In this pinball museum, the art is meant to be touched (with Evan Phillippe)

Vote for Call 'Em Like Museum in the 2026 Signal AwardsAt the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California, there are very few "don't touch" signs. In fact, this unique collection actually relies on visitors' touch to keep things running smoothly."They actually function better when they're getting played a lot," says Evan Phillippe, the museum's executive director. "They seize up and they freeze when they don't ... The more they get played, the happier they are." Today on Call 'Em Like Museum, Evan talks about the myriad challenges of maintaining the world's largest playable pinball collection, including what to do with the 1,200 machines that don't fit in the current space. He explains how the museum educates visitors through rooms like "Beyond the Backglass," the first exhibit to celebrate women's contributions to pinball engineering, art, and software. Plus: The small army of volunteers that keeps the games working, what kids who grew up with iPads think of pinball, and the downsides of being thrifty as a nonprofit museum operator. Full transcript of this episodeSubscribe to the newsletterThis episode was hosted, produced, and edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPodListen to "Buzzers and Bells," my original short audio story about the Pacific Pinball Museum, on Twenty Thousand Hertz Chapters00:00 Introduction03:01 Evan's First Museum Memory07:12 A Tour of the Pacific Pinball Museum11:46 Why It's a Museum, Not an Arcade15:27 Fix-It Nights & Pinball Maintenance21:46 Getting New Generations Into Pinball27:19 Visitor Reactions & Pinball Nostalgia33:17 Investing in the Museum's Future40:50 Museum Inspiration & Tiny Details of JoyMusic: www.purple-planet.comImages:Museum exteriorVideos:Suzanne Ciani on Omni: The New Frontier