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Speaker 1: You're listening to part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope

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Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio. Guess what, gab?

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Speaker 2: What's that mango?

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Speaker 1: So for a long time, spider silk has been considered

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Speaker 1: the world's strongest biological material. It is even tougher than kevlar,

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Speaker 1: which is used in bulletproof vests. Of course, but according

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Speaker 1: to engineers in the UK, the substance found in limpet

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Speaker 1: teeth is actually five times stronger than spider silk. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the tensile strength of the limpet's tooth material is so

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Speaker 1: great that a single strand of it could withstand the

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Speaker 1: same amount of pressure needed to turn carbon into diamonds.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that insane?

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Speaker 2: Wow? Yeah, I mean that's pretty incredible. But I think

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Speaker 2: I speak for everyone when I ask what is a limpet?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I feel like limpits aren't the household name they

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Speaker 1: should be. But a limpit is a kind of mollusk.

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Speaker 1: It's an aquatic snail, to be precise, and they feed

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Speaker 1: on the algae that grows along rocky shorelines, which is

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Speaker 1: why their teeth need to be extra tough to stand

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Speaker 1: up to all that cutting and scraping. I see.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So are all mollusc teeth that tough for our

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Speaker 2: limpets the exception.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so not every kind of limpet has teeth that strong,

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Speaker 1: and some mollusks, like cuttlefish, don't even have teeth at all.

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Speaker 2: Wait, so cuddlefish or molluscs too, I'm just trying to keep.

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Speaker 1: Up your Yeah, the mollusc family is one of the

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Speaker 1: weirdest and most diverse in the animal kingdom. Like clams

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Speaker 1: are technically mollusks, and so are squids, sea snails, sea slugs.

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Speaker 1: Like all of those animals look so different, but because

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Speaker 1: they share a few unique traits, they're all categorized as mallus.

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Speaker 2: Hmmm, well, mango, I hope you don't mind me asking this,

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Speaker 2: but how do you know so much about mollus.

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Speaker 1: Well, for a while, my friend and I were trying

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Speaker 1: to make a show called America's Next Top Mollusc. That's

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Speaker 1: a true thing didn't take off. Felt like it would

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Speaker 1: be a good YouTube show, it would be really funny.

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Speaker 1: But I also did win two gold medals a year

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Speaker 1: after year at the Science Olympics in a category called

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Speaker 1: name that Organism, where you were giving fifty objects and

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Speaker 1: you had to identify them. Put down their file them

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Speaker 1: in class. So I weirdly do know a lot about

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Speaker 1: looks it, But everything else I know about Malis is

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Speaker 1: thanks to my visit to the world's smallest mollusc museum.

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Speaker 1: It's only about the size of a refrigerator, but it

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Speaker 1: is jam packed with eye catching displays, activities, and info

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Speaker 1: like everything you need to bone up on mallus in

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Speaker 1: just a matter of minutes.

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Speaker 2: Is this something you came across in New York? Or

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Speaker 2: where is this located? Exactly? So that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: There's more than one mollusc museum and you never know

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Speaker 1: where you might run into it. It's all part of

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Speaker 1: this ingenious program run by a New York based nonprofit

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Speaker 1: called micro and they build these compact, modular exhibits and

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Speaker 1: stock them with three D printed models rather than like

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Speaker 1: one of the kind artifacts, and the six foot kiosks

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Speaker 1: are installed in everyday public places like libraries, hospital waiting rooms,

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Speaker 1: and air So the one I actually saw was at

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Speaker 1: the Bronx Library, but they're about a dozen participating locations

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Speaker 1: all over New York and the point of the program

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Speaker 1: is to extend the learning experience of a museum to

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Speaker 1: people who might never visit a traditional museum on their own.

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Speaker 1: So in the coming years, the plan is to roll

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Speaker 1: out these mini museums to other states, and not just

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Speaker 1: the major cities, but rural areas too.

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Speaker 2: That is pretty cool, but I do have to ask

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Speaker 2: why molluscs like it just seems like such a random

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Speaker 2: subject to start with.

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Speaker 1: So there's actually this funny story behind it. So the

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Speaker 1: co founders of Micro, Charles Phillip and Amandescochet, when they

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Speaker 1: were first developing the idea, Charles suggested that they visit

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Speaker 1: the smallest museum in the world for inspiration, and Amanda

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Speaker 1: misheard him and she thought he said mollusc museum instead

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Speaker 1: of smallest And so they both like the idea of

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Speaker 1: a mollusc museum, but when they looked into it, they

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Speaker 1: realized no such place existed, so they decided they had

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Speaker 1: to make one for themselves.

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Speaker 2: I like that, yeah, So not only is this the

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Speaker 2: world's smallest mollusk museum, it's like the only one.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. But it's worth noting that since launching its first

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Speaker 1: museum in twenty seventeen, Micro has added two other offerings

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Speaker 1: to its Tiny Museum series. There is the Perpetual Motion Museum,

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Speaker 1: which is all about the Earth's energy system, and the

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Speaker 1: Museum of Care, which explores the history and impact of

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Speaker 1: frontline health workers. So if soft bodied marine animals aren't

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Speaker 1: your thing, you do have options. Well, it is.

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Speaker 2: Probably good that they aren't restricting themselves solely to mollusks,

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Speaker 2: But I do like that single subject approach, like to

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Speaker 2: museum learning. We're so used to carving out a whole

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Speaker 2: day to visit a museum, and even then you still

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Speaker 2: have to choose which exhibits to hit because there's just

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Speaker 2: no way to see them all. But if you shrink

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Speaker 2: the space and like limit your scope to a single subject,

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, visiting a museum becomes a lot

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Speaker 2: more manageable.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, of course normal sized museums are great, but

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Speaker 1: there's something really special about touring a small museum and

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Speaker 1: feeling like you got to see everything it has to offer.

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Speaker 1: So with that in mind, we thought it'd be fun

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Speaker 1: to explore some of the smallest, most niche museums that

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Speaker 1: have been cropping up all over the world in recent years.

