Time Travel: From Giant Millipedes to Modern Landscapes with New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
Release Date: 05/28/2025
Everyone Wants to be Included in the Story of New Mexico: The Wonders on Wheels Mobile Museum
Encounter Culture
New Mexico is the fifth largest state, making access to art, history, and culture at museums or historic site difficult for many. The Wonder on Wheels mobile museum traverses the state to bring art and history directly to small towns, villages, and Pueblos, ensuring everyone can participate in the rich cultural conversations so central to New Mexican identity. The exhibition inside the thirty-eight-foot RV changes annually and this year, the eight New Mexico State Historic Sites tell the state’s story across centuries, from 1150 to the early twentieth century. The staff pack rich history...
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Behind the Mic and Between the Pages: Sharing Award-Winning Stories and Season 9 Preview with Emily Withnall & Andrea Klunder
Encounter Culture
In anticipation of another rich season of New Mexico history, art, and culture, El Palacio editor and Encounter Culture host Emily Withnall and producer Andrea Klunder reflect on a year of award-winning storytelling. From earning national recognition for both the podcast and the magazine to the art of curating New Mexico’s most compelling voices, Andrea and Emily share what it takes to craft stories that resonate across time and place. They also look ahead to a new season of conversations with artists, historians, and cultural stewards. Plus, tune in to hear about a few...
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Connecting People Through Time - Makowa: The Worlds Above Us with Misha Pipe and Kaela Waldstein
Encounter Culture
For as long as humans have been on this earth, we have looked to the cosmos for information and direction. The Indigenous people of North America used the skies to make sense of their environments and to guide them in planting crops, building villages, and conducting ceremonies. The new exhibition at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, Makowa: The Worlds Above Us, showcases a wide range of art, photographs, videos, and more to center the wisdom and longevity of Native astronomy and to remind us that we are all interconnected. On this episode of Encounter Culture, guest consultants for...
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Uplifting Cultural Knowledge with Navajo Picture Book Author Daniel Vandever
Encounter Culture
On the surface, Diné author Daniel Vandever’s picture books might appear to be straightforward stories, but the messages about the power of imagination and adventure in his books are imbued with layers of meaning. In his book Fall in Line, Holden!, a little boy breaks free from the constraints of rules and discipline by using his imagination. On a deeper level, the book speaks to the history of Indian Boarding Schools in pushing cultural assimilation. Likewise, in his wordless picture book Herizon, a girl goes on a magic scarf ride to find her lost sheep. This book is imbued with...
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Time Travel: From Giant Millipedes to Modern Landscapes with New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
Encounter Culture
A long, long time ago, the region that is now New Mexico was part of a giant land mass, and it was located on the equator. The climate was warm and tropical and much of the present-day state was covered in shallow seas. This was long before humans or even dinosaurs existed—252 to 541 million years ago. The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science has recently opened a new permanent exhibition, The Bradbury Stamm Construction Hall of Ancient Life, that covers the vast geologic history of ancient life in the state. Piecing together the story of ancient life in New Mexico can...
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BONUS: Ancient Life (There's No Shame In Extinction)
Encounter Culture
What did New Mexico look like before the time of the dinosaurs? The 3,000-square-foot Bradbury Stamm Construction Hall of Ancient Life at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science tells the story of 300 million years of evolution featuring never-before-seen fossils from ancient fish, amphibians, invertebrates, reptiles, and more uncovered across the state. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the exhibit being contructed in the weeks before its grand opening with Spencer Lucas, Curator of Paleontology, and Matt Celeskey, Curator of Exhibits. (Then go see the exhibit fully...
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Exhibition Design, 3-D Modeling, and Clown Chess Sets at New Mexico Highlands University with Lauren Addario and Becca Sharp
Encounter Culture
The Media Arts & Technology department at New Mexico Highlands University is a one-of-a-kind program. Students not only learn about technology and design, but they get to implement their ideas, working from brainstorming and mind mapping to exhibition design and installation, interactive displays, and so much more. NMHU professors Lauren Addario and Becca Sharp join Emily Withnall to talk about their program and their 20-year partnership with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, including their exhibition design at many of DCA’s Historic Sites. This partnership and internship...
