The Colin McEnroe Show

At a news briefing last week, President Trump refused to commit to a peaceful transition. Now, we're all talking about it. Atlantic writer Barton Gellman, gamed out worst case scenarios, the  military discussed how they would deal with his refusal, and Republican colleagues pushed back on his comments. Has anyone told the President that it's not his choice?  Today, we talk about presidential dysfunction, Amy Coney Barrett and the Supreme Court, and Tuesday's presidential debate. Also this hour: Matt Lieberman is running as a Democrat for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia. He's currently positioned to be the spoiler that could hand the race to the Republicans. This, in a state where Black Americans suffer higher levels of voter disenfranchisement, maternal death, and poverty. Did I mention he's the son of former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman? GUESTS: Molly Jong Fast is editor-at-large for The Daily Beast and co-host of the podcast “The New Abnormal.” She’s the author of two novels, Normal Girl and The Social Climber's Handbook, and a memoir, Girl [Maladjusted]. (@mollyjongfast) Anjali Enjeti is an award-winning Atlanta-based journalist. Her essay collection about activism and debut novel will be published in the spring of 2021. She is the co-founder of the Georgia chapter of They See Blue, an organization for South Asian Democrats. (@anjalienjeti) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen live Friday at 1 p.m. The Nose has been contemplating covering the controversy around the The Ellen DeGeneres Show literally for months now. The show returned with a new season of new episodes this week, and Ellen addressed allegations of a toxic work environment in her monologue. And: The CBC series Schitt's Creek has been endorsed on any number of Noses over the years, but we've never actually covered it. But then, after it won literally ever Emmy in the comedy category on Sunday (a feat no show has ever before achieved), we decided that this week had to be the week. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Randall Kenan, Southern Writer of Magical Realism, Dies at 57His upbringing in North Carolina helped him create a fictional hamlet, Tims Creek, where a 3-year-old clairvoyant scares the neighbors and a pig talks. Michael Lonsdale, 'Day of the Jackal' Star & James Bond Villain Hugo Drax, Dies at 89 Jackie Stallone Sylvester's Mom Dead At 98 Michael Chapman, 'Taxi Driver' and 'Raging Bull' Cinematographer, Dies at 84 Ron Cobb, Designer of the 'Alien' Ship and the 'Back to the Future' DeLorean, Dies at 83 Tommy DeVito, a founding member of The Four Seasons, dies from Covid-19 complications Winston Groom, Author of 'Forrest Gump,' Dies at 77He wrote the 1986 novel that inspired the Oscar-winning film starring Tom Hanks. Another book was a finalist for a Pulitzer. RBG and the empty triumph of liberal pop culture "This Is the Best Part I've Ever Had": Chris Rock Talks 'Fargo,' Aging and Why He's Spending 7 Hours a Week in Therapy Someday Our Kids Will Not Believe Us About Any of This Oklahoma woman tells cops 'I have to poop so bad' before high-speed chase MTA board to formally ban pooping in subways and buses The Most Underrated Movies of 2020 (So Far) Don't sleep on these overlooked gems.After 7 weeks on the lam, the latest on 'Buddy the Beefalo' CDC's Halloween Guidelines Warn Against Typical Trick-Or-Treating Too much candy: Man dies from eating bags of black licorice BTS Fans Are Donating to Public Radio StationsThe day after the K-pop group performed a Tiny Desk concert, its fans are sharing screenshots of their donations. 'Lord of the Rings' TV Crew Size Is So 'Mind-Blowing' It's Someone's Job to Study How Dust MovesMorfydd Clark takes on the role of young Galadriel and says of the show, "I don't think things could get much bigger than this." The Metropolitan Opera Won't Reopen for Another YearThe nation's largest performing arts organization, shut by the coronavirus pandemic, sends a chilling signal that American cultural life is still far from resuming. Nobody wants to bone Luigi The Problem With Calling Tenet a Flop I'm an On-Set 'COVID Person,' Whatever That MeansAs production resumes amid the pandemic, a new role is causing confusion and consternation. The Weirdest Thing About the Pandemic Emmys Was How Normal They FeltCOVID jokes and a few moments of protest aside, this was an awards show devoted to the idea that TV should make you feel good. We Talked to the Hot Firefighter About Debunking Conspiracy Theories, Viral Fame, and Thirsty DMs The Rise and Fall of the Quaker Rice Cake, America's One-Time Favorite Health SnackWhere did they come from and where did they go? Ranch NationHow one creamy, peppery salad dressing became America's favorite flavor. GUESTS: Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer; she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Mercy Quaye - Founder and principal consultant for The Narrative Project and a columnist with Hearst Connecticut Media Group 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.

