The Colin McEnroe Show
Episodes
Mysteries, hoaxes, and magic: Decoding mystifying manuscripts
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most mysterious texts in the world lives here in Connecticut. The Medieval Voynich Manuscript is at the Beinecke Library at Yale University...
The road to sainthood: Who’s on it and how did they get there?
28 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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: Teres...
All Calls: Not everyone involved in this episode went to the bathroom beforehand
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. The...
The Nose looks at ‘Mr. Scorsese’ and ‘No Other Land’
24 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host comedian Shawn Murray returns! This week’s Nose looks at: Mr. Scorsese is a five-part, more-than-four-hour documentary series about t...
A tribute to the proud and peaceful pigeon
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 esse...
The ‘father of history’ would have some thoughts about our present
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Greek writer Herodotus "invented" history by turning away from myth to a new kind of writing. And although he wrote his Histories nearly 2,500 years a...
From hot mics to mic drops, a celebration of the microphone
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 h...
All Calls: Trump’s AI video is so Skibidi Toilet
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
It can be an art, too: On murder and more in Hitchcock’s close quarters
17 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rope is an interesting movie in Alfred Hitchcock’s œuvre. It’s his first color picture. It’s one of 13 movies he made based on...
A look at the women buried in the footnotes of scientific discovery
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Women scientists and inventors have been making ground-breaking discoveries since Agnodice pretended to be a man in order to become the first female a...
Rope has been knotting humanity together for centuries
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Rope has been foundational to so much of human civilization. It's made sailing, hunting, building, and so much more, possible. This hour, we look at t...
Today: Did episode on notebooks & diaries, bought kiwi fruit, had teeth cleaning
14 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour is all about notebooks. We'll talk about the history and evolution of notebooks, favorite examples, and celebrate the joy of writing things ...
Chion Wolf takes your calls (again)!
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
From chorus lines to emus: A look at the stage musical
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This year is the 50th anniversary of A Chorus Line and Chicago and the 10th anniversary of Hamilton. Meanwhile, new Broadway ...
A look at the next pandemic with Michael T. Osterholm
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
COVID has caused more than 7 million confirmed deaths (and estimates of the actual total go well past 20 million). Here’s the even worse news: I...
Words, words, words: A look at style guides and Britishisms in American English
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, a look at words and usage and grammar and language and all that fun stuff. Have you noticed how we Americans have become “so bloody k...
A tribute to cereal: Kid tested, mother approved
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We once did a show about beer jingles, which is a great example of how a product becomes a culture. Cereal as a culture, is off the charts. There&rsqu...
All calls: Be who you want to be. Not who the midges want you to
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. The...
The Nose looks at ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘The Lowdown’
03 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One Battle After Another is the 11th feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is written and produced by Anderson and inspired by the no...
The secret lives of numbers
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Numbers are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that we maybe tend to think of them as an intrinsic part of the world around us...
Multiple wars rage on. Does the Nobel Peace Prize still matter?
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 2025 winner of The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in a few weeks. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants it. This hour we loo...
It’s time to talk about the alphabet in the room
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the Western world is organized by alphabetical order, which is so much more than the 26 letters that make up the alphabet. Alphabetical order ...
All calls: In a world of Gumby folk, I’m a Pokey
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The music and mystery of Nick and Molly Drake
26 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The singer and songwriter Nick Drake died in 1974. He was just 26, and he remains a bit of a mystery. He recorded three albums but played very few sho...
What can we learn from the myth of Antigone? For one, it’s so 2025
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sophocles' play Antigone was originally performed around 441 B.C.E., but the themes in the play still resonate today. This hour, we revisit ...
Shark fever: The lore of the great white
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The myth of the great white, exacerbated by the 1975 megahit Jaws, is false. Great whites are not the aggressive creatures still portrayed in popular ...
Necks: More than just something we have a pain in
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you feel about your neck? Maybe you only think about it when you’re sore from sleeping wrong or from sitting at a desk all day. But for c...
All Calls: If you give a mouse a vasectomy, can you keep your Hulu subscription?
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. The...
The Nose looks at Jimmy Kimmel, ‘The Paper’ and ‘The Naked Gun’
19 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In July, after CBS canceled The Late Show, President Trump posted that “Jimmy Kimmel is next.” And now his administration seems nearly to ...
A show about psychics! (But they already knew that)
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
There is perhaps no figure more emblematic of the paranormal than the psychic. Able to predict the future, see into the past, and even communicate wit...
Fly with us to Neverland: Why we're forever hooked on Peter Pan
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's been over one hundred years since J. M. Barrie first told the story of Peter Pan, Wendy, and Neverland. Since then, Peter Pan has been adapted co...
Turns out common sense isn’t all that common
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump has been using the phrase “common sense” a lot. But it turns out that this is nothing new for politicians. This hou...
Chion Wolf takes your calls!
