Was Disney’s Balto a True Story?

Summary

American History Hotline

Episode: "Was Disney’s Balto a True Story?"

Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Bob Crawford
Guest: Dr. Nicole Burt (Curator of Human Health and Evolutionary Medicine, Interim Chief Curator – Cleveland Museum of Natural History)

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Overview

This episode tackles a listener’s question: How true to life is the Disney movie Balto? Host Bob Crawford interviews Dr. Nicole Burt to explore the real history behind Balto, the famed sled dog, and the 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska. Together, they dig into what actually happened, the accuracy (and creative liberties) of the film, Balto’s post-hero life, and why the story continues to resonate.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Question: Is the Disney Movie Balto Based on a True Story?

• [01:17] Listener Question (Kelly from Pennsylvania): Is Disney’s Balto really based on a true story?
• Dr. Burt’s Answer [01:40]:
  • "Balto is a real dog. There is an actual serum run, and diphtheria was a real problem for people in the 1920s. However, the depiction of the movie is pretty creative. So the actual details. The actual details are a bit rough. But Balto is a real dog, and he really did save a bunch of children from an epidemic."
  • Summary: The core of the story is true, but many details diverge for dramatic effect.

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The Real Balto: Cleveland’s Hero

• [02:22] Balto’s Final Resting Place:
  • Balto is preserved and on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
  • The city is "very proud of Balto. He's one of our icons... There are members that come and visit Balto multiple times a week. We love Balto in Cleveland." (Dr. Burt [02:22])
• [02:39] Physical Description:
  • Balto was smaller and squatter than most modern huskies, with very thick, chocolate brown fur and white "socks."
  • “He has very thick fur. It is darker, like a nice chocolatey brown... and... white socks. He’s a very cute small dog.” (Dr. Burt [02:39])
• [03:26] Taxidermy Details:
  • The mount uses Balto’s real skin and fur, maintained carefully for display.

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The 1925 Serum Run: What Really Happened

Setting the Stage

• Time & Place: 1925, Nome, Alaska. A diphtheria outbreak threatens lives, especially children. The town is isolated, making delivery of the lifesaving serum nearly impossible by normal means due to severe winter conditions.
  • “They're completely cut off for seven months of the year... They know no one can get to them. But dog sled.” (Dr. Burt [04:31])

The Operation

• Similarities to “Operation Warp Speed” [06:35]:
  • Crawford draws parallels to the urgency of COVID vaccine development and delivery.
  • “This is kind of a version of that.” (Bob Crawford [06:35])
• Scale of the Diphtheria Threat [07:17]:
  • 13,000–15,000 died yearly at the time (mostly children and elderly).
  • Saving time meant saving lives: “When humans put their mind to doing a big task, we can do it... that was the moral of this story.” (Dr. Burt [07:17])
• The Sled Dog Relay [09:29]:
  • 20+ dog teams took part; the journey became a relay for speed, with each relay team covering about 30 miles.
  • Conditions: blizzard, -50°F temperatures, no sunlight, and constant handoffs.
  • “They can go all day, all night. The weather is dropping, it's getting worse...so day in and day out, they're going through.” (Dr. Burt [09:29])
• Famed Dogs:
  • Togo: “Faster,” part of Leonard Seppala’s team, took the longest and most dangerous stretch.
  • Balto: Not the fastest or most experienced, but “the much more bulky, reliable dog.” (Dr. Burt [08:23])
  • Gunner Kaasen mushed Balto’s team for the final, most publicized leg.

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Balto and the Disney Story: Fact vs. Fiction

• Why Balto Got the Fame [20:55]:
  • Balto’s team made the final delivery to Nome, captured by a film crew and newsreels, cementing their fame.
  • “Because all the other parts Disney had to make up...once you get to Nome with Balto and Gunnar [Kaasen], we have video...so that really catches the imagination.” (Dr. Burt [20:55])
• Creative Liberties in the Movie [20:19]:
  • Balto isn’t half-wolf or an outcast as the movie suggests.
  • “I thought it was really interesting because they made one of the dogs bad. None of the dogs are bad. All the dogs are good. They’re not showboats.” (Dr. Burt [20:19])
  • The real “villain” was the danger and the remoteness of Nome, not any specific “bad” dog.
  • “The villain is medical access... That's the villain.” (Dr. Burt [22:05])
  • Disney needed a more tangible antagonist for narrative reasons.
• Memorable Moment: Lighthearted Critique [23:06]:
  • “Maybe if it was like drawing a bacteria with, like, a monocle, that would be...” (Dr. Burt [23:06])
  • “…this was before Inside Out.” (Bob Crawford [23:16])

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What Happened to Balto After the Serum Run?

