The Colin McEnroe Show

This hour, the conversation winds around to Columbus Day, Colin’s favorite joke, textures, J.R.R. Tolkien , the movie The Apprentice , food allergies, our fundraising drives … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.   Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeffrey Lieber was one of the Emmy-nominated creators of the TV series Lost . He has been a showrunner on series like NCIS: New Orleans and Charmed and the new reboot of Matlock starring Kathy Bates. And his play Fever Dreams (of animals on the verge of extinction) is currently running at TheaterWorks Hartford. This hour, screenwriter, television producer, and playwright Jeffrey Lieber joins us in...

This hour is all about notebooks. We'll talk about the history and evolution of notebooks, favorite examples, and celebrate the joy of writing things down. Plus, a look at the Notes App. GUESTS:  Roland Allen: Book publisher and author of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper Charley Locke: Journalist, and contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine , who recently wrote “ Keep Your N...

This hour we take your calls about anything you want to talk about. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, a look at words and usage and grammar and language and all that fun stuff. Have you noticed how we Americans have become “so bloody keen on Britishisms?” Ben Yagoda joins us to talk about his new book, Gobsmacked! The British Invasion of American English . Plus, there’s been an update to The Chicago Manual of Style , its first in seven years. We take a look at the CMOS , in particular,...

Rupert Holmes won two Tony Awards for his musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood . His single “ Escape (The Piña Colada Song) ” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His dramedy Remember WENN was AMC’s first original scripted series. And his newest novel, Murder Your Employer , was a New York Times bestseller. This hour: Rupert Holmes . GUEST: Rupert Holmes: Playwright, composer, singer-songwriter,...

As a fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute, monologuist Josh Kornbluth started to see parallels between brain disease and, well, everything that’s going on in our politics today. With his new solo show, Citizen Brain , he hopes to “spark an empathy revolution.” Josh Kornbluth joins us in studio for the hour. GUEST: Josh Kornbluth: A monologuist, author, and actor, and he writes the  But Not...

This hour we talk with Christine Rosen about her new book, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World . We talk about how technology has impacted face-to-face interactions, boredom, loneliness, handwriting, and more. GUEST:  Christine Rosen: Author of The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World . She is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute...

Going into November, we’ll be doing some shows where we talk with one guest, for the hour, who knows a lot about the election. This hour, we talk with journalist Rachel Janfaza about Gen Z voters. GUEST:  Rachel Janfaza: Journalist who covers Gen Z political culture and young voters in U.S. politics. Her newsletter is “ The Up and Up ” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.co...

In A.J. Jacobs’ new book, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning , he details his experience living by the Constitution for a year. Jacobs joins us for the hour to tell us about the experiment and what he learned. GUESTS: A.J. Jacobs: The author, most recently, of The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follo...

We’ve been doing these shows a couple times a month where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to our old friends evolving (or not), sports losing its magic (or not), spending billions of dollars trying to get rockets to Mars (or not), Fat Bear Week , radio call-in...

Percival Everett is the author of 24 novels, four short story collections, and six collections of poetry. His 2001 novel Erasure was adapted as the feature film American Fiction , which was nominated this year for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Everett has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His newest novel, James , reimagines Adv...

Going into November, we’ll be doing some shows where we talk with one guest, for the hour, who knows a lot about the election. This hour, we talk with veteran journalist Mark Jacob about the state of American journalism and its impact on the upcoming election. GUEST:  Mark Jacob: Writes the weekly newsletter “ Stop the Presses .” He is the former Metro Editor of The Chicago Tribune and former Sund...

Policy speeches, convention speeches, concession speeches, victory speeches, stump speeches. Inaugural addresses, State of the Union addresses, prime-time addresses. There sure are a lot of speeches that we expect presidents and presidential candidates to give. But how much do those speeches really matter anymore? How much do they work as, say, TikTok fodder? This hour, the art and politics of pol...

This year, local students lobbied Connecticut lawmakers to change our state insect, which is currently the praying mantis. This hour, we are focused on the praying mantis. We learn about the insect, why students think it should not represent the state, and what praying mantises of the future could look like. GUESTS: Liz Alter: Professor of evolutionary biology at California State University Monter...

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is there some thing that EVERYBODY seems to like that you’re just not that into? Star Wars ? Game of Thrones ? Seinfeld ? The Beach Boys? Christopher Nolan? … Taylor Swift? Or what about some very current thing that seemingly everybody thinks is so interesting and cutting edge and exciting, but you just don’t like it? (For Colin, that very current thing is The Bear on TV.) What do you do when that...

Everyone has likely experienced some form of writer's block in their lives — when you sit down to write and the words just won't come. This hour we dive into the phenomenon and talk with writers about their experiences with it. What is writer's block, where does it come from, and how can you get past it? Plus, we take a look at the long history of writer's block, and the muses, goddesses, and sain...

Bestselling author Don Winslow joins us to discuss his new novel, City in Ruins , which he says is the last of his career. GUEST:  Don Winslow: Bestselling author whose new book is City in Ruins Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter . Subscribe to The Noseletter , an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show...

It feels like tourism hit a breaking point this summer, with residents around Europe protesting visitors, new entrance and tourist fees popping up at famous spots, and even a net going up to block a popular view of Mt. Fuji. This hour, a philosopher makes the case against travel . Plus, we talk about how tourism is impacting destinations, like Bologna, Italy , and ways to travel differently. GUEST...

Listen live Monday at 1 p.m. We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing — calls about grammar, gardening, long-distance dialing, autotune. Anything. Everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we’re doing another one. Support the show: http:...

If I say “cult classic,” what do you think of? Probably an underground movie that built up an intense following over time, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room , right? Or maybe even something a bit more mainstream like The Big Lebowski ? But where’s the limit here, if there is one? Is Blade Runner a cult movie? Or Pulp Fiction ? Monty Python and the Holy Grail ? Office Space ? Slap Shot...

How did taxes, this quintessentially frustrating thing, come to be so frustrating? And must it be so? This hour, we’re learning about why taxes are so complicated to file in the U.S. Then, we’ll talk about how some of the richest people in America end up paying next to no taxes on the wealth they grow every year. Finally: a conversation with someone who doesn’t pay a chunk of his taxes — on purpos...

It has been 23 years since the sunny late summer Tuesday morning that changed basically everything. This hour, a look back at September 11, 2001, and its long shadow, still darkening our days a bit now. We talk to a historian about the generation that has lived its life in a post-9/11 world and a critic about the influence of 9/11 on and in our popular culture . GUESTS: Lindsay Ellis: An author, v...

Plastic is everywhere in our world, and scientists are increasingly discovering the negative health and environmental impacts of the material. This hour, we take a look at our relationship to plastic. We talk about the material, its evolution, and its symbolism in our culture. Plus, we look at the use of single use plastic in television and why it matters. GUESTS:  Susan Freinkel: Author of Plasti...