November 11, 2023 • 30 mins
Kaitlyn Dougherty is the Exhibits Development Coordinator for the Children's Museum of Houston and Keith Ostfeld (aka Mr. O), is their director of educational technology and exhibit development. As they do every year, the museum installs their Season of Sharing exhibit, a series of little houses you can visit to learn about the Holiday traditions around the world. They’re also doing an awesome grown-ups only night at the museum. Secret Night Out adults only adult night Friday the 17th and it’s your opportunity to climb their awesome tower with a margarita in your hand. Doesn’t that sound like a good time! Check out their website for info and to see all the other awesome exhibits they have: www.cmhouston.org
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expresson this show do not necessarily reflect those
hell by this radio station, It'smanagement staff for any of its advertisers.
My name is Laurent I am theTexan from France and a proud Houstonian.
(00:27):
I absolutely love this city, andI was just talking about this with my
guests from the Truelan's Museum that ifyou're an immigrant like myself and you move
to the United States of America,there are a lot of places you can
go to where you'll feel welcome.I don't know if there's a place in
the country that will make you feelas welcome as the Houstonians will make you
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feel welcome. There's certainly something aboutTexas culture, that's for sure. It's
everywhere in the state. There's anopen mindedness and a curiosity that is endemic
to these people and their culture thatI absolutely love. I've adopted as my
own. I try to do theexact same thing. But there's a can
do attitude and a generosity of spiritin Houston that is unmatched as far as
I know, and of course,I haven't been all over the world,
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and I'm a little biased. Ilove Texas and all that, but this
really, truly is a great city, and it's great in philanthropy. It's
very rich in philanthropy. It's oneof the reasons why we have the five
performing arts by top companies in theworld that are still commissioning work. Even
our Houston Opera is commissioning work,which is a rare thing nowadays in the
world of opera. And of coursewe have some of the greatest museums in
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town. And one of the funnest, safest places you could go to is
the Chown's Museum of Houston. Theyjust had Halloween. The best place to
take your kids trick or treating.No, I mean, no holds barred.
It really is a wonderful miniature Disneyland. I only say miniature because it's
a lot smaller than Disneyland. Theydon't have a Disney budget, but what
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they do with their budget it isabsolutely extraordinary. They've built a clean,
super fun and very very beautiful playgroundfor kids that is so much fun that
honestly, the parents are bound tohave more fun, honestly, and they're
going to have a secret night outfor adults. We'll talk about that.
It's coming up on Friday to seventeenth. They're going to open the Choln's Museum
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of Houston just for adults. Youcan buy a ticket, they'll give you
ticket drinks. You're gonna have cocktails. We'll talk about this event and your
Yeah, you're gonna be able togo climb the tower. They have an
amazing tower in the middle of themuseum which is completely safe, but it's
ropes and platforms. It wiggles alittle bit. Even little kids can safely
get up and down this tower,and you know what, it's kind of
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impressive. Now. Of course youknow their nets. You can't fall off
this thing, or you really haveto do it on purpose. And there's
flow works out the back, whichis one of the coolest exhibits I've ever
seen. It shows you how wecontrol water, how we canalyze it.
It's like just a mini lesson andone of the most fun attractions in Houston.
And obviously it's really good when it'shot outside, which is a lot
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of the time. Anyway, totalk about this and a lot of other
things, including the Season of SharingWonder Week where they celebrate all the religions
that celebrate an event around Christmas orlater, just to show the holiday spirit,
which is again endemic to human spirit. It's everywhere and we must have
something in common. And here totalk about all of this is Caitlyn Dougherty.
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She is the exhibit's Development coordinator forthe Children's Museum of Houston and with
her as our friend, Keith Austfeldaka mister Oh, He is the director
of Educational Technology and exhibit Development forthe Children's Museum. He is known as
the geekiest of geeks. We loveto talk about movies when he comes in
here. We might not have timeto do this here, and it's not
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a great season for movies. Man. I'm gonna tell you that the Marbles
coming up, well, but nobody'sgonna go see that, man, and
I'm not either. I'm looking forwardto, uh, eventually seeing Martin Scorsese's
new movie, but I'm waiting forthe I want to sit at home because
it's three and a half hours long. It is it is, I agreed,
But we also got Dune coming up. Dune definitely was saying did you
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like the first part? Oh?I really did, for it's so much
better than the eighties movie that's frue. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. The the eighties movie isbad enough that it's entertaining. It is
it has in its own way exactly. It's almost if you're a fan of
of of Herbert's novel you you mightwant to check out the nineteen eighties movies.
It was. It was made byDavid Lynch, yes, which is
(04:36):
which is why it's kind of weird. It stars Stem Steam plays a warrior
in it. If you think that'shard to believe, you're right. They
don't pull it off, and that'spart of the fun. But yeah,
they made this massive science fiction filmthat was actually really beautiful. If have
you read the novel, I haveread the novel Man that Dune, and
I guess Dune Messiah follows it.Yeah, there's like three or four after
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superb. It's wonderful superb science fiction. You have a library program, Kaitlin,
let's start with that. You havea new library program that you're started
with the Houston Library, one ofthe best organizations in town. You can
download audiobooks at no extra charge.I don't say free because if you pay
taxes, it's not free, butit's taxes well spent. But you download
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an app called Libby and then youenter your Houston Library card number. In
Libby, it's your passcode, andyou have access to their online library of
audiobooks. I like to sift themthrough as available now. It gives me
the opportunity read the types of historybooks and biographies that I wouldn't necessarily go
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look for. And it's one ofthe best services in down. You can
also download kindle books. It's alldigital. The Houston Public Library has done
a wonderful job of setting this upand they keep improving the system and diversifying
and augmenting their collection. So,Kaitling, this is going to be activities
that are actually going to be happeningat the museum. Our Flipkits is already
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a program that we have, butwe're building on it. So we're going
to make twelve new flip kits,one hundred and twenty in total, because
we're going to have ten copies ofeach. And so, so what exactly
is a flip kit. It's abook plus, so you it's centered around
a book. So it's going tobe, you know, a children's book
that has engaging pictures, good story, language, that kids can fall along
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with to really improve their literacy.And then there's an activity that goes along
with it, instructions for the parentsto follow and really help their kid through
it, so that the parents knowwhat's going on as Yeah, so the
idea is that when you read thestory, you can then do an activity
that helps cement in the story alot more. And it's a neat way
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to engage in literacy practices with yourkids. And again it's all through Houston
Public Libraries. You check out aflipkit. These are in most of the
HPL different branches, including of coursethe Children's Museum of Houston's branch where you
can also get your library card.Nice, you can access all these different
things. But you check it out, you go home, you read the
kit, do the activity, stickit all back in the bag, drop
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it off at your local branch,whatever one is near you. It will
get cycled back over to CMH Children'sMuseum Houston. We will then refresh that
kit and put it back out there, so you use that kit as you
need to at home. We'll makesure that the next person gets a fresh
kit ready to go. So y'allare designing the kits the activity kits.
