The Uncanny County Museum

On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe in the dark as Xan brings to light the mysteries and misinformation surrounding the infamous Tampa Bay Triangle Dead Zone regarding missing persons, UFO sightings, and bizarre conspiracy theories. All the while, providing insight into why hammerhead sharks have a hammer-like head.

On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside the Museums hall of extinct and endangered languages where they discuss the ongoing event of language death throughout the world, while Joe emphasizes why it is essential that endangered languages be preserved so we may gain insight from their cultural knowledge, and history to better our future.

On today’s tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, for an in-depth discussion concerning realism/illusionistic representation within two-dimensional art, both in contemporary trends and throughout art history, while using Hanneke Grootenboer, The Rhetoric of Perspective, which is primarily focused on the history of Dutch still life painting, as a point of entry into this topic.

Texts mentioned:

The Rhetoric of Perspective by Hanneke Grootenboer

The Experience Machine by Andy Clark

*DISCLAIMER* Please visit the Osage Nations website for more information about their history and culture. Osageculture.com

On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as they go over a brief history of the Osage nation, covering their discovery of petroleum on their reservation, as well as their tumultuous history with settlers and the United States government looking to take advantage of their situation. All of which lead to the real events covered in the book by David Grann, and now film by Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon.

In advance of Indigenous Peoples Day this Monday, for today's tour we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, in an exhibit focused on the clash between the Aztecs / Mexica people and the Spanish Conquistadors, while clearing up some of the often misrepresented history about Moctezuma II, and the bizarre failures of Panfilo Narváez.

Sources used:

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich

On today's tour, we join our tour guides Xan and Joe, inside the hall of Tartaria where they return to the Museum's roadside roots as they discuss conspiracy theories surrounding missing historical time periods. All the while, poking logic holes in them while discussing the arbitrary nature of dates and time.

On today's tour, after a month-long hiatus our tour guides, Xan and Joe, return to the Uncanny County Museum and join us in the museum’s Big Hall, where Xan takes us through the history of Earth's largest animals, both living and extinct, while also bringing some insight into the recent news surrounding Perucetus.

On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as Xan leads a tour focused on the history of the Aztec empire and how they rose to prominence. Meanwhile, they briefly discuss the ways human civilizations have developed through kin-based relationships and the role rituals play in bonding people together.

Sources used:

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich

On today’s tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside the museum's parking garage where Joe leads a discussion focusing on the 2020 book, Unofficial Britain: Journeys through Unexpected Places by Gareth E. Rees, with a focus on the overlooked histories embedded within mundane spaces and their cultural/psychological effects on the populations living alongside them.

On today's tour, Xan and Joe once again bring in esteemed science communicators to discuss the newest season of the groundbreaking docu-series, Prehistoric Planet. @CrikeyitsChristian, @ThePaintPaddock, and @DinosaurComics bring their knowledge (and opinions) to dissect where the show has been and where it can go!