Around the World in Museums (Listener Request!) | Easygoing Company for a Quiet Day

In Around the World in Museums (Listener Request!), Amanda and Marco respond to a thoughtful suggestion from a listener and take you on a softly narrated tour of fascinating museums across North America. From the twang-filled halls of the American Banjo Museum in Oklahoma City to the layered immigrant stories of the Tenement Museum, the conversation unfolds like a gentle travel diary. They also wander through the pop culture playground of the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and share a few laughs about the National Comedy Center — with a fond nod to the Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz Museum as well.
As always, this calming podcast is less about fast facts and more about relaxed curiosity. The tone is unhurried and companionable, offering a relaxing conversation designed to help you fall asleep, ease anxiety, or quiet racing thoughts. It’s perfect for background listening while you settle into bed or during a middle-of-the-night wake-up. There’s no need to take notes — just let the gentle descriptions and shared enthusiasm for museum gift shops carry you peacefully toward rest.

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Marco: Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation meant to help you drift your way or find your way to sleep. Thank you for joining us. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda: I'm Amanda Barker.

Marco: Amanda, our crocuses are popping their heads out of our front yard.

Amanda: They're popping like peas, man.

Marco: M and they're. And they're really pretty. And I planted them all last fall and I'm hoping that the 50 or the 100 that I planted at least.

Amanda: You know, I know you planted so many and hopefully it wasn't all squirrel food. Well, some are coming up. What, what colors were they?

Marco: Well, we've got a lot of yellows a lot of purples. I don't know. I planted some white ones, but the white ones haven't popped up yet. so hopefully, you know, we'll see more and more of them. Yeah.


Amanda: This was sent from Ashley Ander on Instagram

And Amanda, as promised, we're going to, talk about our topic today. Was sent from one of our listeners.

Amanda: I know, I love that.

Marco: So this is sent from Ashley Ander on Instagram. So thank you, Ashley. And I have to say I love their Instagram because it features their travels and plants and vegetables, including. You'll love this. Bees and bees pollinating plants and stuff like that. So that's always fun.


Ashley asks us to talk about our favorite or unusual museums

So Ashley asks us to talk about our favorite or unusual museums that we've been to.

Amanda: Oh, I love this topic. Where to begin? Where to begin? Shall I begin?

Marco: Yeah, begin if you want.

Amanda: You know, the first one that jumps out of my brain and I don't even know if it's still there, is the Commonwealth Museum in Kuala Lumpur, which is interesting. Right. Because it was the. The museum that celebrated the British Commonwealth.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda: Which, I'll be honest, I didn't know was a thing until I went to that museum. So that shows you how young I was or how uneducated I was. I suppose. But, I went in the 90s when I was backpacking Southeast Asia, and I just remember I was fascinated because each part of it was obviously a different country. And so I was just so fascinated by. I mean, I didn't know they were all connected by the British Commonwealth. Now, obviously that's a challenging topic for lots of reasons, but for me, at that moment in the late 90s, it was this exploration of things I just didn't know about and a certain sense of travel through each of these countries. Just the first one that pops into my mind. And again, I don't even know if it's still there.

Marco: Oh, fair enough. That was.

Amanda: A lot of those countries aren't part of the Commonwealth anymore.

Marco: Yeah.

Marco: And I wasn't with you at the time, so.

Amanda: No.

Marco: So I don't know anything about that museum. But one museum that we went to together was in Oklahoma City, and it was the American Banjo Museum.

Amanda: That's not the museum I thought you're going to talk about at Oklahoma City.

Marco: I'm going to talk about this museum.

Amanda: Museum is amazing.

Marco: The Oklahoma. The American Banjo. Banjo Museum is dedicated to the history of the banjo. And Amanda, you know, the banjo isn't the first instrument I think of when I think of my favorite instruments, but we were there and I was like, let's go to this banjo museum. It has great reviews.

Amanda: Yes.

Marco: And it was fantastic. It really gives you the history of the banjo. So many actual banjos on display. Too many to count. All the musicians, who have played the banjo and made the banjo their lives. Kermit the frog and his banjo performance.

Amanda: Steve Martin owns an entire wing of it. Actor and musician Steve Martin.

