Stuff You Should Know - How The Iditarod Works

Episode Date: March 8, 2016

Each year hundreds of dogs haul humans in sleds as part of the 1,100 plus mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. It's grueling and not without controversy but one thing is for sure, these are some amazing dogs. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass

and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say. Bye, bye, bye.

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You smell that, Josh? That's the smell of the Pacific Northwest. It's the smell of spring. Oh yeah, that. That's where I was headed. Okay. We are launching our spring has sprung tour and other dates, TBD, but we know we are starting

in the Pacific Northwest. Yeah, like I said, which is what smells. Like patchouli and liberalism. And pine. Where are we going? Seattle and Portland, right? On Friday, April 8th, we're gonna be in Seattle. At the Neptune.

Which we were at last time. It was a great venue. Great venue. The next day, we're going to be in Portland at Revolution Hall. New venue for us. New venue for us and we are going back there because two reasons.

You both treated us so well last time. And we have a very special podcast, Taylor made for your neck of the woods. That's right. So come see us. You can get tickets on sysklive.com, our website powered by Squarespace. That's right.

And we'll see you guys April 8th and 9th. Come on out Pacific Northwest. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know. From HouseToForks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And there's Jerry over there. And there's some delicious Ritz crackers

with peanut butter dipped in white chocolate. Which means this is Stuff You Should Know. Yummy cookies. Yes. But we're not gonna say who sent them just yet. Because that'll fall under administrative details. Which by the way, while we're mentioning it, thanks again to Mark Henry.

We're pretty sure we thanked for the awesome steel work that we got at the Pittsburgh show. Yeah. Or a sign. Steel and barn work. Right, exactly. I thought we thanked him, but if we didn't, I wanna make sure we did.

For sure. Because it hangs right here above our heads. Proudly. It looms intimidatingly over our heads. Are you intimidated by it? No, I'm a little under the weather though, can you tell? I can, yeah. Mostly because you said so.

But now that I'm listening for it, I can hear it. Sort of that. It's like you got a stick of butter in each nostril. Yeah, oh man, I wish. Do you? You can do that. How are you? I'm doing okay.

I'm not under the weather. That's good. I am nice and warm here in Atlanta. It's like 70 degrees outside here on like March 1st. Yeah. Kind of, well, I wanna say the opposite, not necessarily these days, thanks to climate change in Alaska. All right, Leo DiCaprio.

We're there. I thought that was a great speech. That was fantastic. Nailed it. The guy should be an actor. In Alaska where they're about to do the Iditarod, they're about to run it. As a matter of fact, when this comes out,

it will have started a couple of days before, right? So we'll be like right smack dab in the middle of what's called the last great race on earth, the Iditarod trail sled dog race. Also known as just the Iditarod. Or the Iditarod trail sled dog race. Did I say dog sled? No, you said it, but you just put the emphasis

on the weird words. Or the Iditarod trail sled dog race. Exactly. We could do this several more times. We could, so let's get into this. I'm gonna, we're probably both gonna say poopy things about dog racing, aren't we? Probably, yeah.

I'm just waiting for people in Alaska to be mad at me. It's gonna be years before they get their hands on this episode. Yeah, probably so, because you have to fly it out. You have to drop it in the cassette player. You have to fly the one iPod from town to town and everybody has to get their turn listening to it. Yeah, one thing I learned about people from Alaska

is the reason they live in Alaska is because they don't like being told what to do by anybody. No, they don't. They don't like getting pushed around. No, so they moved to Alaska where you can do as you please. Yeah. So yeah, we'll see where this one goes.

So the Iditarod, for those of you who don't know, is actually a grueling endurance race across some of the coldest parts of the planet. Sure, over 1,100 miles total, that's a long way. And it's not like people are running or snowshoeing or hang gliding, they are on a little sled, on skis. You could also call it a mini sleigh if you wanted to. And these mini sleighs are pulled by teams of dogs.

And that's the race. It's a dog sled race. That's right. A dog sled race. Held every year since 1973. And there is no set number of participants. It kind of varies from year to year, depending on how many people want to take part.

And like you said, it's rough terrain. It's cold, brutal conditions. Could be anywhere from, it could go down to 50 below zero. That's insane. With harsh winds and blinding snow, snow blinds. Is that what it's called? That's what Ozzy called it. Oh, really?

Yeah. Did you remember the song Snow Blind? Yeah, I think so. Great Black Sabbath song. I don't think he was talking about snow though. Probably not. You know what I mean? Oh, was he talking about cocaine?

I think he may have been. Oh, I never thought about that. So, Chuck, you said like up to 50 below, I saw 60 below Fahrenheit. 60 below zero Fahrenheit. That's cold. But I also kept running across people saying like negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

And I remember we said that once when we were talking about Seymour Haya, the Finnish sniper. Yeah, yeah. Who's like the baddest dude ever. The white ghost or something? Something like that. The white death.

White death, yeah. I think that was it. Man, that guy was crazy. Anyway, we mentioned that he was out sniping people in temperatures as cold as negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit. And ever since then, people wrote in and said, dude, negative 40 degrees is the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

It's where they converge. Wow. And ever since then, I've always noticed there's very few people who realize that. Yeah, well, I forgot. Negative 40 degrees. You don't have to say Fahrenheit or Celsius. It's amazing.

It is. It's the magic temperature. Things are so cold, no one gives a crap. Right, exactly. So the route for the Iditarod, there are a couple of different routes, depending on what year it is. This would be an even year, 2016.

So that means they're gonna follow the northern route. Last year and every odd year, they have a southern route. And they are basically the same route except for 300 miles in the middle where it's different. Yeah, between Ophir and Unkelit, I believe. Unkelit? I think so. And it either shoots up or dips down, depending.

