The Colin McEnroe Show

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.

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.

Former Senator Joe Lieberman believes the center of Congress is the best place from which to legislate. It’s the sweet spot for negotiation and compromise and making the deals that move the country forward. He thinks Congress would get more done if members would shift closer to the center and away from the fringe. But how do you bring legislators in today’s Congress together when they don’t all share one set of facts? And at what point does centrism become opportunism and the bridge-builder an appeaser? Are there compromises not worth making? Joe Lieberman joins us to talk about his 24 years as a “centrist” legislator and his complicated relationship with Connecticut voters. GUEST:   Joe Lieberman - Represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate for 24 years; he is currently the national co-chair of the political group No Labels, and his new book is The Centrist Solution: How We Made Government Work and Can Make It Work Again 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 hour, we talk about an assortment of topics. First, the omicron variant has been found in at least 16 states. We’ll learn about the latest with COVID-19 and this new variant. Then, we’ll get tips for how to think critically. Finally, why cute cat videos have been used to spread misinformation online. GUESTS: Dr. Leana Wen - An emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University. She is a CNN medical analyst and contributing columnist for The Washington Post. Her new book is “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.” Joe Árvai - The Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of The Wrigley Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. His recent article for The Conversation is “Aaron Rodgers dropped the ball on critical thinking -- with a little practice you can do better.” Davey Alba - A technology reporter for The New York Times whose recent article is “Those Cute Cats Online? They Help Spread Misinformation.” Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, The Nose was a frying pan. The Beatles: Get Back is a three-part Disney+ docuseries produced and directed by Peter Jackson. It’s made from material originally captured for a 1970 documentary of the making of Let It Be. Jackson has called it “a documentary about a documentary.” Originally conceived as a feature film, The Beatles: Get Back was ultimately released last weekend as three episodes totaling nearly eight hours. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Renowned fashion designer Virgil Abloh dies at 41 after a private battle with cancer Ex-Child Actor in ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ Shot and Killed Police said Jonshel Alexander and a man were shot inside a vehicle Saturday in New Orleans. Did Taylor Swift Just Make Billboard Chart History? She’s given The Beatles and Don McLean a 10-minute run for their money. ‘Home Alone’ House For Rent On Airbnb, Kevin Not Included Which Films Lead the Biggest Best-Picture Race in Years? With epics like “West Side Story” and biopics like “King Richard” in contention, Oscar voters have plenty of choices in a category that’s now set at 10 slots. The Best Movies of 2021 This year’s releases, augmented by movies postponed from last year, offer exceptional artistry amid the industry’s commercial difficulties. Here’s Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) The 10 most outrageous moments from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia The A.V. Club breaks down some of the wildest moments of the FXX comedy, which kicks off its 15th season on December 1 The New Yorker: The Best Music of 2021 NPR: Best Music Of 2021 Adele convinces Spotify to remove the shuffle button from album pages: “our stories should be listened to as we intended” Streaming giant makes it less easy on you if you want to mess with an album’s running order Gen Z Pop Stars Made Their Mark in 2021. Beware, Millennial Forebears. Upstarts including Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X, Chloe Bailey and the Kid Laroi grew up on the internet, admiring the artists who are now their contemporaries. More Like Spotify Wrecked (I Use Apple Music) Here’s to the worst day of the year M.L.B. Lockout: ‘We Understand It’s Bad for Our Business’ As the league and its players’ union settle in for a fight that the union called “unnecessary and provocative,” both sides went public to state their cases. How Leisure Time Became Work The rise of the attention economy has accelerated our habit of engaging with our hobbies in a data-driven way. The Package Is the Message American consumers can’t resist the lure of a well-designed container. Cancel Mel Gibson Why is Hollywood still hiring this raging anti-Semite? GUESTS: Steve Metcalf - Director emeritus of the University of Hartford’s Presidents’ College Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College Brian Slattery - Arts editor for the New Haven Independent and a producer at WNHH radio Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From toilet paper shortages, to delayed shipping and low product inventories, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on our global supply chains. This hour we look at what’s going on, and how supply chain disruptions have impacted truck drivers and secondhand stores. Plus, why you don’t have to worry about maple syrup shortages any time soon, thanks to a Canadian maple syrup reserve. GUESTS: Terry Esper - Associate Professor of Logistics in the Department of Marketing and Logistics at the Fisher College of Business of The Ohio State University. He is also on the Board of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.  Keith Trosell - Truck driver and owner/operator of Boba Freight, which is based in Columbia, CT.    Jeff Wieser - President and CEO of Goodwill of Western and Northern Connecticut. Pascal Thériault - Director of the Farm Management and Technology program at McGill University.  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.