Marco: So many banjo performers. And it was so fascinating and it was lovely. And it was larger than you would otherwise. Larger than I expected. And the part that I loved the most was at the end of the museum. There's an area where you, the museum goer, can pick up a banjo.

Amanda: That's right.

Marco: And play. And I was waiting for this part for the whole museum when I got to.

Amanda: You want to touch them because you're walking through and you're like, oh, I wonder what this one sounds like.

Marco: And so we go into this little room where there's like, I would say about 12 banjos on the wall on hooks.

Marco: And each banjo has a sort of description of what that banjo is.

Amanda: Right. And.

Marco: And I was looking at all the banjos really excited. And I picked up one of the banjos that I thought would. The steel banjo that had like a sort of, bluegrass sound to it. So I was like, okay, this is the banjo for me.

Amanda: You did? Yeah.

Marco: And I pick up the banjo and unbeknownst to me, there's a couple that

Amanda: are there, sort of an elderly couple. And they're watching us. And the way Marco picked up this banjo with such determination, like he was looking at all the banjos and then he went, ah, yes, this is the one. And picked it up. And so this couple was waiting in anticipation for Marco to start strumming. Right. His amazing bluegrass jam.

Marco: And I pick up the banjo and I have no idea how to play any instrument but the banjo in particular.

Amanda: But he had the confidence and determination like he did.

Marco: So I sit on a stool and I just start to whale on this banjo.

Amanda: Yes. But it was a lot of playing, Playing plong. You know what it sounds like when you don't know how to play a, ah, stringed instrument.

Marco: And unbeknownst to me, the gentleman who was there was a banjo player. It was a very, very astute banjo player.

Amanda: So he was ready to be dazzled and was like, oh, okay.

Marco: And so I just played the banjo the way I wanted to play it for a good 10 minutes and I felt very satisfied.

Amanda: I don't think it was 10 minutes. That would have been a lot on anyone's Ears.

Marco: Okay. For however long I played. And it felt really good to strum playing, to strum my banjo the way I was meant to strum a banjo.

Amanda: Wow. That's not a euphemism of any kind.

Marco: No. And let me ask you.

Amanda: Yeah.

Marco: Any other museums that you have funny stories?

Amanda: So many. So before we even do this, I guess we're in it now, but sure.


Do you like museums? I do like museums. Do I like every museum

Back intro. I suppose, as they say. Do. Do you like museums?

Marco: I do like museums.

Amanda: I feel like I take you to a lot of museums.

Marco: You take me to a lot of museums.

Amanda: I love museums.

Marco: Do I like every museum?

Amanda: No, I don't think you're meant to like every museum.

Marco: It's true. But I do enjoy a museum, and I think there's a big difference between an art gallery and a museum.

Amanda: Oh, that's a very good point. I mean, all art galleries, I think are museums, but not all museums are art galleries.

Marco: I don't know. That's a question for Ashley to. To figure out. But yes, I agree with you there. One of the things I love to do, Amanda and I'll. And we'll get to museums in just a second.


Rachel Lawrence loves going to a museum gift shop

Back to museums. Is I love going to a museum gift shop.

Amanda: Yes. So even if we don't have the time or the money or the inclination to go into museum, we'll often go into the gift shop as we're strolling around a city. It's a great idea.

Marco: And the museum gift shop is free. And it gives you an indication of what's going to be in that museum.

Amanda: That's true.

Marco: But also, you can find really unique and fun gifts or souvenirs for yourself.

Amanda: So what we do sometimes is we go into the gift shop and. And let that determine if we actually want to spend the next hour going to that museum.

Marco: And we picked up something for friends of ours, friends of the podcast, too, from a museum. And we were in their home recently and I saw it and I was like, oh, we got that for them years ago. And let me see if you remember which museum it was. So Matt and Melissa have a sugar bowl that we got them from a museum that says sugar S U G

Amanda: A H. I don't remember this even buying it.

Marco: Yeah. So it was from the Tenement Museum in New York. So it's supposed to be written in sort of a New York sort of slang.

Amanda: Sure.

Marco: And we had bought it for them because we thought it was really cute and they love, what do you call that? Cubed sugar.

