20 Best Material Culture Podcasts

1. Articles of Interest

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Articles of Interest is a show about what we wear.Produced and Hosted by Avery Trufelman
Host Avery Trufelman
Email ****@articlesofinterest.club
Estimated Monthly Listeners 250k-1M
Recent Guests Jad Abumrad, Nate Dimeo
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 5.3K Avg Length 40 min Format Long form Get Email Contact Get access to full database of 2.7M podcastsCreate podcast lists, export in spreadsheet or CSV file with email contacts and start your podcast outreach in minutes.Sign Up for Free with Email Continue with Google

2. A History of the World in 100 Objects

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Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, narrates 100 programmes that retell humanity's history through the objects we have made.
Host Neil MacGregor
Producer/Network BBC
Email ****@bbc.co.uk
Estimated Monthly Listeners 50k-250k
Apple Rating 4.4/5Apple Reviews 3.3K Avg Length 16 min Format Short form Get Email Contact

3. Material Matters with Grant Gibson

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In Material Matters, host Grant Gibson talks to a designer, maker, artist, architect, engineer, or scientist about a material or technique with which they're intrinsically linked and discovers how it changed their lives and careers. Follow us on Instagram @materialmatters.design and our website www.materialmatters.design Material Matters is produced and published by Delizia Media Ltd.more Host Grant Gibson
Producer/Network Delizia Media
Email ****@grantondesign.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 10k-50k
Recent Guests Leah Jensen, Tom Szaky +7 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 382Instagram 21.1K Avg Length 59 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

4. Curious Objects

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Through interviews with leading figures in the world of fine and decorative arts, Curious Objects—a podcast from The Magazine Antiques—explores the hidden histories, the little-known facts, the intricacies, and the idiosyncrasies that breathe life and energy into historical works of craft and art.more Host Benjamin Miller
Producer/Network The Magazine Antiques
Email ****@themagazineantiques.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 10k-50k
Recent Guests Anika Burgess, Verity Babbs +23 more
Apple Rating 4.9/5Apple Reviews 218Facebook 27.2KTwitter 3.1KInstagram 43.5K Avg Length 46 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

5. The Object

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'The Object' podcast explores the surprising, true stories behind museum objects with wit and curiosity. An object's view of us.
Host Tim Gihring
Producer/Network The Object podcast from the Minneapolis Institute of Art
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 10k-50k
Recent Guests Lee Miller, jeremy messersmith +2 more
Apple Rating 4.7/5Apple Reviews 171 Avg Length 26 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

6. Object

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The histories and meanings behind the art, images, and cultural objects we encounter every day. Hosted by Ferren Gipson, Object explores visual and material culture, offering a fresh lens on how the things around us shape the way we see and experience the world. This podcast explores topics through thematic seasons. object.substack.commore Producer/Network Ferren Gipson
Email ****@substack.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Gerry Bowler, Judith Flanders
Apple Rating 4.2/5Apple Reviews 92 Avg Length 20 min Format Short form Get Email Contact

7. The Materialists

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Archaeology and Material Culture. What does all this stuff say about us?
Hosts Becky Ou2019Sullivan, Nigel Rudolph
Producer/Network FPAN Central
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Andrew Persons, Erica Mollen +4 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 20Facebook 120Instagram 278 Avg Length 42 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

8. Handle with Care

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A podcast by interior designer Adam Charlap Hyman and antiques dealer Laura Kugel, featuring guests who are usually irreverent, often idiosyncratic, and always experts in their corner of decorative arts and interior design. Loosely defined, the field becomes a springboard for conversations spanning art, design, collecting, antiques, theatre, architecture, history, and photography. While the topics may vary, each conversation possesses the same emotional and ideological core: to interrogate the forces that drive our material culture.more Producer/Network Adam Charlap Hyman and Laura Kugel
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Peter McGough, Zack Winokur +1 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 20 Avg Length 35 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

9. Museum of Femininity

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Welcome to the Museum of Femininity, a laid back podcast exploring different aspects of female history and the representation of women in art and material culture My name is Charlotte Appleyard, a graduate with an MA in Art History and Archaeology of East Asia and museum professional. I have a love of Symbolism, Edo period art, fashion history and all things Victorian...more Host Charlotte Appleyard
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 1k-10k
Recent Guests Harriet Mellon, Maria von Trapp +5 more
Apple Rating 4.7/5Apple Reviews 16Instagram 565 Avg Length 34 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

10. The Materialist : A Podcast from At Present

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An exploration of material culture with At Present Founder Marc Bridge. Marc is a Materialist. He loves things -- the things artists make, the things we sell, the things we make part of our our lives.But he was conflicted.Why do things matter? Why do creative people dedicate their lives to crafting them? What does it mean to obsess about what we buy, wear, and put in our homes. Are we destroying our planet, our children, and ourselves through this obsession?

