Museums n'That

Ho, ho - we can't stress this enough - ho.

We're back with an extra special Christmas episode with Kitty Ross, Curator of Social History.

Who was St. Nick? What did Charles Dickens think of our Leeds? What's your favourite Wet Wet Wet song? Kitty answers all of your burning festive questions (and then some).

Before you panic: Danny from DPD does get a mention.

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Could The Meg literally happen? How do you give a polar bear a wash and blow dry? Does Danny from DPD know how regularly he features on everyone’s favourite lowbrow museum based podcast?

We’re saying a firm ‘see ya’ to series 2 with curator Clare Brown, who explains how animals come to be in our natural science collection, and why dealing with the histories behind some of our collections can be so complex (see also: decolonisation). 

Thanks a bunch to everyone except Zoom during this, our Everest series. We’ll be back soon!

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Bog bodies. Skeletons. Mummifying Alan. 

Kat Baxter, Curator of Archaeology at Leeds Museums & Galleries, answers all of our (many) burning questions about human remains and the ethics of collecting and displaying them in museums.

We ask why some bodies are better preserved than others, and find out the kind of reactions visitors have to different types of human remains. We also discover why bog chemistry can be compared to chutney.

PLEASE NOTE: This episode contains discussions about death, burials and human remains in the context of museum collections, ethics and conservation. Please skip this episode if that isn’t for you.

Leeds Museums & Galleries Human Remains Policy is publicly available on our website.

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Artist and Assistant Registrar to the stars (Leeds Museums & Galleries) Emii Alrai is our guest this week, and the content is CHARMING.

Emii brings her trademark virgo energy to the pod as we find out what registrar-ing really means. Emii shares the influence for her artistic practice too, as we chat about how Middle Eastern objects come to be in western museums, and what it means for their histories once they're on display in them.

Guest cameo: Danny from DPD.

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Surprise! Our first (questionable) bonus episode.

Turns out Meg and Sara are literally museum professionals too, so get to know more about your favourite museum podcast hosts and what they do every day. 

Find out about the good, the bad and the downright lovely sides of working with museum audiences, why museums need to change and the impact that working in social media can have on your mental health. 

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Trains! Jelly tots! Chicken Jalfrezi! All the major food groups in one delicious museum podcast. 

Curator of industrial history John McGoldrick tells us all about inventions made in the great, nay, greatest, city of Leeds. Find out what Dick Whittington's got to do with railways, how to become an actual rocket scientist and what, definitively, is the best train.
 
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Oh, this is a good one. Conor Clarke from the National Videogame Museum in Sheffield (the second greatest city in the world) has willingly, actually, genuinely come on the show.

We talk videogame history, and explore the logistics of collecting games as a museum. We cover the fundamentals too: Crash Bandicoot or Sonic? Would you sell your turnips to Elijah Wood? Who would play you in a videogame?

The answer is always Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.

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Bum silk nests. How to shave a moth. Harry Styles. We're back, and starting Series 2 as we mean to go on.

Assistant Curator of Entomology Milo Phillips puts moths under the spotlight in this episode, and we explain the Leeds Museums & Galleries obsession with the little blighters. Swot up on cocoons, caterpillars, and crucially: who would win in a fight, the best ant, or the best bee?

It's good to be back.

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We've been debating whether to sacrifice the high quality of our recordings (that we're so famous for) for series 2 by doing them remotely. The answer is yes! We're going to. You're welcome. We're sorry in advance.

We'll be covering topics like human remains, moths and inventions made in the greatest city in the world. Series 2 even features some actual real life guests, like Conor from the National Videogame Museum.

Subscribe to be the first to hear this extra special series of Museums n'That, complete with unwelcome house noises and internet connectivity issues. See you there.

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Hold tight for sword fighting, Gandalf quotes and diggers that look a bit like hands. 

For the last episode of this first series, Meg and Sara interview Learning Officer Carl Newbould, who works with pupils with special educational needs and disabilities to give them experiences of the world of work. In other words, Carl has the loveliest job.

Discover what that actually means in practice, why Meg hates Paris and which celebrity Carl's a dead ringer for.

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