The Colin McEnroe Show

B. F. Skinner thought pigeons were so smart they could be used to guide missiles during World War II. He proposed a system in which pigeons would essentially pilot a missile. Skinner said pigeons could be trained to peck at a screen to adjust the trajectory of the missile toward its target. Project Pigeon was funded but never used. In 2013, New York conceptual artist Duke Reilly trained half his flock of pigeons to carry contraband cigars from Cuba to Florida and the other half to carry tiny video cameras documenting the smuggling flight of their comrades. Another group of researchers trained pigeons to reliably distinguish between the paintings of Picasso and Monet, even if they had never seen a particular painting before. This hour, everything you ever wanted to know about pigeons but were afraid to ask. GUESTS: Yoni Applebaum: A social and cultural historian Andrew Blechman: Author of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird Wanda Corn: The Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in the department of art and art history at Stanford University Patrick Skahill: Connecticut Public’s digital editor 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, Tess Aaronson, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired November 12, 2013.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Historian Timothy Snyder is the author of the books On Freedom and On Tyranny. He joins us this hour to talk about the latest in our country, and what we can learn from history. GUEST:  Timothy Snyder: Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is the author of books including On Freedom, On Tyranny, Our Malady, and more  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, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The microphone makes everything we do on the radio possible. This hour we celebrate the invention and look at the role of microphones in music. Plus hot mics, mic drops, and more. GUESTS:  Susan Rogers: Multi-platinum record producer, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Berklee College of Music and co-author of the book This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You Azi Paybarah: Politics Reporter for The Washington Post Forrest Wickman: Slate's culture editor Colin McEnroe, Angelica Gajewski, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, the conversation winds around to the zipper merge, Don McLean’s “American Pie,” our 15th anniversary party, model trains (again), music streaming services, advice for caregivers in times of grief … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, we’re celebrating the show’s 15th anniversary (which was last year, but never mind about that part). Over those 15+ years, we’ve done something north of 3,000 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: This 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 conserves “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: Former producer for Where We Live on Connecticut Public Kimberly Hyde: A keeper at the San Diego Zoo; she handles the zoo’s tapirs in its Elephant Odyssey habitat Betsy Kaplan: Senior producer emeritus of The Colin McEnroe Show Jonathan McNicol: The producer of this very episode of The Colin McEnroe Show Carlos Mejia: Former digital producer at Connecticut Public Mike Pesca: Hosts the independent daily podcast The Gist Josh Nilaya: Former producer for The Colin McEnroe Show Susan Piver: Meditation teacher, speaker, and long-time Buddhist practitioner Patrick Skahill: Connecticut Public’s digital editor; producer emeritus of The Colin McEnroe Show 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 contributed to this show, which originally aired September 5, 2019, in a different form.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are more than 800 miles of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails in Connecticut. Today we're doing our show from one of them. There are things out in the woods that might surprise you, and one of the guys walking down the trail to visit us today is our state archeologist, who's still uncovering the mysteries of Connecticut distant past. But we're also going to talk about the ecosystem of the trails and woods and about an unwelcome visitor, the emerald ash borer. We also hope to provides lots of good hiking tips and a few warnings about what to watch out for. So put on some [smack] bug spray and join us out in the woods. GUESTS: Clare Cain: Trail stewardship director for the Connecticut Forest and Parks Association Geoff Meissner: Hiker who has hiked every Blue-Blazed trail in Connecticut Nicholas Bellantoni: Connecticut’s state archaeologist Steve Broderick: Forester and program director for the Goodwin Forest Conservation Education Center in Hampton 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, Tucker Ives, Chion Wolf, Lydia Brown, and Gene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired on August 9, 2012.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

March Madness is here! And for the 15th* time, 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 15th one of these unless it isn’t. We’re pretty sure we’ve done this show every year from 2010 on, but for 2020. That 2010 show is lost to internet history, but we’re fairly confident it happened. And the 2012 show … was about birds? But we’re counting it. GUESTS: Bill Curry: Playing the part of Bill Curry Frankie Graziano: Host of The Wheelhouse on Connecticut Public Mike Pesca: Hosts the independent daily podcast The Gist Julia Pistell: A founding member of Sea Tea Improv, among a number of other things Nayef Samhat: President of Wofford College 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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Donald Trump has found inspiration for tariffs and more in the 25th President of the United States: William McKinley. This hour, we look at the life and legacy of McKinley, and why Trump is drawn to him. Plus, we'll learn about the Gilded Age and its parallels to today. GUESTS:  Kevin Kern: Associate Professor of History at The University of Akron. He is co-author of Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State Beverly Gage: Professor of 20th-century U.S. history at Yale University. Her newest book, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Joan Antonson: Executive Director of the Alaska Historical Society 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, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. You can now watch our calls shows and send us a comment on YouTube! 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, Angelica Gajewski, Jonathan McNicol, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui) is a Brazilian, Portuguese-language political biographical drama based on the memoir by Marcelo Rubens Paiva. At this year’s Oscars, it won the Academy Award for Best International Feature, and it was the first Brazilian movie ever nominated for Best Picture. And: A Hollywood Reporter piece worries that the recency bias in Netflix’s catalog — in which the oldest movie would currently appear to be 1957’s An Affair to Remember — is making us “cinema-illiterate.” GUESTS: David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast 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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.