Susan Butcher: Call of the Wild

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Music, Sports, Arts, Self-help, Technology, Science, Humanitarian, Achievement, Film, Social Justice, Success, Society & Culture, Literature, Podcast, Politics, Military

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is the story of a true original... a woman who dominated the extreme sport of dog sled racing for years, was a four-time winner of the Iditarod (the grueling, thousand-mile race across Alaska). Susan Butcher, a legend of the Alaskan frontier, died at the age of 51 from Leukemia, but at the peak of her career as a racer, she gave this revealing interview. In it, she explains why she chose to live in a cabin without running water or electricity, 40 miles from the nearest neighbor, in weather conditions that most could not survive. She also describes the resistance she faced from male mushers during her early years as an Iditarod competitor. And she talks about the profound, almost mystical relationship she had with her beloved dogs. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2019

Transcript

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0:00.0	Every once in a while you come across someone who just seems to have been born in the wrong place or the wrong time.
0:10.0	That was Susan Butcher.
0:12.0	I can tell you from the first moment that I landed in the plane in Alaska.
0:17.0	I felt at home for the first time in my life.
0:20.0	Susan Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1950s, but she had a spirit meant for the
0:27.1	wilderness and she made her way there as quickly as she could. The more remote, the better. Butcher became for years the
0:36.0	dominant figure in the world of sled dog racing. She was the first person to
0:41.2	win three Iditarods in a row, four total during her career.
0:46.4	And she was a member of the first team to Summit Mount McKinley, now called Denali, with
0:51.8	a dog team.
0:53.0	Butcher died of leukemia when she was just 51.
0:57.0	And now every year, the grueling thousand mile Iditarod across Alaska kicks off on what's officially known as Susan Butcher Day.
1:09.7	The race is underway right now as I record this episode but whether you followed the sport
1:14.8	or not Susan butcher's stories about living out her destiny with her beloved dogs
1:20.4	are utterly fascinating and inspiring.
1:24.4	Forget Jack London, we've got the real call the wild on what it takes.
1:29.6	A podcast about passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
1:35.0	I'm Alice Winkler.
1:37.0	Adam Aye, this child is gifted, and I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:43.7	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity,
1:47.4	and you don't take it, you may never have another job.
1:50.0	It all was so clear.
	...

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