The Colin McEnroe Show

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...

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 cultura...

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 th...

Fallout is a post-apocalyptic TV series developed for Amazon MGM Studios by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who co-created Westworld for HBO. It is the first screen adaptation of the game franchise, which comprises four main series video games, seven spinoff video games, and six tabletop games. It stars Ella Purnell (from Yellowjackets), Aaron Morten, Kyle MacLachlan, and Walton Goggins.

And: Conan O’Brien Must Go is a Max Original t...

The Supreme Court recently started hearing oral arguments about whether the Jan. 6 attacks constitute obstruction of an official proceeding. Thursday, they’ll hear arguments on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity.

This hour, a status update on the confusing, monumental, and democracy-defining goings-on in the Supreme Court.

GUESTS: 

• Melissa Murray: Professor of law at New York University, a host of the podcast Strict Sc...

Daniel Dennett was one of the most famous philosophers in the world, one of the so-called “Four Horsemen of the New Atheism.”

Dennett died April 19 at age 82.

This hour, our 2015 conversation with Daniel Dennett, as recorded onstage at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford.

GUEST:

• Daniel Dennett: Was a philosopher, writer and and the co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University

The Col...

It took almost a week to select the jurors and alternates for the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump. This hour is all about juries. We'll talk about jury selection, how to root out potential bias, and the process of choosing an impartial jury in this day and age. Plus, we'll look at depictions of juries in popular culture. And, some of the jury selection questions have to do with what media a person consumes, so we'l...

Rupert Holmes won two Tony Awards for his musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His single “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His dramedy Remember WENN was AMC’s first original scripted series. And his newest novel, Murder Your Employer, was a New York Times bestseller.

This hour: Rupert Holmes.

GUEST:

• Rupert Holmes: Playwright, composer, singer-songwriter, and author

The Colin Mc...

In January, we did a show that wondered both how much the American Civil War speaks to the present American moment and how likely a new American Civil War might be. Well, movies and television have now, finally caught up with us.

Civil War is the fourth film written and directed by Alex Garland. It tells the story of the end of a future second American Civil War as four journalists — played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee S...

This hour, we've got one show with three topics. First, the Trump 'hush money' trial; next, the history of slouch-shaming; and finally, the Golden Bachelor's divorce news.

GUESTS: 

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

• Beth Linker: Professor and Chair of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her recently-released book is called “S...

Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, comes out Friday. So this hour, we are taking a look at the idea of the actual tortured poet. We talk about where the idea of tortured poets came from, learn about the nature of creativity, and hear from a poet about where their inspiration comes from.

GUESTS: 

• Roland Greene: Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Humanities Center at S...

We imagine pirates to be the quintessential rule-breakers — but really, they had their own strictly-followed codes.

How did 18th-century pirates dictate their own community standards? How did they create social mobility in an age when changing one's social status was nearly impossible?

This hour, we join pirate historian Rebecca Simon to find out!

GUEST:

• Rebecca Simon: Pirate historian...

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 an essay about NPR in The Free Press, NPR’s response to the essay, (our friend) David Folkenflik’s reporting on the essay and NPR’s response and such … Oh, and Scrabble … Anything. (Seemingly) everythi...

Ripley is an eight-episode limited series adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels. It is the first serialized screen version of those stories following five feature film adaptations, including the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law. The Netflix series stars Adam Scott, Dakota Fanning, and Johnny Flynn. It is created, written, and directed by Oscar-winning screenwriter Stev...

If I say “cult classic,” what do you think of? Probably an underground movie that built up an intense following over time, like The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room, right? Or maybe even something a bit more mainstream like The Big Lebowski?

But where’s the limit here, if there is one? Is Blade Runner a cult movie? Or Pulp Fiction? Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Office Space? Slap Shot? (I mean: Slap Shot?!?)

This hour, a ...

This hour, Yale Dean Tamar Gendler joins us to discuss her course “Public Plato: Ancient Wisdom in the Digital Age.” We'll talk about how to make ancient philosophy relevant for a modern audience, questions of framing and form, and what we can all learn from concepts like alief, phronesis, and eudaimonia.

GUEST: 

• Tamar Gendler: Professor of Philosophy, Psychology and Cognitive Science, and the De...

This hour, we’re talking about lotteries. How did this massive money redistribution game come to be? And we know that lotteries can randomly allocate cash prizes to ticket buyers – but could they also pick our political officials? Or the victims of our human sacrifice rituals to ensure that “corn be heavy soon”?

GUESTS:

• Jonathan D. Cohen: Historian and author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lo...

This legislative session, local students lobbied Connecticut lawmakers to change our state insect, which is currently the praying mantis. This hour we are focused on the praying mantis. We'll learn about the insect, why students think it should not represent the state, and what praying mantises of the future could look like.

GUESTS: 

• Katherine Dugas: Entomologist and research technician at The Connecticut Agricultural Exper...

Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm has been on HBO for going on 24 years. As the show comes to a close, we take a Nose-ish look at it and its impact on cringe comedy and the role of cringiness and awkwardness in our lives.

GUESTS: 

• Katie Baker: Senior Staff Writer at The Ringer 
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast
• Carolyn Paine: Actress, comedian, and dancer. She is fo...