The Culture Show Podcast

Annette Gordon-Reed is renowned for her groundbreaking work on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. She was the first Black person awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History. She was honored with MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and won the National Book Award for “The Hemingses of Monticello.” Jared Bowen recently caught up with her to talk about her latest book, “On Juneteenth,” at the GBH studi...

Today Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik joins us for our recurring feature, Stage and Screen Time–a look at the latest movies and plays in theaters now. Joyce Kulhawik is an Emmy-award winning arts and entertainment reporter and president of the Boston Theatre Critics Association. You can find her reviews on Joyce’s Choices . From there, Culture Show contributor independent curator Pedro Alo...

Today Culture Show co-hosts Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review. First up, Boston University suspends admissions its PhD programs in the humanities and social sciences. From there  something to sing about, Charlestown Rehearsal Studios, home to hundreds of musicians, will stay open and operational  And, something...

Steven Maler, Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, joins The Culture Show to talk about  their upcoming production of  Charles Dickens’  “A Christmas Carol ,”  and how they hope this will become a new holiday tradition. The production is onstage December 8th through December 22nd at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. It stars Will Lymon as Ebenezeer Scrooge, it’s direc...

Something Wicked this way comes in many iterations. First, as the 1995 widely acclaimed book by Gregory Maguire , “ Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West ,”  then as an entire “Wicked”  series, which Maguire has been authoring since 2003, with a forthcoming book to be published next year titled “ Elphie: A  Wicked Childhood .”  Along the way “Wicked” has been  adapted to a Ton...

The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Andris  Nelsons will lead a program featuring world renowned soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Rod Gilfry in “The Brightness of Light”  on November 21, 22 and 23 . This BSO co-commission  is a song cycle based on the letters between painter Georgia O’Keefe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz. It’s composed by Kevin Puts. The program also includes two pieces by Mozart...

Last month Orville Peck played to a sold out show in MGM’s Music Hall. Culture Show host and Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen caught up with him ahead of his performance to talk about his path to country music, what it’s like to be regarded as country music’s most mysterious outlaw and his latest album “Stampede,”  which includes a duet with Willie Nelson about gay cowboy love. From there Christo...

Today on The Culture Show, co-hosts Jared Bowen, Edgar B. Herwick III and Callie Crossley go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review.  First up: The Grammy nominations are out. They’ll go over the snoozers, snubs and surprises. From there they’ll remember Boston’s own jazz giant Roy Haynes. The  pioneering drummer who earned the nickname "Snap Crackle" died this week at ag...

Fresh off his Best Actor Oscar win for Oppenheimer , Cillian Murphy produces and stars in the quiet, contemplative, and powerful film “Small Things Like These.” Based on the book by Claire Keegan, “ Small Things Like These ”  is set in 1985, in a small Irish village just before Christmas. The protagonist, Bill Furlong, played by Murphy, is a devoted husband and father to five daughters. A coal mer...

Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston, joins The Culture Show to talk about his reflections on the 2024 election results. He also recaps Embrace Boston’s 2024 Arts and Culture Summit and he and Jared Bowen share their experiences of both being featured performers in the Huntington Theatre’s production of “ Nassim .”  From there, longtime journalist Carmen Fields joins us to tal...

Susan Fisher Sterling, the  director of The National Museum of Women in the Arts   in Washington, DC, joins The Culture Show to talk about the museum’s vision and recent renovation.  Founded in 1987, it is the first museum in the world dedicated solely to elevating women’s art and creativity.   Boston Poet Laureate Porsha Olayiwola and Bing Broderick  have combined their passions and work experien...

Charles Coe’s Cricket Symphony is a new collection of poetry and music based on the poetry of award-winning African American writer and  musician Charles Coe, with music including original compositions by Ken Field. They’ll perform tomorrow night at Arts at the Armory in Somerville.  Charles Coe and Ken Field join The Culture Show  with a preview and in studio performance. To keep abreast of upcom...

