EXPLORE MORE
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."
Listen to previous shows
-
August 24, 2026 - Sally Mann, Jeremy Sewall and being Henry David Thoreau
First up, Sally Mann. In 2015 renowned photographer Sally Mann published her memoir “Hold Still,” an inquiry into family history, the American South and the nature of creativity. Now, comes her book “Art Work: On the Creative Life.” It is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s irreverent. And it’s refreshingly practical as she guides the reader through her experience and process of being an artist. From there Jeremy Sewall, Chef and Owner of Row 34, shares recipes and stories from his new “Everyday Chef: Simple Dishes for Family and Friends,” which illustrates how restaurant expertise can translate into simple, satisfying meals at home.Finally, Richard Smith. For more than a quarter century he 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 has stepped away from the role. Closing a chapter that made Thoreau’s world vividly real for thousands who visited Walden Pond. -
August 21, 2026 - Week in Review: Hayden Panettiere, Columbia House Music Club, and Phoebe Bridgers' Mass. connection
Today on The Culture Show, it's our arts and culture Week in Review, featuring Callie Crossley and James Sullivan.Our topics include:Remembering Hayden Panettiere. The actress who became a household name at age 16 as a super-powered high schooler in Heroes and later as a country starlet on ABC’s “Nashville” has died at 36. We’ll look at her legacy, and the impact Hollywood has on young actors. From there, remembering Bill Rasmussen. He was the visionary founder of ESPN, who turned a $91 dollar incorporation fee into a multi-billion broadcasting behemoth. We’ll consider the legacy of the man who changed the way we talk, and think, about sports. Then, a musical giant fades to silence. The Columbia House Record Club, which raked in billions of dollars selling 10 records for a cent, is shuttering after 70 years. And, a royal return? Meghan and Harry are hopping back across the pond after six years stateside.Grammy-winning musician Phoebe Bridgers has a new album out, "Lost Weekend," and name drops a North Shore institution - the iconic Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers.And, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are on the move. After a six-year-stint in the U.S., the former royals plan to return to the UK. -
August 20, 2026 - Larkin McPhee, Pedro Alonzo, and Melissa Errico
Larkin McPhee joins us to discuss I’ll See You in My Dreams: A Sister’s Memoir, about her younger brother Charles McPhee, the nationally syndicated radio host known as “The Dream Doctor,” and his battle with ALS. Years after his death, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker turned to writing to bring her brother back to life on the page. McPhee appears at a free book talk at the Nantucket Atheneum on Friday, August 28 at 6 p.m.Independent curator Pedro Alonzo, a regular Culture Show contributor, returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” with dispatches from a recent trip to Oaxaca. Tony Award nominee Melissa Errico has built a career bringing dramatic intelligence to the Great American Songbook. Now she turns to one of its most commanding interpreters: Barbra Streisand. Errico joins us to discuss The Streisand Effect, her homage to Streisand’s voice, wit and fearlessness, created with pianist and music director Billy Stritch. They bring the show to Provincetown Town Hall on Sunday, August 23 at 8:30 p.m. Errico also discusses her new album, I Can Dream, Can’t I? Illusions & Conversations from the Great American Songbook. -
August 19, 2026 - Boston Arts and Culture Chief Joseph Zeil-Henry, Mary Grant, and Union Oyster House at 200
Boston Chief of Arts and Culture Joseph Zeal-Henry joins us to talk about what the city’s next cultural chapter might look like — from affordable rehearsal space and a new cultural infrastructure plan to the future of the Boston Center for the Arts. We’ll also look at LEXICON, the new 23-foot installation at the Boston Public Library that brings art, engineering and public space together.MassArt president Mary Grant returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence.” This month, we consider Norman Rockwell and the American story at 250 through the Norman Rockwell Museum’s sweeping new exhibition, American Stories: From Revolution to Rockwell. Plus, new research suggests that even 10 minutes of drawing can help calm the nervous system.Executive Chef of Union Oyster House Rico DiFronzo joins us to mark the 200th anniversary of Boston’s oldest continuously operating restaurant, taking us through the hallowed history of the beloved Blackstone Block establishment and offering some pearls of wisdom as to the art of the shuck. -
August 18, 2026 - Richard Russo on "Under the Falls," Chef Barbara Lynch, and Imari Paris Jeffries
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo joins us to discuss his new novel, Under the Falls, about a rock star returning to the struggling upstate New York town he fled as a teenager — and confronting the resentment, loyalties and unfinished business he left behind. Russo appears tonight at 6 p.m. with Tom Perrotta at the Cambridge Public Library, in an event presented by Harvard Book Store. The event is sold out, but a standby line will be available.James Beard Award-winning chef Barbara Lynch built one of Boston’s most influential restaurant groups before closing her remaining restaurants in 2024. Now she’s working on a much more intimate scale. Lynch joins us after hosting a pair of 12-person dinners at her Manchester-by-the-Sea studio, part of a new venture that includes private dinners, recipe subscriptions and culinary travel.And for our recurring series “AI: Actual Intelligence,” Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone 250, returns with news about keeping the energy of the World Cup alive after the tournament's end, as well as former Celtic Jaylen Brown's promise to maintain his connections to Boston area nonprofits that help the community.