• [23:46] Balto’s Post-Run Life:
  • Became a celebrity; went on tour with his team, sometimes in circus-like shows.
  • “People want to capitalize on fame. The twenties aren't that different.” (Dr. Burt [23:46])
  • Balto was sold (with surviving teammates), toured with promotions, and even performed staged sledding demonstrations with actors.
  • As fame ebbed, he ended up in LA, in obscurity, before being rescued by a Cleveland businessman.
  • The whole team, not just Balto alone, was part of these tours.

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The Legacy: Should You Watch Disney’s Balto?

• Bob Crawford’s Direct Question [26:31]:
  • Should listeners watch the animated movie?
• Dr. Burt’s Answer [26:40]:
  • Cautious endorsement: “I’m probably too serious about Balto. It’s probably totally fine to see the movie. I would say there’s some great books...I know the Togo movie is also an option, which has a little bit more of an accurate story. There’s so much good information about Balto—I think you can... I think you can do better. That’s so judgy. You can do better.”
  • Memorable closing moment: “Spoken like a true museum curator.” (Bob Crawford [27:08])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Media Coverage:
  • “There’s amazing national media coverage of the epidemic in Nome because the rest of the country, not Alaskans, are enamored with this idea of the dog sleds being the only way to get... to get the materials.” (Dr. Burt [05:02])
• On All Dogs Being Heroes:
  • “Balto is a hero, but all the dogs are heroes, right?” (Dr. Burt [19:40])
• On Why Balto Became “the” Hero:
  • "Publicity and luck: he was filmed at the finish line."
• On the Real Villain:
  • “To me, the villain is medical access. The villain is there's this isolated place with one doctor and they don't have enough medicine to treat children. That's the villain.” (Dr. Burt [22:05])
• On the Disney Adaptation:
  • “I think you can do better. That’s so judgy. You can do better.” (Dr. Burt [27:05])

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Suggested Additional Segments & Timestamps

• Balto’s Museum Exhibit: [02:18] – [03:26]
• History of Nome Serum Run: [04:14] – [12:40]
• Relay Structure & Team Roles: [09:29] – [12:40]
• Creative Liberties in the Movie: [20:19] – [23:16]
• Balto’s Fame and Later Life: [23:46] – [26:31]
• Recommendation for the Film: [26:31] – [27:08]

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Conclusion: Why the Balto Story Resonates

The episode illuminates a fascinating intersection of health crisis, human ingenuity, and canine heroism—while showing how history gets mythologized through popular culture. The true story involves many unsung heroes (canine and human), harsh realities, and the luck of being seen by the right audience. The Disney movie, while inspiring, gets much of the detail wrong—but as Dr. Burt reminds, every dog in the story was a good dog, and every participant played a heroic part.

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For more, visit the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, check out documentaries or books on the serum run, or watch the more accurate film Togo for a different perspective. For listener questions, email the show at AmericanHistoryHotlinemail.com!

Transcript

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

I thought it was really interesting because they made one of the dogs bad. None of the dogs are bad. All the dogs are good.

[Bob Crawford]

Gotta have a villain. You gotta have a villain. You've reached American History Hotline. You ask the questions, we get the answers. Leave a message. Hey, there, American History Hotliners. Bob Crawford here. Thrilled to be joining you again for another episode of of American History Hotline. It's the show where you ask the questions. And the best way to get us a question is to record a video or a voice memo on your phone and email it to AmericanHistoryHotlinemail.com that's AmericanHistoryHotlinemail.com. okay, today's question may satisfy your inner child. Here to help me answer this question is Dr. Nicole Burt. She's curator of human health and evolutionary medicine at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She's also the interim chief curator there. It's a great museum, by the way. Nicole, thanks for joining me today.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Thank you. It's great to be here.

