

The Colin McEnroe Show
Connecticut Public Radio
The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 30, 2025 • 50min
A look back at more than 200 years of Frankenstein (and his monster)
 There are few monsters more iconic or enduring than Frankenstein’s. From Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel to the 1931 Universal monster movie to Guillermo del Toro’s current adaptation to next year’s Bride of Frankenstein remake, Frankenstein continues to resonate with fans around the world. This hour, a look at what exactly it is that makes Frankenstein such a lasting, terrifying work of fiction. Plus: a look at the so-called “re-animator of Bridgeport.” GUESTS:  Michael Bielawa: A historian and poet and the author of several books, including Wicked New Haven and Wicked Bridgeport Sidney Perkowitz: Co-editor of Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon — The Science and Enduring Allure of Mary Shelley’s Creation Eddy Von Mueller: Co-editor of Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon — The Science and Enduring Allure of Mary Shelley’s Creation  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, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired October 31, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 29, 2025 • 49min
Mysteries, hoaxes, and magic: Decoding mystifying manuscripts
 This podcast features Garry J. Shaw, an author and journalist focusing on mysterious manuscripts, Lisa Fagin Davis, a renowned manuscript expert, and David Weinberg, a podcast producer. They dive into the enigmatic Voynich Manuscript, discussing its und deciphered nature and the risks it poses to academic careers. Lisa shares her paleographic insights into the manuscript's multiple scribes, while Garry introduces the intriguing Rohonci Codex. Together, they explore wild theories, historical cryptic texts, and the captivating allure of deciphering ancient mysteries. 

