The Colin McEnroe Show

At 10 years old, M. Leona Godin began losing her vision. Her experience with sight and blindness is detailed in her new book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. In it she also explores blindness throughout literature, and through key figures and inventions throughout history. This hour, we’re joined by Godin to discuss "the vast, dappled regions between seeing and not-seeing, blindness and sight, darkness and light."  GUEST: M. Leona Godin - Author of There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John McPhee is a writer's writer. He's thought of as one of the progenitors of the New Journalism, of creative nonfiction or narrative nonfiction, along with people like Gay Talese and Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson. But his style is... quiter than those folks'. His writing is transparent. He tends to keep himself out of the narrative. He doesn't even, in fact, have an author photo. McPhee has written for The New Yorker since 1963, and he's taught writing at Princeton University since 1975. He is the author of 32 books, including Coming Into the Country, A Sense of Where You Are, Oranges, and Annals of the Former World, which won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. GUEST: John McPhee - Staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of 33 books; his latest are Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process and The Patch Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show, which originally aired September 28, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The impending doom of an asteroid (or comet or whatever) colliding with the Earth is the premise of any number of movies and books and such. But what would we really do to stop such a thing from happening, if we had to? One solution might be to try to nudge the asteroid off its collision course with us, and NASA is about to test a way to do just that. And: A few points about baseball's two-way phenom, Shohei Ohtani. He might be having the best season anyone's ever had, "it's almost inarguable that he's the most physically talented all-around athlete ever to play the game," and, also according to Ben Lindbergh, "if you can't get into Ohtani, maybe baseball isn't for you." But are we maybe not appreciating Ohtani enough? And finally: If I say "shark," you think of Jaws, right? But there are two major problems with the shark-as-villain stereotype. First, sharks are fascinating and awe-inspiring more than they're scary. And second, we need to be more afraid for sharks than afraid of them. GUESTS: Ben Lindbergh - Staff writer at The Ringer and co-host of Effectively Wild Melissa Cristina Márquez - A marine biologist and shark scientist Andrew Rivkin - A planetary astronomer and the DART Investigation Team Lead at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bo Burnham: Inside is a Netflix standup comedy concert play documentary thing written, shot, edited, directed, and performed by Bo Burnham. Burnham made it by himself, with no audience and no crew, during pandemic lockdowns. And: No Sudden Move is Steven Soderbergh's sixth movie in the four years since he returned from retirement, and his second for HBOMax. It's a neo-noir crime thriller set in 1950s Detroit, and it's got an all-star enemble cast: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Amy Seimetz, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, and more. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Bill Cosby's sex assault conviction overturned by court College Athletes May Earn Money From Their Fame, N.C.A.A. RulesHere's a breakdown of why the N.C.A.A. finally relented to pressure to allow athletes to make money beyond the cost of attending their universities. Does the Job of Talk-Show Sidekick Even Make Sense Anymore?Andy Richter reinvigorated the thankless, tired role, but now that "Conan" is going off the air, it's time to re-evaluate work that was often mired in stereotypes. Why 'Fast & Furious' Is Our Best -- And Worst -- Franchise F9 Makes Dom Toretto Canonically Tall The Life and Death of Pete Davidson's ChadDavidson and the creators of Saturday Night Live's monosyllabic icon chart his improbable rise and explosive fall. Bullshitting Is Actually a Sign of Intelligence, Study FindsThis is not BS. NPR's Joy Generator A Food Critic Reviews the Swedish Chef's New Restaurant What Gets Lost as Little Leagues Get SmallerTown leagues, unprofessionalized and open to all, knit neighborhoods together in ways that intensive and competitive travel teams do not. It's Not Easy Being GreenspeopleTransforming winter into spring or creating faux forests and fanciful estates is all in a day's work for these behind-the-scenes masters of foliage on movie and TV sets. When A City-Size Star Becomes A Black Hole's Lunch, The Universe Roils With gift from David Geffen, Yale's drama school goes tuition-free Elvis Costello dismisses claims Olivia Rodrigo plagiarized his music, saying that's rock and roll The Tin Man Gets His Heart: An Oral History of 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'Three decades ago, James Cameron, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton joined forces again to make the biggest, baddest, most eye-popping sequel ever. Here's the story of how the machines took over Hollywood. Judge Denies Britney Spears' Request To Have Her Father Removed From Conservatorship How Twitter can ruin a lifeIsabel Fall's sci-fi story "I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter" drew the ire of the internet. This is what happened next. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications, Marketing and Events Manager at the Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, and a freelance writer James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scrolling through online real estate listings, a practice known as "Zillow surfing," has become a popular pastime this past year. And it's not just for people who are actually looking to buy houses... It's also for snooping on the value of other people's homes, imagining different lives for yourself, or just finding unusual houses to make fun of and share with friends. This hour, a look at the appeal of Zillow surfing. GUESTS: Ariel Norling - Author of the "I Know A Spot" Newsletter Dana Bull - Realtor with Sagan Harborside Sotheby's International Realty, based in Massachusetts Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Thighmaster, the Chop-O-Matic, the George Foreman Grill, and the Clapper... products which are all part of American consumer culture and which were all introduced through infomercials. But as online shopping increases and traditional television watching decreases, are we beginning to see the end of these high-energy, late-night shows? What will become of iconic pitchmen like Ron Popeil, Tony Little, and Richard Simmons in an age where consumerism is changing by the day? This hour, we look back at some of the most memorable infomercials of all time and ask if they still have a place in our national media landscape. GUESTS: Kevin Harrington - The unofficial "King of Infomercials" and the author of Key Person of Influence: The Five-Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People in Your Industry Ron Popeil - Inventor and iconic infomercial pitchman Remy Stern - Author of But Wait… There's More! Tighten Your Abs, Make Millions, and Learn How the $100 Billion Infomercial Industry Sold Us Everything But the Kitchen Sink Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Lydia Brown, Ray Hardman, Greg Hill, Betsy Kaplan, Ross Levin, Jonathan McNicol, Stephanie Riefe, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired March 7, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dragons have captured our imagination going back to the Greek and Roman Empires when the skeletal bones of dinosaurs fed the myths we still believe today. And those myths show up in our most popular popular culture today -- in the Harry Potter books and movies, in Tolkien's Middle-earth books and movies, in George R. R. Martin's Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. This hour, a look at dragons from the ancients through Game of Thrones. GUESTS: Cressida Cowell - Author of the How to Train Your Dragon series Adrienne Mayor - Author of The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times and Fossil Legends of the First Americans ‌William O'Connor - Author and illustrator of the Dracopedia book trilogy Matthew Reilly - Author The Great Zoo of China, among many other novels Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, Chion Wolf, and Alan Yu contributed to this show, which originally aired June 4, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is there something rather than nothing? This has been described as perhaps the most sublime philosophical question of all. This our, we try to answer it. But as we do, we realize that it's not just a philosophical quandary; it's a scientific, cultural, and theological one as well. Indeed, to the extent that "nothing" is even understood, it is understood so differently across different domains that one person's nothing truly is another person's something. Confused? You're not alone. The concept has vexed, distressed, and seduced all manner of folk, from Aristotle to Einstein, and remains no less mysterious to today's brightest minds. GUESTS: Ronald Green - Author of Nothing Matters: A Book About Nothing Jim Holt - Author of Why Does The World Exist? An Existential Detective Story James Owen Weatherall - Author of Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired December 6, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March, Lou Ottens died in Duizel in the Netherlands. He was 94. I don't think I had ever heard of Ottens before, but the news of his death quickly filled my social media feeds. Ottens, you see, invented the compact cassette in the 1960s. There's a certain romance to the cassette tape, right? They're more fun than mp3s, for sure. And it turns out they're having a little mini resurgence right now. Last year, cassette sales hit their highest mark since 2003. Some old, hard to find tapes sell for crazy prices. Blank tapes still sell well. There are cassette-only record labels. There are even podcast episodes out on tape. This hour, a look at the long past and surprising present of the cassette tape. GUESTS: Joe Carlough - Runs This And That Tapes Lory Gil - A writer in the tech industry Sommer McCoy - Founder of The Mixtape Museum Zack Taylor - Director of Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired March 24, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From ancient scrolls to modern toner cartridges, ink (in one form or another) has been around for millennia. And while we may take it for granted now, for much of that time, it was a precious and coveted substance. Ink makers closely guarded their recipes; spy agencies developed secret, invisible ink formulations; and even now, billions are spent to create the perfect printer inks. This hour, we look back at the history of ink and ask whether its heyday might be coming to a close. GUESTS: Ted Bishop - Author of Ink: Culture, Wonder And Our Relationship With The Written Word Kristie Macrakis - Author of Prisoners, Lovers, & Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al Qaeda Kyle Wiens - Founder of iFixit Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired August 9, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.