The Culture Show Podcast

By GBH NewsSociety & Culture

The Culture Show Podcast episodes

October 16October 16, 2026 - Week in Review: Kelly Clarkson's Brooklyn shop beef, Shane Gillis, and Winnie the Pooh's 100th
Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Maurice Parent discuss the week's arts and culture headlines, including:
Kelly Clarkson's feud with a Brooklyn novelty shop over a $15,000 mechanical songbird.
Comedian Shane Gillis sparks backlash over his latest Saturday Night Live monologue.
Britain wants Winnie-the-Pooh back as the beloved bear turns 100.
Stevie Wonder celebrates 50 years of Songs in the Key of Life with a new tour.
Callie Crossley is co-host of The Culture Show and host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, which airs Sundays at 6 p.m. on 89.7 GBH. Maurice Parent is an award-winning actor, Professor of Theater at Tufts University and Producing Artistic Director of the Front Porch Arts Collective.
45 min
October 15 October 15, 2026 - Emily Wilson on Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, Stephen Greenblatt, and Nicholas Boggs
Emily Wilson, acclaimed translator of The Odyssey and The Iliad, discusses her new book, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea, exploring how the literature of ancient Greece and Rome continues to shape our world. Wilson delivers a keynote address at the Boston Book Festival on October 17.
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Stephen Greenblatt joins The Culture Show, to talk about his latest book, “Dark Renaissance:The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival.” It traces the meteoric rise and violent end of Christopher Marlowe—playwright, poet, spy, and heretic—whose genius endures today.
Finally writer Nicholas Boggs joins The Culture Show to talk about his book, “Baldwin: A Love Story.” It's the first major biography of James Baldwin in three decades, revealing how the writer’s personal relationships shaped his life and work.
52 min
October 14 October 14, 2026 - Boston Lyric Opera at 50, Mahesh Daas, and Afternoon Tea
Nina Yoshida Nelsen, artistic director of the Boston Lyric Opera, and Bradley Vernatter, CEO and general director, preview the company's 50th anniversary season, featuring four productions directed by women and a world premiere inspired by Bostonians. Next up is André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, November 5–8 at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre.
Mahesh Daas, president of the Boston Architectural College and co-author of I, Nobot, explores South Station Tower, a 51-story skyscraper nearly 50 years in the making. How did engineers build above a busy train station without stopping service, and what does the tower give back to Boston?
Louise Mawhinney, owner of Duck Soup in Sudbury and the Sky Bar Candy Company, shares the history and traditions of British afternoon tea, complete with a demonstration of the classic ritual.