Amanda: Ah, cubed sugar. Sugar cubes.

Marco: Sugar cubes. Thank you.

Amanda: That's what you call it, not the band.

Marco: And so we got it for them for a gift, and they loved it. And they had it all these years later.

Amanda: I didn't realize that.

Marco: So the Tenement Museum in New York City in the Lower east side is a fantastic museum. And I will say that the museum gift shop there is impeccable.

Amanda: It's such a wonderful museum. It's a special museum if you. If you've never been or don't know about, is an old tenement building. So the old apartments from the turn of the century, when everybody's great, great grandparents in the States, were coming over on Ellis island and changing their names and getting the stamps and starting a new life, lest we remember an American story, The story of Fievel the mouse, anyway, that type of thing.

Marco: Tale as old as time.

Amanda: Yes. Well, that's Beauty and the Beast.

Marco: Oh, is it? Okay, Sorry.

Amanda: Isn't there a song somewhere out there?

Marco: Oh, sorry. Somewhere out there. Okay.

Amanda: Anyway, And the tenement museum, what happened was it was a tenement that was in operation. And remember, like, a lot of these tenements had shared bathroom facilities. And it was not. If you think of, like, Angela's Ashes or other movies Far and Away. They're all Irish, the ones I can think of. But anyway, movies of people that moved into these tenements as their first stop into the new world kind of thing, into their new lives. this tenement existed for years and years. And then I think in the 50s or 60s, something happened with the building, and they just boarded it up and left it like that. So some of these apartments were. Were time capsules right and left like that. Some of them from the turn of the century that hadn't been inhabited. Others from, you know, the 30s, 40s, 50s. And so what's happened is they've taken this museum and you can go on a tour to these different apartments and that serve as these time capsules and learn about the families that live there and what life was like for them and for their story. You know, I spent a lot of this morning talking about how as humans, we are wired for story. Right? We're wired for that connection and those specifics. So it's a very specific museum. and it's a museum where you could go four times, five times and see very different things, because you won't see all the apartments. You sort of book the tour to see the Sicilian apartment from the 30s or the Russian apartment from the turn

Marco: of the century, or you get to meet the Inhabitants who lived in those apartments in the tenements. So there's one like, I'm looking on their website right now. Meet the Moors. Joseph and Rachel lived in a rear tenement at 17 Lawrence street, less than a mile west of the location of the tenement museum in the neighborhood. And their building shared a courtyard or court, courtyard, rather, with two other tenements. And you basically walk through the lives of the moors and meet the Irish, West Indian, Cuban and French immigrants, from Virginia, Maryland, and all those places that lived around them. And, you know, there's all these different tours you can do at the tenement Museum, which I find fascinating. and there's a new one called the Union of Hope. And you've got a book ahead because it gets quite, quite full. But I would invite you to check out their, website and their gift shop, tenement.org because they've got digital exhibits as well. Amanda.

Amanda: Oh, wow.

Marco: Yeah. So that's pretty cool.

Marco: Yeah.

Amanda: So that's a great museum.


Another museum that springs to mind is Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture

Another museum that springs to mind is the Museum of Pop Culture.

Marco: Oh, yes.

Amanda: In Seattle. That's a great museum. and they have all sorts of rotating exhibits. There's a whole Star Trek wing.

Marco: I think that was so much fun because you got to beam yourself up.

Amanda: Yeah.

Marco: Which was. Which was awesome. And, you know, you got to be on a recreation of the deck.

Amanda: Yeah.

Marco: And you would hit the button and your. Your image would sort of.

Amanda: That's right.

Marco: Drift away.

Amanda: There was a Jim. We talked about Kermit and the Banjos. There's a. There was, when we were there, anyway. A Jim Henson exhibit. And they had Muppets, like the original Muppets from the Dark Crystal, which is one of my ultimate favorite movies.

Marco: As a child, we were able to. To have a puppet on our hands and sort of be a puppeteer. What it would be like in the 50s. And so you'd have to hide your body underneath the table and you could watch yourself on a screen with these. With these Muppets. Right. Amanda.

