Episodes
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December 3, 2024 - Boston Pops' Keith Lockhart, Christina Tosi, and New England Botanic Garden's Night Lights
Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart joins The Culture Show for an overview of the Holiday Pops, which kicks off a series of concerts this Thursday December 5th. This year offers everything from the annual performance of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” to “Home Alone” in Concert to a New Year’s Eve Celebration with Bernadette Peters. To learn about the Holiday Pops season go here.From there, James Beard Award-winning chef Christina Tosi joins The Culture Show to talk about her latest book, “Bake Club: 101 Must-Have Moves for Your Kitchen,” a collection of down-to-earth, sweet and savory recipes inspired by the online community “Bake Club” that Tosi created during the pandemic. She will be at the Brattle Theatre tonight for a book event presented by Harvard Bookstore. To learn more go here. Christina Tosi is a New York Times best-selling author, founder of Milk Bar and host of “Bake Squad."Finally, Grace Elton, CEO of New England Botanic Garden joins The Culture Show to talk about their annual holiday display, "Night Lights: Color Cascade" which is on view through January 5th. To learn more, go here. -
December 2, 2024 - Jeff Hiller, the Concord Museum's Holiday House Tour, and Catherine Allgor
HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere,” drops us into Manhattan, Kansas where we meet Sam, a woman who has recently moved back to her hometown to care for her dying sister, and Joel, a colleague at her new workplace who, she learns, was in the high school choir with her. The Peabody Award-winning series is wrapping up with its last episode streaming on HBO December 8th. Actor Jeff Hiller, who stars as Joel Anderson, joins The Culture Show to talk about this beloved series.From there Lisa Krassner, Executive Director of the Concord Museum. joins The Culture Show, to talk about their annual tradition: The Concord Museum’s Holiday House. It’s this Saturday, from 10:00 AM-4:00 PM. To learn more go here.Finally Catherine Allgor leads the way on another edition of Countdown to 2026. This month she focuses on colonial women and the role they played on the eve of the American Revolution. The books Allgor recommends this month are Mary Beth Norton’s “Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800” and “Abigail Adams” by Woody Holton. Catherine Allgor joins us every month for “Countdown to 2026.” She is President Emerita of the Massachusetts Historical Society, an author, historian and visiting scholar with the Department of History at Tufts University. -
November 29, 2024 - Ethan Hawke and Sean Wang
Ethan Hawke joins The Culture Show to talk about his latest film, “Wildcat,” which he directed and co-wrote. It’s about Flannery O’Conor– her imagination, her life and how illness instilled in her an unrelenting awareness of death. Hawke talks about what Flannery O’Conor means to him and what it means to be the face of Gen X.From there, filmmaker Sean Wang. In his uproarious debut feature film, he depicts the agonies of adolescence: alienation, awkwardness and angst. You know, all the things we try to bury and never remember again. But Wang makes them visible and hilarious. Titled DIDI, it’s the story of Chris, a 13-year old Taiwanese-American boy searching for belonging in suburban California – just as Facebook and MySpace are changing everything. -
November 28, 2024 - Raj Tawney, Joanne Chang, and Marsha Lindsey
Today on the Culture Show we have a show about food, tradition and culture. First up, writer Raj Tawney. Growing up in a multicultural household, his coming of age story happened in the kitchen, helping his mother and grandmother cook recipes from their homelands. Themes of food, memory and identity come together in his memoir, “A Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey through a Mixed American Experience”From there, it's award-winning pastry chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery + Cafe and Myers+Chang Restaurant. She joins us with her theory on why there is a comfort food revival, putting her spin on the classics and how, for her, a recipe is always a work in progress.Finally we top things off, by topping one off with mixologist Marsha Lindsey, As the principal bartender at SRV where she also runs the bar program, she raises a glass to Black history by introducing us to some of her favorite black owned spirits–and her craft cocktails. -
November 27, 2024 - Handel's Messiah, the Mayor's Mural Crew, and The Thanksgiving Play
The Handel and Haydn Society has been performing Messiah every year since 1854. This year there’s a new component: Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen is introducing CitySing which unites 121 musicians on the Symphony Hall stage to perform Messiah November 29th through December 1st. He, along with Steven Marquardt, principal trumpet player, joined The Culture Show for a preview and performance.From there, culture show contributor Julia Swanson of The Art Walk Project, takes us on a tour of the Mayor’s Mural Crew. For 30 years tenagers have been deployed during the summer to make murals that celebrate community and creativity.Finally, “The Thanksgiving Play” satirizes white progressives who want to create a Thanksgiving pageant for children that’s sensitive to Native Americans. What could go wrong? Director Tara Moses, the first Native American to lead a major production of this play, joins us. “The Thanksgiving Play,” is a production of Moonbox Productions, onstage through December 15th at Arrow Street Arts. -
