Tat’s Life – The secrets behind “Cursed Objects” in gift shops

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What explains the world better? The unattainable relics and archaeological finds that fill museums – or the simple snowglobes, plushies and other knick-knacks in their gift shops? Ahead of a new exhibition Cursed Objects in Museum Shops, curator and Podmasters veteran Kasia Tomasiewicz unearths the true meanings of the souvenirs and objets de tat we often ignore but shouldn’t. Includes discussion of the rubber Charles Duckens, a cuddly Black Death Plague Flea and the Hello Kitty Pearl Harbor collection. • Visit the exhibition Cursed Objects in Museum Shops from 2 May-26 June. Written and presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison. Audio production by Tom Taylor. Produced by Liam Tait. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to the bunker, your morning dose of socio-political elucidation.
0:13.3	I'm Andrew Harrison.
0:14.6	Today we have a bit of culture for you, and specifically a question that should haunt us all.
0:19.8	Does our shared cultural memory truly reside in the paintings, the sculptures, the historic objects,
0:25.3	and the priceless archaeological relics that we enshrine in our museums?
0:29.5	Or is true cultural meaning really in the George Orwell squeaky dog toy
0:32.9	or the cuddly black death play grat that you buy in the gift shop on the way out?
0:37.2	These are the cursed objects that fill our shelves in the basements of our imaginations,
0:42.0	and they are the subject of a brilliant, thought-provoking and very funny exhibition,
0:46.0	cursed objects in museum shops, now open at the Peltz Gallery at Birkbeck College in Bloomsbury, London.
0:52.4	Even better, this is the shared brainchild of a podmaster's veteran, our former producer, Dr Cassia Thomas Aivitz,
0:59.7	who left podcasting for academia and now she's here to talk cursed objects with me.
1:03.6	Cassia, welcome back.
1:04.8	Ah, it's so exciting to be here.
1:06.1	We have missed you.
1:07.1	It hasn't been the same.
1:08.1	Oh, I've missed you too.
1:09.4	Well, let's talk about cursed or cursed objects.
1:12.1	Yeah.
1:12.8	What is a cursed object and why are you fascinated by them?
1:16.3	Well, the choice is yours whether you want to say cursed or cursed.
1:19.1	I'm not going to prescribe that for you.
	...

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