The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City has been getting lots of love lately. Earlier this month, the New York Times profiled the museum. Now the always-entertaining Bullseye podcast, hosted by Jesse Thorn, offers a 10-minute analysis of the museum by Lawrence Weschler, author of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology -- a book primarily about the Museum of Jurassic Technology and, more broadly the history and role of museums. 

Weschler describes the “sense of freefall” you get from walking through the museum. “You knock on the door and usually it’s closed,” he says. “But if it happens to be open and you enter, it’s dark inside. It’s like some old Victorian natural history museum…and it’s filled with the most unbelievable stuff you’ve ever seen. Unbelievable because it turns out it’s not quite true…or maybe it is…or maybe some of it isn’t true. There’s just a lot of slippage going on.”

He says that the delight from the experience comes from “the difference between ‘wondering at’ and ‘wondering whether.’”

“There’s a thrill, a vertigo, a delight of being conned,” Weschler says, “We know that’s true from rollercoasters. Why would anybody put themselves through that? Because it’s kind of fun to have the bottom pulled out from under you. The bottom is pulled out from under you constantly at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. That’s where that place lives.“

You can stream the podcast here:

Mini Episode: Lawrence Weschler on the Museum of Jurassic Technology by Bullseye with Jesse Thorn