Casey Grove, Alaska Public Media - Anchorage

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Casey Grove is host of Alaska News Nightly, a general assignment reporter and an editor at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cgrove@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Casey here

Iditapod: March to the coast

Well, we’ve got a race, folks. Obviously, with 45 mushers out on the Iditarod Trail vying for positions, we’ve got a race. But at the very front, it’s looking like a real battle setting up between Brent Sass and Dallas Seavey for first place. As the frontrunners head for the Bering Sea coast, we’ll have a look at the teams reaching the Yukon River, we’ll talk about a pretty big scratch, women mushers, a bit about superstition, and of course we have a dog profile and a listener question.
a portrait of a dog

Iditapod: Yukon do it

With the northern lights dancing above, we talked to Iditarod leader Brent Sass as he danced through the Ruby checkpoint and onto the Yukon River, skipping a gourmet five-course meal in favor of more comfortable cold temperatures for his dogs. We'll also hear more from Sass and his fellow competitors on their 24-hour layover earlier, and from the back of the pack, a trio of women, who banded together in a snow storm. Plus we have a dog profile and THREE listeners asking the same question, with an answer straight from the musher in question and a separate listener... answer?
two dogs stand and sit upright as a person prepares to feed them

Iditapod: Halfway there, fully committed

Iditarod mushers and their dog teams are now either in the middle of their mandatory 24-hour layovers or back out on the trail, if they opted to do that earlier. We've got the frontrunners at the Cripple checkpoint, as well as a chat with the folks who 24ed in McGrath, now making up the chase pack. There's also an old-timer for our Dog of the Day, a couple listener questions about how to get into dog mushing and, related, what it means to be a handler.
A woman in a furruffed parka drives a sled through heavy snow with a person in a thick down jacket sits in a sled in front of her

Iditapod bonus: Apayauq Reitan interview with Shady Grove Oliver

Kaktovik dog musher Apayauq Reitan, the first out trans woman to compete in the Iditarod, talks to Iditapod colleague and Alaska Public Media contributor Shady Grove Oliver - originally for a piece in the Guardian newspaper - about Reitan's goals for this year's race, what it's like to mush dogs, her Alaska Native culture, coming out as trans and a lot more.
A dog team on the middle of a frozen river surrounded by spruce trees

Iditapod: Playing catch up

Our Iditapod crew gets caught up - to get you caught up - as sled dog teams in the 2022 Iditarod race through the third full day of mushing the 1,000-mile trail. We'll hear about some of the most technically difficult sections and get an update on who is where... for now. We'll also hear from mushers Aaron Burmeister and Apayauq Reitan, among others, and we also have a bully of a Dog of the Day and a listener question about how to find the trail (because sometimes it's not so obvious).
A woman ina helmet and parka holds two dogs around her arms

Iditapod bonus: Bridgett Watkins interview with Lex Treinen

Editor's note: This extended interview discusses a violent encounter with a moose and might not be suitable for all listeners. Alaska Public Media's Lex Treinen gets all the details of rookie Iditarod musher Bridgett Watkins' run-in with a moose while on a training run near Salcha, in Interior Alaska, in early February.

Iditapod: Different strokes for different folks

As Alaska Public Media reporters Jeff Chen and Lex Treinen head out on the trail, Iditapod host Casey Grove updates some of the early Iditarod standings. Plus, we have a story of an ER nurse whose training for the Iditarod helped him cope with the trauma of working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Lex also brings us a report on the Sunday restart in Willow, as well as another dog profile, and we have a couple questions with a couple different answers (watch out: one involves some math).

‘Out of the Wilderness’ chronicles Papa Pilgrim’s abuse, his daughter’s escape and her journey to forgiveness

The oldest of 15 Pilgrim family siblings, Elishaba Doerksen, has written a book, "Out of the Wilderness," in which she details her father's abuse and explains how she escaped from him despite being shuttered away in the wilderness near McCarthy.
A man with a light blue parka holds his arms up as he stands on a sled in heavy snow. A nother man in a fur-ruffed parka sits on the sled in front of him and crowds watch on the sidelines.

Iditapod: A joyful, more normal Iditarod start

The 2022 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicked off Saturday in Anchorage with its usual fanfare, after not holding a ceremonial start in 2021. Alaska Public Media reporters Casey Grove, Tegan Hanlon, Lex Treinen and Jeff Chen were out in the snow with the mushers, dogs and race fans, including plenty of kids and other trailgaters.
a dog in a snowy dog yard

Iditapod: Iditarod gets back on track

Iditapod is back for the 50th running of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Host Casey Grove and fellow Alaska Public Media reporters Tegan Hanlon, Lex Treinen and Jeff Chen discuss last year's pandemic-altered Iditarod, some of the mid-distance sled dog races this season, as well as COVID-19 protocols (and already a scratch/switcheroo), scary moose encounters and the heartwarming story of an unlikely Iditarod dog.

Hatcher Pass avalanche closure could last another two weeks or more

The state transportation department closed Hatcher Pass Road on Feb. 14.

An Alaska legislator for 30 years, friends remember Johnny Ellis as caring and a coalition builder

As a Democrat representing districts in Anchorage, Ellis served in the state House from 1986 to 1992, when he was elected to the state Senate, and he served there until 2016.

Alaska avalanche survivor and winning essayist spent years digging out of PTSD

Joe Yelverton says the most formative moments of his life, and the story of his survival, began on a day in April 1984 with his friends Steve and Barry, as they approached the top of Eagle Peak.

Alaska love shines through in champion skier Kikkan Randall’s Olympic commentary

One of Alaska's most beloved athletes, Olympic champion cross-country skier Kikkan Randall, is participating in this year's Winter Olympics, not as a competitor, but as a commentator for NBC, covering the Beijing games from NBC's studios in Connecticut.
sign in front of building that says: anchorage police department

Years after Anchorage police fatally shoot Black man, dashcam video prompts new questions

The fatal Anchorage police shooting of 31-year-old Somali American Bishar Hassan in 2019 is under renewed scrutiny after the public release of police dashcam footage by a lawyer representing the man’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Why NASA’s new space telescope is pointed at the Big Dipper

Hint: It has to do with calibrating the telescope's ultrasensitive mirrors.

Alaska Native and Native American tribes reach proposed settlement in opioid litigation

The proposed settlement was announced this week following litigation by more than 400 tribes, whose lawyers argued opioid misuse and death have disproportionately affected Native people.
Two people in red jackets pose for a photo

So many Alaskan skiers at the Olympics means busy watching

There's a strong Alaska contingent among the U.S. Olympians starting to arrive in China for the Bejing Winter Olympics.

Alaska permafrost thaw is clue in mystery of Arctic methane explosions

Arctic methane explosions and the scientists who love to study them are the focus of the newest episode of the public television program Nova.
people hold up signs that spell out "VOTE"

Alaska’s unique election year includes uncertainty about campaign contribution limits

Compared to most other states, Alaska historically had lower limits on how much an individual could give to a political candidate’s campaign. That changed last summer when a federal appeals court tossed out the state’s limit of $500 per person per year, saying it limited free speech.