[Bob Crawford]

Nicole, here's the question we were hoping you could help us answer today.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Hi, American History Hotline. My name is Kelly and I'm from Pennsylvania. My question is about the Disney movie Balto. I loved it when I was a kid, and I'd like to know if it's really based on a true story or not. Thank you.

[Bob Crawford]

Nicole. Let's jump right in. Yes or no, Is the Balto movie based on a true story?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Okay, so this maybe gets into what being based on a true story means. Balto is a real dog. There is an actual serum run, and diphtheria was a real problem for people in the 1920s. However, the depiction of the movie is pretty creative. So the actual details. The actual details are a bit rough. But Balto is a real dog, and he really did save a bunch of children from an epidemic.

[Bob Crawford]

Okay, so we're gonna dig into this. Okay. Okay, so first of all, you're a natural history museum there in Cleveland.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yes.

[Bob Crawford]

Do you actually have the real Balto on display?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

We do have the real Balto. Cleveland is very proud of Balto. He's one of our icons. So he is in our visitor hall. There are members that come and visit Balto multiple times a week. We love Balto in Cleveland.

[Bob Crawford]

So how big is he?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

So he is. So everybody's. Hopefully everybody. Everybody's seen a dog. He is actually a fairly small dog. So he. For. For a working dog. Right. If you've seen a husky, he's not as big as most standard huskies nowadays. He's Much shorter and squatter. He is. He has very thick fur. It is darker, like a. Like a nice chocolatey brown. He actually just got a full spa treatment when we redid his exhibit. So in the last two years, his fur has been fluffed. His. His little socks re. Whitened because he has white socks. And. Yeah, he's a very cute small dog.

[Bob Crawford]

Is it his still his actual. All of his actual fur, or do you add fur?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

That's a really good question. It is still his fur. Like, when you do spa days, they do actually repaint them because the. The fur itself will lose some of its color over time. But he is still. His skin and hair is part of that. And so he's a really well done taxidermy mount. So taxidermy is what we call the process of preserving those skins. You may have seen them in other. Most people. I'm from the Midwest, so most people have maybe seen like a mounted deer. Deer specimen or something like that. That's also taxidermy.

[Bob Crawford]

So let's get to why he's at a museum in Cleveland when he became famous for pulling sleds in Alaska.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yeah. So I think it gets into kind of a full scope of the story. Right. So the serum run was super famous.

[Bob Crawford]

Okay, let's set the time period.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yes.

[Bob Crawford]

This is 1925, Nome, Alaska.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yeah. So 1925, Nome, Alaska, is going to be the serum run. There's an epidemic outbreak happening in Nome. It hits the papers. It's all over the news. This is big news in January of 1925. And so even in Cleveland, we're aware of that story, and we follow it. My grandparents were alive and they were little kids. They remember this story as well. So Dr. Welch was in Nome, Alaska. They actually have two indigenous children of the anipiac people have passed. Diphtheria is very dangerous. Epidemics are known. So epidemics have all the time. So he knows how serious this is. So he immediately gets on his telegraph because they're completely cut off for seven months of the year in Alaska. So they're already in the winter, and they know no one can get to them. But dog sled, so the trains can't go. We have trains, we have airplanes. They're not getting in in the dead of winter. It's January, and so they need help. So they're going to telegraph out. And even though people. Again, it's normal for Nome to be cut off, not normal for them to be cut off and have an epidemic. So that's pretty scary. And so they needed to think of a way to get it there. It usually takes a month to get things to. To Nome, so they know how dire this is. So this is. This is big news. And I think that's one of the things like it. We. It feels exciting now, but it was also exciting then in terms of the media coverage. There's amazing national media coverage of the epidemic in Nome because the rest of the country, not Alaskans, are enamored with this idea of the dog sleds being the only way to get. To get the materials. So it really kind of highlights this, like, local knowledge and what you're used to and like a national experience of a crisis.

