The Colin McEnroe Show

As our culture continues to progress, one elephant in the room that seems to be growing harder to ignore is our views on human sexuality. The traditional model of two mutually exclusive gender identities, male and female, is becoming increasingly outdated as we hear about people in our communities and around the world who fall somewhere in between the two (or outside the boxes entirely). Despite the threat of social exclusion and sometimes deadly persecution, stories of those who dare to embrace their own identity continue to increase in number.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're doing a show on supermarkets today - from a supermarket!Most Americans still buy most of their food from a supermarket. While farmer's markets and specialty stores offer organic and local alternatives, large-scale supermarkets still offer more convenience, the lowest prices and a seemingly endless variety of choices. Their big wide aisles with neatly stacked and eye-catching packaged products are hard to resist. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump's election was the culmination of a venom-filled campaign that was nastier than almost any in recent memory. The mean-spirited comments tossed to voters eager to "lock her up" fell just shy of the malicious rhetoric coming from Thomas Jefferson's presidential campaign in 1796. Jefferson's hatchet-man called John Adams a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As 2018 draws to a close, The Nose makes its final appearance on our schedule this year. And so we've brought in a nine-person Nose to do a special, live, nighttime broadcast of our best ofs (and maybe worst ofs?) of the year.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Athletes, therapists, comedians, and public radio producers: All jobs which require a human touch, right? Perhaps not. Even now, we're beginning to see some of these rolls being performed by robots. But while machines may be capable of doing such work, is there any demand for it among humans?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2018 has been a doozy of a year. And 2019, well, who knows? But you know what would make you feel a little bit better? Listening to our esteemed panelists and some of their favorite jazz tunes of 2018, a show tradition we've had since 2014.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When was the last time you saw someone with a disability? Do you have a loved one who is part of the community? Did you see a character on TV, or did you just pass someone on the street? For some it may take a while to answer that question. Why is that?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most common image of white supremacy, nationalism, and other far-right movements is of angry men. Often overlooked are the women.On the surface, they may appear less menacing. But in many ways, they serve a more insidious role: lending their groups a more palatable, family-values cover under which to operate and spread messages of intolerance.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton: An American Musical is, simply, a phenomenon.The Broadway production was nominated for a record 16 Tony Awards, and it won 11. The Original Broadway Cast Recording is certified five-times Platinum and won the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, and The Hamilton Mixtape debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Social structures, in almost all cases, are defined by some form of hierarchy. Whether in academics, sports, religion, business, or politics, there's usually someone at the top and others whose goal it is to get there. But while it's easy to think that we've designed our world to be this way, the truth may be that we had no choice.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jill Sobule is back in town! She joins us after her first of three consecutive evening performances at the Mark Twain House.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three guests, Peter Sagal of WWDTM, Maria Konnikova of The New Yorker, and Robert Evans of Cracked, take you on a tour of vice. They talk everything from casual sex to marijuana to greed and ostentation to coffee to beer to pornography. Peter and Colin also discuss what the next declared vice will be. Possibly sitting.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What did he know and when did he know it?Prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team and the Southern District of New York on Friday afternoon came closer to answering these questions as they relate to President Trump and his campaign's interference in the 2016 election.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The first episode of Doctor Who aired on November 23, 1963. Since then, there have been 37 seasons and 849 episodes of the show. The current Doctor, the thirteenth, is portrayed by Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to take the role on.Is a show with this much history impenetrable, at this point, for new viewers? Is Doctor Who nerd culture for nerds who think nerd culture isn't nerdy enough? Are Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and her diverse group of companions a fresh, compelling way into the series for new audiences?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seriously: a show about towels.There's the history of towels, towels in Christianity, Terrible Towels, Towel Day.Oh, and there are actual towels too.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our relationship with our toothbrush is complicated. Most of us don't brush our teeth well enough. We don't brush long enough, or we brush too hard, or we keep our toothbrushes so long that tests would show it to be about as clean as our toilets.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the series "NewsRadio," the character played by Phil Hartman once said, "Experience once taught me that behind every toothy grin lies a second row of teeth."Smiling is a universal way to show happiness. But not all smiles are happy. In reality, we smile less for happiness than for social reasons that have nothing to do with happiness. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York University researchers say they've found a link between appeal for President Trump and a certain, specific segment of the male population: those with "fragile masculinity."Their research is based on Google searches for "erectile dysfunction," "hair loss," "Viagra," and some other words we may refrain from mentioning.