Episodes
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December 19, 2025 - Week in Review: The Oscars on YouTube, Rob Reiner, and Santa's beard
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 run on ABC and signaling a major shift in how global audiences gather for live cultural events.Plus the entertainment industry gets its annual checkup. UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report tracks who holds power on screen and behind the camera — and finds progress remains uneven, with representation still lagging behind the diversity of today’s audiences.Then, a long-overdue honor for Donna Summer. The Queen of Disco was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, recognized for writing and co-writing the hits that reshaped pop and dance music, from “I Feel Love” to “She Works Hard for the Money” and “Bad Girls.”And, a farewell to Rob Reiner. From playing “Meathead” on All in the Family to directing films like This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally…, Reiner’s work reshaped comedy, romance, and character-driven filmmaking.Finally, we split hairs over splitting hairs – from year-round whiskered Santas and organized beard-natural groups to professional Santas investing in hyper-real yak-hair wigs, the debate over whether Santa should grow his own beard or wear one is very much alive. -
December 18, 2025 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Mary Grant, and Cocktail Guru Jonathan Pogash
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 and reclaim America’s story. To learn more go here. Then Mary Grant, President of Massachusetts College of Art and Design, discusses the mass shooting at Brown University and how colleges are grappling with fear, safety, and institutional responsibility while trying to preserve the independence that defines campus life. She also shared her top list of the memorable arts and culture events of 2025.And we topped things off by topping one off with Cocktail Guru Jonathan Pogash. He returned for his annual holiday visit — offering festive cocktail and mocktail ideas, plus practical advice for stocking a bar and hosting with confidence during the season. Jonathan Pogash is President and Owner of The Cocktail Guru. These are the cocktails he made today Hanukkah Harry Nonalcoholic : POM wonderful pomegranate juice, aquafaba, lemon, turmeric, honey Winter Spice Old Fashioned - Mad River maple cask Rum, home-made winter spice grenadine, bitters Jonathan’sFamous Eggnog - A classic nog w/ Mozart white chocolate, sherry, and Mad River bourbon -
December 17, 2025 - Wednesday Watch Party: A Christmas Carol!
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 versions resonate the most with them and who is their favorite Scrooge. -
December 16, 2025 - Nadya Tolokonnikova, Stefan Jackiw, and Julia Swanson
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. Tolokonnikova’s new book, also titled “Police State” documents the installation and reflects on power, punishment, and resistance. To learn more about her new book, “Police State,” go here.Internationally acclaimed violinist Stefan Jackiw joins us ahead of his chamber music concert this Thursday at the Allen Center in Newton, 7:30 PM, presented by Cherry Street Music. A Boston native who made his professional debut at age 12 with the Boston Pops, Jackiw has built a career spanning major orchestral stages and intimate chamber collaborations. To learn more about this Thursday’s concert go here. Culture Show contributor Julia Swanson returns for her monthly Public Service Arts Announcement, asking whether holiday decorations — lights, inflatables, ice sculptures, and storefront windows — can cross the line from seasonal display into public art. Swanson is a multidisciplinary artist and award-winning photographer, and the creator of The Art Walk Project, a series of self-guided micro tours of public art across Greater Boston. -
December 18, 2025 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Mary Grant, and holiday cocktails with Jonathan Pogash
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 and reclaim America’s story. To learn more go here. Then Mary Grant, President of Massachusetts College of Art and Design, discusses the mass shooting at Brown University and how colleges are grappling with fear, safety, and institutional responsibility while trying to preserve the independence that defines campus life. She also shared her top list of the memorable arts and culture events of 2025.And we topped things off by topping one off with Cocktail Guru Jonathan Pogash. He returned for his annual holiday visit — offering festive cocktail and mocktail ideas, plus practical advice for stocking a bar and hosting with confidence during the season. Jonathan Pogash is President and Owner of The Cocktail Guru. These are the cocktails he made today 1) Nonalcoholic Hanukkah Harry: POM wonderful pomegranate juice, aquafaba, lemon, turmeric, honey Winter Spice Old Fashioned - Mad River maple cask Rum, home-made winter spice grenadine, bitters and Jonathan’s Famous Eggnog - A classic nog w/ Mozart white chocolate, sherry, and Mad River bourbon -
December 15, 2025 - Is This A Room, Marina Abramović, and remembering Rob Reiner
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 18th. To learn more go here.For more than five decades, Marina Abramović has made endurance, vulnerability, and moral responsibility central to performance art. She joins The Culture Show to discuss her new BBC Maestro course, “The Marina Abramović Method: Performance and Presence.” To learn more go here.Boston Globe TV and pop culture critic Chris Vognar remembers actor and director Rob Reiner, he’ll also cut through December’s viewing overload, highlighting holiday films that still deliver, and unexpected titles worth your time. -
