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Cultural Peeps Podcast

Cultural Peeps Podcast

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Hello and welcome to the Cultural Peeps Podcast. My name is Iain Wheeldon and I’m a Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University. This Podcast series is part of an ongoing project which explores different careers across the cultural sectors. I really want this series to do three things; The first aim is to help people understand the huge range of ever-changing job profiles that now exist across these complex and interconnected sectors. The second is aim is to help people interpret job titles in the context of different venues and organisations – often, jobs with the same title can be radically different depending on the organisation. The third aim is to help listeners understand that the people that make up any field of work are all human and are ultimately making human decisions, and that in turn plays a significant part in their unfolding careers and decision making processes.All rights reserved Art
Episodes
  • Episode 51 - Rachael Wragg (Heritage Stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral)

    Episode 51 - Rachael Wragg (Heritage Stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral)
    Jul 1 2026
    Today’s guest is Rachael Wragg, a Heritage Stonemason at Lincoln Cathedral. If you are on Instagram, you might know Rachael from her award-winning account ‘TheGingerMason’, which has over 100,000 followers. After Rachael starting the account as an online portfolio to showcase her work during her apprenticeship, it rapidly gained a huge following through which she now shares the skills, challenges and quirks of life as a Cathedral stonemason. Her unique perspective gives viewers a really interesting glimpse of spaces around the Cathedral that most people never get to see – so it’s definitely worth checking her TheGingerMason account. Rachael initially went to university to study Fine Art and we talk about the difference between apprenticeships and Higher Education University degrees – and how she felt pressure, like many of her peers at that point in her life to follow a traditional Higher Education route, which she retrospectively says was probably not the right choice for her at that time. After a period of working in retail, and painting portraits to supplement her income, she was sent an advert by a friend for a trainee stonemason apprenticeship at Lincoln Cathedral, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Her application was successful and she started retraining in her late 20’s, gaining an NVQ in banker masonry (level 2 & 3) which she then followed with a Foundation Degree in Historic Building Conservation & Repair with the Cathedral’s Workshop Foundation. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Historic Building Archaeology alongside her job at the cathedral. LINKS: Lincoln Cathedral: https://lincolncathedral.com/ Cathedral mason named Traditional Craftsperson of the Year: https://lincolncathedral.com/latest-news/cathedral-mason-named-traditional-craftsperson-of-the-year/ Stonemason using social media to showcase craft: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cn43zlnr9lwo Heritage skills reward for Rachael Wragg: https://englishcathedrals.co.uk/latest-news/heritage-skills-reward-for-rachael-wragg/ Women’s Hour: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jkqzfx Bath College: (Stonemason Qualifications): https://www.bathcollege.ac.uk/ Moulton College: https://www.moulton.ac.uk/subjects/stonemasonry London (Building Crafts College): https://thebcc.ac.uk/stonemasonry/ York (Stonemason Qualifications): https://www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/study/stonemason-apprenticeship-level-2 CWF (Cathedrals’ Workshop Fellowship): https://www.cwfcathedrals.co.uk/
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    43 mins
  • Episode 50 - Tony Butler OBE (CEO of Derby Museums)

