Podcasts
Explore our podcasts
1 – What If? Digital + Culture
Conversations with our members, partners, and friends on the future pathways of digital in culture.
2 – Eucropolis
Produced by MCA, with occasional guest collaborations, a deep dive into the EU policies and projects shaping cultural heritage
2026
What If? Second Episode on Community Engagement
English version below
Nelle ultime settimane abbiamo presentato la nostra nuova serie di podcast, What If? Digital + Culture, dedicata ad esplorare le nuove traiettorie delle tecnologie digitali nel settore culturale.
Dopo il primo episodio, dedicato ai cicli dell’ Innovazione nel settore culturale, abbiamo proseguito la conversazione invitando professionisti e professioniste a condividere le proprie prospettive ed esperienze.
In questo secondo episodio, interamente in italiano, abbiamo dialogato con Erica Picco di Laboratorio Lapsus e con Maura Romano e Filippo Luzi di MeltingPro sul significato di Community Engagement, su come e perché sviluppare pratiche partecipative nel modo più etico possibile e su come le tecnologie digitali possano sostenere questi processi.
Laboratorio Lapsus è un’ Associazione di Promozione Sociale di Milano che da oltre 15 anni opera nel campo della ricerca, della didattica e della divulgazione della storia contemporanea. Sono un gruppo affiatato di ricercatrici e ricercatori che realizza in modo laboratoriale progetti e prodotti culturali. Il loro approccio è dinamico e sperimentale, multidisciplinare e collaborativo.
L’azienda culturale MeltingPro, invece, supporta organizzazioni, comunità e individui in percorsi di crescita e sviluppo a base culturale. Chiamata a collaborare in tutto il territorio italiano è specializzata in Storytelling, innovazione ecologica e rigenerazione creativa.
Episodio 2: Community Engagement – Coinvolgere le comunità
Puoi ascoltarlo su YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ8_c4Ll-Tc&t=1s
Riassunto:
Nell’ episodio la moderatrice Viola Trombetta di MCA dialoga con Maura Romano, Filippo Luzi ed Erica Picco. Dopo una prima definizione nel corso del discorso emerge la necessità di parlare di comunità al plurale, ponendo l’ascolto dei bisogni territoriali e la valorizzazione delle memorie individuali al centro dei processi partecipativi, anche attraverso strumenti come la Public History e i Collection Days. Gli ospiti ricordano come la tecnologia debba essere un mezzo al servizio delle persone e non il fine ultimo, evidenziando le complesse sfide etiche legate alla digitalizzazione delle testimonianze, come visto nel progetto WeHope, l’esigenza di un design inclusivo per persone neurodivergenti come sviluppato nel progetto EFURM e l’importanza di affiancare l’analogico al digitale per non escludere nessuno. Immaginando un futuro ideale, l’episodio si chiude con l’auspicio di maggiori risorse per i lavoratori della cultura e, soprattutto, di un tempo più disteso per costruire relazioni umane autentiche e durature.
__ English version__
Over the past few weeks, we introduced our new podcast series, What If? Digital + Culture, dedicated to exploring the emerging pathways of digital technologies in the cultural sector.
Following the first episode, which focused on Innovation Cycles in the cultural sector, we continued the conversation by inviting professionals to share their perspectives and experiences.
In this second episode, entirely in Italian, we spoke with Erica Picco from Laboratorio Lapsus and Maura Romano and Filippo Luzi from MeltingPro about the meaning of Community Engagement, why and how to develop participatory practices in the most ethical way, and how digital technologies can support these processes.
Laboratorio Lapsus is a non-profit social promotion association based in Milan that has been working for over 15 years in the fields of research, education, and the dissemination of contemporary history. Its close-knit team of researchers develops cultural projects and initiatives through a collaborative, hands-on approach. Their work is characterised by a dynamic, experimental, multidisciplinary, and participatory methodology.
