The Colin McEnroe Show

The Scramble Goes to War on Climate Change and Donald Trump

29 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We're losing about 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice every week, the Great Barrier Reef - which dates back to the start of civilization - is rapidly d...

Live From the Ivoryton Playhouse: All the Nose Wants Is Nikes, But the Real Ones

26 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

After a four-year gestation period, and more than a year's worth of delays, Frank Ocean's second studio album dropped last weekend. There are two diff...

The Microbiome: Friend, Foe, or Both

25 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

For most of time, microbes ruled the planet alone. Microbes have been around for billions of years - long before people ever began to inhabit the...

A Look at Independent League Baseball

24 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Iannazzo was a baseball star at Norwalk High School, pitching them to an FCIAC title in 2007. At the University of Pittsburgh, he was an All-Conf...

The Scramble is Scrambled Over This Election

23 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump canceled his big speech on immigration scheduled for Thursday. It could have something to do with the comments he made to his new Hispani...

Colin's Call-In Show: Election 2016

22 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There's lots to talk about in the news right now -- including the presidential election that just keeps giving. Giving stress, giving insults, giving ...

The Nose Bids Adieu to "The Nightly Show," Gawker, and NPR's Comments Sections

19 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Comedy Central's "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" came to its hasty conclusion last night, still more than two months before the election. Gawker...

An Hour With Dick Cavett

18 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Clive James considered Dick Cavett one of the great intellectuals who shaped the 20th century. He did it primarily as the host of The Dick Cavett...

Petula Clark Was 'A Sign of the Times'

17 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Petula Clark has been singing since 1942, when as a nine-year-old child, she answered a request from a BBC producer to sing to a British theater audie...

The Final Frontier or the Glass Ceiling: The Legacy of Women in NASA

16 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

As the men of Apollo 11 returned home to ticker tape parades, the women who made their journey possible worked quietly behind the scenes. Since its fo...

The Scramble Checks in on Two Stories Out of Wisconsin

15 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The ten-part Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer" covers the 2007 conviction in Manitowoc County, Wisc., of Steven Avery for the murder of Teresa H...

The Nose Has Seen "Stranger Things"

12 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Start with four parts "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial." That's your base. Then you'll need two parts "The Goonies," two parts "Poltergeist," and two part...

An Ode to the Sun (Listen, Don't Stare!)

10 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What can you say about the sun? It sits not only at the center of our solar system but has, over time, been at the center of religions, scriptures, so...

The Art of the Audiobook

10 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a great audiobook? What makes a great audiobook narrator? (And, for that matter, what makes a not-so-great audiobook and audiobook narrator...

The Scramble Takes on Two Potential Disasters: Trump and the Olympics

09 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

You might think all is going well at the Olympics if you enjoyed the glossy opening ceremony or heard the inspirational stories of athletes, many...

Drew Magary Takes a Hike

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Drew Magary is an interesting guy.You might have one impression if you know him from his irreverent and wildly popular commentary in Deadspin, where h...

The Understudy Studies the Understudies

05 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Colin's out today. He got vocal nodes while moonlighting as Mariah Carey’s backup singer, and he's seeing his otolaryngologist. Or he sprained an an...

Pulling Back the Curtain on Political Stagecraft

04 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

During Connecticut's 2014 gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Tom Foley chose a failing paper mill in Sprague as the "stage" upon which ...

The 2016 Olympics From A to Zika

03 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

From Brazil's political unrest to its water pollution to the viral pandemic plaguing its streets, this year's Olympics in Rio De Janeiro are off to a ...

Joss Whedon: His Work, His Life, He's Here!

02 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Originally, we planned on doing a show about Joss Whedon -- without Joss Whedon. We invited a scholar of his work to talk about his television and fil...

A Long Look at Losing and Lovable (and Loathsome) Losers

01 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

As we were preparing for our show on underdogs a few months ago, I kept saying that we shouldn't overlook the fact that, often, to be an underdog in t...

The Nose Scratches Itself with a Chopstick

29 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

HBO's new limited series "The Night Of" is, we're pretty sure, the first psoriasis noir masterpiece.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee om...

The Scramble Goes To Philly

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia -  and the ride has been almost as wild as last week's Republican Nation...

A Nerding Out About Clouds

27 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

No one likes a cloudy sky. A cloud on the horizon is seen as a harbinger of doom. We feel like clouds need to have silver linings.But here's our thesi...

Live (on Tape) from Shakespeare and Company!

26 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When we did our show on Romeo and Juliet a few months ago, Tina Packer invited us to come up to Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, Mass., to see her new ...

