Episodes
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September 22, 2026 - Altın Gün, Uli Lorimer from Native Plant Trust, and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
Altın Gün — The Amsterdam-based band draws on generations of Turkish folk songs, reshaping them through rock, disco and psychedelia. Members of the group join us ahead of their Boston performance at Big Night Live.Uli Lorimer — As New England faces hotter temperatures, heavier rain, drought and habitat loss, the Native Plant Trust horticulture director explains a new effort to collect, grow and preserve native seeds for future restoration.Craig Dykers and Michelle Delk — The Snøhetta architects behind the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library discuss designing a museum that rises from the North Dakota Badlands, where landscape, architecture and Roosevelt’s conservation legacy become part of the same story. -
September 21, 2026 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch at 25
Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone250, returns for AI: Actual Intelligence, our recurring series tapping local thinkers for original, algorithm-free observations on the issues shaping culture and civic life. Learn more about Embrace Boston and Everyone250. Hank Azaria, Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and voice artist, has spent decades creating characters on The Simpsons. Now he’s taking on another unmistakable voice: Bruce Springsteen. Azaria tells us how a surprise performance at his 60th birthday grew into Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band, a full-fledged Springsteen celebration benefiting his Four Through Nine Foundation. The band performs at The Sinclair in Cambridge on October 21. John Cameron Mitchell, writer, director and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, looks back at the film’s journey from Sundance prizewinner to cult classic as it marks its 25th anniversary. Mitchell brings the anniversary tour to Boston’s Shubert Theatre on October 1 for a 4K screening, conversation, audience Q&A and live acoustic performance. Tickets and information are available through the Boch Center. -
September 18, 2026 - Week in Review: Macklemore v. Bob Kraft, Sydney Sweeney, and Bob Mackie
Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show Contributors Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Joyce Kulhawik. Maurice Parent is an award-winning actor, Professor of the Practice, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University, and Producing Artistic Director at Front Porch Arts Collective. 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.They go over some of the week’s biggest arts and culture stories, which include: Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian remarks at MetLife Stadium ignited a larger fight over political speech, commercial pressure and Sheeran’s Loop Tour. Sweeney’s nearly nude Novig campaign is drawing criticism from female athletes who say it relies on the sexualization of women in sports. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon found common ground at the Pro-Human Assembly as concern grows over the speed and consequences of AI. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens in Los Angeles, bringing everything from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo to comics, manga and Star Wars under one roof. We remember the legendary designer who dressed Cher, Carol Burnett and generations of stars in feathers, fringe, sequins and spectacle. -
September 17, 2026 - Doug Robb of Hoobastank, Mary Grant, and Hank Phillippi Ryan
More than two decades after “The Reason” turned Hoobastank into a mainstream phenomenon, frontman Doug Robb looks back at the song’s enormous success, the backlash that came with it and eventually finding his way back to it. The band also has its first new music in eight years and plays the Xfinity Center in Mansfield September 18 with Staind, Seether and Hinder. MassArt President Mary Grant joins us for another edition of AI: Actual Intelligence to discuss commemorating Constitution Day and fostering civic engagement.Bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan joins us with her 17th thriller, Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, and talks about the long relationship between her reporting and fiction. Tonight at 6:30, Ryan also joins the Ashland Public Library for a virtual event. -
September 16, 2026 - Elizabeth Alexander, Goodnow Farms Chocolate, and Patrick Page
Poet, essayist and Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander joins us to talk about her new book, Signals Across Vast Distances: Essays and Tales, which moves through poetry, art, history, family and public life. Alexander appears tonight with former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith at the Brattle Theatre in an event presented by Harvard Book Store.At Goodnow Farms Chocolate in Sudbury, Monica and Tom Rogan trace flavor all the way back to the cacao bean — sourcing directly from growers, roasting each origin differently and even pressing their own cocoa butter. The award-winning chocolate makers join us to explain how one ingredient can yield notes of berries, honey, coffee and toasted marshmallow. Grammy Award-winning and Tony-nominated actor Patrick Page has made a career of getting inside the minds of some very bad men. In All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, he moves through more than a dozen Shakespeare characters to examine how the playwright’s villains became increasingly, unsettlingly human. Page brings the solo show to Boston October 28 through November 1 at the Emerson Paramount Center, presented by ArtsEmerson. -
