The Colin McEnroe Show

The U.S. is about to surpass 500,000 deaths from COVID-19. That said, new cases are declining, hospitalizations and deaths are trending down, and vaccination rates are picking up, though inequities remain. We talk vaccines, variants, messaging, and more. Also this hour: A new study finds that House members who hold extreme views receive far more airtime on cable and broadcast news than their moderate counterparts. Changes in the media have incentivized elected officials such as Marjorie Taylor Greene to build a national brand at the expense of legislating for their local constituents. Last, welcome to Elizabeth Ann, a baby black-footed ferret cloned from Willa, who died more than 30 years ago. GUESTS: Leana Wen - An emergency room physician and visiting professor at George Washington University School of Public Health; she's a contributing columnist at The Washington Post and a medical analyst for CNN Joshua Darr - An assistant professor of political communication at Louisiana State University; his book is Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization co-authored with Matthew P. Hitt and Johanna L. Dunaway Ben Novak - A de-extinction biologist and the lead scientist at Revive and Restore; he leads The Great Passenger Pigeon Comeback 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.

In a new essay for Harper's, filmmaker Martin Scorsese criticizes the current state of the movie business and all these new fangled streaming platforms and their algorithms. "We can’t depend on the movie business, such as it is, to take care of cinema," Scorsese says. And: Judas and the Black Messiah is a biopic of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton. It is director Shaka King's studio feature film debut, and it's nominated for two Golden Globe Awards. It is one of two movies nominated for Golden Globes this year that portray Hampton (along with The Trial of the Chicago 7). Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: If you use this emoji, Gen Z will call you old The First "Cruella" Trailer Is Here, And The Internet Already Has A Ton Of ThoughtsIs this Disney's Joker??? Failing Britney SpearsIt shouldn't have taken ten years to realize the discourse about her had been a hurtful, unhealthy constant. Buffy Deserves Better Than Joss WhedonHe wasn't the only person who made Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he shouldn't be the one to take it down. Taylor Swift Misses the Old Taylor Swift, TooThe artist's first release from her re-recording project is much more than a nostalgia play. It's a love letter. Hockey Has a Gigantic-Goalie ProblemNever before in the NHL's history has the tail so wagged the dog. Why Is Everyone Talking About Clubhouse?The new social media app is tapping into the public's desperate need to connect -- and it's becoming a flashpoint in the culture wars So, you’ve been subtweeted by Turner Classic Movies. What do you do next? 'Paddington 3' Officially in the Works The Story of the DuckTales Theme, History's Catchiest Single Minute of MusicA woo-hoo heard around the world. 'You can smell the sweat and hair gel': the best nightclub scenes from cultureWriters and artists including Róisín Murphy, Tiffany Calver and Sigala on the art that transports them to the dancefloor during lockdown I have an important pop culture theoryYou will now read it and share it with others online as you see fit GUESTS: Taneisha Duggan - Artistic producer at TheaterWorks Lucy Gellman - Editor of The Arts Paper and host of WNHH radio's Kitchen Sync 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.

Cartoonist Bill Griffith based his legendary character Zippy the Pinhead on Schlitzie, a real life sideshow 'pinhead' who appeared in Todd Browning's 1932 film Freaks. Early audiences were appalled by Browning's use of real sideshow characters to seek revenge on those who treated them cruelly. Griffith's graphic novel is his effort to understand Schlitzie and the sideshow family who cared for him. We talk to Griffith and a member of Schlitzie's sideshow family. Also this hour: the man who saved thousands of premature infants by exhibiting them in incubators at the Coney Island sideshow. GUESTS: Bill Griffith - Creator of the syndicated daily comic strip Zippy and author of two graphic memoirs, including, Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead Wolf Krakowski - Yiddish singer whose CDs are on Tzadik Records; Wolf has videotaped testimonies of Holocaust survivors for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Claire Prentice - Freelance journalist, editor, and writer; She's the author of two non-fiction books, including Miracle at Coney Island: How a Sideshow Doctor Saved Thousands of Babies and Transformed American Medicine Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show, which originally aired May 2, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We live in an "Everything Should Take Twenty Minutes" world. Movies are too long. SundanceTV has a show that airs in 10-minute episodes. Tierra Whack has a 15-minute album made of fifteen 60-second songs. Todd Rundgren's memoir has 183 one-page, three-paragraph chapters. So today, we turn our hour over to five short, little shows about short, little things. Here's a Spotify playlist of the albums reviewed on today's short, little episode of The Sam Hadelman Show. GUESTS: Carmen Baskauf - Produces Where We Live on Connecticut Public Radio Taneisha Duggan - Artistic producer at TheaterWorks Sam Hadelman - Host of The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Brandy Jensen - An advice columnist and editor at The Outline Jacques Lamarre - A playwright, and director of client services at Buzz Engine Vince Mancini - Senior film and culture writer for Uproxx Chion Wolf - Host of Audacious with Chion Wolf on Connecticut Public Radio Bill Yousman - Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Matt Farley contributed to this show, which originally aired July 18, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Senate voted to aquit Donald Trump Saturday after falling shy of the two-thirds majority required to convict him. Fifty-seven senators, including seven Republicans, voted to convict him for "incitement of insurrection" and 43 Republicans voted to acquit Trump for a variety of reasons.  Reliving the January 6 insurrection during last week's Senate impeachment trial has left many of us sorting through a gamut of emotions along with a lack of closure on the last four years. 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.

