The Colin McEnroe Show

What makes something tacky? This hour is a celebration of all things "tacky" with Rax King, author of the new book, "Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer." Plus, we look at why reality tv is sometimes tacky, and discuss the tackiest home décor. GUESTS: Rax King - Author of “Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer,” and co-host of the podcast “Low Culture Boil.”  Brian Moylan - A writer, reality tv show recapper, and author of “The Housewives: The Real Story Behind the Real Housewives.” Peter York - A journalist and author of “Dictator Style: Lifestyles of the World’s Most Colorful Despots,” among other books.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is concerned with problematic male comedians born in the mid-1930s. Showtime describes We Need To Talk About Cosby as “writer/director W. Kamau Bell’s exploration of Bill Cosby’s descent from ‘America’s Dad’ to alleged sexual predator. Comedians, journalists and Cosby survivors have a candid, first of its kind conversation about the man, his career and his crimes.” The fourth part of the four-part docuseries airs Sunday. And Rifkin’s Festival is the 49th feature film written and directed by Woody Allen. It was released internationally in 2020 and domestically in theaters and for rental on January 28. It stars Wallace Shawn in the Allen-proxy role along with Gina Gershon, Elena Anaya, Christoph Waltz, Richard King, Steven Guttenberg, and more. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Ivan Reitman, producer, ‘Ghostbusters’ director, dies at 75 P.J. O’Rourke, Conservative Political Satirist, Dies at 74 In articles, in best sellers and as a talk show regular he was a voice from the right skewering whatever in government or culture he thought needed it. Wanda Sykes, Amy Schumer and Regina Hall will host this year’s Oscars The Oscars will require tests for all and vaccines for most. Vaccine mandates and P.C.R. tests for the event, set for March 27 in Los Angeles. A Vibe Shift Is Coming Will any of us survive it? Is It Funny for the Jews? For a cultural critic, a sense of humor is integral to his Jewish identity. But these dark times raise existential questions about comedy and its uses. Network sitcoms are actually good again The Sex Scene Is Dead. Long Live the Sex Scene Four critics discuss erotic thrillers, prosthetic penises, “Euphoria,” and the state of desire onscreen. Yes, Some Musicals Are Unwoke. That’s Not a Writ to Rewrite Them. The Semiotics of a 1999 Toyota Corolla The YouTube channel Regular Car Reviews delights in cultural critiques of boring automobiles. Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, World of Women Partner to Adapt NFTs Into Movies, TV Shows Francis Ford Coppola’s $100 Million Bet Fifty years after he gave us The Godfather, the iconic director is chasing his grandest project yet—and putting up over $100 million of his own money to prove his best work is still ahead of him. GUESTS: Jacques Lamarre - A playwright and the director of client services at Buzz Engine Mercy Quaye - Founder and principal consultant for The Narrative Project Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stickiness: we know it when we see it-- or when we feel it under our feet at the movie theater. But what is stickiness, scientifically speaking? How do geckos climb? Why don't post-it notes ruin our books? On today's show we'll ask scientist Laurie Winkless about her new book, "Sticky," and figure out what holds it all together. GUESTS: Laurie Winkless - A science writer, physicist, and author of the new book, “Sticky: the Secret Science of Stickiness” Dr. Alyssa Stark - A professor at Villanova University. She runs a lab that studies biological adhesion. Will Coldwell - A freelance writer and regular contributor to the Guardian, Economist and Financial Times. He is the writer of the Economist article “Bursting the Bubble: How Gum Lost Its Cool.” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is dieting such an enduring idea when it has such mixed results? This hour we investigate that question by looking back at diets through history, talking about the latest science, and discussing portrayals of dieting through pop culture. GUESTS: Virginia Sole-Smith - Author of “The Eating Instinct” and a journalist who covers diet culture and weight stigma, and who writes the “Burnt Toast” newsletter, and hosts the “Burnt Toast” podcast. Louise Foxcroft - A historian and author of “Calories and Corsets: A History of Dieting Over 2000 Years,” among other books.  Evan Forman - Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Director of the Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Science at Drexel University.  Constance Grady - A senior reporter for Vox, and author of the recent article “Looking back at the ’90s has meant reexamining the decade’s toxic diet culture.” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Scrolling through online real estate listings, a practice known as “Zillow surfing,” has become a popular pastime. And it’s not just for people who are actually looking to buy houses… It’s also for snooping on the value of other people’s homes, imagining different lives for yourself, or just finding unusual houses to make fun of and share with friends. This hour, a look at the appeal of Zillow surfing. GUESTS: Ariel Norling - Author of the I Know a Spot Newsletter Dana Bull - Realtor with Sagan Harborside Sotheby’s International Realty, based in Massachusetts Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 1, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we look at how the pandemic shaped dating, long-term relationships, and love over the past two years. GUESTS: Laura Kipnis: Author of Love in the Time of Contagion: A Diagnosis, among other books Hiwote Getaneh: A producer on the This Is Dating podcast Philippa Found: An artist and writer and the creator of Lockdownlovestories Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose discusses “The Power of a Good Cry,” watches Super Bowl ads, and talks about HBO’s new comedy Somebody Somewhere. GUESTS: Sam Hadelman - Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Rich Hollant - Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Several high-profile NPR hosts recently left the station to work in other media organizations. Why? Some think NPR has become less innovative and unaware of the competitive opportunities that are now available for talented journalists and producers. Others dislike NPR’s recent hyperfocus on race and gender or blame its “woke ideology” as too inhospitable to its employees of color. But it’s not just people of color who are leaving. NPR may or may not have a race problem, but it’s just the tip of an iceberg that’s hiding a wider danger beneath the surface. Today, we take a deep dive into what’s going on at NPR. GUESTS:  Matt Taibbi investigative reporter, the co-host of the podcast “Useful Idiots” and the publisher of the TK newsletter on Substack.  