The Colin McEnroe Show
The Colin McEnroe Show
The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of …Social links:
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How do we calculate the cost of war?
How do we begin to understand the full economic, human, and environmental impacts of war? This hour we talk with someone who is doing that math. Plus, a look at the opportunity costs of spending on war. And, the costs of The American Revolution. GUESTS: Neta Crawford: Professor of International R…
49:59
March Madness 2026
March Madness is here! And so the only logical thing is to get improv comedian Julia Pistell and the actual Bill Curry together to talk basketball for an hour on the radio. For the 16th* time. That may not be the only logical thing to do. It may be that that’s not a logical thing to do at all. B…
49:59
All calls: Crows make better noise than Oasis
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. So we did another one. This hour, the conversation winds around to America 250, Oasis, bird songs, the SAVE Act, Trump, natural lawn…
48:59
The Noscars 2026
The 98th Academy Awards were Sunday night. KPop Demon Hunters swept its two nominations. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein cleaned up in the craft categories and won three awards. But the big question going into the night was what would win the big awards. Would it be Sinners, with its record-sett…
48:59
What if tug of war were still an Olympic sport? And other questions with Mike Pesca
Mike Pesca is one of our very favorite guests — onanynumberoftopics. His book, Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History, is a whole series of earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions (and posited answers to said earth-shattering, hypothetical, what-if questions): What…
49:59
How cowboys, action movies, and hypermasculinity can help us understand the war with Iran
The Trump administration’s messaging around the war with Iran feels reminiscent of stuff like … cowboy movies. And video games. And the manosphere. This hour, a look at the rhetoric around the war and where it’s all coming from. GUESTS: Casey Ryan Kelly: Professor of Rhetoric and Public Culture in…
48:59
What happens when we can bet on anything?
From the Golden Globes, to global conflicts, to elections, prediction markets have moved into the mainstream. What happens when we can bet on anything? What are the cultural impacts of that? This hour, we take stock of the status of prediction markets, and look at what they might do to politics and…
48:59
All calls: Marty the Robot is gonna kill Colin first chance he gets
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 Anthropic, cataract surgery, the burrito vs. bowl debate, Saturday Night Live, the gener…
48:59
Attention must be paid: A look at ‘Death of a Salesman’
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman premiered in 1949. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play. It’s been said that it’s “probably the most successful modern play ever published.” This hour, with a new Broadway revival in previews, and with Peter Jacobson playing the t…
50:00
How reality TV shapes our politics
How does reality television shape our politics and our opinions? This hour two reality TV scholars join us to discuss how reality TV helps us understand (or sometimes misunderstand) actual reality. GUESTS: Danielle Lindemann: Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University and a Visiting Professor …
48:29