to, like, there's a skill set that you have to, I guess, practice in order to get really good at it.
But like anybody can come in, throw a spark and like own that fire process.
Yeah.
Not that difficult to use.
Yeah.
I mean, look, I would just tell our audience, you have to apply some amount of pressure to the bar when you're doing it.
And that's what generates the sparks.
But what's amazing about it is it lasts forever.
You know, it doesn't go away.
And each one of your bars can start, I don't know, thousands of fires.
Have you even thought about how many it can?
I mean, it's more than anybody would normally need.
Yeah, we've rated some of them.
And these are averages too, because obviously the amount of pressure you put on it and the material you'll scrape off, all of these things will play a part.
But I think some of our larger ones are like rated for like 20,000 strikes.
But I actually think it's probably more than that on some of these just because, I mean, we've used ours.
We've used them very heavily and we still have rods that, you know, you can see the wear on them, but they're going to last for years and years.
Got it.
So you have this Hexa original right here that I'm showing.
This one seems to be, you know, pretty beefy.
Pretty good size rod.
Yep.
Yep.
So that's a half inch ferro rod, so it's pretty thick.
It's going to last quite a long time.
The benefit to the Hexa, that was a proprietary design that we designed years ago, but essentially what it does is it has flat sides on it.
So the flat sides allow you to get more surface contact when you're scraping it.
Right.
And it's going to throw more material.
So it's kind of like partially worn.
Like if you had a ferro rod for a long time and you're using it, you would start to develop flat planes on the ferro rod.
This is kind of like that right out of the gate.
So it just, it works really, really well.
Oh, okay.
That's, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Okay.
And the other benefit I want to mention here is that these sparks, they burn even when it's damp or wet or even when your fire starting material might be a little bit wet.
Like if you're gathering moss off trees to try to start a fire, you know, it might be a little bit damp.
So you're going to need some extra help with that.
And so talk to us about the fact that this, I mean, this burns, I think it even burns, technically, it could burn underwater, not that anybody would use it that way, but once it's lit, nothing stops it, the sparks.
Yeah, so basically what you're doing is you're scraping off the metal, the mish metal, and those little pieces of metal are ignited and they're bouncing around.
And they're burning at like 5,500 degrees.
So they're very, very, they're like little molten sparks that just, you know, if you throw sparks, you'll see them still kind of burning out.
And like, it's, it's, I don't know.
I'm kind of a pyro, I guess.
And that's probably part of the reason I like got into this.
But like, I don't know.
It's, there's nothing like it.
Like throwing sparks and like being part of that whole process is super cool.
Well, yeah, that's, and actually, let me reach into my pocket here.
Part of my everyday carry is a plasma lighter here, you know, the little electric kind.
You press the button, you get sparks.
Yep.
This is great for everyday use, but it requires electricity, obviously.
And this battery is pretty limited, and obviously it's only going to work a certain number of cycles.
It's reliant on technology.
Whereas your solution is a no-tech solution, which is a bonus.
So I've even done a book called Resilient Prepping, where I give high-tech, low-tech, and no-tech solutions.
And what you're offering is perfect for no-tech.
Works no matter what.
Pretty much.
I mean, that's the beauty of I got into like minimalist backpacking or ultralight backpacking years ago.
And I think that was kind of the draw into this minimalist mindset of like taking less gear out with you or even just having less stuff and knowing you could count on it indefinitely.
Well, speaking of less stuff, let's talk about your titanium stove.
I think it's titanium, isn't it?
The stove?
We have a stainless steel version and we have a titanium version.
So we do have cool.
So the titanium version, obviously, it's going to be pricey, but here's a minimalist stove.
Tell us about this because it's incredibly light, but it also, it's designed in a way to really focus oxygen moving through the fuel to produce fire.
So tell us about that.
Yeah, so what this is, it's a flat pack twig stove.
It goes by a bunch of different names, bio stove.
But what they are is there's five panels.
They pack flat into like a canvas bag.
So all the panels will fit into this.
Wow.
When you want to use it, you assemble the panels.
They all kind of click together.
There's a grill grate that goes on top.
I actually have one right here.
So all of these panels will assemble.
You put the grill grate on top, and then you have this super sturdy stove.
And what this does is the benefit of this is that you don't need fuel canisters.
You can literally just put dry twigs, moss, pine cones, whatever you can pick up, you can fuel this thing with.
So it's essentially like a little campfire that you can just, I mean, cook on indefinitely, boil water, whatever you need to do.
