The Colin McEnroe Show

For decades, we didn’t take television seriously. We saw it as ephemeral, as “chewing gum for the eyes,” as, literally, furniture. And then, around the turn of the century, things started to change. There was The Sopranos. The Wire. And, at the same time, shows like Big Brother and The Amazing Race. For Emily Nussbaum, it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer that forever changed her take on television. This hour: A serious appraisal of television with The New Yorker’s television critic. GUEST: Emily Nussbaum: Television critic for The New Yorker and the author of I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution 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! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 15, 2020. Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today by visiting ctpublic.org/donate. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour about anything at all. 888-720-9677.‌ Or 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! Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson 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 by visiting ctpublic.org/donate. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is all gettin’ flushed. Rothaniel is Jerrod Carmichael’s third HBO comedy special. The previous two, 2014’s Love at the Storeand 2017’s 8, were directed by Spike Lee and Bo Burnham, respectively. Rothaniel was taped in February at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, and it, too, is directed by Burnham. This is the fourthdirecting project in a row of Burnham’s that The Nose has covered. And: The Outlaws is a BBC One series created by Stephen Merchant. It’s now available Stateside on Amazon Prime, and Amazon’s synopsis calls it “a comedy thriller about a disparate group of lawbreakers thrown together to complete a community service sentence.” It stars Merchant, Christopher Walken, and an ensemble cast. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Estelle Harris Dies: ‘Seinfeld’s Estelle Costanza, ‘Toy Story’ Franchise’s Mrs. Potato Head Was 93 Los Lobos founding member Francisco González has died at 68 Louis C.K.’s Grammy, After ‘Global Amounts of Trouble,’ Draws Backlash Some comedians are questioning how the Recording Academy saw fit to bestow an award to someone who had admitted to sexual misconduct. Why We Can’t Quit the Guitar Solo Elon Musk becomes Twitter’s largest shareholder. The Tesla chief executive, who has been critical of Twitter’s content moderation policies, has bought 9.2 percent of the social media company. Film Of Prince At Age 11 Discovered In Archival Footage Of 1970 Mpls. Teachers Strike Mad Magazine’s Most Significant Cultural Moments 2022 marks MAD magazine’s 70th Anniversary. We celebrate a publication that’s been dumbing down America for decades. How Everyone Got So Lonely The recent decline in rates of sexual activity has been attributed variously to sexism, neoliberalism, and women’s increased economic independence. How fair are those claims—and will we be saved by the advent of the sex robot? Inside the BBC Staff Exodus: Women of Color Are ‘Exhausted’ From Fighting a Broken System Japan’s Monkey Queen Made It Through Mating Season With Her Reign Intact Yakei, the 9-year-old macaque who seized power at a preserve, played the field and mated with at least one male, all while managing to maintain her status as her troop’s alpha. Newly Measured Particle Seems Heavy Enough to Break Known Physics A new analysis of W bosons suggests these particles are significantly heavier than predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. If you want original movies to survive, get to a theater this April It’s Time To Revive the Nuclear Disaster Film With the U.S. and Russia Each Edging Towards Possible Atomkrieg, We’re Overdue for a Cinematic Reminder of the Horrors of Nuclear War GUESTS: Sam Hadelman: Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Rich Hollant: Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College 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! 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.

Azar Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, which spent 117 weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Her new book, Read Dangerously, argues that reading literature, reading challenging, dangerousliterature is foundational and fundamental to continued democracy. Imagination, itself, she says, is a threat to autocracy and totalitarianism. Imagination is inherently, by definition, “free and wayward.” “It should be clear by now that when I talk about books,” Nafisi writes, “I am not talking about literature of resistance but literature as resistance.” Azar Nafisi joins us for the hour. GUEST: Azar Nafisi: The author of six books; her newest is Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times 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! 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.

