The Colin McEnroe Show

From fueling some of mankind's most violent events to inspiring your daughter's latest pop star obsession, mania has become an indispensable force in shaping our collective story. This hour we explore a centuries-long flower frenzy and modern-day fanaticism to uncover why we are so drawn to being "totally obsessed." GUESTS: Daniel Durbin: Professor of Communication and Director of the Institute of Sports, Media and Society at the University of Southern California Annenberg School Sarah Bilston: Professor of English at Trinity College and author of the book, The Lost Orchid: A Story of Victorian Plunder & Obsession Paul Barnes: Pianist and Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Glenn Korff School of Music Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode. This episode is produced by Angelica Gajewski. Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on April 1, 2025. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, Daniel G. Lugo, the new president of Trinity College in Hartford, joins us to talk about the value of higher education, his background, the challenges of leading a college at this time, and more. GUEST: Daniel G. Lugo:Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This hour, the conversation winds around to whether less is more or better, birds, the Governor's residence, Sweden, tariffs, minimalism … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): How Can It Be?JuligenBillie JeanBrand New MeSmells Like Teen SpiritCocaine JobsWaters of MarchSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2014, Colin McEnroe and the playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard recorded a live conversation at The Study in New Haven. Stoppard, whom Colin considers “quite possibly the most dizzyingly proficient writer of the English tongue (who) did not grow up speaking English,” has died at the age of 88. In appreciation of Stoppard and his work, we’re republishing their conversation with a note from Colin. GUEST: Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born playwright. His most famous works include "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor." He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1998 Academy Award winning film, "Shakespeare in Love." Over the course of his career he has written for radio, television, film and stage. He' received one Academy Award and four Tony Awards for his work. Betsy Kaplan and Chion Wolf produced the hour. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you just don’t really enjoy food very much? What if you’re totally fine eating the same thing every single day? What if you think food is an inefficient way to get what you need to survive? What if, rather than eating “food,” you just mixed a white powder (that is definitely not made of peoplebecause it’s made of soy protein isolate instead) with water and drank that in food’s place? This hour: a look at what you might call the non-foodie movement and the “powdered food” meal replacement product that is Soylent. GUESTS: Carmen Baskauf:Where We LiveChris Prosperi:Metro BisMaryam Siddiqi:The Globe and MailChristina Troitino:Forbes The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Carlos Mejia, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired June 5, 2019. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour: recipes. We talk with someone who makes recipes found on gravestones, and we consider what makes an effective recipe, the history of the modern recipe, and the art of the recipe introduction. Plus, a look at the phenomenon of pop culture cookbooks. GUESTS: Dinah Bucholz: Author of The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook and The Unofficial Narnia Cookbook Rosie Grant: Posts gravestone recipes and cemetery stories on her TikTok and Instagram Francis Lam: Host of The Splendid Table and Editor-in-chief at Clarkson Potter Chandra Ram: Cookbook author and food writer Helen Zoe Veit: Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Eugene Amatruda, and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show, which originally aired November 22, 2022. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Snacking on snacks, savory or sweet, has become a way of life. This hour, we sink our teeth into our snack-food obsessions. GUESTS: Andrea Hernández: Founder of Snaxshot Julia Pistell: Freelance writer and co-founder of SeaTea Improv Chris Prosperi: Chef and owner of Metro Bis Mark Schatzker: Author of The Dorito Effect The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired July 25, 2022. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we’re joined in studio by seven-time Grammy Award-winning local musician Paul Winter. His new album, Horn of Plenty, is out today. Winter is known for his annual solstice concerts and his “earth music," which features music from around the world, as well as the sounds of animals like wolves, whales, or wood thrushes. You can find details about his Winter Solstice Celebrations around New England here. GUEST: Paul Winter: The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should people use the Oxford comma? 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: 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: RS Benedict:New Haven ReviewFangoriaCurrent AffairsClaire Cock-Starkey:Hyphens and Hashtags: The Stories Behind the Symbols on Our KeyboardJulia Pistell:Literary Disco The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired November 3, 2021. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What's it like being a nun in 2025? Sister Monica Clare joins us to explain her path to the Community of St. John Baptist and why she is sharing her story on TikTok and in a new memoir. Plus, scholars Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita explore the lessons about friendship, money, work, and more that we can learn from Sixteenth-century nuns in their podcast and their new book. They join us to explain that "anything you are going through right now has probably already happened to a nun living several hundred years ago.” GUESTS: Sister Monica Clare:A Change of Habit: Leaving Behind My Husband, Career, and Everything I Owned to Become a NunAna Garriga: Las Hijas de FelipeConvent Wisdom: How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century LifeCarmen Urbita: Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth-Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Organ Symphony No 5 in F Minor Op. 42, No. 1 (V. Toccata)DominiqueCalling All AngelsMariaLet the Mystery BeSong of BernadetteSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's been over 30 years since Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting went off the air, but the painter is still a household name. This hour: a look at the undying force for permed hair and puffy little clouds and happy little trees that is Bob Ross. Plus: Could we do a show about Bob Ross without also talking Thomas Kinkade? No we could not. And so no we do not. GUESTS: Nathan Badley: Cohost of the Nothing But a Bob Thang podcast Alexis Boylan: Professor of Art History at UConn and the editor of Thomas Kinkade, The Artist in the Mall Justin Croft: Cohost of the Nothing But a Bob Thang podcast Emily Rhyne: Cinematographer at The New York Times Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired September 26, 2019. