StoriesHere Podcast

A conversation with Dr. Jeff Hall, Director

That Frequently Asked Question, ‘Where is God?’, is one of many the staff hears at the Lowell Observatory, especially during astronomy nights.  In this wide-ranging conversation with Lowell’s Director, Dr. Jeff Hall, we talk about everything from that to Venus and Mars, space debris, the connection between music and astronomy, and much, much more.

The Lowell Observatory is a time machine, from its study of the origins of the universe, to a future of life on other planets, to the hurdles we may be putting up with so many spacecraft in the sky.  To learn more and support the observatory, go to Lowell.edu.

And here’s a story about the total solar eclipse discussed in this episode.

Transcript

Intro with music: Welcome to the StoriesHere Podcast

Dr. Jeff Hall, Director, Lowell Observatory:

I had several people come up to me literally in tears. They were so overwhelmed, particularly if they’ve never seen a total eclipse before. It’s a pretty amazing experience. And I think it’s that absolute wonder and awe of what we see when we look into the cosmos.

Wayne Parker, Host, StoriesHere Podcast

That’s Dr. Jeff Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory, talking about the 2017 total solar eclipse which he hosted on a live program with the Science Channel that was viewed by 1.6 million people. That group was gathered in Madras, Oregon on a high school football field and it was reported that after the eclipse passed, they cheered, “Do it again.”

Wayne Parker:

This is Wayne Parker, host of the StoriesHere Podcast. And on that day, I was about 100 miles to the west in Corvallis, Oregon and experienced totality about three minutes before it reached to Jeff’s Science Channel group. So at 10:18 that morning of August 21st, 2017, we stood in a public park and watched as the sun was totally blocked by the moon plunging our world into darkness. Streetlights came on, and it was truly one of those feelings were words can’t do justice.

In addition to things like explaining eclipses on television, as the director of Lowell Observatory, Jeff helps lead a center that Time magazine named one of the world’s 100 most important places. Are you surprised that this place outside Flagstaff, Arizona, is on a list of the world’s most important places along the Great Wall of China and the Roman Colosseum?

There are many more surprises in today’s StoriesHere episode. Thank you for joining us. I’m your host, Wayne Parker, our adviser is museum expert Alice Parman, and original music is by George Davidson.

And did you know the Planet Pluto was discovered at Lowell? More on that to come. It’s also a major education center and has been called America’s observatory. So in their education role, I asked next about any visitor comments that Jeff particularly remembers.

Jeff Hall:

An email will land in my inbox from a mom somewhere and saying literally, you changed my kid’s life because of the experience they had here and the high opening of views they got and the exposure they got to astronomy and science. And knowing that we have positively impacted a young life and maybe inspired a scientist of the next generation, that’s amazingly satisfying and definitely part of why we do what we do.

Wayne Parker:

And how do you look at that bridge between the research and the outreach, because you have a big staff there, you have all these research going on and historically, Lowell is known for real breakthroughs, the discovery of Pluto, really crucial background in understanding the Big Bang. And yet, you do a great conjunction at Christmas last year. There were 75,000 people live paying attention to that and over two million views on YouTube. Jeff, what’s the source of all that interest in astr...

This episode is an intriguing conversation with Dr. Kirsten Ellenbogen President & CEO at Great Lakes Science Center (GSLC), Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on Lake Erie.

The Center has been named one of 15 museum finalists for the nation's highest honor for the field: the 2021 Institute for Museum & Library Service Medal. https://greatscience.com/great-lakes-science-cen

Here's a bit more background on Dr. Ellenbogen....."As third President and CEO of Great Lakes Science Center, she has launched Cleveland Creates, a strategic initiative developed in collaboration with corporate leaders to change the community’s narrative around advanced manufacturing and technology for diverse middle-school youth and families. Great Lakes Science Center is a non-profit, educational institution that envisions a community where all people value science, technology, engineering, and math to inform decision-making and enrich lives. It is home to the NASA Glenn Visitor Center, the nationally recognized MC2 STEM High School (grade 9) and features hundreds of hands-on exhibits, daily demonstrations, and the OMNIMAX® Theater."

And here's a short video introduction to the Center...

https://youtu.be/NnDdmpIyYrU

The world's largest children's museum holds lots of stories.  Here's a fascinating conversation about many of them with Jennifer Pace Robinson, the Executive Vice President of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.

Did you know she's helped design children's museums all over the world?  Find out what that's like, and how children's museums are really for adults too.

Thank you to our StoriesHere Advisor Alice Parman and Audio Engineer George Davidson.

Hear more fascinating conversations with museum leaders in other StoriesHere episodes.

Direct from the world’s only superhero and comic museum, this is a heroic conversation with Allen Stewart, Director and Founder of the Hall of Heroes – Superhero Museum in Elkhart, Indiana.  You'll appreciate Allen's insight and knowledge, along with some surprises, about the history of Superheroes.

Superheroes are important in so many ways….discover how they've changed and why they've endured for so long.

Learn more about the Museum at https://hallofheroesmuseum.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hohmuseum/.

StoriesHere is a volunteer project based in Eugene, Oregon created by people who think museums are important and fun.  Our mission is to highlight a variety of museums through conversations with their leaders.

Special thanks to Alice Parman, Advisor, and George Davidson, Audio Engineer.  The host is Wayne Parker.

Here’s a surprising, funny and important conversation with Louise Reilly Sacco, Permanent Acting Interim Executive Director, Museum Of Bad Art in Boston, MA, US.

Website: museumofbadart.org and Facebook:  Museum of Bad Art.