December 12, 2025 - Week in Review: Golden Globe nominations, Australia's social media ban, and Charlie Brown
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 consume storytelling now, the Globes also introduced a podcast category for the first time.From there we’re off to Australia, which has passed one of the world’s most sweeping efforts to limit kids’ access to social media, banning anyone under 16 from holding an account. Platforms will be required to identify and remove underage users or face steep fines. The move reflects growing concern over cyberbullying, addictive design, and the mental-health toll of digital culture.Then we remember Napoleon Jones-Henderson, a founding member of the AfriCOBRA collective, leaves behind a towering legacy in Afrocentric art. Working across textiles, sculpture, and mixed media, his vibrant, community-rooted work helped define the visual language of the Black Arts Movement. His death marks a profound loss for art, design, and cultural history.Plus a Nativity scene in Dedham has sparked a loud debate over artistic and political expression. The traditional Holy Family has been replaced by a stark sign reading “ICE was here.” The Archdiocese and ICE officials want the display removed, while the parish priest is holding off — for now.Finally, those unmistakable Vince Guaraldi piano notes are turning 60. What began as a scrappy, low-budget TV special has become the gold standard of holiday storytelling. A Charlie Brown Christmas remains a cultural touchstone, proving that sincerity can outlast spectacle. -
December 11, 2025 - "Annie" at the Wheelock Family Theatre, 10 million seeds at the Native Plant Trust, and Pedro Alonzo
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 resilience, hope, and what it means to rise to the moment. “Annie” is onstage through December 21. To learn more go here.At the Native Plant Trust in Wayland, more than 10 million seeds from rare and endangered New England plants are now preserved—an unprecedented milestone for the nation’s oldest native-plant conservation organization. Sourced from meadows, wetlands, shorelines, mountain slopes, and even military training grounds, these seeds safeguard biodiversity against development, invasive species, and climate threats. Director of horticulture Uli Lorimer joins the show to discuss how this growing seed bank helps protect the region’s ecological future. Uli Lorimer is the author of “The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden.”Culture Show contributor and independent Curator Pedro Alonzo takes us inside the museums of Glasgow and the transformed Frick Collection in New York. After a five-year, $330 million renovation, the Frick has reopened with expanded galleries, restored architectural splendor, and unexpectedly intimate encounters with masterpieces by Vermeer and Rembrandt. Alonzo shares how these spaces balance tradition and reinvention—and what visitors can expect from their renewed cultural impact. -
December 10, 2025 - Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and BSO's Chad Smith, remembering Frank Gehry, and Martin Puryear: Nexus
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 and beyond.Frank Gehry, who died at 96, was one of the most influential architects of his generation, responsible for landmarks like the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and MIT’s Stata Center. Boston Architectural College president Mahesh Daas joins us to reflect on Gehry’s legacy and how his sculptural buildings changed the conversation around architecture. Mahesh Daas is the author of four books including “Towards A Robotic Architecture” and “I, Nobot,” a graphic novella exploring relationships among artificial intelligence, robotics, and cities. Martin Puryear, one of the most important American sculptors — and one of the most significant Black sculptors working today — is known for large, hand-built forms in wood, metal, and wire. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s exhibition, “Martin Puryear: Nexus” gathers major works from six decades. Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair, Department of Contemporary Art, joins The Culture Show for an overview. “Martin Puryear: Nexus” is on view through February 8, 2026, to learn more go here. -
December 9, 2025 - Patti Smith, Charles Dickens at the Parker House, and Elisa Smith
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 the new work. To learn more go here.Susan WIlson, the official house historian of the Omni Parker House, takes us inside Charles Dickens’s remarkable 1867 residency at Boston’s Omni Parker House — the hotel where he rehearsed, wrote, and prepared for readings that sent the city into a literary fervor. She traces how Boston became a temporary home for Dickens and why “A Christmas Carol" still resonates here during the holidays. If you want the full Dickens experience this holiday season, Crescendo Productions is presenting a “A Christmas Carol,” at the Omni Parker house December 19th -December 21st. To learn more go hereBoston-based Americana country artist Elisa Smith recently earned a Josie Music Award for Female Song of the Year for “Nashville Don’t Forget Me,” an honor presented at the Grand Ole Opry. She joins the show to talk about the new recognition and her forthcoming album, “Perfume,” which will be released this spring with a portion of proceeds supporting Rosie’s Place. To learn more go here.