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Speaker 1: They may not have the square footage of the met

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Speaker 1: or the prestige of the Smithsonian, but their tiny collections

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Speaker 1: still have tons to offer, so let's dive in. Hey,

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Speaker 1: their podcast listeners, welcome to part time Genius. I'm monga

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Speaker 1: Shigether and Will is traveling today, So instead I've roped

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Speaker 1: in my friend and our researcher here, Gave Lucier, and

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Speaker 1: on the other side of that soundproof glass organizing his

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Speaker 1: own mini museum right there on his desk, that is

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Speaker 1: our friend and producer Dylan Fagan.

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Speaker 2: All right, so I know I'm the guest, and I

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Speaker 2: probably shouldn't say this, but that is a pretty sorry

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Speaker 2: looking collection so far. He's got a coffee sleeve, the

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Speaker 2: wire fastener from a champagne cork, and some of those

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Speaker 2: stringy bits you find when you peel a banana. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean, did you even ask him the name of

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Speaker 2: his museum. It's called the Museum of Mundane Objects with

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Speaker 2: whimsical sounding names. So if you look at the little

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Speaker 2: placards he's posting out there, that paper coffee sleeve is

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Speaker 2: known as a zarf, the wire cage that holds the

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Speaker 2: cork in is called a muslet, and the gross strings

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Speaker 2: inside banana are called floham bundles. Oh okay, well, I

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Speaker 2: guess I stand correct to then so here you go, Dylan.

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Speaker 2: Just to show no hard feelings, I'd like to donate

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Speaker 2: one of my shoelaces to add to your collection. The

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Speaker 2: plastic tubes at the ends are called agltz, so they

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Speaker 2: should fit right in there.

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Speaker 1: I like that you're taking off just one lace here.

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Speaker 1: But I'm sure like everyone on staff here, I love

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Speaker 1: cork museums. I know you do. I'm sure Mary does

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Speaker 1: and will as well. But a few years ago for Christmas,

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Speaker 1: my sister in law Laura bought me the most wonderful gift.

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Speaker 1: It's a mini museum that just sits on your desk.

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Speaker 1: Have you seen these No, It's like tiny, tiny fragments

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Speaker 1: of things, and they're all sort of like lined up,

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Speaker 1: and it's everything from like a piece of Steve Jobs's

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Speaker 1: turtleneck to a slot cloth to like a megalodon too.

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Speaker 1: It's all in this tiny acrylic display. It is so

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Speaker 1: nerdy and I absolutely love it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, way to go, Laura. That actually dovetails really nicely

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Speaker 2: with my first fact here. So obviously, humans have a

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Speaker 2: long record of collecting and preserving artifacts in small spaces,

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Speaker 2: and one of the earliest examples of that comes from

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Speaker 2: ancient Alexandria, where the royal family of the Ptolemys founded

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Speaker 2: the first temple to the Muses. The Greeks called this

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Speaker 2: temple the Mushion, which means seed of the muses, and

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Speaker 2: of course that's where the word museum comes from.

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Speaker 1: Now.

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Speaker 2: The muscion was mostly a place for scholars to engage

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Speaker 2: in intellectual pursuits, scholarly type stuff and kind of like

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Speaker 2: an ancient research institute, but it was also a storehouse

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Speaker 2: for sculptures and other artistic works that were deemed culturally

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Speaker 2: or religiously important, and from there the tradition of displaying

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Speaker 2: these precious objects was carried forward to royal treasure houses,

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Speaker 2: where kings would show off the spoils of war and

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Speaker 2: all the fancy swag they received from other rulers.

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Speaker 1: So I mean, it sounds like there was a brief

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Speaker 1: period where those kinds of treasures and works of art

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Speaker 1: were really accessible to the public, like a modern museum,

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Speaker 1: but then most of it got moved to these exclusive

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Speaker 1: places like royal palaces or mansions or.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no exactly, and that private approach to collecting became

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Speaker 2: the norm in Europe for centuries after that, with most

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Speaker 2: of the good stuff being hoarded by royals and religious

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Speaker 2: institutions like the Catholic Church. It really wasn't until the

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Speaker 2: sixteenth century or so that the general public was finally

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Speaker 2: able to get their hands on true objects of interest.

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Speaker 2: So what really caused the change then, well, the put

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Speaker 2: in blood colonialism. Merchant sailors started bringing back unusual objects

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Speaker 2: from the far away places they visited, and this influx

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Speaker 2: of exotic works of art and natural specimens threw European

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Speaker 2: elites into a collecting frenzy. The merchants, aristocrats, and scholars.

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Speaker 2: They were all competing with each other to build the

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Speaker 2: strangest assortment of objects they could find, and as their

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Speaker 2: collections grew, they began to develop new ways of organizing

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Speaker 2: and displaying their prized possessions. The pastime proved especially popular

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Speaker 2: among the growing merchant class in Germany, where they coined

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Speaker 2: the term wounder commer or room of wonder to describe

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Speaker 2: these expansive collections.

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Speaker 1: So these people were just like dedicating an entire room

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Speaker 1: in their houses for these collections.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the wealthiest collectors did. The majority of them,

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Speaker 2: though they limited their displays to a smaller kind of

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Speaker 2: wounder commer it's what we often call a cabinet of curiosities.

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Speaker 2: And this was a specially designed piece of furniture with

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Speaker 2: lots of little built in shelves and secret compartments. And

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Speaker 2: in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was common for

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Speaker 2: European hosts to entertain their guests by giving them a

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Speaker 2: guided tour of their cabinet's contents.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so funny. Like, I've heard about a cabinet

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Speaker 1: of curiosities, but I always thought it was just like wordplay.

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was a real thing. So, like,

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Speaker 1: how good were these tours? Like most people weren't historians

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Speaker 1: or scientists, right, so like what did they actually know

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Speaker 1: about this stuff?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean this was like post dinner entertainment, So

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Speaker 2: I'm guessing most people on the tour were like a

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Speaker 2: little tipsy by that point. They were probably a little

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Speaker 2: more open to being told about all this weird stuff.

