The Colin McEnroe Show

From New Kids on the Block to *NSYNC to One Direction, boy bands have been a staple of popular music for decades. This hour, a look back at the history — and future — of boy bands. GUESTS: Maria Sherman  - Author of  Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS Aja Romano  - A culture staff writer for  Vox   Brad Fischetti  - The survivi...

“Life is a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.” That’s the so-called “NASA definition of life.” Or there’s Russian-born geneticist Edward Trifonov’s take: Life is “self-reproduction with variations.” Or there’s “Life is an expected, collectively self-organized property of catalytic polymers.&rdq...

We’ve been doing these weekly shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last couple weeks, 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 it again this week. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour about  anything...

There is a longstanding tendency among tech CEOs to be  sort of performatively photographed with bare feet . Also: It’s gross. And: Washington Post humorist Gene Weingarten  got himself into a bit of trouble  this week  for saying that Indian cuisine is based entirely on one spice . And and:  Pumpkin spice lattes are back . Already. (Also: It’s 90 degrees outsi...

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently released a report detailing the latest scientific understanding about climate change. This hour, we learn about what’s included in that report. And, we’ll discuss some climate solutions, including carbon capture, oysters, and granting rights to rivers and lakes. GUESTS: Rebecca Leber  - Climate reporter a...

Profanity used to be about someone swearing insincerely to God. Then the Reformation came along and made profanity about sex and the body. Today, our most unspeakable words are are  slurs against other groups  at a time when Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and cancel culture are driving our cultural narrative. This hour: the past, present, and future of profanity. GUEST: John McWhorter &nbsp...

This hour, a potpourri of topics. First, some new thinking around dental cavities —  are they really an oral microbiome problem? And, as we endure another record-setting fire season, scientists are wondering,  does Smokey Bear need a makeover? Finally,  what happens if we look at Earth as an exoplanet? GUESTS: Jaime Green  - Associate editor of  Future Tense Maggie K...

We’ve been doing these weekly shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. This week, we aren’t even starting with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour  about anything at all . 888-720-9677. Or join the conversation on Facebook  and  Twitter...

The Nose had planned to discuss  all the scandals  around  Jeopardy!  executive-producer-turned-incoming-host Mike Richards. But then  he quit this morning , so The Nose discusses that instead. And: Larry David (the real guy, not the TV character — as much as those are two different things)  went off on Alan Dershowitz  in a Martha’s Vineyard grocery...

There are thought to be about 17 quadrillion flies alive on Earth at any one time. That’s 17 million for every living human. 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 Dav...

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 on the Colin McEnroe Show, 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...

We’ve been doing these weekly shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. This week, our plan was to forgo even starting with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. Just to see what would happen. But the situation in Afghanistan has drawn focus, and we should probably at least vaguely start there. But still: Give us a c...

This show originally aired July 26, 2017. In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev started an ambitious experiment to study the origins of domestication: he would attempt to breed domesticated wild foxes by selecting on their behavior alone, a process he imagined our ancestors carried out with dogs thousands of years before. This hour, a look at the history and progress of this still-ongoing expe...

Welcome 2 America  is a brand new, never-before-released full studio album of Prince material. And it’s the first one of those released after his death. That fact  seems to complicate things a bit . And: It’s not often that The Nose reads a book, but it has happened before, and it is happening again. T.J. Newman’s debut novel,  Falling , has been a bit of a publish...

It has been almost 20 years since the The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring movie was released. This hour, a look back at the The Lord of the Rings books and movies and their impact. GUESTS: John Garth - Author of The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth and Tolkien and the Great War , among other books Susana Polo - Entertainment editor for Polygon Molly Os...

Semiotics is the study of sign process, which is to say: it’s the science of the search for meaning. And then, part of the underlying premise of semiotics — which just happens to be part of the underlying premise of  The Colin McEnroe Show , itself — is that there’s meaning… everywhere. Why do people smoke cigarettes even though everyone knows they’re terr...

It’s a magazine show — which is to say, it’s a show covering a number of disparate topics linked only by the fact that we’ve decided to cover them together. This hour, the too-big-to-be-a-planet, too-small-to-be-a-proper-star celestial body  dubbed ‘The Accident.’ And: A look at the overwhelming hype, and precipitous fall (pardon the pun)  of the Segwa...

As compared to two weeks ago , new COVID case counts are up 112%, hospitalizations are up 90%, and deaths are up 92%. This would seem to be driven by the extra-contagious delta variant and a population that’s just 50% fully vaccinated. And so: What do we need to change about ourselves? And what do we want government to change for us? Do we need to get off the honor system? Give us a call dur...

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have  publicly admitted that they rarely bathe . Kutcher, in fact, went as far as to say he washes his “armpits and my crotch daily and nothing else ever.” This all makes me incredibly uncomfortable, but it turns out that maybe not everyone feels that way. And: A look at the etiquette of the text tapback, as  saluted in this week’s  Ne...

The Three Music Musketeers return! Are you bored with your playlist? We’ve reunited our trio of music mavens — novelist Wally Lamb, critic Eric Danton, and not-killed-by-video radio star Joan Holliday — to freshen up your music choices with great recommendations. Warning: This program includes banter. The songs in this show include some or all of these ones: “ I NEED YOU &r...

Treasure hunts are prolific across literature, film, and history. This hour we talk about treasure hunts, including what happens when you drop one in the present day. GUESTS: Dan Barbarisi  - Author of  Chasing The Thrill: Obsession, Death and Glory In America’s Most Extraordinary Treasure Hunt Marcellus Cadd  - Writes the blog  Geocaching While Black Join the conversatio...

humor = tragedy + time OK, but then the logical next question is: How much time? If it’s OK, at this point, to joke about, say,  The Spanish Inquisition … what about, for instance,  the Holocaust ? Or  AIDS ?  September 11th ? The  MeToo movement ? …The delta variant? There’s a line there somewhere, right? Or are some topics just never going to be...

This hour, a conversation not exactly about the recent anti-CRT hysteria on the right and not exactly about extreme wokeness on the left, but about how we talk and write and think and teach so that we acknowledge the wrongs of the past and how they show up in the present. Without driving each other nuts. Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour: 860-275-7266, or join the conversation on  Fac...

Schmigadoon!  is a musical comedy series on Apple TV+ starring Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key. In it, the couple gets stuck in a musical town, and can’t leave until they find true love. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s documentary  Summer of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) , on Hulu, is about The Harlem Cultural Festival, which occurred...

This hour, we take your calls about Olympian Simone Biles. She withdrew from competition on Tuesday to focus on her mental health, just weeks after tennis star Naomi Osaka also stepped back due to mental health struggles. And we want your reaction to the House selection committee hearing on the January 6th Capitol attack, happening this week. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnyst...