Episodes
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April 13, 2026 - Timothy Snyder, Boston Youth Poet Laureate Ailin Sha, and Bill Barclay
Historian and bestselling author Timothy Snyder joins The Culture Show to discuss how democracies weaken, how authoritarianism rises, and what freedom actually requires. Snyder, the inaugural Temerty Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, will be honored on April 26 at the Literary Lights Gala. Boston Youth Poet Laureate Ailin Sha joins us as our National Poetry Month celebration continues. Originally from Beijing and now a first-year student at Harvard College, Sha writes about migration, language, and belonging — themes that have helped shape both her poetry and her public work across the city. As the Boston Symphony Orchestra heads into a major leadership transition, writer, composer, and director Bill Barclay argues that the conversation about classical music audiences is overdue for a reset. He joins us to talk about why he believes the future audience for live classical music is younger than many people think — and about several upcoming performances: the BSO’s Explorer Concert on Beethoven’s Fifth on April 14, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players’ All-Stravinsky program on April 24, and Boston Baroque’s Idomeneo on April 24 and 26. -
April 10, 2026 - Week in Review: The Drama, Rocky Horror on Broadway, and Kanye's comeback
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Joyce Kulhawik, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines, which include: CBS is handing Stephen Colbert’s late-night slot to Byron Allen, marking a sharp change in tone. Colbert made the show a home for biting political comedy; Allen brings a broader, more mainstream style. “The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is generating controversy offscreen as well as on. A24 is facing backlash for marketing the film like a white wedding while delivering something much darker. “The Rocky Horror Show” is back on Broadway, along with the chaos that has always surrounded it. Producers are trying to honor the fishnet-clad fervor and audience call-backs that made it legendary without letting them take over the night. Governor Maura Healey is pushing to keep children under 14 off social media, arguing the platforms are designed to hook young users and expose them to harmful content. The Massachusetts House has already passed a bill that would do that. Kanye West has spent years testing how far his antisemitism and extremism can go. In Britain, he hit a wall: the U.K. barred him from entering the country, helping bring down London’s Wireless Festival. -
April 9, 2026 - Cady Coleman on Artemis II, Pedro Alonzo's London Dispatch, and Igor Golyak on "Our Class"
Cady Coleman joins The Culture Show to discuss Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years, and what the mission represents for the future of deep-space exploration. She reflects on the ambition, risk, and sense of shared purpose that still make a moon mission feel like a true moonshot. Coleman is a retired NASA astronaut, U.S. Air Force colonel, scientist, pilot, and musician. Her latest book is “Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change.”Culture Show contributor Pedro Alonzo returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” with impressions from a recent trip through London’s museum scene. He shares highlights from the city’s current cultural landscape, including a major retrospective devoted to Wes Anderson.Igor Golyak joins The Culture Show to discuss “Our Class,” the award-winning play based on the 1941 massacre of Jews in a small Polish town, and why its story of friendship, betrayal, and violence continues to resonate. He also reflects on what the production’s national success means for a regional theater company. Golyak is founder and artistic director of Arlekin Players Theatre based in Needham. -
April 8, 2026 - Poet Laureate Regie Gibson, Jade Wheeler on "Who is Eartha Mae?" and Mahesh Daas on "The Drama"
Regie Gibson, the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, joins The Culture Show as part of our ongoing celebration of National Poetry Month. A poet, performer, and educator, he discusses bringing poetry off the page and into public life.Jade Wheeler joins The Culture Show to discuss Who Is Eartha Mae?, her one-woman play with music about Eartha Kitt that moves beyond the icon’s public image to explore the woman behind it. Presented by The Hanover Theatre Repertory, Who Is Eartha Mae? is onstage through April 19 at the BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Arts Center in Worcester.Mahesh Daas, president of Boston Architectural College and co-author of the graphic novella I, Nobot, joins The Culture Show for another edition of “AI: Actual Intelligence.” He brings his monthly, algorithm-free perspective to the conversation. -
April 7, 2026 - Béla Fleck, the High Line in New York, and Virginia Pye on "Marriage and Other Monuments"
Nineteen-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck joins The Culture Show ahead of his April 18 performance at The Cabot in Beverly with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez. He talks about musical risk, unlikely combinations, and a career that has taken the banjo from bluegrass to jazz, classical music, and beyond. Richard Hayden, Senior Director of Horticulture at New York’s High Line, joins The Culture Show to discuss the elevated park that transformed an old freight rail line into one of the city’s most influential public spaces. He talks about caring for the gardens that help define the High Line’s identity and what it takes to steward a landscape shaped by both design and self-seeded wildness. Virginia Pye joins The Culture Show to discuss “Marriage and Other Monuments,” her new novel set in Richmond during the reckoning over Confederate memory in 2020, where public conflict spills into the private lives of two sisters and their marriages. She’ll appear at Newtonville Books on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. to talk about the book. -
