Meanwhile... at the Museum

15 years ago, a child wandered into CMC and never left. Now that child is an adult, and that adult is Graham Turner, an Assistant Manager of Museum Engagement. Join us as we talk to Graham about our room full of things in jars, his time in CMC's Youth Programs, that time he ran away to the circus at age 6, and just how passionate Graham is about Cincinnati Museum Center.

A family walks into Union Terminal for the first time, overwhelmed by not just by the sheer scale of the Rotunda, but by the plethora of options before them. History museum, science museum, children’s museum, OMNIMAX Theater, featured exhibitions, programs, Membership, our friends in the Holocaust & Humanity Center?! Luckily, a friendly face is waiting to help these baby birds out of the nest:...

Today we are flipping the script, as we welcome CMC President & CEO Elizabeth Pierce back to the pod as host instead of guest. We've learned a lot about Cody over the previous 20 episodes, but now we're ready to turn things around and dig into his story. We'll talk about his 13 years with CMC, his path to being a Marketing VP with a graduate degree in history, and oh so many shenanigans.    An...

Museums are full of technology (try counting how many screens, projectors, buttons and digital interactives you come across on your next visit!). And someone needs to develop, manage and troubleshoot all that tech. Enter Marc Staubitz. As our Manager of Exhibits AV and IT, Marc handles all the tech in exhibits, from the Quizinnati game in our You Are Here exhibit to the ancient aquarium screens in...

Though Mary Fitzpatrick has been a CMC employee since 2018, she's been with us as long as we've been in Union Terminal as a volunteer! As a Museum Engagment Specialist, Mary brings her knowledge, passion, and energy to our guests. In this episode, we'll talk to Mary about her role here, her path to employment here after a fascinating career of volunteering around Cincinnati and a wide variety of j...

Today's guest has been an improv actor at Chicago's Second City, a nanny, a professional hamburger thief, and more. Here at CMC, we know her as Gwen Elliott, Director of Community Collaborations. In addition to managing theme days like 1940s Day, Gwen works on making Museum Center as accessible for all people as possible. Tune in as we dig into Gwen's journey to CMC, her history with improv, and h...

As any visitor to CMC who has interacted with him knows, our guest today has a passion for people. A Guest Experience Manager, Nathaniel Weyman makes it his mission to give each guest the best experience possible. We'll talk tips for the best photos in the museum, food recommendations, and... coming face to face with great white sharks in South Africa?! Get ready to meet Nathaniel, Nathan, Nate, N...

If you've been listening to this podcast, you may have picked up on frequent references to someone named Mitch, who Cody likes to talk about like he's in the room. And he is - Mitch is the producer of this podcast, and is in the room for each recording session to monitor levels and direct Cody and our guests. But Mitch's title is Director of Video Production, which means that this podcast is just...

From his earliest days exploring the woods near Clifton, Bob Genheimer knew he was interested in digging up history. When he learned what archaeology was, he finally had a name for his passion. And that's how he ended up in a toilet. Many toilets in fact - 19th century privy shafts, it turns out, are treasure troves of knowledge. One of Bob's favorite stories involves a policeman in a privy. We'll...

If you've been listening to this podcast, you've probably noticed one name coming up again and again - Dave Might. Today we're talking to the man himself. From mounting the animal specimens in Get Into Nature to crafting Fountain Square in Cincinnati In Motion, Dave has made his mark on CMC, and millions of guests, for 37 years - since he started at CMC in 1987 with work on the Ice Age exhibit. We...

Teacher, twirler, princess, elf. Samantha Leone has filled all of these roles... more or less. Samantha knew she wanted to work with young people in an educational setting, but discovered she didn't want to be a school teacher. She found her way to CMC, where she works with our Youth Programs participants, our adult volunteers and directly with museum visitors. Join us as we talk to Samantha about...

To kick off the new year in style, we are welcoming our President and CEO Elizabeth Pierce to the show. We'll dig into her role of Master Plate Spinner, find out how she came to be our fearless leader, and talk about seeing opportunity in the challenges inherent to an ever-changing world. 

Some people seem to drop right into a role in life and stay there. Others undertake a long and epic journey, zig-zagging through a series of jobs, fields, and possibly even across the country a few times. Maat Manninen, our Registrar at CMC, is from that second group. His six and a half years at CMC were preceded by time spent in a rock band, as a professional art handler/hanger, and in museums as...

If you've been to Cincinnati Museum Center in the past few years, you've likely run into Jeb Brack. And if you ran into Jeb, you probably learned something interesting, like the history of Cincinnati's inclines, how the surface of the ground impacts rainwater runoff or how air currents interact with spherical objects. But you probably didn't learn that Jeb has been a radio host, an artist and even...

Answer: During the course of this Chief Learning Officer at Cincinnati Museum Center's 25-year museum career, she has traveled the world with Sue the T-rex, overseen the development of many exhibits and negotiated with Siberians for the North American display of Lyuba, the perfectly preserved baby mammoth.   Question: Who is Whitney Owens?   Settle in, because this episode is endlessly fascinating...

Today's guest is Tyler Swinney, CMC's NAGPRA Manager and Tribal Liaison. You may be asking, what is NAGPRA and what does a Tribal Liaison do? If so, just hit play! Plus, we'll talk about what you can find in a hundreds of years old trash pit, and what Tyler's got going on in his garden.

October 24, 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of Cincinnati Museum Center's Children's Museum! First opened in 1998, The Children's Museum has been the site of so much learning, fun, adventure and creativity. Now, halfway through its third decade, the museum has become a tradition passed down through generations as its earliest visitors start bringing children of their own. And who better to talk ab...

Did you know that Cincinnati Museum Center is home to the Cincinnati History Library and Archives? With collections dating back to 1831, the History Library and Archives are a treasure trove of regional history and one of the best kept secrets in Cincinnati. Today we're talking to Jill Beitz, the library's Manager of Reference and Research to see how she went from running a neighborhood library ou...

Cincinnati Museum Center is celebrating the opening of a brand new permanent exhibit in the Museum of Natural History and Science! Ancient Worlds Hiding In Plain Sight lets visitors dive beneath and waves and into deep time, to a time when what is today Cincinnati was at the bottom of a shallow tropical sea, teeming with life. We talked to Dr. Brenda Hunda, CMC's Curator of Invertebrate Paleontolo...

Have you tried turning it off and back on again? This week week we're talking to Dave Zlatic, our Chief Technology Officer, who will be the first to tell you that it usually works. We'll talk cybersecurity, guest experience, and find out if Dave can beat Cody in a race down the hallway. It's all happening... Meanwhile... at the Museum.

If you haven't caught on by now, Cincinnati Museum Center tends to collect interesting personalities. Case in point: the voice of today's guest may be familiar to longtime fans of Cincinnati radio as Venomous Valdez, though our employment records here at CMC call her Rene Dean, Manager of Event Services.  We asked Venomous Valdez to come up with a playlist of music that has some connection to the...

Did you know that Cincinnati Museum Center has its own all-inclusive exhibits workshop? We're kicking off our new podcast by talking to Erica Schultz, an exhibition fabricator! If you've been to CMC since 2018, you've seen her handiwork, but you might not have even realized it.