The Colin McEnroe Show

Bob Dylan turns 80 years old on May 24. His first album, 1962's Bob Dylan, is in its 60th year on record store shelves. We're at a point where, for most of us, there has simply never been a popular culture in which Dylan wasn't a towering figure whose influence seems to touch, well, everything. This hour, a look at Bob Dylan at 80. GUESTS: Noah Baerman - A pianist, composer, and educator Fred Bals - Hosted the Dreamtime podcast, covering Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host, Bob Dylan Sean Latham - Director of the Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, editor of The World of Bob Dylan, and the writer and narrator of It Ain't Me You're Looking For: Bob Dylan at 80 Gayle Wald - Professor of American studies at George Washington University; her most recent book is It's Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television 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.

Using our private bathrooms while working from home opened our eyes to how uncomfortable it can be to use public bathrooms at the office - especially when you have a digestive issue. Also this hour: "Familect" are the invented nicknames, references, and jokes shared by people who live together. For example, my husband calls me "diller," because I remind him of the hard-headed armadillo that kept crashing into our tent on our honeymoon.  Lastly, the semiotics of unmasking.  GUESTS:  Angela Lashbrook is a health, tech, and books writer. Her work has appeared in OneZero, Refinery29, The Atlantic, Vice, Vox, The Outline, and other places.   Dr. Neil Parikh is a gastroenterologist for Hartford Healthcare and Connecticut GI   Kathryn Hymes is a computational linguist and the co-founder of Thorny Games, a game studio out of Washington DC Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of the Grammar Girl website and podcast. She’s the author of Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. Glynnis MacNicol is a writer and the author of No One Tells You This: A Memoir. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Cut, and the New York Daily News among others.  Emily Gardner Xu Hall is a musical theatre writer, composer and actor. Born in Tokyo and raised in London, she now lives in Harlem, New York City.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who's afraid of the Bix bad Beiderbecke? Hartford has an amazing jazz history, and Colin has a lot of jazz musician friends. This hour, a little onstage jazz party recorded in front of a live audience long before the pandemic put a pause on live audiences as a thing. Colin and the panel look to make jazz accessible to mere mortals. They talk about what makes jazz jazz, invite the audience to sing, and teach the audience to scat. GUESTS: Steve Davis - Trombone Atla DeChamplain - Vocals Matt DeChamplain - Piano Henry Lugo - Bass Jocelyn Pleasant - Drums Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. This show originally aired February 8, 2018.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been announced. Artists like Foo Fighters, Jay-Z, Todd Rundgren, Tina Turner, LL Cool J, Kraftwerk, and Gil Scott-Heron got in. Folks like Iron Maiden, Chaka Kahn, Rage Against the Machine, Devo, and Dionne Warwick did not. And: Mare of Easttown is a seven-episode HBO limited series starring Kate Winslet. The fifth episode airs Sunday. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Norman Lloyd, Associate of Welles, Hitchcock and Others, Dies at 106He was seen in movies and on TV shows like "St. Elsewhere" and worked with some of the biggest names in show business, even though his own name was little known. 1980s siren Tawny Kitaen of music videos and 'Bachelor Party' dies at 59 Ellen DeGeneres to End Talk Show: "I Need Something New to Challenge Me"DeGeneres gets candid about her decision to wrap up the show in 2022, the allegations that nearly sent her packing and the parts that she'll miss most -- and least -- about her daily platform. NBC Will Not Air Golden Globes in 2022 Due To Ongoing HFPA Controversy Ummm, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck Were Spotted Hanging Out Together at a Resort in Montana Gen Z Is Bringing Emo Back, But This Time It's Not Just A Bunch Of White Dudes The Jean War between millennials and Gen Z cannot be won The Squandered Promise of Chet Hanks's White-Boy SummerPerhaps, in the end, we weren't nearly as ready for it as we might have wanted to be. Cinemark Signs Deals With 5 Major Hollywood Studios for Shorter Theatrical Windows STAR WARS Answers the Mystery of Luke's Missing Hand Reddit just realized that Jerry Seinfeld's TV apartment defies the laws of science Is rewatching old TV good for the soul? Andrew McCarthy Revisits the Brat PackIn a new memoir, the actor reflects on being typecast in his twenties, his struggles with addiction, and learning to like John Hughes movies. David Chase and The Sopranos writers break down 'Pine Barrens', 20 years onThe Sopranos creator and two of his closest collaborators, Terence Winter and Tim Van Patten, discuss the origin of 'Pine Barrens' -- the greatest TV episode of all time -- and why the glorious ambiguity that permeated the show keeps it relevant today The State of Baseball: Inside the biggest questions MLB is facing with the future of the sport at stake Gal Gadot Confirmed Reports That Joss Whedon "Threatened" Her While Shooting "Justice League""I handled it on the spot." Cut the intermission, please. Why I hope the pandemic ends a theatrical tradition Who Should John Mulaney Be Now? Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows GUESTS: Mercy Quaye - Founder and principal consultant for The Narrative Project and a columnist with Hearst Connecticut Media Group Brian Slattery - Arts editor for the New Haven Independent and a producer at WNHH radio Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Profanity used to be about someone swearing insincerely to God. Then the Reformation came along and made profanity about sex and the body.  Today, our most unspeakable words are slurs against other groups at a time when BLM, #MeToo, and cancel culture are driving our cultural narrative. We talk about the past, present, and future of profanity.  