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How The Iditarod Works · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Pacific Northwest. Welcome to you Stuff you should know from
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: house stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Jerry over there. And there's some delicious ritz crackers of
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  Speaker 1: peanut butter dipped in white chocolate, which means this is
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know. Yummy cookies. Yes, but we're not
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: gonna say who sent them just yet because that will
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: fall under the administrative which, by the way, while we're
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: mentioning it, thanks again to Mark Henry. We're pretty sure
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: we thanked for the awesome steel work that we got
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: at the Pittsburgh showy steel and barnwork right exactly. I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: thought we'd thanked him it. If we didn't, I want
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: to make sure we did for sure, because it hangs
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: right here above our heads proudly. It looms intimidating lee
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: over our heads. Are you intimidated by it? Now? I'm
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: a little under the weather, though, can you tell? I can? Yeah,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: mostly because you said so. But now that now that
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I'm listening for it, I can hear it sort of that.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: It's like you gotta stick a butter and each Nazia.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: Oh man, I wish do you you can do that?
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: How are you? I'm doing okay, I'm not under the weather. Um.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: I am nice warm here in Atlanta. It's like seventy
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: degrees outside here and like March one. Um. Kind of well,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I want to say the opposite, but not necessarily these
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  Speaker 1: days things to climate change. Um in Alaska, Leo DiCaprio,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: where there, I thought that was a great speech, was fantastic,
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  Speaker 1: nailed it. Thin guy should be an actor. Uh in
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  Speaker 1: Alaska where they're about to do the Ida or they're
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  Speaker 1: about to run it. As a matter back, when this
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: comes out, it will have started a couple of days before, right,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: so we'll be like right smack dab in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of what's called the last great race on Earth, the
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, also known as just the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Iddarad or the Iddarade trail Sled dog Race. Did I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: say dog sled? No, you said it, but you just
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: put the emphasist on the weird words or the I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: did rode trail sled dog race exactly. We could do
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: this several more times we could. So let's get into this.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna we're probably both gonna say poopy things about
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: dog racing, aren't we Probably. Yeah, I'm just waiting for
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: people in Alaska to be mad at me. It's gonna
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: be years before they get their hands on this episode. Yeah,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: probably so, because you have to fly it out, you
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: drop it in from town to town, and everybody has
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: to get their turn listening to it. Yeah. Thing I
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: learned about people from Alaska is the reason they live
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: in Alaska is because they don't like being told what
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to do by anybody. No, they don't. They like getting
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: pushed around. No, so they moved to Alaska, where you
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: can do as you please. So yeah, we'll see where
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: this one goes. So the idea Rode, for those of
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: you who don't know, is actually a a grueling endurance
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  Speaker 1: race across some of the coldest parts of the planet miles.
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  Speaker 1: That's a long way. And it's not like people are
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  Speaker 1: running or snowshoeing or hang gliding. They are on a
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  Speaker 1: little sled on skis. You could also call it a
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  Speaker 1: mini sligh if you wanted to. And this these mini
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: slaves are pulled by teams of dogs. And that's the race.
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  Speaker 1: It's a dog sled race, that's right. Dog sled race
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  Speaker 1: held every year since nineteen seventy three. And uh, there's
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: no like set a number of participants that kind of
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: areas from year to year, depending on how many people
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: want to take part. And uh, like you said, it's
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: rough terrain, it's cold, brutal conditions could be anywhere from
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: it could go down to fifty below zero. That's insane,
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: with harsh winds and blinding snow. Snowblinds. Is that what
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: it's called. That's what azz he called it. Yeah, do
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: you remember the song snowblind? Yeah? I think so great black.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think he was talking about snow though, probably not,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Oh, is he talking about cocaine?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I think he may have been. I never thought about that, so, uh, Chuck,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: you said like up to fifty below I saw sixty
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: below fahrenheight. Sixty below zero fahret heeight, that's cold. But
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I also kept running across people saying like negative forty
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheight. And I remember we said that once when
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: we were talking about seam o Hia, the Finnish sniper.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: It was like the baddest dude ever, the White Ghosters
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: something something like that, the White Death, White Death. Yeah,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: I think that was it. Man, that guy, it's crazy anyway. Um,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and we mentioned that he was out sniping people in
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in temperatures as cold as negative forty degrees fahrenheight, And
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: ever since then people wrote in and said, dude, negative
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: forty degrees is the same, and Celsius and fahrenheight it's
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: where they converge. And ever since then, I've always noticed
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: there's very few people who realize that, Yeah, well I
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: forgot negative forty degrees. You don't have to say fahrenheher
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: or celsius is amazing. The magic temperatures are so cold,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: none gives a crap, right exactly. Uh So the route
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: for the iditarod Um, there are a couple of different
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  Speaker 1: routes depending on what year it is. Uh, this would
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  Speaker 1: be an even year, so that means they're going to
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  Speaker 1: follow the northern route last year, and every odd year
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  Speaker 1: they have a southern route. And uh they are basically
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  Speaker 1: the same route except for three hundred miles in the
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  Speaker 1: middle where it's different. Yeah, between a fear and Uncle elite,
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  Speaker 1: I believe I think so, um, and it either shoots
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  Speaker 1: up or dips down depending but other than that, it's
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  Speaker 1: the same exact route. Yeah, there are twenty six checkpoints
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  Speaker 1: along the way on the northern route and then twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven on the southern route because you need just that
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: one extra by the southern route. I think, didn't it
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: say the southern rount is a little harder? Uh? Yeah,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I think the general thought is in northern trail is
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a little easier, but like I think there's a difference
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in terrain. Typically that makes sense, and you would think, Okay,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: this is a thousand mile plus trek across snow in
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  Speaker 1: negative fifties sixty degree fahrenheight weather. Um, it's gonna take forever, right,
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  Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, the first one in
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three did take I think the last place
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  Speaker 1: finisher more than thirty days to complete the race. Nowadays
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  Speaker 1: they're doing these things in like eight and change. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: the record the first I did a ROD was like
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  Speaker 1: twenty days and change for the winner for the winner,
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  Speaker 1: and now the record is a guy named John Baker
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  Speaker 1: In finished it. So that would be a southern route
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  Speaker 1: even even more difficult, uh, In eight days eighteen hours,
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  Speaker 1: forty six minutes and thirty nine seconds. I saw more
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  Speaker 1: recently a guy named Dallas Cev who's part of like
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  Speaker 1: An I did a rod Family UM in two thousand
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  Speaker 1: and fourteen. He broke that record, but a few hours,
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  Speaker 1: eight days, thirteen hours, four minutes in nineteen seconds. I
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  Speaker 1: thought the baker was a guy No and baker, I
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: guess top all another guy named Martin Bousser, who um
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  Speaker 1: he uh, he had the record for a little while.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, it went from like what did you say,
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  Speaker 1: twenty days for the winner in nineteen seventy three and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: now it's like just over a week, and within that
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  Speaker 1: week is a forced twenty four hour furlough, So technically
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  Speaker 1: they might be able to do it in a week
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  Speaker 1: if they really tried. Yeah, twenty four hours plus two
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  Speaker 1: eight hour breaks. So yeah, I bet if it was
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: up to the mushers, they would press on yes, because
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: aside from those enforced breaks, they do typically press on UM.
