Kyle Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large, I'm Kyle Kellams, and I am happy to say, like many Wednesdays in 2025, this Wednesday in 2026 includes Becca Martin Brown and “The Other Way”. Becca, welcome back to the show.
Becca Martin Brown: Thank you so much. I’m so sorry I’ve been AWOL.
Kellams: Well, where have you been?
Brown: Well, I got sucked into a project.
Kellams: No one that knows you is surprised.
Brown: Yeah, yeah. I finished up. I was doing audio theater with Northwest Arkansas Audio Theatre. We finished that up. And then it was Christmas. OK, great. And then I decided to do a project at my day job at the Museum of Native American History. There’s a new exhibit about the Spiro Mounds, which is a cultural site in Oklahoma. And the new exhibit had to — some things had to move around. It had to be moved in. And in the course of this, it came to our director’s attention that perhaps we need to redo the audio guide.
Kellams: So what does that mean?
Brown: The audio guide goes with you into the museum. And if you see an artifact you’re interested in, it has a number on it. You poke that number into this thing and it talks to you. And so renumbering all of the artifacts that are on exhibit — the audio guide currently has 141 segments.
Kellams: Mm-hmm.
Brown: And so I’m trying to get them all renumbered in order and then include the new things that have happened since this audio guide was made. And then study up on the Spiro Mounds exhibit. I have no idea if I’m coming or going, but I’m having an awfully good time at it.
Kellams: Well, let me ask you a little bit more about the Spiro Mounds exhibit at the Museum of Native American History in Bentonville. Spiro Mounds, as you mentioned, are in Oklahoma, not that far away from the Arkansas-Oklahoma line. What can we experience when we see the exhibit at MONAH?
Brown: Well, Spiro Mounds, like I said, was a huge cultural center for the Caddo people, but they traded all across the Americas. There are shells in the Spiro Mounds collection. There are conch shells. One rarely finds those in Oklahoma.
Kellams: Right.
Brown: It was this huge cultural center that had a lot to do with all of the Indigenous cultures in this region from about 850 to about 1450. And in the exhibit, you’re going to see 41 unique items, plus masses of beads and pearls, because they loved their beads and pearls. And those artifacts are incredibly rare because the first people to get to the Spiro Mounds in the 1930s were independent contractors — one might call them looters.
Kellams: So the site was quite plundered.
Brown: Before archaeologists from the University of Arkansas and the University of Oklahoma stepped in.
Kellams: They’re on exhibit now?
Brown: Yes, it is part of the permanent collection. And so you can see it anytime you want to. If you want the audio guide, give me a few more minutes.
Kellams: I was about to ask, when can we hear someone tell us about it when we’re at the museum? Not tomorrow. I guess
Brown: I’ll come and tell you about it. I’ll tell you what I know, but I’m still working on what I know.
Kellams: Gotcha.
Brown: You know, it’s so weird. You and I have both spent our lives going, OK, I’ve got an interview at 2 o’clock talking about “The Phantom of the Opera”. Between now and 2 o’clock, I’ve got to know about “The Phantom of the Opera” right now —
Kellams: At least enough to intelligently ask questions. Right.
Brown: Precisely. And then after that 2 o’clock interview, then you write the story — or in your case, you tell the story — and then the stuff you learned about “The Phantom of the Opera” goes merrily off into the back of your head, never to be seen or heard from again.
Kellams: Well, until you’re talking 15 years later when “The Phantom of the Opera” has returned. And then you’ll be surprised at what you remember.
Brown: But remembering it day to day and building on it — like trying to learn about all of the things at the Museum of Native American History.
Brown: My brain is not wired correctly for that.
Kellams: It’s a different sort of discipline, isn’t it?
Brown: It is. And it requires a lot of patting myself on the head while also rubbing my stomach.
Kellams: All right. What are MONAH’s hours?
Brown: MONAH is open from 11 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is always free. Admission to see this new collection is free. And we also have a temporary exhibit of Navajo textiles that are just gorgeous.
Kellams: Online, where can you prepare for your visit and all of that?
Brown: Super easy. monah.org.
Kellams: Monah.org. Now I know you’ve still got a lot on your plate, but you’ll be a regular visitor on Wednesdays, right?
Brown: Oh yeah, I’m going to be back. I think you and I have been talking about the second and third Wednesday of the month.
Kellams: Right. That seems like a happy balance.
Brown: Because we want to be difficult and not do the first and the fourth.
Kellams: And you know, it’s our schedule. Most of the time second and third. Some of the time something else.
Brown: Some of the time something else. We have something really interesting to talk about next Wednesday.
Kellams: And what is that, or can we not tell?
Brown: There’s some big news about Arkansas Public Theatre.
Kellams: OK. We’ll leave it at that. Becca Martin Brown is with us many Wednesdays to go “The Other Way”. Becca, happy new year. Glad we’re going to keep doing this.
Brown: Happy New Year. And thank you guys for waiting for me.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