One of the few silver linings of the pandemic has been a resurgence of interest in motels and RV life from a diverse group of millennials who want safe and less expensive options to travel and work during a pandemic. And motels and RV companies are trying to meet the demand with upgrades and amenities like flat-screen TVs, memory-foam mattresses, and free Wi-Fi. Some are turning to RV life permanently to travel, live, and work from where they want instead of being tethered to a desk and real estate. The pandemic has shown us that millennials who have never known the security of stable jobs or home ownership feel more "at home" outside traditional places. The existential nature of the pandemic has made many of us think about what's important to each of us, how we spend our time, and who we want to spend it with. And the freedom of the open road sounds like a pretty good way to start figuring those questions out. GUESTS: Foram Mehta - A journalist, editor, and content developer; her personal essays, op-eds, and articles have appeared in HuffPost, The New York Times, and The Bold Italic, among others Alex Temblador - A novelist and freelance writer who focuses on diversity and inclusion in travel, arts, and culture; she's the author of Secrets of the Casa Rosada Arunan Arulampalam - The deputy commissioner at the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Liza Butler Arulampalam - Co-lead pastor of the Riverfront Community Church 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.

Kurt Andersen's last book, Fantasyland, looks at America's "centuries-old weakness for the untrue and irrational, and its spontaneous and dangerous flowering since the 1960s" and how it got us where we are today. His new book, Evil Geniuses, is a kind of sequel, a companion. It's a parallel history, really, that looks more closely at "the quite deliberate reengineering of our economy and society since the 1960s." This hour, public radio great Kurt Andersen on "the unmaking of America." GUEST: Kurt Andersen - Co-founded Spy magazine and he was the host and co-creator of Studio 360; his newest book is Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America -- A Recent History Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bill Murray has starred in some of our favorite movies of the last few decades: Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Scrooged, What About Bob?, Groundhog Day, Ed Wood, Space Jam, Lost in Translation, all the Wes Anderson films, and so many more. He doesn't like managers or agents, and, rumor has it, he once agreed to play Garfield because he thought it was a Coen brothers film. (It wasn't.) And now, Bill Murray is 70 (!) years old. This hour, we talk with Robert Schnakenberg, author of The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor, to find out what makes the famed comedian unique. We also hear some favorite Bill Murray stories from local celebrities and members of Sea Tea Improv. GUEST: Robert Schnakenberg - Author of The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World's Finest Actor Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Betsy Kaplan, Jonathan McNicol, Julia Pistell, Dan Schulz, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired December 14, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday evening, breaking the hearts of generations of women -- and men -- who have benefited from her work guaranteeing our rights to equal treatment under the law. That same evening, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that a Trump nominee to replace Ginsburg would receive a vote on the floor of the Senate. By Saturday, President Trump was claiming he had an "obligation" to replace her, "without delay." The loss is larger than either man could understand. We talk about the political ramifications of her death and what it might mean for the upcoming election. We also continue our weekly check-in with an epidemiologist to help us make sense of news on the pandemic. GUESTS: Richard Blumenthal is the senior U.S. senator from Connecticut Kate Grabowski is an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University; she leads researchers at the Novel Coronavirus Research Compendium 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.

