The Colin McEnroe Show

Toad’s Place and The Shaboo Inn were part of a magical era for music in Connecticut in the 1970s and ’80s. It was a time when small music venues had a symbiotic relationship with fans and could lure thousands of rock, blues, and hip-hop superstars like Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, and Cardi B to their stages. Local arts papers, FM radio, two huge coliseums, a less fragmented music...

The inconic inventor and pitchman Ron Popeil died July 28 . He was 86 years old. This hour, we listen back to the 2016 show we did with Popeil on the form he perfected: the infomercial. The Thighmaster, the Chop-O-Matic, the George Foreman Grill, and the Clapper… products which are all part of American consumer culture and which were all introduced through infomercials. But as online shoppi...

Philip Morris  became Altria . Apple Computer became Apple. Radio Shack became The Shack (and then went bankrupt). The New Britain Rock Cats  moved to Hartford and became the Yard Goats . Tribune Publishing Co. became Tronc (and then became the Tribune Publishing Co. again). Dunkin’ Donuts  became Dunkin’ . The Washington Redskins became the Washington Football Team. Las...

Over the past few weeks, there has been a debate surrounding Munger Hall, a dorm designed by billionaire Charles Munger to house over 4,000 students on the University of California, Santa Barbara’s campus. The design has been criticized because of the lack of windows in most rooms, and concerns over fire safety. This hour, inspired by that debate, we discuss architecture that makes humans fe...

Voyage  is ABBA’s ninth studio album and their first album of new material in 40 years. Its 10 tracks dropped early this morning. A concert residency,  ABBA Voyage , is scheduled to run next year in London. The band will not appear in person for these concerts. Instead, digital “ABBAtars” will perform in their place. It was announced that ABBA would officially break up...

We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we haven’t even started with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. And those shows have been fun. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour  about anything at all...

Should people use Oxford commas? Is there a correct number of exclamation points per email? If someone ends a casual text with a period, does that mean they're mad at you? This hour is all about punctuation and how we use it. We talk about the history of punctuation marks, timeless punctuation debates, and how writing for texts and emails has changed the way we use punctuation. GUESTS: Claire Cock...

Why is there something rather than nothing? This has been described as perhaps the most sublime philosophical question of all. This hour, we try to answer it. But as we do, we realize that it’s not just a philosophical quandary; it’s a scientific, cultural, and theological one as well. Indeed, to the extent that “nothing” is even understood, it is understood so differently...

There's something almost romantic about airships--from zeppelins to dirigibles to little Goodyear Blimps. The image of a giant, floating aircraft feels both nostalgic and futuristic. In the early 20th century, airships were on the leading edge of aviation; today, they mostly live on in the domain of steampunk art and speculative fiction. But a number of companies are betting they can bring airship...

Facebook announced Thursday that  its umbrella company will rebrand as “Meta.”  Mark Zuckerberg said that the new name reflects the full breadth of the future the company wants to help build: “Now we have a new North Star: to help bring the Metaverse to life. From now on, we’re going to be Metaverse first, not Facebook first.” And:  Do we want TV shows...

We realized a few years ago that — basically because Colin and I are fraidy cats —  The Nose  doesn’t cover very much horror stuff. So we started doing an annual Halloween special that tackles horror head-on, in a vaguely Nose-ish way. This year: Could it be that the one genre with  a certain amount of immunity from the Disneyfication, the cinematic universeificati...

An entrenched anxiety is taking hold throughout America. You can feel it in the air and see it in the rise of guns, doomsday preppers, and mask wars. The deep economic and social insecurity at the root of our anxiety comes from political decisions made since 9/11 that starve the public to benefit the private. The elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the Black Lives Matter movement, the glob...

From ancient scrolls to modern toner cartridges, ink (in one form or another) has been around for millennia. And while we may take it for granted now, for much of that time, it was a precious and coveted substance. Ink makers closely guarded their recipes; spy agencies developed secret, invisible ink formulations; and even now, billions are spent to create the perfect printer inks. This hour, we l...

This hour, we’re joined by Kelefa Sanneh, author of  Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres . We talk about music genres and look back at the history of music. GUESTS: Kelefa Sanneh  -   Author of  Major Labels: A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres  and a staff writer at  The New Yorker   Join the conversation on  Facebook &nbsp...

This week, BBC Culture dropped its list of “ The 100 Greatest TV series of the 21st Century .” No. 1 is  exactly what you’d think it’d be , but below that, there’s plenty to argue about. ( Deadwood  at 18?! Horse pucky.) The Nose, over the years, has covered many of the shows on the list, by the way:  Atlanta ,  Black Mirror ,  Fleabag , ...

Rust is all around us. It’s in our cars, our homes, our infrastructure. It’s also the subject of Jonathan Waldman’s book  Rust: The Longest War , which introduces us to the people who fight it. This hour, Waldman joins us, and we hear from a visual artist who has found a way to incorporate rust into her work. GUESTS: Esther Solondz  - A Rhode Island-based  visual a...

We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we haven’t even started with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. And those shows have been fun. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour  about anything at all...

Jews have a long history of resistance against antisemitism that has sought to eradicate their literal existence. The power of their resistance lies in Jewish cultural and spiritual unity and the resulting close-knit communities that have survived and thrived in response to hate. This hour, we talk about how Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood came together in 2018 after a shooter killed...

Drinking alcohol has a number of negative impacts. But humans have been doing it for thousands of years, and show no signs of stopping. This hour, we discuss why we drink, why more people are moving towards sobriety through the “sober curious” movement, and the rise of nonalcoholic cocktails. GUESTS: Edward Slingerland  - Author of  Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled...

This hour, The Nose talks about Netflix’s hit show  Squid Game . Plus: the viral  New York Times Magazine  article “ Who Is The Bad Art Friend? ” GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani  - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Taneisha Duggan  - A director, producer, arts consultant, and an artist working at the crossroads of performance and...

Human beings are  wired to hate pain , even in the form of a teeny tiny needle delivering life-saving elixir. Needle phobia, or trypanophobia, ranges from slight discomfort to crippling anxiety—and these fears can cause serious harm for people who avoid medical care. Despite this, we’ve been using syringes and needles forever. The ancient Greeks were using syringes to drain wounds...

This hour, a potpourri of topics: the Senate parliamentarian, local news, and wheelie suitcases. First, we talk about the Senate parliamentarian. And then: we discuss the value of local news, through the case study of  The Hartford Courant . Finally, we learn about the invention of the wheelie suitcase. GUESTS: Elana Schor   -  Congress editor at Politico David Folkenflik  - NP...

Everybody loves a bulldozer. In fact, we all grew up loving bulldozers, didn't we? From  Benny the Bulldozer  to Katy and her big snow, from all the Tonka toys to all the die cast model Caterpillars, the bulldozer is more of an icon in American popular culture than we maybe realize. But  the first scholarly "biography of the bulldozer"  argues that there's a darker side to the...

We’ve been doing these almost weekly shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. This hour, we do it again. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Many Saints of Newark  is a film prequel to  The Sopranos . It takes place in the 1960s and ’70s, and part of Tony Soprano’s origin story is one of its secondary narratives. It opened in theaters last weekend and will run on HBOMax through October. And:  The Closer  is Dave Chappelle’s sixth and final (for now, at least) feature-length standup special for...