(07:30):
Yeah, so we choose the books, cool, order a copy, you
read through it, make sure it'sgood. Then we design an activity around
that book, like he said,to really solidify whatever message. These new
ones that we're making are really focusingon culture and religious differences and that sort
of thing, and so these activitiesare really going to solidify learning about this
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new culture with your family at home. Then like he said, you send
it back to the library and thenext family gets a new, fresh kit.
And so are the activities kind oflike book club questions or or they
are they drawings or what kind they'refor kids? So I guess kids.
There are a lot of them arecraft activities. In some cases they are
experiments you can do because it alldepends upon the topic of the book science
(08:16):
exactly. So we have, Imean, and we have you know,
over a hundred of these different bagsthat you can pick up. Uh.
They are in multiple different languages,so if English isn't your first language,
you can grab one of the Spanishcopies. And they also are for a
variety of age levels from babies becauseeven at at you know, infants need
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to be read to, and soit's very very important I mean, do
not forget you know, read toyour infants and read to your third graders,
so it goes all the way up. Has these really fun activities that
you can do with your kids toreally engage with them. My kids loved
it when they were younger, andyou know, it's a great trip to
the library. And again it's free. It is a free product that we
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are providing along with hp L inorder to ensure that we just build literacy
and greater Houston. You know,Literacy Now, which is an organization in
Houston that I've had on the show, has come out with stats about third
graders and their reading labels. Doyou have any idea what the reading level
is like, what percentage of thirdgraders can actually read at third grade level
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when they graduate to fourth grade?It's about thirty percent thirty percent, So
a kor that parents can engage withtheir kids, the better. Definitely,
this is a catastrophic time bomb.It is because to be functionally illiterate,
which means that you'd be capable ofreading menus and basic stuff because of lifelong
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practice. Sometimes that is not enoughto prosper in the kind of job.
They will allow you to have anice home for your kids in a backyard.
You really can't be a manager ina restaurant, which is a great
job and makes you very valuable tothe community, obviously, but you need
to be able to read the forms. And it's just a terrible situation.
(10:05):
I don't think we were talking aboutit a lot, and so I'm really
happy to see y'all do this.I think that any any point of access
just keep putting books in front ofthem. But we've all seen pictures of
kids imitating their older siblings reading andthey're holding the book upside down, which
you've created it more. You've createda mortal habit exactly exactly, and they're
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excited about it. So even ifthey're not reading yet, they can start
and they start recognizing. Yes,the more you read it, even if
they've memorized that book and they canread it back to you at the exact
same pace, they start to recognizecertain letter combinations form a word, and
that word is this word, andthen they're building their literacy. Yes.
And I always like to mention thatif you are listening and you know that
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you're functionally illiterate, and a lotof people feel all ashamed about it,
I don't know if you realize this, but learning how to read, even
as an old man, is actuallypretty easy. This is something that we
really know how to do to teachpeople how to read. And it's never
too late. It wouldn't even takeyou very long. You can just take
night courses for a few weeks.You would be floored by how fast your
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you know, the amount of literacythat you know is transformed into complete literacy,
and that opens the door for forjust about anything you're willing to put
your your your elbow grease to.So check it out. All these programs
and all the other things that theChilren's Museum of Houston is up to is
available online, so as you listenalong, check out Cmhuston dot org.
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Cmhuston dot org. You are listeningto Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs
show. My name is Laurent andmy guests are from the Children's Museum of
Houston. Kitlyn Dougherty is their ExhibitsDevelopment Coordinator, and Keith Osfeld aka mister
O is the director of Educational Technologyand Exhibit Development for the Children's Museum of
(11:56):
Houston. I started off the showI want to go back to how clean
and I made the places because Idon't think people who have never been through
the Children's Museum if you don't understandwhen I compare it to an experience at
Disney World, It's true. Ifyou've ever been, if you've had the
privilege of going to Disney World,you know how clean it is, how
the sets are just beautiful. Youfeel like you've walked onto a movie set
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and you could just sit there justlooking at it and not even counting the
activities. And the fact is theChildren's Museum is like that. You'll have
a bunch of different biomes quote unquotethere actually some of them are biomes.
The yes they are, literally wedo. But but every every floor is
a different arrangement, and you movefrom world to world exactly. And I
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mean even when you walk into ourmain hallway. We are going to have
our brand new seasons of Sharing exhibits. Yeah, we brought up earlier,
and we're really really excited about becausewe've gotten a chance to completely redo it.
Things to the Lily founda Lily Endowmentand Caitlin can definitely talk a lot
about this incredible transformation we've been doing. Tell us about these rich people with
a lot of money that are spendingon educational purposes. I don't know what's
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wrong with these people, no,but seriously an example of the philanthropy that
absolutely so. The Lily Endowment verygenerously gave us a grant to do a
couple different projects. The first onethat we're rolling out is this New Seasons
of Sharing. So it's an exhibitwe've had for a while, but we're
sort of giving it a facelift.So some of our new additions, we're
including real Houston families that really celebratethese holidays. They're going to be the
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focal point of this exhibit, andso we have their real family photos from
their celebrations hanging on the wall.We've talked with them about, you know,
what activities do you think are goingto be fun for kids to do
that are relevant to your holiday?What objects can we display that are about
your family and that sort of things. We have eight different holidays that we're
representing, so we have eight differentlittle houses that you can visit have really
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fun actias. You have little houses, yeah, so they're little sort of
like house facades that go inside andyou have this many immersive experience of being
someone else's living room to see whatobjects are important to them, what are
their photos that they hang in theirhouse, what games did they play for
their holiday, that sort of thing. Our new addition to Season of Sharing
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is Vasaki, which is a sickholiday, and so that was really exciting
to learn about Sickhism. We gotto work with a family that is a
part of the Good Wara here inHouston. So the good Wara is their
house of worship. It's like youcould equate it to like a church for
Christianity. And so we got tomeet with a family and hear what they
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do for Vasaki, and we gotto learn all about Sikhism from them,
and that was just really enriching andvery fun. And I'm really excited to
share with our visitors how exciting Vasakiis. Yeah, and that's an example
of something that I almost know nothingabout. There is a massive feast and
everyone is welcome. You don't haveto be sick to be a part of
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this community feast and it is justI mean reading about it and seeing the
photos about it, it just it'sit's this lovely and and again it encapsulates
Houston as a whole, like welike you started off the whole show is
that, you know, the wonderfulthing about you know, Houston strong.
When something happens, all Houston comestogether and we do things. And that's
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not to say just here in Houston, but outside of Houston. You know,
when when hurricanes hit places, Houstoncomes together to help someone else out.
