
The Colin McEnroe Show
The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.
Latest episodes

Mar 17, 2023 • 49min
The Nose looks at Adam Sandler’s Mark Twain Prize, ‘Star Trek: Picard,’ and more
This week’s Nose is being institutionally told that its personal expression is bad. This weekend, Adam Sandler receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Colin says it’s the end of Western civilization, or something like that. But is it? And: Seth Rogen has gone on the record about how “devastating” critiques of his work can be. It’s a topic this week’s Nose, which includes America’s Greatest Living Film Critic, couldn’t resist. And finally: Star Trek: Picard is the eighth Star Trek television series and the second series in the expanded Star Trek universe (I don’t really know what that is). It’s a sequel to the third Star Trek television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and it starts 20 years after the last Next Generation movie, Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). Its third and final season is streaming now. David Edelstein’s endorsements: the 26th season of South Park on Comedy Central Unscripted: The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams Mercy Quaye’s endorsements: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe Houston, We Have a Podcast’s Mars miniseries StarTalk Carolyn Paine’s endorsement: You Season 4 on Netflix Colin’s endorsements: the music of Declan O’Rourke and Solas Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Bobby Caldwell, ‘Blue-Eyed Soul’ Singer, Dead at 71 Al Jaffee, Now 102, Is Ready to Be Added to Mount Rushmore MAD’s longest-serving contributor on comedy, art, and the origins of the “Fold-in.” Marvel Is Looking For The Person Behind The Alleged Quantumania Script Leaks Warner Bros. Discovery Worried That ‘HBO’ Name Turns Off New Subscribers CEO David Zaslav is considering ”Max“ as the name for the service which combines the company’s flagship streamer and Discovery+ Sesame Street to Launch First NFTs With VeVe, Starting With Cookie Monster Digital Collectibles at $60 Each Netflix Pulls Plug On Nancy Meyers’ New Project Over Budget Issue The Fabulist in the Woods In Northampton with Kelly Link and her community of like-minded writers. The Cure tried to circumvent Ticketmaster’s price gouging. It didn’t work. While tickets went for as low as $20, Ticketmaster’s fees easily doubled the price Bad Projection Is Ruining the Movie Theater Experience Multiplexes are failing at their most basic function: delivering a bright, sharp image. Peak TV Is Over. Welcome to Trough TV. Streaming’s golden age has been ending for a while, but it’s only now become clear what’s replacing it. 34 Things That Happened Almost Exactly 3 Years Ago Before The Pandemic That Will Make You Question Reality The world really was such a different place, and I just hope Charlotte Awbery is slaying a subway platform somewhere again. 20 Cringey And 9 Funny Things Celebrities Did At The Beginning Of The Pandemic That Are Wild To Look Back On Now It’s weird looking back three years later, but I think all celebrities learned it’s just sometimes better not to post. It’s Time to Kill the Multiverse (at Least in This Timeline) Don’t let ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ and its Oscar front-runner status fool you: The supposedly limitless storytelling device has been pushed to its narrative limits. Just look to ‘Quantumania’ for proof. How Please Stopped Being Polite The phrase if it please you has been shortened and shortened over time—until it’s become more brusque than courteous. If You’re Reading This, Your Favorite Show Is Canceled Ben Affleck on ‘Air,’ New CEO Gig and Those Memes: “I Am Who I Am” The actor, filmmaker and budding mogul on the disruptive production company he launched with Matt Damon, why he’s done with D.C., getting Michael Jordan’s blessing for his new film and the advice wife Jennifer Lopez gave him for this interview. We Spoke To The NYU Student Who Did Not Have Fun Studying Abroad In Florence And She Doesn’t Care That You’re Mad Emily in Paris has nothing on Stacia in Florence. Why Are So Many People Rewatching ‘Girls’? Viewership of Lena Dunham’s HBO dramedy is surging as many millennials reassess their 20s and a show that defined them. Meg White’s Drumming Chops Are the Hot Topic of the Day, and Yes, It’s 2023 GUESTS: David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic Carolyn Paine: An actress, comedian, and dancer, and she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Mercy Quaye: Founder and president of The Narrative Project and a columnist and editor at The Connecticut Mirror 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.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 16, 2023 • 49min
Our 13th* (almost) annual March Madness show