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  Speaker 1: They'll stop every once in a while, like feed the
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  Speaker 1: dogs or something like that, but for the most part
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  Speaker 1: they're not sleeping. They're staying awake and they're just pushing forward,
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  Speaker 1: so they get sleep deprivation. They start to hallucinate. Um.
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  Speaker 1: I read this really great New Yorker article called the
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  Speaker 1: White Wall, where, um, the light from your head lamp
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: because you're traveling at night. Sure most of the time, Um,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the light from your head lamp is reflecting off of
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: the fur around your parka, and it creates this kind
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: of white screen in your field of vision, and it's
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: like right for hallucinations. She just started to go a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: little batty. Yeah, for sure, I saw where this one
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  Speaker 1: lady who uh was a musher said that she slept
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: while she was Oh yeah, that's what she said. She
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: just taught herself to kind of hang on and off,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: or maybe she just thought she was sleeping. Yeah, that's possible.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, it's freaking out on the snowblind, so
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: we should mention mush. Apparently no one says mush anymore.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Oh as far as like the lingo. Yeah, now they
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: say like hiker, all right, or let's go, But mush
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  Speaker 1: originally meant like start going. Yeah, it's a fridge from
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Marcia or marsh, yes, marsh and uh yeah, they still
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: call them mushers. It's funny name. But apparently the mushers
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: don't use the word mush when they're as far as
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: like their command exactly. Yeah, that makes sense. So you
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: want to talk about the history of this sport, this
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: endurance sport, because the there's really no way around it.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: The dogs are like peak before, they're like Lebron James,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of of of dogs, all of them. But let's talk
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: about the history of sled dogs, about the kind of
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: dogs that are used for sled dogs. Like most people,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: including me, assume that if you were um riding around
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the snow on a sled being pulled by dogs, you're
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: probably being pulled by Siberian huskies or Alaska mala mutes
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: or maybe a samoyad. Yes, perhaps, Thank you for being
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the one to say it out loud. It's not the
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: easiest one just looking at it to pronounce. Would you say?
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Some woyd Samoyd. I watched the dog Show the other day.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: That's why I love that they had who won? Uh
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you know? I'd actually well, that's how old I am.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: I fell asleep before the best in show. Okay, that's
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: all right. Yeah, this very fun as long as you
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: enjoyed yourself watching it. I want to go one year. Yeah,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: that'd be cool. All that it is crazy, crazy partying.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: No I think it'd probably be a lot of fun
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to go see and cheer for dogs, although I'm against
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: dog breeding in general, so I probably shouldn't even go. Um,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: but the the some what is you say, the samoiede
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and the Alaskan malamute and the Siberian husky. They are
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: all a k C registered breeds. They're recognized by the
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: American Kennel Club, and they used to pull sleds, especially
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Siberian Huskies. There's a guy named um Leonard uh oh man.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I can't remember his name, Cippola, I believe it's what
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: his name was, and he was the guy who first
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: started racing Siberian Huskies in Alaska on sleds. But if
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: you go to Alaska today, you're going to find something
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: called an Alaskan husky is typically the kind of dog
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: that you're gonna encounter as a sled dog. And this
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: is like a mixed breed. It's a mutt breed UM
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: and they have been bred to just basically be mentally tough,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: physically sturdy, UM not too big but also not too small.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: The thick coat and um yes, and uh, not just quickness,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: but a strong inbred desire to run and pull stuff
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: while they're running. Yeah, I saw this. One guy called it. Uh,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it's like they have a wanderlust, like there there's always
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: some place else they'd rather be, Like they want to
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: go go go over there, which is why. Um, if
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it's when you're taking a break or something with your
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: dogs on the iditar rod, you have to chain them
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: down whereas they're like see you. And they also microchip
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: them as well. I had a friend who had a
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: husky and um, they are not easy. And this husky
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: would get out and see you later. Yeah, for like
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: two days. Yeah, and he always came back, but he
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: came back wearing like a Hawaiian shure. Yeah. That would
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: freak if my dog got out, because my dogs are
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: big dummies. They wouldn't like that, wouldn't know how to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: come back. Was this a pretty smart dog? Yeah? I
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: think that's the Alaska husky is pretty smart generally, So
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: it was an Alaska husky, I think so. Yeah. So
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: Alaska huskies are descended, um more from the dogs called
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Inuit dogs and Eskimo dogs, and they are basically in
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: didigenous dogs to Alaska. They came over with the first
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: humans who crossed the Bearing Land bridge, right, the dogs
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: pulled them across that bridge, probably, oh they did. So.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: I saw that they didn't hook dogs up the sleds
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: until like the them this past millennia or the one
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: we're in now that was like a D eight hundred
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: or maybe twelve hundred when they were using sleds. That's
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: what I saw, um, but I also saw that it
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: goes back to time immemorial. Who knows. What I did
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: see though, is that these dogs, these Inuit dogs and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the Eskimo dogs were um definitely hauling stuff like whale
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: carcasses are huge parts of whale carcasses to be butchered
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: back in town. Um, they were hunting dogs, their companions,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: they were protector dogs. They were just total um butt
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: kicking animals that could stand temperatures well into the negative
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: twenties or aties or forties degree parentheights. Because that double coat, yes,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: so the outer coade I think deflects the snow and
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: then they have the inner coat that has waterproof and
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: insulates them. So when you see those dogs laying out
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: in the snow, uh, they're not cold, right, you know,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: don't think, oh poor dog laying in the snow. I
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: mean there can be problems, as we talked about with
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: the Iddarod when that one dog was buried. Um, they
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: can also get frost bit. They can get frostbite though
