The Culture Show Podcast

It’s a story for the past, present  and future: Charles Dickens’  “A Christmas Carol.”  Though it was a reflection of Dickens’ times, the struggle between selfishness and  selflessness endures. In Ebeneezer Scrooge, Dickens created both an antagonist and protagonist  who went from being a covetous curmudgeon to a repentant man. Today we’re serving up two scoops of Scrooge  with actors David Coffee and Karen MacDonald about what it takes to the iconic character.

From there we hit the pause button on the Santaland soundtrack to make room for Blue Heron. The vocal ensemble takes us back to 15th century England with medieval music that will put you in the holiday spirit of yore.

And 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.