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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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August 27, 2026 - Christopher Rothko, Ask E. Jean, and "Broken American Dream" with Daniel Paquette
Christopher Rothko joins us to discuss his donation of his father’s 1934 Gloucester Harbor painting to the Cape Ann Museum and what the early work reveals about Mark Rothko before abstraction defined his career. He and his sister, Kate Rothko Prizel, will also appear at the museum’s Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the SeaSymposium September 17 and 18.Filmmaker Ivy Meeropol joins us to discuss Ask E. Jean, her new documentary tracing E. Jean Carroll’s unconventional life, public voice and legal battle with Donald Trump. The film screens August 27 as part of the Nantucket Film Festival’s summer documentary series.Washington Post reporter Danielle Paquette went to a forest outside Warsaw, where Europeans spent 28 hours role-playing life in a fictional Ohio trailer park. Her story, “What I Learned About the American Dream From Europeans Pretending to Live in Ohio,” explores what the experience revealed about America’s mythology abroad. -
August 26, 2026 - Remembering Dolly Parton with Paula Cole, Conversations with an Executioner, and corsets in Worcester
Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Paula Cole joins The Culture Show to remember Dolly Parton, an artist she long admired and later collaborated with on “Heart Door.” Cole reflects on Parton’s songwriting, influence and the experience of making music with her. Cole’s new archival project, Sonic Memoir: Demos 1989–1998, arrives September 10. On September 18, she brings This Fire: 30 to the Wilbur, performing This Fire in full for its 30th anniversary.Polish resistance fighter Kazimierz Moczarski spent 255 days imprisoned with Jürgen Stroop, the Nazi officer who oversaw the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. Translator Sean Gasper Bye joins us to discuss Conversations with an Executioner, now available in its complete English translation for the first time. He’ll be at JustBook-ish in Dorchester September 1.Worcester was once a corset capital, producing a garment that constricted women physically even as the industry helped liberate them in the workforce. Anne Marie Murphy joins us to discuss A Proper Fit: Women at Work in a City of Corsets and the women who designed, invented and built businesses around the garment. -
August 25, 2026 - Masquerade, Chef Ana Sortun, and Christin Geall on "Flora Culture"
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 here.James Beard Award-winning chef Ana Sortun has spent more than two decades making the flavors of Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean part of Boston’s flavor profile. The chef behind Oleana, Sofra and Sarma joins us to talk about how travel changed the way she cooks and why vegetables, spices and communal eating remain central to her food.In her new book, Flora Culture: How Flowers Shape Our World, writer, designer and gardener Christin Geall follows flowers through a global industry in full bloom, tracing the labor, trade, traditions and environmental costs behind what we grow, give and bring into our homes. She’ll sign books at Edgartown Books on Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday, August 26. -
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.