MeltingPro, a cultural enterprise based in Rome, is a team of professionals supporting organisations, communities, and individuals through culture-driven growth and development processes. Working with partners across Italy, the organisation specialises in storytelling, ecological innovation, and creative regeneration.
Resume:
In this episode, MCA’s moderator Viola Trombetta is joined by Maura Romano, Filippo Luzi, and Erica Picco. After establishing an initial definition of community engagement, the conversation highlights the importance of thinking about communities in the plural, placing the listening of local needs and the recognition of individual memories at the heart of participatory practices. Through examples such as Public History initiatives and Collection Days, the speakers reflect on how meaningful engagement can strengthen the relationship between cultural institutions and the communities they serve.
The discussion also emphasises that technology should remain a tool that serves people rather than an end in itself. Drawing on projects such as WeHope, the guests address the ethical challenges of digitising oral testimonies, while the EFURM project illustrates the importance of inclusive design for neurodivergent people. They also underline the need to combine digital and analogue approaches to ensure that no one is left behind.
Looking towards an ideal future, the episode concludes with a shared hope for greater recognition and resources for cultural professionals and, above all, more time to build authentic, long-lasting human relationships.
!! English translation of the conversation transcript: What if ? Second episode English translation. !!
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Stay tuned
Episode 3 drops soon! Follow us on YouTube so you don’t miss it — and get ready to ask your own “what if.”
What If? is produced by Michael Culture, connecting professionals and institutions across the digital and cultural sectors.
What If? Introducing the first Podcast
What if the next exhibition you visit was shaped by an algorithm? What if your museum’s archive could speak forty languages by tomorrow morning? What if the next “revolutionary” tool turns out to be a fad — and the real shift happened somewhere quieter, five years ago?
These are the kinds of questions we want to sit with. Not to answer them neatly, but to open them up.
Today, we are launching What If? — a new podcast series exploring the emerging pathways of digital technology in the cultural sector.
Why this podcast, why now
At our Forum last November, one thing became clear: the cultural sector doesn’t need more hype about digital technology. It needs better conversations about it , ones that hold both the promise and the friction in the same breath.
That’s the premise of What If? Each episode brings together two voices, and asks them to think out loud together. Not a pitch, not a panel. A real conversation about what’s actually changing, what it opens up, and what it demands of us in return.
Every episode follows the same arc:
- Discover — what’s actually happening right now: a tool, a shift, a case worth knowing
- Reframe — what new pathway does this open for museums, archives, heritage institutions?
- Respond — the harder question: what do we do with it, ethically and practically?
Our goal isn’t to leave you with a verdict. It’s to leave you with sharper questions — and a few real ideas you can bring back to your own institution.
Episode 1: What Do We Actually Mean by Innovation?
On YouTube:
Our first episode opens the series with the word everyone in the sector uses and almost no one defines: innovation.
We’re joined by Marc Hernández Güell, founder of La Tempesta, which positions itself as a “translation layer” between technological innovation and cultural commons, and Lluís Bonet, teacher at the University of Barcelona whose research examines digitalization’s economic and organisational logic inside cultural institutions. One brings the practitioner’s view from inside the room with institutions. The other brings a structural, research-based lens on why some organisations embrace change and others quietly stall.
The conversation keeps its aperture wide: innovation as a broad concept, not only a digital one, but narrows to digital specifics whenever it sharpens the point.
We start from a tension both guests have raised independently: the gap between genuine innovation and superficial imitation — the immersive experience that’s really a copy-paste job, the technology installed as window dressing rather than as a real rethink. From there, the episode moves in layers:
- What innovation actually means, in the sector’s own words, before jargon takes over
- The practitioner’s reality — what “translating” between tech and cultural commons actually looks like at the table with an institution, and where the tension between openness and commercial sustainability shows up
- The structural view — why two institutions in near-identical situations can land on opposite responses to the same opportunity, and whether that’s a mindset problem or a conditions problem
- Digital sovereignty — European infrastructure, open-source standards, alternatives to Big Tech — and whether it’s genuinely reshaping institutional decisions or still mostly a talking point
- The reluctance that persists — innovation touches meaning, formats, and business models all at once; which of the three does the sector resist rethinking the most, even when the need is obvious?