And that's definitely what Sickism encapsulates ina great way, is that,
you know, the idea is thatthat they want to be helpful and so
and Vasaki is just one of theirmany that's the celebration of the actual founding
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of Sickhism, as I recall,So it's Vasaki is a celebration of the
establishment of sort of the like fivearticles of articles. Yeah, so the
five articles of faith of sickism,and so their articles of faith are their
outward expressions of being sick. Andso they want everyone to know that they
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are sick, so that other peopleknow that they can come to them for
help. That's that big core tenant. They want to advertise the fact that
they're helpful. Sounds you've probably seensick people they have, you know,
the typical ones are really long hair, really long beard, because some of
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them choose to not cut their hairever as an article of faith, and
they'll wear a head covering kind oflike a turbine to cover their long hair.
They'll carry around a comb to keeptheir hair nice and tidy. So
these are just a couple of thosearticles of faith. And so those are
like the sort of things that we'regoing to display in our Vasaki house,
those articles of faith, so everybodycan learn what those are. And that's
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a big part of Asaki is theyhave a changing of their flag that they
have outside of their good wara.So they have that flag so everyone knows
that that's a safe place to gethelp, get food, enjoy that meal
that Keith was talking about. Theycall that lunger. And so they change
out the flag put up a newone. It's a big ceremony, very
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a big honor to be the personto get to take home and repair the
flag. Okay, Yeah, that'san indebible impression that you're making on little
human beings and they're going to carrythat for the rest of their lives.
It makes indoctrinating them into hateful behaviora whole lot harder. That's the goal.
Yeah, you make friends, You'renot going to attack your friends.
That's just and again, what arepresentation of our humanity in Huston, which
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was a lot about well here,you can stay here and we'll feed you
tonight. You can help us withthe dishes or something like that, and
that's that. That system of serviceto give back after the meal seems also
meaningful. So y'all got this hugeindowment to do this from the Lily endowments.
Yes, but it's not the onlyplace where you're putting their money.
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No, No, we already talkedabout the flip kits. Another big one
that's going be coming now. Thisis coming a little bit farther out.
It's twenty twenty five. Very really, we're going to be opening a brand
new exhibit called Faithful Friends. AndFaithful Friends is all about literally what it
says. It's it's about learning friendshipand learning about other faiths and how to
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be good friends to kids of otherfaiths. So we're going to be having
fifty kids five zero or is roughly, yeah, And so we're working on
that right now. And so you'reexposed to a wide variety of faiths and
this is all kids in Houston.So, in other words, a bit
of the Houston spirit and the exhibitas well. Yes, a lot of
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the Houston spirit. You can goto Cmhuston dot org. Cmhuston dot org
for more information on this and allthe exhibits dific You know, we mentioned
how fun the museum m All thoseall those permanent exhibits are available to you
for free on Thursday evenings. Wehaven't mentioned that yet, but the museum
is open for free to everyone everyThursday night. That's that's someone else's endowment.
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Somebody's paying for this. Well,yeah, we not free funders and
appreciate them all who help bring ustogether. But five to eight pm every
Thursday night, we're open for free. So definitely come on out. You
are welcome, and there are lotsof other ways to get in even during
the normal times of day. Bringyour lone Star card, things like that,
and we will cook with you becausewe believe that every child deserves the
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right to come in and experience theeducation and the fun and the play that
the museum offers. So even ifyou can't come on a Thursday night,
if you have a loan Star cardand other ways, there are multiple ways
that you can come in, andwe are partnered with many of our community
partners, and so we like tosay that inside the Beltway, you're never
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more than a couple miles away fromone of our community partners where you can
get a pass to come in.It's an open doors pass, so you
can get to come in for freewith your family and enjoy the museum.
So definitely take advantage of those sortsof opportunities. If you don't have the
ability, hey, we understand,because again it's this is we're about.
We're about every child. It's notabout the money at the end of the
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day, although that helps, butit's really and truly about every child and
exposing them to the wonders of theworld that we can provide. It's the
best kind of money spending because you'reguaranteeing a peaceful future. Really, if
you interest kids in culture and sciences, and the museum is full of stations
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where you can conduct your own sciencesand build things that are extraordinary. You've
got lasers set up. I mean, we talk regularly. I encourage you
to go to this radio station's websiteand check out another interview I did with
mister o Keith Austfeld, because wetalk about all the crazy stuff they do
and some of it is kind ofcrazy and it's just awesome. But one
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of the coolest things they're doing iscoming up this Friday. It's going to
be for us grown ups. Onthe seventeenth in the evening. You're opening
the museum to grown ups, andgrown ups only even get a couple of
drink tickets to when you buy yourentrance fee. But the whole idea is
that you're letting grownups climb the towerright and with a margarita on their hands.
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It sounds like a great idea,but remember you cannot tell the kids
because they're not allowed twenty one andup only. So it's time for the
grownups to let our inner kid outhave a great time and really just enjoy
the museum without having to, youknow, fight over with the kids to
play. And so we you know, grown ups need to play too,
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and you know, it's it's beingable to go out there and build your
lego cars and to see if youcan lift yourself on the kid lift,
and to explore our eco station,and to go downstairs and invent new things
and having just a wonderful time insidethe museum, you know, just the
adults. So this kind of partyis kind of nice because when I go
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to a museum there's always some kidwith his hand on the level that I
want to pull, and that thiseliminates a problem. If there is a
grown up with the level, youjust hand them a drink. They'll be
distracting a minute ago, and thenyou can have your exhibit back. This
is a great idea. How youfor those of us that don't have kids,
this is the museum for the firsttime. It's not working. I
have I have no shame about it. It was many, many years ago,
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but I walked in on a Thursdayevening when it was free, even
though I have a membership. Iused to and I just walked around all
by myself. I don't I don'tthink it's fun. It's just plain fun
and it's air conditioned unless you're outby the Eco station of flow Works,
which you should definitely visit. Butyeah, I love this idea. I
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can't believe that it's it's new.Right, you're gonna have a you can
have a musician and a DJ.I'm up at DJ. It's Ernie,
yeah DJ, yeah, yeah.I don't think it consider himself from up
but the DJ Ernie will be there. We've got a blues guitarist, one
of the best ones here in Houston. We are gonna have, of course,
you know, vodka. We're gonnahave some bo Chico, We're gonna
have some white bites there, coolfun photo boothsto. It's really about getting
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out and having a little fun withyour friends. And again, as Caitlin
pointed out, it's no kids.So if you don't have kids, it's
okay, come and experience the museum. Maybe you used to come to the
museum as a kid, now's thechance that you get to come back.
Also, I want to rattle offa few things that I think are cool.