He’s the author of several books, most recently, Hate Inc. Nikki Usher is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her third book is News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism. Jenna Weiss-Berman is the co-founder of Pineapple Street Studios, which has produced podcasts like “Missing Richard Simmons” and "Still Processing." Before starting Pineapple Street, Jenna worked in public radio for a decade and started the podcast department at BuzzFeed.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than half a century after they first came walking down the street, we’re still bananas for The Monkees. This hour, Colin and his guests help us figure out why. GUESTS: Mark Rozzo - Contributing editor at Vanity Fair and author of the August 2021 Vanity Fair story “The Most Influential Pop-Rock Band Ever? The Monkees!” Brian Williams - Former MSNBC anchor, lifelong Monkees fan Dr. Rosanne Welch - Executive director of the Stephens College MFA in TV and Screenwriting and author of the book “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” Andrew Sandoval - Manager of The Monkees from 2011 to 2021 and host of the 60s-music podcast “Come to the Sunshine” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange — the 50th anniversary of its wide release in the U.S., that is, on February 2, 1972 — our first full, show-length look at the work of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. Our original go at this, about six months into the pandemic, was my worst experience producing live radio remotely, with Colin hosting from home and Zoom guests and all the rest. Because of various technical issues, we spent many minutes during that live hour trying to make it so that Colin and the guests could, um, hear each other. That doesn’t usually make for very good radio, and it left us with a much shorter conversation about Kubrick than we’d planned. I’m still scarred by it. But by some strange miracle, we’d also planned to record an extra, intentionally shorter conversation — also about Kubrick, also with those same guests — after that day’s show for a future day’s show. And somewhere in all that, there was the material for a whole show. So finally, we present this full-length careful consideration of the filmmaker behind 2001, Dr. Strangelove, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Spartacus, Eyes Wide Shut, A Clockwork Orange… the filmmaker Steven Spielberg called “the best in history”: Stanley Kubrick. GUESTS: James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College David Mikics - Author of Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker Lila Shapiro - Senior reporter at New York magazine and Vulture, where she published “What I Learned After Watching Eyes Wide Shut 100 Times” Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, parts of which originally aired September 2 and October 28, 2020.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, an assortment of topics. First up: why future COVID-19 boosters may be administered through the nose. Next, we learn all about masks. Finally: we get up to speed on the Winter Olympics. GUESTS: Dr. Akiko Iwasaki - The Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Iwasaki is on a team studying nasal COVID-19 boosters.  Aaron Collins - A mechanical engineer with a background in aerosol science, who tests and evaluates masks on his YouTube channel, and publishes all the data in a Google doc. Ben Waterworth - An Australian journalist, radio host, and host of many podcasts, including “Off The Podium,” a podcast about the Olympics.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose believes that everything happens for a reason. Call it luck. Call it fate. Call it karma. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated February 5, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song score for Encanto, becomes the No. 1 song in the country. It’s the second song ever from a Disney animated movie to get to No. 1, after “A Whole New World” from Aladdin, 30 years ago. The Encanto Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is also No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It’s the first Disney animated movie ever to top both charts at once. On a slightly different note: The Build-a-Bear Workshop, this week, launched a new ‘After Dark’ line of, uh, adult-themed bears. I don’t know what to say about that. I just report the news here, folks. And finally: Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the first Ghostbusters sequel in more than 30 years and the fourth movie in the franchise. It’s directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the original movies in the 1980s. It stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Paul Rudd, with appearances by many of the old favorites from the Ghostbusters universe. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: The Washington Commanders name is perfectly designed to be instantly forgotten SFGATE columnist Drew Magary on the NFL franchise that’s clumsily begging for anonymity The New York Times Buys Wordle The word game, released in October, has millions of daily users. ABC suspends Whoopi Goldberg over Holocaust race remarks Aziz Ansari’s Nostalgic New Comedy Special In “Nightclub Comedian,” Ansari fixates on how the Internet shapes our lives and longs for the pre-digital past. Why Do I Always Tweet and Delete? Psychologists and tweet-deleters help explain my favorite pastime (that weirdly makes me feel a little guilty). The Name of This Interviewee Is David Byrne In advance of a show of his drawings at New York’s Pace Gallery, the polymathic performer answered T’s Artist’s Questionnaire. The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees include Dolly Parton and A Tribe Called Quest Our Solar System in True Color Is Really Something Else Venus is white. So is the sun. They’re beautiful anyway. GUESTS: Jim Chapdelaine - An Emmy-winning musician and a patient advocate for people with rare cancers Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer; she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Tracy Wu Fastenberg - Development officer at Connecticut Children’s Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know Michael Schur from the shows he’s created, like The Good Place, Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine This hour we talk with Schur about his latest project: his new book How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question. Through the conversation we discuss moral philosophy, and big moral questions like “should you return your shopping cart to the cart corral?” GUEST: Michael Schur - TV writer, producer, and creator of Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and The Good Place; his new book is How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