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Laura Nyro was the Emily Dickinson of American pop music
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Nyro’s most famous compositions — “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Stoney End,” “When I Die,” “Weddi...
‘Never be the same’: 24 years in the shadow of 9/11
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It has been 24 years since the sunny late summer Tuesday morning that changed basically everything. This hour, a look back at September 11, 2001, and ...
Sugar highs (and lows): A history of "white gold"
10 Sep 2025
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...
Neither snow nor rain nor heat... A history of the U.S. Postal Service
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The U.S. Postal Service was one of our earliest experiments in democracy. The vast transportation networks that led to more than 30,000 post offices r...
All calls: What's the name of the zip line at the Robert Frost Fantasy Camp?
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, the conversation winds around to Robert Frost, bucket lists, the Supreme Court, spotted lantern flies, New England autonomy, and dating. &h...
How Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman can help us break the spell of technology on our lives
05 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you listen to The Colin McEnroe Show regularly, you likely know that Colin has been influenced by two media theorists: Marshall McLuhan a...
Beyond woods and roads: The life and poetry of Robert Frost
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You have probably encountered Robert Frost through his poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” or “The Road Not Taken.” B...
An ode to the sun
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What can you say about the sun? It sits at the center of our solar system and has, over time, been at the center of religions, scriptures, songs, art,...
Rum raisin, Ryan Reynolds, flies grooming themselves … the acid is starting to kick in
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What’s wrong with men: A look at Michael Douglas movies with Jessa Crispin
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You hear a lot about the ongoing American crisis among men, among boys, around masculinity, right? You see lots of headlines about how we got here, wh...
Colin and Dylan tell you what the song of the summer should have been
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the you sit contemplating the end of long summer days, you might wonder what might have been. What might have been if there was a song of the summe...
Tangle's Isaac Saul has us look at both sides and beyond
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The political newsletter Tangle approaches things differently than most news organizations. Each day they do a deep-dive on one topic where they lay o...
The battle for butter
26 Aug 2025
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 ...
First Colin takes your calls and then Senator Chris Murphy does
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For the first half of today's show, Colin will take your calls about whatever you want to talk about. Then, it’s been a minute since Senator Chr...
Senator Chris Murphy takes your calls and reflects on the fight to save democracy
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been a minute since Senator Chris Murphy joined Colin for a check-in on state matters and a chat about the weather in Washington. And we do...
The Nose looks at ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ and ‘Alien: Earth’
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s Nose, guest hosted by comedian Shawn Murray, looks at: Highest 2 Lowest is the fifth collaboration between director Spike Lee and ac...
What is culture without the guidance of critics?
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we take a critical look at the role of art critics in our world. What is the status of criticism, and is it under threat? GUESTS: Naveen ...
Why does "like" bother us so much?
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The word "like" has been around for centuries, but it reached a new cultural prominence in the 1980s, partially thanks to Frank Zappa's song "Valley G...
The unfolding evolution of origami
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How do you make a 100-meter telescope that folds down to three meters so you can tuck it inside a space vehicle? How do you make a heart stent that fo...
All calls: Why ABBA will never win the Nobel Peace Prize
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What the golden age of Condé Nast can tell us about the future of magazines
15 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael M. Grynbaum's new book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, traces the rise of Cond&ea...
190 years after his birth, Mark Twain is as relevant (and funny) as ever
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Chances are, you know Richard Thomas as John-Boy on The Waltons. Or maybe you saw him more recently in his many-episode arcs on shows like The America...
One leg at a time: The history of women and pants
13 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
According to mytho-historical accounts, the ancient Amazons wore pants while riding into battle. But the trend this tribe of warrior women set was sho...
Smiling will get you everywhere
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Smiling is a universal way to show happiness. But not all smiles are happy. In reality, we smile less for happiness than for social reasons that have ...
All calls: If you try to talk on the radio with your radio on your head will explode
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
You may be wrong, but you may be right: A look at Billy Joel
08 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
This show is the cat’s pajamas
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
The intangibility of ‘good taste,' from literature to food
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to have 'good taste'? And what would it take to develop it? This hour, we talk about taste and discernment. Plus, a look at flavor a...
Combating corrosion: The war on rust
05 Aug 2025
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 book Rust: The L...
All calls: Mordor is no longer theoretical
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Nose looks at ‘Eddington’ and ‘Sunday Best’
01 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 to...
Monsters: A look at the real, the fake, and the friendly
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Monsters are our subconscious perversions, our twisted fears realized, but what causes their creation, and how are they made? This hour, we look at fa...
‘A most confounding affliction’: A look at headaches
30 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Headache symptoms can strike sufferers without warning, disabling them for even days at a time. There have been nearly 4,000 years of documented heada...
'Tis a show about castles, me Lord
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
All calls: You probably bought a Joni Mitchell Toaster
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What if tug of war were still an Olympic sport? And other questions with Mike Pesca
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests — on any number of topics. His book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History,...