GUEST: John McWhorter teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history at Columbia University. He’s a contributing editor to The Atlantic and host of Slate’s Lexicon Valley podcast. His new book is Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2017, The New York Times uncovered a program at the Defense Department which investigated unidentified flying objects. This year, the former chair of Harvard's astronomy department published a book arguing that we may recently have been "visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star." This week, The New Yorker has a long piece on changing attitudes and fading taboos around UFOs. What does this all mean? Does it matter that these acknowledgements are coming from The New York Times, The New Yorker... the astronomy department at Harvard? Could it be that the concept of UFOs has finally escaped the crackpot fringe? GUESTS: Leslie Kean - An investigative journalist and the author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record Avi Loeb - Former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University and the author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond the Earth Mike Panicello - Mutual UFO Network CT state director Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Betsy Kaplan, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired June 6, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Semiotics is the study of sign process, which is to say: it's the science of the search for meaning. And then, part of the underlying premise of semiotics -- which just happens to be part of the underlying premise of The Colin McEnroe Show, itself -- is that there's meaning... everywhere. Why do people smoke cigarettes even though everyone knows they're terribly harmful? Why do women wear terribly uncomfortable high-heeled shoes? Could it simply be because those things are... interesting? This hour: a crash course in the study of meaning-making, in the science of semiotics. GUEST: Marcel Danesi - The author of Of Cigarettes, High Heels, and Other Interesting Things: An Introduction to Semiotics Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired September 6, 2018.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alex Trebek’s imprint as the host of "Jeopardy" looms large over the show, making it hard for anyone else to live up to the impeccable standard he demanded during his 37 seasons as the show's iconic host. But more than a dozen guest hosts have tried, from big winner Ken Jennings to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Who will the next host be and what will the next iteration look like? Also this hour: two-time Grammy Award winner Van Morrison is best known for the volumes of soulful love songs he's written over his five decade career. So, why did the 75-year-old musician release a 28-song album filled with paranoia, antisemitic rants, and grievance against well, just about everyone.   Lastly, people are showering less during the pandemic - and loving it!   GUESTS: Amanda Hess is a critic-at-large for the New York Times. She writes about the internet and culture. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, ESPN the Magazine, and Wired, among others. Louis Keene is a staff reporter at The Forward Maria Cramer is a breaking news reporter for The New York Times. She previously covered legal affairs for The Boston Globe Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Elon Musk will host tomorrow night's Saturday Night Live. It is, if nothing else, an odd choice. Speaking of choices, Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time is out this week. Finally, This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist is a four-part Netflix docuseries about the 1990 robbery of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The burglary was the largest museum heist in history in terms of value (thought to be as much as $600 million) until 2019. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Jeff Goldblum's a movie star, jazz pianist and an inescapable meme. What's behind his enduring appeal? On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British VogueThe pop star known for defying gender stereotypes got a glamour makeover with a corset. Not everyone is happy about it. Broadway Is Reopening. But Not Until September.Even as New York City begins to reopen this summer, Broadway will not resume performances until Sept. 14. Here's why. I'm Not Ready to PerformA great rock-and-roll show means openness, confrontation, and a kind of danger, and those ideas right now feel too heavy to lift. Jason Concepcion Is Still Working Through His Early-Pandemic Pasta Purchase"I've always had an affinity for the cuisine of the Italians" Eww, That's Gross. And We Like It That Way.Why the tasteless humor of "Bad Trip," starring Eric Andre, is a feat to be celebrated. Few can pull off transgression so skillfully. German Gymnasts Cover Their Legs In Stand Against Sexualization Prince's epic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" guitar solo has a new director's cut Ethan Hawke Waits for Godot, or for the Zoom Screen to UnfreezeAfter a rehearsal for a virtual production of the play, Hawke and his co-star John Leguizamo ponder how all dialogue now sounds like Beckett. Prancer, the 'demonic' Chihuahua who went viral, finds his forever homePrancer has adjusted to both his new life and his viral celebrity status quite well. Here Are The First Official Photos From HBO's "House Of The Dragon"The show will debut on HBO and on its streaming platform HBO Max in 2022. Heads Up! A Used Chinese Rocket Is Tumbling Back to Earth This Weekend.The chances of it hitting a populated area are small, but not zero. That has raised questions about how the country’s space program designs its missions. GUESTS: Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer, and she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University 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.

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 - Professor and chair of anthropology at the University of Miami and the author of Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures 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.