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Exclusive: BSO President Chad Smith defends decision to oust Andris Nelsons
In his first broadcast interview, Smith told GBH’s The Culture Show that the decision to part ways with Nelsons stems from "a need for alignment."
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April 21, 2026 - Geoff Bennett on "Black Out Loud," Alison Hoagland, and 40 years of MIT List Visual Arts Center
Geoff Bennett, co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour, joins The Culture Show to discuss his new book, Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy from Vaudeville to ’90s Sitcoms. Bennett traces the long arc of Black comedy, from minstrelsy and vaudeville to Richard Pryor, In Living Color, and Living Single. Alison Hoagland, professor emerita of historic preservation at Michigan Technological University and a board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, joins us to talk about the legal fight over President Trump’s White House ballroom project. The case, filed by the National Trust after the demolition of the East Wing, has become a high-stakes battle over preservation, presidential power, and the future of the White House grounds. Paul C. Ha, director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center, joins us as the museum marks its 40th anniversary. We discuss the List’s role in bringing contemporary art into the life of MIT, and the exhibitions, performances, and public programs celebrating four decades of experimentation and artistic inquiry. -
April 20, 2026 - Keith Lockhart, Revolutionary Artists, and Paul Revere's Sons of Liberty Bowl
Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart was recently honored with the Third Lantern Award at Old North Church, recognizing his role in using music to connect civic life and shared memory. As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, he joins The Culture Show to reflect on the power of orchestral music at historic moments. Zara Anishanslin joins The Culture Show to talk through her latest book “The Painter’s Fire: A Forgotten History of the Artists Who Championed the American Revolution.” Zara Anishanslin is a Professor of History and Art History at the University of Delaware. As part of Countdown to 2026, we explore Paul Revere’s Sons of Liberty Bowl, crafted in 1768 to honor a Massachusetts vote rejecting new British taxes. Engraved with the names of lawmakers who opposed those measures, it’s a key artifact of early resistance. Ethan Lasser, Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Conservation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, joins us for an overview. To learn more about the Sons of Liberty Bowl and the MFA’s exhibitions and programming go here. -
April 17, 2026 - Week in Review: Hampshire College closing, AI storefronts, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Lisa Simmons, and James Sullivan go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines. Lisa Simmons is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council. James Sullivan is a journalist and author specializing in popular culture and Americana. He’s also on the Emerson faculty.Hampshire College, the experimental Amherst campus built around independent thinking and academic rebellion, will close after the fall semester under the weight of declining enrollment and financial strain. Its loss is hitting alumni hard, including filmmaker Ken Burns, who called Hampshire’s model of experimentation profoundly transformative. Meta is reportedly exploring whether AI can do more than complete tasks — whether it can replicate executive presence itself. The company is said to be building a digital version of Mark Zuckerberg that could advise employees across the organization, raising questions about whether this is a new kind of access or a new kind of control. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2026 stretches across genres and generations, from Iron Maiden and Wu-Tang Clan to Sade and Oasis. It is a lineup that rewards longevity, settles a few old arguments, and reopens the question of who gets to define rock history. The Brady Bunch house has entered yet another phase of its afterlife. After HGTV rebuilt the interior to match the sitcom’s remembered world, the home now exists somewhere between landmark, attraction, and pop-culture shrine to the grooviest decade in television décor. At the MFA, Art in Bloom turns 50 this year, pairing works from the collection with floral arrangements inspired by them. The annual event brings together floral designers, garden clubs, and museum volunteers for one of the museum’s most colorful spring traditions. -
April 16, 2026 - Keefer Glenshaw, Mary Grant, and a Secret Boston Patriots' Day special
Keefer Glenshaw joins The Culture Show ahead of Intention / Desire, a collaborative 24-hour performance that begins at sunset on April 25 and runs through sunset on April 26 at the Berklee Loft in Boston. Glenshaw, a musician, performance artist, electric cellist, and founder of the rock band The Romance, talks about pushing performance to its limits and inviting audiences directly into the work. MassArt president Mary Grant returns for our recurring feature “AI: Actual Intelligence,” where we hear from some of the region’s most original thinkers. This month, she joins us to talk about the school’s new co-op program and whether an art school can also become a pathway to work.Ahead of Patriots’ Day, Kiernan P. Schmitt joins us to go beyond the Freedom Trail and into the lesser-known corners of Greater Boston where the Revolution still leaves visible marks on the landscape. Schmitt is the author of Secret Boston: An Unusual Guide and co-host of the travel podcast Out of Office. -
April 15, 2026 - Sharks Come Cruisin', Worcester to the Stars at Museum of Worcester, and the Boston Theater Marathon
Providence-based six-piece Sharks Come Cruisin’ joined The Culture Show with their sea-shanty-driven sound, drawing on maritime music, group singing, and an instrument lineup that includes guitar, bass, banjo, fiddle, accordion, and melodica. The band also hosts the regular PVD Shanty Sing at The Parlour in Providence on May 8 and has a duo set at Aidan’s Pub in Bristol on May 10. A century after Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts, Vanessa Bumpus, exhibition coordinator at the Museum of Worcester, joined us to discuss Worcester to the Stars: The Goddard Rocket Centennial. On view through August 1, the exhibition traces Worcester’s place in the history of American rocketry through artifacts and images from Clark University, NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and other collections. Then we turned to the other Boston marathon: the Boston Theater Marathon XXVIII, a full-day relay of 50 new ten-minute plays staged by New England theater companies at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre on May 3. Nathan Alan Davis, Director of the MFA Playwriting Program and Associate Professor of the Practice of Playwriting at Boston University, joined us to talk about the event’s staying power and its broader role as a gathering point for the region’s theater community, with proceeds benefiting the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund.
