Episodes
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December 6, 2024 - Week in Review: Boston's free Sunday museum program, Spotify Wrapped, and Notre Dame
Today on The Culture Show Edgar B. Herwick III, James Bennett II and Lisa Simmons go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review.First up, this week Mayor Wu announced that the city is expanding its pilot program giving Boston students free access to select arts and culture institutions. Starting in January, it’ll be offered to all Boston students, with more free days and even more institutions participating. From there, famed writer Steven King is sending his independent radio stations to the Dead Zone. After 41 years of operating them, he’s giving Maine the silent treatment, citing sustained financial losses.And, it’s a renaissance in Paris. After going up in flames, Notre Dame Cathedral is set to reopen this Sunday after undergoing a five-year restoration. -
December 5, 2024 - The Pipes of Christmas, a missing mural, and a Mariah Carey tribute
For over 25 years The Pipes of Christmas has been a cherished holiday event, performing concerts that celebrate the Christmas season and the Celtic spirit. Next Thursday at Old South Church they will be making their Boston debut in a concert honoring Brian O’Donovan, and the holiday tradition he created: A Christmas Celtic Sojourn. Lindsay O’Donovan, the wife of Brian O’Donavan. She was central to A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, on the stage and behind the scenes. Lindsay O’Donovan, The Pipes of Christmas Executive Producer Bob Currie and vocalist and musician, Madelyn Monaghan join The Culture Show. To learn more about the concert go here.From there James Bennett II joins The Culture Show to talk about his recent reporting on a missing masterpiece at the Boston Public Library and one of John Singer Sargent’s controversial works.Finally, Just in time for the holidays, Berklee College of Music’s Signature Series presents “Singers Showcase: One Sweet Day–The Music Of Mariah Carey. It is an immersive, highly produced event showcasing the craft and artistry of Berklees students who are breathing new life into the Mariah Carey canon. The event features special musical guest Taylor Deneen, who graduated from Berklee in 2021. Taylor Deneen and Anthony Burrell, an Associate Professor of Dance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Mariah Carey’s former creative director, choreographer, and dancer consultant, join The Culture Show. The performances are December 5th and DEcember 6th at 8:00 at Berklee Performance Center.To learn more and to get tickets go here. -
December 4, 2024 - Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on the newly launched Boston Family Days, Front Porch Arts Collective, and J.D. Scrimgeour
Today, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Boston Family Days, an expansion of the successful BPS Sundays pilot program, which gave Boston Public Schools students and their families free access to several cultural institutions throughout Boston. With today’s announcement, Mayor Wu has expanded this free access experience to include all Boston school-aged children K-12 and their families and three new cultural institutions. Mayor Wu joined The Culture Show to talk about this expansion.From there, Front Porch Arts Collective is back with another serving of “Holiday Feast.” Christmastime episodes from four Black-led TV comedies of the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s — “A Different World,” “Amen,” “Family Matters,” and “The Jeffersons” — are performed live in staged readings. Actor Maurice Parent and Dawn M. Simmons, a Co-Producing Artistic Director of Front Porch Arts Collective, joinThe Culture Show.Finally J.D. Scrimgeour joins us to talk about his vision as Salem’s inaugural Poet Laureate. He’s an English professor at Salem State, and the author of five collections of poetry, which includes Banana Bread and Lifting the Turtle. As a dedicated advocate for the arts, he helped establish the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in Salem and he directs the Salem Poetry Seminar, helping future poets. -
December 3, 2024 - Boston Pops' Keith Lockhart, Christina Tosi, and New England Botanic Garden's Night Lights
Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart joins The Culture Show for an overview of the Holiday Pops, which kicks off a series of concerts this Thursday December 5th. This year offers everything from the annual performance of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” to “Home Alone” in Concert to a New Year’s Eve Celebration with Bernadette Peters. To learn about the Holiday Pops season go here.From there, James Beard Award-winning chef Christina Tosi joins The Culture Show to talk about her latest book, “Bake Club: 101 Must-Have Moves for Your Kitchen,” a collection of down-to-earth, sweet and savory recipes inspired by the online community “Bake Club” that Tosi created during the pandemic. She will be at the Brattle Theatre tonight for a book event presented by Harvard Bookstore. To learn more go here. Christina Tosi is a New York Times best-selling author, founder of Milk Bar and host of “Bake Squad."Finally, Grace Elton, CEO of New England Botanic Garden joins The Culture Show to talk about their annual holiday display, "Night Lights: Color Cascade" which is on view through January 5th. To learn more, go here. -
December 2, 2024 - Jeff Hiller, the Concord Museum's Holiday House Tour, and Catherine Allgor