Ralph Nader Weighs in on the Election

24 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ralph Nader is not happy with either the Republican or Democratic candidates for president. He says Republicans tolerating Donald Trump will look back...

The All-Girl Ghostbusters Nose Ain't Afraid of No Reboots

22 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In January 2015, when it was announced that a planned new Ghostbusters movie would feature four female leads, internet fanbros went crazy. And then, t...

The Republican War on Hillary Clinton

20 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Republican National Convention in Cleveland wraps up today following a speech by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.Support the show: ht...

Sepsis Is the Killer You Probably Don't Know About

20 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Sepsis is always an emergency. But I bet many of you reading this don't know what it is. The CDC says there are over one million cases of sepsis ...

Alternative History as a Literary Genre With Author Ben Winters

18 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Author Ben Winter's latest work of alternative History, Underground Airlines, has been getting lots of attention in the short time since its release. ...

Ready, Set...We're Going to Cleveland

17 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Republican National Convention kicks off in Cleveland today after several days of pre-convention fireworks, including efforts by anti-Trump delega...

The New Haven Nose Catches, Well, a Few of Them, Honestly, We're Kind of Tired

15 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

As you may have heard, Pokemon is back (are back?) with the release last week of a new game. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality app that, through the ...

We Did a Show About Circumcision

14 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Last fall, Colin saw The Bloodstained Men and Their Friends demonstrating in New Haven.They wear white coveralls with red stains on the crotches.Suppo...

Westerns: American Mythology or Cultural History?

13 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There are few genres of entertainment more American than the Western. But for a genre so steeped in the iconography of our past, its accuracy in portr...

A Tribute to Cereal: Kid Tested, Mother Approved

12 Jul 2016

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's th...

Donald Trump Up Close and Personal

10 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump wants to advance his business interests in Russia - and Vladimir Putin couldn't be happier. Putin's geopolitical interests rely on w...

Nose Go See Tarzan Movie

08 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There's a new entry in the long, long canon of Tarzan stories and adaptations and shows and movies and musicals and Happy Meals toys or whatever. This...

A Nerding Out About Clouds

06 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

No one likes a cloudy sky. A cloud on the horizon is seen as a harbinger of doom. We feel like clouds need to have silver linings.But here's our thesi...

Is America Still a Democracy?

06 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Many Americans feel their vote no longer carries much clout in determining the decisions that most affect their lives -- whether it's about immigratio...

The Scramble: Private Emails and Driverless Cars

05 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

FBI Director James Comey recommended no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a personal email server while she was Secretary of Sta...

A Show About Infomercials. Operators Are Standing By!

01 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Thighmaster, the Chop-O-Matic, the George Foreman Grill and the Clapper: Products which are all part of American consumer culture and which were a...

Imagining Aliens: A Conversation in Science, Fiction, and Theology

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

From scientists to fiction writers, conspiracy theorists to theologians, aliens have captured the imagination of us all. But as we ponder the possibil...

Adrenaline: America's Favorite Hormone

29 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Since its discovery in 1900, adrenaline and pop-culture have gone hand-in-hand. From extreme sports, to the latest energy drinks, to pulse pounding Ho...

A Love Letter (and Tomatoes) to the Usual Gang of Idiots

28 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Before Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, before Jon Stewart and Conan O’Brien, before "The Simpsons," before David Letterman, before "Saturday Night ...

Holy Smokes, Batman! You're a Star!

27 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

My Batman story begins with a crime. I was in third grade. I went to the barber shop in West Hartford Center where there were comic books to read whil...

The Nose Is Exiting the Rest of Its Face

24 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The British voted to leave the European Union yesterday. Let that sink in for a minute. This decision will likely cause geopolitical and economic turm...

Cinderella Doesn't Want to Marry the Prince

23 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us know Cinderella as the poor servant girl who stuck it to her mean stepmother and stepsisters by proving she was good enough to marry the ri...

Borders: A look at The Lines That Divide Us

22 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's easy to think of borders as fixed, almost sacrosanct lines, so rooted in the natural order of things that it often doesn't occur to us to questio...

The Unreliability of the Unreliable Narrator

21 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year at the Golden Globes, the top TV honor, Best Television Series -- Drama, went to USA's hacker technothriller series "Mr. Robot." Las...

The Scramble Crashed After We Talked Trump

20 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump has had a really bad few weeks. His poll numbers are dropping to the lowest point for any general election candidate in the last three ye...

The Nose Is Prepared to Sit Comfortably in Its Seats for One Hour and No Longer

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

I swear we almost never pick the Nose panelists based on the topics we plan to discuss. (We barely ever even plan in the first place, to be honest.) I...

