The Colin McEnroe Show

Eddington is the fourth feature film written and directed by Ari Aster. It’s a neo-Western comedy set in the fictional and titular New Mexico town during May, 2020. Eddington was nominated for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and it’s one of three Pedro Pascal movies that are currently in the top 20 at the domestic box office. And: Sunday Best is a new Netflix documentary directed by, and in memory of, the late journalist, musician, and filmmaker Sacha Jenkins. It’s about the cultural importance of The Ed Sullivan Show and Sullivan’s “legacy of equality.” GUESTS: RS Benedict: A writer and bureaucrat whose fiction and non-fiction has been published in the New Haven Review, Fangoria, Current Affairs, and a bunch of other places Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmballpodcast 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. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Monsters are our subconscious perversions, our twisted fears realized, but what causes their creation, and how are they made? This hour, we look at fantastical creatures, terrifying beasts, and the scariest monsters of all: humans. GUESTS: Natalie Lawrence: Historian of science and the author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meanings Surekha Davies: Historian of science, speaker, and monster consultant for radio, tv, and film. She writes a newsletter called “Strange and Wondrous: Notes from a Science Historian,” and is the author of books including Humans: A Monstrous History Margery Cuyler: Author of 62 children’s books including Monster Mess, Bonaparte Falls Apart, Skeleton Hiccups, and the forthcoming Stompie the Zombie Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Headache symptoms can strike sufferers without warning, disabling them for even days at a time. There have been nearly 4,000 years of documented headache disorders — and virtually everyone has had headaches — yet their underlying neurological cause is still unknown. This hour, a look at the long history of headaches and the current science around and treatments for headaches. Plus: headaches in our literature and popular culture. GUESTS: Kathleen O’Shea: The editor of So Much More Than a Headache: Understanding Migraine Through Literature Tom Zeller Jr.: The author of The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Condition and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Undark 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.

They're in the books we read, the shows we watch, and the art we hang on our walls. They conjure notions of might, magic, romance, and more. Castles, perhaps as much as any other architectural structure in history, define the landscape of our fantasy and imagination. But is our imagination an accurate lens through which to view these fortresses of ol'? And why, after hundreds of years, does our culture's fascination with these structures seem to be on the rise? This hour, we speak with experts and enthusiasts about the reality and mystique of castles. GUESTS: Marc Morris: Medieval historian and author of books including Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain Victor Lodato: Playwright, poet, and novelist whose books include Edgar and Lucy Edward Town: Assistant Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art Brent Bruns II: - Star of the hit National Geographic reality TV show "Doomsday Castle" 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 Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on May 18, 2017.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. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we're doing another one.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests — on any number of topics. His book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History, is a whole series of earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions (and posited answers to said earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions): What if a blimp full of money had exploded over world track headquarters in 1952? What if Nixon had been good at football? What if Bobby Fischer had received proper psychiatric help? What if the Dodgers hadn’t left Brooklyn? What if basketball rims were smaller than basketballs? What if the 1999 U.S. women’s national soccer team had lost the Women’s World Cup? And yes: What if the Olympics had never dropped tug of war? It goes on and on. Pesca joins us for the hour. GUESTS: Will Leitch: Contributing editor at New York magazine, founder of Deadspin, and a whole bunch of other things Mike Pesca: Host of The Gist and the author of Upon Further Review Louisa Thomas: Staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams 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 June 7, 2018. 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.

How does reality television shape our politics and our opinions? This hour two reality TV scholars join us to discuss how reality TV helps us understand (or sometimes misunderstand) actual reality. GUESTS: Danielle Lindemann: Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University and a Visiting Professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. She is also the author of the book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us. Eunji Kim: Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Faculty Affiliate at the Data Science Institute. Her new book is The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dating back to Homer and Hesiod, artists have been calling on muses for inspiration. This hour, we look at the mythology of the muses, real-life muses, and what they can all teach us about creativity. GUESTS: Alison Habens: Novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and lecturer and Programme Lead at the University of Portsmouth Francine Prose: Author of many books, including The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women and the Artists They Inspired. She is also Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College Brendan O'Connell: American painter Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nobody likes termites. They get into the wood in our homes and can lead to infuriating and expensive repairs. What’s to like? It turns out, there’s a lot to like about termites. Scientists study how they build their mounds for clues to solving some of the world’s most pressing problems, like mitigating the effects of drought, building colonies on Mars, and creating biofuels. Plus, their ability to adapt to the harshest conditions over millions of years says a lot about them. Almost 90% of the microbes found in their guts are unique to the termite. Those same gut microbes are what make them so productive and, on the flip side, so destructive. Lastly, some believe termites work with joy and have a soul. You be the judge. GUESTS: Jennifer Dacey: An entomologist and a wildlife biologist and integrated pest management technician in the UConn Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture Lisa Margonelli: Author of Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology Mick Pearce: An architect 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 Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show, which originally aired August 29, 2018. 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.

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 thunderstorms and lightning, squirrels, the band (and word) Enigma, trains … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. 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, Coco Cooley, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Megan Fitzgerald, Isaac Moss, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.