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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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March 27, 2026 - Week in Review: Hannah Montana at 20, SNL's UK debut, and remembering Tracy Kidder
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and James Parker, staff writer at The Atlantic, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines:Twenty years after Hannah Montana premiered, Disney is marking the anniversary with a new special celebrating the show and the fandom that never let go. After 50 years of turning American politics and celebrity into live comedy, Saturday Night Live is heading to Britain. The new adaptation raises the question: can the SNL formula survive a culture with a different comic sensibility? Meta and Google have lost a major case over social media addiction, with a California jury finding Instagram and YouTube liable and awarding $6 million in damages. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Kidder has died at 80. In books like “The Soul of a New Machine” and “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” he brought narrative force and moral seriousness to stories about people under pressure and the systems that shaped them. Stephen Colbert is taking his Tolkien fandom to a new level: the late-night host is now co-writing a new “Lord of the Rings film.” His move from superfan to franchise writer has fans wondering what one of pop culture’s most devoted Tolkien obsessives will bring to Middle-earth. And we close the show with our week in preview. Jared recommends “Nixon in China” at Symphony Hall, James Parker offers “An Evening with Black Seed Writers” at Brookline Booksmith and Callie suggests the play “Lifted,” by Mfonisao Udofia onstage at Wellesley College Theatre. -
March 26, 2026 - Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson on "Nixon in China," “André Is an Idiot,” and presidential pets
John Adams’s Nixon in China turned a geopolitical spectacle into something stranger, sharper, and more human. Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson join the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall to reprise Pat and Richard Nixon in scenes from the opera, with performances March 26 through 28. To learn more go here.The documentary “André Is an Idiot” begins with a terrible mistake — putting off a colonoscopy — and turns it into something candid, profane, funny, and unexpectedly life-affirming. Director Tony Benna joins “The Culture Show” to talk about the film, which opens at Alamo Drafthouse Boston Seaport Friday, March 27. Alan Price, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, joins The Culture Show for an overview of their current exhibition “Presidential Pets.” To learn more go here. -
March 25, 2026 - Mahesh Daas, Reeves Gabrels + My'Kal Stromlie, and the MFA at 250
Mahesh Daas, president of Boston Architectural College, joins The Culture Show to discuss resilient architecture and what California’s wildfire recovery can teach the rest of us about building safer homes.Legendary guitarist Reeves Gabrels, known for his work with David Bowie and The Cure, joins choreographer My’Kal Stromile to discuss "The Leisurely Installation of a New Window," part of Boston Ballet’s The Dream program through March 29 at Citizens Opera House. To learn more go here.As part of our “Countdown to 250” series Nonie Gadsden, the MFA’s Katharine Lane Weems Senior Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture, joins The Culture Show to explore the Boston Tea Party through teapots, tea tables, silver, and the rituals of colonial life. -
March 24, 2026 - Ken Burns, Francisco Noya and Amanda Shea, and Alan Ricks on "Seeking Abundance"
Filmmaker Ken Burns joins The Culture Show to discuss “Henry David Thoreau,” the new three-part PBS documentary series that he executive produced, and to reflect on America at 250. The conversation explores the larger questions of identity, democracy, and national meaning that have long run through Burns’ work. Henry David Thoreau premiers on March 30th on PBS. To learn more go here.As America approaches its 250th anniversary, the Boston Civic Symphony marks the moment with Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Jared talks with music director Francisco Noya and spoken-word artist Amanda Shea, who will narrate Lincoln Portrait, ahead of the orchestra’s March 28 concert at Jordan Hall. To learn more go here.Architect Alan Ricks joins The Culture Show to discuss “Seeking Abundance,” the new book he co-wrote with Sierra Bainbridge, and an approach to design that asks buildings to give more back than they take. The conversation looks at how architecture shapes daily life, communities, and the future we imagine. To learn more about the book go here. -
March 23, 2026 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Mahler's "Song of the Earth" at the BLO, and "Busing the Buffer Zone"
Republicans are advancing the SAVE Act, a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. Supporters frame it as election security, while critics warn it could block millions of eligible voters—raising new questions about access and democracy. Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone 250, joins The Culture Show to talk about the SAVE Act in the context of Dr. Martin Luther King’s unfinished legacy, Boston Lyric Opera is reimagining Mahler’s "Song of the Earth" as a fully theatrical experience, conceived and directed by Anne Bogart. Bogart joins The Culture Show with BLO General Manager and CEO Brad Vernatter to talk about this meditation on mortality, beauty, and farewell — and about the reopening of the company’s Opera + Community Studios in Fort Point, where the production runs through March 29. To learn more about the production go here.In 1975, as Boston’s busing crisis escalated, Chinatown mothers organized a boycott rather than send their children into desegregating schools. Now, that story is reclaimed through an exhibition and staged readings of Busing the Buffer Zone: Chinatown Mother Boycott Oral History in Play. Playwright Christina R. Chan joins us, along with translator, teacher, and community advocate Suzanne Lee, who worked directly with the mothers.The exhibition is on view at the Pao Arts Center through March 28, with staged readings there on March 28 at 2 and 7 p.m. To learn more go here.
