Best Jonathan Beard Podcasts (2025)

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December 29, 2025 - Sally Mann, Jeremy Sewall and being Henry David Thoreau 55:24

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32m ago55:24

55:24

First up, Sally Mann. In 2015 renowned photographer Sally Mann published her memoir “Hold Still,” an inquiry into family history, the American South and the nature of creativity. Now, comes her book “Art Work: On the Creative Life.” It is laugh-out-loud funny. It’s irreverent. And it’s refreshingly practical as she guides the reader through her exp…

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December 26, 2025 - Robert Reich, Marianne Leone, and Sam Waterston 55:29

6h ago55:29

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Robert Reich served in three presidential administrations, including as Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton. As a professor he has been the ultimate explainer about rising inequality. As a public intellectual he pulls no punches–calling out the bullies: anyone and any institution that threatens democracy and human decency. It’s a life’s…

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Jonathan Russell (The Head and the Heart): Seafood Boil 30:23

4d ago30:23

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Jonathan Russell is one of the founding members (vocals, guitar) of The Head and the Heart, a band that organically formed at weekly open-mic nights at Seattle’s Conor Byrne Pub. Russell didn’t grow up with happy memories around the dinner table. He tells host Rachel Belle about his natural inclination to eat alone, why a crab boil is the perfect m…

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Books Matter More Than Ever: A Conversation with Ian Patterson 51:32

14h ago51:32

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In this episode of the Shakespeare and Company Podcast, Adam Biles speaks with poet, translator and critic Ian Patterson about Books: A Manifesto, his passionate defence of reading in all its forms. What begins with the construction of a personal library in a converted coach house opens into a wide-ranging meditation on memory, loss, vulnerability …

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December 24, 2025 - Two Scoops of Scrooge, Blue Heron, Dickens' home away from home 55:28

22h ago55:28

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It’s a story for the past, present and future: Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Though it was a reflection of Dickens’ times, the struggle between selfishness and selflessness endures. In Ebeneezer Scrooge, Dickens created both an antagonist and protagonist who went from being a covetous curmudgeon to a repentant man. Today we’re serving up tw…

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December 23, 2025 - Ron Chernow, Tara Roberts, and a Victorian Gothic Thriller 55:34

2d ago55:34

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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 Re…

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December 23, 2025 - BONUS EPISODE: Keith Lockhart Waxes Rhapsodic on "Bohemian Rhapsody" 20:23

2d ago20:23

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The United States has a National Recording Registry— a list of more than 600 recordings that have been deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress. GBH’s The Culture Show is digging deep, one recording at a time, with our recurring segment SOUND FILES. In this edition, Keith Lockhart with the acclaimed or…

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December 22, 2025 - Gerald Charles Dickens, The Feast of the Seven Fishes, Mrs. Claus 55:28

3d ago55:28

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In the Victorian era, Charles Dickens was more than a famous author — his public readings of A Christmas Carol turned literature into live spectacle. His great-great-grandson, Gerald Charles Dickens, carries that tradition forward with a one-man performance of the holiday classic. Touring internationally since the early 1990s, he joined The Culture…

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Episode 10: This Is a Crime Against Pixar (Pt. 1) 1:06:01

3d ago1:06:01

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Episode 10 is messy in the best way: another Part 1. Our dynamic duo kicks things off with a quick “we’re sorry” because Kay’s audio betrays us again (we tested… and still got humbled) before spiraling immediately into new news: Kay is basically in a committed relationship with yerba mate, and Zach [finally] discovers Stranger Things. Who's gonna d…

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Episode 9: The Eras Tour (But Not Taylor) Pt. 1 1:29:36

5d ago1:29:36

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Welcome back to Multiverse’d - the podcast that will still fight you on the “why didn’t they just take the Eagles to Mordor?” discourse. After our longest gap yet (for us, not you), we’re back with the kickoff of our own Eras Tour…and no, it has nothing to do with Taylor Swift. This week is a classic “just-hit-record” download: chaotic life updates…

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December 19, 2025 - Week in Review: The Oscars on YouTube, Rob Reiner, and Santa's beard 55:32

6d ago55:32

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On this edition of The Culture Show, Culture Show co-hosts Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Edgar B. Herwick III go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review. First up, Hollywood’s biggest night is getting a new home. The Academy Awards will leave broadcast television and stream exclusively on YouTube beginning with the 101st…

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December 18, 2025 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Mary Grant, and Cocktail Guru Jonathan Pogash 55:30

7d ago55:30

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Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone 250, joins us for his recurring segment AI: Actual Intelligence — a space for original, human insight. This month Jeffries discussed how history, memory, and civic responsibility are shaping current cultural conversations in Greater Boston and beyond. He also preview…