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Speaker 2: But filling up a cabinet was more of a hobby

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Speaker 2: than a scientific pursuit. Yeah, And in fact, the items

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Speaker 2: weren't even arranged in any particular order, like geographically or chronologically.

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Speaker 2: The owners mostly went by esthetic appeal, grouping objects in

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Speaker 2: ways that highlighted their different forms, textures, and colors, and

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Speaker 2: in that way, a cabinet really revealed more about its

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Speaker 2: owner than it did the objects on display.

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Speaker 1: That's really interesting. So every cab and it had like

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Speaker 1: its own particular set of curiosities.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, for the most part. But the objects did tend

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Speaker 2: to fall into two main categories. The first was called

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Speaker 2: naturalia and it was made up of you know, objects

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Speaker 2: from the natural world, so stuff like preserved animals, plant specimens,

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Speaker 2: rock samples, you know, Fijian mermaids. And the second category artificialita.

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Speaker 2: It consisted of all your man made objects, so works

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Speaker 2: of art, cultural artifacts, and scientific instruments. The best cabinets

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Speaker 2: out there included a balanced mix of items from both categories,

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Speaker 2: and that was meant to reflect, you know, the well

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Speaker 2: rounded intellects of the owners.

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Speaker 1: I kind of love that this is almost like a

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Speaker 1: precursor to like showing families, slide shows on the carousel

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Speaker 1: or something. Right, that's like a way to entertain someone

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Speaker 1: with like what you've done or what your personality is like.

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Speaker 1: And these really do feel like many museums, right, Like

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Speaker 1: it's almost like a personal essay a museum and a

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Speaker 1: status symbol kind of all rolled into one piece of furniture.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we right, one giant piece of furniture. Yeah, And

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Speaker 2: I mean but to be fair, building a cabinet it

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Speaker 2: like did have a deeper appeal than just showing off

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Speaker 2: to dinner guests. The real goal was to recreate the

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Speaker 2: world in miniature as a way to make its true

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Speaker 2: size feel less overwhelming. So the objects on display were

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Speaker 2: meant to reflect the complexity and the diversity of the world,

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Speaker 2: all the strange new things that were coming to light

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Speaker 2: during the Age of Discovery. So gathering and categorizing these

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Speaker 2: unusual objects it allowed the owners to feel a sense

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Speaker 2: of control, like they still had a grip on things.

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Speaker 2: And it's interesting because you can kind of see a

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Speaker 2: mindset there where it's not enough to just encounter or

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Speaker 2: study the exotic you also have to own it and

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Speaker 2: like make it a reflection of yourself.

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Speaker 1: Anyway.

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Speaker 2: Once cabinets and curiosities fell out of fashion in the

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Speaker 2: nineteenth century, European monarchs and other powerful nobles began gifting

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Speaker 2: theirs to the public, and these once private collections became

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Speaker 2: the starting points for institutions like the British Museum and

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Speaker 2: the Prato, and when it came time to expand those collections,

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Speaker 2: the museums unfortunately continued to purchase and loot precious artifacts

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Speaker 2: from colonized countries, just like the cabinet owners before them.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's definitely the ugly side of the

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Speaker 1: museum model, though obviously institutions have started to reckon with

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Speaker 1: it and have been changing their practices going forward. Now,

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about one museum that does not

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Speaker 1: have any of these issues. It is a tiny museum,

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Speaker 1: one of the smallest museums I read about. It is

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Speaker 1: the Warley Museum in Warleytown, England. It is housed inside

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Speaker 1: a decommissioned phone booth, one of those red iconic phone

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Speaker 1: booths that I sure you know of, and all of

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Speaker 1: the items on display there were donated by local residents.

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Speaker 2: So like, what kind of stuff are they bringing?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really sweet. Like the museum's focus is local history,

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Speaker 1: so there is a permanent exhibit about the town's founding

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Speaker 1: and some of the notable people who've lived there over

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Speaker 1: the years, but there's also a rotating display of personal items,

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Speaker 1: including things like books, photographs, toy soldiers, antique jewelry. Even

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Speaker 1: like the items are grouped into themed collections, and they're

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Speaker 1: displayed inside locked cases that can be viewed from both

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Speaker 1: inside and outside the booth. And you know, the displays

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Speaker 1: are switched out every few months to keep things fresh.

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Speaker 2: I gotta say that's a pretty genius idea to have

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Speaker 2: like a dual sided display wall, because it's like, I'm

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Speaker 2: guessing they only let one person in at a time, right, you.

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Speaker 1: Know what's strange is that you actually let yourself in,

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Speaker 1: Like the museum is only unlocked on certain days, but

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Speaker 1: if you happen to be by at the right time,

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Speaker 1: you can just kind of like open the door and

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Speaker 1: check it out for free. As for how many people

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Speaker 1: can fit inside at once, I am not sure there's

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Speaker 1: an official rule about it, but viewing the museum one

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Speaker 1: at a time is probably the way to go.

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Speaker 2: Are you sure about that? Because I think the phone

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Speaker 2: booth stuffing record is still like twenty five people.

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Speaker 1: So I love those photos of like when that was

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Speaker 1: a fat did you see like just like legs and

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Speaker 1: arms taking out of a phone.

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Speaker 2: It's like fifty years later and that record still stands.

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Speaker 2: I think it's South Africa.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, well, don't try to try to break in

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Speaker 1: Warley Town, because I'm not sure they'd appreciate it, But

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Speaker 1: I do love how the phone with itself kind of

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Speaker 1: feels like a throwback to you know something you said

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Speaker 1: about the Cabinet of Curiosity, which is how they're kind

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Speaker 1: of expressions of the people who made them, almost like

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Speaker 1: a personal essay written with physical objects, except in this case,

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Speaker 1: it's an entire town that's being chronicled along with all

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Speaker 1: the people who've made it what it is. Yeah, I like.

