Best Ian Elsner Podcasts (2025)

1
110. Revisiting The ‘Enola Gay Fiasco’ Today 21:26

21d ago21:26

21:26

For the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum planned to display the Enola Gay, the Boeing B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The plane was restored to be part of a full exhibit, presented alongside context about the atomic bombing's mass civilian casualties. But that exhibit never o…

1
109. The Rise and Fall of Enterprise Square, USA 15:52

2M ago15:52

15:52

For the last few decades of the 20th century, if you visited Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, you could have been serenaded by a barbershop quartet of audio-animatronic portraits of America's founders as framed on U.S. currency. This was one of the many exhibits at Enterprise Square, USA, a high-tech museum dedicated to teaching children about Free Market …

1
108. The Museum of Utopia and Daily Life 19:09

5M ago19:09

19:09

The tension is right there in the name of the Museum of Utopia and Daily Life. It sits inside a 1953 kindergarten building in Eisenhüttenstadt, Germany, a city that was born from utopian socialist ideals. After World War II left Germany in ruins, the newly formed German Democratic Republic (GDR) saw an opportunity to build an ideal socialist societ…

1
107. Crypto and Museums Part 1 18:35

7M ago18:35

18:35

In November 2021, an extremely rare first printing of the U.S. Constitution was put up for auction at Sotheby's in New York, attracting a unique bidder: ConstitutionDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization. This group had formed just weeks earlier with the sole purpose of acquiring the Constitution – and would not have been possible without cry…

1
106. Last Call on 'The Streets of Old Milwaukee' 18:43

9M ago18:43

18:43

I remember visiting – and loving – The Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) as a child. Opened in 1965, it’s an immersive space with cobblestone streets and perfect lighting that evokes a fall evening in turn-of-the-20th-century Milwaukee. The visitor experience isn’t peering into a diorama, it’s moving through a di…

1
105. Building a Better Visitor Experience with Open Source Software 14:58

1y ago14:58

14:58

While working at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History during the pandemic, Dr. Morgan Rehnberg recognized the institution's limited capacity to develop new digitals exhibits with the proprietary solutions that are common in big museums. This challenge led Rehnberg to start work on Exhibitera, a free, open-source suite of software tools tail…

1
104. What Large Institutions Can Learn From Small Museums 14:52

1y ago14:52

14:52

The Murney Tower Museum in Kingston, Ontario, Canada is a small museum. Open for only four months of the year and featuring only one full-time staff member, the museum is representative of the many small institutions that make up the majority of museums. With only a fraction of the resources of large institutions, this long tail distribution of sma…

1
103. How Computers Transformed Museums and Created A New Type of Professional 14:59

1+ y ago14:59

14:59

Computing work keeps museums running, but it’s largely invisible. That is, unless something goes wrong. For Dr. Paul Marty, Professor in the School of Information at Florida State University and his colleague Kathy Jones, Program Director of the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard Extension School, shining a light on the behind-the-scenes activit…

1
102. Copies in Museums 14:55

2y ago14:55

14:55

On Berlin’s Museum Island, four stone lion statues perch in the Pergamon Museum. Three of these lions are originals — that is to say, lions carved from dolerite rock between the 10th and 8th centuries BCE in Samʼal (Zincirli) in southern Turkey. And one is a plaster copy made a little over 100 years ago. Pergamon Museum curator Pinar Durgun has hea…

1
101. Buzludzha Always Centered Visitor Experience. Dora Ivanova is Using Its Structure to Create a New One. 19:48

2+ y ago19:48

19:48

Since it opened in 1981 to celebrate the ruling Bulgarian Communist Party, Buzludzha has centered the visitor experience. Every detail and sightline of the enormous disk of concrete perched on a mountaintop in the middle of Bulgaria was designed to impress, to show how Bulgarian communism was the way of the future – a kind of alternate Tomorrowland…

1
100. The Archipelago Museum 11:23

2+ y ago11:23

11:23

In the early days of this podcast, every time I searched for Museum Archipelago on the internet, the top result would be a small museum in rural Finland called the Archipelago Museum. As my podcast continued to grow and my search rankings improved, I didn’t forget about the Archipelago Museum. Instead, I wondered what they were up to. What were the…

