The Colin McEnroe Show

Connecticut Public Radio
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Aug 11, 2025 • 49min

All calls: If you try to talk on the radio with your radio on your head will explode

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. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This weeks’ topics include the Statue of Liberty, comedy in New Haven and New York, what's going on in DC, state pension funds, NPR federal funding cuts, and more.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Aug 8, 2025 • 50min

You may be wrong, but you may be right: A look at Billy Joel

Billy Joel has reportedly sold more than 160 million albums. He’s been nominated for 24 Grammy Awards (and won six of them), an Emmy, and a Tony Award (which he won). In the U.S., he’s had 33 top 40 singles and 11 top 10 albums. He’s simply one of the most popular recording artists in the history of music. But. Critics have never been terribly kind to him, and a lot of the general public hasn’t either. This hour, we look at the new two-part, nearly five-hour HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. And we look at Billy Joel more generally and at the love/hate relationship we all seem to have had with him and his music for more than 50 years now. GUESTS: Jen Allen: A pianist, composer, arranger, and educator; her new album, Possibilities, comes out August 22 Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and the director of marketing at Washington Montessori School Jack Hamilton: Slate’s pop critic and the author of Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination Gene Seymour: A “writer, professional spectator, pop-culture maven, and jazz geek,” and he now writes Gene’s Substack 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.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Aug 7, 2025 • 49min

This show is the cat’s pajamas

This episode is really going to be the cat’s pajamas. Or is it pyjamas? Do cats even wear pajamas? Why would they? Why do we? Should any of us wear pajamas at all? And if we do don a pair, are they only for bed? Or should pajamas have their day in the sun? If our PJs are making a fashion statement just what exactly are they saying? We’re talking today about what we wear to bed, but who knows? Does not wearing pajamas to bed have health and other benefits once we settle in under the covers? GUESTS:  Henry Alford: American humorist and journalist, author of books including I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots Clare Sauro: Director of The Robert and Penny Fox Historic Costume Collection and Assistant Professor of Design & Art History at Drexel University W. Chris Winter: Sleep specialist, neurologist and author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It  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. Produced by Debora Timms. Colin McEnroe, Betsy Kaplan, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on April 8, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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25 snips
Aug 6, 2025 • 49min

The intangibility of ‘good taste,' from literature to food

Henry Oliver, a literary Substack writer and author focused on late blooming, joins Becca Rothfeld, a renowned nonfiction critic and editor, along with Nik Sharma, a molecular biologist turned acclaimed cookbook author. They delve into the elusive concept of 'good taste,' examining its ties to class and culture. The trio discusses how critics shape literary appreciation and the evolution of taste across generations. Additionally, they explore culinary diversity and the science behind flavors, encouraging listeners to embrace both excess and moderation in their taste journeys.
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Aug 5, 2025 • 50min

Combating corrosion: The war on rust

Rust is all around us. It’s in our cars, our homes, our infrastructure. It’s also the subject of Jonathan Waldman’s book Rust: The Longest War, which introduces us to the people who fight it. This hour, Waldman joins us. Plus: a visual artist who has found a way to incorporate rust into her work. GUESTS: Esther Solondz: A Rhode Island-based visual artist Jonathan Waldman: Author of Rust 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, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired March 25, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Aug 4, 2025 • 49min

All calls: Mordor is no longer theoretical

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 counterfactuals in baseball, majoring in art history, adult softball, The Terror on AMC and The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, the Connecticut Sun leaving for Boston, Northern Ireland and the Troubles … Anything. (Seemingly) 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 on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or 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, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Isaac Moss, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Aug 1, 2025 • 49min

The Nose looks at ‘Eddington’ and ‘Sunday Best’

Eddington is the fourth feature film written and directed by Ari Aster. It’s a neo-Western comedy set in the fictional and titular New Mexico town during May, 2020. Eddington was nominated for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and it’s one of three Pedro Pascal movies that are currently in the top 20 at the domestic box office. And: Sunday Best is a new Netflix documentary directed by, and in memory of, the late journalist, musician, and filmmaker Sacha Jenkins. It’s about the cultural importance of The Ed Sullivan Show and Sullivan’s “legacy of equality.” GUESTS: RS Benedict: A writer and bureaucrat whose fiction and non-fiction has been published in the New Haven Review, Fangoria, Current Affairs, and a bunch of other places Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmballpodcast Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University 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.
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Jul 31, 2025 • 49min

Monsters: A look at the real, the fake, and the friendly

Monsters are our subconscious perversions, our twisted fears realized, but what causes their creation, and how are they made? This hour, we look at fantastical creatures, terrifying beasts, and the scariest monsters of all: humans. GUESTS: Natalie Lawrence: Historian of science and the author of Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meanings Surekha Davies: Historian of science, speaker, and monster consultant for radio, tv, and film. She writes a newsletter called “Strange and Wondrous: Notes from a Science Historian,” and is the author of books including Humans: A Monstrous History Margery Cuyler: Author of 62 children’s books including Monster Mess, Bonaparte Falls Apart, Skeleton Hiccups, and the forthcoming Stompie the Zombie Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Jul 30, 2025 • 49min

‘A most confounding affliction’: A look at headaches

Headache symptoms can strike sufferers without warning, disabling them for even days at a time. There have been nearly 4,000 years of documented headache disorders — and virtually everyone has had headaches — yet their underlying neurological cause is still unknown. This hour, a look at the long history of headaches and the current science around and treatments for headaches. Plus: headaches in our literature and popular culture. GUESTS: Kathleen O’Shea: The editor of So Much More Than a Headache: Understanding Migraine Through Literature Tom Zeller Jr.: The author of The Headache: The Science of a Most Confounding Condition and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Undark 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.
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Jul 29, 2025 • 50min

'Tis a show about castles, me Lord

They're in the books we read, the shows we watch, and the art we hang on our walls. They conjure notions of might, magic, romance, and more. Castles, perhaps as much as any other architectural structure in history, define the landscape of our fantasy and imagination. But is our imagination an accurate lens through which to view these fortresses of ol'? And why, after hundreds of years, does our culture's fascination with these structures seem to be on the rise? This hour, we speak with experts and enthusiasts about the reality and mystique of castles. GUESTS: Marc Morris: Medieval historian and author of books including Castles: Their History and Evolution in Medieval Britain Victor Lodato: Playwright, poet, and novelist whose books include Edgar and Lucy Edward Town: Assistant Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art Brent Bruns II: - Star of the hit National Geographic reality TV show "Doomsday Castle" 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 Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on May 18, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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