Aug 27, 2026 · 43 min · 9 segments
Send us Fan Mail How do you lead a rural history museum in 2026? What does that look like in practice? And how does our contemporary work vary to…
Kate Arnold-ForsterGuest
Ollie DouglasHost
Joe VaughanHost
Welcome back to Absolute Units, the official podcast of the Museum of English Rural Life.
I'm Joe Vaughan, the museum's social media manager, and my co-host is Dr. Olly Douglas, the museum's curator of collections.
Last time, we began our conversation with Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of the MERL and of the University of Reading's Museums and Collections.
We chatted about Kate's journey at the beginning of her career into museums, the context in which she first encountered the MERL, and the wider significance and potential of university museums in particular.
This time, we continue chatting with Kate and really bring things up to the present.
We reflect on the Merle's major redevelopments in the last two decades into becoming the museum you know and love today and what Kate thinks is in store for our museum in the future.
Read the full transcript.
Create an account to read the whole episode, search across every transcript, and follow the shows you care about.
Welcome back to Absolute Units, the official podcast of the Museum of English Rural Life.
I'm Joe Vaughan, the museum's social media manager, and my co-host is Dr. Olly Douglas, the museum's curator of collections.
Last time, we began our conversation with Kate Arnold-Forster, Director of the MERL and of the University of Reading's Museums and Collections.
We chatted about Kate's journey at the beginning of her career into museums, the context in which she first encountered the MERL, and the wider significance and potential of university museums in particular.
This time, we continue chatting with Kate and really bring things up to the present.
We reflect on the Merle's major redevelopments in the last two decades into becoming the museum you know and love today and what Kate thinks is in store for our museum in the future.