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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.
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April 7, 2026 - Béla Fleck, the High Line in New York, and Virginia Pye on "Marriage and Other Monuments"
Nineteen-time Grammy winner Béla Fleck joins The Culture Show ahead of his April 18 performance at The Cabot in Beverly with harpist Edmar Castañeda and drummer Antonio Sánchez. He talks about musical risk, unlikely combinations, and a career that has taken the banjo from bluegrass to jazz, classical music, and beyond. Richard Hayden, Senior Director of Horticulture at New York’s High Line, joins The Culture Show to discuss the elevated park that transformed an old freight rail line into one of the city’s most influential public spaces. He talks about caring for the gardens that help define the High Line’s identity and what it takes to steward a landscape shaped by both design and self-seeded wildness. Virginia Pye joins The Culture Show to discuss “Marriage and Other Monuments,” her new novel set in Richmond during the reckoning over Confederate memory in 2020, where public conflict spills into the private lives of two sisters and their marriages. She’ll appear at Newtonville Books on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. to talk about the book. -
April 6, 2026 - Elaine Sciolino, Matt Doyle, and Adam Rapp
Elaine Sciolino, former New York Times Paris bureau chief and the author of six books, joins The Culture Show to revisit her 1982 interview with Ali Khamenei, conducted years before he became Iran’s supreme leader, and to reflect on what that encounter reveals now about Iran, power, and history. Her latest book, “Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum,” is now out in paperback, and she’ll discuss it on Tuesday at the French Library during Night at the Louvre: Art, Intrigue & a Modern Heist; On April 21st she’ll be at the Boston Athenaeum.Tony Award-winning actor Matt Doyle joins The Culture Show to discuss “When Playwrights Kill” Matthew Lombardo’s dark backstage comedy inspired by the real-life collapse of “Tea at Five” and its aborted Broadway hopes. The production is onstage at the Huntington Theatre through April 18; details are here. Playwright Adam Rapp joins The Culture Show to discuss writing the book for “The Outsiders” the Tony-winning Broadway musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel. In town by way of Broadway in Boston it’s on stage at Citizens Opera House through April 12. To learn more go here. -
April 3, 2026 - Week-in-Review: An Art Heist, A Kit-Kat Caper, and Celine Dion's Comeback
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Lisa Simmons, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines.First up, Italian authorities are searching for four masked thieves who stole a Renoir, a Cézanne, and a Matisse from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation outside Parma in a raid that took less than three minutes. The theft, valued at about $10.3 million, has renewed concerns about how vulnerable museums remain to fast, highly organized art crimes. From there, a truck carrying more than 400,000 KitKat bars vanished on its way to Poland, leaving Nestlé trying to solve a very different kind of heist. The stolen shipment weighed 12 tons, turning a candy delivery into an international mystery. And Boston’s arts community is remembering Candelaria Silva-Collins, who died at 71. As the first director of ACT Roxbury, she helped build lasting cultural infrastructure in Roxbury, from Roxbury Open Studios to the early Roxbury Film Festival and the transformation of Hibernian Plus Celine Dion will return to live performance this fall with a 10-show run in Paris, her first full concert engagement in six years. The comeback follows her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome, which forced her to step away from the spotlight. Finally, “The Pitt” will bring its season finale to Alamo Drafthouse on April 13 as part of a one-night Healthcare Appreciation Week event. It is another example of television being repackaged as a theatrical experience. -
April 2, 2026 - David Duchovny, Edward Gorey, and Simon Curtis
Award-winning actor, director, singer-songwriter and bestselling author David Duchovny joins The Culture Show to discuss “About Time: Poems,” a collection that reflects on love, family, aging, and the shifting nature of time. From there Molly Schwartzburg joins The Culture Show to talk about Edward Gorey and how Harvard’s Houghton Library has acquired never before seen Gorey illustrations. These works reveal how his time at Harvard shaped his sensibility. Molly Schwartzburg is the Philip Hofer Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts.Finally acclaimed filmmaker Simon Curtis joins The Culture Show to talk about directing “Downton Abbey:The Grand Finale.” -
April 1, 2026 - Robert Pinsky, Chef Jason Santos, and Joyce's Choices
Poet Robert Pinsky joins The Culture Show to kick off National Poetry Month with a look at PoemJazz at Regattabar, where poetry and live music meet. The next edition, “Misrule Music,” is April 12 and shares its title with Pinsky’s new poem in the April issue of "The Atlantic."Chef Jason Santos discusses “Citrus & Salt,” his new cookbook inspired by the flavors of his Fort Point restaurant. He talks about translating the bright, high-impact world of coastal Mexican food and cocktails from the restaurant kitchen to the home cook. It’s Stage and Screen with Joyce Kulhawik, with reviews, previews, and recommendations on what to see now. This week’s roundup includes Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” and “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Lyric Stage. Joyce Kulhawik is a Culture Show contributor, 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.