But other than that, it's the same exact route. Yeah, there are 26 checkpoints along the way on the northern route and then 27 on the southern route. Right. Because you need just that one extra by the southern route. I think, doesn't it say the southern route's a little harder?

Yeah, I think the general thought is the northern trail is a little easier. But I think there's a difference in terrain, typically. Oh, okay. That makes sense. And you would think, okay, this is a 1,000 mile plus trek across snow in negative 50, 60 degree Fahrenheit weather. It's gonna take forever, right?

And as a matter of fact, the first one in 1973 did take, I think the last place finisher, more than 30 days to complete the race. Nowadays, they're doing these things in like eight in change. Yeah, the record, the first I did a ride was like 20 days in change for the winner. For the winner, right? And now the record is a guy named John Baker

in 2011 finished it. So that would be a southern route, even more difficult. In eight days, 18 hours, 46 minutes and 39 seconds. I saw more recently a guy named Dallas Seavy, who's part of like an I did a ride family. Uh-huh. In 2014, he broke that record by a few hours. Eight days, 13 hours, four minutes and 19 seconds.

Oh, I thought Baker was a guy. No, and Baker, I guess, toppled another guy named Martin Busser, who he had the record for a little while. But yeah, it went from like, would you say 20 days for the winner in 1973? Yeah, 24. And now it's like just over a week. And within that week is a forced 24 hour furlough.

So technically they might be able to do it in a week if they really try. Yeah, 24 hours plus to eight hour breaks. Yeah. So yeah, I bet if it was up to the mushers, they would press on. Yes, because aside from those enforced breaks, they do typically press on.

They'll stop every once in a while, like feed the dogs or something like that. But for the most part, they're not sleeping. They're staying awake and they're just pushing forward. So they get sleep deprivation. They start to hallucinate. I read this really great New Yorker article called The White Wall,

where the light from your headlamp, because you're traveling at night, most of the time, the light from your headlamp is reflecting off of the fur around your parka, and it creates this kind of white screen in your field of vision, and it's like ripe for hallucinations. Wow, so you just starting to go a little batty?

Yeah, for sure. I saw where this one lady who was a musher said that she slept while she was riding. Oh yeah? That's what she said. She just taught herself to kind of hang on and nod off. I guess, or maybe she just thought she was sleeping. Yeah, that's possible too.

And was freaking out on the snow blind. So we should mention mush. Apparently no one says mush anymore. Oh, as far as like the lingo? Yeah, now they say like hiker, all right, or let's go, but mush originally meant like start going. Yeah, it's a French from Marchant or March. Yes, March.

And yeah, they still call them mushers. Yeah. That's a funny name. But apparently the mushers don't use the word mush when they're. As far as like their command. Exactly. Yeah, that makes sense.

So you wanna talk about the history of this sport, this endurance sport, because there's really no way around it. The dogs are like peak, they're like LeBron James of dogs. Yeah. All of them. But let's talk about the history of sled dogs,

about the kind of dogs that are used for sled dogs. Like most people, including me, assume that if you were riding around the snow on a sled being pulled by dogs, you're probably being pulled by Siberian Huskies. Maybe. Or Alaskan Malamutes. Yeah, or maybe a Samoyed.

Yes. Perhaps. Thank you for being the one to say it. Why? Out loud. It's not the easiest one, just looking at it to pronounce. Would you say Samoyed?

Samoyed. Yeah. I watched the dog show the other day, that's why. I love that. They had. Who won? You know, I'd actually, but this is how old I am.

I fell asleep before the best in show. Okay. That's all right. Yeah. This is very fun watching. As long as you enjoyed yourself watching it. I wanna go one year. Yeah, that'd be cool.

Yeah. All that. It is crazy. Yeah. Crazy partying. Do you think? The whole time. No, I think it'd probably be a lot of fun to go see

and cheer for dogs. Although I'm against dog breeding in general, so I probably shouldn't even go. But the, what did you say? Samoyed. The Samoyed. And the Alaskan Malamute and the Siberian Husky, they are all AKC registered breeds.

They're recognized by the American Kennel Club. And they used to pull sleds, especially Siberian Huskies. There's a guy named Leonard. Oh man, I can't remember his name. Sepola, I believe is what his name was. And he was the guy who first started racing Siberian Huskies in Alaska on sleds.

But if you go to Alaska today, you're gonna find something called an Alaskan Husky. It's typically the kind of dog that you're gonna encounter as a sled dog. And this is like a mixed breed. It's a mutt breed. And they have been bred to just basically be mentally tough, physically sturdy, not too big, but also not too small.

The thick coat and- Double coat. Yes. And not just quickness, but a strong inbred desire to run and pull stuff while they're running. Yeah, I saw this one guy called it, it's like they have a wanderlust.

Like there's always some place else they'd rather be. Like they want to go, go, go. Over there. Which is why, when you're taking a break or something with your dogs on the Iditarod, you have to chain them down. Whereas they're like, see ya. Oh yeah.

And they also microchip them as well. They're tough dogs. I had a friend who had a Husky and they are not easy. And this Husky would get out and see you later. Yeah. For like two days. And he always came back, but- And he came back wearing like a Hawaiian shirt.

Yeah. Like a tiki drink. That would freak if my dog got out. Because my dogs are big dummies. They wouldn't like, they wouldn't know how to come back. Was this a pretty smart dog? Yeah, I think the Alaskan Husky's pretty smart, generally. So it was an Alaskan Husky.

