AMplify - Conversations at the Australian Museum

A live panel discussion with former Eureka Prize winners, hosted by Robyn Williams. In this live recording hosted by The Science Show's Robyn Williams, Dr Michael Bowen, Dr Richard Major, Professor Angela Moles and Sonya Pemberton share their Eureka Prize-winning work and discuss the big issues facing Australian science. This lively panel discussion covers a diverse range of topics including psych...

'Dark Emu' author Bruce Pascoe detailed his research into early colonial diaries and records of Indigenous life in this episode of Live at the AM. His work indicates that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating and storing – behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer assessment. In this lecture, he also addressed the underly...

In this episode of AM Live, join our panel of experts featuring Sophie Li, Clinical Psychologist; Nicole Wright, Pharmacist and Specialist in Poisons Information; and Lachlan Manning, Naturalist and Live Exhibits Officer at the Australian Museum as they examined the dangers – real and imagined – which underpin our society’s persistent fear of spiders.

In the latest episode of AMplify, Kim McKay talks to Dr Jenny Newell, Manager, East Pacific Collection and Acting Director of Programs, Exhibitions & Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum.

In this AM Live episode, Dr Helen Maynard-Casely talks about exploring the solar system on the eve of the United Nations Day of Women and Girls In Science on 11 February. “I know why I’m a scientist: when I was 8 the very first British person in space was a woman called Helen Sharman, and I wandered up to see my dad after hearing this momentous news and said “Dad - I’m going to space because that’...

Kim McKay talks to Vanessa Finney, Manager of Archives and Rare Books about the Australian Museum's newest exhibition Transformations - Art of the Scott Sisters. "It (the Scott sisters archive) consists of 100 amazing, incredible, beautiful, jewel-like paintings, but behind that sits a larger archive of manuscripts, notebooks, sketches and drawings, which make it an unusually comprehensive view in...

Listen to Executive Director and CEO Kim McKay in conversation with Sheldon Teare, Objects Conservator at the Australian Museum (AM). Sheldon works in Materials Conservation across the AM's Collections, and specialises in Natural Sciences Collection materials. He was recently given the opportunity to study in Spain as part of the AM's Staff Awards, recognising his outstanding contribution to the A...

Australian Museum CEO and Director Kim McKay AO in conversation with explorer, scientist, communicator and 2007 Australian of the Year, Professor Tim Flannery. Tim Flannery has made many remarkable discoveries in palaeontology, mammology and environmental science. In this podcast, he discusses with Kim what inspired him to become a scientist, his time spent working at the AM, as well as his most r...

Anthropologist Dr Robin Torrence in conversation with the Australian Museum's CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay. Dr Torrence's archaeological research focuses on the roles of ancient material culture, especially stone tools, in peoples’ daily lives, social strategies, and long term adaptation. She has been especially interested in how the manufacture, design and exchange of tools can help peopl...

Exhibition Producer Catherine Timbrell in conversation with the Australian Museum's CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay. "I know from osmosis that simply by putting this exhibition together people often mistake me for a spider expert, but our Arachnologists here remind me that I’m not when they hear me drop a clanger every now and then." Catherine Timbrell

The inhabitants of Komunive village, Asaro River, in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, are famous for their fearsome clay headdresses and dramatic ritualised celebrations of custom in the form of dance performances. For one week only, four Asaro Mud Men were in residence at the Australian Museum. The Asaro Mud Men have gained prominence as an ‘intercultural phenomenon’ and reflect how com...

Hear the inspiring stories behind nature photographer Luke Tsharke's most powerful images, including his submissions to the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2016 exhibition. Find out how Luke travelled the world capturing jaw-dropping landscapes, like Tasmania's ethereal Lake Oberon, and contributing shots to popular Instagram accounts like Tourism Tasmania and Tourism Norther...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Steven Alderton, Director of Programs, Exhibitions & Cultural Collections at the Australian Museum. Steven has a background in growing audiences and producing innovative exhibitions, public programs and events supported by extensive community engagement. "The first thing it takes [to make an exhibition] is a great idea, an...

Listen to the live recording of the 2016 AMRI Address and Lecture delivered by Professor Mark O'Kane, NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer. "People need STEM in daily life to manage the incredibly rapid growth of knowledge…the emphasis we really to put is on getting teachers really confident so they inspire students - when they’re not being inspired by the Museum of course!" Professor O'Kane chose to sp...

Ellie Downing of the Australian Museum’s Science Engagement and Events team speaks to Lola about the upcoming Australian Museum Science Festival (AMSF), the role of museums in education and some of the current trends in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM). Recorded live on Thursday 29th July, 11am for Koori Radio -http://www.kooriradio.com/

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with celebrated Australian artist Janet Laurence, artist-in-resident at the Australian Museum. "There has always been a museumification in my work, I'm always thinking of creating my own little museums... I've made many many models of little museums I'd love to make." Janet has created the installation "Deep Breathing', made fr...

Gaby Kennard recorded live at the Australian Museum as part of the Trailblazers Talks series presented by Australian Geographic. Inspired by her childhood hero Amelia Earhart, Gaby Kennard became the first Australian woman to fly solo around the world. In doing so, she proved that it’s possible for an ‘ordinary’ single mother of two to fulfil her dream. "If I could make this dream a reality, which...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Phil Gordon, the AM's Aboriginal Heritage Project Officer. Phil coordinates the AM's Repatriation policy to support return of aboriginal remains held in museum collections around the world, and is also investigating potential digital repatriation of secret men’s material. “As part of Aboriginal culture there are materials...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Paul Flemons, Manager of Digital Collections and Citizen Science at the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). Paul has been instrumental in building the AM’s reputation as a world leader in biodiversity informatics and initiated the award winning DigiVol program. "The collections that are many hundreds of years old...

An evening with celebrated explorer, scientist, communicator and former Australian of the Year. Dr Tim Flannery is arguably Australia’s best known scientist and agitator for action on climate change. From 1984 to 1999, Tim was the Principal Mammal Research Scientist here at the Australian Museum. His work helped extend the Australian mammal fossil record by 80 million years, and his expeditions to...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Ichthyology Collection Manager Mark McGrouther at the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). Mark started work at the Australian Museum in 1981 and over the next three decades he participated in over 30 expeditions within Australia and throughout the Pacific region. "Sydney harbour is, well I like to describe it as a...

In this episode, Kim McKay discusses the Cockatoo Wingtag and Hollows as Homes citizen science projects with Ornithologist Dr Richard Major. “By having many people taking part in this citizen science project, we hope to build up a good picture of what hollow availability is like, how much competition there is for hollows, and what we might need to do to look after this hollow resource. This data g...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Keren Ruki, Creative Producer of the Pacific Collections in the Cultural Collections, Conservation & Consultancy Branch at the Australian Museum. “Of the 60,000 fantastic objects in the pacific collection, we have about 1,500 from New Zealand, so it was awesome for me, living away from New Zealand, to have a contact point...

Join ‘long-rider’ Tim Cope for an evening on the Steppe. “Discovery has never been just about mapping new places, it’s about human discoveries, about meeting people and bringing back those learnings to our own society and changing ones perspective of the world.” Tim Cope In June 2004 Tim Cope set off on an epic journey: to ride horses on the of Genghis Khan, a 10,000 kilometre march the length of...

Australian Museum CEO and Executive Director Kim McKay in conversation with Ornithologist Dr Richard Major, Principal Research Scientist in Terrestrial Vertebrates Collection at the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI). “In Sydney there would be fewer than 20 White Fronted Chats left… this bird was collected in 1867 from Homebush Bay, I find this quite an emotional little specimen. You thin...