If I could make it happen, I’d want to see every prominent museum creating a branded company podcast highlighting the special items from their collection. Alas, many arts institutions don’t have the resourcing yet to join the podcasting world. The Smithsonian thankfully is well ahead of the game, with four different podcasts, one of which I’m highlighting today:

Sidedoor

This is their flagship show, which they started in 2016 and is onto their 10th season and 180 episodes. It’s a great concept for a museum podcast, as there’s an effectively endless supply of fascinating items across their museums that make for compelling audio stories. I listened most recently to “Cellphones Rock”, which makes the connection between our tech devices and the incredibly old rocks that have an ancient connection to the materials that go into modern electronics.

(Credits for the show: Host Lizzy Peabody, and Editors and collaborators James Morrison, Nathalie Boyd, Ann Conanan, Jess Sadeq, Sharon Bryant, Tami O’Neill, Dave Leonard, Tarek Fouda)