This hour we took your calls about anything you wanted to talk about.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s something kind of special about the experience of a really great, really bad movie.

Think Red Dawn or Under Siege. Snakes on a Plane or Batman & Robin.

Independence Day is nearly perfect and so rewatchable — and also terrible.

This hour, a Nose-ish look at the joy of bad movies.

GUESTS:

• Theresa Cramer: A freelance writer and editor and the co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications
• Alicia di Leo: A para-educator in the integrated preschool program in the Manchester school system
• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Severn Sandt: Associate director of strategic partnerships and outreach at Trinity College in Hartford
• Howard Sherman: A theater administrator, writer, and advocate; he is the U.S. columnist for The Stage newspaper of London and the author of Another Day’s Begun: Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century

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 Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired August 2, 2024.

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: Author of And Then We Danced: A Voyage Into the Groove
• Christina Devereaux: Board-certified dance/movement therapist
• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Jonathan McNicol: Producer of 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 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.

This hour, a look at why, more than half a century after they first came walking down the street, we’re still bananas for The Monkees.

GUESTS:

• Mark Rozzo: Contributing editor at Vanity Fair, where he published “The Most Influential Pop-Rock Band Ever? The Monkees!”

• Andrew Sandoval: Manager of The Monkees from 2011 to 2021 and host of the podcast Come to the Sunshine

• Rosanne Welch: Author of Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture

• Brian Williams: Former anchor of the NBC Nightly News

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.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired February 9, 2022.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 forthcoming 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

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 Sen. Chris Murphy’s New Yorker interview, Stephen Graham and Adolescence and A Thousand Blows, whether John Donne and William Shakespeare knew each other, whether you should root for blowouts, the novel Darkmotherland by Samrat Upadhyay … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

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

You can now watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

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.

Colin McEnroe, Megan Fitzgerald, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adolescence is a four-part Netflix limited series crime drama. It is written and created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, who also stars. Adolescence “tells the story of how a family’s world is turned upside down when 13-year-old Jamie Miller is arrested for the murder of a teenage girl who goes to his school.” Each hour-long (ish) episode is told in real time in one shot over one take.

And: Long Bright River is an eight-part Peacock limited series crime drama. It is created by Nikki Toscano and Liz Moore and based on Moore’s book. It stars Amanda Seyfried as a Philadelphia police officer who realizes that her own family history might be related to a series of murders.

GUESTS:

• Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College, and she’s the author of The Essays Only You Can Write
• Tracy Wu Fastenberg: Associate vice president for development at Connecticut Children’s
• Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart 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 and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

B. F. Skinner thought pigeons were so smart they could be used to guide missiles during World War II. He proposed a system in which pigeons would essentially pilot a missile. Skinner said pigeons could be trained to peck at a screen to adjust the trajectory of the missile toward its target. Project Pigeon was funded but never used.

In 2013, New York conceptual artist Duke Reilly trained half his flock of pigeons to carry contraband cigars from Cuba to Florida and the other half to carry tiny video cameras documenting the smuggling flight of their comrades.

Another group of researchers trained pigeons to reliably distinguish between the paintings of Picasso and Monet, even if they had never seen a particular painting before.

This hour, everything you ever wanted to know about pigeons but were afraid to ask.

GUESTS:

• Yoni Applebaum: A social and cultural historian
• Andrew Blechman: Author of Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird
• Wanda Corn: The Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in the department of art and art history at Stanford University
• Patrick Skahill: Connecticut Public’s digital editor

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, Tess Aaronson, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired November 12, 2013.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Historian Timothy Snyder is the author of the books On Freedom and On Tyranny. He joins us this hour to talk about the latest in our country, and what we can learn from history.

GUEST: 

• Timothy Snyder: Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is the author of books including On Freedom, On Tyranny, Our Malady, and more 

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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The microphone makes everything we do on the radio possible. This hour we celebrate the invention and look at the role of microphones in music. Plus hot mics, mic drops, and more.

GUESTS: 

• Susan Rogers: Multi-platinum record producer, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Berklee College of Music and co-author of the book This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You
• Azi Paybarah: Politics Reporter for The Washington Post
• Forrest Wickman: Slate's culture editor

Colin McEnroe, Angelica Gajewski, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.