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‘Home of egg rolls, jazz and blues,’ Chan’s celebrates 120 years in Rhode Island
Music lovers put this Woonsocket music venue and restaurant on their bucket lists.
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September 19, 2025 - Robert Redford, Ben & Jerry's, and Somerville's new cat mayor
Today Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III host our arts and culture week-in-review.First up, Late-night just got quieter. ABC has yanked Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely after the host’s remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination sparked outrage from conservatives and the FCC.From there, after nearly 50 years, Jerry Greenfield is leaving Ben & Jerry’s, saying their parent company is silencing their social activism, despite promises to let them remain independentAnd we remember Robert Redford, the star, the storyteller, and the visionary who reframed American cinema.Finally, Somerville crowned Minerva, a black feline with a one-word platform—“Crime”—as its Bike Path Mayor. -
September 18, 2025 - Richard Smith as Henry David Thoreau, MIT's Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, and a fall TV guide
For more than a quarter century, Richard Smith embodied Henry David Thoreau—donning the waistcoat and straw hat, walking the paths of Concord, and giving voice to one of New England’s most enduring thinkers. Now, after 26 years of living deliberately in another man’s shoes, Smith is stepping away from the role. Closing a chapter that made Thoreau’s world vividly real for thousands who visited Walden Pond.From there, If you think carving a pumpkin takes skill, imagine shaping one in glass heated to nearly 2,000 degrees. At MIT’s Glass Lab—a place where art meets science—students, faculty, and alumni practice the craft of glassblowing. It’s one of the only university studios of its kind. And each fall, the fruits of their labor gleam on the campus lawn in what is known as the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, taking place September 27th at MIT's Kresge Oval. To learn more, go here.And, Chris Vognar, the Boston Globe’s new TV and pop culture critic is here. He’ll give us a preview of what to watch on the small screen this month, from the chilling sci-fi of Alien: Earth to the Jude Law-Jason Bateman brotherly bond in Black Rabbit. To read Chris' reviews, go here. -
September 17, 2025 - Portrait of Doña Feliciana Belendes y Ramirez, Will Dailey, and the Fluff Festival
We continue our Countdown to 2026 series with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Each month we look at artworks that shed new light on the American Revolution and the people who shaped it. Today Layla Bermeo joins us to talk about Miguel de Herrera’s Portrait of Doña Feliciana Belendes y Ramirez. Layla Bermeo is the Kristin and Roger Servison Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas.Singer-songwriter Will Dailey also joins us to talk about his latest album, Boys Talking and his $10 Song project, an experiment connecting fans directly to the music. You can catch him live this Saturday, September 20th, at 8:00 PM at Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center. To learn more go here.And Somerville stirs up one of its sweetest celebrations—the annual “What the Fluff?” Festival. On Saturday, September 20th from 2:00 to 6:00 PM, Union Square fills with music, games, and marshmallow mayhem in honor of the hometown invention that made the fluffernutter a legend. Jessica Eshleman, Executive Director of Union Square Main Streets, joins us for an overview. To learn more go here. -
September 16, 2025 - Mary Gauthier, the American Comedy Archives with Eddie Brill, and Mary Grant
Award-winning singer-songwriter Mary Gauthier joins The Culture Show ahead of her concert at The First Church in Belmont with special guest Jaimee Harris. Rooted in folk and country traditions, Gauthier has built a career on transforming hard experiences into songs that connect and heal. To learn more about this Friday’s concert go here.At Emerson College comedy is no laughing matter. Decades before it launched the nation’s first comedy degree, Emerson was sending performers like Jennifer Coolidge and Jay Leno into the spotlight. Now the school is reviving its American Comedy Archives, with candid new interviews featuring Bill Burr, Paula Poundstone, and others. Comedian and Emerson alum Eddie Brill, who lead these conversations, joins us for an overview. To explore the archives go here.Finally MassArt President Mary Grant joins us for her monthly appearance. Today she reflects on freedom of speech on college campuses. -
September 15, 2025 - Recapping the Emmy Awards, Unbound at King's Chapel, and Jane Eaglen
First up, we recap the 2025 Emmy Awards with Callie Crossley, Culture Show co-host and host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik, Emmy Award–winning arts and entertainment critic and President of the Boston Theater Critics Association. You can find her reviews at Joyce’s Choices.At Boston’s historic King’s Chapel, a new Living Memorial is taking shape to honor the lives of 219 enslaved people once tied to the church. We’re joined by Harmonia Rosales, visual artist and creator of Unbound, and Rev. Joy Fallon, Senior Minister at King’s Chapel.Finally, Jane Eaglen joins us for her take on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera.” Jane Eaglen is a Grammy Award–winning soprano, faculty member at New England Conservatory and President of the Boston Wagner Society, explores if there are any traces of traditional opera in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.
