Lots of general interest podcasts got their start during COVID when musicians, actors, comedians, and regular folks who could tell a good story all were spending less time performing and working, and decided to take a shot at hosting a podcast. That dynamic extended to branded company podcasts as well. The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched two different shows in early 2022, and they noted in the launch announcement that the goal was to help their audience connect with their art while in person visits were limited. One show is called Frame of Mind, though I’ll focus here on their other show:

Immaterial

A typical format of a museum podcast, including one I reviewed recently from the Smithsonian, is to take one piece of art from the collection and tell an in-depth story of it. I like how The Met is doing something a bit different with Immaterial. Rather than focus on a particular item, it focuses on one type of, appropriately, material that is used across art pieces. They’ve done an episode just on Jade, one on Shells, and a two-parter about Metals.

They’re fascinating - you may think you know a reasonable amount about these common art and building materials, but the podcast will quickly show you that there are many more levels of depth that they can take things, and it’s a fun ride along the way showcasing the experts that devote their career to these specialized areas of art.