The Colin McEnroe Show

No one likes a cloudy sky. A cloud on the horizon is seen as a harbinger of doom. We feel like clouds need to have silver linings. But here's our thesis: Clouds are unfairly maligned. Consider this: From almost any vantage point (literally — any vantage point in the universe), clouds are planet Earth's defining characteristic. They're what changes, what moves. They're what's going on on our pale blue dot. Clouds are, after all, the vehicle that spreads the sun's energy across the planet, an "expression of the atmosphere's moods." This hour, an appreciation of clouds. GUESTS: Gavin Pretor-Pinney - Founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society, author of The Cloudspotter's Guide and The Cloud Collector's Handbook David Romps - Assistant professor of Earth & Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley; runs The Romps Group, which studies clouds and climate Karolina Sobecka - An interdisciplinary artist and designer whose work has focused repeatedly on clouds Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Betsy Kaplan contributed to this show, which originally aired on July 6, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No Country for Old Men. Fargo. The Big Lebowski. Raising Arizona. Barton Fink. Miller's Crossing. Blood Simple. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. Over the past 36 years, Joel and Ethan Coen have reliably been among the most recognizable voices in moviemaking. This hour: a Noseish look at the work of the Coen brothers. GUESTS: Tom Breen - Film critic and the host of WNHH radio's Deep Focus Skip Lievsay - Sound editor, mixer, and designer for film and television; he won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing for Gravity, and he's done the sound on every Coen brothers picture Adam Nayman - The author of The Coen Brothers: This Book Really Ties the Films Together Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Betsy Kaplan contributed to this show, which originally aired November 21, 2018.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It took two years for the word AIDS to get from coinage to dictionary. It took COVID-19 thirty-four days. The pandemic has inspired a thousand new or repurposed words, slang, nicknames, and neologisms. It has changed the way we speak.   We made technical medical language part of everyday conversation. We created new words to describe  emotions that had no words. We repurposed old words or combined two words to express a way of life we never expected. Lockdowns. WFH. Pancession. Doomscrolling. We made phrases to unite us, others to make us laugh, and some to explain our confusion. Workers became essential and advertisers made them heroes.    Do you speak Corona? GUESTS: Peter Sokolowski is a lexicographer and editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster; he's also a musician and public radio jazz host at NEPR, and he's the author of a chapter in The Whole World in a Book (@PeterSokowski)  Tony Horne is a linguist, lexicographer, and a language consultant in the faculty of Arts and Humanities, at King’s College, London (@tonythorne007)  Justin Peters is a correspondent for Slate and the author of  The Idealist: Aaron Swartz and the Rise of Free Culture on the Internet (@justintrevett) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leagues are working in earnest toward starting back up. The NBA has a plan. Major League Baseball can't seem to work one out. Major League Soccer might beat them both back onto the field. How is this all going to work? What are sports going to look like when they start playing games again? Should they start playing games again? Plus: One of the ways we've dealt with a sportsless world these last few months -- betting on esports. And, in case you didn't know there were multiple crises on at once: a look at sports in the time of protest. GUESTS: Marc Carig - Senior writer for The Athletic, where he covers Major League Baseball Ben Cohen - Sports reporter for The Wall Street Journal and the author of The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks Seth Schiesel A freelance writer for The New York Times and Protocol Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A group of health officials gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss infectious disease learn that forty-seven people at an internment camp in Indonesia have died from acute hemorrhagic fever. This is how Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright, begins his new novel that in many ways, predicts the pandemic we're currently experiencing. He joins us to talk about it.  Before we get to the fiction of pandemic, we speak with an epidemiologist about the reality of our current pandemic.  GUESTS:  Michael Mina is an assistant professor of epidemiology and faculty member at the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (@michaelmina_lab) Lawrence Wright is an author, screenwriter, playwright, and a staff writer for The New Yorker. His book, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2007. His most recent book is The End of October, a novel about a pandemic. (@lawrence_wright) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've all seen any number of emails and Tweets and Facebook posts this week from companies supporting protests and the like. Entertainment industry firms have jumped on that bandwagon too, but The Washington Post's Alyssa Rosenberg has a different idea about how those particular players might be able to help: by shutting down all the police movies and TV shows. And: Comedian Sarah Cooper has found an elegant, perhaps surprisingly effective way to lampoon the president. She just lip syncs to his own words. And finally: The Vast of Night is the feature film debut of writer and director Andrew Patterson. He financed its $700,000 budget himself, and after its premiere at last year's Slamdance Film Festival, Amazon acquired it. The Twilight Zone-style sci-fi mystery debuted on Amazon Prime last weekend. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Christo, Artist Who Wrapped and Festooned on an Epic Scale, Dies at 84Mountains, museums, bridges and Central Park were just some of what he used to make astonishing and popular art with his wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude. Bruce Jay Friedman, 90, Author With a Darkly Comic Worldview, DiesAn unusual case in American letters, he moved easily between literature and pop culture, including movies like "Stir Crazy" and "Splash," to great acclaim. The Remaking of Steve BuscemiSteve Buscemi has seen it all. He was hit by a car and a bus as a kid, was once stabbed in a bar fight, volunteered as a firefighter during 9/11, and somewhere along the way became one of the most accomplished film actors of his generation. And then tragedy struck: In 2019, Buscemi lost his wife of over 30 years. In a rare interview, Hollywood's most beloved misfit opens up about anxiety, loss, and the hard work of getting through it all. Why Your Local Comics Shop Matters Now More Than Ever Feeling Lucky at 90: The Clint Eastwood Passion ProjectOne of Hollywood's most enduring icons enters his 10th decade on the planet this week. After more than 50 films, 38 directed by the man himself, what's left to say about Clint Eastwood? Two fans look at old favorites and a few less heralded works to paint a picture of sustained, often unpredictable artistry. Necco Wafers make their triumphant return 2 years after the factory that made them closed its doors HBO's 'Watchmen' Was Ahead of its Time -- By 9 Months 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 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 2007, journalist Alan Weisman published The World Without Us. It was an international bestseller. The book tries to answer what is ultimately a simple question: What happens to the Earth if human beings disappear? Here's how Weisman puts it in the book: "Say a Homo sapiens-specific virus -- natural or diabolically nano-engineered -- picks us off but leaves everything else intact." Then what? And over these last few months, we've gotten maybe a fraction of a percentage point there. Temporarily. Maybe not directly because of coronavirus, but indirectly because of our absence and scarceness due to stay-at-home orders and the like. And so... then what? Well, goats "took over" a town in Wales. Wild boar "invaded" a town near Barcelona. Salamanders "own the road" in Maine. And the air got cleaner and the night sky got clearer. And so it follows: Now what? GUESTS: Beth Gardiner - Author of Choked: Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution Brandon Keim - A freelance journalist specializing in animals, nature, and science Alan Weisman - The author of six books including The World Without Us 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.