And just like the ferro rods, like this thing is, it's going to be used or it can be used just indefinitely.
As long as you have something to gather and put inside, it's good to go.
Very simple.
And what's the weight in ounces?
The weight on this one, I know the titanium is 7.7 ounces, which is very light.
Let me reference the.
No, that's great.
That's what I wanted to know was for the lighter one anyway.
Yeah, here it is.
It's 18 ounces.
Got it.
It's quite a bit lighter for the titanium one.
Okay.
Wow.
Even at 18 ounces, you're just about a pound.
I mean, that's not that heavy considering you're not carrying fuel canisters or anything like that with you.
Right.
So this combination then, this stove, I'm going to say there are a lot of scenarios right now where, let's say, people might lose power.
I'm not even talking about outdoorsy kind of people, just people living in the suburb.
They might lose power.
They might lose access to natural gas, power grids down, whatever.
They can literally boil water and, in essence, cook a meal on their back patio, let's say, with this.
And you're going to consume less wood too.
So if you were building, you know, a fire pit or something to do this on, you're going to burn a lot more fuel with this.
You're going to use far less, literally what you can gather in your neighborhood with work.
Yeah.
And talk to us about some of the materials that would be ideal for powering the stove.
You mentioned pine cones.
That's outstanding.
People should probably know leaves and grass, whatever.
Is there anything that's not obvious?
I mean, if it burns, you can put it in there.
I don't want to get too weird with it, but I mean, if it burns, you can put it in there.
It will work.
I mean, obviously, you know, the denser the material, like twigs and pine cones and things like that are going to burn a little bit longer.
But I mean, if you wanted to crumble up paper in there and burn, like it would work.
Yeah.
Well, there's a whole region in Nepal, I think, where they burn animal turds to cook for their stoves, right?
Like dried patties.
You know, they're like little fuel patties.
And that's exactly what it is, too.
It's like a bunch of grasses that are all dried up.
Yeah, that would totally work.
Yeah.
We've never taken that angle yet.
No, that's a whole new one.
Hey, your lunch smells like poo.
What's going on?
Well, that's actually just the heat.
Speaking of lunch and boiling water, then you also have a cook pot here.
So obviously this fills out the trio here of starting the fire, having the stove, and then the cookpot.
Tell us about this cookpot.
A cook pot is just a super durable.
We have it in stainless and we have it in titanium.
Obviously, titanium is going to be for that person who is weight conscious.
But the steel one, I mean, it's just a very beautiful, simple pot.
There's nothing crazy about it.
It's just a good quality pot.
It works really well just size-wise, capacity-wise, with the Stoker stove.
But I mean, no frills.
It's a pretty simple, beautiful, minimalist pot.
How much water does it hold then by volume, roughly?
I believe it's 32 ounces.
Okay.
So it's enough to cook up, let's say, a two-person portion of something, like rice or what have you.
Yep.
Okay.
And then talk to me about the, how well does the titanium avoid crushing pressures?
Because an object like this, you can see that somebody could accidentally step on it or something like that.
How strong is it?
I mean, both the steel and the titanium are extremely strong.
There is benefits, like titanium has a very, I mean, it's a very strong metal.
It is.
I think some of the benefits, if we're talking about stainless to titanium, are obviously the weight is going to be far lighter with titanium, but also it cools a lot faster than stainless.
So that's a benefit that a lot of people like because if you're using the stoker stove or the pot, you're building a fire and you like want to get going after you finish doing your thing, it's going to cool a little bit quicker with the titanium over the stainless.
Okay, that makes sense.
And I want to mention everybody that all of these products and more are available in partnership with Uberleben at healthrangerstore.com.
And of course, we earn something on those purchases.
It helps support us as well.
And there are other products that we're going to be bringing in more.
And then the main website for Uberleben is here at uberlieben.co.
And so, okay, so talk to us about your philosophy then in terms of how people need to interact with our modern world today with the complementary fundamental skills of resiliency and self-reliance.
Yeah, I mean, philosophy on a high level, less is more.
That's super important to me.
And I think that's important everywhere we go.
I think, you know, we're, yeah, I think less is more is super important.
But yeah, I think we've just lost our connection with the natural world.
I think, you know, we've done a lot of trade shows and things like that where we'll go out and demo the product, especially the fire starters.
We'll give them to someone who's maybe not experienced in survival skills or anything like that.
Allow them to throw sparks and like nurture a fire.
And just the light in their eyes, like is so cool.
