The Colin McEnroe Show

Radiation is everywhere. It's emitted by our sun, by cat litter, by bananas and occasionally by nuclear bombs. It's even emitted by you, and by me, and by every living (and dead) person in the world. So why are we so scared of something so prevalent in our everyday lives?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Amazons of ancient Greek mythology is that they were not entirely mythical. While many of the deeds and details ascribed to these women warriors were imagined, the Amazons themselves were inspired by a real-life horse-riding tribe of nomads called the Scythians.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, etc. These are just the beginning of what experts believe will be a future filled with verbally interactive, digital and robotic assistants. And as we become more accustomed to interacting with machines, the machines are becoming more life-like.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I hear the word "diorama," the first thing I think of is Mr. Mack’s fifth grade class and painting hills and grass and clouds and a fence into a shoebox and making little cardboard cut outs of Lassie and the boy she loved. God, I hated that stuff.The second thing I think of is a place like the Peabody Museum in New Haven and their incredibly, obsessively, over-the-toply detailed dioramas of the plant and wildlife of Connecticut.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flags have been in the news a lot lately. South Carolina removed the Confederate flag from its Statehouse and one Missouri county threatened to lower the flags at their courthouse for one full year to mourn the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. I'm in awe of the emotions a simple flag can evoke. On the surface, it's a piece of cloth with pretty colors and designs. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's just a dance, right?Actually, maybe that's the last thing the prom is. Maybe the photo is even more important, because it freezes you. It's your chance, as high school trickles away, to say "This is who I am. This will be who I was."We've been looking at prom photos by Mary Ellen Mark, who will be on our show today, and they're striking in the range of emotional states they convey. We see joy, hesitation, confidence, detachment and some flat-out haunted looks.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You remember the dress, right? In case you don't: Three years ago, a poorly-lit photograph of a dress pretty much tore the internet to pieces. Some people saw a black-and-blue dress; some people saw a white-and-gold dress. The black-and-blue-dress people couldn't understand how the white-and-gold-dress people were living their lives; the white-and-gold-dress people called the black-and-blue-dress people "fake news" (no they didn't).Well, this week there's a new the dress. Except it's a the dress for your ears, not your eyes. It's an audio file. Some people hear the word "laurel." Some people hear the non-word "yanny." And the dispute over which word is right and which word is wrong is very important (no it isn't).Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sarah Kendzior predicted that the conditions she witnessed in 2013 from her home in America's overlooked heartland would lead to the rise of a candidate like Donald Trump. She was one of the few that saw it coming.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Singer/songwriter Jill Sobule is back in our Hartford studios to sing and play and talk and who knows what else!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there's one thing that unites us all (literally, ALL of us) it's gravity. Gravity attracts every bit of matter in the universe to every other bit of matter in the universe, no exceptions! But for something (a warping of space-time, to be precise) so universally present, it remains one of the least understood forces in physics.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Connecticut's political parties are in the midst of choosing who they will endorse in this November's elections. How much do you trust that they've endorsed the candidate most likely to represent your interests? On the other hand, how much do you want or need to know to cast your vote? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Glover can do anything. He's an actor and a comedian, he's a singer and a songwriter, he's a rapper and a DJ. Mainstream audiences know him from Community and maybe the FX series he created, Atlanta. Nerdy audiences know him as the voice of Spider-Man, and they're about to know him as a young Lando Calrissian.But Glover's music -- he sings and raps as Childish Gambino and DJs as mcDJ -- has never quite punched through into the wider popular consciousness, despite some chart success. Until this week, maybe. The new Childish Gambino video, "This Is America," which dropped last Saturday in concert with Glover's hosting Saturday Night Live, has just about 75 million views on YouTube. It is "a milestone" and "a media phenomenon," and it has finally made Glover "a superstar."Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lauren Bacall probably does have the most famous line about smoking in all of cinema. But there are other good ones too. "What are you gonna do? Charge me with smoking?" "Smoke if ya got 'em." And many more.Cigarettes have been such an integral part of movies for so long that one big concern in the lead up to Disney and Fox's planned merger is -- seriously -- all the smoking in Fox movies.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Comedy forces us to confront uncomfortable realities that we prefer to ignore. It also makes us laugh. Laughter is a powerful force. It can release chemicals in our body that make us feel good and help us better cope with the daily stress of living in a world that can lately seem to be spiraling out of control. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From its humble, South Korean origins in the early 2000s to its current place as an international, cultural phenomenon, esports is certainly on the rise. Huge venues including Madison Square Garden, the Staples Center and others are routinely selling out to diehard fans of these competitive video gaming tournamentsSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We live in a big world and we're focused on one small speck in it named Donald Trump. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The bands Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rush, Asia, and Styx have sold, literally, hundreds of millions of albums.And that's despite the fact that This Is Spinal Tap is a devastatingly accurate spoofing of, ya know... all those bands.This hour: a look at the rise and fall of progressive rock.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Alexis de Tocqueville toured America in the early 1830's to gather observations that he would later put on the pages of Democracy in America, he was impressed with the efficiency of our American Postal Service.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Old asylums give us the creeps. The reality of asylums may pale in comparison to the horrors we conjure in our minds. Yet, they were awful. They were dark and dirty and overcrowded. Diseases were rampant and deadly. Staff was abusive. Food was scarce and inedible. Death and suicide were common.So, why does President Trump want to bring them back? 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.