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The Leftovers with Alice Waters 6:52

7d ago6:52

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This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from Alice Waters, award winning chef, creator of the iconic 54-year-old restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley California, food activist and author of the new cookbook, “A School Lunch Revolution.” In this week’s lightning round, Alice talks about a memorable school lunch from her own childhood, he…

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December 17, 2025 - Wednesday Watch Party: A Christmas Carol! 50:55

8d ago50:55

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Today we commune with the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley, and Edgar B. Herwick III co-host this month’s Wednesday Watch Party and revisit all the screen lives of “A Chistmas Carol.” Dickens’ tale has been adapted hundreds of times — from silent films and mid-century classics to animated versions, musicals…

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December 18, 2025 - Imari Paris Jeffries, Mary Grant, and holiday cocktails with Jonathan Pogash 55:30

9d ago55:30

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Imari Paris Jeffries, President and CEO of Embrace Boston and co-chair of Everyone 250, joins us for his recurring segment AI: Actual Intelligence — a space for original, human insight. This month Jeffries discussed how history, memory, and civic responsibility are shaping current cultural conversations in Greater Boston and beyond. He also preview…

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December 16, 2025 - Nadya Tolokonnikova, Stefan Jackiw, and Julia Swanson 55:26

9d ago55:26

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Conceptual performance artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova is the creator of Pussy Riot. She joins The Culture Show to discuss “Police State” — a museum installation that recreates the conditions of her incarceration through constant surveillance and confinement. The project draws directly from her imprisonment following Pussy Riot’s 2012 prote…

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December 15, 2025 - Is This A Room, Marina Abramović, and remembering Rob Reiner 55:33

10d ago55:33

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Tina Statter’s “Is This A Room” uses the verbatim FBI transcript of Reality Winner’s 2017 interrogation to turn everyday language into gripping drama. Actor Parker Jennings, who plays Reality Winner, and actor Cristhian Mancinas-García, who plays Special Agent R. Wallace Taylor, join The Culture Show to discuss this production, which is now onstage…

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December 12, 2025 - Week in Review: Golden Globe nominations, Australia's social media ban, and Charlie Brown 55:32

13d ago55:32

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Jared Bowen, Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons host our arts and culture week-in-review. First up, the Golden Globe nominations are out, offering a snapshot of where Hollywood’s center of gravity is shifting. The awards bypassed the supposedly gravity-defying Wicked: For Good, while One Battle After Another surged ahead with…

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December 11, 2025 - "Annie" at the Wheelock Family Theatre, 10 million seeds at the Native Plant Trust, and Pedro Alonzo 55:33

14d ago55:33

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The Wheelock Family Theatre brings new life to “Annie,” the classic musical rooted in the 1924 comic strip “Little Orphan Annie.” Set against Depression-era New York, the show blends breadlines, political intrigue, and a young girl’s unwavering belief in “tomorrow.” Featuring Sky Vaux Fuller as Annie and De’Lon Grant as Oliver Warbucks, they join u…

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Alice Waters: Frisée Salad + Pear Galette 33:48

14d ago33:48

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Alice Waters opened her iconic Berkeley, California restaurant Chez Panisse 54 years ago, introducing the concept of farm-to-table eating to Americans and only serving local, seasonal produce at peak ripeness. She’s also a food activist, and through The Edible Schoolyard Project, has spent the past 30 years showing schools how to integrate locally …

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John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, with Ian Leslie 55:16

14d ago55:16

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In this live conversation at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, Adam Biles speaks with writer Ian Leslie about John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs, Leslie’s acclaimed exploration of the creative and emotional bond at the heart of The Beatles. Together they trace John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s relationship from their first meeting as bereaved teenager…

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December 10, 2025 - Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll and BSO's Chad Smith, remembering Frank Gehry, and Martin Puryear: Nexus 55:30

20d ago55:30

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We continue our “Countdown to 2026” series with a preview of next July’s Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. It will headline the Commonwealth’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday. Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and Boston Symphony Orchestra Julian and Eunice Cohen President and CEO Chad Smith join us to talk about what this expanded Fourth o…

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Episode 8: Losing Limbs, Watching Field Hockey, Eating Explosive Fro-Yo 1:27:03

15d ago1:27:03

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Welcome back to Multiverse'd, in an episode where Kay and Zach launch into the impact of AI on creativity, the challenges of ADHD, and the complexities of modern dating. Today also marks a return visit to the Voicemail, with three new problems from the stratosphere that our fearless duo takes on with gusto -- Zach's a capitalist, duh! A new segment…

