What else besides an egg can give us human life, culinary delight, life-saving vaccines, jarping, the Clowns International Egg Registry, and a satisfying bit of schadenfreude, all wrapped in one small package? Making a great omelet is the tip of the eggshell for the versatility of the egg.

This hour, a hard-boiled look at the ubiquitous, yet overlooked egg.

GUESTS:

• John Portmann: Taught moral philosophy and ethics at the University of Virginia for several decades; he’s the author of When Bad Things Happen To Other People
• Chris Prosperi: Chef and co-owner of Metro Bis in Simsbury, Connecticut, and a former recipe columnist for the Hartford Courant
• Lizzie Stark: The author of Egg: A Dozen Ovatures

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!

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, Cat Pastor, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired April 27, 2023.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour we take your calls about anything you want 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.

This hour is all about America’s 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, who took office after President James Garfield was assassinated.

We look at Arthur’s life and legacy and at what happens when someone unexpectedly takes over the highest office in the land.

GUESTS:

• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic

• Scott S. Greenberger: Executive editor of Stateline and the author of The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur

• Victoria Sample: Historic sites section chief for the state of Vermont

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. 

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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired March 6, 2024.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

State Sen. Martin Looney has proposed a bill in the Connecticut legislature that would require movie theaters to publish the actual start times of movies, rather than the time all the commercials and trailers and ads for concessions start.

This hour, a Nose-ish look at, well, that bill and the effects it would have on movie theaters and moviegoing.

Plus: the art and history of movie trailers, themselves.

GUESTS:

• Allan Arkush: A contributor to Trailers from Hell; he worked in the trailers department for Roger Corman
• Stephen Garrett: Founder of Jump Cut
• James Hanley: Co-founder of Cinestudio at Trinity College
• Sam Hatch: Co-hosts The Culture Dogs on WWUH
• Martin Looney: President pro tempore of the Connecticut Senate and the state senator serving Hamden and New Haven
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast
• Kevin O’Toole: Co-hosts The Culture Dogs on WWUH
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: Writes about culture, health care and health equity, and other stuff, too

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, Betsy Kaplan, Cat Pastor, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, parts of which originally aired July 2, 2014, in a different form.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you ever wish you could have a conversation with your pet, or the bird outside your window? This hour, we learn about how animals communicate with one another, how we communicate with them, and what this can teach us about human language.

Plus, some pet owners are turning to soundboards to communicate with their pets. We'll talk with a researcher who's exploring how effective that is, and what that can teach us about the future of animal and human communications.

GUESTS: 

• Arik Kershenbaum: Professor of Zoology at University of Cambridge, and author of Why Animals Talk: The New Science of Animal Communication
• Federico Rossano: Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’ve had some well-documented trouble with our neighborhood squirrels over the last few winters. It could be that most homeowners in the Northeast and beyond feel like they’ve had some sort of conflict with the local squirrels.

But we maybe misunderstand squirrels. Their seemingly scattershot behaviors actually suggest a fascinating intelligence and intentionality. And while we see squirrels as a nemesis of birds and bird feeders, squirrels actually plant a lot of the trees birds live and nest in.

At the same time, for some people, squirrels are nightmare fuel.

And if you happen to suffer from that so-called sciurophobia, don’t read this next thing: It would seem that the normally essentially vegetarian California ground squirrel has recently developed carnivorous hunting skills at the expense of the local vole population.

GUESTS:

• Nick Buckley: A freelance journalist and photographer
• Nancy Lawson: The author, most recently, of Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature and the founder of The Humane Gardner
• Jennifer Smith: A behavioral ecologist and an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire, where she leads the Behavioral Ecology of Social Mammals Lab

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.

What’s in your pockets right now? Phone, wallet, keys … maybe some discarded receipts or old gum?

This hour: what we carry with us every day, from flashlights the size of a lip balm to a life-saving medicine.

GUESTS:

• Bernard Capulong: Founder and editor-in-chief of everydaycarry.com
• Peter Canning: A Hartford paramedic, an emergency medical services coordinator at John Dempsey Hospital, and the author of Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic
• Hannah Carlson: Senior lecturer in the Apparel Department at the Rhode Island School of Design and the author of Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close
• Mona Gohara: Private practice dermatologist, associate clinical professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine, and an advocate around increasing inclusivity in dermatology
• Drew John Ladd: A writer

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!

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 Cat Pastor 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.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

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. 

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

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.

Sing Sing is a theater and prison drama directed by Greg Kwedar and written by Clint Bentley and Kwedar from a story by Bentley, Kwedar, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, and John “Divine G” Whitfield. It is nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Colman Domingo and Best Adapted Screenplay.

And: American Primeval is a Netflix limited series written and created by Mark L. Smith and directed by Peter Berg. It’s set in 1857 during the Utah War, and it stars Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Dane DeHaan, Jai Courtney, Shea Whigham, and more.

GUESTS:

• Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and a freelance writer
• Taneisha Duggan: Associate producer at Octopus Theatricals
• 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.

There’s a theory that people are drawn to work that fits their name. This hour, an exploration of nominative determinism. Plus, a look at the different ways your name impacts your life.

GUESTS:

• David Bird: Emeritus professor of wildlife biology and director of the Avian Science and Conservation Centre of McGill University

• Brett Pelham: Professor of psychology at Montgomery College

• Tess Terrible: Senior producer of Where We Live on Connecticut Public

• Laura Wattenberg: Naming expert, author of The Baby Name Wizard, and the creator of Namerology

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. 

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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired February 16, 2023.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.