[Bob Crawford]

Well, yeah. Well, just. If I could. If I just could interrupt respectfully, for a second. It is this idea of when, you know, Covid happened, you know, we were all in the. On a grander scale, probably a more universal international scale. This idea of operation warp speed and trying to get a vaccine delivered. Right? Delivered, Created. Delivered. How do we collapse the amount of time it will take to do this? And this is kind of a version of that.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yeah, you hit on it. This is exactly why this is important for me as a health curator to talk about, which is diphtheria was a epidemic. They were having multiple epidemics around the country, not just in Alaska. With diphtheria. Through the 1920s, 13 to 15,000 children and elderly would die per year from diphtheria. So this is a real threat, like, when people know, they're afraid. And the idea that they could do something to prevent it was exciting. So the idea that we could take a trip that normally takes a month and do it in five days to save kids is exactly that. Like, what can human. When humans put their mind to doing a big task, we can do it. And so in that time, that was the moral of this story, is like, humans can do big, difficult things when they want to, and that's still why it's so exciting now. I think that's the story.

[Bob Crawford]

Okay. So they realized the only way to get the. Get this. The serum to the kids who need it is via a dog sled.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yes. And so now they need volunteers. Right. So people don't run that route for charity. Right. So, like, Balto is actually part of a freight sled. So they did freight runs through that area. And some of the other famous mushers, like Togo has a. A movie as well. He's another one of the teams with Leonard Shepla, who actually was a. The predominant racer. So he was Famous for winning dog sled races, which are also happening at this time. So his team was faster. And so if you look at Togo, he looks like more like what you would expect. Like we asked what dot what Balta looked like. Togo looks a little bit more like what you expect a sled dog to look like because he's a racer. So he's fast. Right. Like you want a fast dog, but Balto, the much more bulky, reliable dog.

[Bob Crawford]

So we have Togo's team, which is probably faster.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yeah.

[Bob Crawford]

And then you have Balto's team. You know, how was it determined which team would take on this task?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

That's the initial idea. When they start, when they have the serum in, like January 27th is when they're really starting out. So January 20th, epidemic breaks out. January 27th, they're like, okay, it's got to be dog sleds. We found the serum, we gotta get it. This antitoxin is very fragile, so you do have to be a little bit careful with it. And we have to get it there as quickly as possible. So they're gonna run kind of as long as the dogs can handle it to do it. So the original idea is fewer teams, longer stretches of the over 600 mile trip. So that's what Leonard Shepla thinks is happening when he sets out. As they start, they realize they're getting good press. So there's more teams signing up. There's going to be in the end, over 20 dog sled teams that take part in this relay that if they keep it to each group doing about 30 miles, they'll be able to actually make better time by doing it relay style. And so this also starts from Nana. They're coming the other way. Right. So they're coming up. So they're coming at each other. The teams take, I believe it's Wild Bill is the first. They have great names because it's, you know, the twenties. Wild Bill Shannon takes the first leg with his team, does 30 miles. They're going to hand off overnight. So this makes it. They can go all day, all night. The weather is dropping, it's getting worse. So it's already going to be impassable. It's minus 50 by the time they're going across. So day in and day out, they're going through. So it's starting on around January 27th, the 28th to 29th, I believe there's, let's see, nine teams that do 30ish mile stints to get them along. There's then going to be like a little break then by the January 30, we have more teams taking those miles. They're not very famous teams, so these are just guys with teams. So they're freighters, they're racers, they're people who do jobs. These are just people who know the need. Like I said, it's very well publicized and are committed to preventing children from dying because diphtheria. I don't think I said this. Diphtheria when untreated. So if you don't have that antitoxin, about 50% of children who have it will die. It's. It's very serious if untreated. And so they really know they have a window. By the time they get through switching teams, they can't get a hold of Shplo because he is just, like, booking it out. So he is booking it out. They're trying to tell him he can wait and they'll hit him eventually. Around January 31, he's supposed to make a handoff, but he doesn't know that.

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[Dr. Nicole Burt]

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[Bob Crawford]

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[Bob Crawford]

This is American History Hotline. I'm your host, Bob Crawford. Today My guest is Dr. Nicole Burt. She's curator of human health and evolutionary Medicine. Listen. At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She's also the interim chief curator there. We're talking about dog sledding and the Disney movie Balto. Remember to send us your burning questions about American history. Record yourself using the voice memo app on your phone and email it to American History Hotline gmail.com. that's americanhistoryhotlinemail.com now back to the show. Okay. When we left off, Nicole, we were visualizing this relay and what was happening. So take us to this moment. Take us back to this moment.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yeah. So the weather is terrible. They're going day and night. They're trying to speed up a trip that usually takes a month, and they want to do it absolutely as fast as possible because every lost day is a potential for a child to not make it. So they are. They're feeling the crunch, but the weather is really not with them. It's getting worse and worse. There's snowstorms. The visibility is very poor. That is very tiring for both the men, but also the dogs. Right. So in dog sleds, the lead dog actually has to, like, pick the path. So if he can't see and do it, they're going to get lost. But it's very important that they don't lose time, which is, again, why you want the best teams you can doing the hardest legs, because they're less likely to get slowed down by that.

[Bob Crawford]

Okay. So I Gotta interrupt you here. So the best teams we know, Togo, he. We know his team's the best, the fastest. We know Balto isn't the muscular, fast dog that you would imagine by looking at him. How does Balto wind up in the middle, like, in this. In this position?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

So they, they. They need teams. They need teams that are used to running the route. And so Balto is relatively inexperienced, but Gunner Kaesen, who is his musher,

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[Dr. Nicole Burt]

gung ho about doing this. They're also in the right place, right? So they're actually positioned closer to Gnome, where they can do that. That final handoff and pull it through. So they don't want to, again, trying to do handoffs so that no one's doing the whole trip, but they're catching whatever mushers are in locations to try to, like, stack it to go faster, relay style, as opposed to like a marathon foot race for one person. And so really, they're taking whoever they can get. They need people who will do it and are willing to risk their own life and the lives of their dogs, right? Like, this is dangerous. Like, people are getting frostbite, people are getting injured. Dogs are getting injured. So you are actually risking it. And like I said, these are economic. So they obviously, they care for their dogs. We know that. But they're also part of their economic livelihood, right? Much like farmers and ranchers, where, like, if the dogs are injured, they can't. That they're what powers their sleds, right? They're. They're economically not going to be able to succeed. Balto's team, though, is actually owned by Shepla, who is very devoted to this cause. So even though he has his preferred team with Togo, one of his other. Other teams, which is led by Balto, is also in the midst, led by another musher, Gunner. So Shepla actually ends up meeting up with Hevery Ivanov and doing an. A trade of the serum, right before having to make a short cross again across Norton Sound, which I'm not an expert in dog sleds. I'm really not. I'm an expert in medical access. And the general story of. Of. Of why we need to do this type of work. But everybody agrees it's crazy. The fact that they found each other is insane. And then the fact that he took that shortcut through the sound is also crazy. The fact that they were able to get through that, and that is a crucial point. He takes the longest leg. Shoshepola and Togo take the longest leg with a shortcut which shaves off really necessary time. And so that's one of those points. And I bring it up because I believe Balto is a hero, but all the dogs are heroes, right?

[Bob Crawford]

And if I'm writing the screenplay for Disney, I'm looking at the facts and saying, wow, this thing writes itself. But there were liberties taken. So what were some of those liberties that were taken with the film?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

So I actually, recently. This is gonna. All the fans are gonna be so mad. So I was too old for the movie in 1995, so I did not see it as a child. So I literally watched it because I finally watched it because of the question. The Question Asker inspired me. I watched it and I thought it was really interesting because they made one of the dogs bad. None of the dogs are bad. All the dogs are good. They're not showboats.

[Bob Crawford]

You gotta have a villain.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

You have to have a villain. But, like, it's not the dog. There are no bad dogs. All the dogs in this story are great.

[Bob Crawford]

All dogs go to heaven.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

See? But, yeah, so that was one of the biggest things, right? Everybody really is working towards a shared goal. This is a. This is a group project. It's a group hero situation. Balto, as the final team, is going to get a lot of the publicity, and rightly so. That's still great. Like, that's the final one. They got it there. They also overcame really hard odds. They took a long. They took a double shift as well, 61 miles. So they went overnight through a storm. They're not sure if they just, like, missed the stop or why they pushed through, but Balta pushed through with. With Gunner, and they're the ones that actually got it to the team on time at the hospital to deliver it. And so there were. There was media there, right? There's a film crew who filmed it, and they reenacted it live. And so it gets into, like, why certain people, like, what gets captured for posterity and, like, pushed up, right? So because all the other parts Disney had to make up because it's essentially, we have the names, we have the distances, we have color commentary after the fact. But they didn't have cameras with them. No one was with them. They weren't journaling while they were going through. And so, like, you just have to, like, know what's happening. Whereas once you get to nomenclature, with Balto and Gunnar Kaysen, we have video, like, we have film reel of that happening. And so that really catches the imagination. And so I understand why they focused on Balto and that aspect of the story. To me, the villain is medical access. Right. The villain is there's this isolated place with one doctor and they don't have enough medicine to treat children. That's the villain. But that's not very exciting for a child.

