The Colin McEnroe Show
Episodes
What If Tug-Of-War Were Still An Olympic Sport? And Other Crazy Crucial Questions With Mike Pesca
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests -- on any number of topics. And he's got a new book out: Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in S...
No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk...Right? A Look At Regret
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We all regret and we should not regret that we regret. I regret buying that pair of pink sneakers that I'll never wear. I can't take the sneaker...
100 Years After WW1; Matthew Whitaker; Doctored Videos
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This weekend was the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. World leaders convened in Paris and listened to French president Emmanuel Macron war...
The Nose On The Sexiest Man Alive And 'Homecoming'
09 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week's Nose painted itself into a bit of a rhetorical corner and somehow found itself arguing that Idris Elba is too old to be James Bond. And wh...
Swamps: The Past, Present, And (Endangered?) Future Of America's Wetlands
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
As President Trump talks about draining the swamp in Washington D.C., we turn our attention to actual swamps. Associated with death and decay, while a...
Women Of Connecticut Surf The Blue Wave
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Women won big in these 2018 Connecticut midterm elections. This follows a national trend sparked in response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Mor...
Citizen Observers Share What's Happening At Polling Places Around The State
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We have a tradition on the show of celebrating voting and the people who vote by speaking to thoughtful "citizen observers" from around the state abou...
WE DON'T GIVE A F*** If You Don't Like This Terrific Interview With Lewis Black, King Of Rant
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Lewis Black is a funny guy. His expletive-laced RANTS and YELLING about whatever's on his (our) mind lends a rejuvenating catharsis for anyone who's t...
Let's Talk About Election Day
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's almost over. One more day of lawn signs, robocalls, nasty mailers and deceptive commercials. Election Day is upon us and is shaping up to bring a...
The Nose: 'Party For One' And 'Bodyguard'
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Carly Rae Jepsen hadn't released a Carly Rae Jepsen single from a Carly Rae Jepsen album in three years... until Thursday, that is. Her new single and...
The Decimation Of The Osage Nation
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Native Americans have been getting forced off their land for a long time. Thomas Jefferson forced them from their ancestral home in 1804 after he sign...
Not Happy With The Major Party Candidates? You Have Options. We Bring You A Few.
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are you one of those people who wants to vote for Oz Griebel for governor but won't because you're afraid your vote might lead to a win for your least...
Forget Google Maps, There's Still Lots To Explore
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There's a set of steps and a big stone fireplace sitting in the middle of the woods where I used to walk my dog. I can envision the family living in t...
Pulling Back The Curtain On Political Polls
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The polling industry is seeking to regain public confidence after the 2016 election. Will the advent of live polling, like what's being done by The Up...
Not Necessarily The Nose: The Year In Horror, 2018
26 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In terms of box office, 2017 was the biggest year in the history of horror cinema. One wonders: Why? And then this year has brought us Hered...
Following The Paper Trail
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
About 2000 years ago the Chinese came up with something really great: paper! Paper has allowed us to share ideas around the globe, record important hi...
What Jesus And Britney Spears Have In Common: Puns
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Shakespeare was famous for his off-color puns, yet much of their cleverness has been lost to the evolution of our English language.In Shakespear...
Fire: Sparking Imagination Since Two Million B.C.
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Things burn: Our environments, resources, and all forms of monument to self. And since the beginning, so too has our imagination. The inspiration huma...
Jamal Khashoggi's Killing And Trump's Transactional Presidency
21 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has hit a cultural nerve in America. The sustained anger outstrips our response to the killing of 43 ot...
The New Haven Nose On Louis C.K. And 'First Man'
19 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Louis C.K.'s surprise return to a comedy club stage in late August was widely covered and discussed. His subsequent performances have maybe sparked le...
How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, And Superheroes Made America Great For Extremism
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You know all the reasons Trump won, right?Economic anxiety. Racial anxiety. The forgotten working class. The forgotten rustbelt...But what if the real...
You Should Give Opera A Listen. It's Different Than You May Think
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever been to the opera? I know, you think it's stuffy and formal and only for rich, white people of a certain age. You're wrong. Support...
Live From Watkinson: Examining Our Furious Political Discourse
16 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Common wisdom says that once you walk downstairs to the place where the sizes of candidates’ body parts are fodder for discussion, where one preside...
Our Electronic Voting Systems Are Still Pretty Hackable
14 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Despite Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and attempts by hackers to infiltrate voter-registration databases in Illinois, Arizona...
