The Culture Show Podcast

Mary Grant, president of Massachusetts College of Art and Design , joins us for her monthly “AI: Actual Intelligence” segment, sharing original, algorithm-free insights and observations. -Brendan Kenney, founder and...

Hank Azaria, Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian and voice artist , has spent decades creating characters on The Simpsons . Now he’s taking on another unmistakable voice: Bruce Springsteen. Azaria tells us how a surprise...

Today on The Culture Show: Imari Paris Jeffries of Embrace Boston on personal and collective memory, from Día de los Muertos to the dangers of forgetting or rewriting history. Tony Award-winning Laura Benanti on Nobody...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The Culture Show broadcasts live from Salem as the city marks its 400th anniversary, with an hour exploring its history, culture and the people shaping it today. Peabody Essex Museum leaders Kurt Steinberg and Petra...

Former NASA astronaut Cady Coleman joins us to talk about Astronauts for America, a group of more than 100 former astronauts working to defend the Constitution, strengthen democracy and rebuild public trust. Coleman...