Episodes
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July 29, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party - Terminator 2: Judgement Day
For this month’s Wednesday Watch Party, Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show co-host Callie Crossley, host of GBH’s Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, and Joyce Kulhawik, the Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment reporter and president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, to revisit James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Thirty-five years after its release, the film’s imagined 2029 is now just three years away. The conversation considers how its vision of artificial intelligence looks from 2026, whether the sequel surpassed the original, and how the digital breakthrough that helped define the film compares with the AI now reshaping Hollywood. -
July 28, 2026 - Emily Wilson on The Odyssey, Kevin Nealon, and Laurie Anderson
Emily Wilson, professor and chair of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses how her acclaimed translation of The Odyssey helped shape Christopher Nolan’s approach to Homer’s hero. Nolan singled out Wilson’s opening line—“Tell me about a complicated man”—as a key reference point for the film. Wilson considers what the blockbuster preserves or leaves behind as it brings the ancient epic to the screen, and why her translations of The Odyssey and The Iliad have transformed the way modern readers encounter Homer. Her forthcoming book is Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature.Kevin Nealon looks back on helping define a memorable era of Saturday Night Live, his eight seasons on Weeds and the unpredictable celebrity conversations of Hiking with Kevin. He also discusses returning to stand-up with his latest special, Loose in the Crotch, ahead of his August 1 performance at the Wilbur.Laurie Anderson, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient who carried New York’s experimental downtown into the pop charts, concert halls and major museums around the world, discusses a Berkshire summer that spans the full range of her groundbreaking career in music, performance, film, storytelling and technology. She has added new work to her long-term MASS MoCA installation and makes her Tanglewood debut with Amelia and What War Is This? on August 13, the Lou Reed Drone on August 16 and The Republic of Love that evening. -
July 27, 2026 - Kerri Maher on Summer of Love, Hany Farid, and Fazendo a América at the MFA
Kerri Maher discusses her new novel, Summer of Love, which moves between 1967 San Francisco and the present, tracing how the freedoms, ambitions and upheavals of one generation shape the next. Digital forensics pioneer Hany Farid has spent his career determining whether photographs and videos are real. He joins Bowen to discuss how AI can fabricate events that never happened, cast doubt on genuine evidence and make even an expert question his own eyes. Farid is the Donald Knuth Professor of Computation and Just Communities and a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College, as well as co-founder and chief science officer of GetReal Security.Fazendo a América: Rosângela Rennó and Histories of Memory and Migration in Brazil explores migration between Brazil and the United States through photographs shaped by loss, displacement and reinvention—and asks what is preserved, obscured or erased from personal and political history. Kristen Gresh, the MFA’s Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh Senior Curator of Photographs and curator of the exhibition joins us before it closes August 2. -
July 24, 2026 - Week in Review: The Odyssey, the FIFA World Cup Finals, and Jimothy
This week on The Culture Show, Co-host CAllie Crossley is joined by Culture Show Culture Show contributors Joyce Kulhawik and Lisa Simmons. 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. Lisa Simmons is Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council.Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey — The film earned a record $52 million for IMAX during its opening weekend as audiences traveled to the limited number of theaters equipped to show it in 70mm. The release has also lifted sales of Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s epic past one million copies in the U.S.The World Cup’s biggest images — The final drew a record U.S. audience of nearly 63 million viewers, while Donald Trump’s appearance in Spain’s trophy celebration set off competing edits from FIFA and the White House. A newly resurfaced 2007 photograph also shows Lionel Messi bathing an infant Lamine Yamal during a UNICEF charity shoot.The Louvre reopens the Apollo Gallery — Nine months after thieves stole $102 million in crown jewels, the museum has reopened the gallery without its display cases or surviving treasures. Visitors can now see the gilded room and the window the thieves used to enter.Jimothy takes over the internet — Seattle’s unusually shaped raccoon now has a Roku video game, a bobblehead and an appearance on the White House social media feed. -
July 23, 2026 - George Saunders, Claire Foy, and Steve Sweeney's "Townie"
Bestselling author George Saunders joins The Culture Show to talk about his novel “Vigil.” Set over a single night, the book follows Jill “Doll” Blaine, a long-deceased guardian figure who keeps watch over a dying oil executive, returning Saunders to the moral and metaphysical terrain familiar from “Lincoln in the Bardo.” Actress Claire Foy joins The Culture Show to talk about her film, “H Is for Hawk”, adapted from Helen Macdonald’s bestselling memoir. Known for performances defined by restraint and emotional precision, Foy reflects on inhabiting grief, solitude, and endurance in a story that unfolds through the training of a goshawk.Boston comedian and actor Steve Sweeney joins The Culture Show to talk about his film “Townie,” which is drawn directly from his Charlestown upbringing. Known for comedy rooted in working-class Catholic culture, Sweeney uses the neighborhood as a lens on loyalty, memory, and what it means to stay put as a place — and a city — changes. -
