The podcast that the University of Gothenburg produces together with the Museum of World Culture is back this autumn. Researchers will meet, among others, the author Mats Strandberg and a police officer.
– We will talk about everything from propaganda through history, the end of the world, to how cultural heritage in Swedish churches are threatened, says Jenny Högström Berntson, producer for Inside the Box.
To have initiated and stimulating conversations that revolve around current cultural heritage research, history, future and the present. That was the goal when the university and the Museum of World Culture joined forces on a podcast. Although the pandemic forced the podcast into the studio instead of with a live audience, it has been a success.
Now the podcast is back with new episodes.
– The author Mats Strandberg joins us to discuss ideas of the end of
the world in literature and popular fiction with Yvonne Leffler, professor of literature here at the university. It will be great, says Jenny Högström Berntson.
Meetings between researchers from completely different fields of expertise are central to the podcast.
– We try to get interdisciplinary research meetings. As in the episode "Kultur för hälsans skull", where a literary scholar meet a researcher from AgeCap (which is the university's research center for aging and health). In that episode the positive impact of culture and cultural activities on health is discussed from two very different, but complementary, perspectives.
The podcast aims to stimulate interest in research and museum objects and is intended for the general public. This autumn the podcast will be visited by a police officer specialized in cultural heritage crimes, who, together with a church historian, will talk about cultural heritage in churches.
Guests from all over the world
– When the pandemic struck we had to change from recording the podcast with live audience to recording in a studio, often over link. This made the step to produce episodes featuring guests from different parts of the world easier.
– If you want to listen to an English episode, I suggest “Endangered heritage and illicit trade” (episode 16) where the object in our box really came into its own in the conversation, says Jenny Högström Berntson. The topic is also very relevant and it captured many important issues both in a Swedish and in an international perspective.
The podcast has been visited by several well-known people such as the comedian Ina Lundström known from the podcast "Flashback Forever", the science journalist Karin Bojs and Richard Tellström, expert on food history and heritage.
Now the podcast team hopes to be able to return to the initial setup with recording the pod with a live audience at the Museum of World Culture for the next season.
– We want to give listeners a mixture of interesting subjects and an easily accessible format. We hope that the podcast form is a good way to reach a wide audience and make our research available for a broad public, says Jenny Högström Berntson.
Inside the Box is produced by the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies (CCHS) and the Museum of World Culture, in collaboration with Folkuniversitetet.