History is filled with men who were mistaken for gods around the world. This hour, we talk with the author of a new book on that topic: Anna Della Subin, author of Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine. She takes us through some notable examples of men mistaken for gods, and discusses why people look for gods on earth. GUESTS: Anna Della Subin - Author of Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine  Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nat Love was born a slave but died a free cowboy and a legend of the Old West. After the Civil War freed Love from slavery, he walked to Dodge City, Kansas, and got a job breaking horses — after he could prove that he could rope a bucking horse, climb on its back without a saddle, and ride him without falling off. Thus began Nat’s life as a cowboy. We don’t typically include Black cowboys as part of the American story of the West, even though 1 in 4 American cowboys is Black. Black cowboys are as American as baseball. GUESTS: Zaron Burnett III - Host and creator of the podcast Black Cowboys Patricia Kelly - An African-American cowgirl and the founder of Ebony Horsewomen; she was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2015 Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired June 7, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EST hour about anything at all. 888-720-9677.‌ Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose isn’t going to point out our houses, landmarks, or major highways during takeoff. It’s not every ad campaign that can boast its own group of devoted fans, but Progressive’s Un-Becoming Your Parents television commercials seem to have staked out their own space in the popular culture. And: Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum — you “can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.” Spotify chose Rogan. And finally: The Book of Boba Fett is a Disney+ limited series created by Jon Favreau. It is a spinoff from Favreau’s The Mandalorian, a direct sequel to Return of the Jedi, and a direct prequel and sequel to The Mandalorian. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: ‘Hannibal’ actor Gaspard Ulliel has died in a ski accident at age 37 Peter Robbins, who voiced Charlie Brown in the 1960s, has died “Bambi” Is Even Bleaker Than You Thought The original book is far more grisly than the beloved Disney classic—and has an unsettling message about humanity. The Tao of Wee Man His world was radically altered by “Jackass.” But now, Jason Acuña has harnessed his fame to live the life of his dreams. Is Old Music Killing New Music? Old songs now represent 70 percent of the U.S. music market. Even worse: The new-music market is actually shrinking. Cult Classic ‘Fight Club’ Gets a Very Different Ending in China Someone tried very hard to please Chinese movie censors. The people deciding to ditch their smartphones The rise of the post-credits scene, explained Marvel turned its post-credits scenes into a pop culture phenomenon. A ‘The Batman’ Controversy Unsettles a Portion of Fandom A vocal minority of fans took issue with comments from star Robert Pattinson, who confirmed his Dark Knight does not kill, yet such a rule has existed for decades in the comics. My Bologna Has a Face Mask Oscar Mayer’s latest gimmick is just that Mcminn County Bans “Maus,” Pulitzer Prize-Winning Holocaust Book Amy Schneider’s ‘Jeopardy!’ run has come to an end after 40 games The Internet Is Eating Wordle Alive Nothing should be easier to ignore than the game and its fans. And yet, here we are. Twitter boots a bot that revealed Wordle’s upcoming words to the game’s players 2022 DGA And WGA Award Nominations For Feature Films Include Dune, Licorice Pizza & More GUESTS: Pedro Soto - President and CEO of Hygrade Precision Technologies Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve all heard the generational stereotypes, and rolled our eyes at them. This hour: we investigate generational groupings to discover why we’re interested in separating people into generations, when it is useful, and when it is not. GUESTS: Bobby Duffy - Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, and author of The Generation Myth: Why When You’re Born Matters Less Than You Think  Justin Charity - Senior Staff Writer for The Ringer, who wrote the recent article “It’s Time to Accept That Millennials and Gen Z Are the Same Generation” Ziad Ahmed - The CEO/Co-Founder of JUV Consulting Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Gene Amatruda contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Think about it. When’s the last time you saw a brand-new instrument in a marching band? New instruments don’t come around too often — but it’s not for lack of trying. Getting a new sound off the ground involves design, production, music expertise, composition, and fans. It’s no easy task to invent the next best thing, but this hour we talk to inventors, composers, teachers, and the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition to learn about the future of sound. GUESTS: Jason Freeman - Professor of Music at Georgia Tech and Chair of the School of Music who leads the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition Kyle Grimm - Composer who specializes in both acoustic and electronic mediums and a Professor of Music at the University of Hartford Keith Groover - The inventor of The Glide as well as a musician and music educator. Bosko Kante - Grammy-winning producer and inventor of The ElectroSpit Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Catie Talarski, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we think of unicorns, many of us picture idyllic white horses with a single horn, surrounded by rainbows. But that’s not how unicorns have always been depicted. This hour, a look at the history of unicorns and their enduring popularity. GUESTS: Martha Bayless - The Director of Folklore and Public Culture and a professor of English at the University of Oregon Adam Gidwitz - Author of The Unicorn Rescue Society series, among other books, and the creator of the podcast Grimm, Grimmer and Grimmest Sarah Laskow - Author of The Very Short, Entirely True History of Unicorns and senior editor for science at The Atlantic Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Catie Talarski contributed to this show, which originally aired July 15, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we discuss the latest on COVID-19, learn about how books can be used in therapy, and hear about a controversial football rule surrounding a coin toss. GUESTS: Vincent Racaniello - Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University, host of the podcast “This Week in Virology”  Katrya Bolger - A journalist who works for Future of Good, and author of the recent article “Textual Healing: The Novel World of Bibliotherapy” for