1
99. Museums in Video Games 14:20

2+ y ago14:20

14:20

The Computer Games Museum in Berlin knows that its visitors want to play games, so it lets them. The artifacts are fully-playable video games, from early arcade classics like PacMac to modern console and PC games, all with original hardware and controllers. By putting video games in a museum space, the Computer Games Museum invites visitors to beco…

1
98. At the Panama Canal Museum, Ana Elizabeth González Creates a Global Connection Point 13:03

3y ago13:03

13:03

When Ana Elizabeth González was growing up in Panama, the history she learned about the Panama Canal in school told a narrow story about the engineering feat of the Canal’s construction by the United States. This public history reflected the politics of Panama and control over the Canal. Today, González is executive Director of the Panama Canal Mus…

1
97. Richard Nixon Hoped to Never Say These Words about Apollo 11. In A New Exhibit, He Does. 14:58

3+ y ago14:58

14:58

As the Apollo 11 astronauts hurtled towards the moon on July 18th, 1969, members of the Nixon administration realized they should probably make a contingency plan. If the astronauts didn’t make it – or, even more horrible, if they made it to the moon and crashed and had no way to get back to earth – Richard Nixon would have to address the nation. T…

1
96. Tegan Kehoe Explores American Healthcare Through 50 Museum Artifacts 14:57

3+ y ago14:57

14:57

Public historian and writer Tegan Kehoe knows that museum visitors act differently around the same object presented in different contexts—like how the same visitor excited by a bayonet that causes a triangular wound in an exhibit of 18th-century weapons could be disgusted by that same artifact when it’s presented in an exhibit of 18th-century medic…

1
95. The Museum of Technology in Helsinki, Finland Knows Even the Most Futuristic Technology Will One Day Be History 11:31

3+ y ago11:31

11:31

In 1969, noticing that technological progress was changing their fields, heads of Finish industry came together to found a technology museum in Finland. Today, the Museum of Technology in Helsinki is the only general technological museum in the country. But of course, technical progress didn’t stop changing, as service coordinator Maddie Hentunen n…

1
94. Jazz Dottin Guides Viewers Through Massachusetts’s Buried Black History 11:54

4y ago11:54

11:54

The deliberate exclusion of Black history and the history of slavery in the American South has been slow to reverse. But Jazz Dottin, creator and host of the Black Gems Unearthed YouTube channel says it can be just as slow in New England. Each video features Dottin somewhere in her home state of Massachusetts, often in front of a plaque or historic…

1
93. Bulgaria’s Narrow Gauge Railway Winds Through History. Ivan Pulevski Helped Turn One of Its Station Stops Into a Museum. 11:10

4y ago11:10

11:10

In 1916, concerned that the remote Rhodope mountains would be hard to defend against foreign invaders, a young Bulgarian Kingdom decided to build a narrow gauge railway to connect villages and towns to the rest of the country. The Bulgarian King himself, Tsar Boris III, drove the first locomotive to the town of Belitsa to celebrate its opening. But…

1
92. The Pleven Panorama Museum Transports Visitors Through Time, But Not Space 12:22

4y ago12:22

12:22

The Pleven Panorama transports visitors through time, but not space. The huge, hand-painted panorama features the decisive battles of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–78, fought at this exact spot, which led to Bulgaria’s Liberation. The landscape of Pleven, Bulgaria depicted is exactly what you see outside the building, making it seem like you’re w…

1
91. How Fake Museums Are Used in Theme Parks with Shaelyn Amaio 12:35

4y ago12:35

12:35

Museums can be a shorthand for truth, or for history, or for what a culture values. Disney theme parks all around the world use fake museums as a tool to immerse visitors in the themed environment. This detailed world-building can make the imaginary universe more real—or provide a setup to subvert a narrative. But these fake museums aren’t the only…

1
90. Civil Rights Progress Isn't Linear. The Grove Museum Interprets Tallahassee's Struggle in an Unexpected Setting. 14:53

4y ago14:53

14:53

The Grove Museum inside the historic Call/Collins House is one of Tallahassee’s newest museums, and it’s changing how the city interprets its own history. Instead of focusing on the mansion house’s famous owners, including Florida Governor LeRoy Collins, Executive Director John Grandage oriented the museum around civil rights. Cleverly tracing how …

