The Colin McEnroe Show

COVID has caused more than 7 million confirmed deaths (and estimates of the actual total go well past 20 million). Here’s the even worse news: It wasn’t the truly devastating pandemic epidemiologists have feared for decades. But here’s the good news: We learned every possible lesson from COVID, and now we’re utterly prepared for the next big pandemic that’s inevitably barreling towards us. No. Wait. Maybe I’ve gotten that last bit wrong. This hour, Michael Osterholm, founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, joins us to talk about the dreaded potential “big one” and what we need to do to be ready. GUEST: Michael T. Osterholm: Founding director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and the co-author of The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics 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 contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, a look at words and usage and grammar and language and all that fun stuff. Have you noticed how we Americans have become “so bloody keen on Britishisms?” Ben Yagoda joins us to talk about his book, Gobsmacked! The British Invasion of American English. Plus, there’s been an update to The Chicago Manual of Style. We take a look at the CMOS, in particular, and bang on (there it is again!) about dreaded style guides, in general. GUESTS: Scott Huler: The author of seven non-fiction books; his most recent is A Delicious Country: Rediscovering the Carolinas along the Route of John Lawson’s 1700 Expedition Ben Yagoda: The author, coauthor, or editor of 14 books and the host of the podcast The Lives They’re Living 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. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today by visiting ctpublic.org/donate. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on October 8, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We once did a show about beer jingles, which is a great example of how a product becomes a culture. Cereal as a culture, is off the charts. There’s the box, there’s the prize, there’s the character, there’s the jingles, there’s the commercials. Most of us can probably sing some jingles and discuss favorite cereal personae from our childhoods, which makes it kind of weird when marketing experts tell us that cereal consumption is in decline. Who are we without cereal. It has been a staple of the American breakfast since Dr. John Kellogg first tried to purify the traditional American breakfast of veal, oysters, and wild pigeon with his first flakes. This hour, we talk about cereal, we eat cereal, and we try to rekindle our love of cereal. GUESTS: Eddy Chavey: Founder and president of MrBreakfast.com Topher Ellis: Cereal historian, co-author of The Great American Cereal Book: How Cereal Got Its Crunch, and editor of Boxtops Linda Giuca: Freelance writer and former food columnist for The Hartford Courantand co-owner of Alforno restaurant in Old Saybrook, Connecticut Deena Shanker: Former food and consumer goods reporter for Quartz Michael Smulders: The late owner of Bakery on Main in East Hartford, Connecticut 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. Lydia Brown, Tucker Ives, Betsy Kaplan, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired January 28, 2016.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, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This hour, the conversation winds around to Bad Bunny, the Supreme Court, recycling, midges, nominative determinism, speed cameras, the government shutdown … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Notion – The Rare Occasions Mr. Eclectic – Laufey Itsumo – Mei Semones Anything But Now – Cecile McLorin Salvant J'ai Rencontré L'homme De Ma Vie – Emilie-Claire Barlow Little Claws – Genevieve Ardati, Real Bad Man Leaves That Are Green – Pete Philly Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One Battle After Another is the 11th feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is written and produced by Anderson and inspired by the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and more. It is the widest release, the widest opening, and the highest-grossing opening of Anderson’s career. One Battle After Another is currently the No. 1 movie in the world. And: The Lowdown is the second television series created by Sterlin Harjo. It is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the same fictional universe as the first Harjo-created TV series, Reservation Dogs. It stars Ethan Hawke and Keith David. GUESTS: James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Rich Hollant: Founder and principal of CO:LAB, a hall of fame designer, and a co-partner at CENTER Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmball podcast Irene Papoulis: Wrote a short textbook called The Essays Only You Can Write Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. This hour, we look at the anthropological, psychological, and linguistical ramifications of the concept of numbers. And we look at one philosophical question too: Are numbers even real in the first place? GUESTS: Brian Clegg: Author of Are Numbers Real? The Uncanny Relationship of Mathematics and the Physical World Caleb Everett: Author of Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures 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 Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired October 12, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2025 winner of The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in a few weeks. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants it. This hour we look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and its status in our world. We learn about past winners, how winners are selected, and ask about its relevance. GUESTS: Jay Nordlinger: A political journalist and music critic. He is a Senior Resident Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, the music critic of The New Criterion, and his Substack is called Onward and Upward. He is the author of Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World, among other books Julie Mennella: Faculty member at the Monell Center. She is a winner of the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize in Pediatrics Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of the Western world is organized by alphabetical order, which is so much more than the 26 letters that make up the alphabet. Alphabetical order is an organizing principle that allows us to save, order, and access thousands of years of humankind’s most precious documents and ideas. Without it, we’d never know what came before us or how to pass on what’s with us. It’s ubiquitous, yet invisible in daily life. This hour, a conversation about how we order our world and why we do it. GUESTS: Nicholson Baker: A novelist and essayist; his most recent book is Finding a Likeness: How I Got Somewhat Better at Art Judith Flanders: Author of A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order Peter Sokolowski: Editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster 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 January 21, 2021.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 Bridgeport’s socialist former mayor, Sneaky Pete and our show on psychics, the possible link between double jointedness and neurodivergence, the state of streaming, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ appearance on The Ezra Klein Show … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Harry’s Theme (Lite Pullman) – Vulfmon, Harry Whitford Bedlam – Elvis Costello Take Me Dancing – Doja Cat, SZA Three Little Words – Samara Joy Township Medley – Themba Mkhize, SWR Big Band 香港之夜 – Teresa Teng Chilly Winds Don’t Blow (Bolden. Remix) – Nina Simone, Bolden. You can now watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or 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, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The singer and songwriter Nick Drake died in 1974. He was just 26, and he remains a bit of a mystery. He recorded three albums but played very few shows. There is no known film or video footage of him. But his music is maybe more popular now than it’s ever been. It shows up on movie soundtracks, in TV shows, in commercials. And then there’s Nick Drake’s mother, Molly Drake. It turns out she was an accomplished (and possibly ultimately important?) singer and songwriter, too. But she never released any music or performed publicly in her lifetime, as far as we know. This hour, a look at the music (and mystery) of Nick (and Molly) Drake. GUESTS: Jim Chapdelaine: An Emmy-winning musician and a patient advocate for people with rare cancers Howard Fishman: A musician and composer and the author of To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse 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 Angie Martoccio: A senior music writer at Rolling Stone 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, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.