So yeah, like you'll just, for me, this is something I think everybody should not only have access to, but we should like incorporate into our lives because I think we've become so disconnected with all the elements.
And I think fire is like a fundamental element that we just like don't engage with anymore.
So the act of throwing a spark, building a fire, cooking your food over a fire is, yes, it falls into the survival category.
And I think there's, I mean, it's valuable in that space.
But I think even on the daily, right, where we said like, you know, this is not necessarily just about surviving.
It's also about thriving.
That's a big part of what our brand is setting out to do is like taking these old ways of doing things, kind of wrapping them in a more modern aesthetic and making it accessible to everyone.
Right.
So, I mean, that philosophy will resonate with our audience and with myself as well.
Although, as a prepper, I'm not always less is more.
Sometimes I'm more is more, depending on what the thing is.
But overall, I certainly understand what you're saying, that we need to be able to survive on a lot less.
So let's talk about like bug out type of situations.
So, you know, I'm not going to get into geopolitics, but there's a lot of craziness happening in the world right now.
A lot of people are having to evacuate cities.
So if anybody watching, if you had to evacuate, what I'd like you to talk about is how this can be incorporated into people's bug out bags or a bug out vehicle, why it should be pre-positioned there so that if you have to leave, if the president or the prime minister or whoever just says, evacuate your city, and you're like, holy crap, we got to leave now.
You need to have this ready to go.
So talk to us about bug out scenarios.
Yeah, so I think one of the most important things if you're looking at packing a bug out bag would be fire.
Obviously, there's some other things too.
You want a cutting tool or you want, you know, there's, there's different things.
But for me, I think fire is one of the most important things that you should have in your bug out bag.
And if you're going to carry one thing, or even if you're going to carry a few, I would carry personally the thing that's not going to leak fuel or, you know, I think a ferrocerium rod is the most reliable means of fire that you can pack away in a bag and know that, you know, a year from now, you can pull it out and throw a spark, throw lots of sparks for a long period of time using just that one tool.
Yeah.
In fact, you know, I have had, I've looked at like little canisters of like fat wood that are also for fire starting.
And in storing them, I found that they, all the fat leaks out when they get hot.
So a little bit of sunlight.
In fact, I had some in a bug out bag in my vehicle.
The vehicle got hot and all the fatwood leaked out.
And then it ruined everything else that was underneath it in the bag.
It all smelled because the fatwood also had some kind of fuel mixed in with it.
And it was like, oh, God, everything smells like lighter fluid.
Yeah.
You know, not cool.
And I've had the same experience with, you know, in the past, you know, you keep a couple lighters in a bug out bag and it just, I mean, haven't even been in an emergency situation necessarily where I needed those, but you pull it out a year or two later and like the fuel leaked out and you can't do this thing anymore.
So what's the point of being prepared and having a bag with things you can rely on if you can't actually rely on them?
Oh, I've definitely encountered that as well with so many different products.
Even like, you know, let's say rifle sights.
And then if you don't check the battery, guess what?
Hey, guess what?
The red dot is a no dot.
You know, so you got to ultimately it's got to collapse down to where you can function with a basic, basic level.
Like with a rifle, that would just be iron sights.
If you don't know how to use iron sights, that's where you need to start.
Same thing with fire.
If you don't know how to start a fire, that's where you need to start.
Do you have any like how-to videos that show people how to use these?
We do on our YouTube.
I'm pretty sure it's been a while since we posted some stuff, but I'm pretty sure we do have some how-tos up on the YouTube.
Okay.
And then what are you going to add to your product line coming up?
We're a lot.
We have a lot.
Again, focus for the brand has always been kind of around fire, but if you're focused on fire, there's a lot of stuff that kind of comes off of that if fire is a priority.
So obviously we have the Stoker stove.
We have some other fire accompanying type products.
So we have like a wood or a couple different wood vessels for drinking coffee or water or things like that.
We have, again, some other products that kind of accompany the fire making process.
So we have something that's called a tinder wick, which is a paraffin-infused hemp rope.
And it's kind of similar to what you're talking about with the fatwood.
It's a piece of rope that you can fluff up and it takes a spark very easy.
And then you can maneuver that spark to start a fire in your stoke or stove or anywhere.
It's kind of like a matchstick, but that thing is always going to take a spark because it's got paraffin and it's hemp and it's always dry.
And so yeah, right now there's a lot of products kind of revolving around the fire making experience.
Okay.
All right.