I think so, yeah. So Alaskan Huskies are descended more from dogs called Inuit dogs and Eskimo dogs. And they are basically indigenous dogs to Alaska. They came over with the first humans who crossed the Bering Land Bridge, right? Yeah, the dogs pulled them across that bridge. Probably.

Not probably, they did. Oh, they did. Oh, yeah. So I saw that they didn't hook dogs up to sleds until like this past millennia, or the one we're in now. There was like 80, 800, or maybe 1200 when they were using sleds. Oh, really?

That's what I saw. But I also saw that it goes back to time in Memorial. Who knows? What I did see though is that these Inuit dogs and the Eskimo dogs were definitely hauling stuff. Like whale carcasses, or huge parts of whale carcasses to be butchered back in town. They were hunting dogs, they were companions,

they were protector dogs. They were just total butt kicking animals. They could stand temperatures well into the negative 20s, or 30s, or 40s degree Fahrenheit. Cause that double coat. Yes. So the outer coat, I think deflects the snow and then they have the inner coat that is waterproof.

Right. And insulates them. So when you see those dogs laying out in the snow, they're not cold. Right. You know, don't think, oh, poor dog laying in the snow. I mean, there can be problems as we talked about with the Iditarod when that one dog was buried.

Well, that. And fixated. Yeah, they can also get frostbite. They can get frostbite though, depending, but yeah, for the most part, which I don't understand, man, that's crazy. I was like, man, these checkpoints, they have like tents at the checkpoints.

How big are the tents? I mean, what if more than one team has to put their dogs in the tents and I was like. They're not in the tent. No. They sleep, they put down, they put down hay. They might have a bale of hay that the musher has. Yeah.

And the dogs sleep on the hay in the snow. And they cover their nose with their tails. They do. Which is adorable. And at kennels for these dogs, some of them, they'll have like plastic barrels cut in half with a little hole for the dog to get in and out of when weather's really bad.

But for the most part, yeah, especially if it's not snowing or windy, a Inuit dog or an Alaskan husky can just sleep outside on the snow. Exactly. They used to deliver the mail in Alaska in the late 1800s to early 1900s. That was exclusively how the mail was delivered

until the airplane became the primary mode of mail delivery. Yeah. And the last mail dog in Alaska retired in 1963. So not too long ago. No. Pretty impressive. Yeah.

Right before hippies. Yeah. The dog didn't live to see hippies. The police used them in the gold rush at the late 1800s. And of course, Alaska aside, they have long been used in Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Yeah.

There was actually a very famous Antarctic expedition in Japan where I think in the 50s, yeah, in 1958, an Antarctic expedition had to be abandoned and the Japanese researchers had to be evacked by helicopter and they were like, sorry dogs, well, somebody will be back in a few days. We're gonna chain you up here. Here's some food.

Good luck. We'll fight over it. A year later, a research team made it back to that outpost and they found two of the dogs were still alive. Yeah. Taro and Jiro and their brothers, which makes it even more awesome. It's amazing.

And they became national heroes back in Japan. And I was like, well, yeah, of course they ate the other dogs. I read an article that said that there were no signs of cannibalism. Oh, wow. That they just like hunted penguins and seals and stuff like that and managed to survive.

Wasn't it the basis of the Paul Walker movie, Paul Walker? The Fast and the Furious? Same guy. No longer with us too. No. He died in that car wreck. Yeah. Was he a passenger?

He was the passenger in that car wreck, wasn't he? No, I think he drove. Okay. He did have a passenger. What was it called? Apolo, right? Yeah, which is, he's not Japanese. No, but he's, it was supposedly him.

I think it must have been based on that or something. I haven't seen the movie. I got you. I think they thought an updated version would fare better. They were like, who does everyone like? Paul Walker. Exactly. They were used as war dogs in World War One

and World War Two hauling equipment, search and rescue. Helps set up the Alaskan Telegraph line around World War One. Yeah. And they also almost invaded Norway from the eastern coast of Canada. Oh yeah? Yeah, they were attached to like the 15th mountaineering regimen

of the United States Army, I think. It would have been army for sure. And we didn't invade Norway, but have we, these dogs would have been there with us. Wow. Yeah. And by us, I mean specifically you and me, Chuck. Right.

Because we were in the 15th. So you said that they are bred for their, not only endurance, but for their speed. And they actually have, their feet have adapted to take on this terrain because a good sledder is, is that a sledder? Sure. All right, good sledder has wide, flat feet.

But they also have toes that are dense and together. You don't want them to splay toes because stuff can get in between them. Yeah. So basically they have like, they have feet like hammers, it sounds like. Hammer toes? Basically, but hammer feet.

Yeah, and the gender doesn't matter. Lady, little lady dogs and little boy dogs are just as good. So gender isn't a big deal. Yeah. They're also big at trail breaking, right? So like if you want to go out and see if the ice is thick enough to cross, take a team of sled dogs. Yeah.

And they actually do this in Denali National Park. Yeah, and they do it ahead of the Iditarod. They send out teams to break the trails and make sure it's as safe as it can be. Right. And those trails, Chuck, were used for a very long time and still were, but then they started in like the 60s, say maybe early 70s to be blazed more by snowmobiles.

This guy named Joe Reddington Sr. was really sad to see the dog sled, the traditional sled being replaced by the snowmobile. These man-made machines. And he said, you know what? We need to preserve this heritage. I'm going to start a race in the fashion of some of these old ones.

There was this all Alaska sweepstakes. That was much shorter, but like in the 1900s, people were using sled dogs a lot and actually using them, but then they fell out of fashion. So this guy, Joe Reddington Sr., tried to preserve it by starting this race. Yeah, Dorothy Page, are they together or were they just fellow muchers?

