Meanwhile... at the Museum

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. 
  
One of the founding principles of America is freedom of religion. How has that applied to Jews throughout American history? And zooming in to a more local focus, what has been the experience of Jews in Cincinnati? How have they impacted the local community, and the larger community of American Jews? We sat down with Rabbi Dr. Gary Zola and our Curator of Manuscripts Christine Engels to explore the history of Jews in America and in Cincinnati.

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. 
 
History doesn't happen in a vaccuum - it happens in our world. What people do both impacts, and is impacted by, the natural environment around them. With that in mind, what is the environmental history of the region Cincinnati Museum Center calls home? How has American history affected the plants, animals, and land in the Ohio River Valley and surrounding areas? We'll talk to Heather Farrington and Makayla Dean in our Zoology department to find out more. 

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. 
 
In this episode of Past Forward, we're talking about preserving the history of one of America's oldest traditions - protest. Through protest, Americans have been making their voices heard for over 250 years. Why is documenting protests important? What do museums do to document protests throughout American history, including ones that are happening now? We'll talk to Katherine Gould, our Curator of History Objects and Fine Art, to find out. 

Do you know anyone who is a juggler, actor, fire-breather, stilt-walker, viking warrior, TV mascot, and guest experience professional? We're going to guess you said no and introduce you to Bill Stringer, Assistant Manager of Museum Engagement at Cincinnati Museum Center.

If you're our host Cody, a room brimming with jars of dead animals preserved in fluid sounds like a nightmare. If you're Makayla Dean, our Manager of Zoology Collections and DNA Lab, it's part of an average day at work. From preparing study skins to feeding flesh eating beetles, managing zoology collections is a messy job. We'll talk to Makayla about what inspired them to work in a natural history museum, how their career path led them to work in ours, and find out why we have a room full of dead things in jars.

In 1974, Franciscan Nun and 8th grade teacher Sister Nancy Linenkugel sent a letter to Doubleday, the American publisher of The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, which Sister Nancy was teaching in her class. She was hoping to get more information on Otto Frank, Anne's father, who had edited Anne's diary for publication. What she got was a response from Otto Frank himself, beginning a correspondence between a young nun in Ohio and a Holocaust survivor in Switzerland. We sat down with Sister Nancy to talk about her connection with Otto Frank and what she learned from getting to know him. 

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 Cincinnati Museum Center's collection of over 6 million objects with Registrar Maat Manninen and Bob Genheimer, our George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology. Why do museums collect? What do we collect? What is the process of bringing new objects into the collection? We'll dig into those questions, as well as talk about CMC's roots in the early 1800s. 

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.