Episodes
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September 15, 2025 - Recapping the Emmy Awards, Unbound at King's Chapel, and Jane Eaglen
First up, we recap the 2025 Emmy Awards with Callie Crossley, Culture Show co-host and host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik, Emmy Award–winning arts and entertainment critic and President of the Boston Theater Critics Association. You can find her reviews at Joyce’s Choices.At Boston’s historic King’s Chapel, a new Living Memorial is taking shape to honor the lives of 219 enslaved people once tied to the church. We’re joined by Harmonia Rosales, visual artist and creator of Unbound, and Rev. Joy Fallon, Senior Minister at King’s Chapel.Finally, Jane Eaglen joins us for her take on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.” Jane Eaglen is a Grammy Award–winning soprano, faculty member at New England Conservatory and President of the Boston Wagner Society, explores if there are any traces of traditional opera in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. -
September 12, 2025 - Week-in-Review: Japanese egg salad sandwiches and actress Polly Holliday
Today Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the latest headlines on The Culture Show’s week-in-review.First up: Our local culinary scene. It’s having a moment; in its list of America’s 50 Best restaurants, The New York Times names five from New England. The list includes the upscale Italian fare at La Padrona in Boston’s Raffles Hotel and the modern twist on Irish pub food at McGonagle’s in Dorchester.From there, Banksy strikes again. The artist unveiled a new mural at the Royal Courts of Justice building in London, 48 hours after its discovery, it was removed. The irony: The mural was a commentary on the suppression of freedom of speech.Finally, we remember actress Polly Holliday who was best known as the wisecracking waitress Flo on the 1970s sitcom Alice. She died this week at age 88. -
September 11, 2025 - David Duchovny, a Boston Film Festival preview, and The Kittie Knox Plays
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 Robin Dawson, Executive Director of Boston Film Festival previews the 41st season, which kicks off on September 18th. To learn more go here.Finally Obie Award-winning playwright Kirsten Greenidge joins The Culture Show to discuss “The Kittie Knox Plays.” Presented by Plays in Place in collaboration with MassBike, the series kicks off on September 13th. To learn more about performance times and venues go here. -
September 10, 2025 - Joyce Kulhawik, The Mountaintop, and Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez
Joyce Kulhawik joins The Culture Show 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 Maurice Emmanuel Parent joins us for a preview of Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning play “The Mountaintop. It reimagines events on the night before Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. While a fictional take on events, Hall creates a humanizing glimpse into the civil rights leader’s final hours, The Front Porch Arts Collective is opening its 2025/2026 season with this work. It’s directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent who is also the Porch's co-founder and Producing Artistic Director. To learn more go here.Finally internationally acclaimed artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez joins The Culture Show for an overview of his solo exhibition at Boston University At Galleries, Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá (Not From Here, Not From There).The works on view include over a dozen original paintings that combine acrylic, oil, and custom textiles, with embellishments painted directly onto the gallery walls extending the artwork beyond the frame and into the space itself. The exhibition is on view through December 10. To learn more go here. -
September 9, 2025 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Edward Gorey: The Gloomy Gallery, and Baldwin: A Love Story
Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston, joins The Culture Show to preview this Saturday’s Embrace Massó "¡Con Salsa!” International Music Festival. It’s a celebration of music, culture, and social justice. To learn more go here.From there Molly Schwartzburg joins The Culture Show for an overview of a new exhibition “Edward Gorey: The Gloomy Gallery. It’s on view at Harvard’s Houghton Library through January 12th. Molly Schwartzburg is the Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts. She co-curated this exhibition with Maggie Erwin. To learn more go here.Finally writer Nicholas Boggs joins The Culture Show to talk about his book, “Baldwin: A Love Story.” It's the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, revealing how the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. Tonight Nicholas Baldwin will be at Harvard Book Store. To learn more go here. -
September 8, 2025 - Ben Shattuck, David Baron, and Mariachi musician Veronica Robles