Not Necessarily The Nose: 'A Star Is Born' (Again)
12 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We now have no fewer than four big screen versions of A Star Is Born.There's the 1937 original, the Judy Garland/James Mason remake, the Barbra Streis...
Our Theme Today Is Theme Songs
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
So, when Prince died (which was two-and-a-half years ago), we announced that we were finally going to retire our theme song (which was a Prince song)....
An Ode To Yodeling
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What is yodeling, anyway? Some consider it singing, some say it's an ululation, and still others consider it merely a means to herd animals. Whatever ...
Is America Becoming More Tribal Or Just More Angry?
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton were using strategies to deliberately divide America's political system decades before the pivotal 2000 presi...
Has Lady Justice Ditched Her Blindfold?
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we've booked no guests. It's Colin and your calls. Saturday's confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was the anticlimatic co...
The New Haven Nose Takes Two: 'Slow Burn: Season Two' And 'Serial: Season Three'
05 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
So we did a Nose last week. It was good. It was about the second season of Slow Burn and the third season of Serial, and it was kind of also about how...
Are You 'October Ready'?
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The postseason proper is upon us!Baseball has already played four winner-take-all games in three days. The Dodgers and the Brewers won their divisions...
How Can I "Take It Easy" When Everyone Is Still Fighting Over The Eagles?
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Eagles' first album touched a cultural nerve in 1971, with songs like "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman." And the hits never stopped. Desp...
Little House Libertarians
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of you reading this are familiar with the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder because you watched the popular "Little House on the Prairi...
The Kavanaugh Hearings; Drug Exchanges
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Like many Americans, our newsroom was glued to the eight or so hours of testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh during l...
The New Haven Nose On 'Slow Burn: Season Two' And 'Serial: Season Three'
28 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's been... quite a week. It kinda seems like nothing happened in pop culture at all this week, doesn't it? Regardless, The Nose has a mandate to sat...
An Hour With Joyce Maynard
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joyce Maynard has been writing for over 45 years about the kind of human experiences we're often taught to keep hidden - stories about envy, ang...
Will The Real Brett Kavanaugh Please Stand Up
25 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat of departing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had already widened the chasm between Dem...
Combating Corrosion: America's War on Rust
24 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rust is all around us. It's in our cars, our homes, our infrastructure. It's also the subject of Jonathan Waldman's first book, Rust, which introduces...
The Nose On The Death Of The Celebrity Profile, Chevy Chase, And 'The Land Of Steady Habits'
21 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The celebrity profile is dead. Or dying, at least, according to The New York Times. Case in point: the Times's own terrible profile of the great Maya ...
Poverty: Personal, Political, And Philosophical Perspectives
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How well do we really know the poor? As our nation's economy grows and the jobless rate decreases, are we increasingly ignoring their voices? Haven't ...
Attack Of The Apocaloptimists
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We were going to produce a show today on loneliness with British writer Olivia Laing. We still want to do that show with Olivia - but not today.Instea...
Historical Deletion and Censorship
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There's a mostly forgotten story by the mostly forgotten sci-fi writer, R.A. Lafferty. It's called, "What's The Name of That Town." We meet a team of ...
The Collision Of Brett Kavanaugh And America's Moral Code
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we have no guests. We want to hear from you. We canceled our previously planned show so we could dedicate the entire hour to understanding how ...
The Nose On Cynthia Nixon's Bagel, 'Searching,' And Some Other Stuff
14 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Actress Cynthia Nixon lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary in New York yesterday. Did she lose because of the kind of bagel she eats? Probably no...
Does Color Exist In The Dark?
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Color doesn't exist on its own.A red rose will look different to me than it does to you. It will also look different to a pigeon, who can see way more...
The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is 'Fear' Itself
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard that Bob Woodward has a new book out.It was number one on Amazon... before it came out. It was into its seventh printing -- a milli...
Breaking Up (With Your Phone) Is Hard To Do
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly ninety-percent of Americans own a smartphone.On average, we spend more than four hours a day on our phones, which adds up to about 56 full days...
Serena & The Umpire; Who Get To Join Connecticut Debates?
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After Naomi Osaka won the first set against Serena Williams during Saturday's U.S. Open Women's Final, chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave Williams a warni...
Not Necessarily The Nose: Pop Culture Is Another Thing Dividing Us; The Major Leagues Of Wiffle Ball
07 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Here's the money quote from a recent Washington Post story on entertainment in the Trump era: "People look at politics when deciding how they feel abo...