Fantastic.
are you seeing an uptick in customer interest?
And what are they telling you?
Like if they, when they contact your company and they want to buy things or they have questions, what are they using them for?
We see a lot of both.
Again, the category of products that we sell, they definitely fall under that survival or bug out prepping category.
So naturally, we do sell to a lot of that demographic or people who are thinking about those things, myself included.
But as a brand message, like I said, we've also pushed into more of a lifestyle brand where we want this stuff to be incorporated on the daily, more for just like mental well-being.
And, you know, there's, there's a lot of that that I think is very valuable.
So it's not just fear-driven or based in preparedness, but also it's just important to like do these things for our own well-being and important to acquire the skills and practice the skills.
And yeah, that's always been a big thing for us.
So post-COVID, we saw huge surges in sales because of the fear, the prepared-mindedness that people have had.
And I think that's still continued.
But we try not to push the fear aspect as much.
And we just want people to be mentally, I think that's like the first thing for us is like to be mentally sound and we can navigate anything moving forward.
Well, I'm glad you mentioned that.
That's really consistent with our message here because I've said that the people who have the most fear are those who are not prepared.
And when you have the skills and when you have the basic gear, and I agree, you know, you need a cutting tool, you need a knife, you need some cordage, you need a certain, you know, some basic things.
But when you have that covered and you've got the skills, you have a lot less fear.
So that's kind of where we come with the more is less philosophy.
It's just like the more, yeah, I mean, the less you can do with just by having the skill set and practicing these skill sets on, you know, the daily or the weekly or whatever, the better mentally you're going to be prepared to handle whatever situations come at you.
You know what's fascinating about this is looking at the whole history of Homo sapiens and the trouble that our ancestors went through for fire is like off the charts insane.
You know, first they had to like find some lightning started fire somewhere and then have a way to gather embers and keep the embers going and carry that around and then start some other fire to cook with or whatever.
I mean, have you studied the history of fire and just anthropology or archaeology?
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, it's fascinating.
And I think that's where, you know, on a psychological level, this stuff like just resonates so deep with me because there's, you know, there's genetic history there.
I think when we see a fire or we're able to spark a piece of, you know, material and start nurturing that fire, there's something, there's something deep in us that just lights up.
Like we've lost that connection and we need it back.
Like, I think it's so important.
You just think of, you know, how you feel sitting around a campfire in the evening, just the frequency of the light.
And like, there's so many, there's so many things there.
But man, it's like a lost thing that I feel like it's really important that we reconnect with that.
Well, totally.
And also, you know, we've been talking about cooking and boiling water to sanitize it, but of course, warmth.
Absolutely.
Warmth is arguably the most important point of fire, having shelter.
But it feels warm, like you said, sitting around a campfire.
Like psychologically, it's warm also.
It's powerful.
Yeah, absolutely.
So when you are out camping, how do you manage to heat?
Like, you say, you told me you live.
Is it okay if I say the state where you live?
Yeah, please.
Oh, it's Idaho, northern Idaho.
So it can get pretty cold there.
How do you heat with fire when you're out camping without having smoke problems?
Smoke problems like what?
Like just like giving away your location, smoke problems?
No, I mean just having smoke in your air or, you know, just dealing with smoke.
Yeah, I mean, if you're using, you're going to, you can't fully escape the smoke problems.
There's things you can do for efficiency.
You know, like you've probably heard of like these rocket stoves or there's different things with airflow that you can do to minimize smoke.
But to me, I don't know.
You could go like with a, you know, like a jet boil or some sort of like fueled canister for cooking your food and you're going to not have that smoke.
For me, something I've kind of learned to, it's become more important to me is like actually that smell of smoke and like that, that connection with the process is actually something I really enjoy now.
So I hear you that fully get away with the smoke, but I enjoy the smoke and I think there's value in the smoke being part of that process.
Yeah, it makes sense.
Or you could always offer a smoke shifter.
Okay.
By the way, folks, we have a shortcut for you at our store, healthrangerstore.com slash uberlieben.
And that's spelled U-B-E-R-L-E-B-E-N, just like the company name slash Überlieben.
And again, you know, a German name.
Why did you choose a German name?
I'm just curious.
Do you have German heritage or something?
A little bit, but I also take that stuff with a grain of salt because I know there's people who do the swab tests and like send it off and their goats are German.
So I don't know.
But yes, there is some German, but more it was just really inspired by the culture.
And yeah, there was just elements in that that were really inspiring to me.
