The Colin McEnroe Show
Episodes
Emergency First Responder Nose: Oscars smackdown
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Note: This episode contains strong language. You may have seen that Sunday night, on the Academy Awards stage, Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinke...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, a...
The Nose’s guide to the 94th Academy Awards
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last eight months, The Nose has covered 11 of this year’s Academy Award-nominated movies, encompassing 54 nominations. So on this speci...
The best laid schemes of mice and men: human and wildlife conflict
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Animals, which were in the service of man, could be arrested, tried, convicted and executed,” according to Edmund P. Evans in his book Th...
Not Necessarily The Nose: The movies, mysteries, and marvels of Christopher Nolan
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the 21 years since Christopher Nolan’s Memento hit theaters, his movies have grossed more than $5 billion, earned 36 Academy Award nomination...
Our 12th* (almost) annual March Madness show
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The NCAA’s March Madness is back! And so the only logical thing to do is to get improv comedian Julia Pistell and the actual Bill Curry together...
Honk if you’re listening to this show about bumper stickers
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Bumper stickers are everywhere. And they range from funny to informative to political to provocative. This hour is all about bumper stickers. We talk ...
What chess, Scrabble, and Monopoly can teach us about life
15 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Author Oliver Roeder says that games are a “slice of life.” This hour we look at three games: chess, Scrabble, and Monopoly. We investigat...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, a...
The Nose looks at Best Picture nominees ‘Licorice Pizza’ and ‘Drive My Car’
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose doesn’t need you to tell it whether it’s cool or not, old lady. Licorice Pizza is the ninth feature film written an...
An hour with Harvey Fierstein
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Harvey Fierstein has won four Tony Awards, for writing and acting in Torch Song Trilogy, for writing La Cage aux Folles, and for acting in Hairspray. ...
Building utopia
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over 500 years ago, Sir Thomas More wrote about utopia. Since then, countless communities around the world have worked to create their own versions of...
Scientists confirm existence of woo-woo. Woo-woo declares results inconclusive
08 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Between all we know to be true and all we know to be false lies a world of woo. “Woo-woo,” to use the full term, refers to ideas considere...
There’s no shame in schadenfreude
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Schadenfreude,” the German word for taking pleasure in others’ misfortune, seems like an ugly human emotion. But psychologists and philosophers...
The Nose looks at Kim/Kanye/Pete, Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story,’ and more
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s NoseMay come cannonballing down through the sky,Gleam in its eye,Bright as a rose!Who knows? As of Wednesday, Kim Kardashian is lega...
An hour with ‘The Gist’ podcast host Mike Pesca
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Pesca’s The Gist — with more than 1,700 episodes dating back to 2014 — is said to be the longest-running daily news podcas...
How indexes help organize our world
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chances are you’ve probably used an index at the back of the book at some point in your life. But how much thought have you given to their creat...
Hunting for treasure
01 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Treasure hunts are prolific across literature, film, and history. This hour we talk about treasure hunts, including what happens when you drop one in ...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, a...
The Nose Looks at ‘Nightmare Alley’ and ‘The Trojan Horse Affair’
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose wants to be found out, same as everybody else. Guillermo del Toro’s sideshow noir, Nightmare Alley, is nominated for four...
Warning: If you have a heart, it will likely get broken (in more ways than one)
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nobody ever died of a broken heart, right? Not true. A condition known as broken heart syndrome can be brought on by a sudden shock, such as grief fro...
A celebration of all things tacky and why "tackiness is joyfulness"
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What makes something tacky? This hour is a celebration of all things "tacky" with Rax King, author of the new book, "Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst ...
The Nose looks at ‘We Need To Talk About Cosby’ and Woody Allen’s ‘Rifkin’s Festival’
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose is concerned with problematic male comedians born in the mid-1930s. Showtime describes We Need To Talk About Cosby as “wr...
From geckos to gum: we explore the science of stickiness
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Stickiness: we know it when we see it-- or when we feel it under our feet at the movie theater. But what is stickiness, scientifically speaking? How d...
Why is our culture so interested in dieting?
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is dieting such an enduring idea when it has such mixed results? This hour we investigate that question by looking back at diets through history, ...