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one. This hour, the conversation winds around to a local landmark, stomping, poetry, firewood, music, sprickets, bibliographies. … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Appalachian MorningPerfect FitSalt Then Sour Then SweetConservative Christian Right Wing Republican Straight White American MalesWindow To The WorldCUT FOR TIME I’d Miss the BirdsKeeperCertified Senior CitizenSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose looks at the way Saturday Night Live is using its cold opens to deal with the never-ending firehose of news each week — and the way James Austin Johnson’s recurring impression of President Trump is central to that strategy. Plus: Pope Leo XIV announced his four favorite movies this week ahead of a “World of Cinema” event at the Vatican this weekend. And: Death by Lightning is a four-part Netflix limited series about the James A. Garfield presidency and assassination. Its ensemble cast includes Michael Shannon as Garfield, Nick Offerman as Vice President Chester A. Arthur, and Matthew Macfadyen as assassin Charles Guiteau. GUESTS: David Edelstein:Tracy Wu Fastenberg:Bill Yousman:Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week’s Nose looks at the way Saturday Night Live is using its cold opens to deal with the never-ending firehose of news each week — and the way James Austin Johnson’s recurring impression of President Trump is central to that strategy. Plus: Pope Leo XIV announced his four favorite movies this week ahead of a “World of Cinema” event at the Vatican this weekend. And: Death by Lightning is a four-part Netflix limited series about the James A. Garfield presidency and assassination. Its ensemble cast includes Michael Shannon as Garfield, Nick Offerman as Vice President Chester A. Arthur, and Matthew Macfadyen as assassin Charles Guiteau. GUESTS: David Edelstein:Tracy Wu Fastenberg:Bill Yousman:Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, it’s our show on the relationship and chemistry between Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick (and the lyricist Hal David) recorded live onstage at Watkinson School in Hartford. It’s an hour of music, conversation, and demonstrations of how GPS can help you find the way to San Jose. GUESTS: Lou Bocciarelli:Atla DeChamplain:Atla & MattMatt DeChamplain:Latanya Farrell:Steve Metcalf:Molly Sayles: The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Maegn Boone, Meg Dalton, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Megan Fitzgerald, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired April 24, 2025. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In late October, thieves broke into the Louvre and stole priceless jewels. It’s a story that feels familiar in large part because of countless heist movies. This hour we look at heists, from real museums to our screens, and we discuss why they capture our attention. GUESTS: Leila Amineddoleh:John DeVore: Theater Kids: A True Tale of Off-Off BroadwayGlen Weldon:Peter Kuitenbrouwer:Maple Syrup: A Short History of Canada’s Sweetest Obsession MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Theme from Lupin III (Paris)It Takes a ThiefCat BurglarOcean’s 11Drive It Like You Stole ItPancakeSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we’re doing another one. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. hour about whatever you want to talk about. 888-720-9677. Plus, now you can watch our calls shows YouTube! Come say (nice) things to us in the comments! Just search for Connecticut Public. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Life During Wartime (Live)Rainy Days and MondaysSong for a Bygone EraGod’s a Different SwordBoarsWreck of the Edmund FitzgeraldI’ve Enjoyed As Much of This As I Can StandSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blue Moon is the ninth movie directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ethan Hawke. It is written by Robert Kaplow and “inspired by” the letters of Lorenz Hart and Elizabeth Weiland. Hawke plays Hart on the night that the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! opens on Broadway. And: Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is written and directed by Scott Cooper based on the book Deliver Me from Nowhere by Warren Zanes. It stars Jeremy Allen White in the title role, and it mostly tells the story of Springsteen writing and recording his 1982 album, Nebraska, and some of the material that appeared on his 1984 followup, Born in the U.S.A. GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani:Jim Chapdelaine:Rich Hollant:Steve Metcalf:Irene Papoulis: MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Everything I’ve GotMountain GreeneryBewitched, Bothered, and BewilderedNebraskaI’m on FireI’ll See You on the Radio The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why do we dance? The answer is more complicated than you might think. Dancing has served a multitude of functions for various cultures throughout history, and there is even evidence to suggest that we, as a species, are biologically hard-wired to dance. Whether it’s for social, spiritual, or even psychological reasons (yes, dance therapy is a thing), humans have been dancing since the very beginning. This hour, a look at all things dance — from ancient history to modern, Hollywood dance movies. GUESTS: Henry Alford:And Then We Danced: A Voyage Into the GrooveChristina Devereaux:dance/movement therapistDavid Edelstein:Jonathan McNicol:The Colin McEnroe Show The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode! Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show. Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Xandra Ellin, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired July 5, 2018. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revenge is as old as humanity itself. And new research shows that revenge functions in our brains like a type of addiction. This hour a look at revenge in politics, literature, and everyday life — and what it would mean if we treated revenge differently. GUESTS: James Kimmel Jr.:The Science of Revenge: Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction--and How to Overcome ItEmily King: Civil Vengeance: Literature, Culture, and Early Modern Revenge MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Il Trovatore: Anvil ChorusThe PaybackThe Mariner’s Revenge SongThese Boots Are Made for Walkin’Smileno body, no crimeSupport the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.