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Speaker 2: That, and you know, the chance to tell more individual

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Speaker 2: stories is probably one of the greatest strengths of a

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Speaker 2: small museum. I think part of what's so attractive about

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Speaker 2: them is, you know, how they blur the line between

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Speaker 2: traditional museums and private collections. Like I was flipping through

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Speaker 2: a book this week called Cultures of Collecting by Roger Cardinal,

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Speaker 2: and the main distinction he drew between a museum and

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Speaker 2: a collection is personal passion. So as he put it, quote,

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Speaker 2: while the museum is associated prime with the public and

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Speaker 2: the state and with a condition of permanence, collecting is

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Speaker 2: usually understood as a private and impassioned pursuit. The museum

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Speaker 2: expresses a detached mastery over the objects and fields of

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Speaker 2: knowledge that constitute its strengths. But the collector who may

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Speaker 2: become the museum's donor as a personal preoccupation.

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Speaker 1: That's so funny. I never really thought about museums as

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Speaker 1: detached from that sort of like you know, feeling of

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Speaker 1: possession or whatever versus like, you know, collectors are obviously

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Speaker 1: like obsessed with pet dispensers or toasters or whatever, right,

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Speaker 1: Like it's a preoccupation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they're way into it.

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Speaker 1: Well, I know we've got lots more to cover, but

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Speaker 1: before we do, let's take a quick break. You're listening

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Speaker 1: to Part Time Genius and we're talking about the big

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Speaker 1: ideas behind the world's smallest museums. All right, lead the way.

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Speaker 1: What's the next stop on our tour?

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Speaker 2: So this next one is a little tough to pin

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Speaker 2: down because it's actually a traveling museum, and it also

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Speaker 2: has a much longer name than you'd expect from such

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Speaker 2: a small museum. It's called the World's Largest Collection of

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Speaker 2: World's smallest versions of World's largest things, or you know, WLCOWSVOWLT.

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Speaker 1: For sure, I feel like that abbreviation might actually take

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Speaker 1: longer to say, or even like more effort to say

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Speaker 1: So is this like a museum of miniatures or what

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Speaker 1: is it exactly?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, it's basically a love letter to all those

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Speaker 2: kitchy roadside attractions we have in the US, you know,

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Speaker 2: like the world's largest ball of twine or the world's

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Speaker 2: largest frying pan. The museum gives visitors the chance to

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Speaker 2: see all of those things in one place, just at

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Speaker 2: a much smaller scale.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's still a crazy name, but I guess

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Speaker 1: I'm starting to get a sense of what.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean it is a pretty meta idea,

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Speaker 2: so it does take a minute to wrap your head around.

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Speaker 2: But the woman behind it is an artist named Erica Nelson,

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Speaker 2: and back in the early two thousands, she was road

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Speaker 2: tripping around the country and felt herself drawn to all

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Speaker 2: the small towns with an object that they build, as

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Speaker 2: you know, the world's largest and like any good collector,

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Speaker 2: she wanted a souvenir from each attraction, but since most

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Speaker 2: of the stops didn't offer any, she started to make

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Speaker 2: her own handcrafted replicas, and as Nelson's collection grew, she

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Speaker 2: started sharing it with others and eventually established a kind

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Speaker 2: of home base at the Roadside Sideshow Expo in Lucas, Kansas.

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Speaker 2: A little over two hundred miniatures can be seen there

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Speaker 2: on weekends from April through October, but the bulk of

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Speaker 2: her collection is actually out on the road as a

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Speaker 2: traveling exhibition. You can find its current whereabouts on Nelson's

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Speaker 2: Facebook page, or you can keep an eye out for

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Speaker 2: her rig in the wild. It currently includes three red

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Speaker 2: trailers made up to look like circus wagons. You know,

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Speaker 2: you'll definitely know it when you see it.

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Speaker 1: I love this idea. It is so ridiculous, and I

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Speaker 1: also just love the thought of stumbling across it while

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Speaker 1: like cruising down I seventy or whatever. You know, I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure i'd stop for the world's largest as salt shaker,

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Speaker 1: But like I feel like with this many small, large

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Speaker 1: things in one place, yeah, is definitely a mussy right, It's.

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Speaker 2: More bang for your buck, And I think the randomness

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Speaker 2: is what really makes this work. Like I read this

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Speaker 2: interview Nelson did with road Trippers and she pointed this

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Speaker 2: out herself. She said, quote, people going to a museum

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Speaker 2: expect to see something and may have already decided what

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Speaker 2: that's going to feel like. But when you happen upon

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Speaker 2: something in a parking lot. It's an unexpected little spark

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Speaker 2: to somebody's day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. It's almost like those like little libraries.

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Speaker 1: When you find them, they're so joyous, you know, especially

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Speaker 1: when they're filled with books you like. But you know,

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Speaker 1: one of the things I love about small museums that

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Speaker 1: same feeling. Right, you don't know when you're gonna come

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Speaker 1: across an interesting one, and when you do, checking it out,

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Speaker 1: like I feel like it doesn't eat up your entire day.

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Speaker 1: That's part of the beauty of them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and one thing I really like about WLCOWSVOWLT in

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Speaker 2: particular is that I have you member or are you

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Speaker 2: looking at I had to look very carefully to make

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Speaker 2: sure I didn't leave all a letter. But anyway, the

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Speaker 2: thing I like about you know that one is that

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Speaker 2: despite the small scale of the objects, it still has

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Speaker 2: a massive scope, Like there are hundreds and hundreds of

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Speaker 2: these replicas. So once again, it's kind of like a

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Speaker 2: throwback to a cabinet of curiosity, where you had this

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Speaker 2: whole little microcosm packed into a small space.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I dig it. So the next mini museum I

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Speaker 1: want to recommend has a much narrow theme. It is

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Speaker 1: called the gifts from the c Seashell Museum, and it

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Speaker 1: is located in a small village of Cherokee Sound in

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Speaker 1: the Bahamas. Now, there are actually quite a few seashell

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Speaker 1: museums out there, but this one is considered the world's smallest.

