The Colin McEnroe Show

Have you ever been to the opera? I know, you think it's stuffy and formal and only for rich, white people of a certain age. You're wrong. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and attempts by hackers to infiltrate voter-registration databases in Illinois, Arizona and several other states in the summer of 2016, little has been done to better secure America's network of electronic voting systems.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We now have no fewer than four big screen versions of A Star Is Born.There's the 1937 original, the Judy Garland/James Mason remake, the Barbra Streisand/Kris Kristofferson remake... and now's there's the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper remake, which is directed by Cooper, and which might just take the fall movie season by storm.This hour: a Noseish (but not quite actually The Nose) look at the phenomenon of A Star Is Born.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, when Prince died (which was two-and-a-half years ago), we announced that we were finally going to retire our theme song (which was a Prince song). And then we promptly did... nothing at all.Earlier this year, though -- and in typical Colin McEnroe Shovian fashion -- we decided that this non-problem was a big problem. And so, in order to try and hopefully finally fix this non-problem big problem, we did a whole show about theme songs -- ours and other people's.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is yodeling, anyway? Some consider it singing, some say it's an ululation, and still others consider it merely a means to herd animals. Whatever yodeling is, one's thing clear: Yodeling has been around for thousands of years and shows no signs of disappearing.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton were using strategies to deliberately divide America's political system decades before the pivotal 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush divided us into gangs of  'red' or 'blue.'Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we've booked no guests. It's Colin and your calls. Saturday's confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court was the anticlimatic coda to a nomination that has both riveted and more deeply divided our country.Depending on your view, the Kavanaugh confirmation either endangers the legitimacy of the court or is a welcome culmination to a decades-long effort to capture a solid conservative majority on the high court.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So we did a Nose last week. It was good. It was about the second season of Slow Burn and the third season of Serial, and it was kind of also about how both of those shows tie into our present moment in interesting ways and that that's kind of interesting and suchlike.We thought it went well.You probably would've thought so too.Except you didn't hear it, so how would you know? That present moment that I was just talking about got in the way: We were preempted by some Senate Judiciary Committee vote or something.So we brought the show back for this week. We hope you'll like it now too.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The postseason proper is upon us!Baseball has already played four winner-take-all games in three days. The Dodgers and the Brewers won their divisions in a pair of extra, tie-breaking game number 163s. And then the Cubs and the A's saw their seasons end in the two Wild Card Games.And now we're onto a round of real, full-length, five-game series. The two National League Division Series start today, and the American League's DSes start tomorrow.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Eagles' first album touched a cultural nerve in 1971, with songs like "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman." And the hits never stopped. Despite mounting criticism from critics and fans alike, within five years they rolled those hits into one of the biggest selling Greatest Hits albums of all time. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of you reading this are familiar with the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder because you watched the popular "Little House on the Prairie" television show that ran from 1974-1983.But the television show came long after Laura Ingalls Wilder began sharing the story of her family's journey through the open frontier. She shared her memories in a series of beloved Little House books that spanned a life of pioneering both before and after the government declared the frontier closed. She speaks in simple and intimate prose of everyday life that fascinated millions of young readers who wanted to live like Laura. Fans today still want to believe in the absolute truth of every word. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like many Americans, our newsroom was glued to the eight or so hours of testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh during last week's Senate Judiciary Hearings, including the dramatic committee vote on Friday that led to a limited FBI investigation. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been... quite a week. It kinda seems like nothing happened in pop culture at all this week, doesn't it? Regardless, The Nose has a mandate to satisfy.Slow Burn is Slate's scripted, narrative impeachment podcast. The first season covered Watergate and President Nixon. The second (and current) season is covering Monica Lewinsky and President Clinton. It has a strong, willful woman at its center. It has some sexual malfeasance. It has some questionable testimony.Serial is This American Life's scripted, narrative true crime podcast. The first and second seasons covered Adnan Syed and Bowe Bergdahl. The third (and current) season covers the court system in Cleveland. It has some justice and plenty of injustice. It has some lawyerly delays and obfuscation. It has at least one questionable judge.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joyce Maynard has been writing for over 45 years about the kind of human experiences we're often taught to keep hidden - stories  about envy, anger, vanity, self-pity, pride.  We read her stories because they offer a chance to first confront and then forgive ourselves for how those emotions can shape us into people we don't like. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill the seat of departing Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had already widened the chasm between Democrats and Republicans before allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh blew it wide open. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rust is all around us. It's in our cars, our homes, our infrastructure. It's also the subject of Jonathan Waldman's first book, Rust, which introduces us to the people who fight it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The celebrity profile is dead. Or dying, at least, according to The New York Times. Case in point: the Times's own terrible profile of the great Maya Rudolph. Counterpoint: The Washington Post's fascinating, and self-eviscerating, profile of the formerly great Chevy Chase.And: Nicole Holofcener's new movie is a Netflix adaptation of Ted Thompson's novel of the same name, The Land of Steady Habits. You'll never guess where it's set. (Actually, you might not. I'm pretty sure it's never said in the movie, and they shot it in Tarrytown, New York. But it's meant to be Westport, Conn., which is why The Nose is covering it.)Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How well do we really know the poor? As our nation's economy grows and the jobless rate decreases, are we increasingly ignoring their voices? Haven't we always ignored them?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We were going to produce a show today on loneliness with British writer Olivia Laing. We still want to do that show with Olivia - but not today.Instead, we decided to switch gears and talk with Olivia and other artists about the themes in Olivia's new novel because they mirror our own concerns: how to live life in this fast-moving world where the present is history in the blink of an eye and world leaders can end our world with one wrong tweet? How can we exist, create art, raise children, commit to a future in a world that could be ending?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's a mostly forgotten story by the mostly forgotten sci-fi writer, R.A. Lafferty. It's called, "What's The Name of That Town." We meet a team of scientists and an amusing sentiant computer examining clues that suggested something existed once upon a time and has now been erased.It turns out to be the city of Chicago which has been obliterated in an accident so traumatic that the city's existence has been wiped from all records and from peoples actual memories. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we have no guests. We want to hear from you. We canceled our previously planned show so we could dedicate the entire hour to understanding how you are feeling about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the  Supreme Court.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Actress Cynthia Nixon lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary in New York yesterday. Did she lose because of the kind of bagel she eats? Probably not. But from the Nose's point of view, what could really matter more than that?And Vulture, last week -- "as the discourse rages on about whether or not political correctness is destroying comedy (spoiler alert: it isn't)" -- ran a piece on the jokes comedians regret. But here's the real question: Do we want comedians regretting their jokes, tasteless or not?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may have heard that Bob Woodward has a new book out.It was number one on Amazon... before it came out. It was into its seventh printing -- a million copies... before it came out. The president Twittered about it at least a dozen times... before it came out.Well, now it's out.This hour: a look at the phenomenon of Fear.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Color doesn't exist on its own.A red rose will look different to me than it does to you. It will also look different to a pigeon, who can see way more shades and tints than most humans can see. Remember the 2015 debate over the dress? Gold & white,  blue & black or yes, some saw brown & light purple. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nearly ninety-percent of Americans own a smartphone.On average, we spend more than four hours a day on our phones, which adds up to about 56 full days a year. That's like sealing yourself in a room on the first day of summer and not emerging until the kids head back to school. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Naomi Osaka won the first set against Serena Williams during Saturday's U.S. Open Women's Final, chair umpire Carlos Ramos gave Williams a warning for receiving help from her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, who was sitting in the stands. She asked Ramos to take it back. She told him she doesn't cheat. Ramos didn't take it back. After that, it got ugly.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's the money quote from a recent Washington Post story on entertainment in the Trump era: "People look at politics when deciding how they feel about a host or actor. Pop culture has now become one more thing that divides us, just like cable news and social media." The Nose couldn't pass that up, and this not-quite-The-Nose show can't pass it up either.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Semiotics is the study of sign process, which is to say: it's the science of the search for meaning.And then, part of the underlying premise of semiotics -- which just happens to be part of the underlying premise of The Colin McEnroe Show, itself -- is that there's meaning... everywhere.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nike is catching a lot of press for selecting former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick as the face of a new "Just Do It" ad campaign. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Former Trump official Steve Bannon was disinvited from the 19th annual "New Yorker Festival" Monday, after David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, first invited him for a "serious" and "combative" conversation in which Remnick promised to pose "difficult" questions to Bannon. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know that the days of punching our clock for exactly forty hours is over. One of the alternatives that has risen in its place is what's called the "gig economy": Americans are casting off the traditional full-time job to freelance, moonlight, and temp their way to financial success.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble's The Rock & the Redemption is a jazz concept album of sorts that recasts the Sisyphus myth around the heroism of perseverance and persistence.Keyboardist and composer Noah Baerman joins us for the hour.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mimes have been gesticulating their way into our hearts (or nightmares) for a lot longer than you may think. While it may have been the legendary Marcel Marceau who popularized the mime, people have been communicating through movement since the very beginning.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nobody likes the termite. They get into the wood in our homes that can lead to infuriating and expensive repairs. What's to like.It turns out, there's a lot to like about the termite; scientists study how termites build their "mounds" for clues to solving some of the world's most pressing problems, like mitigating the effects of drought, building colonies on Mars, and the creation of biofuels. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the things you will learn this hour is how close New Haven came to being a possession of Spain. Even if you think you know the story of the New Haven Regicides, the men who fled to the New World rather than face punishment, by which I mean death, for their complicity in the execution of Charles I, we probably have some surprises for you.  By we, I mean Lord Charles Spencer, who joins me in studio to talk about his book, Killers of the King. Spencer writes a very brisk and compelling style of history. To put it another way, if you like Game of Thrones, it's a pretty easy leap from there to this story. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I didn't vote for U.S. Senator John McCain when he ran for president in 2000 and again in 2008. I was deeply angry with him in 2008 when I felt he capitulated to political pressure when choosing his running mate. I realize now that I felt angry because I expected more from him. In my mind, he was a man with integrity.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nose is off this week, but we bring you some pop culture topics anyway:Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians is the number-one movie in the country, and it's expected to hold onto the top spot on the charts through this weekend. It's on the cover of Time magazine, and it's seen as "a major step forward for representation -- and the industry."And: Hits are down, and strikeouts are up. Pitching changes and replays are at an all-time high, and take-out slides and home-plate collisions have been banned. As such, baseball greats find the game "very difficult to watch." Is baseball in trouble? (Spoiler alert: Probably not.)Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know lots of sociopaths right?It could be anyone from your ex-spouse to the guy who cut you off on your drive to work today. It's a term we throw around loosely to refer to anyone whoever lied to us or didn't follow the rules.But, if we use it that way, it's not a very useful term. A sociopath is not the same thing as a jerk. In fact, the person you know who strikes you as a jerk is probably not a sociopath because it's not in the best interests of sociopaths to let you know what kind of people they are and sociopaths are usually pretty good about acting in their own best interests.So, what does this term mean?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

humor = tragedy + timeOkay, but then the logical next question is: How much time?If it's okay, at this point, to joke about, say, The Spanish Inquisition... what about, for instance, the Holocaust? Or AIDS? September 11th? The #MeToo movement?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The history of sugar is a complicated one. Once available to only the rich and powerful, sugar now shows up in everything from cereals and soups, to cigarettes and body scrubs. It is known to both have medicinal qualities and to contribute to a variety of health problems.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We tend not to think much about that pat of butter we put on our morning toast, including how the store-bought sweet cream butter we're eating likely pales in comparison to the rich, nutty flavor of  the cultured butter not found in many stores.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

August 16 -- yesterday -- is kind of an oddly busy day in the history of popular culture. In 1954, the first issue of Sports Illustrated was published. In 1962, Pete Best was fired from The Beatles. In 1948, Babe Ruth died. In 1958, Madonna was born (and so she turned 60 yesterday). In 1977, Elvis Presley died. And yesterday, a new August 16th-shaped dot was added to the timeline of pop culture: the death of Aretha Franklin. The Queen of Soul was 76 years old.And: The new Spike Lee joint, BlacKkKlansman, is set in 1970s Colorado Springs, Colo., and it tells a story that's about race relations in all of America right now, today. It's "a slapstick comedy, a blaxploitation throwback, and an incendiary Molotov cocktail thrown into the foray of the modern multiplex," and it's being called Lee's "hardest-hitting work in decades."Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do recent events such as #MeToo, the election of Donald Trump, and an onslaught of mass shootings perpetrated by white men all have in common? They’ve all provoked important cultural conversations about manhood in America.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hannah Arendt's 576-page magnum opus, The Origins of Totalitarianism, is a densely-written book about the rise of anti-Semitism up to the outbreak of World War I. The book sold out on Amazon within one month of the 2016 election in which America elected Donald Trump as their next president. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's Primary Day in Connecticut! We know a lot of people can't vote in today's primaries because they're either not registered with one of our two major political parties, they're one of the millions of Americans on vacation during one of our final weeks of summer, or they just don't know about it. Maybe, it's all of the above.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many of us hoped the white nationalist movement that instigated last year's "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, would suffer a fatal blow. The majority of Americans condemned both the blatant bigotry displayed by the protesters and the president's failure to single out the nationalists as the perpetrators of the "hatred, bigotry and violence." He instead, said he saw that violence "on many sides."That's not what happened.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week announced changes to the annual Oscar awards, including a new category recognizing "outstanding achievement in popular film." Eligibility requirements and other details haven't been announced, but that hasn't stopped the film world from having strong opinions.And: Bo Burnham is a comedian, musician, and actor who was a teen YouTube star. He’s directed a few comedy specials -- including Chris Rock's Tamborine -- and as of this week, his feature film directorial debut, Eighth Grade, is in wide release. Its "queasy verisimilitude" has earned it a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sand is the most abundant material on Earth. And, other than water and air, sand is the natural resource we consume more than any other -- more, even, than oil.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 Times of London has said that Martin Amis "is as talented a journalist as he is a novelist." His latest collection of essays and reportage covers 1994 through 2017, Travolta through Trump.Amis joins us for the hour.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.