And that's kind of what we built the brand on.
Okay, all right, that's perfect.
So what do you think is the most important way that people can get started with this skill set right now?
If someone's watching and they're totally new to this, they've never used a ferro rod lighter at all.
What can they do?
Today's a start.
I think it's not as intimidating as people might think.
So a lot of people get into the survival space and they look at skill sets like starting a fire and they get very intimidated.
That's a big mission of ours is to present these things to people, these tools, and show them that they're not that intimidating.
It's actually very accessible.
I have four daughters and from a young age, they were throwing sparks with these ferro rods.
So they're actually very easy to use.
And yeah, I think it's, you could jump in and start today and build a fire within a few minutes.
Very easy.
And the more you do it, the more you practice these things, the easier it's going to become.
So I would just say don't be intimidated.
These things are very accessible and easy for everyone to use.
Can I want to ask you to speak about the importance of having wisdom, understanding that starting a fire doesn't have to be a 4th of July explosive grill with gasoline type of event.
Like it can be tiny.
Can you talk about how, especially guys, for whatever reason, like macho guys are like, look, there's going to be a bonfire, you know?
Talk to us about keeping it small and simple.
I struggle with this as well.
We have a big slash pile on our property that we just put a bunch of gasoline on to burn some wood.
So yes, it is very important.
And I think that was one of the reasons we developed the Stoker stove.
So it's like a very small product and it does keep your fire contained.
So, you know, if you're using this, if you're actually using this to cook some food or boil some water or even just for ambiance in the evening, like you don't need a massive fire.
You don't want to burn a bunch of fuel.
You want to keep it contained.
You want to keep it safe.
And I think that's one of the benefits to using something like this Stoker stove is that it's going to keep it contained and very manageable.
Okay.
Yeah, absolutely.
And so I just want to tell our audience, I'm going to at some point do a demonstration here on my desk, not today, but I'm going to get your products here and I'm going to do a demo and then we'll put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.
And, you know, I'll try not to make a bonfire on the desk.
Yeah.
And we'll just show how easy it is to do.
But we'll demonstrate that later.
Is there anything else that you want to add before we wrap this up?
No, I think that's it.
As a brand, our message is pretty clear.
I think all the things I've already shared, like just get out there and use the products and reconnect with the art of building fire, reconnect with nature and get your head straight.
Yeah.
Good point.
Yeah.
There's actually a mental health benefit to getting out at nature and just getting back to basics.
Yeah.
Get off those blue screens and start some yellow flames instead.
I know.
Okay.
100%.
Yeah, exactly.
They say yellow light is good for you.
So, hey, fire, you know.
I know it is.
There's something there for sure.
That's right.
That's right.
Well, all right.
So the place where you can find the Uber Lieben products is healthrangerstore.com slash uberleben.
We've got, we carry them all.
They are, all of them are in stock right now, because if they're not, then we put an out-of-stock symbol on it.
But all of these are in stock.
There's even a fire kit here that's got multiple items for you.
You can check it all out, healthrangerstore.com slash uberleben.
And we thank you, Tim, for joining us today.
Taking the time to sort of showcase your products for us.
I'm really, I love your product line.
I've bought tons of Ferro rods and fire starters in the past, and most of them are super cheap kind of chintzy things, sadly.
Yeah, we didn't talk about that, but we do.
We produce some of our FerroSerum in Austria.
So it's a softer blend, which means it peels more material.
It just works better.
So I didn't really talk about that, but thought I'd hit on that right now real quick.
Oh, that's a good idea.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right.
Well, thank you for your time, and thanks for all that you do.
Mike, thank you for having me.
I appreciate it.
You bet.
Happy to have you on.
All right.
Take care.
All right.
So there you go, folks.
That was the founder of Uber Lieben.
And, you know, look, you need this equipment in your bug out kit, wherever it is.
Maybe it's a bag that you throw in your vehicle or you have something already in your vehicle and you need to make sure that you can count on it.
So, you know, lighters and the fat wax products that I've experienced, they can have leaking problems when they get hot.
These products from Uber Lieben, they are essentially bulletproof.
They're going to be there for you year after year after year.
They do not degrade and they work every single time.
100% reliability.
So, you know, what's the value of that?
It's very high.
So check it out.
Again, healthrangerstore.com slash uberleben.
And I'm Mike Adams, the Health Ranger.
Get prepared, everybody.
Crazy times are right ahead of us here.
So get prepared while you can.
Thanks for watching today.
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