The Colin McEnroe Show

President Obama's lists of his favorite books, movies, and TV shows of 2019 are out. They include a number of titles that are showing up on proper critics' lists -- The Irishman, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Parasite, Unbelievable, Watchmen, etc. -- but there are some surprises too. At the same time, here are all the books President Trump recommended in 2019. One other movie that shows up on Obama's list is Greta Gerwig's new version of Little Women, which is being celebrated as "a cinematic achievement" and "a masterful, passionate, all-in kind of adaptation." Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: The Best (and Worst) Food Trends From the Past Decade The Absolute Best Way to Fry an Egg, According to 42 Tests A Serious Conversation With the Man Who Made Cats Wait, What Went Down Between John Boyega and Star Wars Fans on Twitter Last Night? The Game of Thrones Creators Just Departed From Their Upcoming Star Wars Trilogy Bumble dating app blocked Sharon Stone after users thought her profile was fake This Toilet Patent Makes Workers Uncomfortable Taking Long Bathroom Breaks KISS Frontman Gene Simmons' Cereal Hack Is Melting Down Social Media Adam Sandler is the uniter we need right now Has J.K. Rowling figured out a way to break our cancel culture? GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani - A music writer for the Red Hook Star Revue Cara McDonough - A freelance writer; you can read her blog at caramcduna.com Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer; she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The stereotypes around homeschooling have existed for decades. Since the modern homeschooling movement began in the late 20th century, those who favored this educational approach have largely been perceived as white, anti-establishment, radically Christian, and ultra-conservative. But while this description does apply to some, the trend lines tell a different story. In recent years, homeschooling has been increasingly adopted by an ever more culturally and ideologically diverse segment of the population.  This hour we speak with experts about the realities, controversies, and efficacy of homeschooling.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since 2014, we've gathered some of our heaviest hitters in the jazz world to talk about the year in jazz. From concept albums to masked musicians to tunes unlike anything you've ever heard, enjoy some great songs from this last crazy trip around the sun!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During this perineum week in-between Christmas and the New Year, we decided to take your calls.  We thought about a lot of asking you to weigh in on some disturbing and heavy topics. In the end, and by popular demand, we decided to keep it lighter. That doesn't mean you can't call with a concern that weighs heavy on your mind. We just thought you could use a break.  We'll get you started with one guest talking about goats and Christmas trees. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cats -- the new feature film based on the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and starring James Cordon, Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, and others -- opened last weekend and grossed $6.6 million in the U.S. It is the 19th-worst opening for any movie in very wide release in history. The 18 movies that opened to less money on a similar number of screens are mostly a bunch of stuff that you don't remember ever existed: Hoot, The Seeker: Dark Rising, Fun Size, Hardcore Henry, Keeping Up with the Joneses, The Wild Thornberrys Movie, etc. Oh, and I forgot to say: In addition to being a financial disaster, Cats is also... terrible. It earned a C+ CinemaScore from audiences (which is really bad). And it's at 18% on the Tomatometer (which is really rotten). It's so bad that Universal released an updated version to theaters early this week that has hopefully slightly less bad special effects. Plus: This is the last Nose of 2019. (It's the last Nose of the 2010s, even!) And so we might just spend some time talking about our favorite stuff of the year -- movies, television, books, music, kitchen gadgets, barbershops -- whatever.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We wake up to coffee from a pod, listen to music on our pod devices, drive to work in our Smart cars, Fiats, or other increasingly pod-shaped vehicles, sit all day in a cubicle (pod), relax after work in a hip, new float pod, wash our clothes using detergent pods, and while we wait for them to dry, we listen to our favorite podcast. Sound about right? What is it about pods that we're so drawn to? And why do an increasing number of our products and services all feature the word pod in their name? Is it possible the pod's slick, liminal aesthetic, or the allure of its Pandorian promise holds some sway over our subconscious? Might Freud have something to say about its curvature, or its role in nature as a place of transformation, emergence, and ultimately independence? Perhaps it's the pod's minimalism