March Madness is upon us! And so the only logical thing to do is to get improv comedian Julia Pistell and the actual Bill Curry together to talk basketball for an hour on the radio. That may not be the only logical thing to do. It may be that that’s not actually a logical thing to do at all. But we’re doing it anyway. *It’s our 13th one of these unless it isn’t. Our thinking is that we’ve done this show every year from 2010 on, but for 2020. There’s a mention, in our 2013 edition of this show, of our having done a 2010 edition of this show. But no evidence of the 2010 edition of the show survives on the internet. And yet we’re still fairly confident it’s a thing that we did. GUESTS: Bill Curry: Playing the part of Bill Curry Frankie Graziano: Host of The Wheelhouse on Connecticut Public Andrew Hsu: President of the College of Charleston in South Carolina Julia Pistell: A founding member of Sea Tea Improv, a contributing producer on this show, and a number of other things 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.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 15, 2023 • 49min
Lost in my mind: What happens when we daydream
Do you daydream? What do you daydream about? This hour is all about the art of daydreaming. We'll reflect on the value of daydreaming, and why it can be so difficult to talk about our daydreams. Plus, we’ll look at what daydreaming does to our brains, and we’ll learn about maladaptive daydreaming. GUESTS: Leslie Jamison: Novelist, essayist and professor at Columbia University’s MFA Program Jonathan Schooler: Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of The Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential at the University of California, Santa Barbara Jayne Rachel: An advocate for maladaptive daydreaming, who used to experience it Join the conversation onFacebook 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.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 14, 2023 • 50min
Why our food looks different from grandma’s
Food isn’t just a way to cure hunger. In food, we find identity, history, politics, and more. This hour, a look at the evolution of food and how our perception of different diets and lifestyles is changing. GUESTS: Anthony Jung: Executive chef of retail dining at UMass Amherst Cathy Kaufman: Lecturer of food studies at The New School and chairwoman of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery Uma Naidoo: Director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the author of This Is Your Brain on Food 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 August 9, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 13, 2023 • 49min
We take your calls
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 statute of limitations on break room food, Ron DeSantis, (the lack of) motorcycle helmet laws in Connecticut, an ad running on our air about junking vehicles, state police cars … 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.

Mar 10, 2023 • 1h 36min
The Nose’s guide to the 95th Academy Awards
Over the last year, The Nose has covered 14 of this year’s Academy Award-nominated movies, encompassing 64 nominations. So on this special edition of The Nose, we look back at our discussions of nominated movies, and we look ahead to Sunday’s Oscars ceremony with film and television star (and Oscars voter) Illeana Douglas. Some of the movies covered include: The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb, The Whale, Women Talking, and more. Note: This special two-part Oscars season finale edition of The Nose, airing over two days on the radio, is presented here as one double-length (or so) episode. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Tom Sizemore, Intense Actor With a Troubled Life, Dies at 61 He earned praise for his work in films like “Saving Private Ryan” and “Black Hawk Down.” He also served prison time for drug possession and domestic abuse. Robert Blake, ‘Baretta’ Star Acquitted in Wife’s Murder, Dies at 89 His film and TV career began with “Our Gang” comedies and was highlighted by his performance as a killer in “In Cold Blood.” But he led a tempestuous life. Topol, Star of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Onscreen and Onstage, Dies at 87 Wide acclaim for his portrayal of Tevye helped make him, according to one newspaper, “Israel’s most famous export since the Jaffa orange.” Ricou Browning, Who Made the Black Lagoon Scary, Dies at 93 He helped bring “Flipper” to the movies and TV but was best known for his plunge in a monster suit in “Creature From the Black Lagoon.” This is the most populist Oscars in a long time So why doesn’t it feel like it? The Stunt Awards Vulture’s inaugural celebration of stunt professionals is here. Because if the Oscars won’t recognize them, we will. Who Are You Rooting Against at the Oscars This Year? And the Oscar Goes to…The Guy Who Inspired Big League Chew? Todd Field is the Oscar-nominated director of ‘Tár.’ Major League Baseball players are more familiar with his shredded bubble gum. The Year the Movies Died (Over and Over and Over Again) Joseph Kosinski Doesn’t See Top Gun: Maverick As an Action Movie Bad Projection Is Ruining the Movie Theater Experience Multiplexes are failing at their most basic function: delivering a bright, sharp image. Peak TV Is Over. Welcome to Trough TV. Streaming’s golden age has been ending for a while, but it’s only now become clear what’s replacing it. Seth Rogen Gets Brutally Honest About Negative Reviews: Film Critics Should Know ‘How Much It Hurts….It F—ing Sucks’ Twenty Years Later, ‘Irreversible’ Still Shocks A look back at Gaspar Noé’s brutal told-in-reverse drama, which has been rereleased in a “Straight Cut” version. GUESTS: Raquel Benedict: The most dangerous woman in speculative fiction and the host of the Rite Gudpodcast Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Illeana Douglas: The Official Movie Star of The Colin McEnroe Show and a real, live Oscars voter Sam Hadelman: Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast Carolyn Paine: An actress, comedian, and dancer, and she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College Mercy Quaye: Founder and principal consultant for The Narrative Project Gene Seymour: A “writer, professional spectator, pop-culture maven, and jazz geek” Pedro Soto: President and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies 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, Eugene Amatruda, Cat Pastor, and Catie Talarski contributed to this show, parts of which have aired previously in different form.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 9, 2023 • 49min
Listen! Now!! Don’t miss!!! our show about the exclamation point.
I’m so excited!!! The exclamation point is the only punctuation mark that can express (and evoke) strong emotion. You either love them or hate them. Writers use it to express emotion that words can’t fully capture, politicians and advertisers can use it to manipulate and alarm, and authors and their editors often clash over its appropriate use. Our brains physically respond to the sight of it. This hour, we look at the history and culture of this most controversial mark. GUESTS: Florence Hazrat: Author of An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark Lan Samantha Chang: Director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop John Breunig: An editorial page editor with Hearst Connecticut Media Group 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, Cat Pastor, Lily Tyson, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 8, 2023 • 50min
‘Betcha can’t eat just one’: The science and art of snacking
Snacking on snacks, savory or sweet, has become a way of life. This hour, we sink our teeth into our snack-food obsessions. GUESTS: Andrea Hernández: Founder of SnaxShot Julia Pistell: Freelance writer and co-founder of SeaTea Improv Chris Prosperi: Chef and owner of Metro Bis Mark Schatzker: Writer in residence at the Modern Diet and Physiology Research Center and the author of The Dorito Effect 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, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired July 25, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 7, 2023 • 50min
Why Jane Austen’s work endures, on the page and screen
Jane Austen completed six full-length novels. And today, more than two centuries later, those novels are all still present in our culture. This hour, a look at Austen’s life and work, the world of Janeites, and the many film and television adaptations of her work. GUESTS: Devoney Looser: Author of The Making of Jane Austen and Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës Deborah Yaffe: Author of Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom 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, Anya Grondalski, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 28, 2022.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 6, 2023 • 49min
Why do AI voice assistants default to female voices?
Have you noticed that voice assistants like Alexa and Siri default to female voices? This hour, we talk about how artificial intelligence is reinforcing gender biases. Plus, a look at how representations of artificial intelligence in pop culture have contributed to this model. GUESTS: Kerry McInerney: Research fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence and co-host of The Good Robot Podcast Deborah Tannen: Distinguished university professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and author of You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, among other books Lisa Yaszek: Regents professor of science fiction studies in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech 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, Cat Pastor, and Lizzie Van Arnam contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.