The Colin McEnroe Show

The Eagles first album touched a cultural nerve in 1971, with songs like "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman," a prelude to the hits to come. And, the music never stopped. Despite mounting criticism from critics and fans alike, within five years they rolled those hits into one of the biggest selling Greatest Hits albums of all time.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omny...

We usually think of propaganda as a tool used by autocrats eager to manipulate minds and limit rights we take for granted in the West. Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un or King Salman bin Abdulaziz wouldn't have a chance with us. But Western culture is steeped in propaganda that's more insidious and less blatant. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inform...

In 1997, more than 180 nations signed the Kyoto Protocol . The idea was clear and ambitious: Begin the process of saving the planet from global warming. The Kyoto protocol outlined what were thought to be realistic guidelines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among developed nations. In the nearly 20 years since the protocol was signed, climate change has showed few indications of slowing. Sup...

In the wake of another mass shooting, President Barack Obama took the podium in the White House press briefing room to address reporters. The shooting in a black church brings up a "dark part" of United States history. "This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked, and we know the hatred across races and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals," Obama s...

We're taking The Nose, our weekly culture round table, to The Study at Yale in New Haven, joining the International Festival of Arts, Ideas , and Pancakes. We'll be adding one of the performers to our round table, too! We've all seen the Brian Wilson film, "Love and Mercy", and we're all aware of the changes to the ten dollar bill. We'll talk about that and more, live from The Study! Join us! Supp...

How do you define “The Song of the Summer?” DJ Brendan Jay Sullivan likens it to a summer romance: Fresh faces only (no repeat artists), love at first sight (or first three seconds of the song), and you don’t want to be anyone’s summer fling (it lasts a while!). With that in mind, what’s your song of the summer so far? On this show, we’ll narrow down and try to define the winners and losers. Suppo...

For some readers, it's hard to imagine speculative fiction without female writers. After all, Margaret Cavendish and Mary Shelley practically created the genre. More recently there are authors like Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin. Not to mention J.K. Rowling - who you may have heard of if you've been alive in this century. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/liste...

Oh no! It's my turn to speak. My throat is tight, my mouth is pasty and the butterflies are eating at my stomach. My mind feels blank, what if my voice cracks? My heart is pounding so hard I feel lightheaded.   This is how I felt before speaking in front of an auditorium filled with over 300 teachers and administrators in the town in which I live. I made it - but there was a moment when I was...

You get that Facebook invite. You think to yourself, "Yeah, that could be fun." You get reminders in the days leading up to the event. As the clock ticks down, you think yourself, "I like the person who invited me, but that dinner starts at 8pm on a Tuesday night. Do I really want to go?" No, you don't want to go but the RSVP says yes. You did what Henry Alford refers to as an " aspirational...

Elinor Burkett, citing Summers' speech and asking if men and women have different brains. We'll talk about the controversy surrounding one of the Inland Northwest's most prominent civil rights activists. The family of Rachel Dolezal says the local leader of the NAACP has been falsely portraying herself as black for years. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for...

Wendell Wallach predicts that crises in public health and our economy will increase dramatically in the next 20 years, likely a result of our rush to adopt new technologies before we've prioritized the risks we're willing to tolerate against the benefits we might gain. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Esperanto was first published in 1887 by Polish-Jewish ophthalmologist L.L. Zamenhof. His goal was to create a neutral language; one that would foster peace and harmony across national borders.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Lots of awards were handed out in New York this weekend. The annual Tony Awards were given to the best Broadway productions of the year. But no amount of theatrical showmanship could top what happened in the Belmont Stakes. American Pharoah completed horseracing's elusive Triple Crown.  Finishing a few lengths behind him in third place was Keen Ice, who is part-owned by two Connecticut r...

Way back -- I don't know -- a week ago, the story of Caitlyn Jenner was pretty amazing. The gender transition of one of America's most acclaimed male athletes was, all by itself, a watershed. And how much of a watershed? Is this like an Ellen DeGeneres moment, when a mass audience suddenly gets comfortable with a new idea? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

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.

Patterns are everywhere: both in the wonders of nature and in the man-made world. They exist in the formations of crystals and clouds, in art and music, and in math and science. It is therefore no surprise that we, as inhabitants of this pattern filled world, are wired to find them. And it's not only humans that have this ability; pattern recognition is a skill shared by all mammals. Since the fir...

All of us know what it feels like to have a bad day - the pain, the regret, the sheer misery. We also know how one bad decision can spiral into a day(s) filled with misery.  Sometimes, misery stems from really bad events that are out of our control, like the loss of a loved one. But, too often, we're quick to blame misfortune on chance, the toss of the dice, bad luck.  Support...

Last week, we went up to do our annual live show from Great Barrington, Massachusetts at the Berkshire International Film Festival . Our usual host, The Triplex , had technical problems, so we pulled the plug with a few minutes left to go, which is why you heard a re-run about movie trailers. Meanwhile, we recorded this show so you could hear it today. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate...

This hour, we talk about movie trailers. Maybe you wonder what a movie critic thinks of them. Actually, critics don't see as many as you do because they often go to special screenings. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1954, Roger Bannister did the previously unthinkable. He ran a mile in under four minutes. Six weeks later, his chief rival John Landy, did the same thing, and bettered Bannister's performance. Thirteen months later, three other runners broke four minutes. Bear in mind that this had been considered impossible for as long as there had been time-keeping at track meets. Support the show: http://ww...

Jews make up 2.2 percent of the population although it fluctuates depending on who gets counted. The U.S. Jewish population is roughly the same size, north of 6 million, as the Jewish population of Israel.  And, since there are about 14 million Jews in the whole world, an astonishingly high percentage of them live in those two countries.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See...

Connecticut has been incredibly lucky in the directors who have made its regional theaters their basis of operations. Don't miss this full-length conversation between Colin and Darko Tresnjak, Hartford Stage's Tony Award-winning Artistic Director, about Shakespeare, his acceptance speech at the Tony's, moodiness in the theater world, and of course, his current production of "Kiss Me Kate". Support...

Setting into your movie theater seat for "Mad Max Fury Road" you are treated a series of trailers that remind you how many movie screens this year will be taken up with new iterations of old franchises. There's a new Jurassic Park movie coming and a new Terminator. But Mad Max is a little different. The franchise had lain dormant since and the movies are the work of a single auteur, George Miller,...

From Mozart to Radiohead, Sybarite5’s eclectic repertoire and dynamic performance style is turning heads throughout the music world: “…that impassioned playing, those hard-driving rhythms, the blissed-out faces of the mostly young audience…Genuine, spontaneous…excitement” ( The Washington Post ).  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...