Creepy, Crawly, and Full of Mysteries
KUOW’s new podcast uncovers stories behind Burke Museum’s incredible specimens
By Sarah Stackhouse January 25, 2025
Did you know the Burke Museum is home to more than 16 million artifacts? From dinosaur bones to preserved sea otters, to teeny-tiny shells, the place is packed with natural history that helps tell the story of our planet. Now, there’s a podcast to go with it: Spectacular Specimens, a new series from KUOW in collaboration with the Burke, explores the stories these specimens reveal about life on Earth.
Hosted by KUOW producer Brandi Fullwood and a voice familiar to many Seattleites, Paige Browning, the podcast is designed for kids (ages 8-12 is the sweet spot) and grown-ups who still nerd out over fossils and beetles. Each episode takes listeners behind the scenes at the Burke. “We pretty much open up the drawers and closets and freezers and really whatever the Burke will let us open,” Fullwood told KUOW. “And we talk to each other about a bunch of animals that we learn about.”
The first three episodes are out now:
- Fierce Behind the Fluff takes a closer look at sea otters, deceptively cute with a reputation for being scrappy survivors.
- A 66-Million-Year-Old Mystery asks: What happened to Fly By the Triceratops? The team uncovers clues from ancient rocks to solve this prehistoric case.
- The Flesh-Eating Cleanup Crew highlights dermestid beetles, tiny insects that play a vital role in keeping museum specimens clean for study.
“There’s a lot of mystery, and that’s what science is all about,” Browning says. “Because you have a hypothesis, you think you know what might have happened, and then you search for the answers.”
The podcast also comes with a free activity book.
One of my favorite exhibits is in the Our Material World gallery — a wall that shows how long our waste (tires, clothing, pill bottles, apple cores, etc.) sticks around. It’s sobering and endlessly fascinating.
The Burke Museum, located on the University of Washington campus, is home to working labs, Northwest Native art, and cultural artifacts from around the globe. It was founded in 1885 by a group of teenagers inspired by Seattle’s rapid transformation.
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