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Speaker 1: It is also inside a nineteen fifties telegraph office that

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Speaker 1: was completely renovated and redecorated in twenty seventeen as part

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Speaker 1: of a community project, and the ribbon cutting was actually

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Speaker 1: overseen by the original telegraph operator who had worked there

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Speaker 1: until the late nineteen eighties. Wow. Now it was given

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Speaker 1: a noon lease on life. This tiny building now boasts

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Speaker 1: a sizable collection of more than two hundred locally sourced shells,

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Speaker 1: all of which were painstakingly labeled and cataloged by volunteers.

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Speaker 2: Wow. Well, you know, I am sensing a theme with

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Speaker 2: your picks manga, Like you really like these repurposed phone buildings,

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Speaker 2: don't you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it's not just phone buildings. It's also

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Speaker 1: like closets, elevator shofts, whatever. But I do have another

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Speaker 1: one for you that is not phone related. It's called

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Speaker 1: the Torah Animal World, and it features a taxidermy specimen

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Speaker 1: of every animal and bird mentioned in the Torah, and

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Speaker 1: it is all packed into an unassuming Brooklyn townhouse.

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Speaker 2: All right, I think I changed my mind. Can we

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Speaker 2: go back? They're talking about phone booth?

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Speaker 1: Absolutely not, but if it makes you feel better. Most

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Speaker 1: of the animals on exhibit died naturally in zoos or

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Speaker 1: gaming reserves, and they're all depicted in natural poses, so

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Speaker 1: like you're not seeing any of them like dressed up

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Speaker 1: in big goofy hats or sunglasses or anything like that.

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Speaker 2: Okay, well that sounds very tasteful. So what's the story?

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Speaker 2: He said, This is like tied to Judaism.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So the museum is the brainchild of Rabbi shall

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Speaker 1: Shimone Deutsche, and he started as a way to provide

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Speaker 1: visual lessons about the Torah to children with dyslexia and

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Speaker 1: you know, other learning disabilities, and it was important to

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Speaker 1: him that visitors be able to touch the animals as well, because,

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Speaker 1: as he put it, quote, we believe that if you

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Speaker 1: can touch history, history will touch you.

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Speaker 2: Huh. And so which stories are being taught there? Exactly?

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Speaker 1: So obviously Noah's Ark is probably the big one. And

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Speaker 1: also you'll you'll find a slew of exotic animals including

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Speaker 1: like lions, giraffes, zebra, there's even a penguin there. But

432
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,720
Speaker 1: there are also special exhibitions, like there's one devoted to

433
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 1: all the animals mentioned in prayers, and each display is

434
00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:07,199
Speaker 1: also accompanied with a plaque describing the animal's presence in

435
00:23:07,240 --> 00:23:09,520
Speaker 1: the scripture as well as its significance.

436
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, but but wait, so I just pulled

437
00:23:12,280 --> 00:23:15,960
Speaker 2: up a picture here and there is a big stuffed

438
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 2: kangaroo hanging out in the front window. Like I don't

439
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:21,560
Speaker 2: I don't think I remember them popping up in the

440
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:22,240
Speaker 2: Old Testament.

441
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta read closer. So the museum sometimes get

442
00:23:26,080 --> 00:23:29,840
Speaker 1: different translation donations of animals that didn't strictly appear in

443
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 1: the Torah. But you know, there's still interesting for kids

444
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,440
Speaker 1: to see close up. Plus the Noah's arc story kind

445
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,880
Speaker 1: of as a catch all. But as comprehensive as Torah

446
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 1: Animal World is, there is one animal that you won't

447
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 1: find anywhere in the museum. Do you have a guess?

448
00:23:45,800 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 2: I'd have to say, like a snake that seems like

449
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 2: an obvious one.

450
00:23:48,720 --> 00:23:51,359
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I feel like the creepy crawleys might be

451
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:55,560
Speaker 1: might be a good guess, But actually it is a pig,

452
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,480
Speaker 1: and so, of course, many non kosher animals are featured

453
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:01,920
Speaker 1: in the museum, but pigs were left out because many

454
00:24:01,960 --> 00:24:04,480
Speaker 1: of the more religious visitors would rather not even see

455
00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:05,960
Speaker 1: the animal, much less touch it.

456
00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:08,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, that tracks. I'm not really in a

457
00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 2: hurry to touch a dead pig, you know. I do

458
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 2: appreciate the dedication to naturalia in that museum, and in

459
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 2: the seashell entire, like seashells and taxidermied animals, those both

460
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 2: would have been right at home in a cabinet of curiosity.

461
00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:26,120
Speaker 2: So maybe now we should switch gears and check out

462
00:24:26,119 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 2: a couple of museums devoted to the other main category,

463
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:30,240
Speaker 2: all the man made objects.

464
00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: I love that the name for it is artificialia. Like,

465
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 1: that's just such an amazing name. But so good, let's

466
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:53,359
Speaker 1: get to that right after a quick break. Welcome back

467
00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,440
Speaker 1: to part time genius. Okay, Gabe. So there's no shortage

468
00:24:56,440 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: of tiny museums dedicated to artificial man made items. England

469
00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:05,160
Speaker 1: alone is home to compact collections highlighting pens, cuckoo clocks, lawnmowers,

470
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:08,359
Speaker 1: even dog collars. But for my final entry on our

471
00:25:08,359 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 1: mini museum list, I thought i'd stay a little closer

472
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: to home and tell you about the museum. It's in

473
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,800
Speaker 1: Lower Manhattan. The name is spelled just like the word museum,

474
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,880
Speaker 1: but it's got an extra M on either side, and

475
00:25:21,280 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 1: it is currently located in Cortland Dalley, just south of

476
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,520
Speaker 1: Canal Street, and it's housed inside a pair of abandoned

477
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,680
Speaker 1: elevator shafts, which thankfully are accessible from ground level. Each

478
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 1: shaft is just thirty six square feet in total, which

479
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,479
Speaker 1: for reference, is about four times the size of that

480
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: telephone box I was telling you about in Britain.

