The Colin McEnroe Show

Public radio is one of the few places where you can avoid ads for daily fantasy football companies like DraftKings and FanDuel. If you go anywhere else on the radio dial or turn on the TV, you'll probably encounter at least a few commercials. Now the industry is under intense scrutiny after an employee at DraftKings won $350,000 at FanDuel using insider information. Support the show: http://www.wn...

In 24 hours, UConn freshman Luke Gatti became a viral video sensation . By now, millions have turned on their computers to watch the apparently-intoxicated 19-year-old taunting and shoving a UConn food court manger . Over what? Mac 'n cheese, of course.  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...

Philippe Petit made his walk between the towers of the World Trade Center over 40 years ago. He stayed up on that wire for 45 minutes, made 8 passes between the towers, got down on his knees, and he even laid down on it! But it's more than that one feat - it was a placeholder for a much broader philosophy of risk and creativity, and evidence of who the man really is. Support the show: http://www.w...

The opening credits of your favorite movies and television shows set the mood, tone, and characters for what's to come, and allow you to relax and get ready for the show. Some fast-forward through the opening credits to avoid distraction from the main performance. Others say title sequences are supposed to be more like a score: felt, but not noticed.  The film industry first fell in love...

Our weekly Monday afternoon "Scramble" continues the conversation arising from last week’s school shooting in Oregon. As the number of mass shootings continues to rise, the nationwide discussion has reached a stalemate. Is there a different, more effective way to talk about guns?  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Pope Francis was the biggest thing to hit America since the British Invasion. You could buy Pope-themed dolls, cookies with the Pope's face, hats, coffee mugs, backpacks, and even a Pope Bobblehead . It was the pope's first visit to the U.S., and he seemed eager and happy to be here. He spoke passionately about the poor, climate change, and the migrant crisis, and cautioned against...

Alan Doyle is best known as lead singer of the Canadian band  Great Big Sea . Recently, however, he's been touring with a different act: Alan Doyle and The Beautiful Gypsies .  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The participants are average citizens: school teachers, waiters, pharmacists, perhaps even your neighbor. By day they work and pay their bills, but when they return home, things change. These elite individuals go to work forecasting the outcomes of global events (sometimes years into the future), all at the direction of a little-known government intelligence agency called IARPA. While this all sou...

We've been talking a lot over this last year about problems like misogyny and violence in football, rape on college campuses, mass shootings, and increasing rates of suicide and addiction. What we don't say is that men are the victims of these behaviors as much as women, albeit in different ways.  We often look for explanations in mental health, failed policy, or lax laws. But men overwhelmin...

"Dante's Inferno" is the most famous section of Dante Aligheri's 14,000 line epic poem, The Divine Comedy. B ut it's only the first part of Dante's long pilgrimage through the afterlife. He first enters the circles of hell, filled with beasts and sinners doomed to the Inferno for crimes like gluttony, lust, and treason.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/lis...

Volkswagen is having a moment. Not a good moment, but it's certainly a moment. VW owners are glaring at their vehicles with suspicion after it was revealed the automaker's diesel vehicles were designed to cheat on emissions tests. Hopefully, VW is not capturing its moment with a selfie because that could be deadly . Plus, selfies are so easy to take, a monkey can do it and maybe even make some mon...

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...

Between all we know to be true, and all we know to be false, lies a world of woo. Woo-Woo, to use the official term, refers to ideas considered irrational or based on extremely flimsy evidence, or that appeal to mysterious occult forces or powers. But who decides what's woo-woo, and what gets accepted into the hallowed halls of scientific truth? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omn...

There was a time when hard work brought most Americans a decent wage, a secure life, and opportunities to aim for a better life. George Packer says that's no longer the case for too many Americans. Institutions that once anchored middle-class Americans are either collapsing or morphing into faceless institutions that benefit the wealthy, Packer says. Health and educational outcomes are signif...

There's a lot of great TV. We already knew that, but the Emmy Awards reiterated that we live in a golden age of television. "TV is where you meet people who are recognizably people, people with whom you are willing to spend your time — either once a week, or in intense hours-long bursts," said Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post.  This hour, we recap the Emmys. We also preview Pope Franc...

Ahmed Mohamed is a 14-year-old Texas student who likes to tinker. He was arrested for bringing a home-made clock to school , because school officials thought it was a bomb. What followed was an outpouring of support for Mohamed, who many said was targeted because of his Muslim faith. President Obama invited him to the White House, Mark Zuckerberg invited him to Facebook HQ, and he even got a schol...

Online guidebook Atlas Obscura  considers itself a "friendly tour-guide to the world's most wondrous places" -- a number of which can be found right here in Connecticut.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ben Vereen was plucked from the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn to go to the prestigious Performing Arts High School because somebody thought he had talent. Influenced by song and dance men like Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., Ben Vereen garnered accolades for groundbreaking roles in "Pippin," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Roots," in which he challenged us to think about race,...

This hour, we get updates from a few of our favorite former guests. UConn physicist Ron Mallett is looking to fund a feasibility study to pay for the first steps of his time machine. We’ll catch up with him. And New Haven-based filmmaker Gorman Bechard is working on two documentaries – one about animal cruelty, and the other on the New Haven pizza wars. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate...

Ever since a photo of a Syrian boy dead on a beach made the rounds of the internet, there has been a new focus on the refugee crisis. The United Nations reports more than four million registered Syrian refugees and the country's neighbors are taking the brunt of the strain. Now Europe is struggling to handle a flood of migrants to that continent. Germany is among the countries imposing border cont...

It was a rocky start to Stephen Colbert's Late Show debut. He admitted he went way over time, and barely got it on the air. But days later, his emotional interview with Vice President Joe Biden reminded us why we just love him so.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joyce Carol Oates has been writing since before she could read, making "books" by drawing and coloring characters in her tablet. She preferred upright chickens and cats in confrontational poses and tried hard to make her books look like the ones read by adults.   She's wanted to be a writer since inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. &nbsp...

Caroline Jacobs is a grown woman with children of her own. But by all accounts, she's a wimp. She would prefer to suffer in silence than stand up for herself or anyone else -- until she couldn't stand it anymore.   One night, while at a public meeting and in a crowded room, she stood up, pointed her finger at the one she loathed, and shouted "F%$# You" to her nemesis. With that one phrase, sh...

Born in Hartford and raised in Wethersfield, playwright Christopher Shinn pays homage to Connecticut  in a new play called "An Opening In Time." Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.