and symmetry which appeal to us as we negotiate an increasingly chaotic world. Or is it simply an efficient design suited to meet the needs of our busy lives? This hour, we speak with experts and discuss the mystery of the pod in consumer- and pop-culture. We'll also look back over recent history and explore the possibility that we are, and always have been, pod-people! GUESTS: Blanka Domagalska - Lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design teaching courses on product Design, with expertise in art history, media and cultural theory, philosophy and aesthetic liminality Elvina Beck - Co-founder and CEO of Podshare, a membership based real estate startup designed to allow low cost pod living in major cities Kotaro Aoki: Former philosophy major at Wesleyan University and self professed pod napper Jim Knipfel - Novelist and author of a series of critically acclaimed memoirs including Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, and Ruining It for Everybody; he also authored the longrunning "Slackjaw" column which appeared in several publications Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Don't miss -- for what might just be the seventh year we've done this (though it might also be some other number too) -- a very badly planned Christmas Eve special featuring chaos muppet and music legend "Big Al" Anderson, the great Jim Chapdelaine, and State Troubadour Nekita Waller! GUESTS: "Big Al" Anderson - Award-winning guitarist, singer, and songwriter known for his work in the band NRBQ, among a ton of other stuff Jim Chapdelaine - Emmy Award-winning musician, producer, composer, and recording engineer; patient advocate for people with rare cancers Nekita Waller - Connecticut's 17th State Troubadour Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Eugene Amatruda and Betsy Kaplan contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christianity Today, an evangelical Christian publication founded by Billy Graham in 1956, published an editorial Thursday by editor-in-chief Mark Galli, calling for President Trump to be removed from office.  This might sound shocking to the large number of evangelicals who steadfastly support the president despite behavior that has been at odds with Christian morality.  The response to the editorial was swift and divided, causing Christianity Today's website to crash shortly after Galli's editorial was published. Will Galli's words make a difference? Also this hour: Mayor Pete Buttigieg accused Elizabeth Warren of holding him to a purity test that she could not pass after she criticized him at Thursday's Democratic debate for holding a private fundraiser in a Silicon Valley wine cave. We look at the origins and use of the phrase "purity test."   Lastly, the darker underbelly of the origins of Christmas. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been over 100 years since the first cartoons were drawn by hand. Since then, the genre has delved into everything from sex and drugs to racial inequality and war crimes. Even the tamest, G-rated cartoons have often found ways of slipping in adult humor past the eyes of younger viewers. Cartoons have been the vehicle for government propaganda, social change, and political satire. Some have been boycotted and even banned for their content while others have been deemed masterpieces and praised by critics for their bold message and style. Today, cartoons continue to find ways of subverting the status quo in surprising (sometimes shocking) new ways. This hour, we speak with animators, animation experts, and historians about what makes cartoons so well suited for the exploration of, well, everything.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When this forum was originally scheduled, it was intended as a conversation about how our language is changing. Example, the idiom "woke" or "#woke" has a very keen set of meanings to one group and flies by another. I still want to do a little of that, but it’s also possibly more important to talk about the battle over basic meaning in the public square. I think it can be argued that: (a) some phrases are being accorded an almost incantatory power (e.g. the long-running debate over whether or when Obama would use the phrase “radical Islam”),(b) some words are used to define the political landscape despite the fact that they themselves elude definition (e.g. the way the word “elites” was used in 2016),(c) there’s a whole pile of isms – fascism, nativism, nationalism, exceptionalism , even terrorism – that currently pepper our national discourse without a common consensual understanding,(d) it seems at least possible that the events of the last two years have been grinding away like termites at the substructure of American language so that a phrase like "what’s happening last night in Sweden" – in addition to being out of tense – is no longer held to any particular meaning/standard and can be translated by its utterer into "what I saw last night on television about things that have been transpiring over a period of time in Sweden."Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.