In 1959, Soviet geneticist Dmitri Belyaev started an ambitious experiment to study the origins of domestication: he would attempt to breed domesticated wild foxes by selecting on their behavior alone, a process he imagined our ancestors carried out with dogs thousands of years before. This hour, a look at the history and progress of this still-ongoing experiment: What can it tell us about our animal companions — and ourselves? Plus, we catch up with some domesticated fox owners and find out if foxes are good pets in real life. GUESTS: Amy and David Bassett - Founders of the Judith A. Bassett Canid Education and Conservation Center and the owners of several Russian domesticated foxes Lee Dugatkin - Author of How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog): Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution Jacob Mikanowski - Writes about science, history, and art Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired July 26, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen Sondheim was, put simply, among the most important figures in the history of musical theater. His major works include West Side Story, Gypsy, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods. Sondheim won eight Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, an Oscar, eight Grammy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Stephen Sondheim died November 26 in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 91. GUESTS: Steve Metcalf - Director emeritus of the University of Hartford’s Presidents’ College Alexandra Petri - Columnist for the Washington Post and the author of Nothing Is Wrong And Here Is Why Gene Seymour - A “writer, professional spectator, pop-culture maven, and jazz geek” Howard Sherman - Theater administrator, writer, and advocate; author of Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bob Dylan turned 80 years old in May. His first album, 1962’s Bob Dylan, is in its 60th year on record store shelves. We’re at a point where, for most of us, there has simply never been a popular culture in which Dylan wasn’t a towering figure whose influence seems to touch, well, everything. This hour, a look at Bob Dylan at 80. GUESTS: Noah Baerman - A pianist, composer, and educator Fred Bals - Hosted the Dreamtime podcast, covering Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host, Bob Dylan Sean Latham - Director of the Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, editor of The World of Bob Dylan, and the writer and narrator of It Ain’t Me You’re Looking For: Bob Dylan at 80 Gayle Wald - Professor of American studies at George Washington University; her most recent book is It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired May 20, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From New Kids on the Block to *NSYNC to One Direction, boy bands have been a staple of popular music for decades. This hour, a look at the history — and future — of boy bands. GUESTS: Brad Fischetti - The surviving member of LFO Aja Romano - A culture staff writer for Vox Maria Sherman - Author of Larger Than Life: A History of Boy Bands from NKOTB to BTS Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 1, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joni Mitchell’s album Blue turned 50 this year. It may not have the artistic sophistication of her later albums, but Mitchell’s vulnerability endeared her to fans, if not early critics unused to such intimate storytelling. That was okay with Mitchell. She said her “music is not designed to grab instantly. It’s designed to wear for a lifetime, to hold up like a fine cloth.” She was right. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Blue the third-greatest album on its 2020 list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” a move up from No. 33 in 2017. We talk with musicians and critics about the album Blue and more. GUESTS: Peter Kaminsky - Professor of music theory at the University of Connecticut Steve Metcalf - Director emeritus of Presidents’ College at the University of Hartford Carolann Solebello - Singer-songwriter Join us on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired April 8, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, The Nose is lightning with the blam blams. First: Taylor Swift’s new 15-minute film for the new 10-minute version of her old five-minute song “All Too Well.” Swift played all of “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” in front of some of the film live on Saturday night. It is now the longest song anyone has ever performed on SNL. And then: The Problem with Jon Stewart is a “late night” show that “airs” every other Thursday on AppleTV+. It marks Stewart’s return to television hosting after leaving The Daily Show in 2015. Each episode is an hour long and focuses on one issue. Four episodes are available so far. And finally: The Harder They Fall is a revisionist Western co-written and directed by the British singer-songwriter and music producer Jeymes Samuel, in his feature film debut. The movie, streamable now on Netflix, opens with title cards: “While the events of this story are fictional… These. People. Existed.” and nearly every character of any import is Black. Some other stuff that happened in the last couple weeks, give or take: Dean Stockwell, Actor Known for ‘Quantum Leap,’ ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Married to the Mob,’ Dies at 85 Ed Bullins, Leading Playwright of the Black Arts Movement, Dies at 86 He wrote not for white or middle-class audiences, but for the strivers, hustlers and quiet sufferers whose struggles he sought to capture in searing works. Rapper