Facing Failure and the Museum Dedicated to It

Summary

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

  • Why failure is part of the hidden curriculum
  • Why you can’t be creative or innovative without failing [sometimes a lot]
  • How to learn from it, instead of sweeping it under the rug
  • A failure our guest and our host each faced
  • A discussion of the Museum of Failure

Our guest is: Dr. Samuel West, a licensed psychologist (cognitive behavioral therapy) with a PhD in Organizational Psychology. His research focuses on creating climates for innovation by encouraging experimentation and exploration. In 2017 he founded the Museum of Failure showcasing over a 100 innovation failures from around the world. The aim of the museum is to stimulate productive discussions about the important role of failure for innovation and to increase organizational acceptance of failure.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She previously worked in Museum Education at a small museum in New York; and as a PhD student worked for a professor who was a Smithsonian curator.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

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Your Host

Christina Gessler

Dr. Christina Gessler is the creator, show host, and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in U.S. history.
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