1
89. Tehmina Goskar Critically Engages with Curation, Wherever It Happens 14:47

4y ago14:47

14:47

Dr. Tehmina Goskar, director of the Curatorial Research Centre, co-founded MuseumHour with Sophie Ballinger in October 2014. The weekly peer-to-peer chat on Twitter “holds space for debate” for museum people all around the world. This month, Goskar officially steps back from her role at MuseumHour. This episode serves as both an “exit interview” fo…

1
88. Jérôme Blachon Collects and Transmits Precious Memories at the Museum of Resistance and Deportation in Haute-Garonne, France 7:25

4+ y ago7:25

7:25

During World War II, a Nazi collbatoring regime governed the south of France, and the city of Toulouse was a Resistance hub. The Vichy Government promoted anti-Semitism and collaborated with the Nazis, most specifically by deporting Jews to concentration and extermination camps. Fragmented Resistance fighters organized to form escape networks and b…

1
87. The Vitosha Bear Museum Lives in a Tiny Mountain Hut 9:13

4+ y ago9:13

9:13

Vitosha Mountain, the southern border of Sofia, Bulgaria, is home to about 15 brown bears and one bear museum. According to Dr. Nikola Doykin, fauna expert at the Vitosha Nature Park Directorate, the bear population is stable—if humans stay away and protect their habitat. To Doykin and his team, teaching children about the bears is the best way for…

1
86. Nashid Madyun Fights the Compression of Black History at the Meek-Eaton Black Archives 13:25

4+ y ago13:25

13:25

History professor Dr. James Eaton taught his students with the mantra: “African American History is the History of America.” As chair of the history department at FAMU, a historically Black University in Tallahassee, Florida, he was used to teaching students how to use interlibrary loan systems and how to access rare book collections for their rese…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Ian Elsner Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
Museum Archipelago

Ian Elsner

1
110. Revisiting The ‘Enola Gay Fiasco’ Today 21:26

1
109. The Rise and Fall of Enterprise Square, USA 15:52

1
108. The Museum of Utopia and Daily Life 19:09

1
107. Crypto and Museums Part 1 18:35

1
106. Last Call on 'The Streets of Old Milwaukee' 18:43

1
105. Building a Better Visitor Experience with Open Source Software 14:58

1
104. What Large Institutions Can Learn From Small Museums 14:52

1
103. How Computers Transformed Museums and Created A New Type of Professional 14:59

1
102. Copies in Museums 14:55

1
101. Buzludzha Always Centered Visitor Experience. Dora Ivanova is Using Its Structure to Create a New One. 19:48

1
100. The Archipelago Museum 11:23

1
99. Museums in Video Games 14:20

1
98. At the Panama Canal Museum, Ana Elizabeth González Creates a Global Connection Point 13:03

1
97. Richard Nixon Hoped to Never Say These Words about Apollo 11. In A New Exhibit, He Does. 14:58

1
96. Tegan Kehoe Explores American Healthcare Through 50 Museum Artifacts 14:57

1
95. The Museum of Technology in Helsinki, Finland Knows Even the Most Futuristic Technology Will One Day Be History 11:31

1
94. Jazz Dottin Guides Viewers Through Massachusetts’s Buried Black History 11:54

1
93. Bulgaria’s Narrow Gauge Railway Winds Through History. Ivan Pulevski Helped Turn One of Its Station Stops Into a Museum. 11:10

1
92. The Pleven Panorama Museum Transports Visitors Through Time, But Not Space 12:22

1
91. How Fake Museums Are Used in Theme Parks with Shaelyn Amaio 12:35

1
90. Civil Rights Progress Isn't Linear. The Grove Museum Interprets Tallahassee's Struggle in an Unexpected Setting. 14:53

1
89. Tehmina Goskar Critically Engages with Curation, Wherever It Happens 14:47

1
88. Jérôme Blachon Collects and Transmits Precious Memories at the Museum of Resistance and Deportation in Haute-Garonne, France 7:25

1
87. The Vitosha Bear Museum Lives in a Tiny Mountain Hut 9:13

1
86. Nashid Madyun Fights the Compression of Black History at the Meek-Eaton Black Archives 13:25