The Culture Show Podcast

Samuel Barber’s Vanessa is a psychologically charged American opera centered on denial, obsession, and self-deception. Premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958, the work earned composer Samuel Barber the Pulitzer Prize for Music. The Boston Symphony Orchestra , in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera , will be performing Vanessa for the first time in BSO history, conducted by Andris Nelsons, w...

Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Greenblatt joins The Culture Show , to talk about his latest book, “ Dark Renaissance:The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival .”  It traces the meteoric rise and violent end of Christopher Marlowe—playwright, poet, spy, and heretic—whose genius endures today.   From there, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore ...

Dennis Lehane, known for writing literary crime novels such as “Mystic River,” “Gone, Baby, Gone,” and “Shutter Island,” joins The Culture Show to talk about his latest collaboration with Apple TV+, the  crime series “Smoke.”  Created by Dennis Lehane, the nine-episode drama – inspired by true events – follows an arson investigator who teams up with a police detective to stop two serial arsonists....

Author Gish Jen discusses her novel, “Bad Bad Girl.” In this witty and deeply personal work, Jen blends fiction and autobiography to imagine her mother’s life and explore the distance between them — uncovering how storytelling can bridge what family history leaves unsaid.  From there we’re joined by Sam Kissajukian. In 2021 the Aussie comedian quit stand-up, rented an abandoned cake factory, and b...

James Sullivan,  a journalist, author and longtime contributor to the Boston Globe, joins The Culture Show to talk about his book Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs . From there Aisha Muharrar joins The Culture Show to talk about her debut novel “Loved One.” She’s an Emmy Award–winning writer and producer who has worked on “Hacks,” “Parks” and “Recreation,”...

First up, Sally Mann. In 2015 renowned photographer Sally Mann published her memoir “Hold Still,” an inquiry into family history, the American South and the nature of creativity. Now, comes her book  “Art Work: On the Creative Life.”  It is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s irreverent. And it’s refreshingly practical as she guides the reader through her experience and process of being an artist.  From th...

Robert Reich served  in three presidential administrations, including as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. As a professor he has been the ultimate explainer about rising inequality. As a public intellectual he pulls no punches–calling out the bullies:  anyone and any institution that threatens democracy and human decency.  It’s a life’s work on which he reflects in his book “Coming...

It’s a story for the past, present  and future: Charles Dickens’  “A Christmas Carol.”  Though it was a reflection of Dickens’ times, the struggle between selfishness and  selflessness endures. In Ebeneezer Scrooge, Dickens created both an an tagonist and pro tagonist  who went from being a covetous curmudgeon to a repentant man. Today we’re serving up two scoops of Scrooge  with actors David Coff...

Ron Chernow―prizewinning author of seven books, including the National Book Award winner “The House of Morgan,” the Pulitzer Prize winner “Washington: A Life,” and the George Washington Book Prize winner “Alexander Hamilton ” ―joins The Culture Show to talk about his new biography “Mark Twain . ”      From there we talk to National Geographic Explorer  in Residence Tara Roberts. She joins The Cult...

The United States has a National Recording Registry — a list of more than 600 recordings that have been deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress. GBH’s The Culture Show is digging deep, one recording at a time, with our recurring segment SOUND FILES.  In this edition, Keith Lockhart with the acclaimed orchestra Boston Pops waxes operatic about his lov...

In the Victorian era, Charles Dickens was more than a famous author — his public readings of A Christmas Carol turned literature into live spectacle. His great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens, carries that tradition forward with a one-man performance of the holiday classic. Touring internationally since the early 1990s, he joined The Culture Show to talk about literary inheritance, live sto...

On this edition of The Culture Show, 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, Hollywood’s biggest night is getting a new home. The Academy Awards will leave broadcast television and stream exclusively on YouTube beginning with the 101st Oscars in 2029, ending a more than five-decade ru...

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...

Today we commune with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Jared Bowen,  Callie Crossley, and Edgar B. Herwick III co-host this month’s Wednesday Watch Party and revisit all the screen lives of  “A Chistmas Carol.”  Dickens’ tale has been adapted hundreds of times — from silent films and mid-century classics to animated versions, musicals, and comic riffs. The hosts ask listeners what...

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,...