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December 9, 2025 - Patti Smith, Charles Dickens at the Parker House, and Elisa Smith 55:31

16d ago55:31

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Patti Smith, National Book Award–winning author of “Just Kids,” joins The Culture Show to discuss her latest memoir, “Bread of Angels.” The book traces her imaginative postwar childhood, her life with Fred “Sonic” Smith, and the years of loss and renewal that shaped her return to writing and performance. She appears at The Chevalier Theatre on Dece…

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December 8, 2025 - Wonder: The Musical, Arms and Armor at the Worcester Art Museum, and Unsent 55:30

22d ago55:30

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Playwright Sarah Ruhl joins The Culture Show to discuss writing the book for “Wonder,” the new musical premiering at the American Repertory Theater. Adapted from the bestselling novel and acclaimed film, the production follows Auggie Pullman, a boy with a facial difference navigating the trials of middle school with courage and compassion. “Wonder,…

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December 5, 2025 - Tom Stoppard, Spotify Wrapped, and the words of the year 55:31

20d ago55:31

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Edgar B. Herwick III, Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons and Culture Show contributor Joyce Kulhawik co-host this week’s arts and culture week-in-review. First up, the 2025 Words of the Year capture a moment shaped by online overload and cultural tension. Dictionary.com chose “67,” Cambridge went with “parasocial,” Collins selected “vibe coding,…

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December 4, 2025 - Matt Doyle, Levain Bakery, and Cirque du Soleil's 'Twas The Night Before 55:32

21d ago55:32

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Tony Award–winner Matt Doyle brings a burst of holiday warmth to Worcester with “Make the Season Bright,” a concert filled with seasonal favorites. Known for standout roles in “Company,” “Spring Awakening,” and “The Book of Mormon,” Doyle also has deep ties to Massachusetts, where he spent part of his childhood. He joins The Culture Show to talk ab…

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The Leftovers with Gaby Dalkin 6:35

21d ago6:35

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This week on The Leftovers, never-before-heard audio from chef and best-selling cookbook author Gaby Dalkin, who's known online and on social as What’s Gaby Cooking. In this week’s lightning round, Gaby and host Rachel Belle bond over their favorite childhood birthday cake, Gaby shares the late-night, stand-over-the-sink snack she’d never put in a …

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December 3, 2025 - Will and Georgia Lyman, REVOLUTION! at the BPL, and Gregory Maguire on Midwinter Revels 55:29

27d ago55:29

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Actor Will Lyman takes on Ebenezer Scrooge in Commonwealth Shakespeare Company’s “A Christmas Carol"at the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre, stepping into one of literature’s great holiday transformations. His daughter, actor and producer Georgia Lyman, is simultaneously shepherding “Yellow Bird Chase” to the stage with Liars & Believers, a whimsica…

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December 2, 2025 - Jerry O'Connell on Stand By Me at 40, Joyce Kulhawik, and Illuminate Bach: A Holiday Celebration!

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“Stand by Me,” the classic coming-of-age film, is turning 40. To commemorate the film’s anniversary, “Stand By Me: The Film and its Stars 40 Years Later,” takes place at the Lynn Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, December 6th. There will be a screening followed by a conversation with three of the film’s stars - Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, and Jerry …

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December 1, 2025 - Ethan Hawke, Peter Drummey, and Matthew Shifrin 55:30

24d ago55:30

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For nearly fifty years, Peter Drummey has been one of the quiet forces making history accessible. As the longtime Stephen T. Riley Librarian and, most recently, Chief Historian at the Massachusetts Historical Society — the nation’s oldest historical society — he helped generations of researchers navigate one of the country’s richest archives and ad…

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November 28, 2025 - Kwame Alexander, Elizabeth Strout and Oliver de la Paz 55:29

27d ago55:29

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Award winning writer and poet Kwame Alexander joins The Culture Show to talk about the PBS Kids debut of “Acoustic Rooster.” Based on Alexander’s beloved children’s book “Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band,” the “Acoustic Rooster” universe is now on PBS KIDS. To learn more, go here. From there the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Elizabeth Strou…

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"Seattle Eats" LIVE with Tan Vinh, Rachel Belle & J. Kenji Lopez-Alt 49:47

29d ago49:47

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Earlier this month, at Seattle’s Town Hall, Rachel Belle was a guest on a sold-out, live taping of Seattle Eats with host Tan Vinh, the award-winning food and drink writer for The Seattle Times. Bestselling cookbook author and chef, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt was also a guest! The first segment of the show is dedicated to Thanksgiving: we learn about a loc…

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When Stories Fall Apart: Miriam Robinson on Love, Loss, and Truth 49:13