At the end of the show inNovember only, they're having a chemistry
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of autumn leaves. So you're gonnarub leaves. Because here's the thing.
A bunch of Houston kids, especiallyif they're from a country where there's not
a whole lot of vegetation around,they have no idea about how the season
changes. They're not gonna learn itfrom our evergreens, although we do have
some to change, okay, AndI guess that must look weird to kids
who don't like what's going on withthat rip. They may not experience that
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in other areas, or they maynot, you know, have ever seen
a tree in some cases which isyou know a little bit sad, but
yeah, or they may you know, it's it's it's it's very different.
Of course here in Houston, wedon't our trees don't start changing till a
little bit later. Yeah, westay very warm and very sunny a lot
longer than the North. So butwe have all these seasonal flowers that are
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and that means millions and millions andmillions of migratory birds and butterflies. Butterflies,
oh yeah, we get them.We are all coming through ecostation,
so always a lot of fun.We've mentioned ecostation without defining it. It
literally is a Houston biome, right, it is. It is a native
native flora and as much as wecan fauna inside just this little fenced in
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area where you can explore that nature, and we also have lots of activities
inside. We have a wonderful educatorthere and so she loves talking about all
the insects and all these She bringsout the insects for you, so yeah,
make sure to ask her about hercockroaches. She loves to show off
her hissing cockroaches. They're clean.They are. People think cockroaches are dirty,
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and they aren't. They're only asdirty in the as the environment they're
running through. So if you seethem fly out of a garbage bin,
yeah, it probably is dirty.But if you see it crawling around your
house, well how clean is yourhouse? That's how clean the little bug
is. Get a cat. Thecats love them. I have a cat,
and I do not need an exterminator. I just need to pick up
the bug pieces every once in awhile. There's one. Where's the other
(25:15):
half? Tesla? Where are you? My cat's name is Tesla. I
named her. It was eleven yearsago before the Tesla car became ubiquitous,
and back then people would ask me, oh, after the physicist, you
know, Nicolett Tesla, who iswho? You'll appreciate this kiss. I
was a huge Tesla fan as akid, the physicist who gave us a
(25:36):
CDC and just a genius and anornery man at that. Just absolutely likable
for my personality. So you'll havesome snapping turtles in the turtle, get
some Ridiard sliders, and we gota mud turtle's what's a radio slide?
Ridard sliders. They are the turtlesthat you see like in all the bodies
everything that literally on their necks gesturinglike I said, anyone can see me
(25:56):
on the radio. But they thesered marks and they live everywhere. They
survive just about everything. But wehave three of those that live inside our
pond, along with a mud turtlethat lives under the mud a lot of
the time, so we see himevery so now and then we decides to
make an appearance. He's very youknow, camera shy. I love turtles.
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They carry their house on their back. They're basically submarines. Very often
when they're in the water, allyou see is the beak poking through the
water like a periscope, like asubmarine. They're really extraordinary prehistoric animals.
You'll have an armadillo in there.We do not have. That's another thing
that most people in Houston have neverseen. And the first time they see
an armadillo or a possum, theytend to freak out, especially the possum
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which is so ugly. Is beautifulbut it's ugly, oh yes, oh
yes, and and smelly, Imean, wow, yeah, but awesomely
useful, very awesome. They're scavengersthey eat them. Yep, we need
all these animals. That's the wholepoint of the ecosystem. Caitlin, I
know that you come here hailing fromNew Mexico and then Austin. When you
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arrived at the Chown's Museum to takethis job, what was your first Is
there something that's stuck out as youwas like, Oh my gosh, I
do want to work here. Yeah, absolutely so our kids, Haull.
The very first thing you see whenyou walk in the museum, it's really
grand. We have the beautiful archesthat are full of color, they have
birds in them. You can't helpbut stare up, and it's kind of
(27:26):
inspires this sense of awe. Andmy very first day at work was my
first time I'd ever been in themuseum really, so I definitely was very
excited to see it in person.I saw lots of photos, but it's
nothing like seeing it for real.And it definitely it's a place that makes
you want to play, and it'sa place that makes you want to learn.
Yeah, like that twenty one upnight, I'm super excited to really
(27:49):
explore all of the components. Thetwenty one and up adult Night that she's
talking about is coming up this Friday, the seventeenth. You can get tickets
online and cmhuston dot org. They'reopening the museum only to grown ups,
no kids allowed. It's going tobe an awesome party. Do you have
a favorite exhibit, Kitlin, It'sa hard question. It is what are
(28:11):
some of them? The Seasons ofShariness right now? Seasons of Sharing is
my favorite. No, I thinkof our permanent exhibits. I really like
kid Tropolis. Yeah, yeah,that is a cool place to be.
So we have this mini city inthe museum and kids run the whole place.
They are in charge of the wholecity. Kids get to learn about
(28:33):
civics, they get to learn abouteconomics, they get to try different jobs,
see what maybe they want to besomeday, what they want to be
when they grow up. We havea bank, we have a little mini
h b, we have a newsstation. They could maybe start their own
podcast. Nice. It's a reallyfun place to be and it's always packed.
Kids love it. The kid Tropolisis the only city in the country
(28:55):
that is not corrupt because the childrenare too innocent and they have figured it
out out to do it yet.So the streets are fixed. Everything works.
Go to Cmhuston dot org. Cmhustondot org for more information. We
did not mention they have an awesomerestaurant, So if you like to go
(29:15):
on the free evening every Thursday eveningthe museum is open for free. A
wonderful way to give back to themuseum. Go to their little store and
buy one of those healthy snacks.They've got wings and stuff like that.
But they also have a bunch ofhealthy options. Again, another opportunity to
tach the kids, and they tookit. And that was honestly one of
the things that impressed me the mostbecause I walked in and this was years
(29:37):
ago, but I walked in andkind of disregarded it and I ended up
winding my way through the menu,I guess, and realizing that they had
a bunch of healthy options. Theywere almost prime, the primal options were
healthy. Again, just putting theidea out and become a member because you
(30:00):
you can take your family several timesevery year and it's just a wonderful place
to get your kids to be handson. Everything can be touched and played
with. That's the whole point.Caitlin and Keith, thank you so much
for coming back or Keith for comingback. Kaylen, it was a pleasure
to meet you and folks. Ifyou have any questions related to Houston,
PA, you can just send mean email. Texan from France at gmail
(30:22):
dot com. I'm happy to remindyou that next Friday, the seventeenth is
the grown Up Nights at the DrillMuseum of Houston. Thank you for listening
and caring about the issues I puton this show. My name is Laurence.
I am the Texan from France anda proud Houstonian. This has been
a Houston PA, Houston's public affairsshow. Houston Strong
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, an iHeartMedia broadcast.
Our disclaimer says that the opinions expresson this show do not necessarily reflect those
hell by this radio station, It'smanagement staff for any of its advertisers.
