EPISODES
  • Episode 129: Overfished and Under Surveillance: The Tampa Triangle

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe in the dark as Xan brings to light the mysteries and misinformation surrounding the infamous Tampa Bay Triangle Dead Zone regarding missing persons, UFO sightings, and bizarre conspiracy theories. All the while, providing insight into why hammerhead sharks have a hammer-like head.

    1h 14m | Dec 2, 2023
  • Episode 128: Languages in Languish

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside the Museums hall of extinct and endangered languages where they discuss the ongoing event of language death throughout the world, while Joe emphasizes why it is essential that endangered languages be preserved so we may gain insight from their cultural knowledge, and history to better our future.

    1h 30m | Nov 18, 2023
  • Episode 127: New Philadelphia: Post Truth

    On today’s tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, for an in-depth discussion concerning realism/illusionistic representation within two-dimensional art, both in contemporary trends and throughout art history, while using Hanneke Grootenboer, The Rhetoric of Perspective, which is primarily focused on the history of Dutch still life painting, as a point of entry into this topic.

    Texts mentioned:

    The Rhetoric of Perspective by Hanneke Grootenboer

    The Experience Machine by Andy Clark

    1h 10m | Nov 4, 2023
  • Episode 126: Oil Royalties: a Brief History of the Osage Nation Oil Boom

    *DISCLAIMER* Please visit the Osage Nations website for more information about their history and culture. Osageculture.com

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as they go over a brief history of the Osage nation, covering their discovery of petroleum on their reservation, as well as their tumultuous history with settlers and the United States government looking to take advantage of their situation. All of which lead to the real events covered in the book by David Grann, and now film by Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon.

    1h 11m | Oct 21, 2023
  • Episode 125: Aztecs vs Spaniards: All Mexed Up

    In advance of Indigenous Peoples Day this Monday, for today's tour we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, in an exhibit focused on the clash between the Aztecs / Mexica people and the Spanish Conquistadors, while clearing up some of the often misrepresented history about Moctezuma II, and the bizarre failures of Panfilo Narváez.

    Sources used:

    Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

    The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich

    1h 32m | Oct 7, 2023
  • Episode 124: Phantom Time: Coming Soon

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides Xan and Joe, inside the hall of Tartaria where they return to the Museum's roadside roots as they discuss conspiracy theories surrounding missing historical time periods. All the while, poking logic holes in them while discussing the arbitrary nature of dates and time.

    1h 18m | Sep 23, 2023
  • Episode 123: Big Whale if True

    On today's tour, after a month-long hiatus our tour guides, Xan and Joe, return to the Uncanny County Museum and join us in the museum’s Big Hall, where Xan takes us through the history of Earth's largest animals, both living and extinct, while also bringing some insight into the recent news surrounding Perucetus.

    1h 11m | Sep 9, 2023
  • Episode 122: Step by Step: A Brief History of the Aztec Empire

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as Xan leads a tour focused on the history of the Aztec empire and how they rose to prominence. Meanwhile, they briefly discuss the ways human civilizations have developed through kin-based relationships and the role rituals play in bonding people together.


    Sources used:

    Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

    The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich


    1h 30m | Jul 29, 2023
  • Episode 121: Parking Spaces and Non-places

    On today’s tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside the museum's parking garage where Joe leads a discussion focusing on the 2020 book, Unofficial Britain: Journeys through Unexpected Places by Gareth E. Rees, with a focus on the overlooked histories embedded within mundane spaces and their cultural/psychological effects on the populations living alongside them.

    1h 20m | Jul 15, 2023
  • Episode 120: Prehistoric Panel 2

    On today's tour, Xan and Joe once again bring in esteemed science communicators to discuss the newest season of the groundbreaking docu-series, Prehistoric Planet. @CrikeyitsChristian, @ThePaintPaddock, and @DinosaurComics bring their knowledge (and opinions) to dissect where the show has been and where it can go!

    1h 27m | Jul 1, 2023
  • Episode 119: Get to the Point: Armor and Armaments Throughout History

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside the UCM’s armory where they explore the different types of weapons and armor used throughout history, their purpose and uses, and why they were made to be so artistically appealing. 

    1h 31m | Jun 17, 2023
  • Episode 118: An Hour for a Minute: Waiting in Line for Fine Art

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as they wait in line to enter the museum. Joe recounts his recent experience at the recent Yayoi Kusama exhibition at David Zwerner, I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers, and both him and Xan bring up critical points regarding spectacle vs art, and our relation to time.

    1h 20m | Jun 3, 2023
  • Episode 117: Cider? I Hardly Know Her

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe at the Uncanny Valley Orchard where Xan recounts the origins of apples in America, the science behind producing them, and the history that they are attached to that has had major impacts on our world today.

    Our source and recommended reading is American Cider: A Modern Guide to a Historical Beverage by Dan Pucci & Craig Cavallo

    1h 10m | May 20, 2023
  • Episode 116: Mammoth Steppe Escalator

    On today's tour, we join Xan and Joe as they transverse the North American continent to investigate the untold origins of paleontology and its roots in Native American traditions of fossil collection.


    Our sources and recommended reading include:

    “Otherlands” by Thomas Halliday and “Fossil Legends of the First Americans” by Adrienne Mayor

    1h 23m | May 7, 2023
  • Episode 115: From Mjölner to Monasteries

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, inside an exhibit that focuses on deconstructing some of the myths behind the Scandinavian people's transition from Norse paganism to Christianity in the early middle ages through archeological and art historical evidence.

    1h 25m | Apr 22, 2023
  • Episode 114: Partridge Run: The Mystery of Flight

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as they focus on the mystery surrounding how birds achieved flight. Xan gives us a broad evolutionary overview of this history and later explains the science and creative strategies behind the more recent theories surrounding flight evolution.

    1h 17m | Apr 8, 2023
  • Episode 113: The Last of Us: Useless in the Apocalypse

    On today’s tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, next to a diorama of cordyceps infecting ants for a conversation surrounding the science of HBO and Naughty Dog's The Last Of Us, while also discussing the show/games role in current popular culture.

    1h 21m | Mar 18, 2023
  • Episode 112: Croc of Ages Feat. @crikeyitschristian

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as well as special guest expert Christian Flores, aka @crikeyitschristian, in the “Croc of Ages” exhibit hall for a part 2 exploration of crocodilians through time; focusing on the prehistoric ancestors of modern-day crocodilians.

    1h 19m | Mar 4, 2023
  • Episode 111: Crocs are Back

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, on an exhibit focused on the Saltwater Crocodiles' return to their natural habitats, and consequently the conflicts that have been reignited between them and Humans. Meanwhile, Xan provides a brief history of Crocodilians and how old they really are.

    1h 27m | Feb 18, 2023
  • Episode 110: Biennale Bouncer: Can Fanart Get in?

    On today's tour, we join our tour guides, Xan and Joe, as they navigate how fanart fits in with the contemporary art world and within the context of the history of art.

    1h 25m | Feb 4, 2023
The Uncanny County Museum
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