Writer Ben Shattuck’s award-winning story “The History of Sound,” is now a feature length film. Set in World War I, it follows two young men who set out into the woods of Maine to collect folk songs before they vanish. The film is a love story, a time capsule, and a meditation on who gets remembered and how. He joins The Culture Show to talk about adapting his short story to the Silver Screen. “The History of Sound’s” theatrical release in the U.S. is September 12th. To learn more go here.From there writer David Baron joins The Culture Show to talk about his new book The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America. David Baron is an award-winning journalist and author who writes about science, nature, and the American West. While writing “THE MARTIANS,” David Baron served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation.Finally, we get a jump on Mexican Independence Day with Veronica Robles. She and her all-female Mariachi band will perform this Sunday at The Charles Hotel Lower Courtyard in Harvard Square. The celebrations start at 4:00. To learn more go here. Veronica Robles is Mariachi singer, musician and Latin American folkloric dancer and choreographer. She is also the co-founder and Director of the Veronica Robles Cultural Center in East Boston. -
September 5, 2025 - Week in Review: Massachusetts' new flag proposals, South Park, and Giorgio Armani
Today Jared Bowen, Edgar B. Herwick III and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons go over the latest arts and culture headlines on our week-in-review.First up, we look at the redesign of the Massachusetts state flag and seal. More than 1,150 public submissions have been narrowed down to just a few options for further review. From there we move to Florida now where Governor Ron DeSantis is taking his “war on woke” to the streets—literally. His administration has ordered the removal of rainbow crosswalks, murals, and other community artwork across the state, calling them unsafe and politically charged. Finally we remember Giorgio Armani who died this week at 91. Armani changed fashion by making formal wear as comfortable as sportswear, with his signature unstructured jackets and streamlined style. His influence stretched from the runway to the red carpet, building a global brand that came to define modern elegance. -
September 4, 2025 - Sally Mann, Joy Behar, and Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
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. On September 8th Sally Mann appears at the Brattle Theater for an event sponsored by Harvard Book Store. Tickets are sold out but there is a waitlist. Also, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has announced that she’ll appear as part of the Shapiro Celebrity Lectures next February. “My First Ex-Husband” is an adaptation of true stories by Joy Behar, writer, comedienne and co-host of The View. The play explores the messy, hilarious truths of love, sex, and relationships. Ahead of its run at The Huntington Theatre, Joy Behar joins The Culture Show to talk about creating this work. “My First Ex-Husband” is onstage September 12 - September 28. To learn more go here. Finally we continue our series “Countdown to 2026” with Kate Fox, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, which is leading the Massachusetts 250 campaign, and Brian Boyles, the Executive Director at Mass Humanities. He sits on the state's Special Commission on the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution and he co-chairs Everyone 250. To stay on top of all things MA250 go here. -
September 3, 2025 - Adela Goldbard and Pedro Alonzo, Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji, and Mahesh Daas
Independent Curator and Artistic Director of the Boston Public Art Triennial Pedro Alonzo joins The Culture Show with Adela Goldbard. She is an interdisciplinary artist-scholar and educator from Mexico and an Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. They’re previewing Goldbard’s Triennial pyrotechnic performance, which will happen at Boston City Hall Plaza, September 12, at 7:00. To learn more go here. From there mother and son duo Jyoti Mukharji and Auyon Mukharji, join The Culture show to talk about their new collaboration “Heartland Masala: An Indian Cookbook from an American Kitchen.” On September 4th you can catch them at Davoll’s General Store at 4:00 in South Dartmouth, MA. To learn more go here. You can also catch them at Brookline Booksmith on September 5th, more information on that event is here.Finally, Mahesh Daas, president of Boston Architectural College joins The Culture Show for his monthly appearance. Today he’s discussing the art and science of relocating a building, a conversation that was inspired by this story about a church on the move. 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. -
September 2, 2025 - Marianne Leone, Rachel Ruysch at the MFA, and Passengers at the ART
Marianne Leone is an actress, author, and screenwriter. She joins The Culture Show to talk about her novel “Christina The Astonishing," a coming-of-age story about Christina Falcone and her desire to break free from Catholic school nuns, Italian mothers, and small-town Massachusetts. On September 10th she’ll be at Porter Square Books, in conversation with Chris Cooper. To learn more go here. From there we head to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for an overview of their new exhibition “Rachel Ruysch: Artist, Naturalist, and Pioneer.” Antien Knaap, the MFA’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, Curator of Paintings, Art of Europe, and Charles Davis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University join The Culture Show.Finally Shana Carroll, the Co-Founding Artistic Director of the Montreal based circus company The 7 Fingers joins us to talk about “Passengers,” which is written, directed and choreographed by Carroll. “Passengers,” is a kinetic show about train travel as a metaphor for life that blends circus, music, dance and storytelling. It’s onstage at the American Repertory Theater’s Loeb Drama Center through September 26th. It is co-produced by TOHU and ArtsEmerson. To learn more go here.