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In this intimate conversation recorded at Shakespeare and Company, novelist Miriam Robinson joins Adam Biles to discuss her remarkable debut, And Notre Dame Is Burning. Together, they explore the novel’s fractured structure and the emotional aftermath of betrayal, loss, and motherhood. Robinson reflects on her protagonist Esther—a woman piecing tog…

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November 26, 2025 - The AAPI Holiday Market, The Funny Uncle Cabaret, and public art in Providence 55:32

29d ago55:32

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Boston’s AAPI Holiday Market returns on December 3, 5–8 PM. Organized by The Boston Foundation’s Asian Business Empowerment Council, the event highlights the creativity and entrepreneurship of the region’s AAPI community. Irene Li and Qingjian Shi join us for an overview. Qingjian Shi is Senior Director of the Asian Business Empowerment Council at …

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November 25, 2025 - Natan Last, "Life on the Other Planet" with Vincent Straggas, and S---faced Shakespeare 55:31

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Crossword constructor and writer Natan Last joins us to explore his new book, “Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle.” He traces the evolution of crosswords from early newspaper amusements to today’s culturally expansive grids. Last is a writer and immigration policy advocate. He writes bimonthly crosswords for …

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November 24, 2025 - Chef Pyet DeSpain, Merriam-Webster's new dictionary, and Devra First on the Michelin Guide in Boston 55:29

1M ago55:29

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Chef Pyet DeSpain brings her Indigenous and Mexican heritage to the forefront as she talks about her debut cookbook, “Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking.” She shares how traditional ingredients and family stories shaped her cooking and her path from winning Next Level Chef to building a career rooted in culture and…

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November 21, 2025 - Week in Review: The Michelin Guide in Boston, the Grand Egyptian Museum, and Thanksgiving 55:30

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Edgar B. Herwick III, Callie Crossley and Culture Show contributor Lisa Simmons go over the latest headlines on our arts and culture week-in-review. Greater Boston has officially entered the world of fine-dining prestige. For the first time, the Michelin Guide included the region in its Northeast Cities edition — awarding a coveted star, several Bi…

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November 20, 2025 - 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, and Improv Asylum's Norm Laviolette 55:31

1M ago55:31

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FRONTLINE and the Associated Press return to Ukraine with “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” a gripping new documentary from the Oscar-winning team behind “20 Days in Mariupol.” The film embeds with Ukrainian soldiers fighting to reclaim a village outside Kyiv, offering an unfiltered view of life — and loss — in a grinding, three-year conflict. FRONTLINE’…

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Gaby Dalkin: Carne Asada Tacos 33:14

1M ago33:14

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Best known to her millions of followers as What’s Gaby Cooking, the Los Angeles-area chef is a best-selling cookbook author, creator of the Dalkin & Co spice blend line and you can eat her food at Gaby’s in Neighborly food hall. Gaby tells Rachel Belle how she went from being a tragically picky eater to having a career as a chef, shares which celeb…

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November 19, 2025 - Mary Grant, the Florida Highwaymen, and Chef Daniel Kenney's Thanksgiving tips 55:28

1M ago55:28

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Mary Grant, president of MassArt, joins us for her monthly episode, “AI Actual Intelligence.” This month she talks about the Department of Homeland Security’s use of Norman Rockwell’s paintings on their social media channels. Then we look at the Florida Highwaymen, the group of Black painters who turned Florida’s wild horizons into some of the most…

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November 18, 2025 - Ins Choi on "Kim's Convenience," Dread Scott, and Pedro Alonzo 55:29

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Playwright Ins Choi joins us to discuss Kim’s Convenience, his hit play now onstage at the Huntington Theatre Company (November 6–30, 2025). Drawing on his Korean-Canadian upbringing, the story follows a family running a corner store and the cultural and generational tensions that shape their lives. Choi originally played the son and now portrays t…

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Season 1 Wrap Up 10:08

1M ago10:08

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Join Erik Fabian for a season 1 wrap up of the Bake This Book podcast. What trends emerged this season? Will there be another season? Any final tips for bakers? Give this final episode a listen and find out. More About Sourhouse: sourhouse.co IG: @lifeatsourhouse What sourdough cookbook author should we talk to next? Send your feedback & suggestion…

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November 17, 2025 - Serj Tankian, Nora Burnett Abrams, and Jane Eaglen 55:30

1M ago55:30

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Serj Tankian, the electrifying voice of System of a Down and a defining figure in alternative metal, steps into a new creative realm with The Art of Disruption: The Art and Impact of Serj Tankian at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown. The exhibition, which is on view through Feb 28 2026, blends sound, color, and political urgency—and you c…