Blair Braverman

I'm going to hire this untrained 20 year old as the captain of my expedition.

What could possibly go wrong?

Welcome to a brand new podcast, What to Carry, What to Burn.

I'm your host, Blair Braverman, and I'm a writer, an adventurer, and a long-distance dog sledder.

This is a podcast of stories about the ways we stay alive.

Today, my guest is Sarah Marshall, host of the podcast You're Wrong About and also my very good friend.

And I will be telling her the true story of Ada Blackjack.

This story does have some difficult topics, including abuse and attempted suicide.

So please look out for yourself and only listen if you're up for it.

There are also some really beautiful elements of this story because people find beauty and they make beauty in the most impossible situations.

Let's jump right in.

Here we are, Sarah.

Are you ready?

Okay, I'm ready.

Settle in by the fire.

It's crackling.

It's 1898, and we're about halfway up Alaska on the west coast in a village up against the Bering Sea called Nome.

And until now, there have just been a few small native communities around there.

This year, a couple of Swedish dudes find gold on a beach, and it sets off a massive international gold rush.

The place explodes to 20,000 people.