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: depending But yeah, for the most part, which I don't understand. Man,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: that's crazy. I was like, man, these checkpoints, they have
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: like tents at the checkpoints. How how big are the tents?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, what if more than one team has to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: put their dogs in the tents? And I was like,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: they're not in the tent. No, they sleep, they put down,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: they put down. Hey, they might have a bale of
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: hay that the musher has, um and the dogs sleep
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: on the hay in the snow and they cover their
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: nose with their tails they do, which is adorable. And
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: at kennels for these dogs, some of them they'll have
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: like plastic barrels cut in half with a little hole
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: for the dog to get in and out of when
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: weather is really bad. But for the most part, yeah,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: especially if it's not snowing or windy. Uh, a Inuit
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: dog or Alaska husky can just sleep outside on the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: snow exactly. They used to deliver the mail in Alaska
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: in the late eighteen hundreds to early nineteen hundreds. That
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: was exclusively how the mail was delivered until the airplane
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: became the primary mode of mail delivery. Uh. And the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: last mail dog in Alaska retired in nineteen sixty three,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: so not too long ago. Pretty impressive, Yeah, right before hippies. Yeah,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the dog didn't didn't live to see hippies. The police
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: used them uh in the in the gold rush of
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds, and of course Alaska aside. They
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: have long been used in Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Yeah.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: There was actually a very famous antarctic expedition in Japan
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: where I think in the fifties. Yeah. Uh, an antarctic
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: expedition had to be abandoned and the Japanese researchers had
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to be evact by helicopter and they were like sorry, dogs,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: well somebody will be back in a few days. We're
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: gonna change you up here. Here's some food, good luck,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: fight over it. A year later, a research team made
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: it back to that outpost and they found two of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: the dogs were still alive, uh, Taro and Jero, and
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: they were brothers, which makes it even more awesome, and
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: they became national heroes back in Japan. Um, And I
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: was like, well, yeah, of course they ate the other dogs.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I've read an article that said that there were no
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: signs of cannibalism, that they just like like hunted penguins
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and seals and stuff like that and managed to survive.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Was it that the basis of the Paul Walker Walker
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: movie Paul Walker, The Fast and the Furious, same guy, Uh, no,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: longer with us too? No? That car wreck? Yeah? Was
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: he a passenger? He was the passenger in that car wreck,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: wasn't he? I think he drove. He did have a passenger.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: What was it called eight below right? Yeah, which is
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: he's not Japanese. No, but he's he It was supposedly him.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I think it must have been based on that or something.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen the movie. I think they thought an
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: updated version would fair better. They're like, who does everyone
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: like Paul Walker? Exactly? They were used as war dogs
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: in World War One and World War Two, hauling equipment,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: search and rescue. Helps set up the Alaska telegraph line
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: around World War One. Um, and they also almost invaded
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Norway from uh the eastern coast of Canada. Yeah. Yeah.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: They were attached to like the fifteenth Mountaineering regiment of
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the United States Army. I think it would have been
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: army for sure. And um, we didn't invade Norway, but
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: have we These dogs would have been there with us yea.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: And by us, I mean specifically you and me, Chuck,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: because we were. Uh so you said that they are
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: bred for there not only endurance, but for their for
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: their speed. And they actually have their feet have adapted
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: to take on this train because a good sletter is
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: uh is that a sletter? Sure? Alright? Good letters has
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: wide flat feet. But they also have toes that are
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: dense and together. You don't alto explayed toes because stuff
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: can get in between them. So basically they have like
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: they they have feet like hammers. It sounds like hammer
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: toes basically, but hammer feet. Yeah. And the gender doesn't matter.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Uh Lady, little lady dogs and little boy dogs are
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: just as good. Uh So gender isn't a big deal. Um.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: They're also big at trail breaking, right, So like, if
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you want to go out and see if the ice
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: is thicken up to cross, take a team of sled dogs.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And they actually do this in Denali National Park. Yeah,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and they do it ahead of the Iditarod. They send
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: out teams to break the trails and make sure it's
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: as safe as it can be. And those trails, chuck
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: were used for a very long time and still were,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: but then they started in like the six sixties, say
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: maybe early seventies, to be blazed more by by snowmobiles.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: And this guy named Joe Ruddington Sr. Was really sad
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: to see the dog sled, the traditional um sled, being
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: replaced by the snowmobile man made machines. And he said,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: you know what, we need to preserve this heritage. I'm
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: going to start a race in the in the fashion
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of some of these old ones. There was this all
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Alaska Sweepsteaks that was much shorter. But like in the
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: ninet hundreds, people were using sled dogs a lot and
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: actually using them, but then they fell out of fashion.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So this guy, Joe Ruddington Sr. Tried to preserve it
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: by starting this race. Yeah the Dorothy Page or they
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: together or were they just uh they were they were
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: kindred spirits. Okay, gotcha. So the first one they organized
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: was a fifty mile race, right yeah, and like the
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: sixties and not like the mile journey that has grown
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: into today. They really stepped it up yeah, and the sprints,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: they actually have sprint races. They have all different races.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: A sprint is a thirty mile sprint, like just go
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: flat out for thirty miles. Thirty miles. That's insane, It
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: is so um there's this very there's this widely um
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: held misconception that I did a rod was created to
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: commemorate this, um this very famous run that happened in right, Yeah,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the dip theory outbreak. They ran out of well, they
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: needed to get medicine and they used dogs to get