My name is Laurent I am theTexan from France and a proud Houstonian.
(00:27):
I absolutely love this city, andI was just talking about this with my
guests from the Truelan's Museum that ifyou're an immigrant like myself and you move
to the United States of America,there are a lot of places you can
go to where you'll feel welcome.I don't know if there's a place in
the country that will make you feelas welcome as the Houstonians will make you
(00:48):
feel welcome. There's certainly something aboutTexas culture, that's for sure. It's
everywhere in the state. There's anopen mindedness and a curiosity that is endemic
to these people and their culture thatI absolutely love. I've adopted as my
own. I try to do theexact same thing. But there's a can
do attitude and a generosity of spiritin Houston that is unmatched as far as
I know, and of course,I haven't been all over the world,
(01:11):
and I'm a little biased. Ilove Texas and all that, but this
really, truly is a great city, and it's great in philanthropy. It's
very rich in philanthropy. It's oneof the reasons why we have the five
performing arts by top companies in theworld that are still commissioning work. Even
our Houston Opera is commissioning work,which is a rare thing nowadays in the
world of opera. And of coursewe have some of the greatest museums in
(01:34):
town. And one of the funnest, safest places you could go to is
the Chown's Museum of Houston. Theyjust had Halloween. The best place to
take your kids trick or treating.No, I mean, no holds barred.
It really is a wonderful miniature Disneyland. I only say miniature because it's
a lot smaller than Disneyland. Theydon't have a Disney budget, but what
(01:57):
they do with their budget it isabsolutely extraordinary. They've built a clean,
super fun and very very beautiful playgroundfor kids that is so much fun that
honestly, the parents are bound tohave more fun, honestly, and they're
going to have a secret night outfor adults. We'll talk about that.
It's coming up on Friday to seventeenth. They're going to open the Choln's Museum
(02:21):
of Houston just for adults. Youcan buy a ticket, they'll give you
ticket drinks. You're gonna have cocktails. We'll talk about this event and your
Yeah, you're gonna be able togo climb the tower. They have an
amazing tower in the middle of themuseum which is completely safe, but it's
ropes and platforms. It wiggles alittle bit. Even little kids can safely
get up and down this tower,and you know what, it's kind of
(02:43):
impressive. Now. Of course youknow their nets. You can't fall off
this thing, or you really haveto do it on purpose. And there's
flow works out the back, whichis one of the coolest exhibits I've ever
seen. It shows you how wecontrol water, how we canalyze it.
It's like just a mini lesson andone of the most fun attractions in Houston.
And obviously it's really good when it'shot outside, which is a lot
(03:06):
of the time. Anyway, totalk about this and a lot of other
things, including the Season of SharingWonder Week where they celebrate all the religions
that celebrate an event around Christmas orlater, just to show the holiday spirit,
which is again endemic to human spirit. It's everywhere and we must have
something in common. And here totalk about all of this is Caitlyn Dougherty.
(03:30):
She is the exhibit's Development coordinator forthe Children's Museum of Houston and with
her as our friend, Keith Austfeldaka mister Oh, He is the director
of Educational Technology and exhibit Development forthe Children's Museum. He is known as
the geekiest of geeks. We loveto talk about movies when he comes in
here. We might not have timeto do this here, and it's not
(03:51):
a great season for movies. Man. I'm gonna tell you that the Marbles
coming up, well, but nobody'sgonna go see that, man, and
I'm not either. I'm looking forwardto, uh, eventually seeing Martin Scorsese's
new movie, but I'm waiting forthe I want to sit at home because
it's three and a half hours long. It is it is, I agreed,
But we also got Dune coming up. Dune definitely was saying did you
(04:13):
like the first part? Oh?I really did, for it's so much
better than the eighties movie that's frue. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. The the eighties movie isbad enough that it's entertaining. It is
it has in its own way exactly. It's almost if you're a fan of
of of Herbert's novel you you mightwant to check out the nineteen eighties movies.
It was. It was made byDavid Lynch, yes, which is
(04:36):
which is why it's kind of weird. It stars Stem Steam plays a warrior
in it. If you think that'shard to believe, you're right. They
don't pull it off, and that'spart of the fun. But yeah,
they made this massive science fiction filmthat was actually really beautiful. If have
you read the novel, I haveread the novel Man that Dune, and
I guess Dune Messiah follows it.Yeah, there's like three or four after
(05:00):
superb. It's wonderful superb science fiction. You have a library program, Kaitlin,
let's start with that. You havea new library program that you're started
with the Houston Library, one ofthe best organizations in town. You can
download audiobooks at no extra charge.I don't say free because if you pay
taxes, it's not free, butit's taxes well spent. But you download
(05:20):
an app called Libby and then youenter your Houston Library card number. In
Libby, it's your passcode, andyou have access to their online library of
audiobooks. I like to sift themthrough as available now. It gives me
the opportunity read the types of historybooks and biographies that I wouldn't necessarily go
(05:40):
look for. And it's one ofthe best services in down. You can
also download kindle books. It's alldigital. The Houston Public Library has done
a wonderful job of setting this upand they keep improving the system and diversifying
and augmenting their collection. So,Kaitling, this is going to be activities
that are actually going to be happeningat the museum. Our Flipkits is already
(06:00):
a program that we have, butwe're building on it. So we're going
to make twelve new flip kits,one hundred and twenty in total, because
we're going to have ten copies ofeach. And so, so what exactly
is a flip kit. It's abook plus, so you it's centered around
a book. So it's going tobe, you know, a children's book
that has engaging pictures, good story, language, that kids can fall along
(06:23):
with to really improve their literacy.And then there's an activity that goes along
with it, instructions for the parentsto follow and really help their kid through
it, so that the parents knowwhat's going on as Yeah, so the
idea is that when you read thestory, you can then do an activity
that helps cement in the story alot more. And it's a neat way
(06:44):
to engage in literacy practices with yourkids. And again it's all through Houston
Public Libraries. You check out aflipkit. These are in most of the
HPL different branches, including of coursethe Children's Museum of Houston's branch where you
can also get your library card.Nice, you can access all these different
things. But you check it out, you go home, you read the
kit, do the activity, stickit all back in the bag, drop
(07:08):
it off at your local branch,whatever one is near you. It will
get cycled back over to CMH Children'sMuseum Houston. We will then refresh that
kit and put it back out there, so you use that kit as you
need to at home. We'll makesure that the next person gets a fresh
kit ready to go. So y'allare designing the kits the activity kits.
(07:30):
Yeah, so we choose the books, cool, order a copy, you
read through it, make sure it'sgood. Then we design an activity around
that book, like he said,to really solidify whatever message. These new
ones that we're making are really focusingon culture and religious differences and that sort
of thing, and so these activitiesare really going to solidify learning about this
(07:51):
new culture with your family at home. Then like he said, you send
it back to the library and thenext family gets a new, fresh kit.
