The Colin McEnroe Show

To the list of things you can't avoid -- death and taxes -- we now add losing your job to a machine. A worry typically reserved for those in manufacturing, automation in the workplace is now a reality of nearly all occupations, and it's only getting worse...  or is it ? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a yearly tradition: Jazz critic Gene Seymour releases his list of the best jazz albums of the year, and musicians Jen Allen and Noah Baerman gather 'round the table with their own picks. If you're buying a last-minute gift for a finger-poppin' hep cat, this episode will solve your problem. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the second year, we welcome singer/songwriter extraordinaire "Big Al" Anderson and Emmy Award-winning producer and musician Jim Chapdelaine in studio for songs and stories. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fans are flocking to J.J. Abrams's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"   in droves. The film is set to break box office records.  It drew $14.1 million in Europe when it opened this week, and is expected to post world record sales of $600 million this opening weekend. Is there anyone out there who doesn't love "Star Wars" ? You might be surprised .  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/...

Vin Baker was an Olympic basketball player and four-time NBA All Star. The journey from University of Hartford to professional basketball got him rich quick, but it was a lifestyle he couldn't keep up with. Baker's struggle with alcoholism is well-documented, as is the fact he blew through $100 million. He lost his home and restaurant. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystud...

For most shows, I’d use these first paragraphs to explain why we’ve chosen to spend an hour on its particular topic. I’d remind you of events in the news. I’d site a publication date. I’d point out a trend that we’ve maybe noticed that you maybe haven’t. For today’s show, for instance, I could type a list of towns here — international towns, domestic towns, Connecticut towns — and you’d recognize...

Bill Murray has been involved with some of our favorite movies of all time: Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Moonrise Kingdom. He doesn't like managers or agents and rumor has it, once agreed to play Garfield because he thought it was a Coen Brothers film. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the University of Texas at Austin can consider race when deciding who can come to their school.  It's the second time the high court will decide this case. But like the rest of the country, the court is having a hard time talking about race without shouting at each other.  Justice Scalia is making what some say are racist comments....

The New York Times   and  Washington Post  are adding new forms of address and pronouns for people who haven't chosen a single gender. Research indicates that ending a text with a period seems insincere. Dictionaries are throwing open their doors and letting in all kinds of slangy words that have been living on the internet.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omn...

Before Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, before Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien, before "The Simpsons," before David Letterman, before "Saturday Night Live," before The National Lampoon … before all the great subversive American satirists that we’ve all grown… used to — before all that, there was MAD magazine. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

"Dante's Inferno" is the most famous section of "The Divine Comedy," poet Dante Aligheri's, 14,000 line epic poem. It's where Dante must face his sins before moving beyond an eternity in hell, where the doomed can still find redemption in the acceptance of their humanity.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Justin Lifflander wanted nothing more than to become a spy for the CIA. Growing up during the Cold War, he practiced spying on friends, family, and schoolmates in preparation for what he thought would be a career full of high-tech gadgetry and secret rendezvous. When Lifflander was finally assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in 1987, he thought his dream was coming true. What followed...

Dozens of reporters rushed the apartment of the San Bernardino shooters on Friday.  They live-streamed their tour through the home for 15 minutes, holding up everyday items that included personal photographs and private documents. They were roundly condemned on social media and by neighbors concerned by the frenzy. Where is the line between what people need to know and voyeurism? How does the...

Two married shooters with a six-month-old baby rushed a social service agency this week in San Bernardino, California. They killed 14 people and injured another 21.  It's an all-too familiar scene, including the heartfelt prayers that followed.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I first met cartoonist Bill Griffith back in the 1980s. I arranged for us to tour a Boston-area Hostess Twinkie plant, which sounds like a weird first date but makes perfect sense if you're familiar with his creation "Zippy the Pinhead," an unwitting surrealist who swims happily through a sea of taco sauce, processed cheese and, well, Twinkies. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omny...

Long before evangelicalism became associated with the mostly white, conservative followers aligned with the Republican Party, a long line of progressive evangelicals led reforms to abolish slavery, give women the vote and improve public schools. But the history of evangelicalism is complicated. It has a rich history of social activism on behalf of the marginalized, mixed with deep discomfort with...

Placebo treatments have been making people feel better for a long time. They've been working since long before Franz Mesmer was run out of 18th-century Vienna for "mesmerizing" a young pianist into regaining her eyesight, after all hope for a medical cure had been lost.   Doctors have long dismissed the placebo effect as inferior to conventional medical treatments that sometimes fail where pl...

Here’s a question: If the things we’re made of — the particles, the fundamental elemental irreducible bits, the most basic littlest chunks of us — if those things are literally, actually indistinguishable from one another, from the tiniest simplest bits of everyone else, from the tiniest simplest bits of every thing else… then what makes us us? What even makes us anything at all, really? Support t...

Changing our mind on an issue is something we're all free to do. But that doesn't mean it comes without a cost. What would it cost a lifelong liberal to suddenly turn conservative, or a career scientist to suddenly start denying climate change? As we typically associate with others of like mind, chances are the costs could be high. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/li...

When I hear the word "diorama," the first thing I think of is Mr. Mack’s fifth grade class and painting hills and grass and clouds and a fence into a shoebox and making little cardboard cut outs of Lassie and the boy she loved. God, I hated that stuff. The second thing I think of is a place like the Peabody Museum in New Haven and their incredibly, obsessively, over-the-toply detailed dioramas of...

Lawrence Lessig recently ended his pursuit of running for president as a Democrat. But his mission to take money out of politics and fix corruption is not over. He recently slammed Connecticut Democrats who proposed suspending the state’s Citizens Election Program. He joins us to discuss his experience and struggles in running for president and Connecticut’s campaign finance laws. Support the show...

Speaking on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday, actor Charlie Sheen revealed he is HIV-positive and has spent millions trying to hide it . This hour, we take a closer look at the words Sheen used in discussing his actions and illness.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In his latest book, author and scholar Moustafa Bayoumi takes a critical look at what it means to be Muslim-American in post-9/11 society. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After decades of being dismissed as a radical movement, socialism in America is back in the spotlight. What's fueling the newfound attention? Some point to Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign, while others say it's an increasing public distaste for the economic inequality our capitalist system has lead to. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

In an era awash in the rollout of brand new gadgets, gizmos, fashions, and fads, it's easy to think of obsolescence as part of the natural order: Remember popped lapels, pay phones and laserdisc players? But the idea that an object should quickly fall from favor, lose functionality, and find itself in a landfill somewhere is quite new -- and it didn't come about by accident. Support the show: http...