April 6, 2026 - Elaine Sciolino, Matt Doyle, and Adam Rapp
Elaine Sciolino, former New York Times Paris bureau chief and the author of six books, joins The Culture Show to revisit her 1982 interview with Ali Khamenei, conducted years before he became Iran’s supreme leader, and to reflect on what that encounter reveals now about Iran, power, and history. Her latest book, “Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum,” is now out in paperback, and she’ll discuss it on Tuesday at the French Library during Night at the Louvre: Art, Intrigue & a Modern Heist; On April 21st she’ll be at the Boston Athenaeum.Tony Award-winning actor Matt Doyle joins The Culture Show to discuss “When Playwrights Kill” Matthew Lombardo’s dark backstage comedy inspired by the real-life collapse of “Tea at Five” and its aborted Broadway hopes. The production is onstage at the Huntington Theatre through April 18; details are here. Playwright Adam Rapp joins The Culture Show to discuss writing the book for “The Outsiders” the Tony-winning Broadway musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel. In town by way of Broadway in Boston it’s on stage at Citizens Opera House through April 12. To learn more go here. -
April 3, 2026 - Week-in-Review: An Art Heist, A Kit-Kat Caper, and Celine Dion's Comeback
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Lisa Simmons, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines.First up, Italian authorities are searching for four masked thieves who stole a Renoir, a Cézanne, and a Matisse from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation outside Parma in a raid that took less than three minutes. The theft, valued at about $10.3 million, has renewed concerns about how vulnerable museums remain to fast, highly organized art crimes. From there, a truck carrying more than 400,000 KitKat bars vanished on its way to Poland, leaving Nestlé trying to solve a very different kind of heist. The stolen shipment weighed 12 tons, turning a candy delivery into an international mystery. And Boston’s arts community is remembering Candelaria Silva-Collins, who died at 71. As the first director of ACT Roxbury, she helped build lasting cultural infrastructure in Roxbury, from Roxbury Open Studios to the early Roxbury Film Festival and the transformation of Hibernian Plus Celine Dion will return to live performance this fall with a 10-show run in Paris, her first full concert engagement in six years. The comeback follows her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome, which forced her to step away from the spotlight. Finally, “The Pitt” will bring its season finale to Alamo Drafthouse on April 13 as part of a one-night Healthcare Appreciation Week event. It is another example of television being repackaged as a theatrical experience. -
April 2, 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.” -
April 1, 2026 - Robert Pinsky, Chef Jason Santos, and Joyce's Choices
Poet Robert Pinsky joins The Culture Show to kick off National Poetry Month with a look at PoemJazz at Regattabar, where poetry and live music meet. The next edition, “Misrule Music,” is April 12 and shares its title with Pinsky’s new poem in the April issue of "The Atlantic."Chef Jason Santos discusses “Citrus & Salt,” his new cookbook inspired by the flavors of his Fort Point restaurant. He talks about translating the bright, high-impact world of coastal Mexican food and cocktails from the restaurant kitchen to the home cook. It’s Stage and Screen with Joyce Kulhawik, with reviews, previews, and recommendations on what to see now. This week’s roundup includes Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” and “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Lyric Stage. Joyce Kulhawik is a Culture Show contributor, 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. -
March 31, 2026 - Ibram X. Kendi, Fmr. US Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and "Living in Pryde"
Ibram X. Kendi joins The Culture Show to discuss his latest book “Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age.” The National Book Award-winning author examines how replacement theory gained political force and how it has been used to justify fear, exclusion, and authoritarian power. Ibram X. Kendi is the Carter G. Woodson Endowed Chair in History at Howard University where he is also a professor of history. Tonight he’ll be at First Parish in Cambridge in conversation with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley at an event sponsored by Porter Square Books. To learn more go here.Billy Collins joins us to discuss “Dog Show,” his latest collection of poems. Featuring 25 poems with watercolor portraits by Pamela Sztybel, the book enters the canine consciousness — moving from the comic to the metaphysical. Collins is a “New York Times” bestselling author and former U.S. Poet Laureate.GBH’s documentary “Living in Pryde” takes us inside The Pryde in Hyde Park, New England’s first affordable LGBTQ+-welcoming senior housing community. Producer and editor Emily Judem and resident Eddie Whitman join us ahead of the film’s April 4 screening at the Coolidge Corner Theatre as part of “Stories from Our Community.” To learn more about the screening go here.