Zillow surfing: the surprising appeal of online real estate listings
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Scrolling through online real estate listings, a practice known as “Zillow surfing,” has become a popular pastime. And it’s not just...
First dates and lockdown love stories: a look at romance during COVID
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we look at how the pandemic shaped dating, long-term relationships, and love over the past two years. GUESTS: Laura Kipnis: Author of Love...
The Nose has a good cry, watches Super Bowl ads, and discusses ‘Somebody Somewhere’
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose discusses “The Power of a Good Cry,” watches Super Bowl ads, and talks about HBO’s new comedy Somebody Somewh...
After high-profile hosts exit NPR, we explore what's going on at the mothership.
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Several high-profile NPR hosts recently left the station to work in other media organizations. Why? Some think NPR has become less innovative and unaw...
More than half a century after they first came walking down the street, we’re still bananas for The Monkees
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
More than half a century after they first came walking down the street, we’re still bananas for The Monkees. This hour, Colin and his guests hel...
Considering Kubrick
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange — the 50th anniversary of its wide release in the U.S., that is, on February ...
COVID-19 nasal vaccines may be replacing shots, and the Winter Olympics opening days recap
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, an assortment of topics. First up: why future COVID-19 boosters may be administered through the nose. Next, we learn all about masks. Final...
The Nose talks about ‘Bruno’ (and ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ and Build-a-Bear After Dark)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose believes that everything happens for a reason. Call it luck. Call it fate. Call it karma. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated ...
‘The Good Place’ creator Michael Schur explains how to be a good person
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You know Michael Schur from the shows he’s created, like The Good Place, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine This hour we talk with Schu...
A history of men mistaken for gods with ‘Accidental Gods’ author Anna Della Subin
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
History is filled with men who were mistaken for gods around the world. This hour, we talk with the author of a new book on that topic: Anna Della Sub...
The history of Black cowboys on the Western frontier
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nat Love was born a slave but died a free cowboy and a legend of the Old West. After the Civil War freed Love from slavery, he walked to Dodge City, K...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, a...
The Nose looks at ‘Un-Becoming Your Parents,’ Neil Young v. Spotify, and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose isn’t going to point out our houses, landmarks, or major highways during takeoff. It’s not every ad campaign that c...
From the mouths of Boomers, X-ers, Millennials, and Zoomers, why we keep categorizing one another by generation
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all heard the generational stereotypes, and rolled our eyes at them. This hour: we investigate generational groupings to discover why we&r...
Who’s inventing new instruments?
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Think about it. When’s the last time you saw a brand-new instrument in a marching band? New instruments don’t come around too often &mdash...
The unicorn show
25 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of unicorns, many of us picture idyllic white horses with a single horn, surrounded by rainbows. But that’s not how unicorns have ...
The latest on COVID-19, how literature can be used in therapy, and the controversy surrounding a football coin toss
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we discuss the latest on COVID-19, learn about how books can be used in therapy, and hear about a controversial football rule surrounding a...
The Nose looks at Wordle, ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth,’ and more
21 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose is a five-letter word. Wordle is the newish online word game that, either, you’re already addicted to or you’r...
You couldn't have predicted we'd do this show about predicting the future
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have been trying for, well, forever to predict the future. But how helpful is predicting the future, really? And what factors determine whether...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
19 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, a...
Alcohol is bad for us. So why have humans been drinking it for thousands of years?
18 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drinking alcohol has a number of negative impacts. But humans have been doing it for thousands of years and show no signs of stopping. This hour, a lo...
The Nose looks at Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Lost Daughter’ and HBO Max’s ‘Station Eleven’
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose is a crushing responsibility. The Lost Daughter is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as a writer and director, and it’s mad...
We're working ourselves to death. Sometimes literally. But why?
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the pandemic marches on, the “Great Resignation” is a sign that a lot of us are feeling overworked. More than 745,000 people died in 20...
The latest on COVID-19, CDC communication, and why some TV shows are putting the pandemic in the past
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we discuss COVID-19: from the latest science, to communication about the virus, and its depiction on television. GUESTS: Brianne...
Plum Island: ‘Sounds charming’
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Plum Island sits less than 7 miles off the coast of Connecticut in Long Island Sound. It is completely owned by the federal government and controlled ...