HBO’s “Somebody Somewhere,” drops us into Manhattan, Kansas where we meet Sam, a woman who has recently moved back to her hometown to care for her dying sister, and Joel, a colleague at her new workplace who, she learns, was in the high school choir with her. The Peabody Award-winning series is wrapping up with its last episode streaming on HBO December 8th. Actor Jeff Hiller, who stars as Joel Anderson, joins The Culture Show to talk about this beloved series.From there Lisa Krassner, Executive Director of the Concord Museum. joins The Culture Show, to talk about their annual tradition: The Concord Museum’s Holiday House. It’s this Saturday, from 10:00 AM-4:00 PM. To learn more go here.Finally Catherine Allgor leads the way on another edition of Countdown to 2026. This month she focuses on colonial women and the role they played on the eve of the American Revolution. The books Allgor recommends this month are Mary Beth Norton’s “Liberty’s Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800” and “Abigail Adams” by Woody Holton. Catherine Allgor joins us every month for “Countdown to 2026.” She is President Emerita of the Massachusetts Historical Society, an author, historian and visiting scholar with the Department of History at Tufts University. -
November 29, 2024 - Ethan Hawke and Sean Wang
Ethan Hawke joins The Culture Show to talk about his latest film, “Wildcat,” which he directed and co-wrote. It’s about Flannery O’Conor– her imagination, her life and how illness instilled in her an unrelenting awareness of death. Hawke talks about what Flannery O’Conor means to him and what it means to be the face of Gen X.From there, filmmaker Sean Wang. In his uproarious debut feature film, he depicts the agonies of adolescence: alienation, awkwardness and angst. You know, all the things we try to bury and never remember again. But Wang makes them visible and hilarious. Titled DIDI, it’s the story of Chris, a 13-year old Taiwanese-American boy searching for belonging in suburban California – just as Facebook and MySpace are changing everything. -
November 28, 2024 - Raj Tawney, Joanne Chang, and Marsha Lindsey
Today on the Culture Show we have a show about food, tradition and culture. First up, writer Raj Tawney. Growing up in a multicultural household, his coming of age story happened in the kitchen, helping his mother and grandmother cook recipes from their homelands. Themes of food, memory and identity come together in his memoir, “A Colorful Palate: A Flavorful Journey through a Mixed American Experience”From there, it's award-winning pastry chef Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery + Cafe and Myers+Chang Restaurant. She joins us with her theory on why there is a comfort food revival, putting her spin on the classics and how, for her, a recipe is always a work in progress.Finally we top things off, by topping one off with mixologist Marsha Lindsey, As the principal bartender at SRV where she also runs the bar program, she raises a glass to Black history by introducing us to some of her favorite black owned spirits–and her craft cocktails. -
November 27, 2024 - Handel's Messiah, the Mayor's Mural Crew, and The Thanksgiving Play
The Handel and Haydn Society has been performing Messiah every year since 1854. This year there’s a new component: Artistic Director Jonathan Cohen is introducing CitySing which unites 121 musicians on the Symphony Hall stage to perform Messiah November 29th through December 1st. He, along with Steven Marquardt, principal trumpet player, joined The Culture Show for a preview and performance.From there, culture show contributor Julia Swanson of The Art Walk Project, takes us on a tour of the Mayor’s Mural Crew. For 30 years tenagers have been deployed during the summer to make murals that celebrate community and creativity.Finally, “The Thanksgiving Play” satirizes white progressives who want to create a Thanksgiving pageant for children that’s sensitive to Native Americans. What could go wrong? Director Tara Moses, the first Native American to lead a major production of this play, joins us. “The Thanksgiving Play,” is a production of Moonbox Productions, onstage through December 15th at Arrow Street Arts. -
November 26, 2024 - Annette Gordon-Reed, Nantucket Looms, and Mary Grant
Annette Gordon-Reed is renowned for her groundbreaking work on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. She was the first Black person awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History. She was honored with MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and won the National Book Award for “The Hemingses of Monticello.” Jared Bowen recently caught up with her to talk about her latest book, “On Juneteenth,” at the GBH studio at the Boston Public Library as part of Boston Speaker Series.Next, Nantucket has a history of women-operated businesses because the men were often away at sea, on whaling ships for years on end. That legacy continues to this day with Nantucket Looms, an all-female weaving studio and retail store that has been in operation since 1968. Culture Show co-host Edgar B Herwick III and producer Kate Dellis take us there.From there Mary Grant, President of MassArt joins us for her monthly appearance. Today she discusses how a President Trump administration could affect arts funding, the MassArt Common Good Awards and how there seems to be a literacy problem on college campuses. -
November 25, 2024 - Joyce Kulhawik and Pedro Alonzo
Today Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik joins us for our recurring feature, Stage and Screen Time–a look at the latest movies and plays in theaters now. Joyce Kulhawik is 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.From there, Culture Show contributor independent curator Pedro Alonzo joins The Culture Show to talk about Midnight Zone, his latest project, which is a solo exhibition by Julian Charrière inspired by the environmental hazards of deep-sea mining.
