The Culture Show Podcast

July 7, 2026 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Cameron McCloud from Cure for Paranoia, and Jeffrey Seller

Imari Paris Jeffries, president and CEO of Embrace Boston [https://www.embraceboston.org/about/our-team/] and a co-chair of Everyone250 [https://everyone250.org/about/], returns for “AI: Actual Intelligence,” The Culture Show’s monthly, algorithm-free conversation with some of the region’s sharpest thinkers.  Cameron McCloud, frontman, rapper and songwriter for the Dallas hip-hop collective Cure for Paranoia [https://cureforparanoia.com/en-usd/pages/shows], joins The Culture Show after the band won NPR’s 2026 Tiny Desk Contest [https://www.wbur.org/npr/nx-s1-5810210/winner-2026-tiny-desk-contest] with “No Brainer.” The band brings the Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour to The Sinclair [https://www.sinclaircambridge.com/events/detail/1396934] in Cambridge on Tuesday, July 7, at 8 p.m. Tony-winning Broadway producer Jeffrey Seller joins The Culture Show to discuss Theater Kid [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Theater-Kid/Jeffrey-Seller/9781668064191], his memoir about the life that led him from a childhood outside Detroit to the producer’s chair on Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights and Hamilton. He also looks ahead to Warriors [https://playbill.com/article/lin-manuel-miranda-and-eisa-davis-warriors-musical-will-open-on-broadway-in-2027], his latest collaboration with Lin-Manuel Miranda, headed to Broadway in 2027.

July 6, 2026 - The Great Gatsby, Elizabeth Strout, and Historic New England

Broadway director Marc Bruni [https://marcbruni.com/the-great-gatsby] joins The Culture Show to talk about The Great Gatsby [https://boston.broadway.com/shows/the-great-gatsby/], the Broadway musical that turns F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story of reinvention, romance and illusion into a Jazz Age stage spectacle. The production comes to Citizens Opera House [https://www.citizensoperahouse.com/] July 7–19 by way of Broadway in Boston [https://boston.broadway.com/]. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strout [https://www.elizabethstrout.com/] joins us to discuss The Things We Never Say [https://www.elizabethstrout.com/the-things-we-never-say], her latest novel. The book introduces Artie Dam, a high school history teacher whose outwardly ordinary life conceals loneliness, family pain and the truths people cannot quite bring themselves to say. Historic New England [https://www.historicnewengland.org/] president and CEO Vin Cipolla and curator Michelle Tolini Finamore join us to talk about Shoe Stories: Past, Present, Future [https://www.historicnewengland.org/shoestories/], the inaugural exhibition at Historic New England’s new Center for Preservation and Collections [https://haverhillcenter.org/] in Haverhill. The exhibition looks at more than 400 years of shoemaking and design, connecting Haverhill’s “Queen Slipper City” past to contemporary designers, sneakers and the future of sustainable footwear.

July 3, 2026 - Ron Chernow, Tara Roberts, and a Victorian Gothic Thriller

Ron Chernow―prizewinning author of seven books, including the National Book Award winner “The House of Morgan,” the Pulitzer Prize winner “Washington: A Life,” and the George Washington Book Prize winner “Alexander Hamilton”―joins The Culture Show to talk about his new biography “Mark Twain.”     From there we talk to National Geographic Explorer  in Residence Tara Roberts. She joins The Culture Show to talk about her book “Written in the Waters: A memoir of History, Home and Belonging.”  Finally, author JM Varese joins The Culture Show to talk about his latest novel, a Victorian Gothic thriller that is rooted in the real-life Victorian scandal when arsenic was used  to make decorative wallpaper. JM Varese is Director of Outreach for The Dickens Project at UC Santa Cruz.

July 2, 2026 - Live from P-town: John Waters, the Town Crier, Avital Sagalyn at PAAM, and Jujubee

Filmmaker, writer, performer and longtime Provincetown presence John Waters [https://tickets.payomet.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=1027] joins The Culture Show during our broadcast from WOMR. He talks with Jared Bowen about Provincetown, his career and his new live show, Going to Extremes [https://tickets.payomet.org/eventperformances.asp?evt=1027], presented by Payomet Performing Arts Center at Provincetown Town Hall on July 23. Provincetown Town Crier Daniel Gómez Llata [https://provincetownmagazine.com/2021/05/19/qa-with-town-crier-daniel-gomez-llata/] takes us into the summer rush of Commercial Street, where local news, history and welcome all meet in one very public role. Culture Show producers Kate Dellis and Max Chow-Gillette caught up with him as his busiest season gets underway. Christine McCarthy [https://paam.org/about-paam/staff/], chief executive officer of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum [https://paam.org/], joins us to talk about PAAM’s place at the center of Provincetown’s art story. Founded by artists in 1914, PAAM continues to collect, preserve and exhibit the work of the artists who made Provincetown an American art colony — and the artists shaping it now. Boston-born, Lowell-raised drag performer, singer and actor Jujubee [https://linktr.ee/jujubeeonline] joins us live from Provincetown. She stars with Ginger Minj in RuPaul’s new movie Stop! That! Train! [https://bleeckerstreetmedia.com/stop-that-train] and reunites with Minj in Licked: For Gay [https://redroom.club/events/132796], running July 9 through July 26 at the Red Room.

July 1, 2026 - Eddie S. Glaude Jr, "Song of Massachusetts," and Megan Hilty

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. joins us to discuss his new book, America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, as the country approaches its 250th birthday.  Regie Gibson, the inaugural Poet Laureate of Massachusetts, joins us to discuss Song of Massachusetts, his new collaboration with composer Carlos Simon. Commissioned by the Boston Pops, the piece premieres at the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular [https://www.bso.org/boston-pops-fireworks-spectacular] on July 4. The Tony-nominated actress and singer Megan Hilty also brings her star power to the Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. Ahead of the Fourth of July festivities we talk to her about her career, which has moved between Broadway, television and concert stages. You can also catch Megan Hilty at The Umbrella Arts Center on August 30th. To learn more go here [https://theumbrellaarts.org/evening-megan-hilty].