July 22, 2026 - Chef Aidan McGee, Gonzalo Grau, and 100 years of Regina Pizzeria
What Boston learned from its World Cup party: The matches were in Foxborough, but the celebration filled Boston’s pubs, hotels and streets. Aidan McGee, chef and partner at The Dubliner and McGonagle’s Pub, reflects on the Tartan Army, extended closing hours and how Boston can keep its newly activated party gene alive. Gonzalo Grau returns to Boston: Venezuelan-born pianist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Gonzalo Grau brings together Venezuelan rhythms, Latin jazz, flamenco and classical music. Grau and Plural perform a free concert July 25 at Long Live Roxbury, followed by a July 30 appearance with Alex Alvear and the Ecuadorian Council. Both shows support the Massachusetts United for Venezuela Fund. Regina Pizzeria celebrates 100 years: From the lines outside its original North End location to slices served across the region, Regina Pizzeria has become part of Boston’s culinary identity. Corporate chef Mark Murphy joins us to discuss its charred, chewy crust, century-old traditions and the challenge of preserving a hometown institution as it grows. -
July 21, 2026 - Anne Packard: An Artist's Resolve, Gus Constantellis, and Fiddlehead
Filmmaker Arthur Egeli and producer Judith Richland discuss their documentary portrait of Provincetown painter Anne Packard, following her path from a single mother of five to one of Cape Cod’s most celebrated artists. The film screens July 26 at the Woods Hole Film Festival and August 11 at the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.Comedian Gus Constantellis remembers his late mother, Julia, whose cooking, sharp opinions and appearances in his viral videos made her beloved by his online audience. The cookbook brings together 75 Greek recipes with stories about family, comedy and grief. Find more from Constantellis at ConstantlyGus.com.Fiddlehead vocalist Patrick Flynn and guitarist Alex Dow discuss the Boston hardcore band’s new EP, Baby I’ll Change, and the family, loss and community behind their music. Fiddlehead plays the Middle East Upstairs on July 29, a free show at the Lynch Family Skatepark on August 1 and Roadrunner on November 13. -
July 20, 2026 - Los Lobos: Native Sons, I Am Teddy Roosevelt, and Dave Herlihy
Co-directors Doug Blush and Piero F. Giunti discuss Los Lobos: Native Sons, a new documentary tracing the East Los Angeles band’s 50-year journey through rare archival footage, performances and intimate access. The film screens July 26 and 29 at the Woods Hole Film Festival.Bestselling author Brad Meltzer introduces young readers to the conservationist president in I Am Teddy Roosevelt, the latest picture-book biography in his Ordinary People Change the World series.Former O Positive frontman and Northeastern professor Dave Herlihy talks about returning to songwriting and finding an online audience with “Good Trouble,” his homage to civil rights icon John Lewis—and performs the song live in the studio. -
July 17, 2026 - Week in Review: Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, frozen yogurt, and the World Cup finale
On this edition of The Culture Show, Co-host Callie Crossley and contribbutors Lisa Simmons, and James Sullivan go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines. Lisa Simmons is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council. James Sullivan is a journalist and author specializing in popular culture and Americana. He’s also on the Emerson faculty.Christopher Nolan’s $250 million epic, “The Odyssey,” opens July 17 after earning widespread praise for its scale and ambition. Shot entirely with IMAX film cameras, it will screen in 70mm IMAX at only a limited number of theaters. The Michael Jackson biopic “Michael” has become the first biographical film to pass the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, despite criticism that it sanitizes Jackson’s legacy and objections from members of his family. Holden Caulfield turns 75 — J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye helped define the modern voice of adolescence. Its alienated narrator remains an enduring—and contested—American literary figure, recognized by generations of readers for his contempt for adult pretense.Frozen yogurt gets a wellness-era makeover — Froyo is back, with protein, probiotics and gut-health claims replacing the low-fat marketing of earlier crazes. The latest renaissance is being fueled by wellness influencers, stylish new shops and consumers looking for a health-conscious indulgence.The World Cup final expands into a global entertainment spectacle — A closing ceremony featuring Post Malone, Jennifer Hudson, Tom Cruise and other stars will precede Sunday’s match. Madonna, Shakira, BTS, Justin Bieber, Burna Boy and more will then perform during the tournament’s first-ever halftime show. -
July 16, 2026 - David Duchovny, Edward Gorey, and Simon Curtis
Award-winning actor, director, singer-songwriter and bestselling author David Duchovny joins The Culture Show to discuss “About Time: Poems,” a collection that reflects on love, family, aging, and the shifting nature of time. From there Molly Schwartzburg joins The Culture Show to talk about Edward Gorey and how Harvard’s Houghton Library has acquired never before seen Gorey illustrations. These works reveal how his time at Harvard shaped his sensibility. Molly Schwartzburg is the Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.Finally acclaimed filmmaker Simon Curtis joins The Culture Show to talk about directing “Downton Abbey:The Grand Finale.”