Benedict Arnold: Unscrupulous Traitor or Unsung Hero?

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When you "pull a Benedict Arnold," you sell out your side to join the stronger side of a situation out of fear, not honor.  Needless to say, that...

Sea Change: Transforming Attitudes and Ethics Towards Marine Life

15 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Animal rights have come a long way over the last century, providing, of course, we're not talking about fish. While other vertebrates have slowly been...

A Look at Weiner, The Lobster, and Probably Some Other Movies with Odd Titles Too

13 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

America's Greatest Living Film Critic David Edelstein has called "Weiner," the new documentary about former Congressman Anthony Weiner's ill-fate...

The Scramble: The Shooting in Orlando

13 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Orlando, Florida was the scene of a mass shooting Sunday that left 50 people dead and dozens more injured. We've heard the story before: a shooter wal...

The Nose on O.J.: Made in America

09 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

New York magazine's Will Leitch has called ESPN's new documentary "O.J.: Made in America" a masterpiece, and he thinks it'll be "the only thing this c...

The 2016 Song of the Summer Is...

08 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, we do a Song of the Summer show. It always makes people angry. There is no evidence that it has ever made people happy. A lot of it has to...

Bringing Musical Theater Center Stage

08 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

"Hamilton," the wildly popular musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, will likely win several Tony Awards this weekend for changing the form of musical theate...

Get to Know the Jehovah's Witnesses

07 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Between orthodoxy and cultism exists a narrow divide; a proving ground of public opinion where spirited groups vie for entry into the hallowed halls o...

The Scramble Wonders If We're Ready for a Libertarian President

06 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There has never been a time in the last ten presidential cycles when voters have disliked two presidential front-runners as much as they dislike Donal...

The New Haven Nose's Tattoo Says Wall-to-Wall Fun

03 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Simon's 13th solo studio album, Stranger to Stranger, is out on Friday. It has apparently been gestating for going on four years, and it's full o...

Understanding Intelligence: From Social Science to Computer Science

02 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

How do we define intelligence? Where does it come from, and what roles do genetics and environment play in its development? We live in a world that va...

It's a Magazine of Sports, of Sorts: Baseball, Basketball, Scrabble, and the Spelling Bee

01 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ron Darling won a World Series. He was a Major League All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. He pitched a record-setting eleven hitless innings in an NCAA ...

Krista Tippett On Being Human

31 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Krista Tippett must know something. After all, she's been hosting a show -- originally called Speaking of Faith and now called On Being -- for about 1...

The Nose Watched Lady Dynamite (So You Don’t Have To?)

27 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Comedian Maria Bamford's new Netflix single-camera sitcom, "Lady Dynamite," premiered last Friday. And it's... odd. It's surreal. It's sad. It's a com...

How Much Water Do You Need?

26 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us have heard that our bodies need eight cups of water every day to stay healthy and hydrated. Some think that's the minimum we should drink t...

Buzz Aldrin on the Past, Present and Future of Space Exploration

24 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The man who once walked on the moon, and helped America define itself as a leader in space travel is now out with a new book. It reads half as a memoi...

Live (on Tape) From the Peabody!

24 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the more than six years that it's been on the air, we've never taken The Colin McEnroe Show to the Peabody Museum before. (Crazy, right?) And: In t...

The Scramble: The GOP, Offhand Comments, MLB

23 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Former Governor Lowell Weicker says the Republican Party no longer embraces the ideals of prudent financial governance and social conscience that once...

According to the Uniform Prior, The Nose Has an 82 Percent Chance of Happening

20 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Rio 2016 Olympics are set to start in less than three months’ time. But Brazil’s Zika outbreak is worse than we thought. And there’s ongoing...

The Evolving World of Flash Fiction

19 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Flash fiction goes by many names: micro-fiction, nano-fiction, short-shorts, and with the emergence of Twitter-fiction; twiction and twisters have als...

Are You Smarter Than a Raccoon?

18 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Colin has a "pet" raccoon that visits his porch. The raccoon will press her tiny paw up against the outstretched palm of Colin's significant other, wh...

You Want Me to Eat What?! An Examination of Disgust

17 May 2016

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 is a conversati...

The Scramble Pretends to Be The Nose

16 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

 Reporters at The Washington Post noted that Donald Trump has a history of calling reporters under the guise of phantom spokespersons named John ...

The Nose Is #TeamCaptainBudweiser

13 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Last Friday, "Captain America: Civil War" debuted in theaters. It is the inaugural film in 2016's summer movie season. It's also the third Captain Ame...

