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Boston Pops conductor breaks down the genius of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Welcome to SOUND FILES, a deep dive with area musicians and music lovers into one specific entry in the U.S. National Recording Registry. Keith Lockhart joins Edgar B. Herwick III to wax operatic about his love of Queen's 1975 masterpiece “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
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January 30, 2026 - Week in Review: Catherine O'Hara, music protests, and the Melania documentary
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Lisa Simmons, and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines.First up, Catherine O’Hara, the Emmy and Golden Globe winning actress who starred in films including Home Alone, Beetlejuice and numerous collaborations with Christopher Guest, has passed at age 71.Then, protest music and cultural backlash. Bruce Springsteen released a new protest track taking aim at immigration raids, while the Dropkick Murphys reworked their 2005 song “Citizen CIA” into “Citizen ICE” for their upcoming album “New England Forever”. Neil Young also made a geopolitical gesture, offering free access to his music in Greenland amid rising political tensions.The reaction to the killing of Alex Pretti has rippled across culture and sports. At Sundance, filmmakers and actors spoke out against ICE, and the NBA postponed a Minnesota Timberwolves game as players grappled with the moment—underscoring how quickly politics and culture are colliding.Also in the headlines: the documentary “Melania” has struggled to find an audience despite a reported $75 million price tag, with some screenings selling zero tickets and one London show drawing just a single attendee.Plus, The Museum of Fine Arts is laying off dozens of employees amid financial strain, raising questions about sustainability even at major institutions. Meanwhile, three Bob Ross paintings Finally, it’s a week in preview, with the hosts offering their suggestions for arts and culture happenings to take in. Jared suggests “Some Like it Hot,” now onstage through February 8; Lisa Simmons is suggesting a screening of the documentary “Harm in the Water,” on February 5, and Edgar B. Herwick III offers a Kubrick film festival at the Harvard FIlm Archives. -
January 29, 2026 - Donald Nally from The Crossing, the Moby Dick Marathon, and public art in Boston
Donald Nally, founder and conductor of The Crossing, a Grammy-winning ensemble dedicated almost entirely to new music, joins The Culture Show ahead of their performance at Symphony Hall. The Crossing is joining the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a program exploring sacred music in the 21st century. The concert pairs David Lang’s “poor hymnal” with the Boston premiere of Carlos Simon’s “Good News Mass”. To learn more about upcoming performances go here. Culture Show producer Max Chow-Gillette takes inside 25 hours of the 30th Moby-Dick marathon, an annual voyage at the New Bedford Whaling Museum where Melville enthusiasts read the entire novel aloud.Culture Show contributor Julia Swanson takes us downtown for a Public Service Arts Announcement, spotlighting Boston Bricks — bronze reliefs embedded in the sidewalks of Winthrop Lane. An award-winning photographer, multidisciplinary artist and founder of The Art Walk Project, Swanson guides us through this hidden gem of a public art installation that tells Boston’s story from the ground up. -
January 28, 2026 - Wednesday Watch Party: Groundhog Day
Today we’re hitting the snooze button for our Wednesday Watch Party — the show where we revisit the movies that shaped us, and ask if they still hold up. This month Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III are stuck in a time loop with “Groundhog Day.” Released in 1993, the Bill Murray comedy starts as a small-town farce and turns into something stranger and deeper: a romantic comedy about repetition, self-improvement, and what it means to actually change. In 2026 our hosts ask: does it hold up today? And do we get more out of the movie every time we watch it? -
January 27, 2026 - Noelle Trent, Davóne Tines, and Bruno Carvalho
Noelle Trent, President and CEO of the Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket, joins us as Black History Month marks its centennial—100 years since Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week. She joins us to discuss why this milestone matters now and to give an overview of the museum’s Black History Month programming. To learn more go here. Bass-baritone Davóne Tines joins us ahead of his Boston concert with early-music ensemble Ruckus, “What Is Your Hand in This?”—a genre-hopping exploration of Revolutionary-era hymns and ballads traced through American history. He reflects on his boundary-crossing career in opera and protest music, and how performance can become a form of cultural reckoning. To learn more about the upcoming concert go here.Bruno Carvalho, Harvard professor and co-director of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative, discusses his new book The Invention of the Future: A History of Cities in the Modern World. He traces how cities—from Rio to Paris to New York—have been shaped by art, politics, and competing visions of modern life, and what urban history reveals about the futures we’re building. You can catch him tonight at Harvard Book Store. -
January 26, 2026 - Preserving the Smithsonian, Max Wolf Friedlich on JOB, and Boston's most beautiful buildings
After the White House ordered a sweeping review of exhibitions and interpretive text at the Smithsonian Institution, historians launched an unprecedented public documentation effort. Citizen Historians for the Smithsonian recruits volunteers to photograph artifacts, wall labels, and explanatory text across museums—creating a time-stamped, independent archive they call a “Crowd to Cloud” record. Co-founder Chandra Manning joins us to explain how the project works, and why preserving the public record matters now. Chandra Manning is a Professor of U.S.History at Georgetown University, a best-selling author and a former National Park Service Ranger. Max Wolf Friedlich’s high-pressure play, “JOB” is set entirely inside a mandatory therapy session between a content moderator and a company-appointed counselor. Now in Boston. Friedlich joins us to unpack how “JOB” explores power, surveillance, and mental health in the modern workplace. “JOB” is presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company, onstage through Feb7 at Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. To learn more go here.Who decides what makes a building beautiful—the jury, or the public? Voting is now open for the Boston Society for Architecture’s Harleston Parker People’s Choice Award, where the public weighs in on the same finalists considered for the historic Harleston Parker Medal. Paige Johnston, the BSA's Senior Director of Programs & Impact, joins us to talk about this year’s finalists and what they reveal about how Greater Boston thinks about design. To learn more go here.