And so are the activities kind oflike book club questions or or they
are they drawings or what kind they'refor kids? So I guess kids.
There are a lot of them arecraft activities. In some cases they are
experiments you can do because it alldepends upon the topic of the book science
(08:16):
exactly. So we have, Imean, and we have you know,
over a hundred of these different bagsthat you can pick up. Uh.
They are in multiple different languages,so if English isn't your first language,
you can grab one of the Spanishcopies. And they also are for a
variety of age levels from babies becauseeven at at you know, infants need
(08:37):
to be read to, and soit's very very important I mean, do
not forget you know, read toyour infants and read to your third graders,
so it goes all the way up. Has these really fun activities that
you can do with your kids toreally engage with them. My kids loved
it when they were younger, andyou know, it's a great trip to
the library. And again it's free. It is a free product that we
(08:58):
are providing along with hp L inorder to ensure that we just build literacy
and greater Houston. You know,Literacy Now, which is an organization in
Houston that I've had on the show, has come out with stats about third
graders and their reading labels. Doyou have any idea what the reading level
is like, what percentage of thirdgraders can actually read at third grade level
(09:20):
when they graduate to fourth grade?It's about thirty percent thirty percent, So
a kor that parents can engage withtheir kids, the better. Definitely,
this is a catastrophic time bomb.It is because to be functionally illiterate,
which means that you'd be capable ofreading menus and basic stuff because of lifelong
(09:43):
practice. Sometimes that is not enoughto prosper in the kind of job.
They will allow you to have anice home for your kids in a backyard.
You really can't be a manager ina restaurant, which is a great
job and makes you very valuable tothe community, obviously, but you need
to be able to read the forms. And it's just a terrible situation.
(10:05):
I don't think we were talking aboutit a lot, and so I'm really
happy to see y'all do this.I think that any any point of access
just keep putting books in front ofthem. But we've all seen pictures of
kids imitating their older siblings reading andthey're holding the book upside down, which
you've created it more. You've createda mortal habit exactly exactly, and they're
(10:26):
excited about it. So even ifthey're not reading yet, they can start
and they start recognizing. Yes,the more you read it, even if
they've memorized that book and they canread it back to you at the exact
same pace, they start to recognizecertain letter combinations form a word, and
that word is this word, andthen they're building their literacy. Yes.
And I always like to mention thatif you are listening and you know that
(10:46):
you're functionally illiterate, and a lotof people feel all ashamed about it,
I don't know if you realize this, but learning how to read, even
as an old man, is actuallypretty easy. This is something that we
really know how to do to teachpeople how to read. And it's never
too late. It wouldn't even takeyou very long. You can just take
night courses for a few weeks.You would be floored by how fast your
(11:09):
you know, the amount of literacythat you know is transformed into complete literacy,
and that opens the door for forjust about anything you're willing to put
your your your elbow grease to.So check it out. All these programs
and all the other things that theChilren's Museum of Houston is up to is
available online, so as you listenalong, check out Cmhuston dot org.
(11:33):
Cmhuston dot org. You are listeningto Houston, PA, Houston's Public Affairs
show. My name is Laurent andmy guests are from the Children's Museum of
Houston. Kitlyn Dougherty is their ExhibitsDevelopment Coordinator, and Keith Osfeld aka mister
O is the director of Educational Technologyand Exhibit Development for the Children's Museum of
(11:56):
Houston. I started off the showI want to go back to how clean
and I made the places because Idon't think people who have never been through
the Children's Museum if you don't understandwhen I compare it to an experience at
Disney World, It's true. Ifyou've ever been, if you've had the
privilege of going to Disney World,you know how clean it is, how
the sets are just beautiful. Youfeel like you've walked onto a movie set
(12:18):
and you could just sit there justlooking at it and not even counting the
activities. And the fact is theChildren's Museum is like that. You'll have
a bunch of different biomes quote unquotethere actually some of them are biomes.
The yes they are, literally wedo. But but every every floor is
a different arrangement, and you movefrom world to world exactly. And I
(12:39):
mean even when you walk into ourmain hallway. We are going to have
our brand new seasons of Sharing exhibits. Yeah, we brought up earlier,
and we're really really excited about becausewe've gotten a chance to completely redo it.
Things to the Lily founda Lily Endowmentand Caitlin can definitely talk a lot
about this incredible transformation we've been doing. Tell us about these rich people with
a lot of money that are spendingon educational purposes. I don't know what's
(13:03):
wrong with these people, no,but seriously an example of the philanthropy that
absolutely so. The Lily Endowment verygenerously gave us a grant to do a
couple different projects. The first onethat we're rolling out is this New Seasons
of Sharing. So it's an exhibitwe've had for a while, but we're
sort of giving it a facelift.So some of our new additions, we're
including real Houston families that really celebratethese holidays. They're going to be the
(13:26):
focal point of this exhibit, andso we have their real family photos from
their celebrations hanging on the wall.We've talked with them about, you know,
what activities do you think are goingto be fun for kids to do
that are relevant to your holiday?What objects can we display that are about
your family and that sort of things. We have eight different holidays that we're
representing, so we have eight differentlittle houses that you can visit have really
(13:48):
fun actias. You have little houses, yeah, so they're little sort of
like house facades that go inside andyou have this many immersive experience of being
someone else's living room to see whatobjects are important to them, what are
their photos that they hang in theirhouse, what games did they play for
their holiday, that sort of thing. Our new addition to Season of Sharing
(14:11):
is Vasaki, which is a sickholiday, and so that was really exciting
to learn about Sickhism. We gotto work with a family that is a
part of the Good Wara here inHouston. So the good Wara is their
house of worship. It's like youcould equate it to like a church for
Christianity. And so we got tomeet with a family and hear what they
(14:33):
do for Vasaki, and we gotto learn all about Sikhism from them,
and that was just really enriching andvery fun. And I'm really excited to
share with our visitors how exciting Vasakiis. Yeah, and that's an example
of something that I almost know nothingabout. There is a massive feast and
everyone is welcome. You don't haveto be sick to be a part of
(14:54):
this community feast and it is justI mean reading about it and seeing the
photos about it, it just it'sit's this lovely and and again it encapsulates
Houston as a whole, like welike you started off the whole show is
that, you know, the wonderfulthing about you know, Houston strong.
When something happens, all Houston comestogether and we do things. And that's
(15:16):
not to say just here in Houston, but outside of Houston. You know,
when when hurricanes hit places, Houstoncomes together to help someone else out.
