The Colin McEnroe Show

You responded so enthusiastically to our all-call show last Monday, we decided to try it again this week. What's on your mind? The world is you oyster, at least from 1-2 pm this afternoon. Not sure what you want to talk about? Worried about the economy? Trump's 'loyalty' test for Jewish Democrats? Who's in and who's out of the next Democratic debate? No debate on climate change?  The president taking a toll on our national psyche? How about 29-year-old NFL star Andrew Luck retiring over health concerns?  These are suggestions. We're more interested in what you want to talk about. (We even had a proctologist call in last week to remind people to get their colonoscopy) And we're (still) excited about our new toll-free call-in number. So, give us a call at 888-720-WNPR. That's 888-720-9677.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nose has this odd habit of covering basically every new Taylor Swift single/video. And so there's a new Taylor Swift single/video. And so The Nose is covering it. And: As this is the way the world works now, a Facebook post has started a backlash against Frank Pepe Pizzeria over... politics. Sigh. And finally: In the great tradition of A Bug's Life/Antz, Deep Impact/Armageddon, and The Prestige/The Illusionist, this year gives us Yesterday/Blinded by the Light. This week's Nose has seen Blinded by the Light, a coming-of-age story about the music of Bruce Springsteen and a British-Pakistani teenager whose life is forever changed by it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there's one thing we know about the public radio audience, it's that you love... sports. You crave sports coverage. You live for sportstalk radio. And so this hour, we talk sports... on the radio. And there's plenty to talk about: There's the fallout over Jay-Z's new partnership with the NFL (and impending ownership within the NFL?). There's the hot take question, "Do running backs even matter?" There're all the interesting players in baseball right now: a trio of the best young players ever to play at the same time playing at the same time as one of the best two-way players ever to play playing at the same time as one of the best players, period, ever to play. Oh, and then there're all the baseball players apparently hopped up on gas-station sexual-enhancement pills. Like I said: plenty to talk about. GUESTS: Des Bieler - Sports reporter for The Washington Post Ben Lindbergh - Staff writer at The Ringer; his most recent book is The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players Erin Tarver - Associate professor of philosophy at Oxford College of Emory University and the author of The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity 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.

Today we speak with actor and human-rights activist George Takei, not about his role as Liutenant Sulu on the original Star Trek, but about a far more troubling chapter in his life. In his new graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, George writes in detail about his childhood spent in an internment camp for Japanese-American citizens. It's a vivid account of one of the darkest times in America’s history as well as a wake-up call to a country currently detaining tens of thousands of immigrants and their families.  Is there still time to learn from our past mistakes or have the politics of fear and division already caused us, as a nation, to repeat them?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracking, rewinding, ejecting, collecting - VHS broke ground in home entertainment like never before. The culture of VHS and its enormous best friend, the VCR, were kings of consumer media for decades. Despite the last VCR and VHS being manufactured just three years ago, videotapes are still consumed, collected, and in some cases, sold(!) across the country. But why? With streaming service giants like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and (soon) Disney, giving us on-demand content with the push of a button and with Blu-ray and 4K players displaying movies and TV shows at crystal clear resolutions, videotapes offer a simpler, analog experience that will just not go away. Today, a look inside the impact, history, and legacy of VHS. Plus, video stores! It was the place to get your VHS rental and consume the content you couldn’t get anywhere else. A look at life owning and working at a video store. Betsy Kaplan and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on May 16, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got no guests today. So much of the burden of making today's show any good at all rests with, well: you. We can talk about pretty much whatever you want. The economy. Plastic bags. Greenland. The Little League Classic. 2020. Or 2020. Or 2020. Or 2020. Oh! And we've got a brand new (and toll-free) call-in line that we're pretty excited about: 888-720-WNPR. That's 888-720-9677. Call in, today at 1:00 pm.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everything's canceled, more or less. The movie The Hunt was canceled before anybody got to see it. People talked about canceling the movie Adam before anybody got to see it. Sarah Silverman was canceled, from a movie anyway, for something she did -- on television -- 12 years ago. The OA was canceled, but people maybe don't believe that it was canceled? And we're apparently on a path toward canceling... the Dewey decimal system? And: Amazon Prime's new superhero series, The Boys, imagines a world where something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe is real... and something like the Marvel corporation exists too. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: The 25 Most Important Characters of the Past 25 Years What Is the Greatest Movie Quote of All Time? Gwyneth Paltrow excited to find out Samuel L. Jackson was also in all those Marvel movies she did J.D. Salinger, E-Book Holdout, Joins the Digital Revolution Lemon, a 30 Rock Spinoff Was So Close to Happening A Novel Concept: Silent Book Clubs Offer Introverts A Space To Socialize Marvel source claims X-Men character Wolverine will join Avengers in new MCU film Eating At A Pizza Hut Restaurant May Be A Thing of the Past AP: Women accuse opera legend Domingo of sexual harassment Taylor & Kanye: How two superstars, four words, and 15 seconds of TV influenced a decade of pop culture GUESTS: Lucy Gellman - Editor of The Arts Paper and host of WNHH radio's Kitchen Sync 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 contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare in the Park starts tonight in New Haven. Shakespeare & Company in the Berkshires has a new workshop production of Coriolanus opening next week. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens didn't think Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare's works. The BBC has a multi-camera, filmed-in-front-of-a-live-studio-audience Shakespeare sitcom. This hour: lots of little looks at this summer's best Shakespeare stuff. GUESTS: Allyn Burrows - Artistic director of Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, Mass. Benjamin Curns - Plays Dromio of Syracuse in Elm Shakespeare's production of The Comedy of Errors Tyler Foggatt - An editor of the Talk of the Town section of The New Yorker Rebecca Goodheart - Producing artistic director for Elm Shakespeare Company Tina Packer - Founding artistic director of Shakespeare and Company KP Powell - Plays Antipholus of Syracuse in Elm Shakespeare's production of The Comedy of Errors Rob Weinert-Kendt - An arts journalist and editor of American Theatre magazine 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 18th century Parisian cafe was an incubator for the liberal tradition as it was before liberalism became a politically-loaded and dirty word. The cafe brought people together to exchange ideas, talk, connect, argue, debate, and learn about humanity, empathy, and humility outside the control of the state; a place where civil society trumped tribal impulse.  We are a far more humane people today compared to what we've been, despite the astounding level of cruelty in the headlines every day. Laws still rule the day.  Yet, many question whether liberalism can survive the rise of nationalist leaders from Hungary to the United States and the illiberal ideas they promote; some 2020 presidential candidates are calling for revolution. Can the long history of the liberal tradition teach us something about this current moment?  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Populism is on the rise from Europe to India to the United States. Americans elected Donald Trump on his promise to "Drain the swamp" of a political elite no longer responsive to their needs. Populists almost took control of Germany, France, and the Netherlands in 2017. Former prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi regained power seven short years after being ousted from office for corruption.  In America, tension between popular will and the ruling elite has existed since our founding. Yet, we've always believed democracy would persist in this nation that was founded on democratic ideals of individual rights and the rule of law.  Today, we're losing our allegiance to democracy - especially in the minds of young people increasingly open to forms of government outside of democracy.  Is it too late to regain our democratic footing and stem the current tide of populism? If not, how do we do it?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.