September 15, 2026 - Emmys recap, Will Poulter and Adam Meeks on Union County, and the Boston Film Festival
Joyce Kulhawik: The Emmys have been handed out; now comes the verdict. Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment critic Joyce Kulhawik joins us to sort through the winners, surprises, snubs and moments worth remembering — including a Massachusetts victory for Boston Casting’s Angela Peri and Lisa Lobel.Actor Will Poulter and director Adam Meeks: In Union County, Will Poulter plays a young man navigating addiction, recovery and an Ohio court program where a relapse could mean prison. Writer-director Adam Meeks made the film in partnership with a real recovery court, casting people from the community alongside professional actors. Poulter and Meeks join us ahead of special advance screenings and an in-person Q&A September 15 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. The film opens there September 18.Robin Dawson: Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and the Hollywood Vampires are among the names coming to Boston for this year’s Boston Film Festival. Executive Director Robin Dawson previews a lineup spanning rock and roll, baseball, independent film and new work from emerging filmmakers. The 42nd Boston Film Festival runs September 17–21. -
September 14, 2026 - Mahesh Daas, Jennifer Holliday, and Lecolion Washington of Handel and Haydn Society
Boston Architectural College President Mahesh Daas looks at two architectural experiments in how much change a place can absorb: centuries-old Japanese timber buildings being dismantled and rebuilt an ocean away, including here in Massachusetts, and a new skyscraper redrawing Paris’ famously restrained skyline.Before Dreamgirls reached Broadway, Boston audiences encountered Jennifer Holliday as she was still finding the role of Effie White at the Shubert Theatre. Forty-five years later, the Tony and Grammy Award winner returns to that Boston connection as the Boston Arts Academy Foundation’s 2026 Music Honoree. Holliday will be celebrated at the Foundation’s HONORS gala on October 22 at MGM Music Hall at Fenway.The Handel and Haydn Society begins its 212th season with a new President and CEO. Acclaimed bassoonist and longtime Boston arts leader Lecolion Washington joins us to talk about taking the helm of one of the city’s oldest cultural institutions, reaching new audiences and the season ahead, which opens October 2 and 4 with The Art of Living at Symphony Hall. All are welcome to join a webinar hosted by Lecolion Washington and H+H Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen September 15 at 6pm. This "Beyond the Baton" webinar is free and open to all. Lecolion and Jonathan will explore Handel’s L’Allegro, its lasting resonance, and what to listen for when H+H performs it at Symphony Hall on Oct 2 and 4. Please register here. -
September 11, 2026 - 25 Years of Arts and Culture in Review
On this week’s Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Joyce Kulhawik mark the 25th anniversary of September 11. They look at how artists responded to the attacks and to the years that followed, from 25th Hour and United 93 to The Reluctant Fundamentalist. They also consider which works have endured, how public remembrance has changed, and what 25 years of distance now allows us to see about September 11 and its place in American culture. -
September 10, 2026 - Ball in the House, Kiernan Schmitt on college curiosities, and Tony V
Boston-based a cappella group Ball in the House joins Jared Bowen for an in-studio performance ahead of its September 11 show at Off Cabot in Beverly. The five-member group — Dylan Melville, Oscar Hall, Tyler Nordin, Wallace Thomas and Jon Ryan — performs R&B, soul and pop and has shared stages with artists including The Beach Boys, Blondie and Lionel Richie. Learn more about Ball in the House.Back-to-school season sends Kiernan Schmitt back to Boston’s college campuses — not for class, but for the architectural oddities, forgotten traditions and bits of lore hiding in plain sight. Schmitt, author of Secret Boston: An Unusual Guide, joins Jared for a tour of some of the region’s best-kept campus secrets. He also co-hosts the Out of Office: A Travel Podcast with Ryan Davis.Boston comedy mainstay Tony V joins Jared to look back on more than four decades of stand-up and screen work — from Boston comedy clubs to appearances in Seinfeld, The Town, The Heat and CODA. He also previews upcoming performances, including Boston Funny Live at the Royal Sonesta in Cambridge on September 26 and Tony V at the Sea Crest Beach Resort on Cape Cod on October 17. -
September 9, 2026 - Poet Steve Biondolillo, Cantrip, and Sarah Longwell's book "How to Eat an Elephant"
Poet Steve Biondolillo, author of Macaroni and Cheese Manifesto: A Spiritual Memoir in Verse and founder of the National Baseball Poetry Festival, joins Jared ahead of the 25th anniversary of September 11th. He discusses and performs “480 B.C.,” his poem linking the Battle of Thermopylae with the sacrifice of first responders and service members in 2001. Learn more about Steve BiondolilloScottish quartet Cantrip has spent more than 25 years pushing traditional music through funk, metal, bluegrass, swing and klezmer. Fiddler Alasdair White and founding member Dan Houghton join Jared ahead of tonight’s album-release concert at Passim.Political strategist Sarah Longwell, CEO and publisher of The Bulwark and host of The Focus Group podcast, joins Jared to discuss How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time, drawing on years of focus groups to examine persuasion, voters and political change. She’ll appear tomorrow night at a sold-out Harvard Book Store event with Bill Kristol.