And that's definitely what Sickism encapsulates ina great way, is that,
you know, the idea is thatthat they want to be helpful and so
and Vasaki is just one of theirmany that's the celebration of the actual founding
(15:39):
of Sickhism, as I recall,So it's Vasaki is a celebration of the
establishment of sort of the like fivearticles of articles. Yeah, so the
five articles of faith of sickism,and so their articles of faith are their
outward expressions of being sick. Andso they want everyone to know that they
(16:00):
are sick, so that other peopleknow that they can come to them for
help. That's that big core tenant. They want to advertise the fact that
they're helpful. Sounds you've probably seensick people they have, you know,
the typical ones are really long hair, really long beard, because some of
(16:22):
them choose to not cut their hairever as an article of faith, and
they'll wear a head covering kind oflike a turbine to cover their long hair.
They'll carry around a comb to keeptheir hair nice and tidy. So
these are just a couple of thosearticles of faith. And so those are
like the sort of things that we'regoing to display in our Vasaki house,
those articles of faith, so everybodycan learn what those are. And that's
(16:44):
a big part of Asaki is theyhave a changing of their flag that they
have outside of their good wara.So they have that flag so everyone knows
that that's a safe place to gethelp, get food, enjoy that meal
that Keith was talking about. Theycall that lunger. And so they change
out the flag put up a newone. It's a big ceremony, very
(17:04):
a big honor to be the personto get to take home and repair the
flag. Okay, Yeah, that'san indebible impression that you're making on little
human beings and they're going to carrythat for the rest of their lives.
It makes indoctrinating them into hateful behaviora whole lot harder. That's the goal.
Yeah, you make friends, You'renot going to attack your friends.
That's just and again, what arepresentation of our humanity in Huston, which
(17:27):
was a lot about well here,you can stay here and we'll feed you
tonight. You can help us withthe dishes or something like that, and
that's that. That system of serviceto give back after the meal seems also
meaningful. So y'all got this hugeindowment to do this from the Lily endowments.
Yes, but it's not the onlyplace where you're putting their money.
(17:52):
No, No, we already talkedabout the flip kits. Another big one
that's going be coming now. Thisis coming a little bit farther out.
It's twenty twenty five. Very really, we're going to be opening a brand
new exhibit called Faithful Friends. AndFaithful Friends is all about literally what it
says. It's it's about learning friendshipand learning about other faiths and how to
(18:14):
be good friends to kids of otherfaiths. So we're going to be having
fifty kids five zero or is roughly, yeah, And so we're working on
that right now. And so you'reexposed to a wide variety of faiths and
this is all kids in Houston.So, in other words, a bit
of the Houston spirit and the exhibitas well. Yes, a lot of
(18:36):
the Houston spirit. You can goto Cmhuston dot org. Cmhuston dot org
for more information on this and allthe exhibits dific You know, we mentioned
how fun the museum m All thoseall those permanent exhibits are available to you
for free on Thursday evenings. Wehaven't mentioned that yet, but the museum
is open for free to everyone everyThursday night. That's that's someone else's endowment.
(19:00):
Somebody's paying for this. Well,yeah, we not free funders and
appreciate them all who help bring ustogether. But five to eight pm every
Thursday night, we're open for free. So definitely come on out. You
are welcome, and there are lotsof other ways to get in even during
the normal times of day. Bringyour lone Star card, things like that,
and we will cook with you becausewe believe that every child deserves the
(19:22):
right to come in and experience theeducation and the fun and the play that
the museum offers. So even ifyou can't come on a Thursday night,
if you have a loan Star cardand other ways, there are multiple ways
that you can come in, andwe are partnered with many of our community
partners, and so we like tosay that inside the Beltway, you're never
(19:44):
more than a couple miles away fromone of our community partners where you can
get a pass to come in.It's an open doors pass, so you
can get to come in for freewith your family and enjoy the museum.
So definitely take advantage of those sortsof opportunities. If you don't have the
ability, hey, we understand,because again it's this is we're about.
We're about every child. It's notabout the money at the end of the
(20:07):
day, although that helps, butit's really and truly about every child and
exposing them to the wonders of theworld that we can provide. It's the
best kind of money spending because you'reguaranteeing a peaceful future. Really, if
you interest kids in culture and sciences, and the museum is full of stations
(20:27):
where you can conduct your own sciencesand build things that are extraordinary. You've
got lasers set up. I mean, we talk regularly. I encourage you
to go to this radio station's websiteand check out another interview I did with
mister o Keith Austfeld, because wetalk about all the crazy stuff they do
and some of it is kind ofcrazy and it's just awesome. But one
(20:48):
of the coolest things they're doing iscoming up this Friday. It's going to
be for us grown ups. Onthe seventeenth in the evening. You're opening
the museum to grown ups, andgrown ups only even get a couple of
drink tickets to when you buy yourentrance fee. But the whole idea is
that you're letting grownups climb the towerright and with a margarita on their hands.
(21:10):
It sounds like a great idea,but remember you cannot tell the kids
because they're not allowed twenty one andup only. So it's time for the
grownups to let our inner kid outhave a great time and really just enjoy
the museum without having to, youknow, fight over with the kids to
play. And so we you know, grown ups need to play too,
(21:33):
and you know, it's it's beingable to go out there and build your
lego cars and to see if youcan lift yourself on the kid lift,
and to explore our eco station,and to go downstairs and invent new things
and having just a wonderful time insidethe museum, you know, just the
adults. So this kind of partyis kind of nice because when I go
(21:56):
to a museum there's always some kidwith his hand on the level that I
want to pull, and that thiseliminates a problem. If there is a
grown up with the level, youjust hand them a drink. They'll be
distracting a minute ago, and thenyou can have your exhibit back. This
is a great idea. How youfor those of us that don't have kids,
this is the museum for the firsttime. It's not working. I
have I have no shame about it. It was many, many years ago,
(22:18):
but I walked in on a Thursdayevening when it was free, even
though I have a membership. Iused to and I just walked around all
by myself. I don't I don'tthink it's fun. It's just plain fun
and it's air conditioned unless you're outby the Eco station of flow Works,
which you should definitely visit. Butyeah, I love this idea. I
(22:40):
can't believe that it's it's new.Right, you're gonna have a you can
have a musician and a DJ.I'm up at DJ. It's Ernie,
yeah DJ, yeah, yeah.I don't think it consider himself from up
but the DJ Ernie will be there. We've got a blues guitarist, one
of the best ones here in Houston. We are gonna have, of course,
you know, vodka. We're gonnahave some bo Chico, We're gonna
have some white bites there, coolfun photo boothsto. It's really about getting
(23:04):
out and having a little fun withyour friends. And again, as Caitlin
pointed out, it's no kids.So if you don't have kids, it's
okay, come and experience the museum. Maybe you used to come to the
museum as a kid, now's thechance that you get to come back.
Also, I want to rattle offa few things that I think are cool.
