The Colin McEnroe Show

This week’s Nose clearly harassed a human with dark features and chose the wrong person to annoy. Andor is the fourth live-action Star Wars series from Disney+. It is a prequel to Rogue One , which is a prequel to Star Wars . Andor follows thief-turned-spy Cassian Andor during the five years leading up to Rogue One . It is created by Tony Gilroy, who wrote Rogue One , and written in part by Tony a...

We have a complicated relationship with our food. We need food to live, yet we’ve become removed from the food we eat and how it’s grown and processed. Even with the best of intentions, today’s ultra-processed foods make it hard for us to know exactly what we’re eating or how the methods used to mass produce our food are affecting our environment and our health. And I haven’t even touched on how f...

This hour, we investigate what centrism means, and what the role of centrism is in U.S. politics and discourse today. GUESTS: Lee Drutman: Author of  Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America and co-host of the  Politics in Question  podcast Yascha Mounk: Author of  The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure  and the founde...

Perfectionism is on the rise among young people. This hour, we look at the impact of perfectionism on mental health and how to deal with perfectionist tendencies. Plus: what the self-help industry can tell us about our interest in perfection. GUESTS: Thomas Curran: Assistant professor of psychological and behavioral science at the London School of Economics and Political Science Tamar Gendler: Pro...

This week’s Nose is like the trick you do with the wiggling, getting all the girls hipped up. Blonde is Andrew Dominik’s fourth feature film as writer and director, his first since Killing Them Softly in 2012. It’s an adaptation of the Joyce Carol Oates novel, and it stars Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe. Blonde is a Netflix release, and it’s said to be the first movie distributed by a streaming se...

And, just like that, we’re in the midst of yet another election season. With news fatigue and election fatigue , it’s easy to feel jaded. This hour, we explore why we feel that way, talk about how to overcome those feelings, and discuss why we should care about politics. GUESTS: Gabe Fleisher: Author of  Wake Up to Politics  and a student at Georgetown University Roya Hakakian: Author and poet who...

Around the world, history is filled with men mistaken for gods. This hour we talk with Anna Della Subin, the author of Accidental Gods . She takes us through some notable examples of mortal men mistakenly deified and discusses why people look for their gods here on Earth. GUEST: Anna Della Subin  - Author of Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a...

Lists feel especially suited to the digital age, but humans have been creating lists for a long time. So why are we drawn to lists? This hour, we look at the art and the utility of the list. And we talk to people who have created some lists we’ve especially enjoyed. GUESTS: Matthew Dicks: A West Hartford elementary school teacher and the author of  Twenty-One Truths About Love Dan Kois: Editor and...

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

If I say “Liam Neeson movie,” you picture, at this point, a pretty specific thing , right? It’s kind of an action-thriller. Neeson is avenging some wrong. It’s usually some wrong against his family. And it’s usually avenged with Neeson’s “ particular set of skills .” Basically, the movie is some version of Taken , right? Well, Taken came out in 2008. Liam Neeson has been making these movies for 15...

Azar Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran , which spent 117 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Her newest book, Read Dangerously , argues that reading literature, reading challenging, dangerous literature is foundational and fundamental to continued democracy. Imagination, itself, she says, is a threat to autocracy and totalitarianism. Imagination is inherently, by definiti...

Note:  This episode contains strong language and a number of things intended to be in bad taste. This hour, we shoot the, er, breeze with the filmmaker, author, and artist whose œuvre of campy, raunchy films ranges from the cult classics Pink Flamingos and Polyester to the musicals Hairspray and Cry-Baby  — John Waters. On the occasion of Waters’ first novel, the “feel-bad romance” Liarmouth , a t...

Harvey Fierstein has won four Tony Awards, for writing and acting in Torch Song Trilogy , for writing La Cage aux Folles , and for acting in Hairspray . He has appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire , Bullets Over Broadway , Independence Day , Death to Smoochy , and more. He has sung to Muppets , he has voiced Disney characters, and he’s been in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade . Armistead Maupin has called...

