dog sled

Welcome to The Building Men Podcast, where we explore stories of personal growth, resilience, and redemption. Today, I speak with Tanya McCready, a wonderful human being who works to inspire teams Is to overcome challenges and reach their goals through improved teamwork, leadership, and vision.  Tanya McCready along with her husband Hank DeBruin, fell in love with a husky puppy in a pet store almost 30 years ago. Adopting that puppy ended up changing the entire trajectory of their lives. After reading books and watching movies to better understand this pup, they decided to try dogsledding. A passion was found and their husky family quickly grew to 7.

In 1999 Tanya quit her job as an Environmental Engineer, gave up her plans to go to law school. Hank quit his job as a millwright, they rented out their house and moved to the wilderness of Haliburton, Ontario, to chase a dream of starting a business, a lifestyle and a family around their beloved dogs. Winterdance was born.

Winterdance now welcomes over 2000 guests from around the globe every winter to experience travelling through the Winterdance with their beloved huskies .

Hank and their huskies have had many adventures from Maine to Alaska including competing in six 1000-mile races in Alaska and the Yukon. The lessons and stories that have come from these races have created 2 best selling books. The latest Journey of 1000 Miles has become an international best seller.

Tanya, Hank and their huskies have been featured in some of the biggest media outlets in the world including CNN and New York Times to name a few. Their huskies have been featured in dozens of TV shows, movies, commercials and music videos.
 

Tanya McCready Website

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We finish up the winter season by heading up north to Alaska! First, Lauren covers the eerie side of the Iditarod Dog Race. Telling us tales of the spooky trails! Then, Kenzie covers the life and crimes of Thomas Richard Bunday. A man known as the North Pole Serial Killer whose crimes were nowhere near jolly. So bundle up as we *race* through the Alaskan tundra!
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Works cited!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dkbhgrpfkd1Gfofa5j5jF288ingC22hvB0DdYDnZlIA/edit?usp=sharing
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Intro and outro music thanks to Kevin MacLeod. You can visit his site here: http://incompetech.com/. Which is where we found our music!

Are you dumber than you think you are? Are you smarter? How many years ago did humans start teaming up with dogs? Why'd the Hindenburg explode? Kyle and Jheisson answer these questions and more as they ski their way across Wikipedia (with waaaaaaay too much confidence) from the psychological phenomenon of the Dunning Kruger Effect to the exciting winter sport of skijoring!

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wikiuniversity 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmPDDjcbBJfR0s_xJfYCUvw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wikiuniversity/

Music provided by Davey and the Chains

#021 Balto & Togo - a musical history lesson from the 1925 Diphtheria anti-toxin to the Covid 19 vaccine

In late 1925, Diphtheria broke out in the remote town of Nome Alaska, and so began "The Great Race of Mercy".  20 dog mushers and 200 dogs swiftly mobilized their teams to bring the much needed anti-toxin to the ailing group of 1430 townspeople separated from any means of contact and resources as they fought to stave of eminent death. 

Winter had its icy grip on Nome Alaska and the only means of transportation was by dog team since the steam ship ports were iced in and the airplanes that serviced Nome were unable to fly in the severe cold of 1925. The 928 miles of the Iditarod Trail was the only  accessible route to deliver the Diphtheria anti-toxin to the people of Nome, and it  was throughout the commitment and determination of the dog mushing community with their rugged four legged crew, that the fate of the entire community of Nome was forever changed.

Fast forward nearly 100 years. In February through April 2021, I was fortunate to work along side a group of equally dedicated individuals who's mandate was to to deliver the Covid 19 Moderna vaccine to every Yukon community in much the same manner as the 1925 "Great Race of Mercy", although the dog sleds were not necessary this time. The two mobile Covid 19 vaccine teams, affectionately named Balto and Togo,  were deployed from Whitehorse by road and by air to service all of the outlying Yukon communities and also the Northern town of Atlin BC. 

During a long bus ride back from Watson Lake, I started to think about the history of the Yukon once again and also about our Alaskan neighbours to the west since we did indeed adopt their Balto name for our team. By the time we arrived back in Whitehorse I had a good idea of what the chorus of my song would sound like and how I could establish a time, place and "feeling" within the first verse of the song and how the tempo, rhythm, and overall vibe would reflect the determination and cadence of a group of people/dogs working towards delivering a serum during these trying times.

The Balto & Togo song is available as a free downloadable mp3 on the My Amazing Yukon Life website and I'd be thrilled if you'd send it to your friends and favourite radio station in your area, so we can share our Yukon experience and with the rest of the world .

To listen to the full M.A.Y.L. podcast show series, please click on MyAmazingYukonLife.com where you’ll find each weekly podcast link along with show notes and pictures related to each of the episodes. You can also download each episode from Buzzsprout or wherever you get your podcasts from. While you’re there, hit the subscribe button and leave me a comment on what you’d like to hear next on the show.

I encourage you to become a member of the My Amazing Yukon Life Facebook Group where our stories can come together as we build upon the collective memories of one another, recording and preserving personal stories of the Yukon's rich history and colourful life adventures. 

I hope you enjoy this podcast and I thank you for joining me as a "M.A.Y.L. carrier”, as we proudly deliver our amazing Yukon life stories to the outside world.  

Cheers 

“Trapper Dan your Renaissance Man”

Daniel Halen

Miranda Currie is on a mission to create northern Indigenous content that is accessible to kids and families. Putting her trademark spin on traditional narratives, she uses music, film and crafty storytelling to educate the rest of us about everything from sled dogs to scat. 

My guest this week on the Over 50 Health & Wellness podcast is Steve Ortgiesen.  Steve is a 70 year old who began body building a little over a year ago.  At the beginning of this journey he wrote, “I’m hoping that by telling my story as a 70-year old (young) bodybuilder, others will be inspired to reinvent themselves, to do things they thought impossible, to realize that often we are limited only by our own lack of belief in ourselves.”  Steve has led a fascinating life; in this episode we discuss his time as a karate instructor, a member of a Hawaiian canoe team, a dog sledder, and finally how at age 70 he decided to become a body builder.  Steve is very inspirational… you won’t want to miss this motivational episode!  You can follow Steve on Instagram on these two accounts:

Body Building Account - @ bodybuildingtransformationat70
Personal Account (go here for the dogs!) - @steveortgiesen

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