The Semiotics of Cigarettes, Sexy Shoes, and Some Other Stuff
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Semiotics is the study of sign process, which is to say: it's the science of the search for meaning.And then, part of the underlying premise of semiot...
Colin Kaepernick And Nike
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nike is catching a lot of press for selecting former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as the face of a new "Just Do It" ad campaign. Support the ...
Identity Politics: Friend Or Foe?
04 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Former Trump official Steve Bannon was disinvited from the 19th annual "New Yorker Festival" Monday, after David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker,&nb...
Living the Freelancer Life
03 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We all know that the days of punching our clock for exactly forty hours is over. One of the alternatives that has risen in its place is what's called ...
Noah Baerman And 'The Rock & The Redemption'
31 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble's The Rock & the Redemption is a jazz concept album of sorts that recasts the Sisyphus myth around the heroism...
A Radio Show About Mimes? You Bet!
30 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mimes have been gesticulating their way into our hearts (or nightmares) for a lot longer than you may think. While it may have been the legendary Marc...
The Wonder Of Termites (Yep, That's What I Said)
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nobody likes the termite. They get into the wood in our homes that can lead to infuriating and expensive repairs. What's to like.It turns out, there's...
Who Killed The King?
28 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things you will learn this hour is how close New Haven came to being a possession of Spain. Even if you think you know the story of the New...
Will Political Decency Die With John McCain?
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
I didn't vote for U.S. Senator John McCain when he ran for president in 2000 and again in 2008. I was deeply angry with him in 2008 when I felt he cap...
Not Necessarily The Nose: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Changing Hollywood; Baseball Changing...For The Worse?
24 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Nose is off this week, but we bring you some pop culture topics anyway:Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians is the number-one movie in the country, and ...
The Psychopath Show
23 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
You know lots of sociopaths right?It could be anyone from your ex-spouse to the guy who cut you off on your drive to work today. It's a term we throw ...
How Soon Is Too Soon? (And Other Classic Questions And Conundrums About Comedy)
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
humor = tragedy + timeOkay, but then the logical next question is: How much time?If it's okay, at this point, to joke about, say, The Spanish Inquisit...
Sugar Highs (And Lows): A History of "White Gold"
21 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The history of sugar is a complicated one. Once available to only the rich and powerful, sugar now shows up in everything from cereals and soups, to c...
The Battle For Butter
20 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We tend not to think much about that pat of butter we put on our morning toast, including how the store-bought sweet cream butter we're eating likely ...
(You Make The Nose Feel Like) A Natural Woman
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
August 16 -- yesterday -- is kind of an oddly busy day in the history of popular culture. In 1954, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was published...
What Does It Mean To Be A Man In 2018?
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What do recent events such as #MeToo, the election of Donald Trump, and an onslaught of mass shootings perpetrated by white men all have in common? Th...
What Can Hannah Arendt Teach Us About This Moment?
15 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Arendt's 576-page magnum opus, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is a densely-written book about the rise of anti-Semitism up to the ou...
It's Primary Day, Er, Remember?
14 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's Primary Day in Connecticut! We know a lot of people can't vote in today's primaries because they're either not registered with one of our two maj...
Is The White Nationalist Movement Falling Apart Or Getting Leaner And Meaner?
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Many of us hoped the white nationalist movement that instigated last year's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, would suffer a fatal blow. The...
The Nose On The Academy Award For Best Popular Picture And 'Eighth Grade'
10 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week announced changes to the annual Oscar awards, including a new category recognizing "outstand...
A World In A Grain Of Sand
09 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Sand is the most abundant material on Earth. And, other than water and air, sand is the natural resource we consume more than any other -- more, even,...
What We Get Wrong About Disability
08 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When was the last time you saw someone with a disability? Do you have a loved one who is part of the community? Did you see a character on TV, or did ...
An Hour With Martin Amis
07 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Times of London has said that Martin Amis "is as talented a journalist as he is a novelist." His latest collection of essays and reportage covers ...
Is President Trump Inciting Violence Against The Media?
06 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Washington Post, in The Fact Checker database they've kept since the 2016 election, notes an increase in the number of false or misleading cl...
This Nose Will Self-Destruct In Five Seconds
03 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Colin's quite fond of this little piece of trivia: Tom Cruise was five years older during the production of Mission: Impossible -- Fallout than Wilfo...
Healing From Cancer
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Colin was diagnosed with melanoma several weeks ago. He had a few scary weeks between diagnosis and removal of the cancer. He's told he's clean but, w...