The Walrus Josh Levin - Slate’s national editor, co-host of the sports podcast “Hang Up and Listen,” and host of the podcast “One Year: 1995” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is a five-letter word. Wordle is the newish online word game that, either, you’re already addicted to or you’re already sick of everybody else posting about. It’s browser-based, free and ad-free, deceptively simple, and exceedingly popular. And: The Tragedy of Macbeth is a new movie adaptation of the Shakespeare play written, directed, produced, and co-edited by Joel Coen. It’s the Coen brother’s (that’s a little apostrophe humor there) solo writing and directing debut after making 18 features and parts of two anthology films with Ethan Coen. It stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Meat Loaf, ‘Bat Out of Hell’ rock superstar, dies at 74 Louie Anderson, Emmy-winning comedian, dies at 68 Fred Parris, co-founder of the Five Satins, dies at 85 after brief illness, band announces Friday Andre Leon Talley Dead at 73 Howard Alexander Dumble, legendary designer of Dumble Amps, has died Dumble created some of the most iconic amps of all time, and personally built amps for John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Robben Ford, Carlos Santana, Eric Johnson and Kenny Wayne Shepherd The Undoing of Joss Whedon The Buffy creator, once an icon of Hollywood feminism, is now an outcast accused of misogyny. How did he get here? The Dumbledore of Clowning The French master teacher Philippe Gaulier has worked with stars like Sacha Baron Cohen. But at 78, are his methods, which include insults, outdated? The Best Book Covers of 2021 Microsoft set to acquire the gaming company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion A Creative Disagreement Saved A Major Star Wars Planet From Destruction ‘King of the Hill’ to Return in Series From Original Creators’ New Animation Company It’s time to go back to Arlen Kathy Griffin Is Trying to Get Back on the D-List Ever since her Trump joke went wrong in 2017, Griffin has been seeking a professional rebirth, and wondering who among the canceled gets a second chance. Now You Can Pay Money to Use Instagram Popular Instagrammers will be able to charge you to subscriptions to exclusive Stories. M&Ms characters to become more inclusive ‘The Batman’ Runtime Revealed: 2 Hours and 47 Minutes, Without Credits GUESTS: Tom Breen - Managing editor of The New Haven Independent Taneisha Duggan - A director, producer, and arts consultant Sam Hadelman - Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Humans have been trying for, well, forever to predict the future. But how helpful is predicting the future, really? And what factors determine whether someone is successful at doing it, or not? This hour, we try to predict whether predicting the future is useful, and understand why we’re so interested in doing so. GUESTS: Amanda Rees - A historian of science based at the University of York who works on the history of the future, and author of the book “Human.” Warren Hatch - A superforecaster, and CEO of the Good Judgment Project.  Allan Lichtman - A distinguished professor of history at American University, his most recent book is “Thirteen Cracks: Repairing American Democracy After Trump.” He is known for accurately predicting the outcome of presidential elections since 1984.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a lot of weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. We don’t even, anymore, start with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. We’ve had fun with these shows, and you seem to like them too. So we did that again. From my post screening the calls, it’s kind of hard to know what’s going on on the actual show a lot of the time, but here’s some stuff that I’m fairly confident comes up during this hour: a new flavor of Girl Scout Cookies the end of French dressing regulation the (subliminal) arrow in the FedEx logo the (not-at-all-subliminal-as-far-as-I-can-tell) eagle in the U.S. Postal Service logo not just rebranding our show, but renaming it too Colin interviewing Terry Gross (not a thing that’s happening, as far as we know) a future show on the Knights of Columbus (not a thing we’re working on, as far as we know) veterinarians as first responders UFOs and UAPs converting our system to a direct democracy the correct pronunciation of “Tonga” We also got a call complaining about “a grown man calling them the ‘damn Girl Scouts.’” I’m assuming the grown man in question is Colin, though I didn’t hear him say that, and that caller wouldn’t go on the air.But be forewarned about all the potential profanity, I guess? Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Drinking alcohol has a number of negative impacts. But humans have been doing it for thousands of years and show no signs of stopping. This hour, a look at why we drink, why more people are moving towards sobriety through the “sober curious” movement, and the rise of nonalcoholic cocktails. GUESTS: Elva Ramirez - A journalist and media consultant and the author of Zero Proof Cocktails: 90 Non-Alcoholic Recipes for Mindful Drinking Hilary Sheinbaum - A journalist and the author of The Dry Challenge: How to Lose the Booze for Dry January, Sober October, and Any Other Alcohol-Free Month Edward Slingerland - Author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilizationand a professor of philosophy at the University of British Columbia Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired October 18, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is a crushing responsibility. The Lost Daughter is Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut as a writer and director, and it’s made her a Golden Globe-nominated director and a Golden Osella-winning screenwriter so far. It’s an adaptation of the Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel, and it’s available to stream on Netflix. The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Colman (in a Globe-nominated performance), Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Ed Harris, and Peter Sarsgaard. And: Station Eleven is an HBO Max limited series adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 novel. It tells the story of a world during and after a devastating, flu-like pandemic (sound familiar?). Station Eleven stars Mackenzie Davi, Himesh Patel, Lori Petty, Gael García Bernal, Caitlin FitzGerald, David Cross, and others. Its 10th and final episode hit HBOMax yesterday. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Ronnie Spector, ’60s icon who sang ‘Be My Baby,’ dies at 78 Bob Saget Dead at 65 Marilyn Bergman, Oscar-winning composer, dies at age 93 Ultima Online: The Assassination of Lord British Remains Gaming’s MOST Infamous Event The events of Ultima Online have become legendary in the gaming community, in ways no one could have ever imagined. Time for a history lesson. Box Office Report: No Flops in This Multiverse How the Potato Chip Took Over America A fussy magnate, a miffed chef and the curious roots of the comfort food we hate to love SAG Nominations: ‘House of Gucci’ and ‘Power of the Dog’ Score Big; ‘Succession’ and ‘Ted Lasso’ Lead TV WNBA Star Sue Bird at Center of New Doc From Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions Into the Belly of the Whale With Sjón The Icelandic novelist, poet and Bjork collaborator is a surrealist for our time. FX Reviving ‘Justified’ Starring Timothy Olyphant for New Limited Series The actor is set to return as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in ‘Justified: City Primeval’ miniseries. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Taneisha Duggan - A director, producer, and arts consultant Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As the pandemic marches on, the “Great Resignation” is a sign that a lot of us are feeling overworked. More than 745,000 people died in 2016 alone from overwork that resulted in stroke and heart disease, a problem so common in Japan they have a word for it: Karoshi. This hour, our guests unpack the looming threat of overwork. We look at how we got here, why we idolize overwork, why the game development industry has such a troubled relationship with creative individuals, and what we can do to ensure better workplace conditions. GUESTS: Anat Lechner - Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Organisations at Stern School of Business NYU, and a specialist in change management Keith Fuller - Consultant for game development companies on leadership and culture, and the founder of All About EX Alex Soojung-Kim Pang - Author of the books “Shorter”, “Rest”, and “The Distraction Addiction”, and the founder of Strategy & Rest Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we discuss COVID-19: from the latest science, to communication about the virus, and its depiction on television. GUESTS: Brianne Barker - Associate Professor of Biology at Drew University and a co-host on the podcast “This Week in Virology.” Aaron Blake - Senior political reporter writing for The Fix at The Washington Post.  James Poniewozik - Chief television critic for The New York Times, and author of “Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America.” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plum Island sits less than 7 miles off the coast of Connecticut in Long Island Sound. It is completely owned by the federal government and controlled by the Department of Homeland Security. Since 1954, it has been the site of the soon-to-be-decommissioned Plum Island Animal Disease Center. “All islands carry a certain mystery, but Plum Island has more than its share of stories and secrets,” according to Marian Lindberg. This hour, a look at the place Dr. Hannibal Lecter calls “Anthrax Island”: Plum Island, New York. GUESTS: Ellen Killoran - Staff reporter and editor at Crime Online Marian Lindberg - Conservation specialist for The Nature Conservancy and the author of Scandal On Plum Island: A Commander Becomes the Accused Geoff Manaugh - Co-author of Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 14, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You probably know when you’re feeling happy, sad, or angry. But our range of emotions stretch beyond the language we have for them. This hour, we learn about what emotions are, and give names to ones you’ve probably felt, but never knew what to call. GUESTS: Edgar Gerrard Hughes - Researcher at London's Queen Mary Centre for the History of the Emotions and editor of “The Book of Emotions” John Koenig - Author of “The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose is a willow hamper containing umpteen pins, plaques, and official citations of the highest order. In this week’s newest nonsense news: Jon Stewart says he does not think the Harry Potter movies are antisemitic. The Pope says people who have pets instead of kids are selfish. And Connecticut’s own fart bottling “fartrepreneur” says she has retired. And: The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun is Wes Anderson’s new anthology film. It tells five different stories in three different aspect ratios and in black and white and color, and it stars many of Anderson’s usual stable of actors: Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, etc. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Sidney Poitier, Oscar-Winning Icon, Dies at 94 The first black actor to win a best-actor Oscar, and the first to become America’s top box-office draw, Poitier leaves behind a singular legacy. Peter Bogdanovich, Iconic Director of ‘Last Picture Show’ and ‘Paper Moon,’ Dies at 82 Max Julien, star of Blaxploitation classic ‘The Mack,’ has died at 88 ‘Sesame Street’ composer Stephen Lawrence has died at 82 Pabst Blue Ribbon Deletes Tweets About ‘Eating Ass,’ Saying They Were ‘in Poor Judgment’ The brand tried making cracks at Dry January’s expense Humans would probably start eating each other in space Don’t Look Up Is Netflix’s 3rd Most-Viewed Film Ever In 11 Days The Netflix feature Don’t Look Up from director Adam McKay starring Leonardo Dicaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, has become a massive success in 11 days. Late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers test positive for COVID-19 The Grammys are postponed and Sundance is moved online because of omicron surge Novak Djokovic Is Refused Entry Into Australia Over Vaccine Exemption The No. 1 men’s tennis player was told to leave the country following a 10-hour standoff with government officials at a Melbourne airport, ending his chance to defend his Australian Open title. What the Success of Spider-Man Means for Hollywood in 2022 Spider-Man: No Way Home bodes well for cinemas. Yet smaller-budget films might get left behind. Rated “G” for “Globalization” How the Drive for Easily Marketable, Mass-Consumable Children’s Media Stifles Complexity and Creativity Celebrity-obsessed people are less intelligent, new study boldly claims Most Of The Biggest Box Office Bombs Of All Time Were Made After 2010 Elmo is right about Rocco and it’s time we acknowledge that Elmo has been beefing with a rock since 1999 The Nonexistent Cancellation of Norman Mailer Junior staffers at Penguin Random House scoff at the idea that one of their own was powerful enough to derail a new collection of the author’s work. Nicolas Cage says actors need to know how to use a gun Asked if firearms should be banned from film sets after the fatal shooting involving Alec Baldwin last year, Cage said they are ‘part of the job profile’ GUESTS: Theresa Cramer - A freelance writer and editor and the co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications Sam Hadelman - Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Tracy Wu Fastenberg - Development