Amanda: Really interesting interactive museum that I didn't expect, that didn't have a lot of hype around it, at least for us. But it was just something to do when we were in Seattle. And, I really recommend that one.

Marco: And they have constant rotating exhibits that go there. So, for example, right now, some of the current exhibits are Nirvana taking punk to the masses.

Amanda: Right. Seattle was the home of grunge indie

Marco: game revolution, fantasy worlds of myth and magic. M. Hendrix. Wild Blue angel was the Hendrix.

Amanda: Seattle.

Marco: No, I don't Think so.

Amanda: Was it?

Marco: Oh, now, I don't know.

Amanda: Look it up. Keep going.

Marco: the massive power of pop culture. You know, there's so many different. I think they had a whole guitar. Do you remember Amanda? They had this whole, like, wing of guitars. Speaking of instruments, though, you couldn't play those ones.

Amanda: But he was from Seattle. I thought he was.

Marco: I stand corrected. I'm sorry. Yeah, so definitely one to check out is the Pop Culture Museum, in Seattle. The Mopop, I believe is what it's called. And a recent museum we went to, Amanda, which was just so great. And we, I think we've mentioned it on the show, was the Comedy Museum in Jamestown, New York.

Amanda: I mean, it might be my favorite museum I've ever been to. Now listen, I'm its audience. It speaks to so many of the people that I loved and shaped what I do and who I wanted to be. But it's also just a fantastic museum.

Marco: I, ah, thought we were gonna spend an hour, maybe M2 in that museum. We spent an hour in one wing in the basement. In the basement. We spent so much time in the basement that we then went for lunch and came back and said we have to spend the whole day here.

Amanda: It's an interactive museum. They take a profile of you at the beginning of the things you like. you wear a bracelet throughout the whole museum so that your bracelet has your information and it interacts. It can, you know, have, different things pop up in the end, it shows you the different types of comedy that resonates with you. but there's so many amazing pieces of history in there. Like George Carlin's notes. the five. Was it how many things you can't say on television?

Marco: Yeah, seven things.

Amanda: Seven.

Marco: I think it's seven.

Amanda: Anyway, his, his lists of that and how they evolved over the years of

Marco: people's outfits, you could, there was an area where you could sort of sit and take a break and watch comedic performances as if you were there.

Amanda: There's a whole Johnny Carson theater that we didn't even go into.

Marco: There was like comedy, in the comics and stuff and you could draw your own comics.

Amanda: That's right.

Marco: And the great thing about Jamestown, New York is if that museum wasn't enough and it's a, it's a very large and vast and brand new museum. They also have the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Museum. And you can sort of buy a pass to see both, which I think we did. M. And that was also a really interesting museum to see the impact that they both had on comedy and television. And, you know, Lucille Ball gets a lot of credit, but there's a lot of credit given to Desi Arnaz and how he shaped how we watch modern sitcoms today. Yeah. So it was really.


Jamestown, New York, is definitely a place to go see these various museums

Jamestown, New York, is definitely a place to go see these various museums.

Amanda: And I think these experiential museums are like a whole other thing. Like, recently we went to Massachusetts, and we went to the Plymouth Pawtuxet Museum.

Marco: That's right. It was amazing.

Amanda: Which was my favorite place of my childhood. where actors, they almost don't seem like actors. They're so good at what they do. They inhabit the lives and become the original pilgrims, that settled in that land. They also have a whole indigenous section for the indigenous people and their stories of the 1600s and beyond. And it is truly an incredible museum to visit. It was as a child, and it remains that way today.

Marco: And now to bounce from. From, you know, Canada and the U.S. museums, I'd like to go to that museum that you like in Mexico of that artist. I can't remember her name right now.

Amanda: Frida Kahlo. Ye.

Marco: Thank you.

Amanda: Well, Frida Kahlo's house has become a museum and really a type of monument for artists. it's really where I kind of fell in love with Frida Kahlo. I liked her work. I thought she was colorful and interesting. That's sort of where it ended for me.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda: But being in her home and learning about her firsthand, being in her gardens, by her bed, where she painted on her cast, all of that was a really transformative experience for me. And I think a good museum can do that, because it's really an example of an artist who bloomed where she was planted.