Young Dolph Was Killed In A Shooting In Memphis The 36-year-old rapper had survived shooting attacks in the past, incorporating his experiences into the music he released over the years. Heath Freeman, ‘NCIS’ and ‘Bones’ actor, dead at 41 Paul Rudd Is PEOPLE’s 2021 Sexiest Man Alive: ‘I’m Getting Business Cards Made’ “I’m going to lean into it hard,” the actor says of earning the crown. “I’m going to own this" What The Sexiest Man Alive Has Looked Like Every Year Since 1985 And What They Look Like NowSome of these are so random. Inside Ivy Getty’s Fantasy Wedding Weekend in San Francisco Big Bird got ‘vaccinated’ against COVID-19, drawing outrage from Republicans The Metaverse Is Already Here — It’s Minecraft Blocky game-worlds are decentralized, thriving, hackable, and have produced a vibrant economy Disney Plus to Launch 13 Marvel Movies in Imax Expanded Aspect Ratio Star Wars Spin-Off Rogue Squadron Delayed, Director Patty Jenkins Still Attached This West Side Story Teaser Wants To Pretend This Movie Isn’t A Musical For Some Reason America’s Dad Is Lonelier Than Ever In recent movies like Finch, Tom Hanks’ once-genial everyman doesn’t have much use for humanity. Disney+ Growth Slows, Stock Takes Big Hit Ahead Of Disney+ Day Aaron Sorkin Defends ‘Being the Ricardos’ Casting Decisions The writer-director opens up about controversies in casting Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem, the parallels between McCarthy-era Hollywood and cancel culture today, and the all-important endorsement of Lucy and Desi’s daughter. What happened to Eric Clapton? The guitar legend has long been inscrutable, but his covid turn has friends and fans puzzled like never before. ‘Party Down’ Revival Gets Starz Greenlight With Six Of Original Series’ Seven Stars Returning Jane Campion Will Never Direct a Superhero Movie: ‘I Hate Them’ Dubbing ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ to spread the Navajo language Grandma mistakenly invited a stranger to Thanksgiving. Six years later, they still celebrate the holiday together. The Internet is still swooning over their feel-good friendship GUESTS: Rich Hollant - Principal at CO:LAB, founder of Free Center, and commissioner on cultural affairs for the city of Hartford Shawn Murray - A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast Carolyn Paine - An actress, comedian, and dancer, and she is founder, director, and choreographer of CONNetic Dance 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.

It’s a smorgaspourri of disparate topics this hour. First: Who will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2024? President Biden says he’ll run, and being that he’s supposed to still be president in 2024, that would make sense. But not everyone believes him. So then you’d have to figure Vice President Harris, right? Well, there are some questions about that theory too. And then: Why isn’t there a COVID vaccine for pets? Dogs and cats both get COVID from people. Lots of animals can. And lots of animals are getting vaccinated. Minks. Jaguars. Orangutans, otters, ferrets, lions, tigers… All getting vaccinated. So why not cats and dogs? And finally: What happened to Eric Clapton? The legendary blues guitarist and singer hadn’t released a protest song in his 56 years of recording, until last year, when he and Van Morrison started putting out songs protesting… COVID lockdowns? And now Clapton won’t play places where there are vaccine mandates, and he gives interviews to anti-vax YouTube channels. Just what is going on there, exactly? GUESTS: Emily Anthes - Science and health reporter for The New York Times Geoff Edgers - National arts reporter for The Washington Post Alex Thompson - White House correspondent for POLITICO Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Occam's razor states that "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This hour is all about Occam’s razor: where the principle came from, how it impacts science, its role in medicine, and how it shapes our daily lives. GUESTS: Johnjoe McFadden - Author of “Life Is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe.” Kurt Andersen - Co-founder of Spy Magazine and he was the host and co-creator of Studio 360; his newest book is “Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America -- A Recent History.” Dr. Lisa Sanders - A Clinician Educator in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program at the Yale School of Medicine. She is also the author of the “Diagnosis” column for “The New York Times Magazine,” and is behind the Netflix show “Diagnosis.” She was also a technical advisor for the TV show “House,” which was based on her column. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Between all we know to be true and all we know to be false lies a world of woo. “Woo-woo,” to use the full term, refers to ideas considered irrational or based on extremely flimsy evidence or that appeal to mysterious occult forces or powers. But who decides what’s woo-woo, and what gets accepted into the hallowed halls of scientific truth? The easy answer is that scientists decide. But the answer becomes harder when we remember that it was scientists who once deemed the world to be flat, light to be transmitted through “aether,” and a mysterious element called “phlogiston” to be responsible for combustion. On any given day in history, one person’s science is another person’s woo-woo. This hour, we bring together both skeptics and believers in an attempt to pin down exactly what constitutes “woo-woo.” GUESTS: Stuart Hameroff - Anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for theories on quantum consciousness Michael Shermer - Founder of The Skeptics Society and the author of The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies — How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths and The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People Jess Tomlinson - Creator of Radiant & Rise Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired September 22, 2015.