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: medicine to the farthest reaches of Alaska. And like Gnome,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: I think there's about to be a dip theory outbreak.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: So that has nothing to do with it, because that
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: is all over the internet, including on the IDDA out side. No,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: if you look at the Idea out side, it says
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: specifically what Joe Reddington's aim was. Yeah, um no, I
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: know I saw that everywhere, including on our own How
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Stuff Works articles that people believe that they meant to
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: con rememorate it. And yes, this this incredibly courageous emergency
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: rescue operation of bringing vaccine um well at least antiets,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: and I think it is what it was to the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: children of Nome before this outbreak killed them all. Um,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: it captured the world's imagination. UM, and it did follow
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the same route half of it, but the first half
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: was delivered by train and UM, the Idda trail was
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: starting to fall out of use by the time Joe
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Reddington and Dorothea Page came along and wanted to preserve it.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: So it's more coincidence than anything that they didn't They
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: didn't intentionally create the idea road to commemorate the dip
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: theory run from Well, if you go to New York
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Central Park around sixty s it um on the east side,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: you can see a statue of Balto, the dog who
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: was the lead dog on that serum run. So they said,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: we're gonna commemorate this in New York, which I don't
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: get it londs like it would be in Alaska. Well,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the reason why they did it there was because, um,
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: like the whole country was paying attention, much of the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: world was paying attention to this this little tiny this
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: little tiny town up in Alaska was in real trouble.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: And this doctor put all these telegraphs out like asking
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: for somebody to bring them something. And the closest stuff
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: was in Anchorage, and since this trek took like five days,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: people were covering it for the for the newspapers, and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: people were reading about it all over the country. They
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: got so jazzed up that New York was like, we're
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: gonna wreck the Statue of Balto. But that didn't explain
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: why New York they just got that excited. Yeah, that's
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the reason. That's exactly why. Uh So in the early
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen nineties. Well, let's let's take a break, actually, and
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: then we'll talk about the nineties. Yea, So in the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: early nineties, as I was saying, before they started there,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: there's a ceremonial kickoff they do. Now, uh that's not
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: a part of the actual race, so people can come
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: out and cheer them on. Yeah, so they have a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: big party and people line the streets and they get
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: all the Apparently it's a crazy scene because you know,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of dogs, and these dogs, I will say,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, we'll get to the the downside, which is
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: pretty grotesque if you ask me. But these dogs want
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: to work, and they want to they want to pull
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: the sled. Um, I don't know if they want to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: pull a eleven hundred miles. But they are sled dogs.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And so when you get these highly energetic uh, well,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: they're all kinds of breeds, but mostly the Alaska husky
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: is what they prefer. Uh, mushers prefer. Um. It's a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: crazy scene because they're not like they're they're not your
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: average lapdog. They're excited and they howl. They have very
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: shrill howls. A lot of them do, yeah, unless they
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: had their voice box removed by their musher, which is
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the thing it can be. Um. So they kick off
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: an Anchorage and the reason why it's just a ceremonial
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: kickoffs because there's usually not enough snow these days in
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Anchorage again climate change. So they used to go up
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to Vascilla or was Silla? I don't know how they
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: pronounce it up there? Is it was Silla. Yeah, that's
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: Sarah Palins, I know, I don't remember back then. Um
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: and uh, then they stopped getting enough reliable snow there,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: so they had to move it up even further to
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Willow Willow Willow Vilva, phil of Um is two and
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: a half hours north of Anchorage. They always have snow there,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: that's their motto, right, So they have the ceremonial parade
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: of the dogs the day before, and then the next
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: day is when they start, and like the race officially starts. Yeah,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: and it costs a lot of money to uh to
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: put on the race and and it's not cheap to
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: be a musher with a sled team. I mean you
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: can put as much as like twenty grand into your
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: sled team. Uh and the training and you know, it
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: takes a long time. So some of these mushers have
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: corporate sponsors. Uh you can make money to like, um,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: owning a kennel and leasing dogs out to other I
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: did aod contestants. Yeah, um, yeah, but yeah, I think
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: corporate sponsorships definitely helped quite a bit. Well. A lot
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: of corporations have stepped away from it though in recent
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: years as far as sponsoring the race, um, because of
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: all the controversy surrounding it, which we will still get to. Uh,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you gotta be eighteen. You can't just be some uh
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: dumb fourteen year old or even a seventeen year old,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: not even seventeen and a half. You gotta be eight
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: team and you have to have completed uh some other
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: qualifying races and place. I mean, we can get specific
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: if you want uh a Yukon Quest International Sled Dog
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: Race or two approved races, and you have to have
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: at least five miles under your belt on those races
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: and have finished in the top or it says here
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: mind bending lee. Another way to qualify for an idd
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: A rod race is to have been in a previous
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I did a rod race, which I guess. Yeah, I
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: don't think that. What's you. I guess once you're in
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: your first one, then you're qualified. But are you sure?
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: It wasn't like if you've won, then you get like
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: a lifetime No. I don't think exemption. That's what golfers do,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: is right, well, some of them, some of the p
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: g A events. If you win that event, then you're
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: automatically and for the rest of your life. Maybe not
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: the rest of your life, but I think for like
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the next five years or it depends on the Then
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: you get automatically qualified. That makes sense, all right, So
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: what's uh? What's what does a sled team look like?
