January 3, 2024 -

A Massachusetts marathon that might be more rigorous than Boston’s famed 26.2 mile road race - This is a 25-hour, non-stop epic endeavor where the equivalent of Heartbreak Hill is reading Herman Melville to a live audience at 2:00 AM, or even 3:00 AM. I’m talking about the annual Moby-Dick Marathon. Though it’s been centuries since a whaling ship sailed out of New Bedford, the literary legacy of Herman Melville enshrines New Bedford as a thriving whaling port where no end of Meville aficionados convene for this annual read-a-thon. Amanda McMullen, head of the New Bedford Whaling Museum joins us to talk about this upcoming winter ritual. From there we get a satirists’ take on the 2024 presidential race, with the comedy duo known as The Good Liars. If there is indeed truth in jest, their hijinks reveal some ugly–and uproarious realities about America’s powerful, political institutions. That’s next on The Culture Show. Stay with us.