Intangible Alberta

Intangible Alberta returns, and we're headed outside! In this episode, we ventured into the Beaver Hills Biodiversity Trail with Métis artist Ariane Inman, Visual Arts Laureate of the Beaver Hills Biosphere.Ariane and her partner Mel Schoenberger take us for a nature walk to discuss the art of birding, the history of place, and how spending time outdoors might open us up to reflect on our own human nature.Ariane invites us to explore how land acknowledgement can be greater than something to s...

What do Sasquatch and sow bugs have in common? What would it take for a Sasquatch sighting to be considered a scientific discovery? How do curators identify creatures from a blurry photo?Find out on the newest episode of Intangible Alberta, the podcast where we explore Alberta’s stories that can’t be told from within a display case.In this episode, Mat chats with RAM Live Animals Supervisor (and unofficial Sasquatch expert), Pete Heule about unexpected isopods discovered in Rat’s Nest Cave, a...

Growing up, I attended a summer youth camp at Hills of Peace, a campground nestled into a prairie hollow halfway between Czar and Consort. My earliest memories of the camp include rolling hills, the cool lake, quaint cabins, and the monster that terrorized it all: Goatman. We never saw him, but we heard his tale every night after the glowing campfire had been doused. A maniacal ex-logger with a makeshift goat leg, as scary as he was, he was beloved. He was our monstrous mascot, covertly ...

A half-century ago, if you stood on the doorstep of the Royal Alberta Museum, you would have looked down what was then 98th street to Hatti’s Harlem Chicken Inn. From the outside, it may have appeared to be an unassuming restaurant. But for Edmonton’s Black community, Hatti’s was more than just a chicken joint — it was a meeting place, where culture and community flourished. The story of Hatti’s Harlem Chicken Inn is all around us: in local community history books, online articles, in pe...

Do you remember your favourite childhood toy? If you close your eyes and imagine, you may be able to remember how it felt in your hands, what it smelled like, or the excitement you felt on the day you got it. For a moment, you might even feel like you’re transported back to your younger years, a time when your world was as big as your imagination, and a toy wasn’t just a toy, but something more… something magic. In this holiday episode of Intangible Alberta, Mat chats with vintage toy co...

With a collection of 2.5 million objects going back millions of years, we’re bound to have a few ghosts in our cabinets, right? In today’s Halloween episode, we share three spooky stories from the RAM collections – a stairway from a haunted hotel, an exorcism-proof doll, and a military mystery that led to a freaky fire station. Thank you to Lucie Heins, Julia Petrov, and Anthony Worman for sharing these historically eerie stories. Our intro music was Dark Halloween by Max Tune, from...

Welcome to Intangible Alberta. Here at the museum, we tell stories through objects. But what about those stories that have no objects, those experiences that go beyond the material, beyond the tangible? On this podcast, we'll share stories outside the display case, bringing the museum to you.

The video rental store as an institution spanned a 40 year period, between 1977 to 2017. There was a time when nearly every neighbourhood had its local store, whether it was a mom-and-pop or national franchise. These were not only places to find the newest title for a Friday night or rediscover some old favourite for a cozy Sunday afternoon. Video rental stores were meeting places where you could shoot the breeze while you browsed the shelves. They were hubs for dialogue about cinema, society...