The Culture Show Podcast

Conceptual performance artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova is the creator of Pussy Riot. She joins The Culture Show to discuss “Police State” — a museum installation that recreates the conditions of her incarceration through constant surveillance and confinement. The project draws directly from her imprisonment following Pussy Riot’s 2012 protest inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior....

Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone 250 , joins us for his recurring segment AI: Actual Intelligence — a space for original, human insight. This month Jeffries discussed how history, memory, and civic responsibility are shaping current cultural conversations in Greater Boston and beyond. He also previewed Everyone250’s 2026 events to confront erasure...

Tina Statter’s  “Is This A Room” uses the verbatim FBI transcript of Reality Winner’s 2017 interrogation to turn everyday language into gripping drama. Actor Parker Jennings, who plays Reality Winner, and actor Cristhian Mancinas-García, who plays Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor, join The Culture Show to discuss this production, which is now onstage at Apollinaire Theatre Company through January 1...

Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons host our arts and culture week-in-review. First up, the Golden Globe nominations are out, offering a snapshot of where Hollywood’s center of gravity is shifting. The awards bypassed the supposedly gravity-defying Wicked: For Good , while One Battle After Another surged ahead with nine nominations. In a nod to how audiences cons...

The Wheelock Family Theatre brings new life to “Annie,”  the classic musical rooted in the 1924 comic strip “Little Orphan Annie.” Set against Depression-era New York, the show blends breadlines, political intrigue, and a young girl’s unwavering belief in “tomorrow.” Featuring Sky Vaux Fuller as Annie and De’Lon Grant as Oliver Warbucks, they join us to talk about how this production explores resi...

We continue our “Countdown to 2026” series with a preview of  next July’s  Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. It will  headline the Commonwealth’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday. Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and Boston Symphony Orchestra Julian and Eunice Cohen President and CEO Chad Smith join us to talk about what this expanded Fourth of July tradition will mean for the Esplanade an...

Patti Smith, National Book Award–winning author of “Just Kids,” joins The Culture Show to discuss her latest memoir, “Bread of Angels.” The book traces her imaginative postwar childhood, her life with Fred “Sonic” Smith, and the years of loss and renewal that shaped her return to writing and performance. She appears at The Chevalier Theatre on December 17 for a Brookline Booksmith event exploring...

Playwright Sarah Ruhl joins The Culture Show to discuss writing the book for “Wonder,”  the new musical premiering at the American Repertory Theater. Adapted from the bestselling novel and acclaimed film, the production follows Auggie Pullman, a boy with a facial difference navigating the trials of middle school with courage and compassion. “Wonder,” is onstage December 10-February 8, to learn mor...

Edgar B. Herwick III,  Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons  and Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik co-host this week’s arts and culture week-in-review. First up, the 2025 Words of the Year capture a moment shaped by online overload and cultural tension. Dictionary.com chose “67,” Cambridge went with “parasocial,” Collins selected “vibe coding,” and Oxford tapped “rage bait.” Together, they...

Tony Award–winner Matt Doyle brings a burst of holiday warmth to Worcester with “Make the Season Bright,” a concert filled with seasonal favorites. Known for standout roles in “Company,” “Spring Awakening,” and “The Book of Mormon,” Doyle also has deep ties to Massachusetts, where he spent part of his childhood. He joins The Culture Show to talk about returning home, embracing the holidays, and th...

Actor Will Lyman takes on Ebenezer Scrooge in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “A Christmas Carol"at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, stepping into one of literature’s great holiday transformations. His daughter, actor and producer Georgia Lyman, is simultaneously shepherding “Yellow Bird Chase” to the stage with Liars & Believers, a whimsical, family-friendly piece that blends clowning,...

“Stand by Me,”  the classic  coming-of-age film, is turning 40. To commemorate the film’s anniversary, “Stand By Me: The Film and its Stars 40 Years Later,” takes place at the Lynn Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, December 6th. There will be a screening followed by a conversation with three of the film’s stars - Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, and Jerry O’Connell.  Ahead of this event actor and televi...

For nearly fifty years, Peter Drummey has been one of the quiet forces making history accessible. As the longtime Stephen T. Riley Librarian and, most recently, Chief Historian at the Massachusetts Historical Society — the nation’s oldest historical society — he helped generations of researchers navigate one of the country’s richest archives and advised storytellers ranging from filmmakers to the...

