The Colin McEnroe Show

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 :...

For decades, we didn’t take television seriously. We saw it as ephemeral, as “chewing gum for the eyes,” as, literally, furniture. And then, around the turn of the century, things started to change. There was The Sopranos . The Wire . And, at the same time, shows like Big Brother and The Amazing Race . For Emily Nussbaum, it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer that forever changed her t...

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour...

This week’s Nose is all gettin’ flushed. Rothaniel is Jerrod Carmichael’s third HBO comedy special. The previous two, 2014’s Love at the Store and 2017’s 8 , were directed by Spike Lee and Bo Burnham, respectively. Rothaniel was taped in February at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, and it, too, is directed by Burnham. This is the fourth directing project in a...

Azar Nafisi is the author of Reading  Lolita  in Tehran , which spent 117 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Her new 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...

In the past two years, we've all turned into preppers. Whether dealing with a pandemic, supply chain disruptions, or natural disasters, we've learned the value of being prepared to be self-sufficient for a few days, weeks, or even months. This hour, we look at prepping, and talk about how it has become a part of our everyday lives. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/li...

Gossiping is considered a bad habit. But, when done well, it can actually have social benefits. This hour, what gossip is, its benefits and drawbacks, and why we’re interested in celebrity gossip. GUESTS: Amanda Kehrberg: Adjunct media studies faculty at Arizona State University Shayla Love: Senior staff writer of features at Vice Frank McAndrew: Psychology professor at Knox College The Coli...

There are thought to be about 17 million living flies for every human alive on Earth. They’re predators and parasites and pests, but they’re pollinators too. They help us solve crimes, heal wounds, and understand genetics and evolution. And they literally help at least one artist paint his paintings. Also this hour: A look at David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of, you guessed it: The...

This week’s Nose is always moving, it’s rhythmic, it’s up close and personal, there’s no pads or helmets for protection. On Wednesday, Demi Moore announced on Instagram that Bruce Willis is “stepping away” from his career after being diagnosed with aphasia . Willis turned 67 last month. And: Last Friday, before last weekend’s Academy Awards ceremonies , Ro...

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 U...

We tend to associate arguing with destructive actions like quarreling or fighting. Argument is a different animal. It may be fueled by the passion that drives fights and quarrels, but effective arguing requires factual evidence and logic to support why one idea might work better than another idea. At its finest, argument opens our world to ideas and solutions we hadn’t considered, whereas th...

Glass is all around us: from windows and mirrors, to phone screens and fiber optic cables. This hour, we learn how glass helped shape our world, efforts to create different types of glasses, and what it's like to make art out of glass. GUESTS: John Garrison : Professor at Grinnell College, and author of the book  Glass . Alexis Clare : Professor of Glass Science at Alfred University.  Er...

Note: This episode contains strong language. You may have seen that Sunday night, on the Academy Awards stage, Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith went up on stage and whacked Rock in the face, and then a few minutes later, Will Smith won the Best Actor award. A more Noseish confluence of events we may never have seen been before. And so we assembled an emergency, podcast-o...

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour...

Over the last eight months, The Nose has covered 11 of this year’s Academy Award-nominated movies, encompassing 54 nominations. So on this special edition of The Nose, we look back at our discussions of nominated movies, and we look ahead to Sunday’s Oscars ceremony with film and television star (and Oscars voter) Illeana Douglas. Some of the movies covered include: Being the Ricardos...

“Animals, which were in the service of man, could be arrested, tried, convicted and executed,” according to Edmund P. Evans in his book The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals , published in 1906. They could also be excommunicated from the church. Our relationship to our pets and wildlife has mellowed over the centuries, but we still can’t figure out how to sha...

In the 21 years since Christopher Nolan’s Memento hit theaters, his movies have grossed more than $5 billion, earned 36 Academy Award nominations, and won 11 Oscars. His Dark Knight films helped spark the comic book movie renaissance we’re still experiencing, and his seventh feature, Inception , is the highest-grossing totally standalone live action movie ever made. This hour, a look a...

The NCAA’s March Madness is back! And so the only logical thing to do is to get improv comedian Julia Pistell and the actual Bill Curry together to talk basketball for an hour on the radio. That may not be the  only  logical thing to do. It may be that that’s not actually a logical thing to do at all. But we’re doing it anyway. *It’s our 12th one of these unless i...

Bumper stickers are everywhere. And they range from funny to informative to political to provocative. This hour is all about bumper stickers. We talk about the philosophy of bumper stickers, the evolution of political bumper stickers, and so much more. GUESTS: Henry Hoke : Writer and the author of the memoir Sticker , among other books Jack Bowen : A philosophy teacher and author of If You Can Rea...

Author Oliver Roeder says that games are a “slice of life.” This hour we look at three games: chess, Scrabble, and Monopoly. We investigate why these games have endured in popularity through history, and we discuss what each one of them can teach us about life. GUESTS: Oliver Roeder : journalist and author of Seven Games: A Human History Jenny Adams : Associate Professor of English at...

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour...

This week’s Nose doesn’t need you to tell it whether it’s cool or not, old lady. Licorice Pizza is the ninth feature film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The movie and Anderson are nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It is a coming-of-age story set in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s and starring Alana H...

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 Maupi...

Over 500 years ago, Sir Thomas More wrote about utopia. Since then, countless communities around the world have worked to create their own versions of a perfect world. This hour, we look at examples of utopian communities from around the world. GUESTS: Avery Trufelman : Host of the podcast  Nice Try! Akash Kapur : Author of  Better to Have Gone: Love, Death, and the Quest for Utopia in A...

Between all we know to be true and all we know to be false lies a world of woo. “Woo-woo,” to use the full 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? The easy answer is that scientists deci...