Why We Work: Improving the Way Museums Work at The Baltimore Museum of Industry (S02/E07)

I always meant to get back into doing Museum in Strange Places episodes, but producing professionally as Better Lemon Creative Audio and the pandemic got in the way. Now, I'm finally back with a brand new show for museum workers, WE THE MUSEUM. We the Museum is a podcast for museum workers who want to form a more perfect institution. Episodes will feature in-depth conversations with museum workers in the US and beyond. Explore ideas, programs, and exhibitions that inform and inspire. We the Museum is a space where we can all slow down and take a moment away from the day-to-day work to learn, grow, and expand our toolkit. Find out more at WeTheMuseum.com and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 

One of the many projects I've been working on through my new production company (Better Lemon Creative Audio) is a podcast for the Vagina Museum in London. I'm so passionate about the work this museum is doing, and I think you're going to LOVE this podcast. It's written and produced by me with research and narration by science communicator Alyssa Chafee. Guests include big names like Dr. Jen Gunter, Kate Lister, Emma Rees, Fern Riddell, and more! Search for "The Vagina Museum" wherever you get your podcasts or use this link: https://pod.link/1488645205

[A pilot for a new show I developed about living in London. I'm really proud of how it turned out, but I just don't have the time to make more episodes, so it's going to live here on the Museum in Strange Places feed. I meet up with escape room creator, museum professional, and self-proclaimed mermaid hunter Sacha Coward, who takes me somewhere that will inspire me a bit and help me see the beauty in London’s “layers of puked-up history.” Sacha also knows some great queer history stories about the area and has great advice about finding my own spaces in the city. I share some personal feelings and try to put Sacha’s advice into practice. TRANSCRIPT The Favorite Trailer History of The Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College The Queen's House Support Sacha's Work Sacha Coward on Twitter   Interested in starting a podcast? Check out my book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-By-Step Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits (available on Amazon).

Donald J. Trump has been active in business and media for fifty years, but his scandal-ridden presidency has overshadowed most of his history. Levi Fox's Pop-Up Atlantic City Trump Museum is an attempt to remedy this oversight for one specific chapter of the Trump story: his four Atlantic City casinos and the impact their short tenures and bankruptcies had on the gambling capitol of the East Coast. Together, we unpack the Trump-branded duffel bags he uses to store his collection of Trump casino-branded memorabilia while he explains why these bobbleheads, keychains, and other miscellania are worth hauling to the boardwalk every Sunday.  SHOW WEBSITE TRANSCRIPT Show Notes:  The Trump Museum Project (Website) "Donald Trump Gripes About the Press During 1990 Opening of Atlantic City Casino" (YouTube video) "Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump exploited workers" (Youtube video of Clinton's Atlantic City rally, 2016) "Battle of the Billionaires" at WrestleMania 23 (YouTube video, 2007) "How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions" (New York Times article, 2016) "Trump’s Casinos Couldn’t Make Atlantic City Great Again" (Wired article, 2019) "In Atlantic City, Where Trump Built and Destroyed a Casino Empire, One Man Has Created an Odd Museum to the President’s Past" (artnews article, 2018) 

He’s the master of macabre, the man who created mystery fiction, the face on the socks and beer bottles of everyday Baltimoreans. He’s Edgar Allan Poe, and he belongs to Baltimore. Join me on a visit to the Poe House in Baltimore, the tiny house where his career began, to learn about Baltimore’s devotion to Poe, his tragic life, and the future of his legacy in the city where he died mysteriously. The Beatles/Poe mashup song is "The Poe-tles (Beatles/Edgar Allan Poe Mashup)" by Emuvies and can be found on Youtube. This episode is sponsored by Grove History Consulting. TRANSCRIPT 

So much of Maryland was built on the back of enslaved Africans, yet it’s easy to avoid confronting the history of slavery in Maryland’s former plantation country. Historic Sotterley is trying to change that. The plantation was built in 1703 by a man who made his money off the slave trade, and the site was witness to 165 continuous years of slavery. Today, staff and descendants at Sotterley are committed to sharing the site’s whole history and healing the legacy of trauma left by the violence of slavery with the ultimate goal of making their community and their world a better, kinder place.  This episode is sponsored by Grove History Consulting TRANSCRIPT Find more information on the museum and photos on my website, hhethmon.com. If you enjoy Museums in Strange Places, please help me keep it going by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or sharing this episode with a friend. Let me know what you think by sending me a tweet @hannah_rfh. Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-ByStep Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits. 