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bernardo Bertolucci directed The Last Emperor (which won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director), Last Tango in Paris, The Dreamers, 1900, and Little Buddha, among other movies. Bertolucci died on Monday. He was 77.In the years since it was released with an X rating in 1972, the infamous Last Tango in Paris -- and its infamous "butter scene" -- have complicated Bertolucci's legacy. In the days since Bertolucci's death, our friend David Edelstein made a tasteless butter-scene joke on Facebook, retracted the joke and apologized, and was fired from NPR's Fresh Air.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In case you haven't heard, our planet is as flat as a pancake. Sound crazy? Perhaps. But around the globe (disc?) a flat Earth movement is steadily on the rise. More and more people, educated and not, from all walks of life, are posting videos, attending conferences, and publishing books embracing this seemingly radical notion. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nicholson Baker once spent a portion of his retirement savings to rescue first edition newspapers from being destroyed. He also fought to save card catalogues and to prevent library managers from sending thousands of books to landfills in their rush to microfilm. He fought on behalf of all of us who think about what is lost when the specifics of a particular moment are worn away or forgotten or altered in the subsequent retellings of the original observations. It's kind of like a childhood game of telephone where the original message is passed from child to child until the last person relays a message with little resemblance to the original. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To do a show about local stand-up comedy, we figured we should probably do a show of local stand-up comedy.So we went to a comedy club, put on a comedy show, and then did a talk show about the comedy show we'd just done.This hour: some of said comedy show plus most of said talk show -- and we're fairly confident it'll make more sense when you hear it than it probably just did reading about it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joseph Stalin's only daughter grew up the beloved pet of a man responsible for a decades-long campaign to arrest, torture, execute or forcibly imprison millions of Soviet citizens, including children and members of his own family. That's what we know now.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No Country for Old Men. Fargo. The Big Lebowski. Raising Arizona. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Miller's Crossing.Over the past 35 years, Joel and Ethan Coen have reliably been among the most recognizable voices in moviemaking.Their latest, the anthology western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, hit Netflix last weekend.This hour: a Noseish look at the work of the Coen brothers.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Argus Pheasant is a lifelong bachelor. He mates with multiple females but has no further contact with his mates or the baby pheasants he sires. By human terms, not much of a feminist.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The repeated incidents of mass shootings are shocking. Yet, they're sanitized and abstract for most of us who haven't been directly touched by gun violence.The response to mass shootings has become predictable: anguished adults, candlelight vigils, and photos and remembrances of the victims in happier times. It's never about the carnage or the lingering impact on survivors or their families, communities,  medical doctors, nurses and psychiatrists who care for them. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last weekend, Saturday Night Live did a thing it rarely does: it apologized for a joke it had made in poor taste. Pete Davidson, the comedian behind the joke and the apology, is a unique figure in the history of SNL.This week's biggest pop culture story is probably the death of Marvel Comics's Stan Lee. The Nose also wants to take a moment to acknowledge the death of the voice of HAL, Douglas Rain.And: Academy Award-winner Melissa McCarthy? Is that a universe we're headed toward? Her turn as Lee Daniels in Can You Ever Forgive Me? just might get us there.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thirty million red blood cells circulate twelve thousand miles in a never ceasing loop through our bodies every day. Our blood has to keep moving in order to perfuse every organ and vessel necessary to keep us alive. Nothing in our body works without the constant presence and movement of our blood. Yet, few of us think about our blood until we see a few drops trickle from a cut. Then, we're horrified by it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests -- on any number of topics. And he's got a new book out: Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all regret and we should not regret that we regret.  I regret buying that pair of pink sneakers that I'll never wear. I can't take the sneakers back but I can call the brother that I regret not speaking to for several months. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This weekend was the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. World leaders convened in Paris and listened to French president Emmanuel Macron warn against reviving the "old demons" of nationalism that led to our first world war. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week's Nose painted itself into a bit of a rhetorical corner and somehow found itself arguing that Idris Elba is too old to be James Bond. And while historically that's true, it's not an argument we're proud to have made. Thankfully, this week, the universe has been kind enough to redeem us with the announcement of your new Sexiest Man Alive: Idris Elba. Of course, that's no reason not to make a new bad argument about Elba, like that he's, say, too macho to be the sexiest man alive?And: The Amazon Prime series Homecoming is a few firsts. It's Julia Roberts's first TV series. It's the first scripted TV drama based on a podcast. And it's Sam Esmail's first new television project since Mr. Robot.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As President Trump talks about draining the swamp in Washington D.C., we turn our attention to actual swamps. Associated with death and decay, while also celebrated for their beauty and biodiversity, few landscapes evoke such contradictory sentiments as swamps.