Kneeling As An Act Of Protest
01 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Kneeling has historically been an act of supplication. An act of reverence, of modesty. An act of submission, even.But then Colin Kaepernick started k...
The Rise And Fall Of The Hat
31 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Take a look at at any early 20th century photograph and you'll see them: Hats! From Beavers and Bowlers to bonnets and baseball caps, for hundreds of ...
Is President Trump Gaslighting Us?
30 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
George Packer wrote in The New Yorker this weekend that the only obstacle left to prevent President Trump's full consolidation of power is public opin...
The New Haven Nose On Ariana Grande's 'God Is A Woman' And HBO's 'Sharp Objects'
27 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ariana Grande already had a top 10 hit from her forthcoming album, Sweetener. As of this week, she's got songs at numbers six and eleven on the Billbo...
'Everything But Country': The Politics Of A Polarizing Genre
26 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Though country music is considered the most popular genre of music in America, its influence is profoundly regional. The style is known for appealing ...
Are We Ready For The Next Plague?
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The flu virus "Clade X" is spreading rapidly around the world through respiratory droplets. It was first detected in Germany and Venezuela...
Dancin' in the Moonlight: Connecticut Dance Halls
24 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we talk about two Connecticut dance halls, each springing from the vision of two very different men who took their respective dance halls d...
Revolt Is In The Air On The Political Left And Against Twitter
23 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a 28-year-old Democratic socialist from New York who beat the fourth-ranked Democrat in the U.S. House in an upset primary...
The Nose On 'Hannah Gadsby: Nanette' And 'Three Identical Strangers'
20 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah Gadsby is an Australian comedian and writer. Her new Netflix special is Nanette. There are certain ways it's a different sort of comedy special...
Ted Williams: The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived?
19 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
During his remarkable career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams earned many nicknames: The Kid, The Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame... but the on...
Profiling Criminal Profilers
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter series. "Criminal Minds" on CBS. In the past year, there've been "Mindhunter" on Netflix and "Manhunt: Unabomber" on D...
Are You Smarter Than an Octopus?
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The octopus has always been the stuff of spine-tingling legend, like that of the Kraken, the many-armed sea monster believed to drag ships to the bott...
The Sinking Helsinki Presser And Our Sinking Feelings
16 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We had planned ("planned") to do a show today about how we're getting too familiar with our sinking feelings.And then that Trump-Putin press conferenc...
The Nose On The Art And Industry Of Protest And HBO's 'Succession'
13 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Logan Roy is the head of a major media conglomerate, much like Rupert Murdoch. Also like Murdoch, he's not sure if he wants any of his kids to take ov...
Human Hubris And Its Cosmic Consequences
12 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are great at making a mess of things. So far, however, that mess has been confined to Earth. But as we develop into a spacefaring species, our ...
Cowabunga! An Hour With Mike Reiss
11 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When The Simpsons started thirty years ago, no one thought it would last more than six weeks.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudi...
A Legally-Obligated Look At Bees
10 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Federal regulatory requirements mandate* that all public media outlets occasionally devote significant airtime to the health and welfare of bees.Suppo...
The Paradox of "America First"
09 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We enjoyed speaking with all of the people who called our show last Monday. We want to keep the conversation going. We want you to keep calling so tha...
The Nose Kind Of HAD To Go See 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?,' Right?
06 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
They made a documentary about Mr. Rogers. Does The Nose really have a choice but to go see it? No. It does not. But then, it's "a vital doc," "a tearj...
Shall We Dance?
05 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we dance? The answer is more complicated than you might think. Dancing has served a multitude of functions for various cultures throughout hist...
Is Democracy Dying?
04 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Populism is on the rise from Europe to India to the United States.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy ...
The Agony And The Ecstasy Of Life In A Small Town
03 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump wants to "Make America Great Again," by turning back the clock to a time he believes was safer, purer, and removed from the dangers of...
What Is Happening To The America Of Our Ideals
02 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
America has never been able to fully measure up to the ideals we embody. Yet, we could reasonably believe that we at least aspired to those ideals of ...
The Nose On The Oral History Of The Bobbitts, ESPN's Body Issue, And Naomi Alderman's 'The Power'
29 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Believe it or not, Lorena and John Wayne Bobbitt (and their kitchen knife) entered the public consciousness 25 years ago last week.And this week, form...
Is There A Better Way To Vote In Connecticut's Primary?
28 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Connecticut will hold primaries on August 14 to determine which candidates get on the ballot in this November's midterm elections. Since Connecticut r...