The Colin McEnroe Show
Episodes
Connecticut in the Civil War
19 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Here's a little bit of Civil War history that seems to have started here in Connecticut. It was in this month of February in 1860 that Cassius Clay, a...
The Scramble "Likes" Douglas Rushkoff
18 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
We're starting out today with a segment about "Generation-Like," the media term media theorist Douglas Rushkoff uses for the generation of Millennials...
The Nose Questions God and Atheists; Judging the Morality of Athletes
14 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I was still digesting some of the lessons of the play "Freud's Last Session" -- a 90 minute conversation between Freud and C.S. Lewis -- when I stumbl...
Pondering Modern Love
13 Feb 2014
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...
Living With Multiple Sclerosis
12 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The actresses Teri Garr and Annette Funicello, the television hosts Montel Williams and Neil Cavuto, the writer Joan Didion, Ann Romney, the wife of t...
The Passion of Pickling
11 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In 2030 B.C., somebody brought cucumbers from India to the Tigris Valley, and they said, "We can pickle that!" And so it began, from the first stirrin...
Scrambling to Make Sense of Russia, Woody Allen, and the Westminster Dog Show
10 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
While visitors watching the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, enjoy spectacular feats of athletic ability from the world's most accomplished athletes,...
The Nose Hacks Jeopardy!, Inspects Reality TV, and Flinches at Russian Controversies
07 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
While tying together all the stories for today's session of the Nose, I keep hearing (in my mind) Charlie Seen say, "Winning!" We have a lot of storie...
Seeking the Truth in Secret Societies
06 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The first secret society, according to Theodore Ziolkowski, a Princeton-based scholar on the literature of cults and conspiracies, "consisted of Eve a...
50 Years of The Beatles!
05 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In February of 1964, the Beatles appeared not once, but on three consecutive Sunday nights on "The Ed Sullivan Show," attracting what was the the larg...
An Ode to Opera
04 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Last fall, the New York City Opera -- what Mayor LaGuardia called "the People's Opera" -- declared bankruptcy. This is/was the opera that introduced A...
The Scramble: The Famous Are Human Too
03 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
On Sunday, two people named Dylan made news. So much so that you had to be careful on Twitter. If you tweeted "Dylan sold out" about Bob Dylan's Super...
The Nose Does the Guilt Pose, Spoils Superbowl Commercials, and Survives Anxiety
31 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Today on the Nose, we'll discuss one of those eruptions that happen in the digital world -- a frenzy of discussion and expressions of outrage over an ...
Adjuncts in Academia
30 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine a day without adjunct faculty. Many colleges and universities would effectively shut down. Somewhere between 70-75% of the academic wor...
The Healing Power of Music: Colin McEnroe at Watkinson School
29 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of interconnected things were happening in the 1990s, an oncologist and hematologist named Mitchell Gaynor discovered trough a Tibetan mon...
The Conjuring Arts
28 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Led by Harry Potter, the last 20 years have unleashed a new wave of enthusiasm for the fantasy side of magic. But, we've also seen an undeniable...
The Scramble Shares Limited Information About Today's Show: FOI and Football
27 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It's Monday. That means our show is The Scramble, where we make a lot of decisions on a last minute basis. We asked our super guest, Marc Tracy of The...
The Nose: Bieber's Bust, Casting Peter Pan, and Scapegoating Maureen McDonnell
24 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
It was a fertile week for topics, but here at The Nose, we've boiled them down to four.First, the decision by NBC to capitalize on its live Sound of M...
Talking About HIV/AIDS in 2014
23 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
"Dallas Buyer's Club" covers a lot of the same ground as an Oscar-nominated documentary about AIDS from last year, "How To Survive A Plague." Each fil...
Asteroid Apocalypse: How Likely Is It?
22 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists say that the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia this past February was a rare event, unlikely to happen more than every 100 -2...
The Scramble Is on the Scrimmage Line
21 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Through no act of overarching planning, all three of our segments today will deal directly, or otherwise, with sports.In our first segment, we talk wi...
Living in Interpolitical and Interfaith Marriages
20 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I spent one night in the company of James Carville and Mary Matalin, in the course of being their onstage moderator at the Bushnell. My lasting impres...
The Nose Falls in Love With Its Operating System
17 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Nose panel went to the movies this week to see the critically-acclaimed Spike Jonze film, "Her," about a future world in which it's not unusu...
The Complications of Comedy
15 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Dying is easy, comedy is hard. But, why is comedy so hard, especially on the stage, and what makes something funny?The premise for a famously funny pl...
Why Compost?
14 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
You may think that composting all your kitchen waste sounds like a good idea, but you probably don't realize how many things really can be composted, ...
