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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 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. -
January 23, 2026 - Week in Review: Oscar nominations, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Green Day at the Super Bowl
On this edition of The Culture Show, 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, awards season. The Oscar race is underway, with “Sinners” leading with 16 nominations and major snubs including “Wicked: For Good” and stars Paul Mescal and George Clooney. The Razzies roasted flops like “Snow White” and “The Electric State,” while the Public Domain Film Remix Awards spotlighted artists reinventing newly public-domain classics from “All Quiet on the Western Front” to “Betty Boop” and “Nancy Drew.:And Williamstown Theatre Festival is taking a summer season off as it retools its artistic and financial model, with plans to move toward a biennial schedule. The pause raises broader questions about sustainability, funding, and the future of regional theater in the U.S.From there, Green Day is set to open the Super Bowl ceremony, bringing anti-establishment punk to one of the most mainstream stages in American television. Bad Bunny is also fueling Super Bowl buzz with a newly released trailer for his halftime show.Plus, the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced its 2026 inductees, including Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette, and Kiss’s Gene Simmons, honoring the architects behind decades of hits across genres and generations.Finally, it’s our week in preview with host recommendations for the weekend. Jared’s pick is the movie “H is for Hawk,” Callie’s offering is Candlelight Concerts: The Best of Hans Zimmer.and Edgar recommends the “Beasts of Burren Rolling Stones tribute in honor of photographer, Charles Daniels” at The Burren. -
January 22, 2026 - Claire Foy, We Are Made from the Land: Protecting the Seal River Watershed, and Mary Grant
Actress Claire Foy joins The Culture Show to talk about her latest film, “H Is for Hawk”, adapted from Helen Macdonald’s bestselling memoir. Known for performances defined by restraint and emotional precision, Foy reflects on inhabiting grief, solitude, and endurance in a story that unfolds through the training of a goshawk. “H is for Hawk” opens in Boston area theaters this Friday. Stephanie Thorassie is Executive Director of the Seal River Watershed Alliance, an Indigenous-led partnership of four First Nations working to protect the Seal River Watershed in northern Manitoba. She joins us to discuss the documentary We Are Made from the Land: Protecting the Seal River Watershed, screening this Saturday at the Peabody Essex Museum alongside the exhibition Knowing Nature: Stories of the Boreal Forest. To learn more go here.Mary Grant, President of Massachusetts College of Art and Design, joins us for our recurring segment AI: Actual Intelligence. We talk about shrinking attention spans, the impact of scrolling culture, and how practices like slow looking — drawn from art history and museums — may help restore focus, curiosity, and deeper ways of thinking.