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Women won big in these 2018 Connecticut midterm elections. This follows a national trend sparked in response to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. More women ran and more women won, many in seats not held by a Democrat in decades, let alone by a woman. Today, an hour with several of Connecticut's new female legislators. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We have a tradition on the show of celebrating voting and the people who vote by speaking to thoughtful "citizen observers" from around the state about their experience of voting on this Election Day. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lewis Black is a funny guy. His expletive-laced RANTS and YELLING about whatever's on his (our) mind lends a rejuvenating catharsis for anyone who's thinking exactly what he's saying. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's almost over. One more day of lawn signs, robocalls, nasty mailers and deceptive commercials. Election Day is upon us and is shaping up to bring an unprecedented number of voters to the polls.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Carly Rae Jepsen hadn't released a Carly Rae Jepsen single from a Carly Rae Jepsen album in three years... until Thursday, that is. Her new single and video is "Party for One," and it's the "perfect self-love anthem for 2018."And: The six-part BBC miniseries Bodyguard is British television's highest-rated drama since Downton Abbey and the BBC's highest-rated drama in a decade. The only broadcasts with similar ratings this year were things like the World Cup and the royal wedding. And now Bodyguard is on Netflix.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Native Americans have been getting forced off their land for a long time. Thomas Jefferson forced them from their ancestral home in 1804 after he signed the Louisiana Purchase and promised they shall know the United States as only "friends and benefactors." Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you one of those people who wants to vote for Oz Griebel for governor but won't because you're afraid your vote might lead to a win for your least favorite candidate? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a set of steps and a big stone fireplace sitting in the middle of the woods where I used to walk my dog. I can envision the family living in the house that was part of the neighborhood that got washed away when the Farmington River overflowed its banks in 1955.  My exploration led me to the origin of those steps. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The polling industry is seeking to regain public confidence after the 2016 election. Will the advent of live polling, like what's being done by The Upshot at The New York Times, rejuvenate enthusiasm or trust in poll results? What about the Political Atlas and its incorporation of opinions expressed on social media?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In terms of box office, 2017 was the biggest year in the history of horror cinema. One wonders: Why? And then this year has brought us Hereditary, A Quiet Place, and now Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House. This hour: a look at our current horror through the lens of our current horror. GUESTS: Tom Breen - A film critic and the host of WNHH radio’s Deep Focus Aaron Mark - Creator, writer, and director of the scripted fiction podcast The Horror of Dolores Roach Matt Owen - Author of "Our Age of Horror" Jason Zinoman - Writes The New York Times's On Comedy column; author of Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

About 2000 years ago the Chinese came up with something really great: paper! Paper has allowed us to share ideas around the globe, record important historical events, build on our past success, create art, architecture, literature, music and more that may live on long on after we're gone.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare was famous for his off-color puns, yet much of their cleverness has been lost to the  evolution of our English language.In Shakespeare's English, the word "nothing" was pronounced as "no-ting," which at that time was a euphemism for um, a female lady part. In modern parlance, that would translate to Much Ado About... (female lady part.) Much is lost between Elizabethan times and today. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Things burn: Our environments, resources, and all forms of monument to self. And since the beginning, so too has our imagination. The inspiration humans have drawn from fire throughout the millennia is as impressive as it is immeasurable. Why fire occupies such an elemental place in the creative wellsprings of our consciousness is certainly a debate to had.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has hit a cultural nerve in America. The sustained anger outstrips our response to the killing of 43 other journalists in 2018, Saudi Arabia's jailing of these dissidents, or the U.S.-supported Saudi invasion of Yemen that has created a humanitarian crisis that is affecting millions of people and getting worse.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Louis C.K.'s surprise return to a comedy club stage in late August was widely covered and discussed. His subsequent performances have maybe sparked less internet conversation, but they're just as confounding. This week, the owner of one club where C.K. has been performing has made a couple media appearances to explain his thinking about the whole thing.And: Damian Chazelle is the director behind the three-time Academy Award-winner Whiplash and the six-time Academy Award-winner La La Land. His new movie, First Man, stars Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know all the reasons Trump won, right?Economic anxiety. Racial anxiety. The forgotten working class. The forgotten rustbelt...But what if the real cause were something much simpler and much more pervasive: our popular culture.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Common wisdom says that once you walk downstairs to the place where the sizes of candidates’ body parts are fodder for discussion, where one presidential nominee calls another “such a nasty woman” in a debate, where middle-finger salutes at the working press become commonplace at presidential rallies, you never go back up those stairs.On the eve of a midterm, we want to talk about whether that’s true and whether the 2018 political ecosystem caught the coarseness virus from 2016. And how do we get back up those stairs? How do we bleed some of the anger and vulgarity out of our political discourse?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.