They were kindred spirits. Okay, gotcha. So the first one they organized was a 50 mile race, right? Yeah, in like the 60s. Not like the 1100 mile journey that it's grown into today. They really stepped it up. Yeah, and the sprints, they actually have sprint races. They have all different races.

A sprint is a 30 mile sprint. Well, like just go flat out for 30 miles. 30 miles. That's insane. It is. So there's this widely held misconception that the Iditarod was created to commemorate this very famous run that happened in 1925, right?

Yeah, the Diptheria outbreak. They ran out of, well, they needed to get medicine and they used dogs to get medicine to the farthest reaches of Alaska. In like Nome, I think there was about to be a Diptheria outbreak. So that has nothing to do with it because that is all over the internet,

including on the Iditarod site. No, if you look at the Iditarod site, it says specifically what Joe Reddington's aim was. Wow. Yeah, no, I know, I saw that everywhere, including on our own how stuff works articles that people believe that they meant to commemorate it. And yes, this incredibly courageous emergency

rescue operation of bringing vaccine, well, at least antitoxin, I think is what it was, to the children of Nome before this outbreak killed them all. Yeah. It captured the world's imagination. And it did follow the same route, half of it. But the first half was delivered by train. And the Iditarod trail was starting to fall out of use

by the time Joe Reddington and Dorothea Page came along and wanted to preserve it. So it's more coincidence than anything. They didn't intentionally create the Iditarod to commemorate the Diptheria run from 1925. Well, if you go to New York's Central Park around 67th Street on the east side, you can see a statue of Balto the dog

who was the lead dog on that serum run. And so they said, we're gonna commemorate this in New York. Yeah. Which I don't get. But it looks like it would be in Alaska. Well, the reason why they did it there was because like the whole country was paying attention. Much of the world was paying attention to this.

This little tiny town up in Alaska was in real trouble. And this doctor had put all these telegraphs out like asking for somebody to bring them something. And the closest stuff was in Anchorage. And since this trek took like five days, people were covering it for the newspapers and people were reading about it all over the country. They got so jazzed up that New York was like,

we're gonna erect a statue of Balto. But that didn't explain why New York. They just got that excited. They just got excited, yeah. So that's the reason. That's exactly why. So in the early 1990s, well, let's take a break actually

and then we'll talk about the 90s. Okay. Here we go. And we'll have like five days down there. 5 minutes to go, but you'll get the perfect microphone. That won't go away. We just came over to Melville in south California to get a little more warm side to the show.

There you are, okay? Now what's the LACHA Buoty walkthrough? You can see that there's are very easy walkthroughs lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger

and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to, hey dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart Podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Ah okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me

in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband, Michael. Um hey, that's me. Yep, we know that Michael. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio App, Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. So in the early 90s, as I was saying

before, they started, there's a ceremonial kickoff they do now that's not a part of the actual race. So people can come out and cheer them on. In Anchorage, right? Yeah. So they have a big party. People lie in the streets and they get all the apparently it's a crazy scene because you know hundreds and hundreds of dogs. And these dogs, I will say, I mean, we'll get to the downside, which is pretty grotesque if you ask me. But these dogs want to work and they want to pull this sled. I don't know if they want to pull it 1,100 miles, but they are sled dogs. And so when you get these highly energetic, well, they're all kinds of breeds, but mostly the Alaskan Husky is what they prefer. Mushers prefer. It's a crazy scene because they're not like, they're not your average lap dog.

Right. They're excited. And they howl. Yeah. They have very shrill howls a lot of them do. Yeah, unless they had their voice box removed by their musher. Which is the thing. It can be. So they kick off in Anchorage and the reason why it's just a ceremonial kickoff is because there's usually not enough snow these days in Anchorage. Again, climate change. Yeah. So they used to go up to Vassila or Vassila. I don't know how they pronounce it up there. Vassila. Is it Vassila? Yeah, that's Sarah Palin's. I know. I don't remember back then. Catch it. And then they stopped getting enough reliable snow there. So they had to move it up even further to Willow. Willow. Willow, yeah, Willow, Vilva, is like two and a half hours north of Anchorage. They always have snow there.

That's their motto. Right. So they have the ceremonial parade of the dogs the day before, and then the next day is when they start and like the race officially starts. Yeah. And it costs a lot of money to put on the race and it's not cheap to be a musher with a sled team. I mean, you can put as much as like 20 grand into your sled team in the training. And it takes a long time. So some of these musher have corporate sponsors. You can make money too, like owning a kennel and leasing dogs out to other Iditarod contestants. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think corporate sponsorships definitely help quite a bit. Well, a lot of corporations have stepped away from it though in recent years as far as sponsoring the race because of all the

controversy surrounding it, which we will still get to. You got to be 18. You can't just be some dumb 14 year old or even a 17 year old, not even 17 and a half. You got to be 18. And you have to have completed some other qualifying races and placed, I mean, we can get specific if you want, a Yukon Quest international sled dog race or two approved races. And you have to have at least 500 miles under your belt on those races and have finished in the top 75 percent. Or it says here mind-bendingly, another way to qualify for an Iditarod race is to have been in a previous Iditarod race, which I guess. Yeah, I don't think that. I guess once you're in your first one, then you're qualified. But are you sure it wasn't like if you've won, then you get like a lifetime? No,

I don't think so. Exemption. Because that's what golfers do. Is that right? Well, some of them, some of the PGA events, if you win that event, then you're automatically in for the rest of your life. Maybe not the rest of your life. But I think for like the next five years or so, it depends on the event, then you get automatically qualified. That makes sense. Sure. All right. So what's, what does a sled team look like? They look pretty good. You got your musher. That's the guy standing on back telling the dogs what to do. Or the lady. Yes, that's right. I'm a gender neutral guy. Sure. And then you have a team of dogs and depending on what you're doing, with the Iditarod in particular, you have to start, I think, with 16 dogs, right? Yes. And you have to finish with 12.

