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If you learned about ancient Egypt in school, you likely heard a lot about pharaohs, tombs, and elaborate death rituals. A new exhibition at the de Young Museum juxtaposes this familiar royal history with the lives and afterlives of ordinary citizens. Here, you'll find golden jewelry and shining sarcophagi, but also everyday objects you have likely never seen before: a baby's rattle, a stone headrest, and a jar for cured meat.

"We are learning so much more about how people lived who were not royalty," says Renée Dreyfus, the curator in charge of ancient art at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Renée oversaw the American debut of "Treasures of the Pharaohs," which expands our understanding of ancient Egyptian culture, fueled by archaeologist Zahi Hawass's recent excavation of the Golden City near Luxor.

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, we talk about how ordinary people lived, worked, and prepared for an afterlife in ancient Egypt; Renée's collaborative work with global institutions like the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum; and what she has learned during her remarkable 50 years working at FAMSF. Plus: Why the most interesting object in the whole exhibition might just be a wooden chair.

Full transcript of this episode

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Chapters

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (04:07) - What museums means to Renée
• (07:02) - Misconceptions about Ancient Egypt
• (13:37) - The Golden City & regular people
• (22:55) - Renée's favorite object in the exhibition
• (31:46) - Curating King Tut 30 years apart
• (37:34) - The Etruscans exhibit
• (40:29) - What to buy in a museum gift shop

Images:
Several images courtesy Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The de Young Museum
The Legion of Honor
Vincent Price
Brooklyn Museum
The Golden City of Aten
Amenhotep III
Zahi Hawass
Sitamun

Videos:
Video from Treasures of the Pharaohs, courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

When you visit a museum, do you see it as just a collection of artifacts from the past? The California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) is hoping you don't.

Although their museum in Alameda, California has a great collection of preserved & restored vintage radios, their work is really about the present, the future, and building a vibrant community of audio enthusiasts.

For Executive Director Rachel Lee, the real goal of the CHRS is to create a dynamic space where different generations can connect and engage. This welcoming environment often turns casual visitors into dedicated volunteers. As Lee notes, the most rewarding part of her work is watching visitors' eyes light up when they discover a historical space that feels incredibly "alive."

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Rachel talks about how different generations of visitors respond to the history of radio; why it’s so important to preserve the medium’s roots; and why radio matters a lot more for life in 2026 than you probably realize. Plus: The story of the huge “music box” machines that replaced live xylophone players at NBC.

Full transcript of this episode

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Chapters

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (02:49) - The Story of the California Historical Radio Society
• (09:47) - Touring the Radio Museum's Exhibits
• (16:02) - The NBC Chimes Machine & Vintage Broadcast Studio
• (20:19) - Restoring Radios and Preserving Lost Broadcasts
• (26:46) - Funding the Museum and Future Projects
• (31:27) - The Meaning & Community Value of Museums
• (39:53) - Cultivating the Next Generation of Makers
• (43:39) - Profound Museum Memories & the Gift Shop

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Museums already do a lot: they educate the public, preserve important works of art and culture, and inspire people to create art of their own. But they have the potential to do even more. By adopting principles of urban design, museums can transform into essential "third places"—vibrant social spaces where communities gather, friendships are formed, and societies grow stronger.

"The third place is essential to being healthy and happy because you need to have a place where you can just relax, be yourself, have fun, connect with friends, and meet new people," explains urbanist and psychologist Dr. Tayana Panova.

How we experience a space depends entirely on its design, she says. An engaging environment filled with life makes time fly, whether you are walking down a vibrant city street or exploring a beautiful museum gallery.

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Dr. Panova—co-host of The Perfect City podcast and a popular creator exploring how urban design affects our brains—discusses what museums can learn from the design of cities, and vice versa. We also explore the vital, real-world stimulation we get from third places that our screens simply cannot replicate, the right way to integrate technology into an exhibit, and what modern cultural institutions might want to borrow from American shopping malls.

Full transcript of this episode

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Chapters

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (02:26) - The Role of Museums in a City
• (06:56) - European vs. American Museums
• (10:17) - Designing Human-Scale Cities
• (15:08) - Smartphones vs. Real-World Stimulation
• (19:33) - The Role of Technology in Museums
• (23:21) - Can Museums Be Third Places?
• (28:53) - Building Community Through Museum Programs
• (35:42) - What Museums Can Learn From Urban Design
• (40:21) - What Cities Can Learn From Museums

Follow Tayana on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @dr.tpanova

The KunstHausWien in Vienna

The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco faces a unique challenge: How do you tell the story of one of history's most important storytellers? When Diane Disney Miller founded the museum, her goal was to let her father tell his own story. To achieve this, she amassed 30,000 artifacts and extensive archival media to create a deeply personal look at the man behind the magic.