The human range of emotions stretches beyond our vocabulary
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You probably know when you’re feeling happy, sad, or angry. But our range of emotions stretch beyond the language we have for them. This hour, w...
The Nose on Jon Stewart and J.K. Rowling, the retirement of CT’s own ‘fartrepreneur,’ the Pope and pets, and ‘The French Dispatch’
07 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose is a willow hamper containing umpteen pins, plaques, and official citations of the highest order. In this week’s newest n...
Ross Douthat’s battle with the invisible illness of Lyme disease
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat knew he was sick, but none of the doctors he visited in the early days of his illness could tell him what h...
Neanderthals were more than cavemen
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recent scientific discoveries have shown just how much we’ve previously underestimated Neanderthals. It turns out that their lives were very sim...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a brand new year, baby! The holidays are over, the winter is upon us… 2022 is upon us. So we figured you might want to talk. In othe...
The New Year’s Nose looks back at 2021
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a long, strange year. (Aren’t they all at this point?) And so, how is our popular culture dealing with it all? The Nose has a nu...
The best jazz of 2021
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To round out the year, we round up the best jazz of the year. We’ve done this every year for at least the last eightyears. Here are our 2021 pic...
Unearthing truth about the urge to steal and the sting of loss
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever considered lifting lipstick from Sephora, only to wonder why? Did you feel the rush of valor when Indiana Jones breached Russian defense...
‘To the hobbits.’ A celebration of ‘The Lord of the Rings’
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters 20 years ago this month, on December 19, 2001. This hour, a look ...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re back from the holiday weekend. We’re looking forward to the holiday weekend. As we start this holiday interregnum week, we figured y...
The Nose looks at ‘And Just Like That…’ and ‘Yellowjackets’
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On this special Christmas Eve Eve edition, The Nose is not pretending to be any age. And Just Like That… is an HBO Max original limited series ...
Our 2021 holiday spectacular with ‘Big Al’ Anderson, Jim Chapdelaine, Illeana Douglas, and friends
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every year since 2014, we’ve done some version of this show. Ideally, we’d do it in person, but these aren’t ideal times. But our ho...
Fun shouldn’t be a guilty pleasure. Fun is the point
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When was the last time you had fun? I mean the kind of fun where you lost track of time, you didn’t care what others were thinking of you, and y...
A personal and literary exploration of blindness and sight
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At 10 years old, M. Leona Godin began losing her vision. Her experience with sight and blindness is detailed in her new book, There Plant Eyes: A Pers...
An hour with America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Nose is off this week. In its place, America’s Greatest Living Film Critic, David Edelstein, joins Colin to talk about the year in movies an...
The art is the idea. A look at Sol LeWitt
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the New Britain Museum of American Art staging two concurrent exhibitions of Sol LeWitt’s prints, we listen back to our 2019 hour on the Ha...
From productivity culture to workplace technology, we’re rethinking how we work
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In their new book, Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home, Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel argue that “wh...
Your mind makes it real. A look back at ‘The Matrix’
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 18-year wait is nearly over, and the fourth Matrix movie, The Matrix Resurrections, is almost here. This hour, we look back at the original film a...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we hav...
The Nose on Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ and intermissions at movies
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, The Nose might mind if you come to the table without a washup. The 1970s are back. Again. For the nth time. But maybe it’s different ...
This is the age of peak newsletter
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Newsletters have become a great way for journalists and others to dive deep into less-covered topics and engage directly with their readers in ways no...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we hav...
Former Senator Joe Lieberman believes the best seat in the House is in the middle
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Former Senator Joe Lieberman believes the center of Congress is the best place from which to legislate. It’s the sweet spot for negotiation and ...
What we know about the omicron variant, cute cat videos are spreading misinformation, and the keys to critical thinking
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we talk about an assortment of topics. First, the omicron variant has been found in at least 16 states. We’ll learn about the latest ...
The Nose looks at (all 468 minutes of) ‘The Beatles: Get Back’
03 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, The Nose was a frying pan. The Beatles: Get Back is a three-part Disney+ docuseries produced and directed by Peter Jackson. It’s...
Don’t worry. We’ve got enough maple syrup. But beyond that, the supply chain is still a mess
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From toilet paper shortages, to delayed shipping and low product inventories, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on our global supply chains. This...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we hav...
