Say Nothing. Small Things Like These. Kneecap. Bad Sisters. All of Us Strangers. The Banshees of Inisherin and An Cailín Ciúin a couple years ago. Normal People and Derry Girls a few years before that. Paul Mescal and Colin Farrell and Saoirse Ronin and Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan and Hozier and Andrew Scott and Daryl McCormack and Kerry Condon. The list goes on. Something’s going on with the Irish and Ireland in our movies and TV and elsewhere. This hour, a Nose-ish look at the current Irish moment in our popular culture. GUESTS: Will Hermes: Writes about music “and life’s other mysteries,” and he’s a longtime contributor to All Things Considered; he’s the author, most recently, of Lou Reed: The King of New York Nate Jones: A senior writer for Vulture and New York magazine covering movies and pop culture Róisín Lanigan: A contributing editor at The Fence Magazine and the author of the forthcoming novel I Want to Go Home But I’m Already There, and she writes the Substack Notions The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oxford University Press has named “brain rot” the word of the year for 2024. The term beat out five other finalists: “demure,” “dynamic pricing,” “lore,” “romantasy,” and “slop.” This hour, a look at brain rot, from Thoreau’s Walden through to social media. GUESTS:  Casper Grathwohl: President of Oxford Languages at Oxford University Press Katie Notopoulos: Senior correspondent at Business Insider who writes about technology, business, and culture Laura Dassow Walls: Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life, among other books Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare, it turns out, is not immune to the culture wars, the book banning, the cancel culture (despite his being dead for more than four centuries). So, fine. Cancel Shakespeare, then, one argument goes. Because here’s the thing: Shakespeare’s plays and poems ARE dirty and smutty and gory — and that’s a big part of what makes them so great. And: Earlier this year, the romantic comedy Anyone But You became the highest-grossing live-action Shakespeare adaptation ever made. So we look at Shakespeare as fertile rom-com IP, from 10 Things I Hate About You and beyond. And finally, Bardcore is a thing. The one and only Hildegard von Blingin’ joins us. GUESTS: Maureen Lee Lenker: A senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and the author of the novel It Happened One Fight Drew Lichtenberg: Associate director at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC Hildegard von Blingin’: A singer and illustrator The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Meg Dalton, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired on June 14, 2024. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s in your kitchen? With a plethora of kitchen tools available to us today, the contents of our kitchen drawers varies. But a recent survey has shed light on some trends in kitchen tool ownership. This hour, a look at that data and the history and evolution of kitchen tools and gadgets. Plus, examples of creative kitchen tools throughout history. GUESTS: Megan Elias: Historian and director of the Food Studies Program and associate professor at Boston University David Montgomery: Senior data journalist at YouGov and a history podcaster Corinne Mynatt: Author of Tools for Food: The Objects That Influence How and What We Eat The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired December 11, 2023. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour we took your calls about anything you wanted to talk about. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lioness is the seventh of eight TV series created by Taylor Sheridan. It’s a spy thriller starring Zoe Saldaña, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Kelly, and Laysla De Olivera. Its second season concludes December 8. And: The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a Norwegian documentary that tells the story of a terminally ill disabled young man and the surprising life he led in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. Ibelin won two World Cinema Documentary awards at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, including the Audience Award. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College, and she’s the author of The Essays Only You Can Write The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rose Horowitch, an Assistant Editor at The Atlantic, discusses the alarming trend of declining book reading, particularly among college students. Maryanne Wolf, a renowned researcher in literacy and dyslexia, emphasizes the importance of deep reading for cognitive and emotional growth. Novelist Ben Winters adds perspective on the struggle to find meaningful literature in a fast-paced digital world. Together, they explore how technology skews reading habits and the societal consequences of choosing screen time over substantial texts.

Trump’s trial. AI. Online learning. Everything’s a “Pandora's Box." This hour, we discuss the myth and the metaphor of Pandora's Box. Plus, a look at human curiosity. GUESTS:  Natalie Haynes: Author of six books, including the nonfiction work Pandora’s Jar, and the novels A Thousand Ships and Stone Blind Maria Tatar: Professor of folklore and mythology at Harvard University. Her latest book is The Heroine with 1001 Faces Federico Rossano: Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.  Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on August 29, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Thurston Harris and Crash Test Dummies to that noise your refrigerator makes, humming sounds are all around us (especially if you’ve been to Windsor, Ontario). This hour, musical humming, mysterious humming, and how humming could be good for your health. GUESTS: Colin Novak: Associate professor at the University of Windsor Susan Rogers: Multi-platinum record producer, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Berklee College of Music and co-author of This Is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You Gunjan Trivedi: Co-founder of Wellness Space and an author of several studies exploring the benefits of humming on stress and health The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, Jonathan McNicol, Bradley O’Connor, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired July 25, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 FX on Hulu series Say Nothing and parallels to the Israel-Hamas war, “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing,” A Charlie Brown Christmas on Apple TV+, the windshield phenomenon, the regionally different lilt of sentences, whether or not the Democrats will ever get it together … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.