The Colin McEnroe Show

Colin's away this week, but The Nose must go on! Or maybe "must" isn't quite right, but in this particular case, The Nose is going on -- with excellent guest hosts: The Arts Paper 's Lucy Gellman and the New Haven Independent 's Tom Breen . Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mimes have been gesticulating their way into our hearts (or nightmares) for a lot longer than you may think. While it may have been the legendary Marcel Marceau who popularized the mime, people have been communicating through movement since the very beginning. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're doing a show on supermarkets today - from a supermarket! Most Americans still buy most of their food from a supermarket. While farmer's markets and specialty stores offer organic and local alternatives, large-scale supermarkets still offer more convenience, the lowest prices and a seemingly endless variety of choices. Their big wide aisles with neatly stacked and eye-catching packaged produc...

Who would have thought that a book on grammar would be #5 on Amazon's best-seller list? (Should that be "whom" would have thought? Should I write out the number five? Should it be "bestseller?" Ugh. I can't remember if the exclamation goes inside or outside the quotation mark in the sentence I just asked myself.) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

How do you make a 100-meter telescope that folds down to three meters so you can tuck it inside a space vehicle? How do you make a heart stent that folds out inside the human body? In each case, researchers have turned to masters of origami, the thousand-year-old art of paper folding. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Darko Tresnjak has been artistic director at Hartford Stage Company since 2011. During his tenure here, he's won a Tony. He's had multiple productions make the leap to Broadway. His Anastasia has multiple tours touring internationally. And this season is his last season in Hartford. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wilhelm Reich was a once-promising psychoanalyst and scientist  under the guidance of Freud in pre-World War II Europe.  He promoted the "sexual revolution"  to support his belief that sexual repression was linked to the bodily and societal ills of neurosis and fascism. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton has inspired millions to learn more about the founding of America. Some may be moved by a story of scrappy underdogs fighting for freedom against all odds. Others may wonder if America has ever lived up to the ideals assured in our Constitution.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever been to the opera? I know, you think it's stuffy and formal and only for rich, white people of a certain age. You're wrong.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's not a stretch to say the best part of Sunday's Super Bowl LIII was SpongeBob 's short, but sweet, appearance during the halftime show. Should it be a surprise that the game was  boring , the halftime show was bland, and the ads were forgettable? The long  shadow  of Colin Kaepernick cast a cloud over this game and the NFL has yet to deal with the fallout. Support the show:...

The long list of luminaries who have played the Super Bowl Halftime Show includes Michael Jackson, Prince, Beyoncé, Madonna, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, U2, Tom Petty, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Bruce Springsteen... and as of Sunday: Maroon 5 . Whatever artist finally agreed to perform, it was going to be seen as controversial. Maroon 5 is defending their decision , even in the...

The significance of being confirmed as Connecticut's first African-American state Supreme Court chief justice last May didn't fully sink in for Richard A. Robinson until a class of mostly minority students recently showed up to the Hartford court building for a tour. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Humans are great at making a mess of things. So far, however, that mess has been confined to Earth. But as we develop into a spacefaring species, our capacity for destruction, pollution, and prejudice (towards aliens of earthly and unearthly origins) threatens to have cosmic consequences. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Where We Live producer Carmen Baskauf had been badgering us to do a show about The Good Place for months on end. (It had gotten kind of weird, to be honest. We were a little worried about Carmen, to be honest.) Partly to get her off our back, partly because The Good Place really is " a sitcom that's also a profound work of philosophy ," and partly because its Season Three season finale aired last...

There's a healthy debate going on about whether to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Trump. The Atlantic's  Yoni Appelbaum and others say  now is the time to begin the process . History tells us that the process of impeachment, not the outcome, is a vital protection against the dangers of a president who has not kept his promise to preserve and defend our Constituti...

Where We Live producer Carmen Baskauf has been badgering us to do a show about The Good Place for months on end at this point. (It's gotten kind of weird, to be honest. We're a little worried about Carmen, to be honest.) Partly to get her off our back, partly because The Good Place really is " a sitcom that's also a profound work of philosophy ," and partly because its Season Three season finale a...

When Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band had its 50th anniversary, we put together a show with famed Beatles lecturer Scott Freiman and famed Hartford music genius Steve Metcalf. And now that The White Album has had its 50th anniversary, we've gotten the band back together, and we're doing it again. This hour: a look at the best-selling album of the 1960s, The Beatles . Support the show: http://...

Today's show might get a bit dicey. In fact,  it's almost certainly headed for Trouble . And all we can say is  Sorry , that's Life!  Okay, fine, let's drop the Charades. Today's show is about board games. Is that a big enough Clue ? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What we each saw in the short video (since deleted) that went viral this weekend of a Covington Catholic High School student staring at a Native American protestor on the National Mall is open to interpretation. Photos and videos carry the authority of truth, yet the 'truth' reflected in a video can vary, depending on what's included, what's left out and how it's framed. Support the show: http://w...

Recently, I hopped into my car to go home after a long and grinding first day back to work. I had just returned the day before from a two-week vacation exploring the treasures of two foreign countries I had never seen before.  The abrupt transition from play to work left me feeling quite blue, made worse by my receding memories of those weeks. Something in me needed music. So, I traded out my...

I once took guitar lessons with a small group of people who met two nights a week in the basement of a local elementary school. We spent most of each lesson practicing in little nooks and crannies we each carved out in the old room. I enjoyed picking out tunes in my own little corner at my own pace. It was all going so smoothly until... the instructor mentioned the final "concert." Support the sho...

The Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble's The Rock & the Redemption is a jazz concept album of sorts that recasts the Sisyphus myth around the heroism of perseverance and persistence. Keyboardist and composer Noah Baerman joins us for the hour. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dust is a fascinating substance. Our bodies are always shedding dust from our skin, hair, and nails, leaving little bits of DNA wherever we roam. Dust floats unseen through the air around us. It's light. It's hard to see unless it lands on a contrasting surface or crosses the path of a ray of sunshine. It can travel far and wide.   Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See om...

Another weekend came, and another crop of revelations regarding President Donald Trump came with it. First out was  The New York Times ' report that the FBI grew so worried the president might be acting in Russia's interests that it secretly launched a counterintelligence investigation. That happened after Trump's firing of former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017, according to The Times ....

On Monday, Imagine Dragons played the Halftime Show at the College Football National Championship Game. The reviews were... not great . In fact, the performance has raised the question: Is Imagine Dragons the worst band ever? And: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure-style, science fiction, psychological thriller film. It's streaming on Netflix, on some devices,...