- Where AI draws the line — what a responsible boundary actually looks like for a private company embedded in how heritage is accessed and interpreted
And as with every episode, we close on the question the series is named for: what if? — each guest steps back and imagines what a genuinely healthy relationship between innovation and the cultural sector would look like, if we got it right.
It’s less a conversation about tools, and more about the conditions — mental, institutional, and economic — that decide whether innovation actually takes root.
Who this is for
What If? is made for the people navigating this terrain day to day: curators, digital teams, directors, technologists, and anyone in the cultural sector who’s tired of choosing between blind enthusiasm and blanket skepticism. We think there’s a more interesting conversation in between — and that’s the one we’re here to have.
Stay tuned
Episode 2 drops soon. Follow us on YouTube so you don’t miss it — and get ready to ask your own “what if.”
What If? is produced by Michael Culture, connecting professionals and institutions across the digital and cultural sectors.
2023
Podcast EUcropolis x Frequencies – Elefsinian Mystery | Handle with Care
Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a special episode, “Elefsinian Mystery | Handle with Care”, which focuses on the 2023 Beyond the Obvious conference, “Handle with Care | Culture for Social Well-being“, co-organized by Culture Action Europe, 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, and the CultureForHealth project. This international get-together invited practitioners, organisations and institutions, policy-makers, thinkers, researchers, activists and artivists from the cultural, social and health sectors working on topics related to care, well-being, health and culture.
This episode focuses on the significance of care as an ethical and political obligation for our societies and the role culture and cultural professionals can play in this. How can culture and participation in the cultural life of communities nourish the sense of social and individual well-being?
Special guests and contributions from:- Maja Kuzmanović, co-founder of FoAM, a transdisciplinary network working across art, science, nature and everyday life
- Philsan Omar Osman, co-author of Dare to Care: Ecofeminism as a Source of Inspiration
- Angeliki Lampiri, Director of Cultural Training, 2023 Eleusis | European Capital of Culture
- Lars Ebert, Secretary General, Culture Action Europe
- Valeryia Urbanovich, Club Silencio
- Carmen Valero, Red Noses International
- Georgia Georgiou, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, MuseIT project
Episode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe*Correction: In the intro of the podcast, it is stated that the 2023 Beyond the Obvious conference took place in May 2023. The conference took place from 6 – 10 June, 2023.
Music Credits:
Funk Saviour - Ketsa, Can’t Stop We - Ketsa2022
Podcast EUcropolis EP. 4: Data space for cultural heritage – A new frontier
Data and our online presence are increasingly at the center of the public debate: how to organize and protect them? The cultural heritage sector must also ask itself these questions. The European Union’s answer is simple and complex at the same time: the common European data space for cultural heritage.
So, the Europeana Initiative rose up to the task.
This episode explores what the common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage is, what its objectives are and how the sector can benefit from it. Michael Culture is one of the partners in this European initiative. Come on this journey, where three people will accompany us: Harry Verwayen from the Europeana Foundation, Rob Davies from the Europeana Network Association and Marie-Véronique Leroi, chair of the Europeana Aggregators Forum.
This is “A new frontier – Data Space for Cultural Heritage”
CREDITS: This podcast is produced by Michael Culture Association. Michael Culture Association is a European trans-domain network devoted to European digital cultural heritage, from aggregation, protection, preservation, valorisation and reuse, aiming to support the DCH communities. This episode is designed and edited by Marco Fiore (Policy and Project Offier at MCA) and Corinne Szteinsznaider (Coordinator at MCA), with the help of Lorena Aldana (Head of Advocacy at EF).
Thank you for our interviewees and the help in building this whole episode.
To explore further the thematics of these episodes, 00:00 – Intro 01:34 – What is Data? 03:22 – Data spaces: a metaphor 05:00 – Harry Verwayen, Director, EF 12:15 – Rob Davis, ENA 18:28 – Marie-Véronique Leroi, EAF 24:26 – What can you do?
The song tracks present on the episode are copyright-free and available on http://www.pixabay.com.
2023
Podcast EuCropolis x Frequencies – Tales from Culturopolis: Participation and Communities
Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.
This episode focuses on Participation and Communities. Who is being left out of the experience of culture? What is the cultural sector doing to improve the situation? We asked these and other crucial questions to the people from across the sector who are looking critically at the various conditions that affect the right to participate in the city’s cultural life, as well as the various forms of cultural participation.
Special guests:
Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights
Gaia Raisoni from IED Istituto Europeo di Design S.p.A. – Società Benefit
Luca Bergamo, Cultural professional, former Vice-Mayor and deputy Mayor for Cultural Development of Rome
Maud Ntonga (MCA) and Ines Martorell (Dedale) from MEMEX projectEpisode produced and hosted by: Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe
Music Credits: Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa Intermediary: HoliznaCC0 - Ramen, Johnny Ripper - Typing, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View, Daniel Birch - Memories in Color, Daniel Birch - Vast Possibilities Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa
2024
Podcast EUCropolis x Frequencies – Tales from Culturopolis: Diversity
Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.
This episode focuses on Diversity, on the difficulties around invisibility or lack of diversity and on the importance of participation and the decision-making capacity inherent in the design of cultural policies. This area tackles the diversity of identities included in cultural rights (gender, sex, ethnicity, language, origin, background, etc.) and the difficulties that may be encountered with regard to freely experiencing this diversity.
There is a need to tackle the insufficient presence and visibility of diversities in cultural expressions and practices, as well as in participation and the decision-making capacity inherent in the design of cultural policies.
Special guests:
Creative Homeless – An initiative for combating the stigma of being homeless through artistic practice
Jaslyn Reader – Alumni Deakin University, Society of Gender Professionals
Sara Brighenti – Deputy commissioner of the National Plan for the Arts – promoter and co-author of the Porto Santo Charter
Joana Dark (Ariadna Rulló)Episode produced and hosted by: Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe
Music Credits: Musical excerpts from Joana Dark Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa Intermediary: Typing - Johnny Ripper, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View, Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa
2023
Podcast EUCropolis x Frequencies – Tales from Culturopolis: Cultural Work and Sustainability
Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.
Today’s episode focuses on cultural work, with an important focus on the right to work in the cultural sector under decent conditions. How is the work of artists and cultural workers valued and recognised? What inequalities continue to occur in cultural work? How can we ensure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of cultural work and workers? In this episode we have an up close look at the realities of artists and cultural workers across Europe and how they and their allies are fighting for their rights.
Special guests:
Catherine Magnant – Head of the cultural policies department in the European Commission Directorate General for Education and Culture
Noel Kelly – Director of Visual Artists Ireland
Katharina Weinert – Policy Adviser, European Music Council – SHIFT Project
Julia Pagel – Secretary General of the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO)Episode produced and hosted by: Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe
Music Credits: Intro: Funk Saviour - Ketsa
Intermediary: HoliznaCC0 - Ramen, Johnny Ripper - Typing, Daniel Birch - Birds Eye View, Daniel Birch - Memories in Color, Daniel Birch - Vast Possibilities
Outro: Can’t Stop We - Ketsa2023
Podcast EUCropolis EP. 3 – European Year of Youth: a retrospective
The year 2022 was the European Year of Youth: after a difficult period such as the pandemic, European institutions acknowledged the importance of a greater focus on young people, their ideas, and their future. But what has this year dedicated to youth concretely served? And what has been the role of cultural heritage in all this? Welcome to EUCropolis, the podcast by Michael Culture Association. In each episode, we delve into policies and projects that affect the cultural heritage and digital sector in the EU. Today, with the help of Katerina Zourou from Web2Learn and Emilia Sanchez Gonzalez from European Students Association for Cultural Heritage (ESACH), we talk about “European Year of Youth – a retrospective”.