Marco: Oh, I love that.

Amanda: That's what it was. I mean, she was recovering from a streetcar accident. Right. And so she started painting on the ceiling, because that's all she would look at all day. She would paint on her cast that she had to her body cast that she had to wear. And so she was creating art, really, from within, in any way possible. so it's a real testament to an artist. Obviously, she lived there with Diego Rivera, another amazing artist in his own right, of course. And, so it's quite. And you learn about their lives in the 20s and 30s and the types of lives that they lived by just being in their home and experiencing that really incredible museum in Mexico City, in the Coyocon neighborhood of Mexico City.

Marco: Fantastic.


What is the difference between an art gallery And a museum

What is the difference between an art gallery And a museum. And when does one become the other? So, for example, I think of when I think of the Accademia, gallery in Florence, where Statue of David is.

Amanda: Right.

Marco: I think of it as a museum, not an art gallery. Even though it's called Accademia Galleria of Florence or Galleria della Accademia di Firenze. I don't think of it as an art gallery. I picture it as a museum.

Amanda: Well, that museum. I'm sure there's other art there, but it's all eclipsed by David because Michelangelo's David is so powerful and big and has its own cathedral there, almost like its own room. But, is there other art there? I barely remember.

Marco: There's a lot.

Marco: There's that area, Amanda, where there's so

Amanda: much art in Florence, so it would make sense.

Marco: That's true.

Marco: there's that area where they have all the busts and the different version of the busts of different, sculptors.

Amanda: So you don't think of that as an art gallery?

Marco: No, because it seemed to inform more than.

Amanda: I think that's what a good art gallery does. So when I was a child, and, you know, we were a family of five on one income. It was a challenging time, as it always is for a struggling family. My parents, my mother especially, was very good at finding things to do that didn't cost the family money. And one of the things that we used to do very regularly was visit the museum because it was free on Sundays. And so we would go to this art gallery. It was in Brockton, Massachusetts. I don't remember what the name of it was. South Shore Art Gallery, probably.

Marco: Sure.

Amanda: And that, was a museum. I mean, it was a real experiential thing. Now, mind you, you weren't touching everything and handling everything, but you were reading about things and looking at things and artifacts and so on. So I think. I think any good art gallery is a museum. I really do.

Marco: I see.

Amanda: Personally.

Marco: Fair enough. I mean, I'm sure there's many different definitions of what makes one the other, but has there ever been a museum that you were exc. To go to that.

Amanda: Disappointed.

Marco: Disappointed.

Amanda: I love them all.

Marco: For me, it was. Remember I dragged you and Michelle Miracle to the Liberace Museum in Vegas because someone had said it was really incredible.

Amanda: I don't even remember going in.

Marco: It was. It was not great, and it was expensive, and we. I don't think it exists anymore. But the museum I want to go to in Las Vegas is the Mob Museum or the Museum of The Mob. It's supposed to be really fascinating and interesting.

Amanda: Yeah, there's a Johnny Cash museum in Nashville that I haven't been to, that wasn't open last time I was there, but it's open now and apparently it's great. And speaking of Nashville.

Marco: Oh, my goodness.

Amanda: The Country Music hall of Fame. Now that's a museum. That's.

Marco: Is it a museum? Is it a hall of fame?

Amanda: It's a museum and it's a hall of fame. Like, the hall of fame is one little area where they have plaques, but the rest of it is a museum where you see people talking about their songwriting in there.

Marco: It's actually called the Country Music hall hall of Fame and Museum. So you're right.

Amanda: And I definitely recommend it. And the thing about it is you don't have to even know a thing about country music for it to still be fascinating. Because I think a good museum tells stories. Right. In its own way and in a very non conventional way. You know, sometimes it is very conventional. It's a plaque and you're reading about the artist. Other times it's experiencing their work. I think of the Art Gallery of Ontario and some of the exhibits they've had. Most recently, the one that comes to mind was last year's Leonard Cohen exhibit. Yeah, he was an artist, he was a poet, he was a songwriter, he was a performer. He was so many different things. And so experiences. You go into a room and you're, at a concert of his. Ah, you're going through his poetry journals and another one. So, you know, I think that's what a good exhibit or a good museum does, ultimately.

