The Colin McEnroe Show

In early 2017, The New York Times uncovered a program at the Defense Department which investigated unidentified flying objects. Then, at the end of May, the reporters published another article, getting navy pilots to talk on the record about their encounters with unidentified flying objects.  In November 2018, the chair of Harvard's Astronomy Department, Avi Loeb, co-wrote a paper about an interestellar object, 'Oumuamua, writing, "Alternatively, a more exotic scenario is that 'Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization." What does this all mean? And does it matter that these aknowledgements are coming from a paper like The New York Times, or a scientist from Harvard?  This hour, we'll talk to Leslie Kean and Avi Loeb about their research, and we'll hear from people who have believed in extraterrestrial life all along about what it's like to see this news. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We want to hear your thoughts on what it's like to be "living in a Trump salad," on this all-call Monday. (Colin coined the term.) First, there's #sharpiegate. Last week, President Trump unleashed on the media for reporting his error tweeting  a warning about Hurricane Dorian that included the state of Alabama. To prevent mass evacuation, the National Weather Service corrected his error. Alabama was not in danger.  It led to his doctoring of a weather map with a black Sharpie, and two government agencies and a FOX senior White House correspondent backing the president's misinformation. Mocking memes under the hashtag #sharpiegate rose in response to the president's efforts to alter the truth.  His volatility also led to an impetuous decision to break off peace talks with the Taliban, and questionable U.S. Air Force expenditures at an airport that benefits a Trump property in Scotland. Last week, Vice-President Pence stayed at a Trump hotel while on a taxpayer-funded trip to Ireland. It would be funny if these incidents didn't serve to further normalize the president's war on truth, the media, and his ability to divert the country's attention away from trade wars, talk of pending recession and other important news.  What are we to make of all of this? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's hard to believe, but The Matrix is 20 years old this year. And its influence is all over the culture with bullet time and red pills and the "woah" meme and so much more. We take the question of whether we're living in a simulation much more seriously than we did 20 years ago. We're much more attuned to the allegory for the trans experience that The Matrix might well have been. And with John Wick 3 released this spring, Toy Story 4 out this summer, Cyberpunk 2077 out next year, and Bill & Ted 3 just finalizing production, the Keanussance is upon us.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we've started our second decade on the air. Over the first ten years, we did some number north of 2,000 shows. And every one of those shows was intended, more or less, to be about some... thing. Towels or Trump or toast or television or whatever. This hour we do the opposite thing: a show not about a specific something -- tapirs. Note: Today's show features Chion Wolf's performance of "Let's Not Talk About Tapirs," with lyrics by Colin McEnroe and music by Chion Wolf. Also note: We're idiots. Don't let the fact that we're idiots prevent you from finding tapirs as fascinating as we actually do. If you're able, you might consider supporting the Tapir Specialist Group, which "strives to conserve biological diversity by stimulating, developing, and executing practical programs to study, save, restore, and manage the four species of tapir and their remaining habitats in Central and South America and Southeast Asia." GUESTS: Carmen Baskauf - A producer for Where We Live; occasional host of The Carmen Baskauf Show on WNPR Kimberly Hyde - A keeper at the San Diego Zoo; she handles the zoo's tapirs in its Elephant Odyssey habitat Betsy Kaplan - The Colin McEnroe Show's senior producer Jonathan McNicol - the producer of this very episode of The Colin McEnroe Show Carlos Mejia - WNPR's digital producer Mike Pesca - Host of The Gist Josh Nilaya - Producer, The Colin McEnroe Show Susan Piver - Meditation teacher, speaker, and long-time Buddhist practitioner Patrick Skahill - WNPR's science reporter; producer emeritus of The Colin McEnroe Show Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The American criminal justice system has become less 'just' over recent decades and prosecutors bear much of the responsibility. The tough-on-crime culture of the 1980's and 90's shifted power away from judges and juries and toward prosecutors who embraced their new power to wield mandatory sentencing laws to rack up the convictions demanded by the constituents who elected them.  The problem is they never let go of that power or the culture that rewards it, even as crime rates have plummeted to historic lows that are almost 50% below their peak in the 1990's. They continue use sentencing to extract plea bargains from almost 95% of the people who come before them, even without evidence of guilt. Some impose draconian bail and probation conditions monitored by for-profit companies that extract a premium.  Others run modern day debtors' prisons, jailing people for misdemeanor crimes like shoplifting because they can't afford bail.   Yet, there's cause for hope. A new breed of DA's are using prison as a last resort, focusing instead on "diversion" programs that offer a second chance instead of long prison sentences that research shows make worse criminals.   Is it time to rethink who belongs in prison? GUESTS:  Emily Bazelon - Staff writer at The New York Times Magazine, co-host of Slate’s "Political Gabfest," lecturer at Yale Law School, and the author of two books, most recently, Charged: The New Movement To Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration (@emilybazelon) Tony Messenger - Metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the 2019 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Commentary. (@tonymess) Samara Freemark - Reporter and senior producer of "In the Dark," an investigative podcast from APM Reports, a division of American Public Media. (@sfreemark) Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on May 22, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got no guests today. It's you and Colin and whatever is on your mind. There's a lot we could talk about. There's the 2020 election, why President Trump isn't sure what a Category 5 hurricane is, whether gun control measures beyond the introduction of the death penalty will come from this weekend's shootings in Texas, both top seeds are out of the US Open, and why a Tennessee school wants to ban Harry Potter books.  But we're interested in what you want to talk about. It could be very different. To some degree, this is an experiment to see if we're focusing on what's really important to you. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sticks & Stones is Dave Chappelle's fifth standup comedy special for Netflix in three years. All four previous specials won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, and one of them won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special. The critical response to this latest special, though, has been a bit more muted. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (out this week on DVD/Blu-ray/iTunes/Amazon/etc.) tells the semi-autobiographical story of Jimmie Fails, a man just trying to get his grandfather's house back. It's Joe Talbot's directorial debut, and it's been called the best film of the first half of 2019. Also this hour: an AccuFrankie dispatch live from Nedstock.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last year, there was a movie about Charles Manson. This year, there was another movie about Charles Manson. Charles Manson is a character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and in the second season of David Fincher's Mindhunter. The Manson Family murders were fifty years ago this summer, and Manson still seems to fascinate us and our popular culture. This hour, we wonder why.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Klosterman is a man for all seasons. He's a pop culture icon. He's a sports geek. He's interviewed Jimmy Page. He appears as himself in other people's movies. He was part of a rock band. He's an author of fiction, non-fiction, and fictional nonfiction. Top that! Today, an hour with someone at least one person would call, the smartest man on earth. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Barbie Millicent Roberts -- yes, that's her name -- turns 60 we, as a plastic loving nation, celebrate! For six decades the impossibly proportioned fashion doll has been delighting children and adults around the world. But the road to 60 hasn't always been easy. Critiqued by feminists, diversity advocates, and even child psychologists for her role in perpetuating harmful sterotypes, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic syndrome among young women, Barbie may be just as controversial as she is iconic. In recent years, however, Mattel has made some long overdue changes. The new Barbies are more diverse in their career choices, body shapes, and ethnicities than ever before, and her new ad campaigns focus heavily on issues of women's empowerment and equality. But the question remains: Is it too little, too late for Mattel or are these changes enough to see Barbie into her seventies? We speak with expert guests about the good, the bad and the ugly side of Barbie, as well as about the doll's creator, Ruth Handler. And in case you were wondering, we may even get to Ken along the way!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.