WHYY’s arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins first became interested in radio in the fourth grade, when he smuggled a contraband crystal-diode radio into the Boy Scout summer camp. Subsequent radio projects were more successful.
Crimmins has been reporting on arts and culture for WHYY News since 2010, as well as filing award-winning radio and print stories locally and nationally. He started his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, cutting his teeth at community station KALX and producing syndicated radio programming for Ben Manilla Productions. He lives in Fishtown with his wife and two dogs.
More from the Contributor
Philadelphia budget 2026: Isaiah Thomas, Rue Landau want $6 million allocated for arts
With funding turbulence at the federal and state levels, elected officials are calling for the city to pick up some of the slack.
1 day ago
Listen 1:26“The First Salute” pulls artifacts from Sint Eustatius to tell the “hidden” story of the colonies’ crucial island allies.
2 days ago
Listen 1:38Philadelphians rewrite the Declarations of Independence in Mural Arts printmaking project
More than 1,000 people created personal Declarations of Independence, now on view at the Free Library in a major semiquincentennial civic art project.
1 week ago
Listen 1:19In Philly, artists are using ‘Radical Americana’ to challenge patriotic nostalgia
The citywide project asked 45 artists to exhibit new work rooted in craft heritage for America's 250th anniversary.
1 week ago
Listen 2:56The advocate for girls' education worldwide has a new memoir about moving beyond the “bravest girl in the world” label.
1 week ago
Listen 1:59Author Emma Copley Eisenberg used a class-action settlement against artificial intelligence to promote body positivity and her new book.
2 weeks ago
Listen 1:33Philadelphia museums revisit how America was built on botany
The Academy of Natural Sciences and the Mütter Museum have exhibitions about the role of plants in nation building.
2 weeks ago
Listen 3:34Philadelphia Museum of Art and PAFA assemble one of the largest American art exhibitions
In “A Nation of Artists,” the two institutions take different paths to represent 250 years of American creativity.
2 weeks ago
Why Yiddish is experiencing a grassroots revival in West Philadelphia
A rag-tag group of younger adults has rediscovered the West Germanic language and culture for heritage and politics.
3 weeks ago
Listen 4:41Cyrus Bustill baked for Washington’s army. Then he built Philly’s free Black Renaissance
Born into slavery, Bustill became an entrepreneur, a patriot and one of the founders of a thriving Black Philadelphia.
4 weeks ago
Listen 3:55Anandibai Joshee came to Philly in 1883 to study medicine. Her tragic life is the grit of a South Asian American Digital Archive songwriting project.
1 month ago
Listen 3:39Philadelphia museums are pooling resources — and telling bigger stories together
“Bodies and Souls,” by PAFA and the Woodmere Museum, highlights a rare moment of partnership among Philly institutions.
1 month ago
Listen 1:56











