Episodes
-
October 9, 2026 - Week in Review: The Paramount-WB merger, Digger, and RM at SFMOMA
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines, which include: The Emmy Awards are leaving traditional television for Amazon Prime Video in 2027. Television’s biggest night is becoming a streaming event. Tom Cruise may be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but audiences aren't turning out for Digger. The $180 million satire scraped together just $8 million in its domestic debut. Paramount and Warner Bros. have joined forces in a $110 billion merger, bringing Harry Potter, Top Gun, HBO and CBS under one roof. The new entertainment giant also faces roughly $80 billion in debt and the prospect of major layoffs. BTS leader RM is bringing his passion for collecting art to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His exhibition is drawing young fans into the galleries, including some who've never visited an art museum before. -A naked, gold-covered Donald Trump has arrived at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt’s The Orange Plague takes aim at Trump's climate and foreign policies, drawing inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes. -
October 8, 2026 - Gregory Maguire on "Galinda," Farm Fashion, and Dawn M. Simmons on "Covenant"
Author Gregory Maguire joins us to discuss Galinda: A Charmed Childhood, his new return to Oz exploring the privileged, ambitious and still-forming girl who will become Glinda the Good; Wicked is also at Boston’s Citizens Opera House through Nov. 15. Google BooksSherlock Terry, curator of Farm Fashion: Workwear, Utility & Style at Billings Farm & Museum, traces how clothing designed for farm labor moved from barns and factories into everyday wardrobes and high fashion. Billings FarmDawn M. Simmons, Producing Artistic Director of SpeakEasy Stage Company and director of Covenant, joins us to discuss York Walker’s Southern Gothic thriller about myth-making, faith, family secrets and moral panic, running through Oct. 17 at the Calderwood Pavilion. -
October 7, 2026 - Nathaniel Philbrick's "The Rush," America's Test Kitchen's "The New Cookie," and "Spamamlot"
National Book Award-winning historian Nathaniel Philbrick joins us to discuss The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World, his new book tracing how the Gold Rush reshaped the country and helped propel it toward Civil War. Philbrick appears tonight at 7 p.m. at First Parish Church in Cambridge for an event presented by Harvard Book Store. Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, executive editorial directors and co-hosts of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country, join us with The New Cookie, a collection of 150 recipes that reworks familiar favorites and pushes cookie-making in new directions with ingredients including brown butter, black sesame, matcha and malted milk chocolate. Actor Leo Roberts, who plays Sir Galahad in the national tour of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, joins us to talk about bringing the musical’s Arthurian absurdity, killer rabbits, French taunters and medieval mayhem back to Boston. SPAMALOT runs October 8–11 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. -
October 6, 2026 - Keith Lockhart, Martha Raddatz, and Risa Puleo and Kate Gilbert on the Boston Public Art Triennial
Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart previews the Pops’ fall and holiday lineup, including the third annual Día de Muertos concert and Holiday Pops beginning December 3, plus Disney’s The Muppet Christmas Carol in concert. ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz discusses her new book, The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose, revisiting the post-9/11 generation she covered at war and the lives they built afterward, 25 years after the invasion of Afghanistan. Risa Puleo, newly named artistic director and chief curator of the 2028 Boston Public Art Triennial, joins founder and executive director Kate Gilbert to look ahead to the next citywide exhibition, running May through October 2028. -
October 5, 2026 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Old North Church, Jane Eaglen, and All My Sons at Lyric Stage
Nikki Stewart, Executive Director of Old North Illuminated, and Michael Maler, founder of Crescendo Productions, preview The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Musical Reading, coming to Old North Church on Oct. 9 with an original score and optional crypt tours. Grammy-winning soprano Jane Eaglen, faculty member at New England Conservatory and President of the Boston Wagner Society, joins “AI: Actual Intelligence” to talk about classical music’s culture of relentless practice and new research into how opera singers are judged. Scott Edmiston, director of Lyric Stage Boston’s production and professor of Liberal Arts at Berklee, and Bill Mootos, veteran Boston stage and film actor starring as Joe Keller, discuss Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, onstage through Oct. 25. -
October 2, 2026 - The Culture Show Live from Salem: Celebrating 400 Years