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: They look pretty good. You got your musher, that's the
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: guy standing on back telling the dogs what to do. Yes,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: that's right, um, I mean the gender neutral guy. Um.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: And then you have a team of dogs and depending
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: on what you're doing UM with the idea in particular,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: you have to start I think with sixteen dogs, right,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: and you have to finish with twelve. No, twelve to sixteen,
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: and they have to finish with ten. So you can
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: have up to six dogs die along the way and
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: not get disqualified from the idea. Rod Technically, um and
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: in the lead are the very appropriate named lead dogs.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: These are your smartest, fastest dogs. I was reading about
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: these dogs. These dogs are amazing dogs, so smart that
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: they will even disobey their owner if they're like, dude,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that's a cliff. Don't tell me too much. I know
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: you can't see because you're snow blind in the Aussie fashion,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: So just leave it to me to ignore your a
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: man and steer us to the left. And so when
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: that lead dog starts to go, the dogs immediately behind them,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: the point dogs or the what are they called the
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: swing dogs? They also are called point too. I think
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: they're the ones who actually get the rest of the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: team to turn with them. Yeah, and uh, they call
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: them swings because you know you have to. You can't
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: cut it short. You gotta swing wide around obstacles and
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: These dogs are smart enough to know to do that.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: So you've got those are the first four dogs you have.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Are the lead dogs and the swing or point dogs
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: behind them. You're gonna have a couple of pairs of
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: what are called team dogs. These dogs are just really
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: good at pulling, working well with others. Yeah, they're like
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the role player on the NBA bench. Yeah, they're the
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: solid basketball players, the Draymond Greens. But sure, but they're
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: not going to be starting an All Star game. No,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: but they they they may have enough spunking spirit. You
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: get the rest of the team going, um, yeah, the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Draymond Greens. And then at the back, right in front
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of the sled are the wheels, the wheelers. Yes, and
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: they are the strongest of the bunch, supposedly, And uh,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: those are the dogs. But the dogs are attached to
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the sled or else you're in big trouble. You have
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: a bunch of really fast dogs running together and a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: mushard who's left behind. How funny would that be? It
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: would be funny to everybody else, but the mush rights
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: and um, the sled connects to the dogs through the
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: main line or the toe line right or the gang line.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I think it's the other name for it. And this
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: is basically just a line that goes from the sled
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: all the way up to the lead dogs, and all
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the dogs are connected to this thing. That's right. Then
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the dogs are connect to the lead line and they
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: pull on that toe line via tug lines that are
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: connected to their harnesses. That's right. Uh. And the dog
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: is wearing a color and a harness. Um, they don't. Actually,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: it's not like they don't have reins. Like a horse,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: They go on command. Um. I have seen like a whip.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: They stopped us whips, but they used to fairly recently,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: got you. Yeah, they go mushus no mush no more
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: mush no more whips. Things are changing big time as
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: a matter of fact. Um. And then you have the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: So the dog's collars can is connected by a collar line,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: I think right. So, Uh, you have to condition these dogs.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: You know, they don't come out of the uh the
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: womb ready to run a thousand miles. They want to. Yeah,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: they've got some genetics going on for sure, but absolutely
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: takes some shaping as well. But you have to condition
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: them over time, uh, from the time they're little pups
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: to start them out wearing the collar and the harness
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: to get used to it. To pulling little light things
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: around the house that's adorable, yeah, um. To building up
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: their endurance in their in their strength over time, just
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: like you know any endurance race, if you're a marathon
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: or the same deal. You don't go out and run
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: twenty six miles. And you also have to be um.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: You have to understand um verbal commands obscure ones too,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: like hike not much, though no one says much to
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a dog. Let's go all right? All those mean let's
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: let's go right. Yeah, I think that's how they say
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: it easy if you want to slow down and we
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: couldn't decide as a G I think it's g I
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: think I think it's gum. Or come haw to go
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: left or right? Haw is definitely haw uh straight on
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and then whoa if you're gonna stop. It makes sense
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: like with a horse, and imagine straight on means keep
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: on going. They also definitely need to learn to work together,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: which is not necessarily in every breed of dogs makeup.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: You know, dogs have alpha dogs and their pack dogs,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: and you have a lead dog that that lead dog
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: and fulfill that role. But you also want dogs that
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: can that aren't like constantly jockeying for position, that they
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: know their place and they're willing to work together with
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: the other dogs. Temperaments a big deal for sure. And
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: then um, you also when you're running the Iditara and
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: you're putting a sled team together, you out you want
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: to pick dogs of similar build, similar gait and speed.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: You want them to basically move as one. And so
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of the selection and your dogs that you
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: put together for a team is going to have a
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: huge impact on the like how they pay well together
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: but not and not just temperamentally but physically and in
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the way that they move as well. Yeah, and the dogs, uh,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: they can be big um, But generally I think for
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: the endurance races, you want a dog this between like
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: forty and sixty pounds and how old are they Well, um,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: if you want to be a sled dog, you're probably
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: at least two. But you would think you know, like
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: if you look at thoroughbred horse racing, those horses are
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: retired by like age three, I think maybe four. These
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: dogs will pull sleds and compete in like races up
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: until age ten. Yeah, not bad. And again at the
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: Nali National Park. They get retired at age nine. Uh.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: They're eating a lot. Uh. They need to eat around
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: ten thousand calories a day while they're doing these races. Uh.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: That's about two thousand pounds of food per team and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: it's mostly just meat. But they have this stuff. It's
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: sort of like how can the Appalachian Trail? They have
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: it flown ahead and dropped off at all these checkpoints,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: so the food in your bourbon is waiting there when
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: you get there. There was a guy um Man what
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: was his name, Macki Lance Mackie. He was like the
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: number one I did a rod racer for several years
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and um, he was not well liked among all I
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: did a rod racers because he used to just do
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: things like smoke pot like while he was just riding
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: along on the I did or trail. I saw the
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: drugs and alcohol was the thing with Musher's. I don't
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: know if that's how widespread it is, but well, it's
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: like a marijuana is a banned substance now even apparently
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: they're talking about legalizing it in Alaska and the I
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: did a rude committee is like not still can't smoke pot?
