The Culture Show Podcast

On this edition of The Culture Show, Co-host Callie Crossley and contributors 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.

• After seven years helping select Super Bowl halftime performers, Jay-Z is taking the stage himself in 2027. What changed for the rapper and Roc Nation founder?
• Sarah J. Maas has sent romantasy fans into a frenzy with her latest novel, A Court of Splintered Harmony. Midnight parties, elaborate costumes and missed workdays mark the release.
• Star Trek has lost two stars: Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Walter Koenig, the original series' Pavel Chekov. We remember their contributions to the enduring science-fiction franchise.
• Three-time Emmy winner Eric Bauza, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, has died at 46. We remember the actor who carried on the Looney Tunes legacy.
• A century after his Halloween death, Harry Houdini returns to the spotlight at Salem's Peabody Essex Museum. A special installation revisits his 1906 visit and a controversy involving a pair of antique handcuffs.