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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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November 6, 2026 - Week in Review: The Cheesecake Factory, Boston Logan's new voice, and the Lizard Lounge
On this edition of The Culture Show, co-host Callie Crossley and contributors Lisa Simmons and James Sullivan go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines. Lisa Simmons is the artistic and executive director of the Roxbury International Film Festival and program manager at Mass Cultural Council. James Sullivan is a journalist and author specializing in popular culture and Americana. He’s also on the Emerson faculty. Barack Obama's joke about Donald Trump's White House décor has sparked a national debate over the Cheesecake Factory. Even Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has weighed in—with a cheeseburger recommendation. The Kennedy Center announces this year's honorees, including Paul Anka, Andy Garcia and David Mamet. But with the venue closed for renovations, the December ceremony is moving to a sports arena. More than 6,000 people auditioned to become the new voice of Logan Airport. The winner? Arlington pipefitter Chris Donisi, whose wicked Boston accent helped him land the job. Emerson College is launching a bachelor's degree in content creation. Can a four-year education prepare students for an industry built on algorithms, influencers and rapidly changing trends? Cambridge's Lizard Lounge, the intimate basement music club where Lake Street Dive once performed, is closing after nearly three decades. What does its departure mean for Greater Boston's live music scene? -
November 5, 2026 - Tom Perrotta, Patrick Radden Keefe, and Virginia Pye
Tom Perrotta joins us to discuss Ghost Town, his new novel about memory, grief, and the long pull of the past. The Election, Little Children, and The Leftovers author returns to familiar New Jersey ground in a story centered on Jimmy Perrini, a successful writer drawn back to the hometown and the formative loss he thought he had left behind.Award-winning New Yorker staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe joins us to discuss his latest book, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. The book investigates the death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who plunged from a luxury London apartment tower into the River Thames, and opens into a larger story of dirty money, criminal networks, police failure, and extreme wealth.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 -
November 4, 2026 - Osvaldo Golijov, Jim McCue, and Joanne Chang
MacArthur Fellow and acclaimed composer Osvaldo Golijov joins us ahead of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's world premiere of Creation, his new oratorio inspired by Haydn's 1798 masterpiece. Performances are November 12–14 at Symphony Hall. It's part of the BSO's larger Creation festival, which extends beyond Symphony Hall. This Friday, William Basinski's The Garden of Brokenness has its American premiere at Arrow Street Arts in Cambridge. And next Saturday, painter Makoto Fujimura joins a BSO string quartet for an afternoon of art and Beethoven at Tremont Temple Baptist Church. Details at bso.org. Jim McCue, founder of the Boston Comedy Festival, discusses its 26th year, emerging stand-up talent and Boston original Steven Wright, who will receive the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award at the November 14 finals.Joanne Chang, James Beard Award-winning pastry chef and founder of Flour Bakery + Cafés, joins us with her inventive new cookbook, The Joy of Cookies, ahead of tonight's Harvard Book Store event at Cambridge's Brattle Theatre. -
November 3, 2026 - Anthony Roth Costanzo's Countertenor, North by Northwest, and Notes of Deception
Grammy Award-winning countertenor and opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo discusses his new book, Countertenor, exploring his extraordinary vocal range, unconventional career and life in opera.Award-winning British theatre director Emma Rice discusses her comic stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. Featuring physical comedy, music and inventive stagecraft, the production makes its East Coast premiere at the Huntington Theatre January 21–February 7, 2027.Saxophonist Merryl Goldberg, founding member of Boston's Klezmer Conservatory Band, discusses Notes of Deception: How a Quartet of American Musicians Outwitted the KGB, co-authored with intelligence historian Vince Houghton. She appears at the New England Conservatory this Thursday, November 5, at 8 p.m. for a free conversation with fellow musician Hankus Netsky. -
November 2, 2026 - Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, Big Little Books: Eastbound, and Arte de La Borinqueña
Daniela Candillari, principal conductor of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Patricia Racette, acclaimed soprano and the company's artistic director, discuss André Previn’s operatic adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire. Candillari conducts and Racette directs the new co-production with Boston Lyric Opera, running November 5–8 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. Jill Medvedow, director emerita of the Institute of Contemporary Art, returns for Big Little Books, this time featuring Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal, translated by Jessica Moore. The acclaimed short novel unfolds aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway, where a chance encounter becomes a test of courage and compassion. For the first time, listeners join the discussion as Big Little Books becomes a live call-in book club. Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, artist, graphic novelist and creator of Puerto Rican superhero La Borinqueña, discusses the character's evolution from comic-book heroine to symbol of cultural pride and activism. His nationally touring exhibition, Arte de La Borinqueña, opens November 6 at La CASA in Boston's South End and runs through February 17, 2027.