INFO: For any comment or question about the podcast, send an email to marco.fiore@michael-culture.eu
Thanks to Katerina and Emilia for participating in the episode.
SOURCES: ESACH’s site: https://www.esach.org/ Web2Learn site: https://web2learn.eu/who_we_are/kater… European Year of Youth portal: https://youth.europa.eu/home_en President von der Leyen on the European Year of Youth:
• President von der Leyen on the occasi… All the sounds come from the free-licence library of pixabay.com . Go check their work, it is very useful for initiatives like ours.
2022
Podcast EUCropolis EP.2 – A chat with Marie-Véronique Leroi, from French Ministry of Culture
With the Digital Decade, the EU institutions finally recognized the need to steer this sector toward a more sustainable future. But what are the future stakes for digital facing the cultural heritage sector?
In this episode, we met Marie-Véronique Leroi, project manager at the Secretariat General, in the Coordination Service of Cultural Policies and Innovation (SCPCI) of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, France.
She explained to us what is the interest in having a network like MCA and what are the challenges for the next few years in the field of digitization of cultural heritage.
Welcome to EUcropolis, the podcast produced Michael Culture Association: our objective is to delve into the policies and projects that affect the cultural heritage in the European Union.
INFO: For any comment or question about the podcast, please send an email to marco.fiore@michael-culture.eu
Thanks to Marie-Véronique Leroi for participating in the episode.
2022
Podcast EUCropolis EP.1 – New European Bauhaus: a new way?
The New European Bauhaus draws from Europe’s culture and innovation to turn the promise of the European Green Deal into improvements for our daily lives. But what exactly is this European Commission’s project about? And what are the actual positive implications for the cultural sector? This is EUcropolis, the podcast produced Michael Culture Association: our objective is to delve into the policies and projects that affect the cultural heritage in the European Union.
Today, with the help of Gabriele Rosana from Culture Action Europe, we try to see how the NEB initiative started, what are the results and how the cultural sector welcomed this EU Commission project. INFO:For any comment or question about the podcast, send an email to marco.fiore@michael-culture.euThanks to Gabriele Rosana for participating in the episode.
SOURCES: Sneska’s Keynote at Europeana 2021: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08l8f...
Gabriele at NEB FESTIVAL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaotj...
Von Der Leyen talking about NEB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYFoj...
State of the EU Speech 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8eTh...
New European Bauhaus website (main source for the script): https://new-european-bauhaus.europa.e…
All the sounds come from the free-licence library of http://www.pixabay.com . Go check their work, it is very useful for initiatives like ours.
2023
Podcast EUCropolis x Frequencies – Tales from Culturopolis: Digital Environments
Culture Action Europe’s podcast Frequencies and Michael Culture Association’s Eucropolis present a four-part collaboration exploring the current discourse and practice around cultural rights in our communities across Europe. The series focuses on the four focus areas of the 2022 conference Culturopolis, co-organized by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and Culture Action Europe, which brought together researchers, cultural workers, artists and policymakers to exchange ideas and work around cultural rights.
This episode focuses on digital environments. What is the relationship between cultural rights and digital rights? How can digitalising culture on the one hand create new possibilities for access and participation, but on the other create new inequalities?
Special guests:
- Fieke Jansen, Researcher at the Data Justice Lab
- Núria Guiu, Dancer and choreographer – Cyberexorcismo
- La Fera, Fàbrica Digital
Music Credits:
Intro: Funk Saviour – Ketsa
Intermediary: Memories in Color – Daniel Birch, Solace Sighting – Ketsa, Ramen – HoliznaCC0, Vast Possibilities – Daniel Birch, Path to a New World – Lobe Loco
Outro: Can’t Stop We – KetsaEpisode produced and hosted by:
Marco Fiore, Michael Culture Association
Maya Weisinger, Culture Action Europe