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: Lance Mackie, we're looking at you. Um. But apparently according
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: to this New Yorker article, great New Yorker article, the
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: White Wall check it out. ESPN has a really good
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: one too. Um. They said that he quit and did
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: the did the race straight and still one once I think,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: and then smoke tons of pot right afterwards to celebrate. Yeah. Um.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: But the along this trail, um, you were saying that
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: that the dogs eat mostly meat. They eat different types
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of meat. They also eat like, um, nutritional supplements. And
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: in the White Wall the article they describe what Dallas
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: stevis feeding his dogs at One Stop, and he's it's
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: like a four course meal. He starts with a broth
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: um with kibble and some nutritional supplements, and then they
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: eat some fish steaks, you know, they have some beef
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: and when they finish it all off with chicken skin
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: like all fat. That sounds delicious. Yeah, And the dogs
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: are eating like ten to fourteen thousand calories a day,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: which is like ten times the cloric intake of an
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: active dog of about the same size, ten times just
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: in a day. Yeah, because well they're they're running like
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: over a hundred miles a day. It's crazy. Uh, they're
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: wearing little doggy booties now, um, because it's very rough
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: on their feet obviously running over this ice and snow
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and rough terrain. Uh. And a team will go through
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: as many as two thousand pairs or this has two
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: thousand booties. Maybe a thousand pairs. Yeah, well no, yeah,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: a thousand pairs. Would it be a pair before? Yeah,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: a dog pair of before? So five hundred dog pair.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: We just created a new thing. It's like a Baker's dozen.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: So two thousand booties we'll go through. Um, but they're
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: still going to get their feet beat up, their paws
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: beat up pretty bad. Well yeah, because dogs perspire by
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: panting and on the bottoms of their feet, So you
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: can't just wear um booties all the time. So that
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: one of the mushers things that they really have to
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: be paying attention to is a good time to give
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: the dogs feet to rest without the booties, to let
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: them basically perspire so they don't overheat. Yeah, And I
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: get the feeling that if they're really hauling and they
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: see that they've lost a few booties, they're not like, oh,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: let me stop and put a fresh booty. You know,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: They're they're mushing forward so Chuck, let's take a break, um,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: and uh, we'll come back and talk about some other stuff.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: All right, we've talked about dogs, We've talked a little
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: bit about mushers. But one thing that makes a good
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: musher is granted, they are standing. They're not running. Well,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: sometimes they're running along, but they're basically they're definitely standing.
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: But it's tough. It's not like I get the feeling.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: It's like if you've ever been snow skiing or water skiing,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: it's hard on your legs. It's not like, oh, I'm
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: just standing here or taking a joy ride. Ye have
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: over over bumpy terrain um for hours and hours and
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: hours basically for eight days. It's gonna be strong and
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: have a lot of stamin in your own self. You
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: also have to put up with again you have to
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: be yeah, mentally tough. You have to put up with
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the hallucinations and um not make really bad decisions while
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: you're on the trail and it's night and you haven't slept. Um.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: And uh, you also need to pack. Well, yeah, you
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: want to bring everything. It's sort of like backpacking everything
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you need but as light as you can make it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: And you there's actually stuff you have to bring just
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: to survive. You gotta have a sleeping bag, sleeping bag
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and axe, snowshoes, a little cooking pot and fuel so
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: you can boil water. Sure, um, and then you also, um,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: most of them carry a gun. The Dallas CV guy
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: said that he carries a three fifty seven with him
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: and he actually shot a moose with it that was
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: charging him and his dogs. And no, because this is
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: his long time rival, the the young upstart, the clean Liver,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: whose father Straight Edge U was also I Did a
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Rod winner from two thirteen. I think it very much
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: seems like a family thing. I saw a lot of
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: people with the same last names. Um. And then the
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: other big essential gear is the sled itself, which there's
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: not like. You don't go to the official I Did
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: a Rod sled store and buy your sled and go, okay,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I'm ready. You you constructed yourself? Oh really, yeah, you
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: definitely can'. I'm sure there's sleds out there that you
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: can buy, but you can also build him yourself. The
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I Did a Rod only requires that quote some type
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: of sled or toboggan must be drawn, right, so you
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: want that to be light as well. Um, probably about
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: a hundred pounds empty, more than twice that full. Yeah,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: plus your own human body. Yeah, which you know, maybe
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: drop a few pounds before the race. And again, I'm
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: sorry to keep going to the same well, but the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Dallas TV cat, the reason we I keep mentioning him
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: is like he is really your hero. He's he's fine,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: he's I don't know enough about him to know whether
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: he's my hero or not, but he is definitely reshaped
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the um. I did a rod race um with some
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: of the stuff he's doing. One of the things he's
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: doing is it's making I did a rod racers like
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: more athletic um. Like if they're going up a hill,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: he'll jump off of the runners and run behind the
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: sled rather than just get a ride with the dogs,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: which of course increases your time, but it's also easier
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: on the dogs. It's just you have to be not
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: a tub and you have to be able to run
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: up in clins for eight days when you need to.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, that's it can't be fun. Running in
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: the snow is not fun, No, but it helps you
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: win and it's easier on your dogs, and if you win,
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get some dough. They split the money up. Um,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: you can actually finish in last place and still get
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: some money. Um, but you're gonna get obviously, the grand
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: prize winner will win a nice fat purse in the
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: six figure range, a really nice purse, very nice. Uh.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: Then there are other little prizes along the way, like
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: a field day elementary school. If you reach the halfway
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: the first much are muchure to go to to the
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: halfway point. Um, in odd number of years it would
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: be I did a right itself and then in cripple Uh,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: in the even number of years, you're gonna get yourself
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: the g C. I. Dorothy pay Age Halfway Award and
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: three thousand dollars in gold nuggets gold nuggets. That's pretty neat. Yeah.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine every once a while they're like, we
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: didn't have the gold nuggets, but here's three thousand dollars.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: I'd be like, I want my gold nuggets three thousand
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: dollars worth. Um, you bite into it, just check its authenticity,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: and you call the guy who gives your dinner cookie. Yeah. Yeah,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: that's the Alaska way. Uh. What else? The top lead
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: dog is gonna take home the Lolly Medley Memorial Golden
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Harness Award. Of course everybody knows that. And then um
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: there's other towns where if you're the first one to
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: make it to say on Veek or Ruby, um, you'll
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: get a seven course meal and thirty five hundred one
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: dollar bills because it just seems like more not like