A man kills women because he can't have them. An elected politician reacts harshly to speech he doesn't like. Supporters and critics of Wolf's monologue rip each other apart over whether Wolf went too far or got it just right. This is our second Monday in a row where we book no guests and take your calls. What does this mean to you? It's your calls and Colin.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's Nose tackles Kanye's bromance with President Trump. And we've got an update on monkey selfies!Plus: Courtney Balaker's Little Pink House, which opens today at Real Art Ways in Hartford, tells the story of Kelo v. City of New London. Catherine Keener plays Susette Kelo. There's an unnamed version of Governor John Rowland. Keith Kountz makes an appearance. The movie is kind of Erin Brockovich, but on the Connecticut Shoreline in the Late '90s/Early 2000s. The Nose has seen it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt Taibbi is an American journalist, author, and iconoclast. He is a contributor to Rolling Stone and the author of nine books, the most recent of which are Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus and I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Each election year, we invite candidates running for public office who are on the 'fringe' of voter consciousness to join our show. We like to talk to these candidates. They're passionate, they want to talk about the issues important to them, and they don't necessarily follow a party platform. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I find great joy in walking in the dead of winter along the river trail near my house. Everything leaves my mind as I watch the Canadian geese take flight, their wings flapping together as they lift and swoop over my head. I'm in awe of their beauty.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We didn't book any guests today. We decided to take your calls for the entire hour so you could share what's on your mind.A lot happened this weekend in the news that you may want to talk about. But, instead of encouraging reactions to the latest news, many of you expressed interest on Colin's Facebook page in talking about something deeper. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The original Lost in Space, an Irwin Allen series that aired on CBS for three seasons in the 1960s, was a marginal ratings success with seemingly outsized cultural impact. The show is still remembered for its campy humor, its catchphrases, and its not-possibly-designed-in-any-decade-but-the-1960s robot.Netflix's new Lost in Space, on the other hand, tells the Swiss-family-Robinson-in-space story as a relatively serious family drama with super high production values and the mostly serialized narrative that's become the custom on prestige TV. The Nose has thoughts.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe Biden is seriously thinking about running for president in 2020. He's got a wealth of political experience and institutional knowledge. He's vibrant and in good health.  He's also seventy-five-years-old. Many of us are quietly wondering if he's too old for the job.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With controversies swirling around President Trump and the midterm elections approaching, many are asking, how will Evangelicals vote? Some believe values-voting Christians will stay home while others think issues like abortion, immigration, and religious liberty will be enough to drive them to the polls.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, when Prince died (which was two years ago), we announced that we were finally going to retire our theme song (which is a Prince song). And then we promptly did... nothing at all.Over the last few weeks, though -- and in typical Colin McEnroe Shovian fashion -- we've decided that this non-problem is a big problem. And so, in order to try and hopefully finally fix this non-problem big problem, we're doing 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.

