Numbers are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that we maybe tend to think of them as an intrinsic part of the world around us. But they aren’t. Humans invented numbers just as much as we invented all of language.

This hour, we look at the anthropological, psychological, and linguistical ramifications of the concept of numbers.

And we look at one philosophical question too: Are numbers even real in the first place?

GUESTS:

• Brian Clegg: Author of Are Numbers Real? The Uncanny Relationship of Mathematics and the Physical World
• Caleb Everett: Author of Numbers and the Making of Us: Counting and the Course of Human Cultures

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 and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired October 12, 2017.

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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 booing, the separation of church and state, our anniversary party, showering in the morning vs. at night, pinball (again), Gene Hackman, whether or not Colin owns a suit … 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 to 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.

We’ve never done this before.

The Nose has done Oscars shows any number of times, but they’ve basically all been preview shows of one kind or another on the Friday and/or Saturday before the Sunday ceremony.

But this year, we’re doing the other thing: a Monday reaction show after the Sunday ceremony. (The closest we’ve come before was a short emergency Nose to deal with The Slap, which I still think was really more of a smack, but whatever.)

Point being: The 97th Academy Awards were Sunday night. Anora cleaned up, winning five major awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. The Brutalist picked up a couple other big awards. Movies like Emilia Pérez and Conclave and A Complete Unknown came up close to empty (Pérezand Conclave) or completely empty (Complete Unknown).

This hour, The Nose reacts to the Oscars — the surprises, the snubs, the speeches, the outfits, the memes, the chewing gum. The whole thing.

GUESTS:

• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast
• Vivian Nabeta: Director of digital marketing for CT State Community College
• Gene Seymour: A “writer, professional spectator, pop-culture maven, and jazz geek”

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.

Severance is a science fiction office comedy psychological thriller series created by Dan Erickson and executive produced and primarily directed by Ben Stiller. After a 32-month hiatus between seasons, its second season is running now on Apple TV+.

And: The Mother Lode is a standup special from comedian Rosebud Baker. It stitches together two performances from The Comedy Cellar in Manhattan — one when Baker was eight months pregnant and one 11 months after she gave birth.

GUESTS:

• Sam Hadelman: Works in music public relations and hosts The Sam Hadelman Show at Radio Free Brooklyn
• Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College, and she’s the author of The Essays Only You Can Write
• 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 contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's cold, snowy winters like this that make us question why we choose to live in a place where snow, sleet, and wind define one-third of the year.  It's a great excuse to complain, but does it also make us stronger and better people?

This hour, we'll explore the idea of "northmanship." We'll talk about what it means to be from the north and to be inspired by the north. Is there a connection that we make to truth and beauty? Are we obsessed with it because it's slowly disappearing?

GUESTS: 

• Michael Robinson: Author, Department of Humanities Chair and Professor of History at University of Hartford. He hosts a podcast called "Time to Eat the Dogs"
• Luanne Rice: Author of more than 30 novels, including 22 consecutive New York Times best sellers 
• Mary Ehrlander: Professor Emeritus of History at University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Halla Oskarsdottir: Icelandic journalist, columnist and book critic

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.

Julia Pistell and Chion Wolf contributed to this program, which originally aired March 5, 2015. 

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may notice that we curate our music rather carefully, the music we use going in and out of segments.

This hour, a look at how we do that, what our standards are, and how we make those choices about music.

GUEST:

• Robyn Doyon-Aitken: Deputy director of audio storytelling and talk shows at Connecticut Public

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.

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.

You have probably encountered poet Robert Frost through his famous 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 poems?

This hour, we learn about the life and poetry of Robert Frost and discover how he's helped to inspire other poets.

You can hear Adam Plunkett talk about his new book on Monday, February 24, at 7 p.m. EST at The University of Saint Joseph.

GUESTS: 

• Adam Plunkett: Literary critic and author of Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost’s Poetry
• Sydney Lea: Former Poet Laureate of Vermont and a recipient of Vermont’s highest artistic distinction, The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts; he is the author of 16 poetry collections, seven collections of personal essays, and two novels

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, Dylan Reyes, and Kathy Wang contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This past weekend, Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary with a concert and a special.

This hour, a look at the institution SNL has become over five decades on television.

Plus, a look at Jason Reitman’s movie, Saturday Night, which tells (a version of) the story of SNL’s inception in 1975.

GUESTS:

• Dave Itzkoff: A journalist and writer and the author of four books; his most recent is Robin

• Maureen Lee Lenker: A senior writer at Entertainment Weekly and the author of the novel It Happened One Fight

• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast

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 October 18, 2024.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Trump and his new administration have been dismantling the U.S. government's administrative state, what they call the "deep state." This hour, we take a look at what government bureaucrats do, the impact of Trump's actions, and how the reality of the administrative state differs from the rhetoric surrounding it.

Plus, we'll hear from the longtime congressional staffer who popularized the term "deep state" about how it's being used. And, a look at cultural depictions of the bureaucracy.

GUESTS: 

• Cristina Rodríguez: Professor of Law at Yale Law School
• Mike Lofgren: Worked in Congress for twenty-eight years. He is the author of The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted, as well as The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
• Jennifer Szalai: Nonfiction book critic for The New York Times

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.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.