At the end of the show inNovember only, they're having a chemistry
(23:25):
of autumn leaves. So you're gonnarub leaves. Because here's the thing.
A bunch of Houston kids, especiallyif they're from a country where there's not
a whole lot of vegetation around,they have no idea about how the season
changes. They're not gonna learn itfrom our evergreens, although we do have
some to change, okay, AndI guess that must look weird to kids
who don't like what's going on withthat rip. They may not experience that
(23:47):
in other areas, or they maynot, you know, have ever seen
a tree in some cases which isyou know a little bit sad, but
yeah, or they may you know, it's it's it's it's very different.
Of course here in Houston, wedon't our trees don't start changing till a
little bit later. Yeah, westay very warm and very sunny a lot
longer than the North. So butwe have all these seasonal flowers that are
(24:07):
and that means millions and millions andmillions of migratory birds and butterflies. Butterflies,
oh yeah, we get them.We are all coming through ecostation,
so always a lot of fun.We've mentioned ecostation without defining it. It
literally is a Houston biome, right, it is. It is a native
native flora and as much as wecan fauna inside just this little fenced in
(24:30):
area where you can explore that nature, and we also have lots of activities
inside. We have a wonderful educatorthere and so she loves talking about all
the insects and all these She bringsout the insects for you, so yeah,
make sure to ask her about hercockroaches. She loves to show off
her hissing cockroaches. They're clean.They are. People think cockroaches are dirty,
(24:51):
and they aren't. They're only asdirty in the as the environment they're
running through. So if you seethem fly out of a garbage bin,
yeah, it probably is dirty.But if you see it crawling around your
house, well how clean is yourhouse? That's how clean the little bug
is. Get a cat. Thecats love them. I have a cat,
and I do not need an exterminator. I just need to pick up
the bug pieces every once in awhile. There's one. Where's the other
(25:15):
half? Tesla? Where are you? My cat's name is Tesla. I
named her. It was eleven yearsago before the Tesla car became ubiquitous,
and back then people would ask me, oh, after the physicist, you
know, Nicolett Tesla, who iswho? You'll appreciate this kiss. I
was a huge Tesla fan as akid, the physicist who gave us a
(25:36):
CDC and just a genius and anornery man at that. Just absolutely likable
for my personality. So you'll havesome snapping turtles in the turtle, get
some Ridiard sliders, and we gota mud turtle's what's a radio slide?
Ridard sliders. They are the turtlesthat you see like in all the bodies
everything that literally on their necks gesturinglike I said, anyone can see me
(25:56):
on the radio. But they thesered marks and they live everywhere. They
survive just about everything. But wehave three of those that live inside our
pond, along with a mud turtlethat lives under the mud a lot of
the time, so we see himevery so now and then we decides to
make an appearance. He's very youknow, camera shy. I love turtles.
(26:17):
They carry their house on their back. They're basically submarines. Very often
when they're in the water, allyou see is the beak poking through the
water like a periscope, like asubmarine. They're really extraordinary prehistoric animals.
You'll have an armadillo in there.We do not have. That's another thing
that most people in Houston have neverseen. And the first time they see
an armadillo or a possum, theytend to freak out, especially the possum
(26:41):
which is so ugly. Is beautifulbut it's ugly, oh yes, oh
yes, and and smelly, Imean, wow, yeah, but awesomely
useful, very awesome. They're scavengersthey eat them. Yep, we need
all these animals. That's the wholepoint of the ecosystem. Caitlin, I
know that you come here hailing fromNew Mexico and then Austin. When you
(27:03):
arrived at the Chown's Museum to takethis job, what was your first Is
there something that's stuck out as youwas like, Oh my gosh, I
do want to work here. Yeah, absolutely so our kids, Haull.
The very first thing you see whenyou walk in the museum, it's really
grand. We have the beautiful archesthat are full of color, they have
birds in them. You can't helpbut stare up, and it's kind of
(27:26):
inspires this sense of awe. Andmy very first day at work was my
first time I'd ever been in themuseum really, so I definitely was very
excited to see it in person.I saw lots of photos, but it's
nothing like seeing it for real.And it definitely it's a place that makes
you want to play, and it'sa place that makes you want to learn.
Yeah, like that twenty one upnight, I'm super excited to really
(27:49):
explore all of the components. Thetwenty one and up adult Night that she's
talking about is coming up this Friday, the seventeenth. You can get tickets
online and cmhuston dot org. They'reopening the museum only to grown ups,
no kids allowed. It's going tobe an awesome party. Do you have
a favorite exhibit, Kitlin, It'sa hard question. It is what are
(28:11):
some of them? The Seasons ofShariness right now? Seasons of Sharing is
my favorite. No, I thinkof our permanent exhibits. I really like
kid Tropolis. Yeah, yeah,that is a cool place to be.
So we have this mini city inthe museum and kids run the whole place.
They are in charge of the wholecity. Kids get to learn about
(28:33):
civics, they get to learn abouteconomics, they get to try different jobs,
see what maybe they want to besomeday, what they want to be
when they grow up. We havea bank, we have a little mini
h b, we have a newsstation. They could maybe start their own
podcast. Nice. It's a reallyfun place to be and it's always packed.
Kids love it. The kid Tropolisis the only city in the country
(28:55):
that is not corrupt because the childrenare too innocent and they have figured it
out out to do it yet.So the streets are fixed. Everything works.
Go to Cmhuston dot org. Cmhustondot org for more information. We
did not mention they have an awesomerestaurant, So if you like to go
(29:15):
on the free evening every Thursday eveningthe museum is open for free. A
wonderful way to give back to themuseum. Go to their little store and
buy one of those healthy snacks.They've got wings and stuff like that.
But they also have a bunch ofhealthy options. Again, another opportunity to
tach the kids, and they tookit. And that was honestly one of
the things that impressed me the mostbecause I walked in and this was years
(29:37):
ago, but I walked in andkind of disregarded it and I ended up
winding my way through the menu,I guess, and realizing that they had
a bunch of healthy options. Theywere almost prime, the primal options were
healthy. Again, just putting theidea out and become a member because you
(30:00):
you can take your family several timesevery year and it's just a wonderful place
to get your kids to be handson. Everything can be touched and played
with. That's the whole point.Caitlin and Keith, thank you so much
for coming back or Keith for comingback. Kaylen, it was a pleasure
to meet you and folks. Ifyou have any questions related to Houston,
PA, you can just send mean email. Texan from France at gmail
(30:22):
dot com. I'm happy to remindyou that next Friday, the seventeenth is
the grown Up Nights at the DrillMuseum of Houston. Thank you for listening
and caring about the issues I puton this show. My name is Laurence.
I am the Texan from France anda proud Houstonian. This has been
a Houston PA, Houston's public affairsshow. Houston Strong
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