EXPLORE MORE
The 25-hour Moby Dick Marathon sails on in New Bedford
Every winter, thousands of fans descend on the New Bedford Whaling Museum to hear the novel out loud.
Listen to previous shows
-
April 10, 2026 - Week in Review: The Drama, Rocky Horror on Broadway, and Kanye's comeback
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Joyce Kulhawik, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines, which include: CBS is handing Stephen Colbert’s late-night slot to Byron Allen, marking a sharp change in tone. Colbert made the show a home for biting political comedy; Allen brings a broader, more mainstream style. “The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is generating controversy offscreen as well as on. A24 is facing backlash for marketing the film like a white wedding while delivering something much darker. “The Rocky Horror Show” is back on Broadway, along with the chaos that has always surrounded it. Producers are trying to honor the fishnet-clad fervor and audience call-backs that made it legendary without letting them take over the night. Governor Maura Healey is pushing to keep children under 14 off social media, arguing the platforms are designed to hook young users and expose them to harmful content. The Massachusetts House has already passed a bill that would do that. Kanye West has spent years testing how far his antisemitism and extremism can go. In Britain, he hit a wall: the U.K. barred him from entering the country, helping bring down London’s Wireless Festival. -
April 9, 2026 - Cady Coleman on Artemis II, Pedro Alonzo's London Dispatch, and Igor Golyak on "Our Class"
Cady Coleman joins The Culture Show to discuss Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in more than 50 years, and what the mission represents for the future of deep-space exploration. She reflects on the ambition, risk, and sense of shared purpose that still make a moon mission feel like a true moonshot. Coleman is a retired NASA astronaut, U.S. Air Force colonel, scientist, pilot, and musician. Her latest book is “Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change.”Culture Show contributor Pedro Alonzo returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” with impressions from a recent trip through London’s museum scene. He shares highlights from the city’s current cultural landscape, including a major retrospective devoted to Wes Anderson.Igor Golyak joins The Culture Show to discuss “Our Class,” the award-winning play based on the 1941 massacre of Jews in a small Polish town, and why its story of friendship, betrayal, and violence continues to resonate. He also reflects on what the production’s national success means for a regional theater company. Golyak is founder and artistic director of Arlekin Players Theatre based in Needham. -
April 8, 2026 - Poet Laureate Regie Gibson, Jade Wheeler on "Who is Eartha Mae?" and Mahesh Daas on "The Drama"
Regie Gibson, the inaugural Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, joins The Culture Show as part of our ongoing celebration of National Poetry Month. A poet, performer, and educator, he discusses bringing poetry off the page and into public life.Jade Wheeler joins The Culture Show to discuss Who Is Eartha Mae?, her one-woman play with music about Eartha Kitt that moves beyond the icon’s public image to explore the woman behind it. Presented by The Hanover Theatre Repertory, Who Is Eartha Mae? is onstage through April 19 at the BrickBox Theater at the Jean McDonough Arts Center in Worcester.Mahesh Daas, president of Boston Architectural College and co-author of the graphic novella I, Nobot, joins The Culture Show for another edition of “AI: Actual Intelligence.” He brings his monthly, algorithm-free perspective to the conversation. -
April 7, 2026 - Béla Fleck, the High Line in New York, and Virginia Pye on "Marriage and Other Monuments"
Nineteen-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck joins The Culture Show ahead of his April 18 performance at The Cabot in Beverly with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez. He talks about musical risk, unlikely combinations, and a career that has taken the banjo from bluegrass to jazz, classical music, and beyond. Richard Hayden, Senior Director of Horticulture at New York’s High Line, joins The Culture Show to discuss the elevated park that transformed an old freight rail line into one of the city’s most influential public spaces. He talks about caring for the gardens that help define the High Line’s identity and what it takes to steward a landscape shaped by both design and self-seeded wildness. Virginia Pye joins The Culture Show to discuss “Marriage and Other Monuments,” her new novel set in Richmond during the reckoning over Confederate memory in 2020, where public conflict spills into the private lives of two sisters and their marriages. She’ll appear at Newtonville Books on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. to talk about the book. -
April 6, 2026 - Elaine Sciolino, Matt Doyle, and Adam Rapp
Elaine Sciolino, former New York Times Paris bureau chief and the author of six books, joins The Culture Show to revisit her 1982 interview with Ali Khamenei, conducted years before he became Iran’s supreme leader, and to reflect on what that encounter reveals now about Iran, power, and history. Her latest book, “Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum,” is now out in paperback, and she’ll discuss it on Tuesday at the French Library during Night at the Louvre: Art, Intrigue & a Modern Heist; On April 21st she’ll be at the Boston Athenaeum.Tony Award-winning actor Matt Doyle joins The Culture Show to discuss “When Playwrights Kill” Matthew Lombardo’s dark backstage comedy inspired by the real-life collapse of “Tea at Five” and its aborted Broadway hopes. The production is onstage at the Huntington Theatre through April 18; details are here. Playwright Adam Rapp joins The Culture Show to discuss writing the book for “The Outsiders” the Tony-winning Broadway musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel. In town by way of Broadway in Boston it’s on stage at Citizens Opera House through April 12. To learn more go here.