Marco: Yeah, I love a museum where you. There's a tactile component where you, as the museum goer can physically touch things and manipulate things and hold things. I've always really loved that.

Amanda: M. And of course, there's a whole other thing that we haven't even talked about, maybe for another show, the immersive experience, which can be. I think what a good museum does is allow you into the artist's mind, into their paintings or their work. and that's a whole other section of museums.

Marco: Yeah. We recently went to the Disney Immersive Museum here in Toronto, and I wasn't expecting much of it, to be honest with you. Amanda. I like Disney, but not enough to be, you know, and we might not

Amanda: have time to do a deep dive on all the immersives because we've been to. I've been to about four or five now.

Marco: Yeah. But that Disney museum we took My niece and nephew.

Amanda: Immersive Experience.

Marco: Immersive Experience was so great. I really loved it. Yeah.

Amanda: I'm trying to think of other museums along the south coast of France.


Ashley: London has some incredible museums and Nice has some great ones

Years ago, I remember going to like Renoir's house, I think Degas house. And of course there's some great museums in Nice and that area as well. But the museums tend to be the artist studios and you get to go and sort of not only appreciate their work that is there, but their life and their lifestyle, which is a pretty good lifestyle in south of France. Being an artist.

Marco: Sure. One of the museums that left a really big impression on me and I think it was an exhibit in the museum and it was in London M. And I can't remember which museum it was, but it was a, ah, tour through the M. Royal Jewelry Collection.

Amanda: Oh, wow.

Marco: And you were on a. What do you call those sidewalks that move? A moving sidewalk.

Amanda: Oh, wow.

Marco: Because they were getting so many people through them.

Amanda: Right.

Marco: And they lit the. The crowns and the scepters and the rings so well. And as you were going through, you just saw all these jewels sort of light up and it was like. It was great and it was impressive and it was all the things, all the emotions for some people was sad and et cetera. But it was just incredible to see, to witness that.

Amanda: and I know we talked about the British Commonwealth who sort of began with that. I will say London has some incredible museums. And yes, you know, there is a large dialogue and movement to return some of these artifacts to their home countries. No question. about at any given moment going into one of those museums. I mean, you're only ever seeing a museum's. What is it like a third of their collection at any moment?

Marco: A lot of it's not on display. Right.

Amanda: the. Is it the Royal British Museum?

Marco: Is that what it's called?

Amanda: That's just the big one. Yeah, that one's incredible.

Marco: I tried to. Sadly, I tried to go to the Shania Twain Museum when I was in Timmins, Ontario last year. But get this, Amanda. The Shania Twain Museum got excavated and is now a mine. So they're mining, I want to say

Amanda: gold, but they're mining talent.

Marco: No, they're mining in the. In the town where Shania Twain was born and Timmons. Yes, Timmins, Ontario.

Marco: Or I don't.

Marco: She wasn't born there, but she lived there for the formative years of her life. It's also a mining town.

Amanda: Right.

Marco: And this museum, Shania to a museum was right in the heart of the city And I guess they discovered under the museum was something of value, and so now they're mining it and there's a huge open pit mine in the middle of the city.

Amanda: So crazy.

Marco: I'll leave you with that fascinating tidbit. Thank you so much, Ashley, for the suggestion of, this topic of museums. I hope you enjoyed it. And if you have a topic that you would like to hear us talk about, please let us know on our social media. You can find them in our show notes or listen and Sleep is, I believe, our Instagram, or no, our Twitter and the Insomnia project is our Instagram. Feel free to reach out to us in any of those platforms or any way you wish to. Until next time, we hope you enjoyed this podcast.


Amanda hopes to go to the Georgia o' Keeffe Museum

Is there a museum you're hoping to go to, Amanda?

Amanda: Oh, my goodness. I know.

Marco: I'm hoping to go to the Georgia o' Keeffe Museum.

Amanda: Oh, yes.

Marco: Which we're heading to.

Amanda: I'll. I'll.

Marco: That'll be the one next month, so we'll talk about that when we get back. Until then, we hope you were able to listen and sleep.