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.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dragons have captured our imagination going back to the Greek and Roman Empires when the skeletal bones of dinosaurs fed the myths we still believe today. And those myths show up in our most popular popular culture today – in the Harry Potter books and movies, in Tolkien’s Middle-earth books and movies, in George R. R. Martin’s Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion. This hour, a look at dragons from the ancients through Game of Thrones. GUESTS: Cressida Cowell - Author of the How to Train Your Dragon series Adrienne Mayor - Author of The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times and Fossil Legends of the First Americans William O’Connor - The late author and illustrator of the Dracopedia book trilogy Matthew Reilly - Author The Great Zoo of China, among many other novels Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Greg Hill, Jonathan McNicol, Chion Wolf, and Alan Yu contributed to this show, which originally aired June 4, 2015.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Toad’s Place and The Shaboo Inn were part of a magical era for music in Connecticut in the 1970s and ’80s. It was a time when small music venues had a symbiotic relationship with fans and could lure thousands of rock, blues, and hip-hop superstars like Bruce Springsteen, Muddy Waters, and Cardi B to their stages. Local arts papers, FM radio, two huge coliseums, a less fragmented music industry, and plenty of college students from places like Yale and UConn who wanted cheap drinks and great music, provided a pipeline for local and national artists who wanted the intimacy of a smaller venue. This hour, the past and future of Toad’s and the Shaboo. GUESTS: Randall Beach - A columnist for Connecticut magazine and a former reporter, columnist, and rock music critic for the New Haven Register; he’s the co-author of The Legendary Toad’s Place: Stories from New Haven’s Famed Music Venue Brian Phelps - Owner of Toad’s Place and the co-author of The Legendary Toad’s Place: Stories from New Haven’s Famed Music Venue David Foster - Former co-owner of the Shaboo Inn, founder of the Shaboo and Mohegan Sun All-Stars, and current owner of Shaboo Productions 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.

The inconic inventor and pitchman Ron Popeil died July 28. He was 86 years old. This hour, we listen back to the 2016 show we did with Popeil on the form he perfected: the infomercial. 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 all introduced through infomercials. But as online shopping increases and traditional television watching decreases, what will become of celebrity pitchmen like Tony Little and Richard Simmons? GUESTS: Kevin Harrington - Author of Key Person of Influence: The Five-Step Method to Become One of the Most Highly Valued and Highly Paid People in Your Industry Ron Popeil - The late inventor and infomercial pitchman Remy Stern - Author of But Wait… There’s More! Tighten Your Abs, Make Millions, and Learn How the $100 Billion Infomercial Industry Sold Us Everything But the Kitchen Sink Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Lydia Brown, Ray Hardman, Greg Hill, Betsy Kaplan, Ross Levin, Stephanie Riefe, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired March 7, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Philip Morris became Altria. Apple Computer became Apple. Radio Shack became The Shack (and then went bankrupt). The New Britain Rock Cats moved to Hartford and became the Yard Goats. Tribune Publishing Co. became Tronc (and then became the Tribune Publishing Co. again). Dunkin’ Donuts became Dunkin’. The Washington Redskins became the Washington Football Team. Last month, Facebook became Meta. And next year, the Cleveland Indians will become the Cleveland Guardians and the Washington Football Team will become… something else. And that’s all just this century, and it’s all just companies and sports teams. Let’s not forget Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Puffy or Snoop Doggy Dogg/Snoop Lion/Snoop Dogg or John Mellencamp/Johnny Cougar/John Cougar Mellencamp. Or His Royal Badness, The Artist Formerly Known as an Unpronounceable and Untypable Symbol. Or, just, David Bowie. Or, just, Madonna. Sometimes a logo gets old or an identity gets stale or a color scheme gets out of date. Sometimes a company or a sports team needs to put its past behind it. Sometimes people go to a doughnut shop mostly for coffee. Sometimes a computer company mostly sells iPods and iPhones and iPads. Sometimes rebranding is the only solution. Or a terrible mistake. Or even just an interesting challenge. This hour: rebranding, from Google to Kanye to, yes, The Colin McEnroe Show. GUESTS: Patrick Dugan - Creative director and chief copywriter at Adams and Knight Irene Papoulis - Teaches writing at Trinity College Mike Pesca - Host of the independent podcast The Gist Garett Sloane - Technology, digital, and media reporter for Ad Age Brendan Jay Sullivan - A writer, producer, DJ, and food history TikTokker Join the conversation on Facebook (or whatever it’s called) and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, Cat