The Materialist Podcast is an exploration of this and so much more...more Host Marc Bridge
Producer/Network At Present
Email ****@gmail.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Monica Stephenson, Randi Molofsky +9 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 10 Avg Length 51 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

11. Michael Backman: Art History & Material Culture

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Exploring the history of the world through the material culture of its people, the nature of collecting, and the role of collectors in the preservation of material culture. See our website www.michaelbackmanltd.com for available non-Western antique artworks, blogs, reels and podcasts.more Host Michael Backman
Email ****@michaelbackmanltd.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Narisa Chakrabongse, Paul Bromberg
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 2 Avg Length 27 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

12. The Mater Podcast

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The Mater Podcast explores materials through the eyes of artists and researchers. Host Maddie Rose Hills invites two guests to speak together about a material central to their practice. We will be speaking with seed keepers, artists, geographers, media theorists, writers, philosophers, archaeologists, and curators about the materials that fascinate them. The podcast is created off the back of Mater, a research project initiated by Maddie in 2021. Mater commissions new writing on the subject of materials, as well as hosting artist interviews and exhibitions...more Producer/Network Maddie Rose Hills
Recent Guests Marcia Bjornerud, Clare Wood
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 1 Avg Length 58 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

13. Curating Memory Podcast

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Curating Memory is a podcast hosted by artist Chloé Duplessis, serving as a platform to elevate ideas and individuals that center the intersections of memory, access and material culture. curatingmemory.substack.commore Host Chloé Duplessis
Producer/Network Duplessis Art
Email ****@reanimate.us
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Recent Guests Carolyn Jones Sullivan, Brenda Mosby +4 more
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 7 Avg Length 43 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

14. Seams Like History

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Every episode Lauretta takes a look at one quilt, the person who made it and the world that they lived in. Equal parts social history, material culture and quilt history. You may not think some stitches and fabric have much to say about history, but you'd be wrong.more Producer/Network Lauretta Allen
Email ****@gmail.com
Recent Guests Elizabeth Ann Bushong, Elizabeth Van Horne Clarkson
Avg Length 34 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

15. the Museum of Where We Are Podcast

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This podcast advances the mission of the Museum of Where We Are, a digital humanities project founded and curated by Joseph Larnerd, PhD, assistant professor of design history at Westphal College, Drexel University, and committed to archiving and sharing meditations on everyday material culture with communities in and outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. One does not need to visit a museum, gallery, or historic home to have meaningful encounters with design and its histories. For more information about this project, please visit themuseumofwhereweare.com.more Get Email Contact

16. Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time

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Stories of the materials used in making art are often as thought-provoking and illuminating as the objects themselves. From The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Immaterial examines the materials of art and what they can reveal about history and humanity. Each episode looks at a single material: paper, clay, jade, shells, and others, exploring the qualities and meanings that are often overlooked.more Host Camille Dungy
Producer/Network The Met
Email ****@camilledungy.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 10k-50k
Apple Rating 4.7/5Apple Reviews 254 Avg Length 37 min Format Medium form Get Email Contact

17. Object Project

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The stuff of history is all around us—it's in what we eat and wear, where we live and play, and how we work and travel. The Object Project is a podcast about material culture and history, produced by history students of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, in Wilmington, NC, and Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte, assistant professor of US history and material culture.more Host Dr. Jennifer Le Zotte
Producer/Network UNCW Public History
Email ****@uncw.edu
Recent Guests Katelin Staton, Nick Shelley +8 more
Avg Length 45 min Format Long form Get Email Contact

18. Minute Book

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Minute Book is dedicated to uncovering the hidden histories, enduring legacies, and often overlooked material culture of fraternal organizations across the United States. Hosted by Heather Calloway and Seth Anthony, each episode offers expert insight into the symbols, stories, and secrets that shape these societies and the people working to preserve them.more Producer/Network Minute Book
Email ****@gmail.com
Apple Rating 4/5Apple Reviews 1 Avg Length 12 min Format Short form Get Email Contact

19. Niche Enough Podcast

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History and material culture, with an emphasis on textiles and fashion. nichenough.substack.com
Producer/Network Ash
Email ****@substack.com
Estimated Monthly Listeners 100-1k
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 2 Avg Length 11 min Format Short form Get Email Contact

20. Made With: A RISD Student's Guide to Stuff

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Materials are all around us, but what happens when they get turned into art and design? In this podcast, students at the Rhode Island School of Design explore some of the mediums, elements, and substances that are used by artists and designers in their work. From conventional artworks on ink and paper to more unexpected ones that involve scent and silence, MADE WITH takes you on a journey into and beyond the studio, one material at a time...more Producer/Network RISD Stuff of America
Apple Rating 5/5Apple Reviews 1 Avg Length 19 min Format Short form Get Email Contact