Meanwhile... at the Museum

Though Mary Fitzpatrick has been a CMC employee since 2018, she's been with us as long as we've been in Union Terminal as a volunteer! As a Museum Engagment Specialist, Mary brings her knowledge, passion, and energy to our guests. In this episode, we'll talk to Mary about her role here, her path to employment here after a fascinating career of volunteering around Cincinnati and a wide variety of jobs, and a whole lot more. 

Today's guest has been an improv actor at Chicago's Second City, a nanny, a professional hamburger thief, and more. Here at CMC, we know her as Gwen Elliott, Director of Community Collaborations. In addition to managing theme days like 1940s Day, Gwen works on making Museum Center as accessible for all people as possible. Tune in as we dig into Gwen's journey to CMC, her history with improv, and how to survive a building full of taxidermy if you have a crippling fear of taxidermy. 

As any visitor to CMC who has interacted with him knows, our guest today has a passion for people. A Guest Experience Manager, Nathaniel Weyman makes it his mission to give each guest the best experience possible. We'll talk tips for the best photos in the museum, food recommendations, and... coming face to face with great white sharks in South Africa?! Get ready to meet Nathaniel, Nathan, Nate, Nate the Great, and more here on Meanwhile... at the Museum!

If you've been listening to this podcast, you may have picked up on frequent references to someone named Mitch, who Cody likes to talk about like he's in the room. And he is - Mitch is the producer of this podcast, and is in the room for each recording session to monitor levels and direct Cody and our guests. But Mitch's title is Director of Video Production, which means that this podcast is just one aspect of his job at CMC. We'll get into what else he gets up to, his journey from local sports television to the museum world, and his history as a star of the (grade school) stage.

From his earliest days exploring the woods near Clifton, Bob Genheimer knew he was interested in digging up history. When he learned what archaeology was, he finally had a name for his passion. And that's how he ended up in a toilet. Many toilets in fact - 19th century privy shafts, it turns out, are treasure troves of knowledge. One of Bob's favorite stories involves a policeman in a privy. We'll talk to him about that, his first experience at Union Terminal, and the dig into the course of his career, which includes 33 years here at CMC. 

If you've been listening to this podcast, you've probably noticed one name coming up again and again - Dave Might. Today we're talking to the man himself. From mounting the animal specimens in Get Into Nature to crafting Fountain Square in Cincinnati In Motion, Dave has made his mark on CMC, and millions of guests, for 37 years - since he started at CMC in 1987 with work on the Ice Age exhibit. We'll talk about how Dave got here, what an Exhibit Artist does, and the time he had to taxidermy a rhinoceros. 

Teacher, twirler, princess, elf. Samantha Leone has filled all of these roles... more or less. Samantha knew she wanted to work with young people in an educational setting, but discovered she didn't want to be a school teacher. She found her way to CMC, where she works with our Youth Programs participants, our adult volunteers and directly with museum visitors. Join us as we talk to Samantha about everything from the thrill of being recognized as "The Museum Lady" to getting adults to face their fears and touch the cockroaches.

To kick off the new year in style, we are welcoming our President and CEO Elizabeth Pierce to the show. We'll dig into her role of Master Plate Spinner, find out how she came to be our fearless leader, and talk about seeing opportunity in the challenges inherent to an ever-changing world. 

Some people seem to drop right into a role in life and stay there. Others undertake a long and epic journey, zig-zagging through a series of jobs, fields, and possibly even across the country a few times. Maat Manninen, our Registrar at CMC, is from that second group. His six and a half years at CMC were preceded by time spent in a rock band, as a professional art handler/hanger, and in museums as far apart as Boston and Northern California - and a whole lot more too. 

If you've been to Cincinnati Museum Center in the past few years, you've likely run into Jeb Brack. And if you ran into Jeb, you probably learned something interesting, like the history of Cincinnati's inclines, how the surface of the ground impacts rainwater runoff or how air currents interact with spherical objects. But you probably didn't learn that Jeb has been a radio host, an artist and even a magician! So sit back, hit play and get ready to meet Jeb in a bit greater detail.