In the past two years, we've all turned into preppers. Whether dealing with a pandemic, supply chain disruptions, or natural disasters, we've learned the value of being prepared to be self-sufficient for a few days, weeks, or even months. This hour, we look at prepping, and talk about how it has become a part of our everyday lives.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gossiping is considered a bad habit. But, when done well, it can actually have social benefits. This hour, what gossip is, its benefits and drawbacks, and why we’re interested in celebrity gossip. GUESTS: Amanda Kehrberg: Adjunct media studies faculty at Arizona State University Shayla Love: Senior staff writer of features at Vice Frank McAndrew: Psychology professor at Knox College 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! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 16, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are thought to be about 17 million living flies for every human alive on Earth. They’re predators and parasites and pests, but they’re pollinators too. They help us solve crimes, heal wounds, and understand genetics and evolution. And they literally help at least one artist paint his paintings. Also this hour: A look at David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of, you guessed it: The Fly. GUESTS: Jonathan Balcombe: Author of Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World’s Most Successful Insects John Knuth: An artist Gale Ridge: Associate scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Jacob Trussell: Author of The Binge Watcher’s Guide to The Twilight Zone; he published the piece “Only Jeff Goldblum Could Make Us Fall in Love with ‘The Fly.’” at Film School Rejects 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! Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired August 19, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is always moving, it’s rhythmic, it’s up close and personal, there’s no pads or helmets for protection. On Wednesday, Demi Moore announced on Instagram that Bruce Willis is “stepping away” from his career after being diagnosed with aphasia. Willis turned 67 last month. And: Last Friday, before last weekend’s Academy Awards ceremonies, Ross Douthat published an opinion piece in The New York Times: “We Aren’t Just Watching the Decline of the Oscars. We’re Watching the End of the Movies.” And finally: Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty is an HBO series chronicling the professional and personal lives of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and starring John C. Reilly, Quincy Isaiah, and an ensemble cast. It is created by Max Borenstein and executive produced by Adam McKay. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters’ Drummer, Dies at 50 Hard-hitting and charismatic, he was direct about his hopes for the group’s future, even after two decades. “I want to be the biggest band in the world,” he said. Paul Herman, The Sopranos Actor, Dies At 76 Nicolas Cage Can Explain It All He is one of our great actors. Also one of our most inscrutable, most eccentric, and most misunderstood. But as Cage makes his case here, every extraordinary thing about his wild work and life actually makes perfect ordinary sense. The Real Mission Impossible: Saying “No” to Tom Cruise How the franchise superstar lawyered-up and out-gunned Paramount execs over costs, COVID and a last-minute submarine. Ryan Reynolds Is a Great Brand but an Increasingly Boring Actor Are You the Most Boring Person Alive? A recent study details the dull jobs, hobbies and personality traits that make someone a boring person Does Every Geek TV Series Need To Require Hours Of Homework? Even Before Will Smith, It Was a Strange and Awkward Oscars 2022 V.F.’s chief critic reviews the 94th Academy Awards ceremony. Both teams assured of a possession in playoff overtime with rules change approved by NFL owners GUESTS: Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast Carolyn Paine: An actress, comedian, and dancer, and the founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance 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! 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.

This hour, a look at the path to sainthood and how it’s changed over time. Plus: the local example of the Rev. Michael McGivney. GUESTS: Teresa Berger: Professor of Liturgical Studies and Catholic Theology at Yale Divinity School Joseph Laycock: Author of The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism Rachel McCleary: Lecturer in the Economics Department at Harvard University and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute James Sullivan: Rector of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury 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! Colin McEnroe, Sara Gasparotto, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We tend to associate arguing with destructive actions like quarreling or fighting. Argument is a different animal. It may be fueled by the passion that drives fights and quarrels, but effective arguing requires factual evidence and logic to support why one idea might work better than another idea. At its finest, argument opens our world to ideas and solutions we hadn’t considered, whereas the passion and clashing egos of a fight often send us sulking to our respective corners. This hour, we argue that arguing can be good for us, but one could argue that we’re wrong. GUESTS:  Lee Siegel: A cultural critic and the author of seven books; his latest is Why Argument Matters Agnes Callard: An associate professor of philosophy at the University of Chicago and the author of Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic 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! 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.