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: gold nuggets, but thirty five hundred one dollar bills is
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: pretty great. These are almost like joke gifts. Yeah. Well
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Wells Fargo, which is five dollars in pennies you know,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: slows you down. Um. Wells Fargo, which is uh one
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of the bigger along with x On Mobile, the two
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: biggest corporate sponsors of the Idea Rode, offers them like
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: a the Red Lantern awards the last place finisher. Yeah,
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: I think that's from the Widows Lamp. At the finish line,
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: they have the Widows Lamp, which is a a lamp
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: that they leave burning until the last musher and team
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: has crossed. And that's from the old days, from they
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: would keep a kerosene lamp burning for people that were
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: still out there on the trails. Well Wells Fargo is
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the old timey multinational bank. Look at their look at
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: their homespun logo with the stage coach, and it's pretty neat.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: They're just Western cowboy bankers, right. And it's funny you
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: mentioned stage coach too, because you're like, wow, this is
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: crazy using dogs and pull sleds and you think what
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: you do with other stuff horses. This is using dogs
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: as draft animals. Absolutely, that's all totally fine. Uh. So
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: they have veterinarians on hand. Um, this article said around
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: thirty seven, So weird, and there's a little bit of
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: weirdness in this article, choke. But they do have veterinarians
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: on hand to to examin them during the race, uh,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: before the race, to make sure they're all healthy. Um.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: But dogs die. Dogs can die of over exertion. Um.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: They can have trouble catching their breath. They can asphyxiate
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: on vomit um. They can fall through the ice is
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: a big one. As a matter of fact, falling through
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the ice is not necessarily a death sentence, even when
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: it's negative forty degrees below. Sometimes I'll run right out
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: of that thing. Yeah, because they're Alaskan huskies right. Um.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: But there's this very famous story from four there's an
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: I did a odd winner named Susan Butcher. And she
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: won multiple times. But her team in four UM was
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: let out of after falling through ice, but her two
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: lead dogs pulled the rest of the team out just
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: like one dog at a time until the whole team
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: had made it out of the ice water and continued
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: on kept going. Yeah. Um. And then the next year,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: that same poor lead dog got kicked by a moose
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and they didn't finish that year. I believe it had
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: to recuperate. He did had to recuperate for a year. UM.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: I believe a hundred and forty four dogs have died
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: since the first race. UH. In the past few years
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: they haven't had any deaths, but generally one or two
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: dogs are going to die. Two thousand nine was a
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: bad year. UM. One of the worst and most recent years. UH.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: There was like, I think six dogs that died that
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: year two thousand, I think eleven or twelve. There was
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: one dog that died, but it died terribly. UM. He
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: died from being asphyxiated by the snow after he was
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: left at a checkpoint by his musher in the hands
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: of like the local vets at the checkpoint, and they
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: tied him up and the weather got bad and no
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: one brought him in and he was a snow drift
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: just built over the dog. He couldn't go anywhere and
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: he suffocated in the snow. Um that that was a
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: big deal. Um. Yeah, Pete actually had to apologize. They
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: condemned the musher. They said that they just left this dog. No, no,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: like they left him officially. No, no, But Peter didn't
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: say that. Petter said they just left this dog behind
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: it h and had they were had a lawsuit brought
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: against them, and they came out and apologized. Said, oh,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: actually we know it wasn't on you. You left them
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: in the care of somebody else. And they said the
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: person said that the apology was weak. If you're gonna agitate,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: even if it's four animal rights, you should agitate correctly. No, agreed.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Can I get your facts straight before you agitate, You know,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: like there's enough, there's enough there that you can you
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: can get your facts straight and still agitate just as effectively. Yeah,
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: we're talking about dehydration, ulcers, hypothermia, heart problems, and let's
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: talk about those ulcers. Chuck. There was a study from
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Oklahoma State University UM of a decent number of sled
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: dogs on the Iditarod trail that UM found a lot
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: of them had anemia because they had stomach ulcers and
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: they were bleeding slowly and developing anemia as a result.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: And they got stomach ulcers from being fed aspirin and
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: anti inflammatory drugs like advil to keep them going to
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: keep their joints from hurting, and the the veterinary study
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: suggested that UM, the dogs be fed and acids to
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: combat the ulcers. So they're getting they're being driven a
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: thousand miles miles over eight days, they're given drugs to
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: keep their joints from hurting, they're getting ulcers from the drugs,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: they're getting anemia from the ulcers, and this VET study
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: said that they should be given and acids. Yeah. One
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: of the vets, Uh Scott More, he was a volunteer
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: for the race a few years ago, said he saw
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: dogs with torn achilles tendons, dehydration, diarrhea, hypothermia, hyperthermia, inflammation
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: in the wrist, and soreness in the shoulders from the harnesses.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I didn't know much about this. I just saw it
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: on the news every now and then. I thought, oh,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: neat these working dogs out racing. But um, I'm gonna
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: go ahead and say no more I did, or odd
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: shut it down. Oh yeah, yeah, you're killing dogs for
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: the entertainment of people. I know it's rare, and I
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: know these mushers really care for these dogs and care
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: for their well being and do all they can to
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: ensure their safety. But to me, if dogs are dying
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: at all in training, in the race, after the race,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: then you just shouldn't do anymore, or at the very least, uh,
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: you know, shorten the race, or do something to ensure
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: that these dogs don't die. Ever, So there's there's a
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: there's a couple of schools that thought. Peter is very
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: much opposed to the Iditarod and dog sled racing in general.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: They're like, just don't hook a dog up to a sled.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: That's our stance. Now are they against recreational sledding? There
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: against all kinds of sledding, every every sleds What I
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: couldn't find if you had like six dogs and you
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: sled it over to your friends and they were your
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: family dogs, Peter says, don't do that. I thought it
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: was just competition. There there's a group called the Sled
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Dog Action Coalition. Yes, they are opposed to the iditarod,
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: But they don't have a problem with humane and well
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: done recreational mushing. Um. The Humane Society of the United
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: States opposed to the ididar rod. But um is uh,
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: they don't have a stance on mushing whatsoever. But Peter
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: it says, don't don't use a dog as a draft animal,
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: even for your own recreation. Um. But if you'll notice,
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: the one common thread is that all these groups are
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: opposed to the idea it a rod itself. They are
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: saying like, even if you have vets on at every checkpoint,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: apparently the mushers can um overrule the vets ruling. If
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: a vets like this dog needs to come out, the
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: musher can be like, get lost and the vet doesn't
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: have any recourse. Um, And that's totally well within the rules.