What's It Like To Be Republican in Connecticut?
14 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
When I first started writing about politics in Connecticut, I can honestly say that there were many more Republicans who excited my admiration than th...
The Scramble Catches Up with Gene Demby and Roger Catlin
13 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Today is Monday. That's when we do the show on the fly. We call it The Scramble and one of the twists we're trying is the reverse of ordinary public r...
The Nose is Stuck in Traffic
10 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Governor Chris Christie's administration is under fire for ordering lane closures that blocked access to the George Washington Bridge for ...
Cinema Scuffle! With David Edelstein and A. O. Scott
09 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
My two favorite film critics, A.O. Scott and David Edelstein, appear on the show today, and we've got a longer list of topics than we can possibly get...
A Tribute to Twins!
08 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Identical twins are just like us - and then they're not! From Ann Landers and Dear Abbey, from the Castro brothers, one of whom might be our first ide...
Remembering the Collapse of the Hartford Civic Center Roof
07 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
For many years, Ralph Nader has pushed the idea of an American Museum of Tort History which would be located somewhere in Connecticut, probably Winste...
The Scramble: Insider Trading, Anxiety, and David Brooks Best Friend
06 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Today on The Scramble we lead off with some reporting that will be featured this week on a PBS' "Frontline" story, To Catch a Trader. It's the st...
The Nose: Originality, Subarus and Sexuality, Anonymity, and Grand Exits
03 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Today on The Nose, we'll talk about this relatively insignificant bit of Rush Limbaugh peevishness, and the degree to which each of us thinks he ...
Enjoying the Randomness of Miscellanea
02 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Wandering the vast labyrinth of useless information, you might encounter some people having a debate about the last person who knew everything. This i...
The Final Report on Sandy Hook
30 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
There are a lot of people who, for understandable reasons, would like the story of the Sandy Hook shootings to fade away. But, of course it never will...
The Nose Gets Inside Llewyn Davis
27 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Nose panelists explore the hidden mysteries of the Coen Brothers' new film, Inside Llewyn Davis, based on the early folk movement of 1960's ...
2013 Jazz Picks By Jazz Fanatics
26 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
You loved jazz in college, but these days, do you really have time to follow it? Maybe I'm only talking about myself. The jazz scene I loved so much i...
Christmas Songs That We Love to Love and Hate
25 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
There are some holiday songs that should banned. I'm sorry, Burl Ives, but there's really no reason for anybody to have to hear "Holly Jolly Chri...
Scrambling Toward Christmas With Sad Songs, Oscar Isaac, and Tight Flights
23 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
A couple of weeks ago, we did a whole show about blood pressure only to have an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association blow a lot ...
The Nose Blows for Duck Dynasty, Netflix Adultery, and More
20 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Here are the topics for The Nose today -- and this week we had to throw out a lot of perfectly good ones because there were so many:We pretty much hav...
Paying Homage to Pigs!
19 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Behold! The unique dilemma of the pig: There is nothing that smart that tastes that good. Is it true they're as smart as dogs? Why do some religions r...
Daniel Menaker's Journey Through the Hallowed Halls of The New Yorker
18 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
If you read magazines and live on the North half of the East Coast there is a good chance that you believe that The New Yorker is the ne plus ultra of...
How Do We Determine the Value of Art?
17 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
A Francis Bacon triptych, "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" sells for $142.4 million.Jeff Koons work sells for $58.4 million, making it the most expensi...
Monday Scramble: Peter O'Toole, Jameis Wilson, and Joan Fontaine
16 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This is the Monday Scramble, the show we assemble on very short notice to challenge ourselves and keep things fresh.Two film icons died over the weeke...
The Nose Sniffs Out the Controversy Surrounding Housework, Smarm, and More
13 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
After a two-week hiatus, The Nose, our weekly cultural panel, is back on with discussions of a controversial New York Times essay about who does house...
A Swig of "Christmas on the Rocks"
12 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today we're talking about the afterlife of characters from classic Christmas stories. What happened, in later years, to Ralphie from "A Christmas Stor...
Singing Away the Blues
11 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
I suppose you could say that today's show is about a fairly obvious truth--singing with other people feels good. But, it's a little bit more comp...
Tuesday Tumble: Eddie Perez, "Rent" in Trumbull, Snowy Owls and the Ivory Trade
10 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Connecticut town of Trumbull, and especially its thespian society, has become a familiar name in the theater world, but maybe for the wrong reason...
Naked, Afraid, and at the Mercy of Producers
09 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
"Reality TV" is perhaps the biggest misnomer in the entertainment industry today. A better name would probably be "scripted unscripted television." It...