No, 12 to 16. And then you have to finish with 10. So you can have up to six dogs die along the way and not get disqualified from the Iditarod, technically, right? And in the lead are the very appropriate named lead dogs. Yeah. These are your smartest, fastest dogs. I was reading about these dogs. These dogs are amazing dogs. Yeah. So smart that they will even disobey their owner if they're like, dude, that's a cliff. Right. Don't tell me too much. I know you can't see because you're snow blind in the Aussie fashion. Yeah. So just leave it to me to ignore your command and steer us to the left. And so when that lead dog starts to go, the dogs immediately behind them, the point dogs, or the, what are they called? The swing dogs. They also are called point two,

I think. They're the ones who actually get the rest of the team to turn with them. Yeah. And they call them swings because, you know, you have to, you can't cut it short. You got to swing wide around obstacles. Right. And these dogs are smart enough to know to do that. So you've got, those are the first four dogs you have are the lead dogs and the swing or point dogs. Behind them, you're going to have a couple of pairs of what are called team dogs. Yeah. These dogs are just really good at pulling, working well with others. Yeah. They're like the role player on the NBA bench. Yeah. They're the solid basketball players. They're the Draymond Greens. But sure. Yeah. But they're not going to be starting an all star game. No, but they may

have enough spunk in spirit to get the rest of the team going. Yeah. Yeah. They're the Draymond Greens. Exactly. And then at the very back, right in front of the sled are the wheels, the wheelers. Yes. And they are the strongest of the bunch supposedly. And those are the dogs. But the dogs are attached to the sled or else you're in big trouble. You have a bunch of really fast dogs running together and a musher who's left behind. How funny would that be? It'd be funny to everybody else but the musher. Yes. And the sled connects to the dogs through the main line or the toe line, right? Yes. Or the gang line, I think is the other name for it. And this is basically just the line that goes from the sled all the way up to the lead dogs and all the dogs are connected

to this thing. That's right. Then the dogs are connected to the lead line and they pull on that toe line via tug lines that are connected to their harnesses. That's right. And the dog is wearing a collar and a harness. They don't actually, it's not like they don't have reins like a horse. Right. They go on command. I have seen like a whip. They stopped using whips. Okay. But they used to fairly recently. Gotcha. Yeah, they go mush, mush, mush. No more mush, no more whips. Right. Things are changing. Oh, big time as a matter of fact. And then you have the, so the dog's collar is connected by a collar line, I think, right? Yes. So you have to condition these dogs. They don't come out of the womb ready to run a thousand miles. Yeah. I mean,

they might want to. Yeah, they've got some genetics going on for sure, but they definitely take some shaping as well. But you have to condition them over time from the time they're little pups to start them out wearing the collar and the harness to get used to it, to pulling little light things around the house. That's adorable. Yeah. To building up their endurance and their strength over time. Right. Just like, you know, any endurance race, if you're a marathoner, the same deal. You don't go out and run 26 miles. And you also have to be, you have to understand verbal commands, obscure ones too. Like hike. Not mush though. No one says mush to a dog. Hike. Let's go. All right. All those mean let's go, right? Yeah. I think that's

how they say it. Easy. If you want to slow down. And we couldn't decide. Is it G? I think it's G. I say G. I think it's G. Come G or come Haw to go left or right. Haw is definitely Haw. Yeah. Straight on. Yeah. And then whoa, if you're going to stop. It makes sense. Like with a horse. And imagine straight on means keep on going. They also definitely need to learn to work together, which is not necessarily in every breed of dogs makeup. No. You know, dogs have alpha dogs and they're packed dogs. And you have a lead dog that lead dog can fulfill that role. But you also want dogs that can, that aren't like constantly jockeying for position that they know their place and they're willing to work together with the other dogs. Yeah. Temperament's a big deal. For sure.

And then you also, when you're running the I did a rod and you're putting a sled team together, you want to pick dogs of a similar build, similar gate and speed. Yeah. You want them to basically move as one. Yeah. And so a lot of the selection and your dogs that you put together for a team is going to have a huge impact on that. Yeah. Like how they pair well together. Right. That makes sense. But not just temperamentally, but physically and in the way that they move as well. Yeah. And the dogs, they can be big. But generally, I think for the endurance races, you want to dog this between like 40 and 60 pounds. And how old are they? Well, if you want to be a sled dog, you're probably at least two. But you would think, you know, like if you look at thoroughbred horse

racing, yeah, those horses are retired by like age three, I think maybe four. These dogs will pull sleds and compete in like races up until age 10. Yeah, not bad. And again, at Denali National Park, they get retired at age nine. They're eating a lot. They need to eat around 10,000 calories a day while they're doing these races. That's about 2000 pounds of food per team. And it's mostly just meat. But they have this stuff. It's sort of like hiking the Appalachian Trail. They have it flown ahead and dropped off at all these checkpoints. So the food in your bourbon is waiting there when you get there. Yeah. There was a guy, man, what was his name? Mackie Lance Mackie. He was like the number one I did a rod racer for several years. Yeah. And he was not well liked among all

I did a rod racers, because he used to just do things like smoke pot, like while he was just riding along on the I did a rod trail. I saw that drugs and alcohol was the thing with mushers. Yeah. I don't know if it how widespread it is, but well, it's like a marijuana is a banned substance now. Even apparently they're talking about legalizing it in Alaska. And the I did a rod committee is like, no, still can't smoke pot. Lance Mackie, we're looking at you. Right. But apparently, according to this New Yorker article, great New Yorker article, the white wall, check it out. Yeah. ESPN has a really good one too. They said that he quit and did the did the race straight and still won once, I think. And then smoked tons of pot right afterwards.

