The Colin McEnroe Show

This hour, the conversation winds around to Robert Frost, bucket lists, the Supreme Court, spotted lantern flies, New England autonomy, and dating. … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Sweet Love  by Jen Allen The Second Time Around (The Dutch Heritage Series)  by Fay Claassen & the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw Raised on Robbery  by Kate S...

If you listen to  The Colin McEnroe Show  regularly, you likely know that Colin has been influenced by two media theorists: Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. Postman wrote  Amusing Ourselves to Death , among other books, and McLuhan is probably most famous for the phrase "The medium is the message," in addition to other influential ideas. This hour, we look at the ideas of McLuhan...

You have probably encountered Robert Frost through his poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” or “The Road Not Taken.” But how much do you know about the man behind the poetry and the rest of his work? This hour, we learn about the life and poetry of Robert Frost and discover how he’s helped to inspire other poets. GUESTS: Sydney Lea: Former poet laureate of Ver...

What can you say about the sun? It sits at the center of our solar system and has, over time, been at the center of religions, scriptures, songs, art, and countless other aspects of our culture. We’ve relied on its light, heat, and gravity for as long as we’ve been around, and we continue to find ways to harness its energy for our daily needs. This hour, we look at the place our sun ho...

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Swift’s upcoming nuptials and the state of her relationship with Blake Lively, motives for murder, the grooming of flies , rum raisin ice cream, insid...

You hear a lot about the ongoing American crisis among men , among boys , around masculinity , right? You see lots of headlines about how we got here, what caused all this, where the crisis came from. Well, the cultural critic Jessa Crispin thinks we can all learn a lot about all of this by looking at … Michael Douglas movies. And I mean, that sounds like a show we’d do, doesn’t...

As the you sit contemplating the end of long summer days, you might wonder what might have been. What might have been if there was a song of the summer! The consensus is that there was no song of the summer for 2025 . To help fill that void in your life, Colin sits down with technical producer Dylan Reyes to form the public radio supergroup CG/WLM (cranky guys who like music) and talk about what t...

The political newsletter Tangle approaches things differently than most news organizations. Each day they do a deep-dive on one topic where they lay out the facts, then give a glimpse of "What the left is saying," "What the right is saying," and then "My take," where an editor explains their opinions on an issue. The newsletter is the brainchild of politics reporter Isaac Saul, who joins us for an...

We tend not to think much about that pat of butter we put on our morning toast, including how the store-bought sweet cream butter we're eating likely pales in comparison to the rich, nutty flavor of the cultured butter not found in many stores. Nor, do we think about butter sculpture, butter bogs, pleasure dairies, or the dairymaids, those once respected and well-paid artisans and economic powerho...

For the first half of today's show, Colin will take your calls about whatever you want to talk about. Then, it’s been a minute since Senator Chris Murphy joined Colin for a check-in on state matters and a chat about the weather in Washington. And we don’t think the senator has ever pulled up a chair to The World’s Most Important Table (™). Support the show: http://www.wnpr....

It’s been a minute since Senator Chris Murphy joined Colin for a check-in on state matters and a chat about the weather in Washington. And we don’t think the senator has ever pulled up a chair to The World’s Most Important Table (™). Around 1:30, Senator Murphy joins us in studio. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informati...

This week’s Nose, guest hosted by comedian Shawn Murray , looks at: Highest 2 Lowest is the fifth collaboration between director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington and their first in 19 years, since Inside Man in 2006. It is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 police procedural, High and Low , which is, itself, an adaptation of the Ed McBain novel King’s Ransom . It also st...

This hour, we take a critical look at the role of art critics in our world. What is the status of criticism, and is it under threat? GUESTS: Naveen Kumar: Theater critic for The Washington Post . He is associate director of the National Critics Institute, the leading arts-writing workshop for professional journalists. He has twice served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama Kathryn VanArend...

The word "like" has been around for centuries, but it reached a new cultural prominence in the 1980s, partially thanks to Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl." Since then, "like" has taken on a life of its own, inspiring strong emotions. This hour, we look at the meaning and evolution of "like." Plus, how movies like the now 30-year-old  Clueless  have impacted our language. GUESTS: Megan C....

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. This hour, a look at how paper folding went from a quaint, simple hobby to an extensive form of art that can achie...

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to the bilateral meeting in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin, the bilateral and multilateral meetings in Washington DC with Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy, our Mark Twain s...

Michael M. Grynbaum's new book  Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America , traces the rise of Condé Nast's magazines. This hour Grynbaum joins us to explain how Condé Nast magazines and their editors achieved their status as cultural tastemakers, and where these magazines, and that industry, stand today. Plus, we hear from an editor...

Chances are, you know Richard Thomas as John-Boy on The Waltons . Or maybe you saw him more recently in his many-episode arcs on shows like The Americans and Ozark . You might’ve even seen him on Broadway in Our Town or as Atticus Finch in the tour of To Kill a Mockingbird . He’s in town doing the very first authorized production of Mark Twain Tonight! since Hal Holbrook died. And John...

According to mytho-historical accounts, the ancient Amazons wore pants while riding into battle. But the trend this tribe of warrior women set was short lived. For nearly two millennia after their demise, the notion of women wearing pants was steeped in controversy. And while this controversy has diminished, it is by no means over. From the fuss over politician's pant suits to the unofficial dress...

Smiling is a universal way to show happiness. But not all smiles are happy. In reality, we smile less for happiness than for social reasons that have nothing to do with happiness. That said, few things are more ingratiating and calming as another person's genuinely warm smile. But, maybe it's because a genuine smile is such a great thing that we're always looking for the false one. But we shouldn'...

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This weeks’ topics include the Statue of Liberty, comedy in New Haven and New York, what's going on in DC, state pension funds,...

Billy Joel has reportedly sold more than 160 million albums. He’s been nominated for 24 Grammy Awards (and won six of them), an Emmy, and a Tony Award (which he won). In the U.S., he’s had 33 top 40 singles and 11 top 10 albums. He’s simply one of the most popular recording artists in the history of music. But. Critics have never been terribly kind to him, and a lot of the genera...

This episode is really going to be the cat’s pajamas. Or is it pyjamas? Do cats even wear pajamas? Why would they? Why do we? Should any of us wear pajamas at all? And if we do don a pair, are they only for bed? Or should pajamas have their day in the sun? If our PJs are making a fashion statement just what exactly are they saying? We’re talking today about what we wear to bed, but who...

What does it mean to have 'good taste'? And what would it take to develop it? This hour, we talk about taste and discernment. Plus, a look at flavor and why some things taste good. GUESTS: Henry Oliver:  Writes the literary Substack “ The Common Reader ,” and is the author of  Second Act: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Reinventing Your Life . He is part of the Emerging...

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. Plus: a visual artist who has found a way to incorporate rust into her work. GUESTS: Esther Solondz : A Rhode Island-based visual artist Jonathan Waldman: Autho...