46 min
October 13 October 13, 2026 - Michael Lewis on "Blockers," The Nautilus, and Taylor Mac and Matt Ray on "Bark of Millions"
Bestselling author Michael Lewis discusses his new book, Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State, about federal workers caught in DOGE's upheaval. He appears at the Boston Book Festival on October 16 at 7:30 p.m., in conversation with Geraldine Brooks.
Stephen Bowler, co-founder and director of operations at The Nautilus, discusses sustainable seafood and changing tastes in New England. The restaurant marks National Seafood Month with specials through October 31, benefiting ocean-farming nonprofit GreenWave.
MacArthur Fellow Taylor Mac and Obie Award-winning composer Matt Ray discuss their queer-history extravaganza Bark of Millions. A concert adaptation, Songs from Bark of Millions, comes to ArtsEmerson October 15–18.
56 min
October 12 October 12, 2026 - BSO President Chad Smith, Marc Brown on 30 years of Arthur, and Pedro Alonzo
Chad Smith, president and CEO of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, previews the 2026–27 season, which includes all six Tchaikovsky symphonies, three Stravinsky ballets, a world premiere exploring artificial intelligence. The season also marks Andris Nelsons’ final year as music director.
Marc Brown, author, illustrator and creator of Arthur, celebrates the 30th anniversary of the beloved GBH-produced PBS series. Two new books, Arthur Makes a Comic and Arthur’s Underwear, are arriving May 4, 2027. Watch Arthur on PBS KIDS, through the PBS KIDS Video app, on Prime Video or with a library card through Hoopla.
Pedro Alonzo, independent curator and Culture Show contributor, discusses how Amnesia Atómica, a Times Square art installation featuring a giant inflatable mushroom cloud, brought him into the world of nuclear disarmament. He explores the role of art and culture in rethinking global security and his involvement with Women Transforming Global Security, an international initiative bringing together policymakers and world leaders.
56 min
October 09October 9, 2026 - Week in Review: The Paramount-WB merger, Digger, and RM at SFMOMA
On this edition of The Culture Show, Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons, go over the week’s top arts and culture headlines, which include:
The Emmy Awards are leaving traditional television for Amazon Prime Video in 2027. Television’s biggest night is becoming a streaming event.
Tom Cruise may be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but audiences aren't turning out for Digger. The $180 million satire scraped together just $8 million in its domestic debut.
Paramount and Warner Bros. have joined forces in a $110 billion merger, bringing Harry Potter, Top Gun, HBO and CBS under one roof. The new entertainment giant also faces roughly $80 billion in debt and the prospect of major layoffs.
BTS leader RM is bringing his passion for collecting art to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His exhibition is drawing young fans into the galleries, including some who've never visited an art museum before.
-A naked, gold-covered Donald Trump has arrived at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt’s The Orange Plague takes aim at Trump's climate and foreign policies, drawing inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes.
56 min
October 08 October 8, 2026 - Gregory Maguire on "Galinda," Farm Fashion, and Dawn M. Simmons on "Covenant"
Author Gregory Maguire joins us to discuss Galinda: A Charmed Childhood, his new return to Oz exploring the privileged, ambitious and still-forming girl who will become Glinda the Good; Wicked is also at Boston’s Citizens Opera House through Nov. 15. Google Books
Sherlock Terry, curator of Farm Fashion: Workwear, Utility & Style at Billings Farm & Museum, traces how clothing designed for farm labor moved from barns and factories into everyday wardrobes and high fashion. Billings Farm
Dawn M. Simmons, Producing Artistic Director of SpeakEasy Stage Company and director of Covenant, joins us to discuss York Walker’s Southern Gothic thriller about myth-making, faith, family secrets and moral panic, running through Oct. 17 at the Calderwood Pavilion.
56 min
October 07October 7, 2026 - Nathaniel Philbrick's "The Rush," America's Test Kitchen's "The New Cookie," and "Spamalot"
National Book Award-winning historian Nathaniel Philbrick joins us to discuss The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World, his new book tracing how the Gold Rush reshaped the country and helped propel it toward Civil War. Philbrick appears tonight at 7 p.m. at First Parish Church in Cambridge for an event presented by Harvard Book Store.
Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison, executive editorial directors and co-hosts of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Country, join us with The New Cookie, a collection of 150 recipes that reworks familiar favorites and pushes cookie-making in new directions with ingredients including brown butter, black sesame, matcha and malted milk chocolate.
Actor Leo Roberts, who plays Sir Galahad in the national tour of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, joins us to talk about bringing the musical’s Arthurian absurdity, killer rabbits, French taunters and medieval mayhem back to Boston. SPAMALOT runs October 8–11 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre.
56 min
October 06October 6, 2026 - Keith Lockhart, Martha Raddatz, and Risa Puleo and Kate Gilbert on the Boston Public Art Triennial
Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart previews the Pops’ fall and holiday lineup, including the third annual Día de Muertos concert and Holiday Pops beginning December 3, plus Disney’s The Muppet Christmas Carol in concert.
ABC News chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz discusses her new book, The Hero Next Door: Stories of Patriotism and Purpose, revisiting the post-9/11 generation she covered at war and the lives they built afterward, 25 years after the invasion of Afghanistan.
Risa Puleo, newly named artistic director and chief curator of the 2028 Boston Public Art Triennial, joins founder and executive director Kate Gilbert to look ahead to the next citywide exhibition, running May through October 2028.
56 min
October 05October 5, 2026 - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Old North Church, Jane Eaglen, and All My Sons at Lyric Stage
Nikki Stewart, Executive Director of Old North Illuminated, and Michael Maler, founder of Crescendo Productions, preview The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Musical Reading, coming to Old North Church on Oct. 9 with an original score and optional crypt tours.
Grammy-winning soprano Jane Eaglen, faculty member at New England Conservatory and President of the Boston Wagner Society, joins “AI: Actual Intelligence” to talk about classical music’s culture of relentless practice and new research into how opera singers are judged.
Scott Edmiston, director of Lyric Stage Boston’s production and professor of Liberal Arts at Berklee, and Bill Mootos, veteran Boston stage and film actor starring as Joe Keller, discuss Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, onstage through Oct. 25.
56 min

About The Culture Show Podcast

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A Boston-based podcast that thrives in how we live. What we like to see, watch, taste, hear, feel and talk about. It’s an expansive look at our society through art, culture and entertainment. It’s…