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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 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. -
August 17, 2026 - Paula Cole, Chris Vognar on a new era of talk shows, and Working Coast - Below the Line
Paula Cole joins us to mark 30 years of her landmark album This Fire. The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter reflects on songs including “I Don’t Want to Wait” and “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?,” and on returning to the album three decades later. Her This Fire: 30 tour brings the Rockport-raised artist back to Massachusetts for a September 18 show at The Wilbur.Boston Globe TV and pop culture critic Chris Vognar looks at the changing face of the celebrity interview. As traditional late night loses its hold on audiences, shows including Hot Ones, SubwayTakes and Chicken Shop Date are finding new ways to get famous people talking. We discuss Vognar’s latest piece on how YouTube is reinventing the talk-show format.Contemporary Climate Gallery founder James LaMarca joins us ahead of Working Coast – Below the Line, a Fort Point exhibition featuring three emerging Boston-area artists exploring New England’s working waterfront through painting and sculpture. The show runs August 26–30 at the FPAC Art Space at the Envoy Hotel. -
August 14, 2026 - Week in Review: DNF Debate, Potterheads' Win Duel With History, and Obama's Great Books
Jared Bowen is joined by Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons, Artistic and Executive Director of the Roxbury International Film Festival, and GBH’s Jeremy Siegel, host of In Common, for a look at some of the week’s biggest arts and culture stories. Before Anthony Bourdain became the celebrated chef, writer and world traveler we knew, he was a cocky 19-year-old who landed at the bottom of a Provincetown restaurant kitchen. The new film Tony revisits that formative summer, with The Holdovers breakout Dominic Sessa playing the future culinary icon. Nearly 30 years after the murder of Tupac Shakur, a memoir has become central evidence in the case against Duane “Keffe D” Davis. Compton Street Legend placed Davis near the center of the events surrounding the killing. Now his lawyers argue that the swagger, exaggeration and street cred that helped sell the book shouldn’t be mistaken for truth. In Wales, Harry Potter fans forced a multimillion-dollar power cable to change course after its planned route threatened the beach where Dobby the house-elf is memorialized. The twist: the rerouted cable now passes closer to actual Bronze Age burial remains. And when is it okay to give up on a book? Goodreads has added a dedicated “Did Not Finish” shelf, giving new life to an old readerly debate over whether abandoning a book is sensible judgment—or simply quitting too soon. -
August 13, 2026 - Valerie Fridland, Phillip Kennicott and an afternoon at the opera with Jane Eaglen
Valerie Fridland, sociolinguist and professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, joins us to talk about her new book, Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents—from how accents develop and change to what our speech can reveal about identity, belonging and the assumptions we make about one another.Philip Kennicott, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic for The Washington Post, discusses the paper’s ambitious project, The 25 most influential works of American culture, tracing 250 years through everything from Thomas Paine and Jackson Pollock to blue jeans, Thriller and Doom.Jane Eaglen, Grammy-winning soprano, New England Conservatory faculty member and president of the Boston Wagner Society, returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” following the Society’s 2026 American Wagner Festival to talk Wagner, singing and the latest stories from the world of classical music. -
August 12, 2026 - Judy Collins, Mahesh Daas on architecture and heat waves , and the North End Fisherman's Feast
Judy Collins joins us ahead of her “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: Farewell Tour”stop at Tanglewood on August 30, co-starring Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash, with special guest Amanda Shires. Collins discusses “Both Sides Now,” interpreting other writers’ songs and writing her own material.Mahesh Daas, president of the Boston Architectural College, returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence” to talk about how cities can adapt to increasingly extreme summer heat—from shade and trees to water, street design and lessons from places that have lived with punishing temperatures for centuries.The 116th annual Fisherman’s Feast returns to Boston’s North End August 13–16. Domenic Strazzullo, president of the Madonna del Soccorso Society, which organizes the Feast, and The Boston Guido, one of this year’s Best Meatball Competition judges, join Jared to preview four days of processions, food, the famed Flight of the Angel and Best Meatball Competition.