How reality TV shapes our politics
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does reality television shape our politics and our opinions? This hour two reality TV scholars join us to discuss how reality TV helps us understa...
‘Sing, O muse!’ A look at muses and how we evoke them
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Dating back to Homer and Hesiod, artists have been calling on muses for inspiration. This hour, we look at the mythology of the muses, real-life muses...
The wonder of termites
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nobody likes termites. They get into the wood in our homes and can lead to infuriating and expensive repairs. What’s to like? It turns out, ther...
All calls: Do you mind if I borrow your linen closet?
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Nose looks at ‘Superman’ and Stephen Colbert
18 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thursday night, CBS announced that it is cancelling its flagship late night show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, after next season, in May, 2026....
‘Murder in the Dollhouse’: Jennifer Dulos and our fascination with true crime
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the morning of May 24, 2019, Jennifer Dulos dropped her kids off at New Canaan Country School. And then minutes later, she vanished. Her presumed m...
The secret language of animals and how we're learning to understand it
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do you ever wish you could have a conversation with your pet, or the bird outside your window? This hour, we learn about how animals communicate with ...
Eventually the world will end. Why can't we stop imagining it?
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this year, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock closer to midnight. The end of the world has been something humans h...
All calls: The first rule about invisible rabbits is you do not talk about invisible rabbits
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Alive and well in our imaginations: Dinosaurs in pop culture
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We think of dinosaurs as figures from science, from history, from the fossil record. But if I say “Tyrannosaurus rex,” do you picture bone...
Alissa Wilkinson on Joan Didion, Hollywood, and American mythmaking
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, author and film critic Alissa Wilkinson joins us to talk about Joan Didion, Hollywood, and how we make sense of our politics. GUEST: Aliss...
Nothing lasts forever, except maybe Stoicism
09 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lately the ancient philosophy of Stoicism is having a bit of a resurgence. This hour we learn about the philosophy, why people are drawn to it, and ho...
An appreciation of squirrels
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I’ve had some well-documented trouble with our neighborhood squirrels over the last few winters. It could be that most homeowners in the Northea...
All calls: Bug poop and happy elks hold the world together
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Nose looks at ‘Ironheart’ and The New York Times’ best 100 movies of the century list
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ironheart is a new miniseries from Marvel Television. It is the 28th (not a typo) TV series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it concludes Ph...
The story of book chapters, one page at a time
02 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour we take a look at the history and evolution of chapters, and discuss how they impact our reading experiences. GUESTS: Nicholas Dames...
All calls: Are you car shopping in an animated movie?
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Socrates' lessons on life, death, and conversation with Agnes Callard
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, philosopher Agnes Callard joins us to talk about her latest book, Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life. GUEST: Agnes Ca...
‘A kind of musical Mark Twain’: A look at Randy Newman
27 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Randy Newman has been nominated for 22 Academy Awards (he’s won twice), for 23 Grammy Awards (seven wins), and for three Primetime Emmy Awards (...
The real lives of the Vikings
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of the Vikings, you probably picture a bearded man wearing a horned hat, pillaging on a Viking ship. But that's far from the whole stor...
Our relationship with rest is changing, and it’s about time
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour is all about the importance of rest, and how to rest well. Plus, we'll talk about the role of rest in religion, and look at the history of "...
Who are epigraphs for?
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour: the art of the epigraph. We talk with writers about how they pick the quotes that open their books, what epigraphs can do well, how the bus...
All calls: Why don’t people say ‘you’re welcome’ anymore? Good question
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Live from Watkinson: The legacy of Brian Wilson
20 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Wilson was a singer, songwriter, record producer, and a founding member of The Beach Boys. He’s thought of as one of the great geniuses of...
Exploring astrology: Do stars really impact us?
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Humans have always been interested in the sky, and astrology has been used as a tool for people in power for a long time. During times of stress, inte...
You want me to eat what?! An examination of disgust
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Okay, this show comes with a trigger warning. We talk about things people eat, and some of those things are not for the squeamish. This hour, a look a...
The toll of perfectionism
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Perfectionism is on the rise among young people. This hour, we look at the impact of perfectionism on mental health and how to deal with perfectionist...
The Nose says goodbye to Brian Wilson and looks at ‘The Phoenician Scheme’
13 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The pop music genius Brian Wilson, a founding member of The Beach Boys, died on June 11. The Nose says goodbye. And: Wes Anderson has written and dire...
Song of the summer, 2025
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Listen live Thursday at 1 p.m. We’ve done a version of this show every single year since ...
The animating power of rivers with writer Robert Macfarlane
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What would it mean if we treated rivers as alive? That's the question that nature writer Robert Macfarlane wrestles with in his new book. What would h...
We're reading fewer books. That's not good
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This hour, we take stock of what it's like to read as an adult, and discuss why some Americans, including college students, are reading fewer books. W...