The Colin McEnroe Show

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 like a show we’d do, doesn’t it? And so here we are.

Crispin joins us for the hour.

GUEST:

• Jessa Crispin: The author of What Is Wrong with Men: Patriarchy, the Crisis of Masculinity, and How (of Course) Michael Douglas Films Explain Everything

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, which originally aired August 29, 2025.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us have books that we just can’t finish, no matter how many times we try.

This hour, a look at those books that we find unreadable, whether they’re too long, too difficult, too confusing, or too dated. What makes a book unreadable?

Plus: The Voynich Manuscript, an unreadable and undeciphered book housed at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

GUESTS:

• Ray Clemens: Curator of early books and manuscripts at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

• Rand Richards Cooper: Fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and restaurant critic for The Hartford Courant

• Dennis Duncan: Lecturer in English at University College London and the author of Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

• Juliet Lapidos: Deputy editor for The Atlantic and the author of Talent

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, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 14, 2022.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, a look at refrigeration and how it’s shaped what we eat and how we live with Nicola Twilley, author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Plus, we’ll take a look at what we can learn about someone from the inside and outside of their refrigerator.

GUESTS: 

• Nicola Twilley: Co-host of the podcast Gastropod and author of Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves

• Peyton Dix: Social media strategist, content creator, writer, and co-host of the podcast Lemme Say This  

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 Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 11, 2024.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Typos and misprints are as old as writing and printing. This hour, we take a look at them from the "Wicked Bible" to National Park signs and your email inbox. And: the changing status of human typos in the age of AI.

GUESTS:

• Rachel Churner: Art critic, editor, and professor. She is a co-curator with Geoff Kaplan of the exhibit “Beauties of My Style: Errata and the Printed Mistake” at Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library. She is the co-founder of no place press and currently serves as the director of the Carolee Schneemann Foundation

• Jeff Deck: Writer, writing coach and co-author with Benjamin D. Herson of The Great Typo Hunt: Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time

• Katie Notopoulos: Senior correspondent at Business Insider who writes about technology, business, and culture

Music featured (in order):

• The Typewriter – Leroy Anderson and “His” Orchestra

• Typos – The Incredible Casuals

• Oops!... I Did It Again – Britney Spears

• Apostrophe – The Doubleclicks

• S-E-X-X-Y – They Might Be Giants

• To Make a Mistake Is Human – Ella Fitzgerald

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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on July 30, 2026.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is it possible to live forever? And if so, should we even want to? This hour, we discuss the search for immortality, from ancient philosophers to the elixir of life. Plus, a look at immortalizing public figures through obituaries.

GUESTS:

• Tushar Irani is a Professor of Philosophy at Wesleyan University studying Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

• Philip Ball is a freelance science writer and the author of Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science

• William McDonald recently retired as the obituaries editor for The New York Times, a position that he held for the past 20 years

Music featured (in order):

• Galahad – Aoife O’Donovan

• You Only Live Twice – Nancy Sinatra

• If We Were Vampires – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

• Alchemy – Cam

• Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven (But Nobody Wants to Die) – Ellen McIlwaine

• Fame – Irene Cara

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, which originally aired on July 8, 2026.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Primetime is the fourth feature film — and the first narrative feature film — directed by Lance Oppenheim. It is the second feature directed by Oppenheim that The Nose has covered in the last 15 days (and the other one is currently the No. 1 movie in the country). It stars Robert Pattinson as a heightened version of Chris Hansen during the production of To Catch a Predator.

And: Phony is a high school comedy-mystery series from Hulu. It stars Sam Nivola as a teenager who is convinced that his mother, played by Connie Britton, has been replaced by an impostor.

GUESTS:

• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian and writer; he claims to be the rightful heir to the Murray’s Hair Pomade fortune
• Irene Papoulis: Taught writing for a long time at Trinity College
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: A writer and a noted chiropterology journalist, among other things

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, revolution is a catch-all term used by people across the political spectrum. There's a sense that revolutions are transformational, and even improving. But people haven't always thought that way. This hour, we trace the history of the idea from ancient Rome to the present, and look at what it can tell us about the revolutions of the past.

GUESTS:

• Dan Edelstein: Professor of French, History and Political Science at Stanford University. His most recent book is The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin

• Alan Williams: Writer, musician, singer, and professor emeritus of Music at UMass Lowell

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, Katie Servas, and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired on July 1, 2026.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The state of Texas went more than 11,000 days without a Democrat winning statewide elected office. And then it went a full no days between electing a Dem to the U.S. Senate and another Dem as its governor.

In other words, last night was a good night for Democrats — nationwide.

When all the counting is done, Democrats are expected to control 54 or 55 seats in the Senate and 255 or more seats in the House of Representatives, where they seem to have won the popular vote by 13 or 14 points.

So this hour, we take a moment to catch our breath, to reflect, to ponder what this new future might bring.

And then the 2028 presidential primary season starts in — checks calendar — T-minus zero days, give or take.

GUESTS:

• Bill Curry: Playing the part of Bill Curry
• David Folkenflik: Media correspondent for NPR News

Music featured (in order):

• Blue Rondo à la Turk – Dave Brubeck
• Love’s In Need of Love Today – Stevie Wonder
• Brand New Day – Sting
• Ring Dem Bells – Jubilant Sykes
• Burn the Hard Drive – Jade Bird, Mura Masa
• Am I Blue – Dinah Washington

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Election Day we do a show where we ask people across Connecticut to do a simple thing: Go vote in your town before 1 p.m. Then call us between 1 and 2 p.m. and tell us how it felt, what you saw, whom you spoke to. Say whatever you want to say about the experience of voting.

This hour we hear from citizen observers about their experiences at the polls. Call to join the conversation: 888-720-9677

GUESTS: 

• Charles Barber: Nonfiction author and writer in residence at Wesleyan University
• Betsy Kaplan: Senior Producer emeritus of The Colin McEnroe Show
• Erica Tracy: Vocalist, song writer, and arts curator
• Claire Criscuolo: Owner of Claire’s Corner Copia in New Haven
• George Noujaim: Owner of Noujaim’s Bistro in Winsted
• Susan Clinard: Owner of Clinard Sculpture Studio in West Haven

Music featured (in order):

• Short Ride in a Fast Machine – John Adams as performed by The BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop
• Fanfare – Craig Wedren
• You USA – Lara Herscovitch
• Vote for Mr. Rhythm – Ella Fitzgerald
• Song About America – Olive Klug
• God Bless America – Ondara

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. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing.

This hour, the conversation winds around to voting, the election, poetry, music, Kimberly Guilfoyle… Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.

Music featured (in order):

• There’s No Business Like Show Business – The Original Movie Orchestra
• I Can’t Get Behind That – William Shatner, Henry Rollins
• Four – Michael Mayo, Norbotten Big Band
• Hypotheticals – Lake Street Dive
• Blow Top Blues – Lucy Yeghiazaryan
• Cherry Tree – Lera Lynn
• Dreams – Dan Pugach Big Band, Nicole Zuraitis

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.