Kim Kardashian and other celebrities "froze" their Facebook and Instagram accounts for one day this week "to protest the spread of hate speech and misinformation on those platforms." Meanwhile, Kardashian's husband had the strange sort of week that we've maybe grown to expect from him, but seemingly with more public peeing in it than we're maybe used to. And: Cuties (Mignonnes in the original French) is the feature film debut of Senegalese-French writer and director Maïmouna Doucouré. The movie's release on Netflix has been controversial, to say the least. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: New promenade at West Hartford park to be named after Parks & Rec character Leslie Knope Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its CloudsThe detection of a gas in the planet's atmosphere could turn scientists' gaze to a planet long overlooked in the search for extraterrestrial life. His Girl Friday redefined the screwball comedy at 240 words per minute John Boyega Drops Jo Malone Ambassador Title After Brand Removes 'Star Wars' Actor From China Ad 'Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' mansion is added to Airbnb -- for just $30 Jason Momoa Slams Warner Bros. Amid 'Justice League' Investigation: 'This S--- Has to Stop' Movie Theaters That Opened For Tenet Are Now Worse Off Than BeforeThings aren't looking too good for the movie theaters that are currently open, even with the release of Christopher Nolan's Tenet. Ethan Hawke Directing Documentary About Paul Newman And Joanne Woodward CBS All Access to Rebrand as Paramount Plus Early Next Year'Godfather'-inspired drama 'The Offer' and reboot of 'The Game' among new original series in works Stanley Crouch, combative writer, intellectual and authority on jazz, dies at 74 'Colourful, vibrant, sensual!' Stars on Jimi Hendrix, 50 years goneIn awe of everything from his raunchiness to his skill with sheer volume, members of Pixies, Yes, Parliament-Funkadelic, Thin Lizzy and more celebrate the guitar god, who died 50 years ago today 'I Don’t Want to Be an Oracle.' Baseball Writer Roger Angell at 100.Talking extra innings -- and a milestone birthday -- with the celebrated chronicler of the summer game 7 movies to celebrate Bill Murray's 70th birthday Bus passenger uses live snake as a face mask GUESTS: Theresa Cramer - A writer and the editor of E Content Magazine Rich Hollant - Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford 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.

We produced our first show on masks in the spring of 2020. It was when most of us were isolated at home to sidestep the life-threatening illness we've come to call "COVID." The show was about how rapidly masks had become a statement of political identity. The intensity of the mask battles has begun to calm as we've acclimated to the pervasiveness of masks in our lives. Like them or not, they're here to stay, and they've begun to leave a lasting imprint on our culture. This hour, we take a longer view of how these objects that cover half of our faces have changed the way we perceive ourselves and interact with others -- and what they might look like in the future. GUESTS: Kim Adrian is the author of Sock, The 27th Letter of the Alphabet, and, most recently, Dear Knausgaard Henry Alford is a humorist, journalist, and author; his most recent book is And Then We Danced: A Voyage Into the Groove Mollie Ruben is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maine Elizabeth Segran is a senior staff writer at Fast Company and the author of The Rocket Years: How Your Twenties Launch the Rest of Your Life 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.

Bob Woodward is 77 years old. He's in his 50th year at The Washington Post. And he just yesterday published his 20th book. Rage is Woodward's second book about the Trump presidency. Two years ago, on the day after the first one came out, we did a show about it. So we've gotten that band mostly back together again, and we've spent the last 30 or so hours cramming. This hour, a look at Rage as a chronicling of our current history and as a publishing phenomenon. GUESTS: David Adams - Reviews editor at Publishers Weekly Susan Campbell - A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author, most recently, of Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood Jacques Lamarre - A playwright and the director of client services at Buzz Engine 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.

Black Americans are more likely to be infected from COVID-19, be incarcerated, live in poverty, and/or be killed by the police than white Americans. It took a pandemic and the killing of George Floyd to crystallize those facts. Historian and New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb looks at race, policing, and the difficulty of holding police departments accountable in Frontline's "Policing the Police 2020," a documentary that will air on CPTV on Tuesday, Sept. 15. It follows Cobb's 2016 Frontline, "Policing the Police." On another front: Trump administration officials have been interfering since (at least) August with the data that are included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports." These reports are used to help doctors and researchers understand how COVID-19 is spreading and who is at risk. Up to now, scientists wrote the reports without political interference. This is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to censor information intended to protect us. GUESTS: Jennifer Nuzzo is a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering and the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; she is the lead epidemiologist for the Johns Hopkins Testing Insights Initiative (@JenniferNuzzo) Jelani Cobb is a staff writer at The New Yorker and a professor of journalism in Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism; his most recent book is The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (@jelani9) 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.