Bringing Back Boy Bands: Did They Ever Really Leave?
06 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Monkees were the first group to exhibit all or most of the qualities we now associate with the term "boy band." They were assembled through auditi...
Preserving the Moon and Protecting Its Rocks
05 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, but the first man to urinate there was Buzz Aldrin, just a little ahead of Neil. The two astrona...
Blood Pressure is One Measure of Future Cardiovascular Disease
04 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Long before we knew how the cardiovascular worked, ancient doctors may have recognized what we call hypertension. It seemed like maybe there was too m...
Colin Quinn Takes On The Constitution
02 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
There aren't that many jokes in the US Constitution. Either that, or there are too many, and they're all on us. Comedian Colin Quinn says most of you ...
The Scramble: Metro-North, the "Globalization of Indifference," and Kurt Weill
02 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Metro-North has had a tough year. Yesterday's derailment in the Bronx follows the May derailment in Bridgeport that injured more than 70 people, the d...
Will the Real Norman Rockwell Please Stand Up?
26 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Norman Rockwell. It's the day before Thanksgiving. Who else are we gonna talk about? Deborah Solomon (the same one who invented the "Questions for" fo...
The Dark Side of Zen
26 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Here in the West, Zen Buddhism is often where you go when you've concluded the religion you grew up with is marred by venality, hypocrisy, misogyny, p...
Catching Fire, Culture, Condoms, and the Law
25 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Why should sex feel bad? It shouldn't, and Bill Gates is offering $100,000 to the inventor of a condom that puts the pleasure back in sex. And, it isn...
The Nose Pays Tribute to Melodrama
22 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today, on The Nose, well we can't entirely ignore the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, but the subject is so vast we can only break off ...
Harmonica Heroes Take Over WNPR
19 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Are there countries where harmonica players are BIG stars? Why don't more women play it? How many different musical styles can you squeeze out of one ...
Dealey Plaza, Same-Day Voter Registration, and Chess
18 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we visit historical sites? Commentator Mike Pesca wants to talk about the value of seeing a place, especially one like Dallas' Dealey Pla...
The Nose is (Really) Not Racist
15 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Here's the plan for The Nose today. We'll begin with a widely discussed column by Richard Cohen of The Washington Post who took an odd detour from a d...
Are We Born Moral?
14 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In 1965, the Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, spread stamped and addressed but un-mailed letters around public locations in New Haven. Most of the l...
A Tribute to the Proud and Peaceful Pigeon
13 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
B.F. Skinner thought pigeons were so smart they could be used to guide missiles during WWII. He proposed a system in which pigeons would essentially p...
When Will CBS Do More Than Apologize?
12 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Once again we start the week with a show that we planned on the fly based on stories that grabbed us over the weekend. Support the show: http://w...
The Nose Tackles Racism, Past and Present
08 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
As my friend Alex Beam said today, 12 Years a Slave has a way of taking things that were abstractions and making them real. It's one thing t...
Can The Humanities Be Saved?
07 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This show originally aired on July 2nd, 2013. When considering what show we wanted to re-run, we found this recent article from the New York Times, As...
An Ode to Opera
06 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Last month, the New York City Opera-- what Mayor LaGuardia called "the People's Opera" -- declared bankruptcy. This is/was the opera that introduced A...
Narrative in the Age of Distraction
05 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Okay, this is sad. Like a lot of people, I have trouble achieving the deep focus needed to enjoy long fiction. And, like a lot of people, I have troub...
Mystery Surprise Monday Theater 3000 (Ep. 2)
04 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
This is one of our new Monday shows where right up to show time, I'm not 100% sure what we're talking about. I know for sure we'll discuss the time ch...
The Nose: Selfies at Funerals and Other Assorted Opportunists
01 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
On today's Nose we're stuffed into the facade of the XL Center in Hartford on Trumbull Street. Come on over and join the live audience.We got interest...
Connecticut Legends & Lore
31 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Ok, Ok, you're a super-rational public radio listener but you live in a place drenched in supernatural legend. In fact, historians like David Hall and...
Is Work the Best Place to Work?
30 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
I've been writing a newspaper column for The Hartford Courant since 1982. For my first 15 years or so, I tended to write the column at The Hartfo...
A Scrutinization of Salt
29 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Salt! It's the only rock we eat!That gets us into some touchy territory. Some say that salt is a major factor for high blood pressure, and some say th...
Mystery Surprise Monday Theater 3000
28 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What do Lou Reed, President Taft, and this past weekend's violence in New Haven have in common? They're all part of our first episode of Mystery ...
The Nose Runs...to New Haven
25 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
On The Nose this week, a viral video musical tribute to Chinese food triggers cries of racism, a father welcoming his fourth daughter into the wo...