To celebrate. Yeah. But the along this trail, me were saying that the dogs eat mostly meat. They eat different types of meat. They also eat like nutritional supplements. And in the white wall of the article, they describe what Dallas EV is feeding his dogs at one stop. And it's like a four course meal. He starts with a broth with kibble and some nutritional supplements. And then they eat some fish sticks. Yeah. And they have some beef. And then they finish it all off with chicken skin. Like all fat. That sounds delicious. Yeah. And the dogs are eating like 10 to 14,000 calories a day, which is like 10 times the caloric intake of an active dog of about the same size. 10 times. Oh, yeah. Just in a day. Yeah. Well, they're running like over 100 miles a day.

Yeah. It's crazy. They're wearing little doggy booties now because it's very rough on their feet, obviously, running over this ice and snow and rough terrain. And a team will go through as many as 2,000 pairs or two. This says 2,000 booties, maybe 1,000 pairs. Yeah. Well, no. Yeah. 1,000 pairs. What do you call? Although, would it be a pair of before? Yeah. A dog pair would be four. I guess so. So 500 dog pair. We just created a new thing. It's like a baker's dozen. So 2,000 booties, they will go through. But they're still going to get their feet beat up. Their paws beat up pretty bad. Well, yeah, because dogs perspire by panting and on the bottoms of their feet. Yeah. So you can't just wear booties all the time. So one of the mushers things that they really have to be paying

attention to is a good time to give the dogs feet of rest without the booties to let them basically perspire so they don't overheat. Yeah. And I get the feeling that if they're really hauling and they see that they've lost a few booties, they're not like, oh, let me stop and put a fresh booty on. You know, they're mushing forward. Sure. So Chuck, let's take a break and we'll come back and talk about some other stuff. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and

dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting frosted tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL instant messenger and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's beeper because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s. Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple

Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart Podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This I promise you. Oh god. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yeah, we know that Michael and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Not another

one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never ever have to say bye bye bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right. We've talked about dogs. We've talked a little bit about mushers, but one thing that makes a good musher is granted they are standing. They're not running. Well, sometimes they're running along, but they're, they're usually standing, but it's tough. It's not like I get the feeling it's like if you've ever been snow skiing or water skiing, it's hard on your legs. Yeah. It's not

like, oh, I'm just standing here taking a joy ride. Yeah. You have to stand up over, over bumpy terrain for hours and hours and hours, basically for eight days. Yeah. So you gotta be strong and have a lot of stamina in your own self. You also have to put up with, again, you have to be mentally tough. You have to put up with the hallucinations and not make really bad decisions while you're on the trail and it's night and you haven't slept. And you also need to pack well. Yeah. You want to bring everything, it's sort of like backpacking, everything you need, but as light as you can make it. And there's actually stuff you have to bring. Sure. As part of the idea to survive, you gotta have a sleeping bag. Sleeping bag and axe, no shoes, a little cooking pot and fuel

so you can boil water. Sure. And then you also, most of them carry a gun. The Dallas CV guy said that he carries a.357 with him and he actually shot a moose with it that was charging him and his dogs. Is this the stoner? No. This is his long time rival, the young upstart. The clean liver, whose father was also Iditarod winner from 2013, I think. It very much seems like a family thing. I saw a lot of people with the same last names. And then the other big essential gear is the sled itself, which there's not like you don't go to the official Iditarod sled store and buy your sled and go, okay, I'm ready. You constructed it yourself. Oh, really? Yeah, you definitely can. I'm sure there's sleds out there that you can buy, but you can also build them yourself.

The Iditarod only requires that some type of sled or toboggan must be drawn. Right. So you want that to be light as well. Probably about 100 pounds empty, more than twice that full, plus your own human body, which maybe drop a few pounds before the race. Sure. And again, I'm sorry to keep going to the same well, but the Dallas CV cat, the reason we keep mentioning him is like he is really your hero. He's fine. Okay. I don't know enough about him to know whether he's my hero or not, but he has definitely reshaped the Iditarod race with some of the stuff he's doing. One of the things he's doing is making Iditarod racers like more athletic. Like if they're going up a hill, he'll jump off of the runners and run behind

the sled rather than just get a ride with the dogs, which of course increases your time, but it's also easier on the dogs. It's just you have to be not a tub and you have to be able to run up inclines for eight days when you need to, you know? Yeah, that can't be fun. Running in the snow is not fun. No, but it helps you win. Yeah. And it's easier on your dogs. And if you win, you're going to get some dough. They split the money up. You can actually finish in last place and still get some money, but you're going to get obviously the grand prize winner will win a nice fat purse in the six-figure range. A really nice purse. Very nice. Then there are other little prizes along the way like Field Day at elementary school. If you

reach the halfway point, the first muster to go to the halfway point in odd number of years, it would be I did a ride itself. And then in Cripple, in the even number of years, you're going to get yourself the GCI Dorothy Page Halfway Award and $3,000 in Gold Nuggets. Gold Nuggets. That's pretty neat. Yeah. Can you imagine every once in a while they're like, we didn't have the Gold Nuggets, but here's $3,000. I'd be like, I want my Gold Nuggets. Yeah, $3,000 worth. And then you bite into it to check its authenticity. And you call the guy who gives you dinner cookie. Yeah. Yeah. That's the Alaska way. What else? The top lead dog is going to take home the Lolli Medley Memorial Golden Harness Award.