Does the investigation of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen signal the beginning of the end for the Trump presidency? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wes Anderson is a... particular sort of filmmaker. With his typewriters and his pipe smoking. With his monochrome sets and props and costumes. With his perfectly symmetrical compositions. The one place where Anderson's tweeness is maybe softened a bit is in his old-school, stop-motion, animal-centric animated films. There was Fantastic Mr. Fox. And now there's Isle of Dogs. Dogs isn't without its own problems, though. The Nose weighs in.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is real is no longer a question for philosophers alone. In today's world, it's a question we all contend with on a daily basis. Online, on television, in print and in public discourse, facts, feelings, and flat-out lies all share the same stage.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2016, a Swedish brewery offered for sale artisanally-prepared potato chips. $59 for five chips in what looks like a jeweler's box. They sold out. Crazy, right?But be honest: Have you gone to more than one place looking for just the right coffee bean or golden beet or ...something? Meanwhile, behind all this posturing, what do Americans really cook and eat?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having babies is something we're supposed to do - even though few of us know anything about parenting until we're deep in the game. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conservative media giant Sinclair Broadcast Group will reach 72 percent of American homes with televisions if they're allowed to acquire Tribune Media. The president likes the idea - even as it breaks current FCC rules that no TV station owners should reach beyond 39 percent of homes. No wonder he likes it. A new analysis shows President Trump does better in areas lacking a trusted news outlet. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ernest Cline's novel Ready Player One is a futuristic nostalgia bomb that lovingly apes Spielbergian 1970s and '80s pop culture. Steven Spielberg's film adaptation of Ready Player One could have been a self-aware, winking paean to the current Urban Outfitters kitsch for which Spielberg's somewhat responsible. Instead -- and perhaps not surprisingly -- it's a bigger, nostalgia bombier futuristic adventure filled with more decades' worth of pop culture references even than the book is. For better or worse. The Nose has thoughts.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For an American Sign Language-interpreted version click here.Since 1989, more than 2,000 people have been identified as victims of wrongful convictions in the U.S. In 2015 and 2016, the wrongfully convicted were exonerated at a rate of about three per week.This hour, a look at the reality of, psychology behind, and institutionalized pressures toward wrongful convictions in America.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They smell better, they're better at sensing temperature changes and they can handle more pain. These are just a few of the actual differences between redheads and the rest of us. But while having red hair does come with certain advantages, there are more than a few disadvantages as well.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

H.M. is one of the most important and studied human research subjects of all time. He revolutionized what we know about memory today because of the amnesia he developed after a lobotomy in 1953 to treat the severe epilepsy he developed after a head injury sustained earlier in life. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

U.S. Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty apologized​ Thursday​ ​for failing to dismiss​ Tony Baker, her former Chief of Staff, after learning that Anna Kain, a former aide who once dated Baker, filed serious allegations against him for sexual harassment and death threats.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Armando Iannucci is the creator of Veep and The Thick of It and the writer and director of In the Loop. Those, you'll note, are all contemporary political satires. Iannucci's new movie, The Death of Stalin, is set in 1953 Moscow and tells a true-to-some-degree version of the story of, logically, Joseph Stalin's death. Historical period piece or no, The Death of Stalin is still utterly recognizable Iannucci: it's funny, it's filthy -- it's mostly about the incompetence of the powerful. And, at the same time, stories about Russian authoritarianism have a certain contemporary vibe too, ya know?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As secular attitudes increase around the world and beliefs in the supernatural decline, how is it that the demand for exorcisms has never been higher?In America and across Europe, the Catholic Church is struggling to keep up. And as the Vatican is busy teaching courses to train new exorcists, the question remains: Why now?This hour we speak with a historian, a psychiatrist, and an officially sanctioned exorcist to unravel the mystery behind the twenty-first-century resurgence of this age-old Catholic practice.GUESTS:Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At President Trump's first full cabinet meeting in June 2017, we watched with some amusement while each member expressed over-the-top gratitude for the president's giving them the privilege to serve him and/or the American people. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Compassionate release" of our sickest and oldest prisoners is a way to reduce the federal prison population. It's also meant to save on the high cost of health care for aging inmates, and show some -  well, compassion, to prisoners closing in on the end of their lives. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot has happened in the recent days. The news is fast, complicated, disturbing and in some cases, hopeful.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No one likes a cloudy sky. A cloud on the horizon is seen as a harbinger of doom. We feel like clouds need to have silver linings.But here's our thesis: Clouds are unfairly maligned.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For most of time, microbes ruled the planet alone. Microbes have been around for billions of years - long before people ever began to inhabit the earth.  Am I giving you a good picture of how small humans are in this grander view of life? Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here are some songs from your life, "Backstreet Girl" by the Rolling Stones, "Joey" by Bob Dylan, "Road to Nowhere" by the Talking Heads, "Boy In The Bubble" by Paul Simon, "July Fourth, Asbury Park", better known as "Sandy" by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by the Beach Boys. They all rely heavily on the accordion. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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, are we beginning to see the end of these high-energy, late-night shows?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.