Today on The Culture Show co-hosts Callie Crossley, Jared Bowen and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review. First up: Remembering Quincy Jones. He influenced popular music for half a century, producing the best selling album of all time: “Thriller.” He scored movie soundtracks, he produced television, launching Will Smith’s acting career with “The...

The latest documentary film by Ken Burns, his daughter Sarah Burns and her husband David McMahon is a portrait of an artist as a Renaissance man: Leonardo  da Vinci. As the documentary, Leonardo da Vinci , illustrates, he was a man with infinite curiosity about the world and how it works. His passions and obsessions prompted him to study all manner of the world: from the human heart to the complex...

Think of a world where Tallahatchie County in Mississippi would publicly apologize for the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Or where the descendants of Robert E. Lee can come together with descendants of people enslaved by the Lee family. Where they all call it celebration, and make plans for another one. That world exists. It’s happened. And Susan Glisson was key to those efforts. She helps peo...

Thomas Wilkins , the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s artistic partner for education and community engagement and vocalist Renese King join The Culture Show to talk about the BSO’s tribute to Duke Ellington concerts, which includes a free concert on Friday, November 8 at 7 p.m. The performance will take place at Boston’s Basilica in the Mission Hill neighborhood. The all-Duke Ellington program marks th...

Growing up in Southbridge, Massachusetts the acclaimed playwright Mfoniso Udofia rarely saw stories about Africans and African Americans that felt true to her own family. Inspired in part by August Wilson’s Century Cycle, she set out to create a cycle of nine plays that follows one Nigerian American family through three generations.  Titled  the Ufot Family Cycle , all nine of those plays  will be...

November 1, 2024 - Week in Review: Martha Stewart, Teri Garr, and Mariah Carey's early return

St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston will transform into a clandestine location for six intimate performances October 31st through November 2nd, of Concert Theatre Works’ production of “Secret Byrd,” an immersive musical experience celebrating the music and activism of English Renaissance composer William Byrd.  Presented by Revels, this is how Byrd intended for his Mass for 5 Voices to be sung- for wor...

Subject:Matter , the Boston-based tap ensemble joins The Culture Show to perform and preview their debut jazz album “Songbook,” which will be released on November 8th. They will  also be performing at the ICA  on November 8. Ian Berg, a choreographer, composer and founder of Subject:Matter, Dance Captain Sam Emmond and Subject:Matter Music Director Max Ridley discuss it all with Jared Bowen. From...

Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson, Executive Producers of FX’s “ American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez ,”  join The Culture Show to talk about adapting his story to a 10-part limited series. From there Linda Weld, who is a board member of the Associates of the Boston Public Library and co-chair of the Hundred-Year Retroactive Book Award joins us to talk about their Hundred-Year Retroactive Book awar...

Contemporary painter, sculptor and installation artist Titus Kaphar  has built a reputation for grappling with history and racism  and for  exploring whose stories get told, and whose don’t. Now he’s working with a larger canvas–the movie  screen–to tell his story.  His debut film, “ Exhibiting Forgiveness, ” is in theaters now. Kaphar joins The Culture Show to talk about this film, which is about...

First up: Actor Idris Elba has a 10 year plan to bolster the film industry in Africa. Born in London to a Ghanaian mother and Sierra Leonean father, he’s  on a mission to do this right by moving to several countries, from  Accra  to Zanzibar, making  sure a new generation of filmmakers can tell stories beyond slavery and trauma. Then, If you’re over 40 -years old, no mistletoe for you. Hallmark ha...

Writer Raj Tawney ’s work largely reflects his multiracial American upbringing. Born to an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian American family, Tawney has explored his identity and family history through personal essays, a memoir and now  he’s applying the edict “write what you know” to his forthcoming young adult novel, “All Mixed up.”  It’s a coming-of-age story that follows a friendship forged be...

Today we’re having another edition of countdown to 2025, as in  countdown to the first Boston Triennial of public art , which  opens next year.  It’s curated by Culture Show contributor Pedro Alonzo who is also the Artistic Director of the triennial.  It will feature d ozens of  large-scale public art commissions by local, national and international artists, which includes the acclaimed street art...