officer at Connecticut Children’s Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat knew he was sick, but none of the doctors he visited in the early days of his illness could tell him what he had. He was treated for Lyme disease but he didn’t get better. So he took matters into his own hands. Ross joins us to share his personal story of what it’s like to feel sick when few believe you and how his pain led him to seek answers in the controversial world of chronic Lyme disease. His story is about living with chronic illness and his frustration with a medical community that can disregard that which it doesn’t understand. His story is also about the desperate measures one becomes capable of taking to fight an invisible foe while under the influence of pain, a desperation for proof of illness, and an internet filled with conflicting information. GUEST: Ross Douthat - New York Times columnist and a film critic for National Review; he’s the author of several books including The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success and, most recently, The Deep Places: A Memoir of Illness and Discovery Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recent scientific discoveries have shown just how much we’ve previously underestimated Neanderthals. It turns out that their lives were very similar to those of our ancestors. This hour: we learn about Neanderthals, and discuss why humans have dismissed them for decades. GUESTS: Ella Al-Shamahi - National Geographic Explorer, a TV presenter, palaeo-anthropologist, evolutionary biologist, and a stand-up comic. Her latest book is "The Handshake: A Gripping History." Anna Goldfield - Host of the podcast “The Dirt” and an archeologist. Bruce Hardy - Professor of Anthropology at Kenyon College. Claire Cameron - Author of “The Last Neanderthal,” among other books. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s a brand new year, baby! The holidays are over, the winter is upon us… 2022 is upon us. So we figured you might want to talk. In other words: We’ve got no guests today, just Colin and you. Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EST hour about anything at all. 888-720-9677.‌ Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a long, strange year. (Aren’t they all at this point?) And so, how is our popular culture dealing with it all? The Nose has a number of questions. Will movies and TV ever really deal with COVID? Whatever happened to sympathetic characters? Whatever happened to comedies? Did anybody watch any standup comedy this year that wasn’t Bo Burnham or Dave Chappelle? Why do we cry at everything we watch? Isn’t Don’t Look Up great? Isn’t Don’t Look Up terrible? Why are we so stuck on old music? Do we even share a common popular culture anymore? Why are there so many good music documentaries all of sudden? Why don’t ALL the movies come directly to our houses now? Will we ever go back to movie theaters for real? And other ones. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: The 50 Wildest Pop Culture Moments of 2021 Literally how did this all happen in one year. Box Office: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Soars to Record $260M U.S. Opening, $600.8M Globally The superhero pic scored the No. 2 domestic debut of all time as moviegoing returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time despite omicron. But not all are celebrating: ‘Nightmare Alley’ found coal in its Christmas stocking. The Oscars Shortlist Contenders Have Been Announced, And Palme d’Or Winner Titane Was Left Out Hollywood Tests the Limit of Marquee Names a Single Film Can Hold Boldface names have always mattered at the movies, but a number of recent casts have been full of them. That hasn’t always helped at the box office. The Best Music of 2021: Lil Nas X is the boundary-smashing pop revolutionary of 2021 Winnie-the-Pooh and more works will enter the public domain tomorrow GUESTS: Raquel Benedict - Claims to be the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction; she’s the host of the Rite Gud podcast Rebecca Castellani - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Sam Hadelman - Hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College Rich Hollant - Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To round out the year, we round up the best jazz of the year. We’ve done this every year for at least the last eightyears. Here are our 2021 picks: “Dark Blue Residue” from Afrika Loveby Alchemy Sound Project “Homeward Bound (for Ana Grace)” from Homeward Bound by Johnathan Blake “Movement 6” from Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and The London Symphony Orchestra “It Come ’Round ’Gin” from The Democracy! Suite by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Septet with Wynton Marsalis “Relentless Mind” by Jihye Lee Orchestra featuring Sean Jones and Alan Ferber from Daring Mind by Jihye Lee Orchestra “Leone” from Migration of Silence Into and Out of the Tone World, Volumes 1–10 by The Music of William Parker “Shortie’s Portion” from Raise Up Off Me by Ralph Peterson “Gotham” by Andrew Renfroe featuring Marquis Hill, Braxton Cook, Taber Gable, Rick Rosato, and Curtis Nowosad from Run in the Storm by Andrew Renfroe “Wings” by Scott Robinson and Elan Mehler from Kimbrough by various artists “White Out” from Two Takes, Vol. 1: Quintet by Jared Schonig “The Sports Page” from This Bitter Earth by Veronica Swift “Up North” from Reverso: Live by Frank Woeste, Ryan Keberle, and Vincent Courtois GUESTS: Jen Allen - A pianist, composer, arranger, and educator Noah Baerman - A pianist, composer, and educator Gene Seymour - A film, television, and music critic Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever considered lifting lipstick from Sephora, only to wonder why? Did you feel the rush of valor when Indiana Jones breached Russian defenses to nab an enchanted skull for the sake of humanity? This hour on the Colin McEnroe Show, our guests invite our inner thieves to reveal themselves and shine light on why we steal. We look at thefts through history and culture, discuss how a common villain gets made in times of uncertainty, and talk about the push for museums to restore ties between Native communities and their sacred belongings through artifact repatriation. GUESTS: Robert Tyminski - Psychologist and psychoanalyst in the Jungian tradition, author of “The Psychology of Theft” and “Loss: Stolen and Fleeced”  Lisa Feldman Barrett - Neuroscientist and psychologist at Northeastern’s College of Science, and author of “Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain”  Chip Colwell - Founder of Sapiens magazine and podcast, anthropologist, former senior curator at the Denver Museum of Earth and Science, and author of “Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits”  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters 20 years ago this month, on December 19, 2001. This hour, a look back at the Lord of the Rings books and movies and their impact. GUESTS: John Garth - Author of The Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth and Tolkien and the Great War, among other books Molly Ostertag - Graphic novelist, TV writer, and author of the article “Queer Readings of The Lord of the Rings are Not Accidents” Susana Polo - Entertainment editor for Polygon Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired August 12, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re back from the holiday weekend. We’re looking forward to the holiday weekend. As we start this holiday interregnum week, we figured you might want to talk. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EST hour… about anything at all. 888-720-9677. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this special Christmas Eve Eve edition, The Nose is not pretending to be any age. And Just Like That… is an HBO Max original limited series revival of Sex and the City. Set 11 years after the events of the 2010 movie Sex and the City 2, the series is said to have had the most-watched debut on HBO Max to date. And: Yellowjackets is an hour-long Showtime drama created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. Here’s how Showtime describes it: “Wildly talented high school girls’ soccer players descend into savage clans after their plane crashes in the remote northern wilderness. Twenty-five years later, they discover that what began in the wild is far from over.” This month, Yellowjackets was renewed for a second season. GUESTS: Taneisha Duggan - A director, producer, and arts consultant Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer; she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year since 2014, we’ve done some version of this show. Ideally, we’d do it in person, but these aren’t ideal times. But our holiday spirit remains, dauntless. “Big Al” Anderson and Jim Chapdelaine and the band are back together over at Jim’s studio. Colin’s hermetically sealed up in our studio. We sing some songs, tell some stories, have some surprise celebrity cameos, and somehow we wind up with a holiday special. It’s an hour of joyous nonsense for Christmas Eve Eve Eve, an audio Happy Holidays from us to you. GUESTS: “Big Al” Anderson - Vocals, guitar, songwriter Jim Chapdelaine - Guitar, vocals, songwriter, mixer, engineer, producer, etc. Illeana Douglas - Movie and TV star Lorne Entress - Drums and vocals Paul Kochanski - Bass guitar and vocals Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Gene Amatruda, Natalie Frascarelli, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When was the last time you had fun? I mean the kind of fun where you lost track of time, you didn’t care what others were thinking of you, and you felt connected to the people you were having fun with. We all know what fun feels like, so why don't we make time for it? We tend to think of fun as a side dish, something to eat if you’re not too full. That’s wrong. Fun should be the main course. Fun nourishes our mind and body as much as healthy food and productive work. This hour, we talk about fun, including why we’re not having it, why we need more of it, and how to have it. GUESTS: Catherine Price - Science journalist and the author of several books including The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again Julia Pistell - Founding member of Sea Tea Improv, host of the Literary Disco podcast, a freelance producer at Connecticut Public, and a freelance writer Liliana DeLeo - A certified laughter yoga master trainer and the founder of Living Laughter Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 10 years old, M. Leona Godin began losing her vision. Her experience with sight and blindness is detailed in her new book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. In it she also explores blindness throughout literature, and through key figures and inventions throughout history. This hour, we’re joined by Godin to discuss “the vast, dappled regions between seeing and not-seeing, blindness and sight, darkness and light.” GUEST: M. Leona Godin - Author of There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 8, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nose is off this week. In its place, America’s Greatest Living Film Critic, David Edelstein, joins Colin to talk about the year in movies and television and, well, everything. GUEST: David Edelstein - America’s Greatest Living Film Critic Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With the New Britain Museum of American Art staging two concurrent exhibitions of Sol LeWitt’s prints, we listen back to our 2019 hour on the Hartford native, one of the giants of conceptualist and minimalist art. As an artist, LeWitt abandoned the long histories of painting and drawing and sculpture in favor of his Wall Drawings and Structures. And as an art figure, he abandoned the conventions of celebrity and resisted ever even having his picture taken. This hour, a look at Connecticut’s own Sol LeWitt. GUESTS: David Areford - Associate professor of art history at the University of Massachusetts Boston and curator of Strict Beauty: Sol LeWitt Prints for the New Britain Museum of American Art Lary Bloom - The author of Sol LeWitt: A Life of Ideas Andrea Miller-Keller - Was the Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1968 to 1998 Cary Smith - An artist who makes abstract paintings Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired May 9, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In their new book, Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home, Anne Helen Petersen and Charlie Warzel argue that “whatever you were doing during the pandemic and its stilted aftermath, it was not working from home,” but instead “doing your job from home.” This hour: Charlie Warzel joins us for a conversation about remote work, our relationship to work in general, and how to make work better for everyone. GUESTS: Charlie Warzel - Author of the newsletter Galaxy Brain and contributing writer at The Atlantic; his new book with Anne Helen Petersen is Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home  Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 18-year wait is nearly over, and the fourth Matrix movie, The Matrix Resurrections, is almost here. This hour, we look back at the original film and its continued influence across the culture with bullet time and red pills and the “woah” meme and so much more. We take the question of whether we’re living in a simulation much more seriously than we did when The Matrix came out. We’re much more attuned to the allegory for the trans experience that The Matrix might well have been. And The Matrix Resurrections is just the latest iteration of the ongoing #Keanussance, from Duke Caboom to Bill & Ted Face the Music to John Wick: Chapter 4 next year. GUESTS: River Donaghey - An associate editor at Vice, where he published the piece “Give Keanu Reeves Some Space, Everybody” David Sims - A staff writer at The Atlantic and the cohost of Blank Check with Griffin and David Emily VanDerWerff - The critic at large for Vox, where she published “How The Matrix universalized a trans experience — and helped me accept my own” Rizwan Virk - Executive director of Play Labs at M.I.T. and the author of The Simulation Hypothesis: An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics, and Eastern Mystics All Agree We Are in a Video Game Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Cat Pastor, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired June 19, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows most weeks where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we haven’t even started with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. And those shows have been fun. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EST hour about anything at all. 888-720-9677. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, The Nose might mind if you come to the table without a washup. The 1970s are back. Again. For the nth time. But maybe it’s different this time? That said, the ’70s weren’t all that bad. And, the age-old question: Should movies have intermissions? And finally: The Power of the Dog is a Western written and directed by Jane Campion and based on the 1967 novel. It’s Campion’s first movie in 12 years, and it won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival. The movie is an early Oscar favorite, with special notice going to performances by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Power of the Dog is available to stream worldwide on Netflix. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Michael Nesmith, Monkees Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 78 “With Infinite Love we announce that Michael Nesmith has passed away this morning in his home, surrounded by family, peacefully and of natural causes,” his family said in a statement Greg Tate, Groundbreaking Cultural Critic and Black Rock Coalition Co-Founder, Has Died Tate was a challenging and authoritative voice on everything from hip-hop to hardcore, and also made his own significant musical impact with projects like Burnt Sugar Robbie Shakespeare, ‘Wickedest Bass’ in Reggae, Dead at 68 Alongside his Riddim Twins counterpart Sly Dunbar, the bassist played with everyone from Black Uhuru to Bob Dylan across more than four decades Making of ‘Dune’: How Denis Villeneuve’s Sci-Fi Epic Is the Culmination of a Childhood Dream The filmmaker mined his boyhood obsession with Frank Herbert’s classic novel to create the big-screen adaptation he always wanted to see: “I said to myself, ‘I would love if I could make a movie for the teenager I was back then.’” Inside Wheel of Time, Amazon’s Huge Gamble on the Next Game of Thrones As legend has it, a few years back, Jeff Bezos demanded that his team at Amazon Studios create a fantasy epic that would put Game of Thrones to shame. Turns out, that kind of thing is even harder to do than it sounds. And more expensive than you can imagine. Inside the epic quest to bring Wheel of Time to life—and maybe change the face of global television forever. On “Succession,” Jeremy Strong Doesn’t Get the Joke “I take him as seriously as I take my own life,” he says of his character, Kendall Roy. 2021 Is the Year of Adam Driver It’s a Great Time To Start a Show That Aired 10 Years Ago The key to happiness is embracing something at the absolute nadir of its cultural relevance We Still Love 30 Rock, but Its Foundation Is Shaky The author of a new book about Tina Fey’s magnum opus on celebrating 30 Rock’s triumphs without skirting over the troubling way it handled race. Longreads Best of 2021 Our year-end collection includes staff and community picks for the best essays, features, profiles, and investigations published in 2021. The 20 Best TV Shows of 2021 From dark social satires to quirky comedies, twisty superhero tales, uplifting sci-fi, and more, this year’s small-screen gems were bold, surprising, and 100 percent satisfying The Best Books of 2021 The 10 I most enjoyed this year. The Best Movies of 2021 It was a year of octogenarian high jinks, long yet revealing documentaries, and masters reasserting themselves The best movie trailers of 2021 Our list of the year’s best movie advertising campaigns includes Licorice Pizza, Last Night In Soho, and Titane Debt collectors can now text, email and DM you on social media Why Biopics Are Bad For Acting Why the Year’s Most Popular Song Never Went to No. 1 Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” is Billboard’s top song of 2021, even though it never topped the Hot 100. Stephen Sondheim Didn’t Just Change Musicals. He Changed Crosswords. The musical genius also helped introduce the U.S. to a tricky new kind of puzzle. A Charlie Brown Christmas’ soundtrack captures the holiday spirit by not defining it The classic special is one of the last perennial strongholds for two very American art forms: the comic strip and jazz An Exhaustive List of Directors Who Swear They Won’t Make a Superhero Movie There’s no more reliable way to elicit clicks and outrage in Hollywood. The Joy Of Hating Stuff For No Good Reason It’s okay, you don’t always need one The Rebrand Trend of 2021? Acting Your Age This year, heritage brands looked to their pasts to create visual identities for the multi-platform era Bros., Lecce: We Eat at The Worst Michelin Starred Restaurant, Ever Saudi camel beauty pageant cracks down on cosmetic enhancements Oscar’s Penis Problem: Why Does the Academy Ignore Actors Doing Full Frontal? GUESTS: James Hanley - Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity Co

Newsletters have become a great way for journalists and others to dive deep into less-covered topics and engage directly with their readers in ways not always possible in the mainstream media ecosystem. The platform Substack is making it easy for them. The subscription-based model offers writers more editorial control and the ability to offer free content and earn a sustainable salary at a time when public trust in media is low, local news is thinning and media content is often driven by social-media algorithms. We talk about email newsletters with people who write them and critique them. GUESTS: Heather Cox Richardson - Professor of history at Boston College; she writes the Letters from an American newsletter Gabe Fleisher - Student at Georgetown University and the author of the Wake Up To Politics newsletter Isaac Saul - A journalist and the author of the Tangle newsletter Ben Smith - Media columnist for The New York Times and the founder and former editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired May 5, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.