Sponsored by
THIS WEEK’S NEW EPISODE
This week’s guest is Dr. Tayana Panova, who you might know as the co-host of The Perfect City podcast or as a creator on TikTok talking about shade, benches, and human-scale cities. I brought her on the show to talk about the benefits museums create for our homes and communities, and how they can do more: Could they be vibrant third places? And what do they need to do to get there? Plus: What do museums do for us that our phones and other devices cannot?
Find the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify — or find your favorite app here! A full transcript of this episode is available here.
BEHIND THE SCENES
👉 And that’s why you go to random events
CC BY-SA / japanexperterna.se
When I came up with the idea for this podcast, I knew I wanted to talk to a mix of people who work in museums, PLUS experts in the surrounding airspace, who could help us think bigger about their problems and their potential. But I didn’t expect to be talking to an urbanist-podcaster-influencer.
That changed when I attended a lecture in Berkeley last April called “Why We Doomscroll: Disconnection and Bad City Design.” (Shoutout to Lectures on Tap!) Tayana opened it with a provocative question: How many people here are addicted to their phones? A few hands went up, including mine.
She went on to argue, quite convincingly, that a lot of “addictive” tech habits are misunderstood, and that one of the best ways to address them is to create healthier alternatives in the world around us. I realized, mid-lecture, that museums had a part to play in that future.
This interview wound up being one of my favorite surprises of the season, and it’s all because I went to a random lecture on a Monday. Clearly, I should go to even more things like this.
— Eric
Thank you to our sponsor, Proton Mail
Free email without sacrificing your privacy
Gmail is free, but you pay with your data. Proton Mail is different.
We don’t scan your messages. We don’t sell your behavior. We don’t follow you across the internet.
Proton Mail gives you full-featured, private email without surveillance or creepy profiling. It’s email that respects your time, your attention, and your boundaries.
Email doesn’t have to cost your privacy.
IN MY INBOX
🐑 “Chaotic ping-pong,” Smithsonian drama, and Shaun the Sheep
“Jeune Femme au puits,” Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The Hollywood Reporter drags LACMA’s new David Geffen Exhibition Hall: “An incoherent, chaotic ping-pong across art history, from Asian neolithic vessels to European modernist abstraction. Visitors don’t know where they are, where they’re going or why.” [The Hollywood Reporter]
Apparently you can go under the Lincoln Memorial now, and there’s a free museum! And a gift shop. [National Park Service]
Another week, another art heist in Europe: This time, two Renoir paintings got stolen from his namesake museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France: “Underfunding is the main problem facing museums everywhere, not just in France. And smaller museums are especially exposed because of their limited finances.” [Associated Press]
ICYMI: The leader of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch, has resigned under political pressure from the White House: “I have fought for as long as I can. I love this country and I love the Smithsonian and I will always work to defend our more perfect Union.” [ABC News]
The Bayeux Tapestry is on display in the UK for the first time ever, at the British Museum, and across town at the Natural History Museum you can also see the Baa-Ewe Tapestry: “It features Shaun [the Sheep], Bitzer and the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm.” [BBC]
THE GIFT SHOP
🎁 You could win this sticker book!
Everyone who subscribes to this newsletter before November 10 has been entered into our Gift Shop Giveaway! (Full rules here)
(Not subscribed yet? You can do that right here.)
I was inspired by Tayana’s answer to the gift shop question in this week’s episode to pick up a book of museum-related stickers, which I firmly believe are fun for all ages — not just kids. The winner of this book will be able to add some beauty to their water bottle, laptop, or (briefly) their cat.
💪 How to help the podcast:
Tell a friend: Forward this email to a museum lover in your life
Leave a review: On Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify
Before we go … here’s a video from the KunstHausWien in Vienna, which we mention in the interview. I need to go there!