481
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,760
Speaker 2: It all comes back to the phone boots. Yeah, but

482
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:46,439
Speaker 2: I actually think I've heard of this one. Like it

483
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,800
Speaker 2: does a lot of conceptual displays, right, it's almost like

484
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:49,560
Speaker 2: an art project.

485
00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was actually founded by the Saftie brothers, the

486
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,439
Speaker 1: directors who did on Cut Gems, and their friend Alex

487
00:25:56,520 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: Caleman back in twenty twelve, and it was sponsored by

488
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 1: Kate Spade actually she's the initial sponsor. Yeah, but focuses

489
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: on what they called object journalism, which the museum's website

490
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,200
Speaker 1: describes as quote an exploration of modern humanity and current

491
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:16,520
Speaker 1: events through revealing objects from around the world. And it's

492
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 1: really kind of special The museum's wall to wall with

493
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 1: these glowing shelves, and they're typically stalked with about two

494
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 1: hundred unusual objects that are swapped out seasonally throughout the year.

495
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 1: Previous objects on display have included everything from a broken

496
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: lava lamp to the happy meal box from an Iranian

497
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:37,760
Speaker 1: fast food franchise. There was also the shoe that was

498
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:42,840
Speaker 1: thrown at George Bush toothpaste used by various astronauts and cosmonauts.

499
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 1: I mean, like it's a it seems like a bunch

500
00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: of random garbage, but they actually curate every shelf like

501
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 1: its own wing of a museum. It's really fun to see.

502
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,920
Speaker 1: And when my friend Jason English, who was the web

503
00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: editor at Mental Class and I went down to see it,

504
00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:02,480
Speaker 1: the brothers weren't that famous then, and they came downstairs

505
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:04,360
Speaker 1: and I think they'd woken up from a nap because

506
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,840
Speaker 1: they were like pulling their shirt on and buttoning their

507
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 1: pants as they came down. But they actually gave it

508
00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:11,960
Speaker 1: as the tour and the museum has a tiny gift

509
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:14,600
Speaker 1: shop and a little coffee shop which is just a

510
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:15,840
Speaker 1: coffee pod in the corner.

511
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,639
Speaker 2: But oh wow, I love that.

512
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:21,000
Speaker 1: It is pretty amazing and it's worth checking out if

513
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 1: you get the chance.

514
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely, that's pretty wild. And you know, I like

515
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,680
Speaker 2: when mundane objects kind of get to take the spotlight

516
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 2: like that, Like they always wind up being so much

517
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:30,800
Speaker 2: more interesting than you would have guessed, like if you

518
00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:32,920
Speaker 2: just came across this stuff on the street or something.

519
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it actually has an element of surprise that

520
00:27:35,320 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 1: we talked about where you never quite know what you're

521
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,439
Speaker 1: gonna find inside, and you might even stumble across like

522
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,640
Speaker 1: the place by accident. And the best part is that

523
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 1: even when the museum is closed, you can still check

524
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: out the collection twenty four to seven by looking through

525
00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: peep holes in the doors. They keep the lights on

526
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,680
Speaker 1: and so it just like basts this incredible glow into

527
00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,000
Speaker 1: the darkness on that street. It's so neat.

528
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd love to stumble across that one night. But

529
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:01,399
Speaker 2: all right, from my last pick, I'm going to go

530
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:05,440
Speaker 2: with the world famous Crochet Museum in southern California. And

531
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,080
Speaker 2: to be clear, while it is pretty well known, the

532
00:28:08,119 --> 00:28:11,160
Speaker 2: world famous claim is actually part of the official name.

533
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,359
Speaker 2: So I like that the museum is Yeah, well, the

534
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,640
Speaker 2: museum is located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park,

535
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 2: and it's housed inside what used to be an old

536
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 2: photo processing.

537
00:28:21,840 --> 00:28:24,960
Speaker 1: Booth, which, as we all know, is the next best

538
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:27,679
Speaker 1: thing to a phone booth, right, yeah, of course.

539
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, So this one is a little room mirror and

540
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:33,560
Speaker 2: it is thankfully air conditioned since you know it's in

541
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 2: a desert. But just like the phone booth museums, it's

542
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 2: a total labor of love from the person who made it,

543
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 2: and in this case that would be Sherry Elf, a

544
00:28:42,520 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 2: self described folk artist who bought an old photo kiosk

545
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,200
Speaker 2: in Kansas City and then moved it to Joshua Tree

546
00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 2: to start her own museum.

547
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: Is awesome, It's amazing. So you said this was a

548
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: crochet museum, Like, is this a lifelong passion of hers

549
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: bring crocheted the world or what you would think? So?

550
00:28:59,400 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 2: But actually, so I read an interview she did last

551
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 2: year with a Peppermint magazine, and to hear her describe it,

552
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 2: crochet collecting was something she fell into by accident. So,

553
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 2: as Elf explained, quote, it all started when a fellow

554
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 2: folk artist gave me two crocheted poodle bottle covers for

555
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 2: my birthday many years ago and said you should collect these.

556
00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 2: I wasn't that on board with the idea, but I

557
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 2: put them on my shelf and quickly found companion poodles

558
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 2: at a yard sale days later. I guess that's how

559
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 2: collections start. Similar things look good together and they magnetize more,

560
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,360
Speaker 2: and soon you have a large collection of crochet poodles

561
00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:39,720
Speaker 2: in your bathroom that you have to build a special

562
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 2: shelf flom. And the next thing you know, you have

563
00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:44,920
Speaker 2: a roadside attraction. I love that.

564
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like that's not something that I've

565
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 1: ever done, but I like that that's a thing for collectors. Yeah.

