The Colin McEnroe Show

This hour we'll talk Evan Osnos ' in-depth look at the nationalist movement behind presidential candidate Donald Trump. How much power lies with the fringe?  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's general theory of relativity with author and scholar Marcia Bartusiak. Bartusiak's latest book is called   Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved . Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hunter S. Thompson was one of those writers whose lives start to matter more than their art. From almost the beginning, life and art were intentionally interwoven. Thompson's outsized appetites for drugs and food and stimulation were set into his hyperbolic prose. The story of the wrier was the story of the story. He was hardly the first to do it, but he did it in a fashion that made both the life...

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...

Does it seem like there are a lot of bears in Connecticut? It's hard to have a conversation this summer without someone mentioning they spotted a bear. While most of us are in awe of the size and majesty of these animals, most of us don't know much about bears. In light of this weekend's closing of Sessions Woods, now might be a good time to talk about what's already on everyone's m...

If you know how to read, you're probably pretty good at recognizing words. But, new words like "egg corn," "crema" and "slendro" are challenging our concept of what makes a word.  Yet these very words were recently added to Merriam-Webster's unabridged online dictionary. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America and Iran have not had an easy relationship since 1979, when 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days by students supporting the Iranian Revolution . The resulting rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini further weakened the relationship. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The octopus has always been the stuff of spine-tingling legend, like that of the Kraken, the many-armed sea monster believed to drag ships to the bottom of the sea after dining on the crew. Or   Gertie the Pus , the giant Pacific octopus that lives under the Narrows Bridge connecting Tacoma, Washington to Gig Harbor. In reality, the octopus is more benign but equally fascinating.  Did yo...

Music can be a powerful, transformative tool in the quest for social change. Protest songs are the songs associated with a particular movement.  Earlier this month, Janelle Monáe and Wondaland produced the searing protest song " Hell You Talmbout. " Nearly seven minutes long, it's a tribute to a long list of black men and women lost, and has been performed alongside protesters at Black Lives...

Officials in France and the United States are celebrating the actions of three brave passengers aboard a train who thwarted an attack. Did these passengers do what you're supposed to do in that situation? This hour, we hear from a retired FBI special agent who will tell us how bystanders should respond to violence. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.'' Those, of course, are the immortal opening words of Janet Malcolm’s book-length essay, “The Journalist and the Murder...

She who controls the dragon controls the world. Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion are the most recent dragons to capture our attention, thanks to "Game of Thrones," the wildly popular HBO hit that's placed dragons front and center in our imagination. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In her graphic memoir Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? , cartoonist Roz Chast brings humor to the difficult topic of aging parents. Last year, the book earned her the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction. Now, it's being featured alongside some of her other work as part of the Distinguished Illustrator Exhibition Series at the Norman Rockwell Museum.&n...

Colin spent the last few weeks speaking with each of the Bridgeport mayoral candidates likely to qualify for the September 16 primary. First, Joe Ganim . Last week, Mary Jane Foster . Today, we talk to incumbent Bill Finch. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Earlier this summer, we spent a full hour listening to candidates for "song of the summer." Now that summer is winding down, we’re still trying to figure out the winner. Was there a song you just couldn’t get enough of recently? We talk to someone who says for the first time in a long time, there was no "Call Me Maybe," "Blurred Lines," or "California Gurls" (for better or worse). Also, one popula...

Last week's Republican debate created chaos on the internets:  Trump insulted Fox's Megyn Kelly, which naturally  led to ladies live tweeting their periods at the wanna-be President. And a new slang was born: "Cuckservative."   Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lefties have been scorned as evil, and celebrated as superior. But, like so many things in life, being a southpaw is not so easily defined.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, our show about poo. First, the 'no-poo ' movement. Before the last century, people washed their hair a lot less often than we do today. A little Castille soap, an egg yoke for extra shine, and one hundred strokes with a boar bristle brush would do the trick. It wasn't until John Breck introduced his golden shampoo that everyone wanted to have the long lustrous locks of a Breck Girl . Today,...

Candidate Mary-Jane Foster is hoping to qualify for the Bridgeport mayoral primary on September 16. She thinks she's got a pretty good chance. Foster is in a tight race with both incumbent Bill Finch and challenger Joe Ganim, the popular former mayor who spent seven years in prison for crimes he committed while in office. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listene...

Athletes have always used their elevated platform to advance products and ideas. After a game winning play, it's almost expected to hear the star thank either God, the Lord, and/or Jesus. But you won't hear that from Houston Texan running back Arian Foster. He just came out as an atheist playing football for a NFL team in the bible belt. How will that play out? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.or...

So we know that everyone in the world is covering the end of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show today. We know that you’ve probably already listened to an hour or two of radio about Jon Stewart on this very station today. But the thing is, we’re gonna miss Jon Stewart too. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's summer and 90 degrees -- so why am I freezing at the office? A recent New York Times article on air conditioning has sparked a debate on whether air conditioning is a necessity or an indulgence. Some say air conditioning has been a part of our lives for less than a century, yet we increasingly rely on it as soon as the weather makes us feel the slightest bit uncomfortable . We're not only los...

Who doesn't love puppets? From the Muppets to Edgar Bergen to the Thunderbirds, they defined our childhoods. Today they're taking over the theater with "Hand to God," "Avenue Q" and "The Lion King." Many people don't know it, but Connecticut has long been a center of puppetry in the United States. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our show is all about "man's best friend."  Dogs are, generally, cute and cuddly and many of us adore them. But what's the science behind our puppy love? We talk with researchers and reporters who study whether or not our dogs are as intuitive as we sometimes think they are or whether they are just "dumb as a dog." Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener...

Internally, NPR has debated when and where it is appropriate to swear. If the President of the United States says the N-word, should it be bleeped on the radio? Can a public radio host swear on a podcast? There are lots of questions about offensive language in 2015, with so many different mediums and changing social norms. We also discuss news that Vice President Joe Biden might be looking for a p...