The Colin McEnroe Show

All cults are not created equal. From the wide array of beliefs they teach, to the variety of people who are involved, cults are as different from each other as are officially recognized religions. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Netflix announced this week that it has suspended production on the sixth and final season of its award-winning drama series "House of Cards." Its lead actor, Kevin Spacey, apologized for an act of sexual misconduct with a 14 year old while simultaneously coming out as gay , and things have only gotten more complicated since. And then, a University of Hartford freshman, Chennel "Jazzy" Rowe, has a...

President Trump wants to "Make America Great Again," by turning back the clock to a time he believes was safer, purer, and removed from the dangers of modern society. He's not the first president to evoke nostalgia for the Rockwellian image of small town life where everyone knew one another, had a good job, and raised a family. The mental scene may vary but the nostalgia for something lost remains...

The International Space Station is the most expensive thing ever built. It's about the size of a football field, it weighs a million pounds, and it's up there flying around in the sky at 17,000 mph, but... we don't really ever hear much about it, do we? Well, so, this hour we hear about it. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are few monsters more iconic or enduring than Frankenstein's. From Mary Shelley's 1818 novel, to the 1931 Hollywood film, to the countless plays, comics and other adaptations that have followed, Frankenstein continues to resonate with fans around the world. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates surrendered Monday morning to special counsel Robert Mueller after he asked them to do so. The New York Times reports the charges are for money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying.  The indictments come after  CNN reported Friday night that a federal grand jury had approved the first charges in the Russia investigation led by sp...

Netflix's new 10-episode series "Mindhunter" tells the story of the beginnings of criminal psychology and criminal profiling at the FBI. As such, at its heart, it's really just a police procedural. But, with David Fincher as one of its producers, the show rises above a well-worn genre with its look and feel reminiscent of movies like Se7en and Zodiac . Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate...

Richard Dawkins is probably the best-known ethologist and evolutionary biologist in the world. And he's maybe the best-known atheist and secularist -- he would say "rationalist" -- in the world. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1955, Connecticut experienced catastrophic flooding that killed more than eighty people. Two back-to-back hurricanes  - Connie and Diane - dropped over two feet of rain across Connecticut. The rains overwhelmed the Naugatuck, Farmington, and Quinebaug Rivers and their tributaries too quickly for many to escape its wrath. After the flood, Connecticut enacted flood control measures that led...

From his work on Wicked , to Pippin , to Godspell , to The Magic Show and more, few people have had such a hand in shaping the music of Broadway theater as Stephen Schwartz. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The devastation left by Hurricane Maria on September 20 is overwhelming the millions of Americans who are still without power and unable to meet basic needs. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I mean that verb a couple different ways. Some of The Nose suffered through Gerald's Game because they didn't like it. Some of The Nose suffered through it... because it's difficult to watch, like it or not. Regardless, following The Dark Tower and It , Netflix's small-screen, feature-length adaptation of the 1992 novel has been called "The best [Stephen] King adaptation of the year." Support the...

Kurt Andersen's new book is Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire . It's a 500-year history "of America jumping the shark ." The idea, largely, is that our present post-fact, fake-news moment is... nothing new. This hour, we look back at the history. We look at our present -- which is to say, we look at our present president: "To describe [Trump] is practically to summarize this book," Andersen sa...

Novelists have been writing for decades about worlds in which the climate is in crisis. Those stories are becoming increasingly realistic -- in a sense, the future is already here. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody has this feeling that American Democracy isn't what we want it to be right now. It doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel like we're unified even about what the nature of our governance is.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump decertified the internationally-supported Iran nuclear deal Friday but didn't walk away from it. Instead, he kicked it to Congress to determine whether to reimpose sanctions even though the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified Iran was in compliance with the deal. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That's not really true. LOTS of other people went to see Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner" sequel. It grossed almost $82 million in its opening weekend. But for a movie that cost going on $200 million to make -- and that's been anticipated on and off for 35 years -- those kinds of ticket sales mean it's probably headed toward box-office-flop status. Still, though: It's certified fresh on Rotten To...

Numbers are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that we maybe tend to think of them as an intrinsic part of the world around us. But they aren't. Humans invented numbers just as much as we invented all of language. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Until about 150 years ago, most people  were born into a religion that carried them to adulthood. That's no longer the case.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is yodeling, anyway? Some consider it singing, some say it's an ululation, and still others consider it merely a means to herd animals. Whatever yodeling is, one's thing clear: Yodeling has been around for thousands of years and shows no signs of disappearing. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We talk to New York Times op-ed columnist Gail Collins about the Department of Health and Human Services decision Friday to give employers and corporations a reason to deny contraception coverage to their female employees. All they need is to hold a "sincerely held" religious or moral objection to birth control.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

It's a good time to be a Star Trek fan... inasmuch as there's a bunch of new Star Trek -related content, anyway. CBS has a real-live, brand-new Star Trek TV series... that you can't actually watch on CBS. And Seth MacFarlane a has real-live Star Trek parody series that's maybe more of an homage? Or it's a real-live Star Trek homage series that's maybe more of a parody? One of those. Or maybe both?...

The American League Division Series start today. This afternoon, the lowly Boston Red Sox play in Houston, and then tonight, the 27-time world champion New York Yankees play in Cleveland. Tomorrow, we get fully four postseason baseball games, with both National League series starting. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It was 50 years ago that The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . It's been called the beginning of the album era. In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it #1 on their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." It is the best-selling album of the 1960s. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mischief and mirth abound in the magical realm of fairies. Whether it's Puck from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream or J.M Barrie's Tinkerbell, you never know quite what you'll get from these fictional creatures. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.