About half of all museums in the US are in small towns in rural America. Each of these museums holds stories and objects that are worth preserving and sharing, but they don’t always have the funding and infrastructure they need to operate and innovate. That’s where Museum on Main Street comes in. This Smithsonian program brings traveling exhibits to small towns for six weeks at a time. But the exhibit materials are just the catalyst for a much bigger experience, an experience that leaves these towns empowered to use culture to build stronger communities. In this episode, I hear from folks in DC, Massachusetts, Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota about the impact of Museum on Main Street. TRANSCRIPT Find more information about Museum on Main Street and photos on my website, hhethmon.com. If you enjoy Museums in Strange Places, please help me keep it going by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or sharing this episode with a friend. Let me know what you think by sending me a tweet @hannah_rfh. Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-ByStep Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits.   

What do Baltimore, Russian Jews, the third oldest synagogue in America, Eastern European Catholics, seances, and Harry Houdini have in common? You’ll find out in this episode, a visit to the Jewish Museum of Maryland, an institution that prioritizes storytelling (and is pretty good at it). Join me for a tour of the historic Lloyd Street Synagogue, a journey back in history to the heyday of the Jewish market on Baltimore’s East Lombard Street, and a celebration of the life of Harry Houdini, the son of a rabbi. All the music in this episode is by Seth Kibel and the Alexandria Kleztet. This episode is sponsored by Grove History Consulting TRANSCRIPT Find more information on the museum and photos on my website, hhethmon.com. If you enjoy Museums in Strange Places, please help me keep it going by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or sharing this episode with a friend. Let me know what you think by sending me a tweet @hannah_rfh. Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step-ByStep Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits. 

S02/E07: Located in a waterfront 1860s oyster cannery in the Baltimore Harbor, The Baltimore Museum of Industry is trying to inspire and engage their visitors around the concept of work by telling the stories of historical workers. But in order to better fulfill this mission, the museum has to be constantly re-evaluating themselves and their assumptions about work. In this episode, I talk to staffers Beth Maloney and Auni Gelles about how an experimental interactive and a new job description are pushing the museum beyond more traditional education and interpretation methods. This episode is sponsored by Grove History Consulting. Featured songs in this episode are by The Bumper Jacksons, off their new album, I Never Met a Stranger. DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT Find more information on the museum and photos on my website, hhethmon.com. If you enjoy Museums in Strange Places, please help me keep it going by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or sharing this episode with a friend. Let me know what you think by sending me a tweet @hannah_rfh. Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step by Step Guide to Podcasting on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits. 

The Sandy Spring Museum describes itself as “community-activated.” They want to be a secular gathering places, where people of different backgrounds can come together and build a sense of place and belonging. I visit the museum to speak with Executive Director Allison Weiss about the museum’s radically community-driven programming, the Quaker principles built into the museum’s design, and how they are trying to serve a community of incredible diversity. This episode is sponsored by The Lyndhurst Group. DOWNLOAD TRANSCRIPT Music in this episode is by Los Hijo 'e Plena, the musical arm of the community-building nonprofit Cultural Plenera. Find more information on the museum and photos on my website, hhethmon.com. If you enjoy Museums in Strange Places, please help me keep it going by leaving a review on iTunes or sharing this episode with a friend. Let me know what you think by sending me a tweet @hannah_rfh. Interested in starting a podcast at your organization? Check out my new book, Your Museum Needs a Podcast: A Step by Step Guide to Podcast on a Budget for Museums, History Organizations, and Cultural Nonprofits.