Everyone has likely experienced some form of writer's block in their lives — when you sit down to write and the words just won't come. This hour we dive into the phenomenon and talk with writers about their experiences with it. What is writer's block, where does it come from, and how can you get past it? Plus, we take a look at the long history of writer's block, and the muses, goddesses, and saints we call on when we have it.

GUESTS: 

• Jami Attenberg: Author whose new book is A Reason to See You Again. She is also the creator of “#1000wordsofsummer,” and writes the newsletter “Craft Talk”
• Dennis Palumbo: Writer and licensed psychotherapist who specializes in working with creative patients. He is a former Hollywood screenwriter, and the author of numerous books
• Joyce Kinkead: Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Utah State University. She is author of A Writing Studies Primer, among other books

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 September 19, 2024.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Randy Newman has been nominated for 22 Academy Awards (he’s won twice), for 23 Grammy Awards (seven wins), and for three Primetime Emmy Awards (and he won all three).

Bruce Springsteen has called him “our great master of American song and storytelling.” Jackson Browne says Randy Newman is “the foremost satirist of our times.” And the composer John Williams has called him “a kind of musical Will Rogers or Mark Twain.”

Critic Robert Hilburn has published what may well be the definitive biography of Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country.

This hour, Hilburn joins us to talk Randy Newman.

GUEST:

• Robert Hilburn: Author of A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman

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.

This hour, we look at our cultural fascination with dead bodies. What do we owe the dead? What can the dead teach us? What does a body represent to you?

We talk to a death investigator who observes what the dead can teach us about living, a poet / mortician, who laments our growing estrangement from our dead, and a reporter who has investigated the large — and legal — market for body parts.

GUESTS:

• Barbara Butcher: A retired New York City death investigator and the author of What the Dead Know: Learning About Life as a New York City Death Investigator
• Ally Jarmanning: A senior reporter for WBUR; she’s the host and reporter for Season 4 of the podcast Last Seen: Postmortem
• Thomas Lynch: The author of six collections of poems, six books of essays, and a book of stories; he worked as a funeral director for over 50 years

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, Eugene Amatruda, Jonathan McNicol, and Bradley O’Connor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 18, 2024.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, philosopher Agnes Callard joins us to talk about her new book, Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life.

GUEST: 

• Agnes Callard: Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Chicago. Her new book is Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life

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 the inauguration, our immigration system, Van Gogh, The Price Is Right, Klaus Schulze’s Kontinnum … 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’re at a point where, for many of us, there has simply never been a popular culture in which Bob Dylan wasn’t a towering figure.

And with the new Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, getting awards nominations left and right, this hour we take a look at the Poet Laureate of Rock ’n’ Roll: Bob Dylan.

GUESTS:

• Noah Baerman: A pianist, composer, and educator
• Fred Bals: Hosted the Dreamtime podcast, covering Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host, Bob Dylan
• Sean Latham: Director of the Institute for Bob Dylan Studies, editor of The World of Bob Dylan, and the writer and narrator of It Ain’t Me You’re Looking For: Bob Dylan at 80
• Gayle Wald: Professor of American studies at George Washington University; her most recent book is It’s Been Beautiful: Soul! and Black Power Television

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 May 20, 2021.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour we take a look at the history and evolution of chapters, and discuss how they impact our reading experiences.

GUESTS: 

• Nicholas Dames: Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he studies the history and theory of the novel. His new book is The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century. He is also co-editor in chief of Public Books
• Rebecca Makkai: Author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award Finalist The Great Believers, among other books. Her latest book is I Have Some Questions For You. She is artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the century since Russia’s “Mad Monk” was poisoned, we’ve come to believe a lot of things: he was mystical, he was evil, he was the world’s greatest lover.

This hour: Rasputin — the all-too-human peasant who found his way to friendship with the Romanovs and the comical, absurd version of him that just won’t die.

Plus, a look at "The New Rasputins."

GUESTS:

• Douglas Smith: Historian and author of Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs

• Anne Applebaum: Staff writer at The Atlantic, Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the School of Advanced International Studies, author of books including Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run The World

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.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, Cat Pastor, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, parts of which originally aired May 3, 2022.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It feels like tourism hit a breaking point this past summer, with residents around Europe protesting visitors, new entrance and tourist fees popping up at famous spots, and even a net going up to block a popular view of Mt. Fuji. This hour, a philosopher makes the case against travel. Plus, we talk about how tourism is impacting destinations, like Bologna, Italy, and ways to travel differently.

GUESTS: 

• Agnes Callard: Associate Professor of Philosophy at The University of Chicago. Her forthcoming book is Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life

• Ilaria Maria Sala: Italian journalist

• Lisa Abend: Journalist for The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair and AFAR. Her Substack is “The Unplugged Traveler” 

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 September 17, 2024.

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.

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 Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.