November 26, 2024 - Annette Gordon-Reed, Nantucket Looms, and Mary Grant
Annette Gordon-Reed is renowned for her groundbreaking work on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. She was the first Black person awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History. She was honored with MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and won the National Book Award for “The Hemingses of Monticello.” Jared Bowen recently caught up with her to talk about her latest book, “On Juneteenth,” at the GBH studio at the Boston Public Library as part of Boston Speaker Series.Next, Nantucket has a history of women-operated businesses because the men were often away at sea, on whaling ships for years on end. That legacy continues to this day with Nantucket Looms, an all-female weaving studio and retail store that has been in operation since 1968. Culture Show co-host Edgar B Herwick III and producer Kate Dellis take us there.From there Mary Grant, President of MassArt joins us for her monthly appearance. Today she discusses how a President Trump administration could affect arts funding, the MassArt Common Good Awards and how there seems to be a literacy problem on college campuses. -
November 25, 2024 - Joyce Kulhawik and Pedro Alonzo
Today Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik joins us 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, Culture Show contributor independent curator Pedro Alonzo joins The Culture Show to talk about Midnight Zone, his latest project, which is a solo exhibition by Julian Charrière inspired by the environmental hazards of deep-sea mining. -
November 22, 2024 - Week in Review: Wicked, Gladiator II, and Cher
Today Culture Show co-hosts Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review.First up, Boston University suspends admissions its PhD programs in the humanities and social sciences.From there something to sing about, Charlestown Rehearsal Studios, home to hundreds of musicians, will stay open and operational And, something to not sing about, literally. AMC Theaters is warning moviegoers that singing along during the musical film Wicked is not allowed..Then, is BU actually onto something? Do we really need degrees in the humanities if AI generated poetry is preferable to works penned by people?Plus, if anyone out there still reads material written by real humans…assuming that Cher is real and not some diva deity, part one of her memoir dropped this week. -
November 21, 2024 - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's Christmas Carol, John Waters, and the Martha Graham Dance Company
Steven Maler, Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, joins The Culture Show to talk about their upcoming production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” and how they hope this will become a new holiday tradition. The production is onstage December 8th through December 22nd at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. It stars Will Lymon as Ebenezeer Scrooge, it’s directed by Steven Maler, and the adaptation is by Steve Wargo.From there filmmaker, author and visual artist John Waters joins The Culture Show, to talk about his career and receiving the 2024 Coolidge Award, which recognizes a film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging cinema. Tonight John Waters will be at the Coolidge Corner Theatre at 8:00 in conversation with The Culture Show’s host and GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen. To learn more about tonight’s “Evening With John Waters,” go here.Finally, Janet Eilber, Artistic Director of Martha Graham Dance Company joins The Culture Show. She discusses the enduring legacy of Martha Graham as the mother of modern dance, the Martha Graham Dance Company at 100 and their return to Boston for two performances “American Legacies,” onstage at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre November 22nd and November 23rd, presented by Celebrity Series. -
November 20, 2024 - Gregory Maguire, David Waters and Joanne Chang
Something Wicked this way comes in many iterations. First, as the 1995 widely acclaimed book by Gregory Maguire, “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” then as an entire “Wicked” series, which Maguire has been authoring since 2003, with a forthcoming book to be published next year titled “Elphie: A Wicked Childhood.” Along the way “Wicked” has been adapted to a Tony-award winning musical, and this Friday, “Wicked,” the movie, will be in movie theaters nationwide. The best-selling author Gregory Maguire joins The Culture Show to talk all things “Wicked.” From there we get into the spirit of Thanksgiving, with an emphasis on giving, by way of Community Servings. For decades the organization has been providing free home-based nutritional support to persons living with life threatening illnesses. Every November Community Servings hosts their annual Pie in the Sky bakesale to help fund their mission. David Waters, CEO of Community Servings and award-winning chef Joanne Chang, Myers + Chang restaurant and Flour Bakery + Cafe join The Culture Show.