Oct 28, 2025 • 50min
The road to sainthood: Who’s on it and how did they get there?
 This hour, a look at the path to sainthood and how it’s changed over time. Plus: the local example of the Rev. Michael McGivney. GUESTS:   Teresa Berger: Professor of Liturgical Studies and Catholic Theology at Yale Divinity School   Joseph Laycock: Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Texas State University and author of The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism   Rachel McCleary: Lecturer in the Economics Department at Harvard University and a nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute   James Sullivan: Rector of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury   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, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe, Sara Gasparotto, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired March 31, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 27, 2025 • 49min
All Calls: Not everyone involved in this episode went to the bathroom beforehand
 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’re doing another one. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour about whatever you want to talk about. 888-720-9677. Plus, now you can watch our calls shows YouTube! Come say (nice) things to us in the comments! Just search for Connecticut Public. MUSIC FEATURED (in order):  Lester Leaps In – Live from Emmet’s Place (Finale) Depressed – Ann-Marie, Lauren Spencer Swift Um Brinde – Djavan When The Lights Go Out – Sarah Jarosz Crutch – Yazmin Lacey On Your Side (Starman) – Lindsay Lou American Tune – Shawn Colvin Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 24, 2025 • 50min
The Nose looks at ‘Mr. Scorsese’ and ‘No Other Land’
 Guest host comedian Shawn Murray returns! This week’s Nose looks at: Mr. Scorsese is a five-part, more-than-four-hour documentary series about the life and work of the director of Goodfellas and Taxi Driver and The Departed (and many more). It’s directed by Rebecca Miller and streaming on Apple TV. And: No Other Land won this year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It covers the destruction of a Palestinian community in the West Bank, and it’s directed by a collective of four Palestinian-Israeli activists. No Other Land premiered at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, more than 20 months ago, and it has just become widely available to see in this part of the world basically for the first time this week. GUESTS:  James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Lindsay Lee Wallace: A writer and journalist covering culture, health, technology, bats, and anything else people will answer her questions about Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University  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. Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 23, 2025 • 50min
A tribute to the proud and peaceful pigeon
 B. F. Skinner thought pigeons were so smart they could be used to guide missiles during World War II. He proposed a system in which pigeons would essentially pilot a missile. Skinner said pigeons could be trained to peck at a screen to adjust the trajectory of the missile toward its target. Project Pigeon was funded but never used. In 2013, New York conceptual artist Duke Reilly trained half his flock of pigeons to carry contraband cigars from Cuba to Florida and the other half to carry tiny video cameras documenting the smuggling flight of their comrades. Another group of researchers trained pigeons to reliably distinguish between the paintings of Picasso and Monet, even if they had never seen a particular painting before. This hour, everything you ever wanted to know about pigeons but were afraid to ask. GUESTS:  Yoni Applebaum: A social and cultural historian Andrew Blechman: Author of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird Wanda Corn: The Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in the department of art and art history at Stanford University Patrick Skahill: Connecticut Public’s assistant director of news and talk shows  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, Tess Aaronson, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired November 12, 2013.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 22, 2025 • 49min
The ‘father of history’ would have some thoughts about our present
 Greek writer Herodotus "invented" history by turning away from myth to a new kind of writing. And although he wrote his Histories nearly 2,500 years ago, local author and classicist Emily Katz Anhalt argues that his example and prose are more relevant than ever. This hour, we look at what we can learn from Herodotus and the ancient Greek myths. GUEST:   Emily Katz Anhalt: Professor of Classics at Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of Enraged: Why Violent Times Need Ancient Greek Myths and Embattled: How Ancient Greek Myths Empower Us to Resist Tyranny. Her new book is Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times: Why Humanity Needs Herodotus, the Man Who Invented History  MUSIC FEATURED (in order):  Thracian Gaia – Daemonia Nymphe Road to Hell (live) – Original Cast of Hadestown Dance of the Satyrs – Daemonia Nymphe Greek to Me – Dugger Band Hymn to Bacchus – Daemonia Nymphe History Has Its Eyes On You – Hamilton Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 21, 2025 • 49min
From hot mics to mic drops, a celebration of the microphone
 The microphone makes everything we do on the radio possible. This hour we celebrate the invention and look at the role of microphones in music. Plus hot mics, mic drops, and more. GUESTS:    Susan Rogers: Multi-platinum record producer, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Berklee College of Music and co-author of the book This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You   Azi Paybarah: Politics Reporter for The Washington Post   Forrest Wickman: Slate's culture editor   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, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe, Angelica Gajewski, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on March 25, 2025.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Oct 20, 2025 • 49min
All Calls: Trump’s AI video is so Skibidi Toilet
 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 “No Kings” protests, Star Wars merchandise, the labor market, Gilmore Girls, yacht rock … 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):  Dazzling - Casiopea And Love Goes On - Earth, Wind, & Fire REAL THING - DRUGDEALER ft. WEYES BLOOD Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise - The Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra with Veronica Swift Going Out Of My Head - Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66 Living - Dominique Adams Concerto in E Minor, Op. 11 (Chopin) - Tianyao Lyu, final round of Chopin Competition  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. 

Oct 17, 2025 • 59min
It can be an art, too: On murder and more in Hitchcock’s close quarters
 Rope is an interesting movie in Alfred Hitchcock’s œuvre. It’s his first color picture. It’s one of 13 movies he made based on plays, and it’s one of four movies he made that are set basically entirely in single locations (along with Lifeboat, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window). But of the four single-location pictures, Rope is the only one that Hitchcock made to really seem like a filmed play. It unfolds in real-time, in one room, in long, continuous shots that are edited together in ways that are meant to hide most of the cuts. As Hartford Stage’s new adaptation of the play Rope is based on opens, we present a conversation taped on their stage, in front of an audience, about Alfred Hitchcock, his movies in general, and Rope, the movie and the play, in particular. Note: This podcast version of the show is more than eight minutes longer than the episode as it’s airing on the radio. GUESTS:  Illeana Douglas: The Official Movie Star of The Colin McEnroe Show and the author of Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia Sidney Gottlieb: Professor of communication and media studies at Sacred Heart University and the editor of The Hitchcock Annual Jeffrey Hatcher: A playwright and screenwriter; he wrote the adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope that’s currently in production at Hartford Stage  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. Thanks to Lucas Clopton and Jennifer Levine at Hartford Stage. Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 