    Episode 50 - Tony Butler OBE (CEO of Derby Museums)
    Jun 24 2026
    My guest today is Tony Butler OBE, the Executive Director at Derby Museums – an independent organisation that is made up of 3 venues; The Derby Museum and Art Gallery, The Museum of Making & Pickford’s house. In our chat, Tony describes how he discovered Museum work through volunteering before then going on to undertake a master’s programme in Museology at the University of East Anglia. Tony then went on to work as Curator of Human History Isle of Wight Council Museum Service before joining Ipswich Museum as the Public Services Manager. He then took a pay cut to move to the Museum of East Anglian Life (now the Food Museum) – so that he could start to influence the changes he wanted to see in the sector. In our chat we also talk about Tony’s experience on the Clore Leadership Programme, through which he spent with The Friends of the Earth and the New Economics Foundation learning about their approaches and initiatives. During this period, he also read ‘Bowling Alone’ by Robert Putnam and saw an influential TED talk by Martin Seligman. Tony realised that he could combine all these elements together to potentially create high levels of environment care and wellbeing within the Museum. After speaking at a conference about wellbeing and enterprise he made a connection with the Paul Hamlyn foundation who offered to fund the Happy Museum Project – which went on to fund organisations to develop networks and think about how their museums could act as a place to support wellbeing. We also chat about Tony’s work as a trustee at Kids in Museums and Foundation Derbyshire – and how these additional roles can be a source of nourishment as well as a way of keeping yourself fresh and inspired. Finally, we talk about the future of Museums – and specifically what this looks like from a regional perspective. This conversation was recorded in April 2026 and is an edited version of a longer conversation. As usual, I’ve included links to the different organisations and projects we discuss in the show notes, and you can also learn more about both this episode and the wider project on the Cultural Peeps WordPress site. If you enjoy the show, please like and subscribe to receive future episodes and updates. That’s it from me for now, I hope you enjoy our chat! LINKS: Derby Museums: https://derbymuseums.org/ Derby Museum and Art Gallery: https://derbymuseums.org/museum-and-art-gallery Museum of Making: https://derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making Pickford’s House: https://derbymuseums.org/pickfords-house Foundation Derbyshire: https://foundationderbyshire.org/ Kids in Museums: https://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/ Happy Museum Project: https://happymuseumproject.org/ Happy Planet index: https://happyplanetindex.org/ Seymour mace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Mace Bowling alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone Martin Seligman Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology The Food Museum (Formerly the East Anglian Life Museum) https://foodmuseum.org.uk/ Ipswich Museums: https://www.ipswichmuseum.co.uk/ Isle of Wight Council Museum Service: https://www.ipswichmuseum.co.uk/ National Postal Museum: https://www.postalmuseum.org/ Clore Leadership Programme: https://www.cloreleadership.org/ Glasgow Life Museums: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums
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    59 mins
  • Episode 49 - Alex Evans (Founder & Director of Larger Us)

    Episode 49 - Alex Evans (Founder & Director of Larger Us)
    May 14 2025
    This episode features a chat with Alex Evans, the founder and executive Director of ‘Larger Us’, which is a community of change-makers who share the aim of using psychology for good – to bridge divides, build broader coalitions and bring people together. Alex is the author of "The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren't Enough?", which is a book about the how power of deep stories can help us unlock transformational change. This is a text I’ve used with my own students when exploring the power storytelling. Alex has also previously worked as a Campaign Director at Avaaz, the 50-million-member global citizens' movement. He’s also worked in the UN Secretary-General's office on climate and sustainability, and as Special Adviser to two Secretaries of State at the Department for International Development. In our chat we explore the highs and lows of Alex’s fascinating journey and what that led him to set up Larger Us back in 2018. This chat was recorded over zoom in October 2024, a few weeks before the US general election – so, you’ll hear that mentioned a couple of times. I want to thank Darren Kelsey for connecting me with Alex and I also wanted to give a shout out to the Larger Us Podcast – which has some fantastic guests and explores how we can become a larger us, rather than an us and them society – that’s definitely worth checking out. Links: Larger Us: https://larger.us/ Larger Us Podcast: https://larger.us/ideas/?podcast The Good Apocalypse Guide: https://goodapocalypse.substack.com/ Get Out the Vote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_out_the_vote Dave Fleischer (Larger Us Podcast): https://www.buzzsprout.com/1738464/episodes/8465284-3-how-to-change-people-s-minds-with-dave-fleischer Daryl Davis (Larger Us Podcast): https://www.buzzsprout.com/1738464/episodes/15989624-how-to-get-a-white-supremacist-to-leave-the-kkk-with-daryl-davis McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/uk/overview Greenpeace UK: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/ Loving the Enemy (Article by Alex Evans): https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/author535-alex-evans.html Environmental Technology Imperial College): https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-taught/environmental-technology/ Institute for Public Policy: https://www.ippr.org United Nations: https://www.un.org/sg/en Baroness Amos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Amos,_Baroness_Amos Claire Short: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Short Hilary Benn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Benn Department for International Development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_for_International_Development#:~:text=Three%20former%20British%20Prime%20Ministers,Foreign%2C%20Commonwealth%20and%20Development%20Office The Centre on International Cooperation: https://cic.nyu.edu/ Dami Makinde: https://www.socialchangeinitiative.com/dami-makinde Building a Larger Us: Five Questions for Change-Makers (pdf download): https://www.larger.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Building-a-Larger-Us.pdf The Myth Gap (Alex Evans Book): https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/435427/the-myth-gap-by-alex-evans/9781909513112 Activists throw soup on Van Gogh painting again (BBC Article): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c243v5m0r0lo The WI: https://www.thewi.org.uk Unison: https://www.unison.org.uk/ Parent for Future: https://parentsforfuture.org.uk/ Elizabeth Oldfield: https://www.elizabetholdfield.com/
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    1 hr and 10 mins
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