Baby Reindeer is a seven-episode half-hour limited series written and created by Richard Gadd and based on his autobiographical one-man play. According to Netflix, it “follows struggling comedian Donny Dunn’s warped relationship with his female stalker and the impact it has on him as he is ultimately forced to face a deeply buried trauma.” With its unique mix of black comedy, drama, and thriller, Baby Reindeer went to No. 1 on Netflix’s Top 10 TV Shows in the U.S. Today list in its second week of release.

And: The New York Times’ chief TV critic, James Poniewozik, says we’ve entered an era of mid television. He cites shows like The Diplomat, Hijack, House of the Dragon, Manhunt, Ozark (Ozark?!), and Poker Face as prime examples of mid TV. The Nose has thoughts.

GUESTS:

• Irene Papoulis: Teaches writing at Trinity College, and she’s the author of The Essays Only You Can Write
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: Writes about culture, health care and health equity, and other stuff, too
• Tracy Wu Fastenberg: Development officer at Connecticut Children’s

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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The internet is up in arms over the revelation that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem once shot and killed her dog. This hour, we’ll get into it. From vice presidential contenders to “Old Yeller” and “Marley and Me” — what is it about dogs that brings us all together, and unites us in grief and uproar when they die?

GUESTS: 

• Li Zhou: Senior politics and society reporter at Vox. 
• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Tommy Tomlinson: Author of the book “Dogland: Passion, Glory, and Lots of Slobber at the Westminster Dog Show.”

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, 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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It has been 25 years since the deal between the state of Connecticut and Robert Kraft’s New England Patriots — the deal that would’ve brought the Patriots to a brand new publicly funded stadium in Hartford — fell through.

Over the two-and-a-half decades since, the Patriots hired coach Bill Belichick and drafted quarterback Tom Brady, and they won 17 division titles, nine conference championships, and six Super Bowls.

Hartford, on the other hand, eventually built a 6,000-seat Double A ballpark as part of a much larger development plan that has since mostly been scrapped. And people continue to pine for the return of the Whalers.

This hour, a look back at what might have been, what could have been — what never was.

GUESTS:

• Jeff Benedict: The author of 16 books, including The Dynasty
• Michael Leeds: Professor of economics at Temple University and co-author of The Economics of Sports, now in its seventh edition

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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In A.J. Jacobs' new book, The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning, he details his experience living by the Constitution for a year. Jacobs joins us for the hour to tell us about the experiment and what he learned.

GUESTS: 

• A.J. Jacobs: Author of The Year of Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning. His previous books include Drop Dead Healthy and The Year of Living Biblically. He is also host of “The Puzzler” podcast

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.

What exactly is charisma? You know it when you see it, but is it possible to measure? Is it something you can learn, or just something you’re born with?

This hour we look at the impact of charisma, especially in politics.

Plus, in the world of wildlife conservation there’s a term for those animals everyone cares about: “charismatic megafauna.”

What are the impacts of decisions about conservation or leadership coming down to a nebulous trait like charisma?

GUESTS:

• John Antonakis: Professor of organizational behavior at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland
• Sophie Monsarrat: Rewilding manager with Rewilding Europe, who used to be a researcher who studied charismatic megafauna, among other topics
• Russ Schriefer: Founding partner of Strategic Partners & Media, a public affairs political consulting firm; he is senior strategist for the Tell It Like It Is super PAC that supported Chris Christie for President

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 September 6, 2023.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adrian McKinty is a Northern Irish writer of thrillers and mysteries probably best known for The Chain and the Sean Duffy series.

On a dark and stormy night in September, McKinty talked to Colin on stage at The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford. It’s the first show we’ve done in front of a live audience since the before times.

This hour, a lightly edited version of that conversation.

GUEST:

• Adrian McKinty: The author of 20 novels, including The Chain, the Michael Forsythe trilogy, and the Sean Duffy series; The Detective Up Late, the seventh Duffy novel, is out in paperback May 14

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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired September 14, 2023.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's hard to stay on top of everything happening in the Supreme Court lately — a case about whether governments can criminalize sleeping outside when you're homeless, a different decision that headlines tell us "effectively abolishes the right to mass protest in three US states." Today, we're getting caught up with three of the most important cases you might have missed!

 

GUESTS: 

• Mark Joseph Stern: Senior writer at Slate covering courts and the law

• Vera Eidelman: Staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

• Nisha Kashyap: Attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

 

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, 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.

It’s been reported that Donald Trump has been sleeping during his Manhattan trial. This hour, a look at the storied history of people sleeping through things. We talk with a sleep doctor. Plus: an actor on what it’s like when an audience member nods off during your stage performance.

GUESTS: 

• Maura Judkis: Features Reporter for The Washington Post
• Michael Greaney: Professor of English Literature at Lancaster University
• Dr. Rafael Pelayo: Clinical professor at Stanford University’s Sleep Medicine division and the author of How to Sleep 
• Derek Garza: Actor, director, voice-over actor and creative artist, who works in theater, television and film

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.

Journalist Lisa Belkin spent 10 years retracing the ancestry of three families, over four generations, to understand how a series of random encounters between three men led to the 1960 murder of a Stamford, Connecticut, police officer.

Genealogy of a Murder looks at how family “truths” passed down through the generations can influence the choices of the descendants that follow.

How do family stories, happenstance, and the cultural ethos of the moment shape the people we become?

GUESTS:

• Lisa Belkin: A journalist and the author of Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night
• Doreen Troy Dolan: Daughter of David Troy
• Kelsey Rose Dolan: Granddaughter of David Troy

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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired August 24, 2023.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows a couple times a month 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 people backing into parking spaces, incorrect (maybe) pronunciations, spoon theory, the movie Civil War, Gov. Kristi Noem’s puppy … 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 Cat Pastor contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.