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The Deep Dive: Your Autumn Reading List Awaits
This week we dive into books. You'll find book recommendations, a preview of The Boston Book Festival, stories about the science of reading, and an interview with author Gregory Maguire about his book Wicked.
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October 21, 2025 - Hocus Pocus at the Ropes Mansion in Salem and Gesine Bullock-Prado
It’s October in Salem, where history and Halloween converge. Peabody Essex Museum curator-at-large Paula Richter joins The Culture Show to talk about the Ropes Mansion — its role as “Allison’s House” in Hocus Pocus, and how the museum brings it to life each October. Starting October 23 and continuing through Halloween, the mansion’s exterior will once again be decorated in full “Hocus Pocus” style, drawing crowds to its front steps and gardens. To learn more about all things PEM, go here.Then, pastry chef and author Gesine Bullock-Prado on her new cookbook “My Harvest Kitchen: 100+ Recipes to Savor the Seasons.” From Hollywood lawyer to Vermont baker, she shares how cooking with what’s close at hand — and in season — can feed both body and spirit. Tonight she'll be at Trillium Fort Point in Boston’s Seaport at 6 p.m.for a Q&A and signing. To learn more go here. -
October 20, 2025 - John Carter Cash and Zahili Zamora
As the only son of Johnny Cash and June Carter, John Carter Cash has carried forward one of America’s most enduring musical legacies. A Grammy-winning producer, songwriter, and author, he’s worked with artists from Willie Nelson to Sheryl Crow while preserving his parents’ archives and spirit. He joins The Culture Show to talk about his latest book, The Complete Johnny Cash: Lyrics from a Lifetime of Songwriting, which gathers more than five decades of his father’s words—offering insight into the man behind the Man in Black.From there it’s Cuban-born pianist, vocalist and composer Zahili Gonzalez Zamora. She brings a deep, cross-cultural fluency to her music—melding Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz improvisation, and storytelling. A faculty member at Berklee College of Music, she joins “The Culture Show” to talk about her forthcoming album “Overcoming,” which comes out this Friday; on Friday night she’ll be performing at Scullers Jazz Club at 7:00. To learn more go here. -
October 17, 2025 - Week-in-Review - Diane Keaton, D'Angelo, and the Arch de Trump
Today Edgar B. Herwick III, Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons, artistic and executive director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council, go over the latest arts and culture headlines. First up, remembering Diane Keaton, the Oscar-winning actress of “Annie Hall,” “The Godfather,” and “Something’s Gotta Give.” Over five decades, Diane Keaton redefined Hollywood stardom with her originality, and offbeat authenticity.From there we reflect on D’Angelo, the R&B singer, songwriter, and producer behind “Brown Sugar"and “Voodoo” who died at 51. And we honor Susan Stamberg, a founding voice of NPR, who has died at 86. Her curiosity, and signature cranberry relish became synonymous with the golden age of public radio and its spirit of storytelling.Plus actor Stephen Graham is expanding his Netflix series Adolescence into a new book on masculinity. His project invites fathers around the world to write letters to their sons about what it means to be a man today — continuing the conversation his show began. -
October 16, 2025 - Donnie Wahlberg on his new series "Boston Blue" and Comedian Hari Kondabolu
Donnie Wahlberg — familiar to millions as “Blue Bloods’” Detective Danny Reagan — spent fourteen seasons trading barbs, saying grace, and solving crimes in New York City. Now Danny Reagan is back — but this time, he’s doing it Boston-style. “Blue Bloods” followed a multi-generational law-enforcement family bound by duty, faith, and those famous Sunday dinners. In "Boston Blue, " premiering this Friday on CBS, Wahlberg once again steps into Reagan’s shoes — this time moving the New York detective to Wahlberg’s own hometown. He joins “The Culture Show” to talk about a new chapter in the “Blue Bloods” universe and about his homecoming. To learn more about “Boston Blue” go here.From there it's comedian Hari Kondabolu. He's known for turning cultural critique into comedy. His documentary “The Problem with Apu,” took on stereotypes in “The Simpsons” and sparked a national conversation about representation. His new stand-up on race, parenthood, and the politics of everyday life takes aim at how we talk, what we laugh at, and who gets to tell the joke. He joins us ahead of his show at The Rockwell in Somerville. To learn more go here. -
October 15, 2025 - Josh Simpson on making glass on the moon, Pedro Alonzo and Patrick Martinez on "Cost of Living"
Acclaimed glass artist Josh Simpson crafts luminous worlds in miniature. His signature “Planets” —swirls of color and complexity sealed inside glass — reflect his lifelong fascination with space and science. Now, he’s received a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts grant to explore how lunar dust could be melted into glass for future Moon habitats, in collaboration with architect Martin Bermudez of Skyeports, LLC. Simpson’s new book, “Josh Simpson: 50 Years of Visionary Glass,” and his retrospective of the same is on view at the Sandwich Glass Museum through October. To learn more go here.From there we’re joined by Pedro Alonzo, independent curator and Artistic Director of the Boston Public Art Triennial and one of the Triennial’s featured artists, Patrick Martinez. His installation “Cost of Living.” Working with Breaktime, an organization that supports young adults experiencing homelessness, he’s created a series of illuminated signs. They look like storefront advertisements, but their messages — phrases like “People Over Property” — tell a different story: one about struggle, empathy, and being seen. To learn more go here.
