The Colin McEnroe Show

Rust is all around us. It's in our cars, our homes, our infrastructure. It's also the subject of Jonathan Waldman's book Rust: The Longest War, which introduces us to the people who fight it. This hour, Waldman joins us, and we hear from a visual artist who has found a way to incorporate rust into her work. GUESTS: Esther Solondz - A Rhode Island-based visual artist Jonathan Waldman - Author of Rust: The Longest War Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired March 25, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Radiation is everywhere. It's emitted by our sun, by cat litter, by bananas, and occasionally by nuclear bombs. It's even emitted by you and by me and by every living (and dead) person in the world. So why are we so scared of something so prevalent in our everyday lives? While certain types of radiation can be very harmful in high doses, our fears may have more to do with how radiation is portrayed than it does with the actual danger of exposure. This hour, we talk with experts about the benefits, risks, and oftentimes misguided fears of radiation. GUESTS: Francis Cucinotta - Professor for the department of health physics and diagnostic sciences at the University of Nevada Tim J. Jorgenson - Author of Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation David Ropeik - Author of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don't Match The Facts Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired November 21, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fire imagery abounds in music, literature, art, and scripture. It thrives at the center of ceremony and ritual around the world. We associate fire with sentiments of passion, anger, transformation, purity, and even evil itself. Some say our fascination with fire is owed to the fact that, of all creatures, we alone possess the ability to create and control it. They say at its center, fire burns hottest. So stand back and listen close, for this hour, we journey straight to its core. It's one heck of a hot topic, and we're guessing it'll spark your interest. GUESTS: Steve Pyne - Author of Moved by Fire: History's Promethean Moment and Fire: A Brief History Eric Rabkin - Professor emeritus of English language and literature and of art & design at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Gary Snyder - Poet Christian Tryon - Assistant professor of anthropology at Harvard Charles Wright - The 50th Poet Laureate of the United States Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired January 14, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's a special, Juneteenth (observed)-observing, Thursday edition of The Nose. First: The lack of Afro-Latinx actors in the movie version of In the Heights has caused some controversy. Lin-Manuel Miranda has apologized. And: High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America is a four-part docuseries hosted by Stephen Satterfield. All four episodes hit Netflix on May 26. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Congress Has Made Juneteenth A National Holiday. Just Don't Talk About The Legacy Of Slavery.As conservatives seek to ban critical race theory from schools, many Black Americans wonder if children will fully understand the new holiday marking the end of slavery. Ned Beatty, titanic character actor of 'Network,' dies at 83 Opinion: Tom Hanks Is A Non-Racist. It's Time For Him To Be Anti-Racist James Corden Is Facing Backlash For His "Spill Your Guts" Segment"It's blatant racism." How 'WandaVision,' 'The Umbrella Academy,' 'Harley Quinn' Subvert the Superhero Genre Tina Fey Looks Back at Problematic '90s Trends During 'Girls5Eva' Tribeca Panel: 'We All Cosigned That?' The Girl Scouts Have Unsold Cookies Left. 15 Million Boxes! How Working From Home Has Changed EmployeesThey are used to far greater independence. And they may value personal time more. Bosses better be ready to adapt. An Oral History Of 'Freddy Got Fingered,' Tom Green's Glorious Broadside Against The Fame Industry That Made Him Cristiano Ronaldo snub sees Coca-Cola market value fall by $4bn 'The Cable Guy' Turns 25: How Jim Carrey’s $20 Million Salary Shook Up Hollywood A David Bowie Painting That Sold For $4 At A Thrift Store Is Now Up For Auction Robert Altman's 20 best films -- ranked!From The Long Goodbye to Short Cuts, Altman's innovative movies have influenced a generation of film-makers. With the re-release of Nashville and a BFI tribute, we rank the work of one of America’s greatest directors GUESTS: Rand Richards Cooper - A fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and the restaurant critic for the Hartford Courant Shawn Murray - A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We don't do grief very well in this country. We don't talk about, we get uncomfortable around it, and in some mind-twisting way, we hope grief will leave us alone if we pretend it doesn't exist. But that's not how grief works. Even professionals trained in grief tend to pathologize it when the grieving don't 'get over it' or 'recover ' from it fast enough.  Today, a hard look at what is grief, including how to survive it and how we can all better support those who are living in it. GUESTS: Nelba Marquez-Greene is the Director for Community Advancement at Central CT State University, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and the founder of the Ana Grace Project. (@Nelba_MG) Megan Devine is a psychotherapist, writer, and grief advocate. She’s the founder of Refuge in Grief and the author of It’s OK That You’re Not Okay: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand and most recently, How To Carry What Can’t Be Fixed @refugeingrief Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Betsy Kaplan has been producing episodes of The Colin McEnroe Show for a decade. Today is her last day. (Ostensibly, anyway. She's producing our show next Monday, which isn't really how last days are supposed to work. But it's very much how Betsy Kaplan works.) The Nose is crestfallen. And: In the Heights is the big (and/or small) screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's multiple Tony Award-winning musical. It is directed by Jon M. Chu and stars Anthony Ramos. It debuted in theaters and on HBOMax on Thursday. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Those Descriptions on the Inside of Book Covers Are Full of ItThey've become meaningless mush -- but they don't have to be. Bogus Social Media Outrage Is Making Authors Change Lines in Their Books NowThe silly idea that a fictional character's statements reflect an author's actual beliefs is spreading. 