[Bob Crawford]

Right. We need to personify the villainy.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Maybe if diphtheria, they should have animated the bacteria. So maybe if it was like drawing a bacteria with, like, a monocle, that would be.

[Bob Crawford]

And this was before inside out.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yes, exactly. No one had thought about that.

[Bob Crawford]

We weren't there yet.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

All the money you can make.

[Bob Crawford]

So Balto's part of this historic dog sledding team that accomplishes this incredible humanitarian act. But then what happens to Balto? Because you were telling me that he winds up in the circus. How does this happen?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

So he's famous. Much like now, people want to capitalize on fame. The. The twenties aren't that different. So Shepla remembering, Balto is owned by Shelpa, but it's not his, like, primary team. He doesn't. This is now the famous dog. But he wasn't like, a great dog. He was just like a fine freight dog. Right. He wasn't special to him in terms of, like, his racing career. So he essentially, like, sold him to an agent so that he could go on tour. He was very like, the country loves him. Balto, like, the film reels went out, the newsreels went out of reenacting delivery.

[Bob Crawford]

Nicole, if I could just ask you, like, Balto's part of a team?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Yep.

[Bob Crawford]

He's part of the final team that delivers the serum. Why did he, in particular get singled out?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

So they sent the whole team. So we. Cleveland, actually say Balto and his teammates that were still surviving. So it would have been the whole group. So they did go as a team. They were actually doing. I'm sure people are more familiar, like, with, like, the Wild west shows type of tours where you had, like, cowboys pretending on. Pretending to still be cowboys. Right. Like, the 20s is a crazy time in terms of, like, what's happening.

[Bob Crawford]

Right? Yeah.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Concurrent cultural norms. They were actually doing the same thing with the dog sleds. So Balto, they had a dog sled. They hired an actor to pretend to be an indigenous woman to drive the sled they had. So they were, like, reenacting it essentially as part of the tour, as well as, you know, letting people see really good dogs. People want to see good dogs even in 1925. And so they actually toured for about two years before they ended up in LA. And they would have been, I believe they went through at least two owners. So there was an original agent and then a second agent, which is how they ended up in la when George Kimball actually found them kind of becoming obscure. Right? Like, so he still remembered how famous they were, but they were kind of like over the pitch of. Of their fame. They were on the down. The down slope of their fame at that point. Gunner Cason was no longer with them. He had, you know, the money dried up for. Because he was originally on tour with them. Um, so he had left as well. And so they were at kind of, you know, they're, they're. They were turning into has beens. I guess that is when George Kimball found them and remembering the story and being very personally touched by it, decided to save them.

[Bob Crawford]

Dr. Burke, this has been a great conversation. I think my last question for you is, do you recommend people see the Disney film?

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Oh, man, that's hard.

[Bob Crawford]

But, well, look at that. Like, like you're. The pause kind of tells a story.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

I mean, I'm probably too serious about Balto. It's probably totally fine to see the movie. I would say there's some great books. I know the Togo movie is also an option, which has a little bit more of an accurate story. There's so much good information at Balto. I think you can. I think you can do better. That's so judgy. You can do better.

[Bob Crawford]

Spoken like a true museum curator. I've been talking with Dr. Nicole Burt. She's curator of human health and Evolutionary medicine at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. She's also the interim chief curator there. Nicole, thank you for joining us today on American History Hotline.

[Dr. Nicole Burt]

Thank you.

[Bob Crawford]

You've been listening to American History Hotline, a production of Iheart podcasts and Scratch Track Productions. The show's executive producer is James Morrison. Our executive producers from Iheart are Jordan Runtal and Jason English. Original music composed by me, Bob Crawford. Please keep in touch. Our email is americanhistoryhotlinemail.com if you like the show, please tell your friends and leave us a review in Apple Podcasts. I'm your host, Bob Crawford. Feel free to hit me up on social media to ask a history question or to let me know what you think of the show. You can find me at bobcrawford Bass. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week.

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