Planet Word Museum - Where To Next - A Travel Podcast With Francesca

On this week's episode of Where To Next, Ann Friedman, Found & CEO of Planet Word Museum joins me to chat about this one of kind museum! Located in DC, this free museum explores goes beyond just words with immersive and interactive exhibits and events! Find out everything you need to know by listening to my interview with Ann!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning, and welcome back toWhere to Next, a travel podcast with
me. Your host, my nameis Francesca Presti joining me today an Friedman,
founder and CEO of Planet Word Museum, and thanks so much for taking
some time. Welcome to the program, my pleasure. All right, well,
we're just gonna we're just gonna jumpright into it here with Planet Word
Museum. Planetword Museum dot org iswhere you want to go online to find

(00:21):
out everything you need to know andstart planning your visit today. So and
why don't you jump right into itand just tell us all about Planet Word
Museum. Planet Word is the onlymuseum of its kind in the world.
It's a voice activated museum about wordsand language. Everything that you can think
of that you can do with words. We've got an experience here for you

(00:42):
to engage in. At Planet Word. We're right in the heart of Washington,
DC. We're in the restored NationalHistoric Landmark Franklin School Building. So
it's a beautiful building and it's anexperience like you've never had anywhere else.
And for all ages, for theentire family, anybody who loves singing,

(01:04):
poetry, loves stories, loves advertising. We've got a great experience here for
you at Planet Word. Planet WordMuseum dot org is where you want to
go on line to check out allthe information and start plating your visit today.
And why don't you tell us aboutsome of the most popular exhibits that
people really enjoy at the museum.One of the most popular is our word

(01:26):
Wall. It's a gallery that wecall where Do Words Come From? And
the main centerpiece of that gallery isa forty foot wide, twenty two and
a half foot tall talking word Wall. We've built it out of a thousand
three dimensional words, and it talksto you and you can talk back to
it and learn the stories of alldifferent words in the English language where they

(01:51):
came from, and some came fromwar, and some came from borrowing from
foreign countries, and some are madeup. We have a lot of words
in the English language that we're justmade up, and so you can learn
great interesting stories about all those words. But you don't do it by just

(02:13):
listening. You actually talk to theword wall, and with voice recognition technology,
it hears what visitors are saying andtells the stories about the words that
the word wall picks up. Verycool. We'll Planet Word museum is located
right down the street in Washington,d C. I'm on with Ann Friedman,

(02:36):
founder in CEO, right now PlanetwordMuseum dot org. Where you want
to go for all the info andto start planning your trip today. And
you guys really do have quite aslew of upcoming events. I was checking
out your website and they also affordthe guests the opportunity to actually host their
own events at the museum as well, So could you expand on that for
us a little bit? Sure,we have beautiful spaces. People have weddings

(02:58):
here, they have meetings, theyhave conferences. We have a wide variety
of spaces, including an auditorium forone hundred and fifty people, and that's
where we have a lot of ourin person programs. We've got it open
my Joke Fest coming up. Wehave had monologue contests, We've had spelling
the contests, you name it,anything to do with words or about language,

(03:23):
we've had a program about it atPlanet Word. And we try to
have fun too. Everything here triesto be playful and surprising, unexpected,
so you never know what's going tocome up in our auditorium or around the
corner of our building. Even ourbathrooms we have tiled into the laws of

(03:46):
our restrooms wordplay and bathroom humor.So we want you to have a smile
on your face wherever you are insidePlanet Word. Absolutely, Planet World Museum
dot org online is where you wantto go. And and before I let
you go, in your opinion,what do you think it is that really
sets Planet Word Museum apart from therest? There are so many museums,

(04:08):
you know, all over the country, but especially in DC. So what
is it that makes Planet Word Museuma little bit different? Well, we
are free. We're not as Smithsonian, but we are free. So that's
a great asset. But it's thehigh tech experience. And it's a museum
where you use your words, youtalk to the museum and it talks back

(04:30):
to you. You don't get thatanywhere else. Everything is an experience.
You are participating, you are deepdiving into the exhibits. You don't have
that experience anywhere else at any othermuseum in DC. And it's colorful,
it's beautiful. We have a jokewriting gallery. Where do you get that

(04:54):
in Washington? Nowhere else? Andwe have a songwriting gallery that's like karaoke
lounge, so you're learning the techniquesof songwriting while you're singing. We have
live mics, we have people joiningtogether with other visitors singing songs at our

(05:14):
museum. You can hear people singingand laughing throughout the museum. You know,
if you're down on the first floor, you'll hear voices and people having
a great time who are up onthe third floor. It's just a place
that's full of joy and spirit andpeople coming together to use their words.

(05:34):
It's a very social experience. Wellit sounds like a blast, and if
you want to start planning your tripto Planet Word Museum, you can do
that at Planet Word Museum dot org. And Friedman, founder and CEO,
joining me this morning, and Ijust want to say a big thank you
to you, and of course we'retaking the time to tell us all about
the museum. Oh my pleasure.I can't wait to see everybody here.