The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal ro ...
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Colin McEnroe Podcasts
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A show about psychics! (But they already knew that)
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There is perhaps no figure more emblematic of the paranormal than the psychic. Able to predict the future, see into the past, and even communicate with the dead, the psychic’s (supposed) awesome gifts are matched only by his or her ability to withstand skepticism and ridicule. But are our misgivings towards these intuitives justified? Is it merely …
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Fly with us to Neverland: Why we're forever hooked on Peter Pan
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It's been over one hundred years since J. M. Barrie first told the story of Peter Pan, Wendy, and Neverland. Since then, Peter Pan has been adapted countless times, and become a constant reference point in popular culture. This hour, a look at the lasting cultural and psychological impact of Peter Pan. GUESTS: Maria Tatar: Professor of Folklore and…
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Turns out common sense isn’t all that common
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President Donald Trump has been using the phrase “common sense” a lot. But it turns out that this is nothing new for politicians. This hour, we look at how common sense is used in politics. Plus, is there really such a thing as common sense? We dig into what it means and if it’s possible to teach it to artificial intelligence. GUESTS: Sophia Rosenf…
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We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation — with our old friend Chion Wolf at the helm this time! — winds around to tilting at (actual) windmills, which way you should put the silverware in your dry…
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Laura Nyro was the Emily Dickinson of American pop music
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Laura Nyro’s most famous compositions — “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Stoney End,” “When I Die,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Eli’s Coming” — are jewels of mainstream music, and her covers of songs like “Jimmy Mack” and “Gonna Take a Miracle” are legendary. But she was uncomfortable under the spotlight and withdrew from it to become the Belle of Danbury, Connec…
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‘Never be the same’: 24 years in the shadow of 9/11
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It has been 24 years since the sunny late summer Tuesday morning that changed basically everything. This hour, a look back at September 11, 2001, and its long shadow, still darkening our days a bit now. We talk to a historian about the generation that has lived its life in a post-9/11 world and a critic about the influence of 9/11 on and in our pop…
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Sugar highs (and lows): A history of "white gold"
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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. This hour we trace the history of sugar and discuss how the sugar industry ma…
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Neither snow nor rain nor heat... A history of the U.S. Postal Service
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The U.S. Postal Service was one of our earliest experiments in democracy. The vast transportation networks that led to more than 30,000 post offices remain at the heart of many communities and still reach into the most remote parts of our country. Today, a look at the past and the future of the post office. GUESTS: Winifred Gallagher: Author of sev…
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All calls: What's the name of the zip line at the Robert Frost Fantasy Camp?
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This hour, the conversation winds around to Robert Frost, bucket lists, the Supreme Court, spotted lantern flies, New England autonomy, and dating. … Anything. (Seemingly) everything. MUSIC FEATURED (in order): Sweet Love by Jen Allen The Second Time Around (The Dutch Heritage Series) by Fay Claassen & the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw Raised…
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How Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman can help us break the spell of technology on our lives
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If you listen to The Colin McEnroe Show regularly, you likely know that Colin has been influenced by two media theorists: Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman. Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, among other books, and McLuhan is probably most famous for the phrase "The medium is the message," in addition to other influential ideas. This hour, w…
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Beyond woods and roads: The life and poetry of Robert Frost
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You have probably encountered Robert Frost through his poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” or “The Road Not Taken.” But how much do you know about the man behind the poetry and the rest of his work? This hour, we learn about the life and poetry of Robert Frost and discover how he’s helped to inspire other poets. GUESTS: Sydney Lea: Former …
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What can you say about the sun? It sits at the center of our solar system and has, over time, been at the center of religions, scriptures, songs, art, and countless other aspects of our culture. We’ve relied on its light, heat, and gravity for as long as we’ve been around, and we continue to find ways to harness its energy for our daily needs. This…
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Rum raisin, Ryan Reynolds, flies grooming themselves … the acid is starting to kick in
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We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Swift’s upcoming nuptials and the state of her relationship with Blake Lively, motives for murder, the grooming of fli…
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What’s wrong with men: A look at Michael Douglas movies with Jessa Crispin
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You hear a lot about the ongoing American crisis among men, among boys, around masculinity, right? You see lots of headlines about how we got here, what caused all this, where the crisis came from. Well, the cultural critic Jessa Crispin thinks we can all learn a lot about all of this by looking at … Michael Douglas movies. And I mean, that sounds …
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Colin and Dylan tell you what the song of the summer should have been
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As the you sit contemplating the end of long summer days, you might wonder what might have been. What might have been if there was a song of the summer! The consensus is that there was no song of the summer for 2025. To help fill that void in your life, Colin sits down with technical producer Dylan Reyes to form the public radio supergroup CG/WLM (…
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Tangle's Isaac Saul has us look at both sides and beyond
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The political newsletter Tangle approaches things differently than most news organizations. Each day they do a deep-dive on one topic where they lay out the facts, then give a glimpse of "What the left is saying," "What the right is saying," and then "My take," where an editor explains their opinions on an issue. The newsletter is the brainchild of…
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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. Nor, do we think about butter sculpture, butter bogs, pleasure dairies, or the dairymaids, those once res…
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First Colin takes your calls and then Senator Chris Murphy does
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For the first half of today's show, Colin will take your calls about whatever you want to talk about. Then, it’s been a minute since Senator Chris Murphy joined Colin for a check-in on state matters and a chat about the weather in Washington. And we don’t think the senator has ever pulled up a chair to The World’s Most Important Table (™). Support …
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Senator Chris Murphy takes your calls and reflects on the fight to save democracy
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It’s been a minute since Senator Chris Murphy joined Colin for a check-in on state matters and a chat about the weather in Washington. And we don’t think the senator has ever pulled up a chair to The World’s Most Important Table (™). Around 1:30, Senator Murphy joins us in studio. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate See omnystudio.com/list…
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The Nose looks at ‘Highest 2 Lowest’ and ‘Alien: Earth’
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This week’s Nose, guest hosted by comedian Shawn Murray, looks at: Highest 2 Lowest is the fifth collaboration between director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington and their first in 19 years, since Inside Man in 2006. It is an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 police procedural, High and Low, which is, itself, an adaptation of the Ed McBain no…
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What is culture without the guidance of critics?
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This hour, we take a critical look at the role of art critics in our world. What is the status of criticism, and is it under threat? GUESTS: Naveen Kumar: Theater critic for The Washington Post. He is associate director of the National Critics Institute, the leading arts-writing workshop for professional journalists. He has twice served on the jury…
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The word "like" has been around for centuries, but it reached a new cultural prominence in the 1980s, partially thanks to Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl." Since then, "like" has taken on a life of its own, inspiring strong emotions. This hour, we look at the meaning and evolution of "like." Plus, how movies like the now 30-year-old Clueless have i…
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How do you make a 100-meter telescope that folds down to three meters so you can tuck it inside a space vehicle? How do you make a heart stent that folds out inside the human body? In each case, researchers have turned to masters of origami, the thousand-year-old art of paper folding. This hour, a look at how paper folding went from a quaint, simpl…
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All calls: Why ABBA will never win the Nobel Peace Prize
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We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing. This hour, the conversation winds around to the bilateral meeting in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin, the bilateral and multilateral meetings in Washington DC with Presidents…
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What the golden age of Condé Nast can tell us about the future of magazines
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Michael M. Grynbaum's new book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, traces the rise of Condé Nast's magazines. This hour Grynbaum joins us to explain how Condé Nast magazines and their editors achieved their status as cultural tastemakers, and where these magazines, and that industry, stand today. Plus, w…
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