566
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,600
Speaker 2: Well, you know, speaking as a collector myself, she is

567
00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 2: absolutely right about the magnetic properties of a collection. I

568
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 2: didn't set out to own a thousand transformers. I'm not

569
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 2: really proud that I do. But twenty years later, you know,

570
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,000
Speaker 2: here we are. It just kind of sneaks up way.

571
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,640
Speaker 2: I have no idea you've got a thousand transformers. I

572
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,080
Speaker 2: haven't counted yet, but I do have a closet full

573
00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,120
Speaker 2: of like twenty you know, storage tubs full of them,

574
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:17,360
Speaker 2: so it's got to be getting up there.

575
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,000
Speaker 1: Wheah, that's incredible. So just going back to the museum

576
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 1: for a second, like does the museum only display crochet poodles?

577
00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:26,640
Speaker 2: No, So I guess Elf branched out over the years

578
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:30,200
Speaker 2: because the collection now includes crochet versions of really just

579
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 2: about everything, like dolls, flowers, cats, There's a complete Nativity

580
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 2: scene in there, and there's even a tiny crochet kitchen sink,

581
00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:41,520
Speaker 2: of course there is, although I don't know if I

582
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:43,920
Speaker 2: might like it better if it was just crochet poodles.

583
00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: That feels more specific and weird. But it certainly feels crazier.

584
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,560
Speaker 1: And so does she make them all herself or does

585
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:52,840
Speaker 1: it come from different artists?

586
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, So that's actually my favorite part about this is

587
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 2: you would assume Elf was like a big crafter, you know,

588
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 2: being that she's the owner of a world famous miss

589
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 2: crochet museum, But she doesn't crochet at all, Like she's

590
00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:06,040
Speaker 2: just a big fan of the medium.

591
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:09,360
Speaker 1: I love that. So it actually reminds me of this

592
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,000
Speaker 1: Times article I pulled and I want out to quote from.

593
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 1: It's by this writer named someone Subermanium And in twenty

594
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:19,640
Speaker 1: eighteen she visited a small museum in Poland called the Attic,

595
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: and she was blown away by how much the displays

596
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: revealed about the guy who ran the museum. Her takeaway

597
00:31:25,440 --> 00:31:27,920
Speaker 1: actually echoes a lot of what we've been saying today

598
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,120
Speaker 1: about the strengths of small museum. So I just want

599
00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: to read a little bit from it. She writes, quote,

600
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: it is a museum of the curator's life, all his obsessions,

601
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: all his reading, all his thinking, all accumulated in these rooms.

602
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,880
Speaker 1: More than the met or the louver. The attic is

603
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 1: the essence of what a museum could or should be,

604
00:31:46,000 --> 00:31:51,000
Speaker 1: a curation of individually ordinary objects that achieve a collective sublimity.

605
00:31:51,480 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 1: In truth, every person deserves a museum of his or

606
00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 1: her own life, because every life is so irreducibly strange,

607
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: every mind so infinitely there ought to be seven point

608
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 1: six billion little museums all over the world.

609
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 2: Well, I mean that's beautiful and amen to that. Like,

610
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:11,520
Speaker 2: I'm not sure where the tally stands today, but given

611
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,560
Speaker 2: how many you and I found in our research, like,

612
00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 2: I'd say we're well on our way to, you know,

613
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,600
Speaker 2: making that reality. I do know a seven point six

614
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,360
Speaker 2: billion is a pretty ambitious number. But all right, yeah,

615
00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:23,240
Speaker 2: maybe not everybody needs a museum.

616
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 1: So we've got a whole fact off worth of museum

617
00:32:26,280 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 1: still left to cover. And I'm so excited to get

618
00:32:28,800 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: to do it, So let's dive in. Okay, so we've

619
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,760
Speaker 1: covered some pretty minuscule museums today, but based on name alone,

620
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:43,480
Speaker 1: the World's Smallest Museum is a backyard storage shed in Superior, Arizona.

621
00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: It is located on Route sixty, right outside of Phoenix.

622
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:49,239
Speaker 1: The museum was opened in the mid nineteen nineties by

623
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 1: the co owners of the Buckboard City Cafe, and they

624
00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: were looked for a way to lure more travelers to

625
00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,720
Speaker 1: their restaurant, so they built a small red shed behind

626
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 1: the building and turned it into their own roadside attraction.

627
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:04,520
Speaker 1: It is dubbed the World's Smallest Museum, and it boasts

628
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:08,160
Speaker 1: such offbeat treasures as a nineteen eighty four compact computer,

629
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 1: a Beatles concert poster, and a nineteen sixty letter from

630
00:33:12,280 --> 00:33:15,320
Speaker 1: President elect John F. Kennedy to one of the museum's owners.

631
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 2: Okay, so it's just totally stuff they had in their right, Yeah,

632
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 2: but also a few natural wonders in there as well,

633
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,160
Speaker 2: like the world's largest apache tier, which is I guess

634
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 2: the kind of rock, and the world's largest piece of chalk,

635
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 2: which is a different kind of rocks.

636
00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:34,480
Speaker 1: I know. That'll also keep it in mind that despite

637
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 1: its name, the world's smallest museum isn't actually the smallest.

638
00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:39,720
Speaker 1: At one hundred and thirty four square feet, it's larger

639
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,120
Speaker 1: than at least two of the museums we talked about earlier,

640
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:45,719
Speaker 1: the Museum in New York and the Warley Museum in England.

641
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,280
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I've seen bigger pieces of chalk than that,

642
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:50,120
Speaker 2: So I don't know if we can take these guys

643
00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 2: at face value. But all right, here's one that might

644
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,280
Speaker 2: also qualify as the world's smallest museum. It's called the

645
00:33:57,320 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 2: William Burke Museum. It's located in a shop in Edinburgh,

646
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,320
Speaker 2: and it consists of a single exhibit, small enough to

647
00:34:04,320 --> 00:34:07,640
Speaker 2: fit in your pocket, a calling card case made from

648
00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:08,800
Speaker 2: human skin.

649
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: What so the only item in the William Burke Museum

650
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,080
Speaker 1: is made from William Burke. That's right, But.

