Welcome to Talking Culture! In this weekly interview series from 97.9 The Hill WCHL, you’ll hear from writers, performers, musicians and individuals involved in advancing and promoting cultural arts in our community.

Talking Culture is proudly sponsored by Duke Arts Presents. The 2025–26 Duke Arts Presents season is here! With 40 performances from September through April, the Duke Arts Presents season is packed with wide-ranging, joyful, and thought-provoking art for all audiences. Pick–4 packages are on sale now, build your perfect season at dukearts.org!

This week, Aaron chats with T.H.M. Gellar-Goad, a UNC alum now teaching at Wake Forest. Gellar-Goad’s new book is “Masks,” which explores the widely varying roles that masks have played in culture, both past and present and all around the world. (Gellar-Goad says it’s the first book-length exploration of masks as a concept since the COVID pandemic, when masking very suddenly became extremely common.) The book explores six different aspects of masking (“make-believe, magic, memory, metamorphosis, mirror, and medicine”), each of which can take on many different forms – even diametrically opposed forms, at the same time in the same place, with a host of cultural and political implications as well.

“Masks” was published in 2024 by Punctum Books. Click here for more on the book; you can download a free PDF or purchase a physical copy.

97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

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