The purpose of incarceration in America is supposed to be a balance between punishment and reform, with the scales tipping toward reforms that can lead to redemption and a second chance after release. But that’s not been the experience of many currently and formerly incarcerated people. Incarcerated influencers are sharing a view of prison life through TikTok videos, podcasts, and journalism that...

This week’s Nose uses the rug as its plan B. Abbott Elementary is a mockumentary sitcom that airs on ABC, created by and starring Quinta Brunson. Think The Office , but set in a Philadelphia elementary school . It won two Primetime Emmy Awards last week, and its second season premiered this week. And: Apple made a movie, Emancipation , that it expects will be worthy Oscar fodder. The only catch: I...

Well designed queues give you hope and feel fair, while poorly designed ones can ruin your day. Queues are everywhere around us, and not all are designed well. This hour, the art of the queue, the challenge of waiting in line, and when, if ever, cutting in line is appropriate. GUESTS: Jennifer Goff: Owner and founder of  Skip the Line Marie Helweg-Larsen: Professor of psychology at Dickinson Colle...

We all do some bad thinking sometimes, whether in relatively minor ways or relatively major ones. This hour, we look at why bad thinking happens, how reasoning errors are embedded in the way we think, and how we can all learn how to think better, through lessons from philosophy and psychology. GUESTS: Woo-kyoung Ahn: Director of The Thinking Lab at Yale University and the author of  Thinking 101:...

This hour, a look at the path to sainthood and how it’s changed over time. Plus: the local example of the Rev. Michael McGivney. GUESTS: Teresa Berger: Professor of liturgical studies and Catholic theology at Yale Divinity School Joseph Laycock: Author of  The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism Rachel McCleary: Lecturer in the Economics Department at Harvard Un...

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 a number of whys: Why do people speed? Why do cigarettes come in packs of 20? Why do we say “beyond the pale?” Why did the  Hartford Courant  leave the queen’s funeral...

This week’s Nose watches two recent comic book television adaptations:  She-Hulk: Attorney At Law , from Disney+, and the recently canceled  Paper Girls , from Prime Video. GUESTS:  Rich Hollant:  Principal at Co Lab, founder of Free Center, and Commissioner on Cultural Affairs for the city of Hartford Jacques Lamarre:  Playwright, and Chief Communications Officer at Buzz Engine Tracy Wu Fastenber...

Jill Sobule is back in town and in our studio. This hour: songs, seventh grade, fanny packs, the power of sad music, and much more. These are the songs featured in the show: “A Good Life” “Island of Lost Things” “Jetpack” “Rainy Day Parade” “Strawberry Gloss” Jill Sobule performs at The Mark Twain House on Friday, September 16, 2022 . GUEST: Jill Sobule: Award-winning singer, songwriter, and guita...

Most of us have books that we just can’t finish, no matter how many times we try. This hour, a look at those books that we find unreadable, whether they’re too long, too difficult, too confusing, or too dated. What makes a book unreadable? Plus: The Voynich Manuscript , an unreadable and undeciphered book, housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. We asked our listeners for their list of unrea...

This hour, comedian and The New Yorker columnist Andy Borowitz on his new book, Profiles in Ignorance , which explains how our nation’s elected leaders have grown dumb — dumber. GUESTS: Andy Borowitz: Writes  The Borowitz Report ; his new book is Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Googl...

Bumper stickers are everywhere. They range from funny to informative to political to provocative and beyond. This hour: bumper stickers — the philosophy of bumper stickers, the evolution of political bumper stickers, and so much more. GUESTS: Jack Bowen: Author of  If You Can Read This: The Philosophy of Bumper Stickers Henry Hoke: Author of  Sticker Claire Jerry: Curator of political history for...

This week’s Nose will not sit here and suffer crows that come to feast on their corpses. Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon is the second show in the Game of Thrones franchise and a prequel to the original series. It is based on parts of George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood , and it starts about 200 years before the events of the original series. Its first episode was the most-watched series p...