'Raiders of the Lost Ark': Why the "Indy Doesn't Matter" Criticism Needs to Be Put in the GroundHere's what an often-cited "plot hole" completely misunderstands about storytelling. Actress Karen Allen addresses her character's underage relationship with Indiana Jones: 'I don't think of him as a pedophile' Grown-ups, it's okay to love pop culture for kids. Stop being embarrassed about it. Chris Harrison Is Officially Out As Host Of The "Bachelor" FranchiseDeadline reported that Harrison, who hosted the franchise for nearly two decades, will receive an eight-figure payout. Dove Cameron Just Got So Real About Coming Out, And We Need To Talk About ItWe stan a bi queen! GUESTS: Carmen Baskauf - Produces Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio Lydia Brown - Managing producer of Vermont Public Radio's Vermont Edition John Dankosky - Host The CT Mirror's Steady Habits podcast, and he is news and special projects editor for Science Friday Robyn Doyon-Aitken - Senior producer for Seasoned on Connecticut Public Taneisha Duggan - Artistic producer at TheaterWorks Jacques Lamarre - A playwright, and director of client services at Buzz Engine Jonathan McNicol - Hasn't quit his job producing The Colin McEnroe Show Ali Oshinskie - A corps member with Report for America covering the Naugatuck River Valley for Connecticut Public Patrick Skahill - A reporter at Connecticut Public Radio, and he was the founding producer of The Colin McEnroe Show Chion Wolf - Hosts Audacious with Chion Wolf on Connecticut Public Radio Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many people are reassessing how they view their work after a year of Covid. The pandemic magnified everything we don’t like about modern work - too many hours for too little pay in the context of a loosely woven national safety net. Some people are switching jobs, others are dropping out of the workforce entirely. The reasons why people are leaving work vary, but it gets to a bigger societal question that asks what kind of work we value and how that value is rewarded. Jobs no longer provide the economic security, pension and room for advancement that helped build the middle class after World War II. And we all learned this past year that the workers who were "essential" during the pandemic have historically been undervalued.   Today, are we getting what we need from work? GUESTS: Katie Heaney is a senior writer at "The Cut" and the author of several books including the her YA novels Girl Crushed and the forthcoming The Year I Stopped Trying  Erin Cech is an assistant professor of Sociology and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan. Her new book, The Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality will be published in October.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've done this show every year since 2013. We almost certainly didn't do it 2012. But we did in 2011. And there's good circumstantial evidence that we did it in 2010 too, but no actual record of that possibly inaugural episode survives. Point is: Our song of the summer show is a bit of a tradition. It's a tradition that... makes some people angry, we realize. It's a tradition that we're not sure has ever made anyone happy. And that all has to do with how we define the term. We use the Amanda Dobbins definition: Let's be clear about how this works: There is no such thing as a 'personal' song of summer. We do not anoint multiple songs of summer. There can only be one; the Song of Summer, by its very definition, is a consensus choice. It is the song that wrecks wedding dance floors. It is the song that you and your mother begrudgingly agree on (even though your mom has no idea what rhymes with 'hug me' and won't stop yelling it in public). It does not necessarily have to hit No. 1 on the charts, but it should probably be on the charts because it must be widely played. It must bring people together. It must be a shared enthusiasm. And so, our job here is to try to predict a thing that you and your mom will agree on like three months from now. Try not to get too annoyed with us. GUESTS: Abby Govindan - A standup comedian based in New York CitySam Hadelman - Host of The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn and the editor-in-chief of Cut/Break MagazineBrendan Jay Sullivan - A writer, producer, and DJ best known for his work with Lady GagaSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everybody loves a bulldozer. In fact, we all grew up loving bulldozers, didn't we? From Benny the Bulldozer to Katy and her big snow, from all the Tonka toys to all the die cast model Caterpillars, the bulldozer is more of an icon in American popular culture than we maybe realize. But the first scholarly "biography of the bulldozer" argues that there's a darker side to the demolition and clearance that gives these big machines purpose. And then, maybe there is a certain violence inherent here too. This hour, the history of bulldozing, the future of bulldozers, and a look at heavy construction equipment as adventure destination. GUESTS: Francesca Russell Ammon - Author of Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape Jason Anetsburger - Project manager for Komatsu America's Intelligent Machine Control line of bulldozers and excavators Kate McMullan - Children's book author and executive producer of the animated television series The Stinky and Dirty Show Randy Stenger - Founder and CEO of Extreme Sandbox Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Alex Ingberg, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired April 21, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nat Love was born a slave, but died a free cowboy and a legend of the Old West. After the Civil War freed Love from slavery, he walked to Dodge City, Kansas, and got a job breaking horses - after he could prove that he could rope a bucking horse, climb on its back without a saddle, and ride him without falling off. He got the job. Thus began Nat's life as a cowboy. We don't typically include Black cowboys as part of the American story of the West,  even though one in four American cowboys are Black. Black cowboys are as American as baseball.  GUESTS: Zaron Burnett III is an investigative reporter and longform feature writer for MEL Magazine. He’s the host and creator of the iHeartRadio podcast “Black Cowboys” (@zaron3)  Patricia Kelly is U.S. Marine Corp Vietnam-era veteran, an African-American cowgirl, and the founder of Ebony Horsewomen. She was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2015. (@ebonyhorsewomen) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.