The Contributions of Wilhelm Reich

12 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Wilhelm Reich was a once promising psychoanalyst and scientist under the guidance of Freud in pre-World War II Europe. He promoted "sexual r...

Can Forgetting the Past Be a Good Thing?

11 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

David Rieff isn't against the lessons of remembrance, but he believes it shouldn't be the only morally-sanctioned option. Forgetting may be the b...

The Scramble Scrambles the Steves Metcalf

09 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Rather than me ham-handedly trying to summarize Stephen Metcalf's Slate cover story, "Donald Trump, Baby Boomer," read his thesis below.Support the sh...

The Truth About Ugliness (It Ain't Pretty)

09 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to say that someone, or something, is ugly? For a label that gets tossed around so often, its meaning is hard to pin down. Perhaps t...

The Nose Is a Low-Flying Panic Attack

06 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This hour, the Nose does its best to tackle four full topics.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

Conservative Talk Radio: The Past, Present, and Future

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's easy to see how this year's polarized political climate has split conservatives, but how has it affected conservative talk radio? Those that list...

Politics Has Always Been Nasty

04 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It is not so well known, as it should be, that this federal gem [John Adams], this apostle of the parsons of Connecticut, is not only a repulsive peda...

A Backstage Look at Political Stagecraft

03 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

During Connecticut's 2014 gubernatorial election, Republican candidate Tom Foley chose a failing paper mill in Sprague as the "stage" upon which he'd ...

The Scramble: President Obama's Stand-Up

02 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a kind of idiocy about the way the White House Correspondents Dinner is, conceptually, a Feast of Fools with a comedian as Lord of Misrule, ...

The Nose Better Call Becky With the Good Hair

29 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We plan to spend upwards of half of this hour unpacking Beyonce's new visual album, Lemonade. And we will barely have gotten the wrapper off by t...

Democracy in the Public Square

28 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The Tragedy of the Commons follows the theory that people can't be trusted to take care of common property without degrading it or taking more th...

Imagining Aliens: A Conversation in Science, Fiction, and Theology

27 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

From scientists to fiction writers, conspiracy theorists to theologians, aliens have captured the imagination of us all. But as we ponder the possibil...

Voters Weigh in On Primary Day in Connecticut

26 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's Primary Day in Connecticut and I'm excited about it.For the first time in a long time, Connecticut voters feel they have a say in which candidate...

The Scramble: Inequality Is Our Most Pressing Problem

25 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

The effect of a declining middle class is everywhere -- the medically uninsured or underinsured, the heroin epidemic, declining life expectancy for mi...

2day Is the First Day of the Rest of The Nose's Life

22 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

His Royal Badness died yesterday. He was 57.This hour, an appreciation of Prince.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listen...

Good Bulldozer, Bad Bulldozer

21 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Everybody loves a bulldozer. In fact, we all grew up loving bulldozers, didn't we? From "Benny the Bulldozer" to Katy and her big snow, from all the T...

Poetry: Give It a Try

20 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petry wrote a column a few years ago asking if poetry was still vital enough to change anything. Poets and po...

Live From Watkinson: If You Build It, Will They Come? Sports in Hartford

19 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Most cities would be thrilled to have a major or minor-league sports franchise come to town. It will bring crowds and new business and prosperity, rig...

The Scramble: Politics and Kimmy Schmidt

18 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

This year's presidential race is exposing the vast disconnect between candidates and voters,  the inadequacy of the two-party system, and the ove...

The Nose Has Its Girlfriend Experience

14 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Last weekend, the new Starz series "The Girlfriend Experience" premiered on cable and dropped in its entirety online. The always grumpy Richard Brody ...

Spoiler Alert! It's a Discussion About Spoilers

14 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Do you like spoilers? Hate them? Whether it involves sports, television, books or movies, has a spoiler ruined something for you? Enhanced it? Do...

Jesters and Fools: A History of Wit and Whimsy

13 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

History and literature are filled with their antics. From the Renaissance's Triboulet to Shakespeare's Feste from "Twelfth Night," jesters and fools h...

Pondering Modern Love

11 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It's hard to improve on the poet, Rilke, who wrote, "Love consists of this, that two solitudes meet, protect, and greet each other." But did Rilke hav...

Meet 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Rocky De La Fuente

11 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump was considered untouchable on his way to winning the nomination to represent the Republican Party in the 2016 election -- until establish...

The Nose Is Done With American Idol

08 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

And after 15 seasons and 555 episodes and more than 345 Billboard chart toppers, "American Idol" is done with us. Love it or hate it, the show changed...