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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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September 22, 2026 - Altın Gün, Uli Lorimer from Native Plant Trust, and the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
Altın Gün — The Amsterdam-based band draws on generations of Turkish folk songs, reshaping them through rock, disco and psychedelia. Members of the group join us ahead of their Boston performance at Big Night Live.Uli Lorimer — As New England faces hotter temperatures, heavier rain, drought and habitat loss, the Native Plant Trust horticulture director explains a new effort to collect, grow and preserve native seeds for future restoration.Craig Dykers and Michelle Delk — The Snøhetta architects behind the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library discuss designing a museum that rises from the North Dakota Badlands, where landscape, architecture and Roosevelt’s conservation legacy become part of the same story. -
September 21, 2026 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch at 25
Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone250, returns for AI: Actual Intelligence, our recurring series tapping local thinkers for original, algorithm-free observations on the issues shaping culture and civic life. Learn more about Embrace Boston and Everyone250. Hank Azaria, Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and voice artist, has spent decades creating characters on The Simpsons. Now he’s taking on another unmistakable voice: Bruce Springsteen. Azaria tells us how a surprise performance at his 60th birthday grew into Hank Azaria and the EZ Street Band, a full-fledged Springsteen celebration benefiting his Four Through Nine Foundation. The band performs at The Sinclair in Cambridge on October 21. John Cameron Mitchell, writer, director and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, looks back at the film’s journey from Sundance prizewinner to cult classic as it marks its 25th anniversary. Mitchell brings the anniversary tour to Boston’s Shubert Theatre on October 1 for a 4K screening, conversation, audience Q&A and live acoustic performance. Tickets and information are available through the Boch Center. -
September 18, 2026 - Week in Review: Macklemore v. Bob Kraft, Sydney Sweeney, and Bob Mackie
Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show Contributors Maurice Emmanuel Parent and Joyce Kulhawik. Maurice Parent is an award-winning actor, Professor of the Practice, Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University, and Producing Artistic Director at Front Porch Arts Collective. Joyce Kulhawik is an Emmy-award winning arts and entertainment reporter and President of the Boston Theatre Critics Association. You can find her reviews on Joyce’s Choices.They go over some of the week’s biggest arts and culture stories, which include: Macklemore’s pro-Palestinian remarks at MetLife Stadium ignited a larger fight over political speech, commercial pressure and Sheeran’s Loop Tour. Sweeney’s nearly nude Novig campaign is drawing criticism from female athletes who say it relies on the sexualization of women in sports. Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon found common ground at the Pro-Human Assembly as concern grows over the speed and consequences of AI. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens in Los Angeles, bringing everything from Norman Rockwell and Frida Kahlo to comics, manga and Star Wars under one roof. We remember the legendary designer who dressed Cher, Carol Burnett and generations of stars in feathers, fringe, sequins and spectacle. -
September 17, 2026 - Doug Robb of Hoobastank, Mary Grant, and Hank Phillippi Ryan
More than two decades after “The Reason” turned Hoobastank into a mainstream phenomenon, frontman Doug Robb looks back at the song’s enormous success, the backlash that came with it and eventually finding his way back to it. The band also has its first new music in eight years and plays the Xfinity Center in Mansfield September 18 with Staind, Seether and Hinder. MassArt President Mary Grant joins us for another edition of AI: Actual Intelligence to discuss commemorating Constitution Day and fostering civic engagement.Bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan joins us with her 17th thriller, Mother Daughter Sister Stranger, and talks about the long relationship between her reporting and fiction. Tonight at 6:30, Ryan also joins the Ashland Public Library for a virtual event. -
September 16, 2026 - Elizabeth Alexander, Goodnow Farms Chocolate, and Patrick Page
Poet, essayist and Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander joins us to talk about her new book, Signals Across Vast Distances: Essays and Tales, which moves through poetry, art, history, family and public life. Alexander appears tonight with former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith at the Brattle Theatre in an event presented by Harvard Book Store.At Goodnow Farms Chocolate in Sudbury, Monica and Tom Rogan trace flavor all the way back to the cacao bean — sourcing directly from growers, roasting each origin differently and even pressing their own cocoa butter. The award-winning chocolate makers join us to explain how one ingredient can yield notes of berries, honey, coffee and toasted marshmallow. Grammy Award-winning and Tony-nominated actor Patrick Page has made a career of getting inside the minds of some very bad men. In All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, he moves through more than a dozen Shakespeare characters to examine how the playwright’s villains became increasingly, unsettlingly human. Page brings the solo show to Boston October 28 through November 1 at the Emerson Paramount Center, presented by ArtsEmerson.