Award winning writer and poet Kwame Alexander joins The Culture Show to talk about the PBS Kids debut of “Acoustic Rooster.” Based on Alexander’s beloved children’s book “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band,” the “Acoustic Rooster” universe is now on  PBS KIDS. To learn more, go here . From there the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout joins The Culture Show to talk about her lates...

Boston’s AAPI Holiday Market returns on December 3, 5–8 PM. Organized by The Boston Foundation’s Asian Business Empowerment Council, the event highlights the creativity and entrepreneurship of the region’s AAPI community.  Irene Li and Qingjian Shi join us for an overview.  Qingjian Shi is Senior Director of the Asian Business Empowerment Council at The Boston Foundation, and Irene Li, a celebrate...

Crossword constructor and writer Natan Last joins us to explore his new book, “Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle.”  He traces the evolution of crosswords from early newspaper amusements to today’s culturally expansive grids. Last  is a writer and immigration policy advocate. He writes bimonthly crosswords for “ The New Yorker.”  You can catch him at Harvard...

Chef Pyet DeSpain brings her Indigenous and Mexican heritage to the forefront as she talks about her debut cookbook, “ Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking .” She shares how traditional ingredients and family stories shaped her cooking and her path from winning Next Level Chef to building a career rooted in culture and community. Then, for the first time in 22 years...

Edgar B. Herwick III, Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review.  Greater Boston has officially entered the world of fine-dining prestige. For the first time, the Michelin Guide included the region in its Northeast Cities edition — awarding a coveted star, several Bib Gourmands, and even a cocktails honor. It’s a m...

FRONTLINE and the Associated Press return to Ukraine with “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a gripping new documentary from the Oscar-winning team behind “20 Days in Mariupol.” The film embeds with Ukrainian soldiers fighting to reclaim a village outside Kyiv, offering an unfiltered view of life — and loss — in a grinding, three-year conflict. FRONTLINE’s Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aro...

Mary Grant, president of MassArt, joins us for her monthly episode, “AI Actual Intelligence.” This month she talks about the Department of Homeland Security’s use of Norman Rockwell’s paintings on their social media channels. Then we look at the Florida Highwaymen, the group of Black painters who turned Florida’s wild horizons into some of the most sought-after landscapes of the 20th century. Thei...

Playwright Ins Choi joins us to discuss Kim’s Convenience , his hit play now onstage at the Huntington Theatre Company (November 6–30, 2025). Drawing on his Korean-Canadian upbringing, the story follows a family running a corner store and the cultural and generational tensions that shape their lives. Choi originally played the son and now portrays the father, offering fresh insight into the world...

Serj Tankian, the electrifying voice of System of a Down and a defining figure in alternative metal, steps into a new creative realm with The Art of Disruption: The Art and Impact of Serj Tankian at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. The exhibition, which is on view through Feb 28 2026, blends sound, color, and political urgency—and you can check it out here . Then Nora Burnett Abrams jo...

Today Jared Bowen, Edgar B. Herwick III, and Callie Crossley go over the latest arts and culture headlines.  First up, Pope Leo XIV has revealed his four favorite movies: “It’s a Wonderful Life”  “The Sound of Music,” “Ordinary People”  and “Life Is Beautiful.” He’s sharing his watchlist ahead of the Vatican’s first-ever “Meeting with the World of Cinema,” a Hollywood summit inside the Apostolic P...

Two Boston institutions come together to celebrate the life and legacy of artist Allan Rohan Crite, the city’s great chronicler of everyday Black life. His work—paintings, prints, and illustrations—captured the spirit of the South End and Roxbury for decades. Allan Rohan Crite: Urban Glory is on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum through January 19, and Allan Rohan Crite: Griot of Boston...

The wizarding world returns to the stage as “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” casts its spell on Boston audiences. The Tony Award–winning play follows a grown-up Harry and his son Albus as they navigate family, friendship, and the legacy of magic. Actors Nick Dillenburg and Adam Grant Morrison join The Culture Show to talk about bringing these iconic characters to life at the Emerson Colonial Th...