Why You Should Be Really Afraid of the American Power Grid Going Dark
24 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The electrical grid has been described as the glass jaw of American industry. According to some reports, we’re just one solar flare or cyber-attack ...
Hop on the Troubadour Train!
22 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today you're going to meet the new State Troubadour, Kristen Graves, and renew your acquaintance with three former troubadours.Support the show: http:...
We're Swimming in Garbage
22 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It's hard to believe that each one of us throws away over seven pounds of trash every day, adding up to about 102 tons over a lifetime. In part, that'...
The Evolution of Animal Research
18 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Almost every cure and treatment of diseases exists thanks to medical research on animals. Through animal research, we can understand the addictive nat...
The Nose: Why We Love It When Actors Break Character
18 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
A popular video this week was a highlight reel of Stephen Colbert being unable to stay in character as a pompous, self-pleased right wing blowhard. In...
America's Greatest Living Film Critics Round Up Fall Movies From "Gravity" to "Rush"
16 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Watching the movie "Captain Phillips" -- in which Tom Hanks plays a commercial freighter captain kidnapped by Somali pirates -- I had a sense of deja ...
Something Wicked This Way Comes: A Salute to Macbeth
15 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It's probably an accident that there are so many ways to experience the story of Macbeth right now.We seem to be living in a moment where ambition has...
What Urinals, Jock Straps, Flip Shades and Eye Black Teach Us About Baseball
14 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It's become a cliché to say everything has a story, but in baseball, you could make the argument that everything really does. Eve...
Here's How to Feel Less Guilty When You Buy Stuff
14 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Consumer activism is older than the nation. The colonists’ rejection of British imports started a tradition of voting with your knife, fork, teacup ...
The Nose Goes to New Haven to Sniff Out the Poopetrator
11 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
We're in New Haven today, and The Nose, our weekly culture panel, wants to talk about the hazards of 3D movies and the increasingly competitive world ...
I Wish I Hadn't Done That!
10 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
I really meant to donate to the NPR fund drive. I just forgot. Well, actually I didn't. But still, I should have donated. I feel so guilty! Guilt is a...
"The System" of College Football and the NFL's Concussion Crisis
09 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of a new Frontline documentary is a simple question - does playing football expose you to life-threatening brain damage?It's a question p...
Third Party Candidates We Won’t Call Fringe
07 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
With the November municipal elections approaching there have been some nasty battles involving alternative parties fighting their way onto the ballot....
Forty Years, in Search of a Zipless F---
07 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Fear of Flying sold 18 million copies worldwide and helped tip feminism into a new focus on fulfilled sexuality. But it also introduced a meme so perv...
Why Beauty and Politics Are So Hard To Marry
04 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
As Slate embarks on a quixotic search for the "most beautiful woman in the world," The Nose will examine how feminine beauty plays a role in Amer...
Naked, Afraid, and At The Mercy of Producers
02 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
"Reality TV" is perhaps the biggest misnomer in the entertainment industry today. A better name would probably be "scripted unscripted television." It...
Breaking Bad and the Chemistry Classroom
01 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Now that we're reeling at the prospect of life after "Breaking Bad," let's find out about the real lives of chemistry teachers! Hear from Dr. Donna Ne...
Leaning Left
01 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
David Wolman visited a Scottish castle designed for left-handed sword fights, and a Paris museum to inspect 19th century brains. He observed chimps wi...
Tales From A Thousand And One Stand-Up Shows
27 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
You could say that most of the live comedy done by young performers in cities around the United States is just one big feeder system for Saturday Nigh...
The Nose Will Not Woo You With A Sandwich
26 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What can a sandwich say about a relationship? It turns out, a lot. What very well may have been an inside joke between a young couple turned into a co...
Why Playing 'The Dating Game' Adds To A Rose-Bowl-Sized Pile Of Trash
26 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe you've heard the numbers. An estimated 40 percent of food in the United States never gets eaten. Americans waste 160 billion pounds of...
Catholics Perk Up To Pope Francis
25 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
As a shot in the dark, this week I asked my rather large Facebook audience whether any of them were lapsed Catholics thinking about tiptoeing back to ...
The Ebb and Flow Of Dada
23 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It's an art form that came out of the chaos of World War One, when times were desperate, yet the art world was still celebrating still lifes, landscap...
What Happens When Private Groups Save Public Parks?
20 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
New Havenites reclaiming a beautiful park in their city got us thinking about urban parks in general. Frederick Law Olmsted is the undisputed father o...
More on Mascots
20 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
We first got interested in the people inside sports team mascots back in 2010 but that was before we knew about Kelly Frank. Kelly Frank has done...