The Object

Free tickets are now available for the next live taping of The Object podcast on Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. With special musical guest Chastity Brown, 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'-style quizzes and prizes, curator conversation, music, and of course storytelling—all about the art and artists of the Harlem Renaissance on roughly its 100th anniversary. Plus, we're opening the museum's Print Study Room after the show for a rare chance to see these artworks in person! These free tickets will go fast—get yours at the Tickets page at artsmia.org for "The Object LIVE! The Renaissance Blues!"

Now, onto this week's show: A special chat-show edition about supernatural Japan. As Dr. Andreas Marks, curator of Japanese and Korean art, explains, nowhere else is there such a rich and numerous  host of ghosts, demons, and even bewitched household objects that can help or hurt us. 

We talk about the cultural, religious, even geographic reasons for this, Japan's unique relationship with ghosts and ghost stories, and how we all might benefit from being spirited away, as it were, to a world where the living and the dead are not so clearly defined.

You can see some of the artworks discussed in the show, especially the giant screens of playful skeletons, in the new exhibition "Bare Bones" now on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

And here you can find Dr. Marks's recent books: Japanese Yokai and Other Supernatural Beings and Samurai in art.

Free tickets are now available for the next live taping of The Object podcast on Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. With special musical guest Chastity Brown, 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'-style quizzes and prizes, curator conversation, music, and of course storytelling—all about the art and artists of the Harlem Renaissance on roughly its 100th anniversary. Plus, we're opening the museum's Print Study Room after the show for a rare chance to see these artworks in person! These free tickets will go fast—get yours at the Tickets page at artsmia.org for "The Object LIVE! The Renaissance Blues!"

Here, we explain what these live tapings are all about, with some clips from our past few sold-out shows. Everything you love about the podcast, live on stage. See you there!

In 1950, Robert Doisneau takes one of the most iconic photographs of Paris—a young couple kissing on the street—that eventually becomes a global symbol of romance, spontaneity, joie de vivre. But the real story is only now coming to light, a story about the world as it is and the world as we wish it to be. You can see the photograph in question here, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, but be sure to listen before you buy a ticket to Paris.... (First aired 2/6/2023.)

BIG NEWS: Free tickets are now available for the next live taping of The Object podcast on Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. With special musical guest Chastity Brown, 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'-style quizzes and prizes, curator conversation, music, and of course storytelling—all about the art and artists of the Harlem Renaissance on roughly its 100th anniversary. Plus, we're opening the museum's Print Study Room after the show for a rare chance to see these artworks in person! These free tickets will go fast—get yours at the Tickets page at artsmia.org for "The Object LIVE! The Renaissance Blues!"

PLUS! See the incredible Paris fashion of the 1950s and every decade from the 1890s to today at the new special exhibition "Paris Couture," now on view at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

It is easily the most familiar painting in all of the Americas—Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Virgin Mary in a shawl of stars, against a blazing sunburst. As seen on candles, keychains, sugar skulls, even skateboards. And every year, millions of believers come to see the original, in Mexico City. But what is the story behind this literally iconic image, a story still unfolding some 500 years after conquest, faith, and miracles collided in the mountains of Mexico, forever changing the world?

You can see an incredible version of Our Lady of Guadalupe, recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art, here.

BIG NEWS: Our next FREE live taping of The Object podcast will be Sunday, November 15, at 2 p.m. in the historic Pillsbury Auditorium of the Minneapolis Institute of Art with special musical guest Chastity Brown! Featuring 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'-style quizzes and prizes, curator conversation, music, and of course storytelling, all about the artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance on roughly its 100th anniversary. Free tickets will be available beginning October 15 on the Tickets page at the Minneapolis Institute of Art: "The Object LIVE! The Renaissance Blues!"

When Frida Kahlo dies, in 1954, she is soon forgotten. And then, suddenly, she is everywhere: on magnets, puzzles, underwear, flip-flops. How did this remarkable artist become an international icon, an emoji, a figure of fervid devotion? And what does she mean to those who believe?

You can see Yasumasa Morimura's "An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo," mentioned in the show, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

Have you heard Frida Kahlo talk? Neither has anyone else—not since she died, in 1954. Unless it turns out that this is actually her on a recording surfaced a couple years ago by the National Sound Library of Mexico.

(This episode first aired May 10, 2021.)