The Culture Show broadcasts live from Salem as the city marks its 400th anniversary, with an hour exploring its history, culture and the people shaping it today. Peabody Essex Museum leaders Kurt Steinberg and Petra Slinkard discuss Salem at 400, the museum’s Witch Trials collection and the city’s history beyond 1692. Kurt T. Steinberg, Ed.D., is Acting Executive Director and CEO of the Peabody Essex Museum. Petra Slinkard is The James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Chief Curator and The Nancy B. Putnam Curator of Fashion and Textiles. The owners of Settler and Bernadette, Chef Aaron Chambers and Shanna Chambers, discuss choosing Salem to build their restaurants and helping shape the city’s growing dining scene. This October, Bernadette is also hosting “Start the Night Salem,” with complimentary cocktails and bites Tuesdays through Thursdays from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Aaron Chambers is Executive Chef and Owner of Settler and Bernadette. Shanna Chambers is Director of Operations and Owner of Settler and Bernadette. Salem witch, herbalist and art teacher Jacey Millett of The Witchery joins us to talk about contemporary witchcraft in the city — with a few brooms in tow. Sale’s Inaugural Poet Laureate J.D. Scrimgeour talks about Poet in High Street Park and Pieces of Salem: An Anthology of Salem Voices, two books that capture the city through the people who live and work there. J.D. Scrimgeour is a Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Salem State University. -
October 1, 2026 - Cady Coleman, Banu Cennetoğlu, and Chris Vognar's fall TV preview
Former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman joins us to talk about Astronauts for America, a group of more than 100 former astronauts working to defend the Constitution, strengthen democracy and rebuild public trust. Coleman will represent the group at a free public event at Greenfield Community College on October 26. Learn more at Astronauts for America. Artist Banu Cennetoğlu explores the promise of universal human rights in right?, an installation made from hundreds of gold Mylar balloons that slowly deflate over time. The work is on view at the MassArt Art Museum in Boston through February 28, and admission is free. Boston Globe TV and pop culture critic Chris Vognar joins us for a preview of the fall TV slate, from the return of A Different World to the raunchy perils of dating in your 50s in HBO Max’s Young. -
September 30, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party: Bridesmaids
For this month’s Wednesday Watch Party, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Joyce Kulhawik revisit Bridesmaids, the 2011 comedy that turns a wedding into a collision of friendship, rivalry and spectacularly bad behavior. Fifteen years later, they consider whether its most outrageous moments still deliver, how the film changed the rules for women in comedy, and whether beneath the bridal warfare, airborne chaos and unforgettable bathroom humor lies an enduring story about jealousy, forgiveness and friendship. Joyce Kulhawik is a Culture Show Contributor, an Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment reporter, president of the Boston Theatre Critics Association, and you can find her reviews at joyceschoices.com. -
September 29, 2026 - Hockney Reproduction(s), Chimes of Freedom at FARHOF, and CineFest Latino
David Hockney embraced reproduction as a way to discover art and share his own work with the world. Bing McGilvray, Hockney’s longtime friend, joins us to discuss Hockney Reproduction(s), an exhibition of more than 90 posters and other works at the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester through Oct. 18. From the American Revolution to Bruce Springsteen, musicians have used songs to protest, organize and argue over what patriotism means. Deana McCloud, curator of Chimes of Freedom: Patriotism, Protest, and the Power of Song, takes us through 250 years of American protest music at the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. CineFest Latino Boston returns Sept. 30 through Oct. 4 with films by and about Latinos, including a documentary about Zoot Suit and La Bamba creator Luis Valdez and La Bola Negra, starring Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close and Julio Torres. Founder and executive director Sabrina Avilés previews this year’s festival. -
September 28, 2026 - Suzanne Jackson, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, and Jill Medvedow on "The Slicks" and "My Pinup"
Artist Suzanne Jackson joins us as the MFA presents Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love, the first retrospective spanning her six-decade career — from her early paintings inspired by people and the natural world to recent works made from layers of acrylic paint that hang without canvas. The exhibition is on view through January 18. Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love at the MFA Brookline native Eli “Paperboy” Reed talks about Getting There, his new album of soul, blues, country and gospel produced by Swamp Dogg. Reed returns to Massachusetts for a performance at Cambridge’s Regattabar on Friday, October 2. Eli “Paperboy” Reed at Regattabar Jill Medvedow returns with a double booking: Maggie Nelson’s The Slicks, which brings Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift together in an exploration of female ambition, fame and scrutiny; and Hilton Als’ My Pinup: A Paean to Prince, a meditation on desire, race, freedom and what happens when you meet your idol. The Slicks by Maggie Nelson My Pinup: A Paean to Prince by Hilton Als
