The Colin McEnroe Show

This hour, a look at some of the ways culture and politics seem to be overlapping at the moment. First, we wonder who might play all these new candidates on the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live. And then, we try to understand all the focus — from both sides — on Kamala Harris’ laugh. And finally, just why in the world is Donald Trump so obsessed with Hannibal Lecter? GUESTS: Margaret Hartmann: A senior editor for New York magazine’s Intelligencer Dave Itzkoff: A journalist and writer and the author of four books; his most recent is Robin Maura Judkis: A reporter covering culture, fashion, politics, food, and the arts for The Washington Post The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Going into the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, many are comparing this year to 1968. After all, there are a number of similarities: both were Olympic years that featured student protest movements, an incumbent president deciding not to run for re-election, a Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and even a new Planet of the Apes movie. But there were important differences as well. This hour, we look back on 1968, and the events of that DNC, as well as the media’s coverage of it. Plus, a look at the music and movies of that year. GUESTS:  Mark Kurlansky: Author of 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, among many other books  Heather Hendershot: Cardiss Collins Professor of Communication Studies and Journalism at Northwestern University. She is author of When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America Dan Balz: Chief correspondent at The Washington Post Tammy Kernodle: University Distinguished Professor and Park Creative Arts Endowed Professor in the Department of Music at Miami University, and author of Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams  Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.  Colin McEnroe and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adam Wren recently reported for Politico that Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, is a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings. This hour we talk to Wren about Vance's interest in the work, and the politics of the series. Plus, we'll discuss Tolkien's fantasy world building, and look back on the books, their film adaptations, and their enduring appeal. GUESTS: Adam Wren: National political correspondent for Politico John Garth: Author of The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth and Tolkien and the Great War, among other books Susana Polo: Senior entertainment writer for Polygon The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, portions of which originally aired August 12, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour is all about printers. We talk about printer problems and why, despite our struggles, we can’t seem to quit our printers. Plus: a rage room owner on the appeal of smashing printers. GUESTS: Cory Doctorow: Science fiction author, activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and journalist Cody Nicholas: Co-owner of the Lose It Rage Room in Woodbridge, Virginia Allen St. John: Multimedia content producer for Consumer Reports The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Katie Pellico contributed to this show, which originally aired February 15, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to the sandwichiness (or not) of hot dogs and the cube rule of food, crazy interest rates on credit cards, loud music in movies, Olympic basketball, winking … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Colin McEnroe and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is a seven-part Netflix docuseries. It is directed and executive produced by Greg Whiteley. It follows the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ 2023–2024 season. And: Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes is a documentary from HBO Documentary Films. It is directed by Nanette Burstein and produced by J. J. Abrams. Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes was nominated for the L’Œil d’or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. GUESTS: Carolyn Paine: An actress, comedian, and dancer; she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College, and she’s the author of The Essays Only You Can Write Lindsay Lee Wallace: Writes about culture, health care and health equity, and other stuff, too The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Going into November, we’ll be doing some shows where we talk with one guest, for the hour, who knows a lot about the election. This hour, The New York Times’ Astead Herndon joins us to talk about the run-up to 2024. We’ll talk about his unique approach to political reporting, and the state of the race. GUEST:  Astead Herndon: National politics reporter for The New York Times and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up” Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.  Colin McEnroe and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From pen names to online aliases, pseudonyms are all around us. This hour, we’re talking about what compels people to adopt an alternate identity when they write. Do pseudonyms liberate us? Do they make us treat each other better? Or do they stop credit from going where it’s due? GUESTS:  Carmela Ciuraru: Author of “Nom de Plume: A (Secret) History of Pseudonyms” and, most recently, “Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages”  Daniel A. Gross: Editor at the New Yorker and author of the Atlantic article, “The Mystery of the Hardy Boys and the Invisible Authors” Alfred Moore: Senior lecturer in Politics at the University of York  Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Colin McEnroe, Lily Tyson and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on February 14, 2024.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s kind of weird how much the word “weird” has been coming up all of a sudden in the election, isn’t it? This hour, a look at weirdness and the Democrats’ new wall-to-wall, paint-Trump-and-Vance-as-weird strategy. Plus, the history of the word “weird,” what it’s like being weird, and a few minutes on quantum weirdness. GUESTS: Olga Khazan: A staff writer for The Atlantic covering health, gender, and policy and the author of Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World Douglas Natelson: Associate dean for research at the Wiess School of Natural Sciences at Rice University, where he studies the emergent properties of materials Kase Wickman: A freelance journalist and frequent contributor to Vanity Fair Ben Zimmer: A linguist and lexicographer and the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour we took your calls about anything you wanted to talk about. This hour, the conversation winds around to the election, debates, vice presidential picks, the Olympics opening ceremony, Kevin Spacey, a book recommendation, and more. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Gene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.