The Colin McEnroe Show

What else besides an egg can give us human life, culinary delight, life-saving vaccines, jarping, the Clowns International Egg Registry, and a satisfying bit of schadenfreude, all wrapped in one small package? Making a great omelet is the tip of the eggshell for the versatility of the egg. This hour, a hard-boiled look at the ubiquitous, yet overlooked egg. GUESTS: John Portmann: Taught moral philosophy and ethics at the University of Virginia for several decades; he’s the author of When Bad Things Happen To Other People Chris Prosperi: Chef and co-owner of Metro Bis in Simsbury, Connecticut, and a former recipe columnist for the Hartford Courant Lizzie Stark: The author of Egg: A Dozen Ovatures 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all do some bad thinking sometimes, whether in relatively minor ways or relatively major ones. This hour, we look at why bad thinking happens, how reasoning errors are embedded in the way we think, and how we can all learn how to think better, through lessons from philosophy and psychology. GUESTS: Woo-kyoung Ahn: Director of The Thinking Lab at Yale University and the author of Thinking 101: How to Reason Better to Live Better Steven Nadler: Co-author of When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves and a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Larry Shapiro: Co-author of When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves and a philosophy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 21, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us have books that we just can’t finish, no matter how many times we try. This hour, a look at those books that we find unreadable, whether they’re too long, too difficult, too confusing, or too dated. What makes a book unreadable? Plus: The Voynich Manuscript, an unreadable and undeciphered book housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. We asked our listeners for their list of unreadable books. Here are those responses: The Bible Mansfield Park by Jane Austen Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Rim by Alexander Besher The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Collapse by Jared Diamond Great Expectations by Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens S. by JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald anything by William Faulkner Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter Les Misérables by Victor Hugo A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James The Dubliners by James Joyce Ulysses by James Joyce Wicked by Gregory Maguire One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez Moby Dick by Herman Melville Faithful by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon How to Write by Gertrude Stein Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace GUESTS: Ray Clemens: Curator of early books and manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Rand Richards Cooper: Fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and restaurant critic for The Hartford Courant Dennis Duncan: Lecturer in English at University College London and the author of Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age Juliet Lapidos: Ideas editor for The Atlantic and the author of Talent 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 14, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a couple times a month 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 inflation in our language, the Mario Pavone track “Colin Mac,” Tucker Carlson … 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, 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 and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is gonna make three 10X trades: 1K to 10K, 10K to a hundred, hundred to a million. Boom. On April 20, Twitter stripped its blue check marks from the accounts of public figures and others who weren’t paying for them. Including many celebrities, who then went on to drag Twitter about how much they don’t care. At the same time, there seems to be a growing feeling (again) that Twitter might be dying. And: Beef is a Netflix comedy-drama limited series created by Lee Sung Jin and starring Steven Yeun and Ali Wong. It “follows the aftermath of a road rage incident between two strangers.” Beef is currently the most popular TV series on Rotten Tomatoes and #2 in TV Shows Today on Netflix. Jacques Lamarre’s endorsement: Shy: The Alarmingly Outspoken Memoirs of Mary Rodgers by Mary Rodgers and Jesse Green Tracy Wu Fastenberg’s endorsements: The Charles in Wethersfield, Connecticut Comstock, Ferre & Co. in Wethersfield, Connecticut Bill Yousman’s endorsements Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Services in Bloomfield, Connecticut Keep Your Courage by Natalie Merchant the music of Prince Colin’s endorsements: apple blossoms poetry sleep Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Ahmad Jamal, Whose Spare Style Redefined Jazz Piano, Dies at 92 He was known for his laid-back style and for his influence on, among others, Miles Davis, who once said, “All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal.” Netflix Will End Its DVD Service, 5.2 Billion Discs Later Sending movies through the mail, in recognizable red-and-white envelopes, helped the company become a behemoth in Hollywood. Yes, People Will Pay $27,500 for an Old ‘Rocky’ Tape. Here’s Why. Collectors are finding that their childhood has a price — and it’s going up. When the future is frightening, it’s boom times at the nostalgia factory. Netflix’s Love Is Blind Live Failure Had Big ‘Game Servers Are Down’ Energy The streaming service tried its second-ever live broadcast for the highly anticipated Love Is Blind reunion Hollywood Writers Approve of Strike as Shutdown Looms The writers have not gone on strike in 15 years, and the vote gives their unions the right to call for a walkout when their contract expires on May 1. What the death of a literary magazine says about our cultural decay BuzzFeed Shuts Down Its News Division BuzzFeed News, which won a Pulitzer Prize but never made money, is “beginning the process of closing,” the company’s founder, Jonah Peretti, said in a memo to employees. ‘Air’ and the Argument for Letting the Talent Share in the Profits The movie’s focus (how Michael Jordan got a cut from Nike) reflects what its filmmakers, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, are trying to do in their new venture. Fringe’s Finest Hour Is Sci-Fi’s Most Profound Exploration of Faith and Science “I’ve asked God for a sign of forgiveness. A specific one, a white tulip.” Scientists discovered a new ‘quasi-moon’ orbiting Earth McDonald’s is upgrading its burgers The Myth of the Broke Millennial After a rough start, the generation is thriving. Why doesn’t it feel that way? After he sold his company for over $1 billion, Ryan Reynolds’ investing spree continues with a fintech company that has ties to Binance and DraftKings Hot 100 First-Timers: Jack Black Scores First Solo Hit With ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Ballad ‘Peaches’ The song debuts at No. 83. An A.I. Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weeknd’ Rattles the Music World A track like “Heart on My Sleeve,” which went viral before being taken down by streaming services this week, may be a novelty for now. But the legal and creative questions it raises are here to stay. GUESTS: Jacques Lamarre: A playwright and chief communications officer at Buzz Engine Tracy Wu Fastenberg: Development officer at Connecticut Children’s Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In April, 2010 — 13 years ago this month — we did a segment on the concept of the “mesofact,” a certain kind of data point that feels fixed even though it’s actually always slowly changing. (I’d add a link to that show, but our archive doesn’t actually go back that far.) And we’ve gone back to the idea every now and again ever since. Think about things like the world population or the Periodic Table of the Elements. Or think about our understanding of the health and nutritional value of red wine. Or coffee. Or how Brussels sprouts are supposed to taste. Or what dinosaurs are supposed to look like. This hour, an update on a bunch of mesofacts that we’d probably all lost track of, including the myth of the alpha wolf and the misconceptions around white gloves and antique books. GUESTS: Samuel Arbesman: A scientist and writer; he is the author of Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension and The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date Jennifer Schuessler: A culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas for The New York Times Maddy Witt: An educator at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have a complicated relationship with our food. We need food to live, yet we’ve become removed from the food we eat and how it’s grown and processed. Even with the best intentions, today’s ultra-processed foods make it hard for us to know exactly what we’re eating or how the methods used to mass produce our food affect our environment and health. And I haven’t even touched on how food has led to war, famine, poverty, and enslavement. This hour, we talk about the history of agriculture, where it went wrong, and how we might begin to cultivate food that is kinder to our bodies, our earth, and our fellow humans. GUEST: Mark Bittman: Author of Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food From Sustainable To Suicidal, among many other books 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired February 3, 2021. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, our new favorite way to communicate: emoji. We look at how emoji are created and how they change meaning and talk to the creator of Emojiland: The Musical. GUESTS: Keith Broni: Editor-in-chief of Emojipedia Keith Harrison Dworkin: Composer and creator of Emojiland: The Musical Alex King: Associate professor of philosophy at Simon Fraser University and editor-in-chief of Aesthetics for Birds 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired June 9, 2022. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, a conversation about handling life’s hardships with philosopher Kieran Setiya, the author of Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way. GUESTS: Kieran Setiya: Professor of philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way 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. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose could be some genetic switch that flipped. Something that was there, dormant, and it just… On April 8, The New York Times Opinion published an interactive, “17 Pop Culture Moments That Define the COVID Era.” The Nose didn’t really have a choice but to start figuring out its own COVID canon. And: The Power is a TV series adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s 2016 science fiction novel (which The Nose covered in 2018). It tells the story of a world where teenage girls suddenly develop the ability to produce electricity. It stars an ensemble cast that includes John Leguizamo, Halle Bush, Toheeb Jimoh, Eddie Marsan, and Toni Collette. Five of The Power’s expected nine episodes are available to stream on Prime Video. Rebecca Castellani’s endorsements: Dark on Netflix the books of Margaret Atwood Rand Richards Cooper’s endorsement: the books of W.G. Sebald Lindsay Lee Wallace’s endorsements: Crush on Hulu Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin Colin’s endorsement: the music of Connie Converse Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Al Jaffee, Mad magazine’s cartoon maestro, dies at 102 He was Mad magazine’s longest-serving contributor and proudly helped corrupt the minds of generations of young Americans Mary Quant, British Fashion Revolutionary, Dies at 93 Known as the mother of the miniskirt, clad in her signature play clothes and boots, with huge painted eyes, fake freckles and a bob, she epitomized London’s Swinging Sixties. Food storage synonym Tupperware has ‘substantial doubt’ it can survive Taylor Swift’s breakups defined her early stardom. Not anymore. The tone and reaction to Swift’s split with actor Joe Alwyn after six years is remarkably different from a decade ago Some People’s ‘Funny’ Is Other People’s ‘Offensive’ A Resurfaced Clip Of Aubrey Plaza Recalling The Time A Director Instructed Her To Masturbate On Camera Has Left People Seriously Disturbed “The camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton t-shirt, and there were a bunch of old men smoking — the crew guys. And then I went and touched myself.” Actor Jesse Metcalfe talks about dating in CT on podcast Inside Donald Glover’s New Creative Playground He changed the course of television with Atlanta and laid out a blueprint for a whole era of dark comedy. And now, out in Ojai, California, the multihyphenate star is preparing for the next phase of his career, building something even bigger and more ambitious that only he could have imagined. ‘Succession’ and ‘Dr. Pimple Popper’ Together in New Warner Streaming App The service, expected to be called Max, is meant to help the company compete more directly with Netflix and Disney. “The Body You’ve Been Comparing My Current Body To Was The Unhealthiest Version Of My Body”: Ariana Grande Addressed Speculation Around Her Body “I was on a lot of antidepressants and drinking on them and eating poorly and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my ‘healthy.’” How ‘Hud’ Began Texas’s Love Affair With the Bastard Paul Newman plays a brutish, morally repugnant monster in the classic anti-western. So why do Texans admire him anyway? The Case of the Fake Sherlock Richard Walter was hailed as a genius criminal profiler. How did he get away with his fraud for so long? NASA’s Webb Telescope Reveals Supernova in Unprecedented Detail A stunning new picture of an exploded star includes a “green monster” and other never-before-seen features. Brad Pitt and the Bizarre Charity Mess That’s Left Katrina Victims Stranded Again Owners of faulty homes built by the star’s Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans were relieved when charity Global Green promised $20.5 million for repairs. The only problem: It never had the money. A Journey Inside the Updated James Bond Novels Book Bond has long been obscured by his cinematic doppelgänger. Now, thanks to savvy edits, readers can finally have a serious discussion about the complicated man on the page. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Rand Richards Cooper: A fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and the restaurant critic for the Hartford Courant 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, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.