Of course. Everybody knows that. And then there's other towns where if you're the first one to make it to say Anvik or Ruby, you'll get a seven course meal and $3,501 bills because it just seems like more. Not like Gold Nuggets, but $3,501 bills is pretty great. These are almost like joke gifts. Yeah. Well, Wells Fargo, which is $5,000 in pennies, slows you down. Wells Fargo, which is one of the bigger, along with Exxon Mobil, the two biggest corporate sponsors of the Iditarod offers the Red Lantern Award, the last place finisher. Yeah. I think that's from the Widow's Lamp. At the finish line, they have the Widow's Lamp, which is a lamp that they leave burning until the last butcher and team has crossed. Right. And that's from the old days,

from they would keep a kerosene lamp burning for people that were still out there on the trails. Well, Wells Fargo is the old timey multinational bank. Look at their homespun logo. Yeah. With the stagecoach, and it's pretty neat. They're just Western cowboy bankers. Right. And it's funny, you mentioned stagecoach, too, because you're like, wow, this is crazy using dogs to pull sleds. And you think, well, you do it with other stuff. Horses. This is using dogs as draft animals. Yeah. Absolutely. That's all. Totally fine. So they have veterinarians on hand. This article said around 37. It was so weird. And there's a little bit of weirdness in this article, Chuck. But they do have veterinarians on hand to exam them during the race, before the race, to make sure they're

all healthy. But dogs die. Dogs can die of overexertion. Yeah. They can have trouble catching their breath. They can asphyxiate on vomit. They can fall through the ice is a big one. As a matter of fact, falling through the ice is not necessarily a death sentence, even when it's negative 40 degrees below. Yeah. Sometimes they'll run right out of that thing. Yeah. Because they're Alaskan Huskies, right? But there's this very famous story from 1984. There's an Iditarod winner named Susan Butcher. And she won multiple times. But her team in 1984 was let out of after falling through ice by her two lead dogs, pulled the rest of the team out, just like one dog at a time, until the whole team had made it out of the ice water. Amazing.

And continued on. The ice water kept going. Yeah. Yeah. And then the next year, that same poor lead dog got kicked by a moose. And they didn't finish that year, I believe, had to recuperate. He did. Had to recuperate for a year. I believe 144 dogs have died since the first race. In the past few years, they haven't had any deaths, but generally one or two dogs are going to die. 2009 was a bad year. One of the worst in most recent years. There was like, I think six dogs that died that year. 2011 or 12, there was one dog that died, but it died terribly. He died from being asphyxiated by the snow after he was left at a checkpoint by his musher in the hands of like the local vets at the checkpoint. And they tied him up and the weather got bad and no one brought

him in and he was a snowdrift just built over the dog. He couldn't go anywhere and he suffocated in the snow. That was a big deal. Yeah. PETA actually had to apologize. They condemned the musher that said that they just left this dog. No, though, like they left him officially. No, I know, but PETA didn't say that. PETA said they just left this dog behind. Get it right, PETA. And they had a lawsuit brought against them and they came out and apologized and said, oh, actually, we know it wasn't on you. You left them in the care of somebody else. Our bad. And they said the person said that the apology was weak. If you're going to agitate, even if it's for animal rights, you should agitate correctly. No, I agree.

Can I get your facts straight before you agitate, you know? Like there's enough there. Sure. That you can get your facts straight and still agitate just as effectively. Yeah, we're talking about dehydration, ulcers, hypothermia, heart problems. And let's talk about those ulcers, Chuck. There was a study from Oklahoma State University of a decent number of sled dogs on the Iditarod trail that found a lot of them had anemia because they had stomach ulcers and they were bleeding slowly and developing anemia as a result. And they got stomach ulcers from being fed aspirin and anti-inflammatory drugs like Advil to keep them going and keep their joints from hurting. And the veterinary study suggested that the dogs be fed anacids to combat the ulcers.

So they're being driven 1,000 miles, 1,100 miles over eight days. They're given drugs to keep their joints from hurting. They're getting ulcers from the drugs. They're getting anemia from the ulcers. And this vet study said that they should be given anacids. Yeah, one of the vets, Scott Moore, he was a volunteer for the race a few years ago, said he saw dogs with torn Achilles tendons, dehydration, diarrhea, hypothermia, hyperthermia, inflammation in the wrist and soreness in the shoulders from the harnesses. I didn't know much about this. I just saw it on the news every now and then and thought, oh neat, these working dogs out racing. But I'm going to go ahead and say, no more Iditarod. Shut it down. Oh yeah? Yeah,

you're killing dogs for the entertainment of people. I know it's rare and I know 99% of these mushers really care for these dogs and care for their well-being and do all they can to ensure their safety. But to me, if dogs are dying at all in training and the race after the race, then you just shouldn't do anymore or at the very least shorten the race or do something to ensure that these dogs don't die ever. So there's a couple of schools that thought PETA is very much opposed to the Iditarod and dog sled racing in general. They're like, just don't hook a dog up to a sled. That's our stance. Now are they against recreational sledding? They're against all kinds of sledding. That's what I couldn't find if you had like six dogs and you sledded over to

your friend's house a mile away. And like they were your family dogs? Yeah. PETA says don't do that. Okay. I thought it was just competition. There's a group called the Sled Dog Action Coalition. They are opposed to the Iditarod, but they don't have a problem with humane and well-done recreational mushing. The Humane Society of the United States opposed to the Iditarod, but they don't have a stance on mushing whatsoever. But PETA says don't hook, don't use a dog as a draft animal even for your own recreation. But if you'll notice the one common thread is that all these groups are opposed to the Iditarod itself. They are saying like even if you have vets at every checkpoint, apparently the mushers can

overrule the vets ruling. If a vets like this dog needs to come out, the musher can be like get lost and the vet doesn't have any recourse and that's totally well within the rules. But even if you do have vets looking after them and even if PETA has successfully promoted change and the Iditarod is credited for really facing up to a lot of the problems that the dogs face and dealing with them and having like a very low tolerance for animal cruelty especially. Yeah. The very fact that you're hooking up animals to a sled and driving them 1100 miles over eight days is in and of itself to a lot of critics inhumane. Yeah, for the entertainment of people.