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The American Mystique of the Cowboy Boot with Deana McGuffin and Jes Márquez
Encounter Culture
New Mexico Arts runs a Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program that pairs masters in a particular art form with apprentices so that a wide variety of arts unique to New Mexico can be passed on. In this episode of Encounter Culture, host Emily Withnall chats with bootmakers Jes Márquez and Deana McGuffin about their experience with the Apprenticeship Program and the wonderful challenge of making beautiful cowboy boots. Mentioned in this Episode: We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a...
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La Virgen de Guadalupe: Photographing a Cultural Icon with Delilah Montoya and Katie Doyle
Encounter Culture
The Virgin of Guadalupe is a cultural icon with deep roots in Mexican and Chicano communities across the United States and Mexico, among other places. Artists in New Mexico often reference Guadalupe in their work—including Chicana artist Delilah Montoya. A mixed-media piece, “La Guadalupana,” by Montoya features a large photograph of the Virgin of Guadalupe as tattooed on the back of an incarcerated man. It is one of the many works of art on display at New Mexico Museum of Art’s Vladem Contemporary as a part of their “identity” theme in Off-Center. Katie Doyle, assistant...
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Boots, Books, and the Vast Unknown: Season 8 Preview with Emily Withnall and Andrea Klunder
Encounter Culture
Join host Emily Withnall and producer Andrea Klunder for a preview of the upcoming 8th season of Encounter Culture. This season features diverse topics, including an interview with artist Delilah Montoya, a tour of the brand-new Ancient Life exhibition at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, a conversation about children's books with author Daniel Vandever, and a deep look inside the art of bootmaking. “It's cool to think about art in that way, you know, to create beauty from nothing. It starts as an idea and then all of a sudden you have this beautiful object that you've...
info_outlineA long, long time ago, the region that is now New Mexico was part of a giant land mass, and it was located on the equator. The climate was warm and tropical and much of the present-day state was covered in shallow seas. This was long before humans or even dinosaurs existed—252 to 541 million years ago.
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science has recently opened a new permanent exhibition, The Bradbury Stamm Construction Hall of Ancient Life, that covers the vast geologic history of ancient life in the state. Piecing together the story of ancient life in New Mexico can read like a detective story, and Matt Celeskey, Curator of Exhibits, and Spencer Lucas, Curator of Paleontology, help us unravel it.
Mentioned in this Episode:
New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science
The Bradbury Stamm Construction Hall of Ancient Life
Before the Famous Fossils: Ancient Life in the Paleozoic Era in New Mexico article in Spring 2025 issue of El Palacio
Video walkthrough of exhibition in its final stages of construction
Gordodon reptile fossil found near Alamogordo
Eoscansor tree-climbing reptile fossil found near Chama
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We’d love to hear from you! Let us know what you loved about the episode, share a personal story it made you think of, or ask us a question at elpalacio@dca.nm.gov. You can write a regular email or record a short voice memo and attach it for us to listen to.
Visit newmexicoculture.org for info about our museums, historic sites, virtual tours, and more.
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Encounter Culture, a production of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, is produced and edited by Andrea Klunder at The Creative Impostor Studios.
Hosted by Emily Withnall, editor at El Palacio Magazine
Executive Producer: Daniel Zillmann
Technical Director & Post-Production Audio: Edwin R. Ruiz
Recording Engineer: Collin Ungerleider and Kabby at Kabby Sound Studios in Santa Fe
Editor & Production Manager: Alex Riegler
Associate Producer & Editor: Monica Braine (Assiniboine/Lakota)
Theme Music: D’Santi Nava
Instagram: @newmexicanculture and @elpalaciomagazine