As of Monday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are still working out the details for the Senate impeachment trial scheduled to begin this Tuesday, February 9. Forty-five senators say it's not constitutional. Conservative lawyer Charles Cooper says it is. We talk to Connecticut U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal on impeachment, intelligence, and more.  Also this hour: Fox News has been scared into silencing popular commentator Lou Dobbs, after Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News over election fraud claims made on their shows. Fox News Media hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro were named, along with lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Will it take a massive lawsuit to force them to confront the lies and harm perpetuated on their broadcasts? Lastly, a quick look at the tone of this weekend's Super Bowl ads.  GUESTS: Richard Blumenthal is a US senator from Connecticut David Folkenflik is NPR’s media correspondent and the author of Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires  Melinda Fakuade is a fellow for The Goods by Vox, covering culture and entertainment Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

WandaVision is a Disney+ miniseries that's part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that's set, like, inside the history of television? It follows Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision as they try to conceal their superhero powers and blend into a generic sitcom neighborhood. Episodes so far have taken on the look and feel of American sitcoms from the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Hal Holbrook, Actor Who Channeled Mark Twain, Is Dead at 95He carved out a substantial career in television and film but achieved the widest acclaim with his one-man stage show, playing Twain for more than six decades. Dustin Diamond, 'Saved by the Bell' star, dead at 44 Jamie Tarses, Pioneering Television Executive, Dies at 56 Tony Bennett Reveals Alzheimer's Battle Golden Globes 2021: A Full List of NomineesHere are the films, television shows, actors and directors chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Ella Emhoff Isn't a Nontraditional Model!Please stop praising her for having armpit hair and tattoos. Evan Rachel Wood Alleged Her Ex-Fiancé Marilyn Manson "Horrifically Abused" And "Manipulated" Her"He started grooming me when I was a teenager and horrifically abused me for years. I was brainwashed and manipulated into submission." Of course the GameStop stock market frenzy is already being turned into a movie Steven Spielberg Writes For Empire About Why Cinema Will Never Die The Wayne's World Super Bowl Ad Is Even More Depressing Than That Wonder Years TweetThe Generation X staple vanishes a little more each year Even Jodie Foster Is Still Trying to Figure Jodie Foster Out Six arrested after changing Hollywood sign to 'Hollyboob' Outlander star Sam Heughan hints he will be next James Bond on Instagram post The Accidental Sex Couch Tearing Facebook Mom Groups Apart Sarah Silverman just wants to make things rightThe potty-mouthed comic isn't done talking trash, but it's no longer her first instinct, or her job. GUESTS: Taneisha Duggan - Artistic producer at TheaterWorks 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.

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.

We have a complicated relationship with our food. We need food to live; yet, we've become removed from the food we eat and how it's grown and processed.  Even with the best of intentions, today's ultra-processed foods make it hard for us to know exactly what we're eating or how the methods used to mass produce our food are affecting our environment and our health. And I haven't even touched on how food has led to war, famine, poverty, and enslavement.     Today, we talk about the history of agriculture, where it went wrong, and how we might begin to cultivate food that is kinder to our bodies, our earth, and our fellow humans.   GUEST:  Mark Bittman is the author of 30 books, most recently, Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food From Sustainable To Suicidal. He was a food columnist and writer at the New York Times for 30 years. He’s currently Special Advisor on Food Policy at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Colin interviewed Hal Holbrook on February 3, 2015, in advance of Holbrook's performance of Mark Twain Tonight in Hartford on his 90th birthday on February 17, 2015. Colin wrote at the time that Holbrook was one of the most remarkable people he's encountered of all the remarkable people he's interviewed over the years. Holbrook was so passionate and fun to speak with that Colin never got to ask him all the many questions about the love of his life, his difficult childhood, or his time spent at Suffield Academy. He hoped for a second interview. Holbrook died on January 23. This hour, we reair our 2015 interview with him. GUEST: Hal Holbrook was an American film, television, and stage actor famous for his portrayal of Mark Twain in the solo show he created, Mark Twain Tonight, for which he won a Tony Award. His movies include All the President's Men, Lincoln, and Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for an Oscar in 2008. He won five Primetime Emmy Awards, and he's the subject of a documentary by Scott Teems and Laura D. Smith, Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show, which originally aired February 4, 2015. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.