The pop music genius Brian Wilson, a founding member of The Beach Boys, died on June 11. The Nose says goodbye.

And: Wes Anderson has written and directed 12 feature films. The Nose has covered at least four of them plus his set of Roald Dahl shorts. So this hour, a look at Wes Anderson’s latest, The Phoenician Scheme, in all its twee, symmetrical, pastel, typewriter- and hatbox*-filled glory.

*I’d just like to point out that I wrote this sentence before I’d seen The Phoenician Scheme, in which a hatbox features prominently. And there’s evidence to support that claim. That said, there doesn’t appear to be a typewriter anywhere in the movie, which is kind of shocking.

GUESTS:

• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Ray Hardman: A WNPR legend
• Steve Metcalf: Founder and director of the Garmany concert series at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmballpodcast
• Matt Sargent: A composer, guitarist, recording engineer, and assistant professor of music at Bard College
• Teri Schrader: Head of school at Watkinson School in Hartford, Connecticut
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: A writer and journalist covering culture, health, technology, bats, and anything else people will answer her questions about

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 contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen live Thursday at 1 p.m.

We’ve done a version of this show every single year since 2013. And we did it in 2011. We probably even did one in 2010. (We just can’t prove it.)

So it’s a bit of a tradition. It’s a tradition that … makes some people angry, we realize.

And that has a lot to do with how we define the term “song of the summer.” We use the Amanda Dobbins definition:

Let’s be clear about how this works: There is no such thing as a “personal” song of summer. We do not anoint multiple songs of summer. There can only be one; the Song of Summer, by its very definition, is a consensus choice. It is the song that wrecks wedding dance floors. It is the song that you and your mother begrudgingly agree on (even though your mom has no idea what rhymes with “hug me” and won’t stop yelling it in public). It does not necessarily have to hit No. 1 on the charts, but it should probably be on the charts because it must be widely played. It must bring people together. It must be a shared enthusiasm.

So it’s our job here to figure out what song from 2024 will get added to the long list of song of the summer classics like “Party Rock Anthem,” “Call Me Maybe,” “Despacito,” and “Blurred Lines.”

And if we’re wrong, well, it really just won’t matter at all.

GUESTS:

• Xandra Ellin: A producer at Pineapple Street Studios
• Frankie Graziano: Hosts The Wheelhouse on Connecticut Public
• Sam Hadelman: Director of public relations at Dark Matter Media
• Brendan Jay Sullivan: A writer, producer, and DJ best known for his work with Lady Gaga

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would it mean if we treated rivers as alive? That's the question that nature writer Robert Macfarlane wrestles with in his new book. What would happen if we took that aliveness seriously? How would we know what a river would want? Who would speak for it? These are questions that communities around the world are dealing with as they work to figure out how to protect rivers and the ecosystems that rely on them. This hour, Macfarlane joins us to talk about his new book, Is a River Alive?, and the stories we tell about the natural world.

GUEST:

• Robert Macfarlane: Writer whose books include Underland: A Deep Time Journey, The Lost Words: A Spell Book, and The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot. His new book is Is a River Alive?

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we take stock of what it's like to read as an adult, and discuss why some Americans, including college students, are reading fewer books. We'll talk about how technology has impacted how we read. And we'll celebrate the practice of reading.

GUESTS: 

• Rose Horowitch: Assistant editor at The Atlantic

• Maryanne Wolf: Permanent member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and the Director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of books including Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World

• Ben Winters: Novelist, television writer and producer, comic book writer, and creator of original audio content. His most recent novel is Big Time

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 Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired on December 5, 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 the "dumbing down" of the arts, the way people pronounce "to," reading in the bathroom, the evolution of language, the Declaration of Independence, and more. Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

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

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dept. Q is a new Scottish detective mystery series on Netflix and created by Scott Frank and Chandi Lakhani based on the book series by Jussi Adler-Olsen. It stars Matthew Goode as DCI Carl Morck, a wounded and unpleasant, but fairly brilliant, detective. The supporting cast includes Chloe Pirrie, Jamie Sives, Mark Bonnar, and Kelly Macdonald.

And: Pee-wee as Himself is a two-part HBO Original documentary directed by Matt Wolf. It is driven by more than 40 hours of interviews with Paul Reubens, the man behind Pee-wee, himself.

GUESTS:

• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Rich Hollant: The founder and principal of CO:LAB, a Hall-of-Fame designer, and a co-partner at CENTER
• Jacques Lamarre: A playwright and chief communications officer at Buzz Engine
• Carolyn Paine: An actress and comedian, founder and director of CONNetic Dance, and the creative producer and choreographer for The Bushnell’s Digital Institute
• Irene Papoulis: Wrote a short textbook called The Essays Only You Can Write
• Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever broken your phone or computer by dropping it in water or spilling a drink on it? This hour, we discuss the relationship between the ever-present technologies in our lives and the liquids that surround us. We'll learn about how waterproofing works, and what all of this can tell us about consumer responsibility and the role of technology in our world. Plus, a look at raincoats and weather-proof paper.

GUESTS:

• Rachel Plotnick: Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in The Media School at Indiana University Bloomington. Her new book is License to Spill: Where Dry Devices Meet Liquid Lives
• Zoe Vanderweide: Senior Staff Writer covering style, apparel and accessories at Wirecutter, and co-author of the piece “The Best Men’s and Women’s Rain Jackets and Rain Coats"
• Sean Leacy: Network and System Administrator for Rite in the Rain

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For many of us, handbags are an essential part of our lives. They allow us to leave the house with everything we need, and they also can be another place to show off our status or style. This hour, we look at the evolution of the handbag. We'll talk about famous "It Bags", how handbags contributed to human development, and the impact of the Walmart "Birkin."

GUESTS:

• Nancy MacDonell: Fashion journalist and fashion historian. She writes the Wall Street Journal column "Fashion with a Past.” Her new book is Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion
• Hannah Carlson: Senior Lecturer in the Apparel Department at the Rhode Island School of Design. She’s also the author of Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close
• Audrey Wollen: Book critic and writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Review of Books and other outlets. Her article “A Unified Theory of the Handbag” recently appeared in The Yale Review
• Aarushi Bhandari: An Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College. Her forthcoming book is Attention and Alienation

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Touch, grip, read, dance, gesture — what can’t they do? Our fingers are so vital to our everyday life, sometimes it seems they have minds of their own.

This hour, a look at the hidden language of finger gestures, the future of Braille, and the joys and challenges of animating fingers for the movies.

GUESTS:

• Kensy Cooperrider: Cognitive scientist, writer, and host of the Many Minds podcast
• Jonathan McNicol: Producer of The Colin McEnroe Show
• Sile O’Modhrain: Professor at the University of Michigan studying sound and touch and the ways in which they interact
• Carlos Fernandez Puertolas: Animator with DreamWorks

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, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired May 31, 2022.

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 our tribute to Jill Sobule, spotted lanternflies, The Monkees, the provision in the tax bill that would weaken the courts, cardboard boxes, sea chanteys … 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, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Megan Fitzgerald, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.