Sly like a (domesticated) fox
30 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev started an ambitious experiment to study the origins of domestication: he would attempt to breed domesticate...
A Monday in the park. Our tribute to Sondheim and his songs
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Sondheim was, put simply, among the most important figures in the history of musical theater. His major works include West Side Story, Gypsy, ...
The Poet Laureate of Rock ’n’ Roll at 80
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bob Dylan turned 80 years old in May. His first album, 1962’s Bob Dylan, is in its 60th year on record store shelves. We’re at a point whe...
The enduring appeal of boy bands, from ‘Bye Bye Bye’ to ‘Butter’
23 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From New Kids on the Block to *NSYNC to One Direction, boy bands have been a staple of popular music for decades. This hour, a look at the history &md...
Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ at 50
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joni Mitchell’s album Blue turned 50 this year. It may not have the artistic sophistication of her later albums, but Mitchell’s vulnerabil...
The Nose looks at Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well,’ ‘The Problem with Jon Stewart,’ and ‘The Harder They Fall’
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, The Nose is lightning with the blam blams. First: Taylor Swift’s new 15-minute film for the new 10-minute version of her old five-min...
Who’s running for president in 2024? Why isn’t there a COVID vaccine for pets? And what happened to Eric Clapton?
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It’s a smorgaspourri of disparate topics this hour. First: Who will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2024? President Biden says he&rsq...
Occam's razor makes the case for simplicity in a complex world
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Occam's razor states that "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This hour is all about Occam’s razor: where the principle ...
Scientists confirm existence of woo-woo. Woo-woo declares results inconclusive
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between all we know to be true and all we know to be false lies a world of woo. “Woo-woo,” to use the full term, refers to ideas considere...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we hav...
Here be dragons
12 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dragons have captured our imagination going back to the Greek and Roman Empires when the skeletal bones of dinosaurs fed the myths we still believe to...
Toad’s Place and the Shaboo Inn had a magic in the ’70s and ’80s that may never happen again
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Toad’s Place and The Shaboo Inn were part of a magical era for music in Connecticut in the 1970s and ’80s. It was a time when small music ...
Operators are standing by! A show about infomercials
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The inconic inventor and pitchman Ron Popeil died July 28. He was 86 years old. This hour, we listen back to the 2016 show we did with Popeil on the f...
The Meta Formerly Known as Facebook. Rebranding in business, culture and, well, this very radio show
09 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Morris became Altria. Apple Computer became Apple. Radio Shack became The Shack (and then went bankrupt). The New Britain Rock Cats m...
Architecture vs. humans. Why do architects sometimes design buildings that make people feel bad?
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few weeks, there has been a debate surrounding Munger Hall, a dorm designed by billionaire Charles Munger to house over 4,000 students o...
The Nose goes on a ‘Voyage’ with ABBA (and HBO’s ‘Succession’)
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Voyage is ABBA’s ninth studio album and their first album of new material in 40 years. Its 10 tracks dropped early this morning. A concert ...
We take your calls. Ask (or tell) us anything
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we hav...
There are rules for punctuation, but we don't always agree on them
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Should people use Oxford commas? Is there a correct number of exclamation points per email? If someone ends a casual text with a period, does that mea...
A show about nothing (really!)
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why is there something rather than nothing? This has been described as perhaps the most sublime philosophical question of all. This hour, we try to an...
Airships in history and fiction capture our imaginations. Could they have a real-world role to play?
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There's something almost romantic about airships--from zeppelins to dirigibles to little Goodyear Blimps. The image of a giant, floating aircraft feel...
The Nose looks at Facebook’s Meta rebranding, ‘Dune: Part One,’ and more
29 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Facebook announced Thursday that its umbrella company will rebrand as “Meta.” Mark Zuckerberg said that the new name reflects th...
Not Necessarily The Nose: The year in horror, 2021
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We realized a few years ago that — basically because Colin and I are fraidy cats — The Nose doesn’t cover very much horror...
Has America become the land of failed opportunity?
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
An entrenched anxiety is taking hold throughout America. You can feel it in the air and see it in the rise of guns, doomsday preppers, and mask wars. ...