When did the horrors that once seemed unthinkable become commonplace? We're in the throes of a global pandemic. People protesting a police officer who kept his knee on a black man's neck for over eight minutes, two minutes beyond when he lost consciousness, were tear gassed to make room for a photo op for President Trump. But relax. Nothing is wrong, or at least that's what we're told by a president who thinks this is a wonderful time to be alive. There is no climate change (even though we'll soon see water where there once was land). The pandemic will go away any minute now. There'll be a wonderful vaccine soon (different from all the others I pan). In the meantime, we can take a very (un)safe drug that works miracles if we get infected. The underlying economy is great (except for the 40 million currently unemployed), and I'm the most stable of geniuses. GUEST: Alexandra Petri - Columnist for The Washington Post; her new book is Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why: Essays (@petridishes) 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.

Something different is happening in America at this moment. Do you feel it? We want to hear from you. Call us during our live show Tuesday, from 1 to 2 p.m., at 888-720-9677 or 888-720-WNPR. People across America are protesting the same police brutality against black Americans that never seems to stop. America has suffered more deaths from COVID-19 than any other nation, and we still don't have a federal plan to deal with it, despite the efforts of health care workers and scientists. President Trump had threatened to deploy the military if the state officials he first felt the need to denigrate couldn't control the looting in their locales. He proceeded to order the police to use tear gas and flash grenades to disperse peaceful protesters so that he could pose in front of a burned church with a Bible in his hand. Let's not forget the President's efforts to disenfranchise the same voters he's gassing by trying to prevent them from voting in November. Are we finally at a turning point where we can no longer tolerate the lies and cruelty of the last three years? GUEST: Lawrence Douglas - Author of Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Electoral Meltdown in 2020 Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Catie Talarski contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The pandemic has laid bare how racism in housing, education, employment, and access to health care, disproportionately hurts Black Americans more than White Americans and leads to police brutality against people the police are supposed to protect. The country is reacting against both the trauma and rage from sustained racism and frustration over a pandemic we can't control. Will the outcry finally lead to lasting change or will we focus on "riots" instead of the underlying problem? Most states have begun to reopen and many Americans shed their masks and social distancing and their concerns about the virus. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security. The virus hasn't gone away and there's no evidence that warm weather will make it disappear. GUESTS: Alan Dove is a science journalist with a Ph.D in microbiology, a podcaster, blogger, and a co-host of the podcast "This Week in Virology" (@alandove) Marcus Thompson II is a lead columnist at The Athletic and the author of the biography Golden: The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry (@ThompsonScribe) Danielle Kilgo is an assistant professor of journalism in The Media School at Indiana University. She focuses on media coverage of social justice issues and protests. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.