651
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:18,920
Speaker 2: I know, I know, but don't feel too bad for him.

652
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:21,640
Speaker 2: Back in the early eighteen hundreds, he and his partner

653
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 2: William Hare actually went on a ten month killing spring.

654
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,280
Speaker 2: They murdered sixteen people and sold their corpses to medical

655
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:31,919
Speaker 2: students to use for dissection practice. And you know, Hair

656
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 2: managed to avoid punishment by selling out his accomplice, and

657
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:37,759
Speaker 2: in eighteen twenty nine, William Burke was put to death

658
00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:41,960
Speaker 2: for both of their crimes. Local residents celebrated Burke's demise

659
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 2: in a pretty gruesome way. They actually cut bits of

660
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 2: his skin from his body to keep his souvenirs, and

661
00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 2: a portion taken from the back of his hand was

662
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 2: used to make that calling card case I mentioned earlier.

663
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 2: It was sold at auction in nineteen eighty eight, and

664
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,640
Speaker 2: the case was repurposed as one of the world's smallest

665
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 2: and grossest museum.

666
00:35:01,680 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, of all the museums we're going to visit, I

667
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:07,759
Speaker 1: don't think that's on my list. But speaking of spooky museums,

668
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 1: there is a much tamer one in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It's

669
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:15,160
Speaker 1: called Edgar's Closet, and it is dedicated to the life

670
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: and works of Edgar Allan Poe. Now. The museum was

671
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 1: started by six grade teacher Tommy Flowers as a way

672
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,040
Speaker 1: to get his students interested in classic literature, and true

673
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,280
Speaker 1: to its name, it's housed in a small classroom closet.

674
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:29,760
Speaker 1: It is loaded with photos, books, and about a thousand

675
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 1: pieces of po themed memorabilia. The museum no longer fits

676
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 1: neatly into its fourteen and a half square foot confines,

677
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 1: but Edgar's closet actually now spills into the classroom itself,

678
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:44,640
Speaker 1: and it's an area that Flowers has coined and refers

679
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 1: to as Edgar's lobby.

680
00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 2: So here's a cute one I found. There is a

681
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 2: former school bus shelter in Velkenhausen, Germany that was converted

682
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 2: into a tiny art museum back in two thousand and two.

683
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 2: Prior to the structure had been used by just one student,

684
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,000
Speaker 2: which meant that most of the time, you know, this

685
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,319
Speaker 2: building was just sitting empty. And the wasted potential of

686
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:10,920
Speaker 2: that it prompted a local teacher, she actually lived right

687
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,560
Speaker 2: across the street from it, to turn that kind of

688
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 2: i sore shelter into a mini museum. And so for

689
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,480
Speaker 2: the past two decades, artists from Germany and the neighboring

690
00:36:20,520 --> 00:36:23,920
Speaker 2: countries of Belgium and Luxembourg have filled it with paintings,

691
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:27,959
Speaker 2: photography and sculptures that anybody's welcome to come and see,

692
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 2: you know, day or night, and completely free of charge.

693
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:32,640
Speaker 1: Oh that's such a great idea. I feel like every

694
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: bus stop should have an art gallery totally. Speaking of

695
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:38,799
Speaker 1: the European arts scene. Did you know that Iceland has

696
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:42,160
Speaker 1: a tiny museum dedicated to punk music? What I know?

697
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 1: I mean the genres Heyday apparently lasted from the late

698
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies to the early nineteen nineties, and the museum

699
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 1: celebrates that angsty moment in music with an underground exhibit

700
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:56,520
Speaker 1: of photos, posters, instruments, and stage equipment. It even has

701
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,480
Speaker 1: a pair of headphones built into the wall so you

702
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,799
Speaker 1: can listen to Icelandic punk records during your visit. The

703
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:05,080
Speaker 1: best part, though, is that the museum is housed inside

704
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: a former public toilet in downtown Reiki, Vic. The exhibits

705
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:13,160
Speaker 1: are built right into the stalls, which feels so punk

706
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:13,759
Speaker 1: rock right.

707
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that does seem oddly appropriate. And you know,

708
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,960
Speaker 2: because the subterranean bathroom in Iceland is about the last

709
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 2: place I would expect to find a museum, I think

710
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:28,000
Speaker 2: you're in the trophy with that one. Congratulations, Mango, I

711
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,319
Speaker 2: will take it. But Gave, this was so fun. Thank

712
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:32,400
Speaker 2: you so much for coming on the program, and uh,

713
00:37:32,719 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 2: anytime till next time.

714
00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,960
Speaker 1: From myself, Will Mary Gave and Dylan. Thank you so

715
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:40,480
Speaker 1: much for listening, and be sure to tune in soon

716
00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: for another brand new episode. Part Time Genius is a

717
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:59,799
Speaker 1: production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by

718
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:04,120
Speaker 1: Will Pearson and me Mongais Chatikler and researched by our

719
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:08,319
Speaker 1: good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and

720
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.

721
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 1: The show is executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell

722
00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:19,080
Speaker 1: and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,

723
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:23,759
Speaker 1: Trustee Dara Potts and Vinny Shorey. For more podcasts from

724
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:28,799
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

725
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Gab, did you

726
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,840
Speaker 1: know what one of my friends has this collection of

727
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:50,200
Speaker 1: apologies on her wall. She's like framed all these apologies

728
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:52,799
Speaker 1: from famous people and gives it in her back.

729
00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:55,840
Speaker 2: Awesome, and that's like one of these famous people that

730
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 2: apologize to.

731
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: Her, famous apologists that were like set to other people

732
00:39:00,680 --> 00:39:02,680
Speaker 1: that were put up for auction, and she just has

733
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 1: that on her wall in her Bathrot's.

734
00:39:05,520 --> 00:39:08,360
Speaker 2: Like a real power move to get all these celebrities

735
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:13,280
Speaker 2: to apologize to you. That's awesome. I love Little niche

736
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:14,520
Speaker 2: collections like that