MOBA – Museum Of Bad Art – ‘art too bad to be ignored’.  The world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms.  Our growing collection of works of Bad Art awaits your discerning eye.

The World’s Ten Most Unusual Museums You Should Visit – The Culture Trip

Only Top TEN?  A newspaper in New Delhi says it’s one of the world’s SIX must-see museums.

You won’t want to miss this surprising conversation with Louise, and tell your friends!

‘Sunday on the Pot With George’ – John Gedraitis

Click here for CBS feature of this painting

‘Lucy in the Field with Flowers’ – Anonymous

Today's episode is part of Museum Mondays, a conversation with Jane Turner of the Children's Museum of Atlanta.  The title is a comment of hers about how children see the world.

Jane is the Executive Director, Children’s Museum of Atlanta, 275 Centennial Olympic Park Dr., Atlanta, GA  30313, Phone (404) 659-5437 - Website: childrensmuseumatlanta.org

Here is a comment from the Museum about play...

Play is freedom. Play is creativity. Play is important. Children’s Museum of Atlanta empowers kids to “create their own learning adventures” and be free to play.

Thank you to Julia Clinch, Brave Public Relations for the help in arranging this episode.  The podcast Host is Wayne Parker, Advisor is Alice Parman and Audio Editor is George Davidson.

For more information on children's museums, contact the Association of Children's Museums at https://www.childrensmuseums.org/

 

 

 

With museums facing so many challenges, and opportunities, what a great time to talk with Elizabeth Merritt.  She is the Vice President for Strategic Foresight and Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums at the American Alliance of Museums.  

We're excited with this episode to launch Museum Mondays, and will have a new StoriesHere episode coming to you every other Monday.  For reminders of each episode, please sign up here, or with your favorite podcast player.

Host: Wayne Parker; Advisor: Alice Parman; Audio Editor:  George Davidson

Show Notes

American Alliance of Museums www.aam-us.org on Twitter @aamers

Center for the Future of Museums www.aam-us.org/programs/center-for-the-future-of-museums/ on Twitter @futureofmuseums

Subscribe to CFM’s free weekly e-newsletter Dispatches from the Future of Museums  bit.ly/dispatchesfromthefuture

The Umbrella Cover Museum: https://www.umbrellacovermuseum.org/

Woodlawn Plantation https://savingplaces.org/places/woodlawn#.X_84JBZ7mUl and it’s work with Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture http://arcadiafood.org/

And a blog post from Woodlawn’s director about this work: https://www.aam-us.org/2011/02/01/saving-the-historic-house-while-saving-the-world/

Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/newsroom/media-kits/sfw-introduction-and-mission

Museum of Tomorrow, Sao Paulo, Brazil https://museudoamanha.org.br/en

Blog posts about their AI chatbot IRIS+ :

https://www.aam-us.org/2018/06/12/iris-part-one-designing-coding-a-museum-ai/

https://www.aam-us.org/2018/06/19/iris-part-two-how-to-embed-a-museums-personality-and-values-in-ai/

Facts about America’s Museums

https://www.aam-us.org/programs/about-museums/

The Dunkleosteus fossil at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History that made Elizabeth pee her pants as a toddler

https://www.cmnh.org/dunk

This StoriesHere episode features a conversation with Jennifer Grant Warner, President and CEO of Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia.  Stories range from the very different experience of being in an old growth forest, to how to pronounce Argentinosaurus (I failed). 

Below is a little background from their website on why the title refers to ‘The Audacity of Hope’.  Then join our conversation to learn about this place in Atlanta ‘Where Science, Nature and Fun Make History’!

"In the late 1800’s a young woman named Emily Harrison played in one of Atlanta, Georgia’s woodlands. Later in life, she would help preserve 65 acres of land that she played on, which she called “Fernbank.”  As Atlanta grew and became more urbanized, woodlands were disappearing.  In 1939, with the assistance of other “conservation‐minded environmentalists,” she purchased Fernbank Forest with its creek and forest of ferns.   

Fernbank Museum of Natural History may be the only natural history museum to ‘grow’ out of the forest.  The museum opened in 1992, and in 2001 the museum became the first to display the world’s largest dinosaurs as a part of their permanent exhibition."

This conversation is with Laura Fry, Senior Curator and Curator of Art for the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  The discussion includes topics from "Did the Supreme Court really give eastern Oklahoma back to the native Americans?".....to what kids can teach us about art, the role painter Thomas Moran played in establishing our national park system, and the rare opportunity to plan a completely new museum.

And how a museum with the largest collection of American western art is a bit of a hidden gem.  Perhaps that will be changing with the construction and opening of an expansive new building.

And more about the Museum from their web site...."Thomas Gilcrease, a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation, established Gilcrease Museum in 1949 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Today the interdisciplinary collection contains more than 350,000 items. The museum represents hundreds of Indigenous cultures from across North and South America, with material culture and archaeology ranging from 12,000 BCE to the 21st century. The collection includes more than 350 years of American paintings, sculptures and works on paper, including the largest public holdings of art of the American West."

Greetings, Wayne Parker here, with a conversation about Nordic culture, which is today more important than ever. And we’ll get to that, and some intriguing stories in a moment. First, some of you may be wondering, are Nordic countries the same as Scandinavian ones? For the answer we’ll go to Eric Nelson, CEO and Executive Director of the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, who was the 2019 Swedish American of the Year. And previously Eric was recognized as a Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland by the President of the country himself. We have many more questions for Eric. This is the StoriesHere podcast, which exists because museums hold some of our most important, and interesting, stories. We talk with people who know those stories best, leaders from museums around the country. Our episodes have included stories of science and nature, and cultures such as Latino, African American, Jewish and more.