Pastor, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a debate surrounding Munger Hall, a dorm designed by billionaire Charles Munger to house over 4,000 students on the University of California, Santa Barbara’s campus. The design has been criticized because of the lack of windows in most rooms, and concerns over fire safety. This hour, inspired by that debate, we discuss architecture that makes humans feel bad, and the ethics of architecture. GUESTS: Mark Pasnik - Architect at OverUnder, Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology, and author of Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston Joseph Heathcott - Chair of Urban and Environmental Studies at The New School Shalini Agrawal - Associate Professor in the Critical Ethnic Studies Program at the California College for the Arts, Director and Co-Founder of Pathways to Equity, and Founder and Principal of Public Design For Equity Julio Bermudez - Director of the Sacred Space and Cultural Studies graduate concentration program of The Catholic University of America School of Architecture and Planning Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Voyage is ABBA’s ninth studio album and their first album of new material in 40 years. Its 10 tracks dropped early this morning. A concert residency, ABBA Voyage, is scheduled to run next year in London. The band will not appear in person for these concerts. Instead, digital “ABBAtars” will perform in their place. It was announced that ABBA would officially break up after the release of Voyage. And: Succession is an hour-long, satirical comedy-drama series on HBO. It was created by Jesse Armstrong and originally debuted in 2018. We’re three episodes into its third season, and 23 episodes have aired overall. Its first two seasons won nine Emmys between them, including Outstanding Drama Series in 2020. Succession was renewed for a fourth season in October. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Halloween and the Anatomy of the Sitcom Holiday Episode Over eight seasons on two networks, the recurring Halloween heists established a model template for one of TV’s underappreciated art forms The 1970s sitcom divide that still secretly rules American TV comedy Though less and less of it with every year We Asked Gen Z to Review Millennial Subculture Fashion From emo to nu-rave, nobody is safe. This Man Moved Several States Away, Not Realizing He Had Accepted A Job At NASA, And TikTok Can’t Get Enough Of The Story I signed the paperwork and they measured me for my spacesuit. Can We Separate the Art From the Artist? GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani - Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer Sam Hadelman - Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.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. EDT 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.

Should people use Oxford commas? Is there a correct number of exclamation points per email? If someone ends a casual text with a period, does that mean they're mad at you? This hour is all about punctuation and how we use it. We talk about the history of punctuation marks, timeless punctuation debates, and how writing for texts and emails has changed the way we use punctuation. GUESTS: Claire Cock-Starkey - Author of Hyphens and Hashtags: The Stories Behind The Symbols On Our Keyboard   Julia Pistell - Founding member of Sea Tea Improv, one of the hosts of the Literary Disco podcast, and a producer freelancing with us Raquel Benedict - Claims to be the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction; she’s the host of the Rite Gud podcast Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is there something rather than nothing? This has been described as perhaps the most sublime philosophical question of all. This hour, we try to answer it. But as we do, we realize that it’s not just a philosophical quandary; it’s a scientific, cultural, and theological one as well. Indeed, to the extent that “nothing” is even understood, it is understood so differently across different domains that one person’s nothing truly is another person’s something. Confused? You’re not alone. The concept has vexed, distressed, and seduced all manner of folk, from Aristotle to Einstein, and remains no less mysterious to today’s brightest minds. GUESTS: Ronald Green - Author of Nothing Matters: A Book About Nothing Jim Holt - Author of Why Does The World Exist? An Existential Detective Story James Owen Weatherall - Author of Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired December 6, 2016.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's something almost romantic about airships--from zeppelins to dirigibles to little Goodyear Blimps. The image of a giant, floating aircraft feels both nostalgic and futuristic. In the early 20th century, airships were on the leading edge of aviation; today, they mostly live on in the domain of steampunk art and speculative fiction.But a number of companies are betting they can bring airships out of the history books and into modern real-world applications like cargo transport and military uses. This hour, we talk with speculative fiction author Ken Liu, as well as a journalist and the leader of a modern hybrid airship company about airships, real and imagined. GUESTS: Ken Liu - Speculative fiction author and futurist, the author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy featuring airships Jeanne Marie Laskas - Journalist; she wrote a piece for The New Yorker in 2016 on modern airships Nick Allman - Chief Operating Officer of Hybrid Air Vehicles Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.