Even take that away for whatever reason. It's inhumane. Well, take it away, but it's not like the old days where you needed to deliver the mail or serums. I mean, it's purely for entertainment at this point. Or glory. And I know it's tradition and people that are into this are going to say like you could do anything these days. This is a proud old tradition. We've moved to Alaska for a reason. Stay out of my business. And they definitely do take that stance for sure.

But that's not to say that musher are cruel, awful people by all accounts. Most of them are very good to their animals because they want them to perform well. Well, they are like family to them in most cases, but you still hear about these terrible things that happen in the in the training. And it's not just the race itself. It's the training. It's the breeders. The breeders. They'll still call animals. There's one guy named Frank Winkler, two time I did a ride racer. He was charged with 14 counts of cruelty to animals when an animal control

officer found a crate of dead and dying puppies in his truck. He said he couldn't afford to take him to the vet. So they'll call the dogs. Like if you have a deformity, if you're just not good enough, they will still kill. That's what calling means. Kill the puppies. And they don't call them by injecting them with, you know, sodium penithal or gassing them. A lot of them, a lot of kennels even like professional kennels will shoot them. And the Iditarod committee, that's within their rules. Like you can shoot a dog to cull it. Culling is fine. And how you cull it is okay. Apparently beating a dog to death is not really acceptable.

Well, that's what Frank Winkler did. But he did. He shot some and then I guess he ran out of bullets and started using an axe handle. And he was an Iditarod racer. And that's a problem with the kennels that there are a lot of kennels out there that don't treat their dogs very well. They don't feed them enough. They treat them fairly and humanely. And just the very fact that they cull dogs that aren't good enough is reprehensible to a lot of people. Yeah. Me included. At the U.S. And I want to say, and me too. Like I think this is, there's a part of me that I'm like,

this is not my thing that's up in Alaska, but dogs belong to humanity. Well, yeah, it's like when we did the bullfighting thing. Like you can take your tradition and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. And again, culling isn't something that all breeders do, all kennels do. Many of the dogs now that aren't capable or adopted out to loving families, which is great. But culling is still a part of the culture in some kennels. The U.S. Crab, Lunik, Kennel and Aspen, Colorado say that as many as 35 dogs have been killed annually by gunshot to the head. And the manager said, culling dates back hundreds of years is nothing new. It's part of the circle of life for this dog sled dog. The circle of life.

A nine millimeter of the brain is part of the circle of life for dogs. So yeah, wow, it's part of the circle of life, huh? That's what he said. And so Chuck, a lot of this stuff is reserved for the iditarod specifically and the kennels that supply dogs for the iditarod. Yeah. But just having a sled dog in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. Or even using a dog for a sled dog is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think I take a hard line as PETA maybe. Like if you want to recreationally mush, there is a long great history of it. I have no problem with it because these dogs do love to run. They love to pull and that's their job. But I just can't get behind endurance racing if these

dogs are being injured or if they die from it. It's just my opinion. I know a lot of people disagree. We don't put opinions in here much. But one argument I don't want to hear is that we should shut down all endurance racing for humans then because humans can get injured and die. The key difference here is humans have free will and they elect to do so. Big difference between animals and humans. It's just not a comparison I think you should make. Okay. Well, if you want to know more in the meantime about the iditarod, you can go watch it. You can go to iditarod.com I believe and track the racers. And you can also read how the iditarod works on how stuff works by typing those words in the search bar at howstuffworks.com.

And since I said search bar, it's time for listener mail. Hey guys, I'm a registered dietitian. I realize I spent a lot of my day talking about the three things in my email title, which was poop. I listened to the poop podcast on the way to work today and really enjoyed it as someone who regularly discusses poop and digestion. It's great to hear it on a podcast. Also, I think you guys should do a breastfeeding episode. Breastfeeding is super fascinating. So thanks for being great in car entertainment. I came across this gym of a conversation a few years back because you guys were asking for different names for taking a poop. And she said someone had written name your poop after a movie on a bathroom wall.

And of course, a plentiful list ensued. And here are some of my favorites, The Great Escape. And by the way, we heard from a lot of people who did great names, children of the corn, the exorcist, Operation Dumbo Drop, ET, the extraterrestrial, I didn't get the exorcist either. Rosemary's Baby, Not Bad, The Hurt Locker, Mud, Apocalypse Now, Easy Rider, and There Will Be Blood. So gross. So the first part, there's actually two emails, the first part was from Sarah and then the poop movies was from Reed. Sarah, I don't want you to be associated with that. What was Sarah saying then? She was the one that said that that breastfeeding would be good and she's a dietitian and she talks a lot about poop.

We should do a breastfeeding one. Again, it's going to be a hornet's nest, but we could do it. Sure. We just have to research it because there's no article on how stuff works, so think about it. It's worthwhile. Okay? Sounds good. But if you want to get in touch with us in the meantime, you can tweet to us at SYSK Podcast. You can join us on facebook.com slash stuffyoushouldknow. You can send us an email to stuffpodcast.howstuffworks.com. And as always, join us at our home on the web, stuffyoushouldknow.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. We are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s.

We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.