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: But even if you do have vets looking after them,
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: and even if Peter has successfully promoted change and the
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: idea ROD is credited for really facing up to a
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: lot of the problems that the dogs face and dealing
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: with them and having like a very low tolerance for
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: animal cruelty, especially um, the very fact that you're hooking
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: up animals too sled and driving them miles over eight
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: days is in and of itself, to a lot of critics,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: inhumane for the entertainment of people. Even take that away
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason. It's it's inhumane, like, well take it away.
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: But it's not like the old days where you needed
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: to deliver the mail's serums. I mean, it's purely for
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: entertainment at this point. And I know it's tradition, and
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: people that are into this are gonna say, like, you
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: know that you could do anything these days. Definitely, this
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: is a proud old tradition, like just stay We've moved
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: to Alaska for a reason. Stay out of my business. Um.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: And they definitely do take that stance for sure. But
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: that's not to say that mushers are cruel awful people.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: By all accounts, most of them are very good to
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: their animals because they want them to perform well. Uh
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: they are like family to them in most cases. But
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: you still hear about these uh terrible things that happen
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: uh in the in the training. And it's not just
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: the race itself, it's the training, it's the pens. They'll
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: they'll they still call animals. There's one guy named Frank Winkler.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Two times I did a ride racer. He was charged
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: with fourteen counts of cruelty two animals. When UH animal
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: control officer are found a craze of dead and dying
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: puppies in his truck. He said he couldn't afford to
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: take him to the vet. So they'll call the dogs
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: like if you have a deformity, if you're just not
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: good enough, they will still kill that's what calling means.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: Kill the puppies. And they don't call them by injecting
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: them with um, you know, sodium pentethal or some gassing them.
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: A lot of them, A lot of kennels, even like
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: professional kennels UM will shoot them. And the I did
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: a rod committee. That's that's within their rules. Like you
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: can shoot a dog to cull it. Colling is fine,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: and how you call it um is okay. Apparently beating
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: a dog to death is not really acceptable. But that's
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: what Frank Winkler did. But for he did he shot
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: some and then I guess he ran out of bullets
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: and started using an axe handle and he was an
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: I did rod racer um. And that's a problem with
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: the kennels that there are a lot of kennels out
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: there that don't treat their dogs very well. They don't
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: feed them enough, they treat them fairly and humanely, and
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: just the very fact that they cold dogs that aren't
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: good enough is is um reprehensible to a lot of people. Yeah,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: me included at the u S UH. And I want
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: to say, and me too, like I think this is
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: there's a there's a there's a part of me that
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: I'm like, this is not my thing that's up in Alaska.
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: But dogs belong to humanity. Well, yeah, it's like when
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: we did the bullfighting thing, like you can take your
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: tradition and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. And again,
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: culling isn't something that all breeders do, all kennels do. Uh.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: Many of the dogs now that aren't capable or adopted
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: out to loving families, which is great, but culling is
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: still a part of the culture and some kennels, uh
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: the u S crab Lunic Kennel and aspin Colorado UH
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: say that as many as thirty five dogs have been
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: killed annually by gunshot to the head. And the manager said,
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: you know, culling dates back hundreds of years. It's nothing new.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: It's part of the circle of life for this dog
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: sled dog. The circle of life, the nine millimeter of
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the brain is these so um, yeah, wow, it's part
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: of the circle of life. Huh, that's what are you said?
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: And so Chuck. A lot of this stuff is reserved
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: for the I did a rod specifically, and the kennels
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: that supply dogs for the idea rod. But just having
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: a sled dog in and of itself is not necessarily
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: a bad thing, or even using a dog for a
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: sled dog is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: think I take a heart line as PA. Maybe like
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: if you want to recreationally much Uh, there is a long,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: great history of it. I have no problem with it
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: because these dogs do love to run. Uh, they love
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: to pull, and that's their job. But I just can't
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: get behind endurance racing if these dogs are being injured
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: or if they die from it. It's just my opinion.
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: I know a lot of people disagree. We don't put
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: opinions in here much, but one argument I don't want
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: to hear is that we should shut down all endurance
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: racing for humans in because humans can get injured and die.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: The key difference here is humans have free will and
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: they elect to do so. Uh big difference between animals
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and humans that it's just not a comparison I think
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: you should make. Okay, Well, if you want to know
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: more in the meantime about the I Did Rod, you
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: can go watch it. You can go to I Did
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: a Rod dot com. I believe in track the Racers
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: um and you can also read how the I did
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: Rod works on how stuff works by typing those words
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: in the search part how stuff works dot com and
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: uh say said search part, it's time for listener now,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Hey guys, I'm a registered dietitian. I realized I spent
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: a lot of my day tech talking about the three
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: things in my email title, which was poop. Listen to
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: the Poop podcast on the way to work today and
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. As someone who regularly discusses poop and digestion,
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: it's great to hear it on a podcast. Also, I
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: think you guys should do a breastfeeding episode. Breastfeeding is
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: super fascinating. Uh so, thanks for being great in car entertainment.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: I came across this gem of a conversation a few
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: years back because, uh, you guys were asking for different
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: names for taking a poop, and she said someone had
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: written name your poop after a movie on a bathroom wall,
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: And of course a plenty list ensued. And here are
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: some of my favorites. The Great Escape and by the way,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: we heard from a lot of people with great names.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Children of the Corn, The Exorcist, Operation Dumbo, Drop e
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: t the Extraterrestrian, I don't get held, I don't. I
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: didn't get the Exors, Rosemary's Baby not bad, the hurt Locker,
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: mud Gross, Apocalypse now not bad, easy writer, and there
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: will be blood gross so gross. So the first part
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: there's actually two emails. The first part was from Sarah uh,
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: and then the boop movies was from read Sarah. I
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: don't want you to be associated with that. What was Sara?
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: He was the one that said that that gress feeding
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: would be good. And she's a dietitian and she talks
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: a lot about poop. So we should do a breast
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: feeding one again if it canna be a hornet's nest.
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: But we could do it. Sure, we just have to
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: research it because there's no article on how stuff works.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: They think about it. It's worthwhile. Okay, sounds good, uh,
• 57:15
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• 57:16
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• 57:18
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• 57:21
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• 57:24
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• 57:26
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• 57:28
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• 57:36
  Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, is it
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com.