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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
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May 11, 2026 -
James Sullivan, a journalist, author and longtime contributor to the Boston Globe, joins The Culture Show to talk about his book Which Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs.From there Aisha Muharrar joins The Culture Show to talk about her debut novel “Loved One.” She’s an Emmy Award–winning writer and producer who has worked on “Hacks,” “Parks” and “Recreation,” and “The Good Place.”Finally, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Russo joins The Culture Show, to talk about his new book "Life and Art.” It’s a COVID-era meditation on his childhood, adulthood and what it means to be an artist. -
May 8, 2026 - Week in Review: Ted Turner, Tony nominations, and the Met Gala
On this edition of The Culture Show, Culture Show co-host Callie Crossley, GBH’s Global Correspondent and News Host Jeremy Siegel and James Sullivan, journalist, author and Emerson faculty member go over the latest arts and culture headlines on our week in review We reflect on Ted Turner’s legacy. The Media mogul who built CNN, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network, died this week at 87. The Tony nominations are out, offering a clearer picture of the Broadway season: the revivals, new musicals, adaptations and surprises that broke through. The Rolling Stones are back with “Rough and Twisted,” a lead single from their upcoming album Foreign Tongues, out July 10. Club Passim celebrates Matt Smith’s 30 years with a May 12 concert at Arrow Street Arts featuring Ellis Paul, Kris Delmhorst, Alisa Amador and more. When Scotland plays in Foxboro for the World Cup, hundreds of fans are planning to beat steep train fares by taking yellow school buses to Gillette. -
May 7, 2026 - "Swept Away" by The Avett Brothers, and Elizabeth Strout's "The Things We Never Say"
Scott Avett and Seth Avett of The Avett Brothers join us to discuss “Swept Away,” the musical built around their songs. After a 2024 Broadway run, the show is now in Boston at SpeakEasy Stage Company, where it turns the Avetts’ music into a harrowing sea story about a New Bedford whaling crew, a shipwreck and an impossible moral choice. To learn more about “Swept Away” at SpeakEasy Stage Company, go here. The Avett Brothers will also be back in Boston this summer, performing with Mike Patton at the Boch Center Wang Theatre on June 10. To learn more, go here.Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout joins us to discuss her latest novel, “The Things We Never Say.” It introduces a new cast of characters while returning to familiar Strout territory: marriage, loneliness, family strain and the things people cannot quite bring themselves to say. Strout will be in Massachusetts for two events this week: at The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge tonight, presented by Harvard Book Store, and at Duxbury High School tomorrow, presented by The Duxbury Literary Circle. To learn more about the Brattle Theatre event, go here, and for the Duxbury event, go here. -
May 6, 2026 - Stephen Greenblatt, Jill Lepore and Nicholas Boggs
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Greenblatt joins The Culture Show, to talk about his latest book, “Dark Renaissance:The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival.” It traces the meteoric rise and violent end of Christopher Marlowe—playwright, poet, spy, and heretic—whose genius endures today. From there, Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore discusses her new book, “We the People." Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding—the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions—"We the People" offers a wholly new history of the Constitution.Finally writer Nicholas Boggs joins The Culture Show to talk about his book, “Baldwin: A Love Story.” It's the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, revealing how the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work. -
May 5, 2026 - Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, Masquerade, and the National Baseball Poetry Festival
Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart joins The Culture Show with a preview of the Pops’ spring season, running May 8 through June 6 at Symphony Hall. The season includes appearances by Ray Chen, Jon Batiste, Leslie Odom Jr., St. Vincent and more, along with film nights, Pride Night and Gospel Night. To learn more, go here. Tony Award–winning director Diane Paulus, Artistic Director of the American Repertory Theater, joins us to talk about “Masquerade,” an immersive reimagining of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.” Set in a five-story former department store on West 57th Street, the production turns the Paris Opera House into a candlelit maze of salons, staircases, and hidden rooms, bringing audiences in masks inches from the show’s spectacle and romance. To learn more go hereSteve Biondolillo, founder and president of the National Baseball Poetry Festival, and Sarah Connell Sanders, teacher, writer and organizer of the festival’s youth poetry contest, join us ahead of the festival’s return to Worcester. Running May 7 through 10 at Polar Park, the festival brings together poets, baseball fans, students and families for readings, workshops, open mics, WooSox games, a ballpark tour and a sunset catch on the field. To learn more, go here.
