Engineers at Ford are working hard toward a breakthrough: A car that runs on tears! Okay, maybe not, but they really should be. Why? Because people cry in cars, a lot! Whether it's a sad song playing on the radio, passing a cemetary where a loved one is buried, or simply releasing the stress of a long, hard day, the car is one of the few places that offer the privacy and intimacy necessary for a good cry.And it's not just crying that happens in cars. Awkward, sometimes difficult conversations of all manner happen in cars every day. From bad first dates, to couples breaking up, to parents talking birds and bees with their kids, cars seem somehow perfectly designed to be emotional spaces.

So what is it about cars that allow us to be so vulnerable? How, while surrounded by windows on all sides, do we manage to shroud ourselves in the illusion of privacy? On today's show we talk with psychologists and self professed car-cryers to explore this very phenomenon.

<p>Engineers at Ford are working hard toward a breakthrough: A car that runs on tears! Okay, maybe not, but they really should be. Why? Because people cry in cars, a lot! Whether it's a sad song playing on the radio, passing a cemetary where a loved one is buried, or simply releasing the stress of a long, hard day, the car is one of the few places that offer the privacy and intimacy necessary for a good cry.</p>
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<div id="google_ads_iframe_/132595048/wnprnews_medium_3_0__container__" style="border: 0pt none;">And it's not just crying that happens in cars. Awkward, sometimes difficult conversations of all manner happen in cars every day. From bad first dates, to couples breaking up, to parents talking birds and bees with their kids, cars seem somehow perfectly designed to be emotional spaces.</div>
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<p>So what is it about cars that allow us to be so vulnerable? How, while surrounded by windows on all sides, do we manage to shroud ourselves in the illusion of privacy? On today's show we talk with psychologists and self professed car-cryers to explore this very phenomenon.</p>

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 ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<p><a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> 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 ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.</p>

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