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Iditapod bonus: Apayauq Reitan interview with Shady Grove Oliver

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
Wearing bib #47, musher Apayauq Reitan drives her dog team and Iditarider Warren Schweitzer around a notoriously tough turn during the 2022 Iditarod ceremonial start in Anchorage. Reitan's sled is waving the Trans Pride flag. (Jeff Chen/Alaska Public Media)

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.

RELATED: ‘Proud to be an Iñupiaq woman’: Apayauq Reitan makes history as first out trans woman in the Iditarod

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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.