"She really wanted to debunk these myths that he was not a family man, not committed to his friends and family," says Kirsten Komoroske, the executive director of the museum. "She wanted to tell the truth about all of the challenges, the failures, the setbacks."

Those challenges include the devastating loss of his first hit character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit; a polarizing animators' strike that led to Walt testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee; and the lifelong smoking habit that ultimately ended his life at age 65.

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Kirsten shares how the Walt Disney Family Museum stays fresh as a single-subject institution, the importance of a "good, hard failure," and why there is a plaque next to one of the museum's benches explicitly telling visitors to sit down.

Full transcript of this episode

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Chapters

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (02:18) - Kirsten Komoroske's Museum Memories
• (06:20) - How Diane Disney Miller Shaped the Story
• (09:38) - Walt Disney's Failures and Perseverance
• (12:09) - The Animators' Strike and HUAC Testimony
• (19:00) - Becoming the Museum's Executive Director
• (24:46) - The Museum's Enormous Collection
• (28:21) - The Ribbon Room and Griffith Park Bench
• (37:08) - The Disneyland Model Explained

Images:
The museum exterior
Walt Disney
Narcissa Niblack Thorne
Thorne's "English Cottage Kitchen of the Queen Anne Period"
Gates of Hell
River of Stone
Faultline
Wood Line
Spire

Earth Wall

Videos:
Walt Disney Testifies at HUAC (1947)

At the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California, there are very few "don't touch" signs. In fact, this unique collection actually relies on visitors' touch to keep things running smoothly.

"They actually function better when they're getting played a lot," says Evan Phillippe, the museum's executive director. "They seize up and they freeze when they don't ... The more they get played, the happier they are."

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Evan talks about the myriad challenges of maintaining the world's largest playable pinball collection, including what to do with the 1,200 machines that don't fit in the current space. He explains how the museum educates visitors through rooms like "Beyond the Backglass," the first exhibit to celebrate women's contributions to pinball engineering, art, and software. Plus: The small army of volunteers that keeps the games working, what kids who grew up with iPads think of pinball, and the downsides of being thrifty as a nonprofit museum operator.

Full transcript of this episode

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Listen to "Buzzers and Bells," my original short audio story about the Pacific Pinball Museum, on Twenty Thousand Hertz

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:01 Evan's First Museum Memory
07:12 A Tour of the Pacific Pinball Museum
11:46 Why It's a Museum, Not an Arcade
15:27 Fix-It Nights & Pinball Maintenance
21:46 Getting New Generations Into Pinball
27:19 Visitor Reactions & Pinball Nostalgia
33:17 Investing in the Museum's Future
40:50 Museum Inspiration & Tiny Details of Joy

Music: www.purple-planet.com

Images:
Museum exterior

Videos:
Suzanne Ciani on Omni: The New Frontier

Did you know the Mona Lisa only got world-famous after it was stolen from the Louvre? In 1911, Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece was just another portrait in the Salon Carré, shoved between a bunch of other Renaissance paintings. But when a former museum worker stole it, the public flocked to the museum to stare at "nothing," the blank space on the wall.

This phenomenon fascinated Susan Crane, a history professor at the University of Arizona and author of "Nothing Happened: A History."

In 2026, the Mona Lisa's status could not be more different: It has a wall entirely to itself behind bulletproof glass, drawing millions of visitors who wait behind stanchions to catch a glimpse & maybe take a selfie.

Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Susan questions our relationship to famous works of art in museums, and explains how to cultivate genuine surprise as a visitor. She also explores how museums have been reshaped by technology and politics, the ongoing debate of the Smithsonian versus the White House, and whether school field trips are actually worth the effort. Plus: The absolutely wild way the literary elite used to experience museums in the 19th century.

Full transcript of this episode

Susan’s book: Nothing Happened: A History

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This episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod

Chapters

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (04:04) - The Meaning and Early History of Museums
• (07:58) - How Photography Became Fine Art
• (11:52) - Stealing and Photographing the Mona Lisa
• (18:14) - Why Museums Matter
• (23:58) - Who Decides What Belongs in a Museum?
• (29:12) - Goethe's "Gallery Dialogues"
• (31:13) - Politics, Control, and Change
• (40:37) - Exit Through the Gift Shop

Images:

Stealing Mona Lisa
Vincenzo Peruggia and “Daily Scene in the Louvre”

The blank space

La “Joconde” a disparu

Mona returns

Mona Lisa in the Louvre

Excelsior newspaper

Galeries Des Antiques

French Crown Jewels

Allegory of Marriage

Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine

Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee

Videos:

Photo Museum

Benjamin Banneker