Meanwhile... at the Museum

After spending some time in the museums at CMC, there's nothing like grabbing some grub from one of the cafes, or browsing the gift shop for a souvenir or gift! Our partners at SSA Group manage our food at retail in Union Terminal. And our guest today, Megan Dillon, manages the SSA team at CMC. Megan has a long history in hospitality, but she's also a singer-songwriter with experience playing around Nashville. We'll talk to Megan about her journey to CMC, what makes a good museum menu, and that time she opened for Dolly Parton.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is an incredible opportunity for people in Cincinnati and the surrounding regions to experience hundreds of authentic artifacts from Auscwhitz. In this episode, we're talking to Paweł Sawicki, Deputy Spokesman at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum about the the mission of the museum, the importance of remembering this history and the power of experiencing authentic history in person. 

If you're a radio listener in Cincinnati, you know his voice. Now get to know the man behind the mic. In this episode, we've got Jon Jon in the studio to get the inside scoop on how he made it to the airwaves, his thoughts on a rapidly changing media landscape, and how to stay relevant in a world of influencers and AI. 

Cincinnati Museum Center is gearing up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. As part of our Past Forward at CMC series, we'll post a handful of podcast shorts diving into topics across American history through the lens of our collections. 

Today, we're talking about two American icons - turkey and corn - with Bob Genheimer, our George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology, and Tyler Swinney, our NAGPRA Manager and Tribal Liaison. We'll dive into the history of turkey and corn, how humans have cultivated them for thousands of years, and their importance to America's Native Peoples as well as settlers from Europe and beyond. 

Today, Auschwitz is remembered as the primary example of the Holocaust, one of the darkest chapters of human history. In our latest featured exhibition, Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away., visitors can experience this story through a selection of over 500 artifacts from the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland and from 20 institutions around the world. Today we're talking to Luis Ferreiro, Director of Musealia, the company that created the exhibit. We'll discuss the origins of the exhibit, why it's important to remember this story, and what goes into creating an exhibit on such an important topic.

Today we welcome our friend Michael Anderson to the show! Michael is the Director of PR & Photography for the Cincinnati Reds, which means it's his job to get the word out about the team and organization, both on and off the field. We'll talk to Michael about his experiences during his 17 years with the Reds, ballpark food and some of the various ways Museum Center and Union Terminal have intersected with the Reds over the past 156 years. 

When you have a paleontology collection as large as ours, it's a full time job just to keep it organized. And the person in charge of keeping it organized is Cameron Schwalbach. As our Paleontology Collections Manager, Cameron keeps track of our massive collection, works in our Paleo Lab to prepare fossils, goes on field expeditions, and more! We'll chat with Cameron about how he went from running through the woods and creeks of southwest Ohio to being an official paleontologist, life on a dinosaur dig and what it's like to be able to build your dream museum exhibit.

If you're a CMC Member, and you've attended any of our special Member exhibit previews, Member OMNIMAX screenings or special member hours, you should know that there's someone in particular that helped make them happen: Lauren Brewer, our Manager of Memberships! Not only does Lauren lead our efforts to increase our Member base, but she also acts as an advocate for our Members, doing everything she can to maximize the value of a CMC Membership. After 21 years here at CMC, we finally got Lauren on the podcast to talk about her career path, the value of CMC Membership and some of her favorite OMNIMAX films and exhibits!

Over the past two years, we've put out 50 episodes of Meanwhile... at the Museum. That's 50 incredible conversations with curators, exhibit designers, educators, scientists, movie directors, meteorologists, registrars, astronomers and so many more. In this episode, Cody and Mitch are looking back at the second year of the show and talking about some of their favorite moments. So sit back and join us as we reminisce, go back through and listen to the episodes we are highlighting here or your own personal favorites, and get ready for more as we gear up for year 3 of Meanwhile... at the Museum!

Cincinnati Museum Center is a rare museum in that we have our own in-house Exhibits team that can do it all, from design to fabrication and installation. This team also manages the featured exhibitions that we bring to Cincinnati, like Barbie: A Cultural Icon (open through Sept. 1, 2025), Pompeii: The Exhibition or the upcoming Auschwitz: Not long ago, not far away (coming October 2025). One of the key people in the process of bringing in traveling exhibitions is John Auer, our Director of Featured Exhibitions and Exhibits Business Development. We'll talk to John about what he does here at CMC, what it takes to fit traveling exhibits into a 1930s train station, and his background in both construction and art.