The Colin McEnroe Show

President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963.

It would be hard to argue that the modern American era, the era that we’re still living in more than 60 years later, didn’t begin on that Friday afternoon in Dallas. It would be hard to overstate the effect and influence of that event, that act on the American psyche.

This hour, a look at the shadow that the JFK assassination still casts over our news and politics, our movies and music, our media and culture.

GUESTS:

• Stephen Battaglio: Writes about television and the media business for the Los Angeles Times
• Timothy Hampton: The author of several books, including Bob Dylan: How the Songs Work
• Sean O’Neal: A writer, a contributor to Texas Monthly, and the former editor-in-chief of The A.V. Club
• Steve Rose: Assistant features editor at The Guardian
• Philip Shenon: The author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination

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.

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Colin McEnroe, Joey Morgan, Cat Pastor, Lateshia Peters, Dylan Reyes, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, parts of which originally aired November 22, 2017, and November 22, 2023, in a different form.

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This hour, a look at the myth of Sisyphus, and how we invoke it today. Plus, we'll hear from a musician who has found inspiration in the story, and we'll discuss when it's time to give up.

GUESTS: 

• Joel Christensen: Professor of Classical Studies and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Brandeis University. His newest book is The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic
• Noah Baerman: Pianist, composer, and educator. He is director of the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble and artistic director of the nonprofit Resonance Motion. His most recent album is Live at the Side Door
• Joshua Rothman: The New Yorker’s Ideas Editor, who writes the weekly column “Open Questions”

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Zero is considered by many mathematicians to maybe be humanity’s greatest achievement.

This hour, a look at the strange and essential concept of the number zero and how the human brain deals with it.

Plus: the trend toward zero-sugar and zero-calorie sodas.

And: 0 (and 00) as a uniform number in sports.

GUESTS:

• Emily Contois: Associate professor of media studies at The University of Tulsa and the author of Diners, Dudes, and Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture
• Todd Radom: A designer, sports branding expert, and writer
• Yasemin Saplakoglu: A staff writer covering biology for Quanta Magazine

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, SpotifyAmazon 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, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some women in the United States are adopting the 4B Movement from South Korea: no marriage, no childbirth, no dating, and no sex. This hour we take stock of that movement globally, and the history of other similar movements, including one depicted in an ancient Greek play, Lysistrata.

GUESTS: 

• Min Joo Lee: Assistant Professor of Asian Studies at Occidental College
• Cécile Simmons: Researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue focusing on gender, extremism and digital culture. Her forthcoming book is Ctrl Hate Delete: The New Anti-Feminist Backlash and How We Fight It
• Tania Shew: Research fellow at the University of Oxford, who has a book under contract tentatively titled Sex Strikes and Suffragettes 
• Elizabeth Bobrick: Visiting Scholar in Wesleyan’s Department of Classical studies

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This hour we take your calls about anything you want to talk about.

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

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Note: This episode contains strong language.

Griffin Dunne is Jack Goodman in John Landis’ classic horror-comedy An American Werewolf in Londonand Paul Hackett in Martin Scorsese’s After Hours and Loudon Trout in the Madonna-starring screwball comedy Who’s That Girl. He’s Uncle Nicky on This Is Us and Professor Dudenoff on Only Murders in the Building and Dr. Alon Parfit on Succession and Sylvére on I Love Dick.

He produced After Hours and Running on Empty and Once Around. He directed Practical Magic and Addicted to Love and the documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.

His father was the journalist and novelist and movie producer Dominick Dunne. His aunt and uncle were the journalists and novelists and screenwriters Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. His sister was the actress Dominique Dunne. His grandfather was a famous heart surgeon from West Hartford, Connecticut.

Last week, we recorded a conversation with Griffin Dunne on stage at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford. It’s a lot about that complicated, sometimes tragic, often hilarious family. And it’s about movies and TV and writing. And Hartford.

This hour: Griffin Dunne.

GUEST:

• Griffin Dunne: An actor, producer, and director and the author of The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir

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.

You probably know Brian Reed from his hit award-winning series "S-Town." Now, Brian has a new podcast, "Question Everything," where he is re-examining everything about journalism. Today Brian Reed joins us for the full show to talk about what he's discovered.

GUEST: 

• Brian Reed: Host and producer of the new podcast “Question Everything” from KCRW and Placement Theory, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts. He also hosted and executive produced the podcast series “S-Town” and “The Trojan Horse Affair”

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Franz Kafka died 100 years ago, but his work is still very much alive today in literature classes and, surprisingly, on social media.

This hour, we look at Kafka’s life and legacy, discuss the “Kafkaesque,” and investigate why the author resonates so much today.

Plus, we revisit his most famous work, “The Metamorphosis,” and talk with a zoologist about the idea of turning into an insect.

GUESTS:

• Benjamin Balint: Author of Kafka’s Last Trial; his latest book is Bruno Schulz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History
• Tim Coulson: Professor of zoology at the University of Oxford; his latest book is The Science of Why We Exist: A History of the Universe from the Big Bang to Consciousness
• Margarita Mouka: Content creator and creative executive; her TikTok handle is @aquariuscat444
• Karolina Watroba: Post-doctoral research fellow in modern languages at Oxford’s All Souls College and the author of Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka

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 Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 8, 2024.

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 tables, Keri Russell, how much you should disengage from politics, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, stolen deliveries and mail theft … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

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

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 and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We hear about algorithms all the time, but what is an algorithm exactly? This hour, we learn about how algorithms work, a bit about their history, and how they're impacting our culture.

GUESTS: 

• Ed Finn: Author of What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing, and founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University

• Bruce Gil: Reporter for Quartz

• Liz Pelly: Writer and editor, whose forthcoming book is Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist

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, Google Podcasts, 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, which originally aired on May 22, 2024.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.