The Colin McEnroe Show

There are thought to be about 17 million living flies for every human alive on Earth.

They’re predators and parasites and pests, but they’re pollinators too. They help us solve crimes, heal wounds, and understand genetics and evolution. And they literally help at least one artist paint his paintings.

Also this hour: A look at David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of, you guessed it: The Fly.

GUESTS:

• Jonathan Balcomb...

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, everything. These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.

This hour, the conversation winds around to CDs, records, and consuming music, Buddhist monks, our show, young listeners … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

The Colin...

Wikipedia has lately been under attack, accused of bias and spreading propaganda. And for years students have been told not to trust the source. But are any of those claims fair? This hour, we take a look at the free online encyclopedia, how it functions, and its role in the modern world. We'll ask: can we trust the information we find there? And we'll celebrate the joys of falling down a Wikipedia rabbit ...

Historian Timothy Snyder is the author of the books On Freedom and On Tyranny. This hour we listen back to the conversation we had in March about the latest in our country, and what we can learn from history.

GUEST: 

• Timothy Snyder: Holds the inaugural Chair in Modern European History, supported by the Temerty Endowment for Ukrainian Studies, at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Polic...

As we have every year for at least the last 12 years, to round out the year, we round up the best jazz of the year.

GUESTS:

• Jen Allen: A pianist, composer, arranger, and educator; her new album is Possibilities
• Noah Baerman: A pianist, composer, and educator; in 2025, he has released a four-volume series of albums called Right Now
• Gene Seymour: A film, television, and music critic

The Colin McEnroe Show is avai...

Lists feel especially suited to the digital age, but humans have been creating lists for a long time.

So why are we drawn to lists?

This hour, the art and the utility of the list.

GUESTS:

• Matthew Dicks: A West Hartford elementary school teacher and the author of Twenty-One Truths About Love

• Dan Kois: Editor and writer at Slate, where he recently wrote the list “The 50 Greatest Fictional ...

On the night of December 4, we went to Watkinson School in Hartford, put 11 performers together on the stage there, and let them rock their way through 27 holiday- and holiday-adjacent classics.

We’re turning that two-hour performance into two radio shows over the two holiday weeks. Part onepremiered on Christmas Eve.

And this hour, live from the Foisie Family Amphitheater at Watkinson, it’s part two of our annual holid...

On the night of December 4, we went to Watkinson School in Hartford, put 11 performers together on the stage there, and let them rock their way through 27 holiday- and holiday-adjacent classics.

Our plan is to turn that two-hour performance into two radio shows over the two holiday weeks.

This hour, live from the Foisie Family Amphitheater at Watkinson, it’s part one of our annual holiday spectacular!

GUESTS:

• Jim Chapdel...

This hour is about self-checkout technology and its impacts. We'll debate its pros and cons, look at the history of self-service at grocery stores, and talk about the future of technology in stores.

Plus, we'll learn about the psychology of "weak ties," and the value of talking to strangers in places like the checkout aisle.

GUESTS: 

• Christopher Andrews: Associate Professor and Chair of Sociolog...

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 vultures and sky burials, President Trump’s post about Rob Reiner’s death, our show with Paul Winter, Colin as chicken salad, the multiverse … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are f...

Josh O’Connor is having a bit of a moment. He’s been in four movies this year. On December 12, two of them became available to watch at home, including the biggest movie of his career so far, the new Knives Out mystery, Wake Up Dead Man. On December 13, O’Connor hosted Saturday Night Live. On December 16, the first trailer dropped for the soon-to-be biggest movie of his career so far, Steven Spielberg’s Disc...

This hour we talk about the history of the Second Red Scare, a period also known as McCarthyism.

We learn about why the Scare took off in the United States, its impact, and how it eventually fizzled out. Plus, we look at the parallels and throughlines between that time period and our current moment.

And, a look at how the Second Red Scare impacted Hollywood, and how it, in turn, was reflected back through ...

You may know the Schuyler sisters, Angelica and Elizabeth (and Peggy!), from Hamilton. But the musical just scratches the surface of their fascinating lives. This hour, Amanda Vaill joins us to talk about her new book, Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution.

GUEST:

• Amanda Vaill: Author, journalist and screenwriter. Her newest book is Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an A...

This year marks 100 years since F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby was first published. And it turns out that it took a while for the novel to catch on in the United States, where it is now considered a classic.

This hour, we revisit the novel and its cultural impact.

GUESTS: 

• Rob Kyff: Teacher and author of Gatsby’s Secrets. He also writes a nationally syndicated column on...

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 domesticated cats, interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, real Christmas trees vs. artificial Christmas trees, the primary system in Connecticut and elsewhere, Rob Reiner’s death, the Bondi Beach shooting, the fa...

Stevie Wonder turned 75 this year. Also this year, our friend the jazz pianist Noah Baerman put out an album of covers of Wonder’s “message music.”

This hour, a look at Stevie Wonder as musical icon, as important civil rights figure, as utterly timeless songsmith.

Plus: some in-studio performances of Stevie Wonder classics.

GUESTS:

• Noah Baerman: A pianist, composer, and educator; his newest album is Right Now...

What counts as a robot? This hour, a look at what robots are and the latest in robot technology.

Plus, how robots were used and thought about in medieval times and Ancient Greece and the role of robots in science fiction.

GUESTS:

• Chris Atkeson: Professor at the Robotics Institute and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University
• Adrienne Mayor: Author of Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancien...

This hour, we look at the political erasure of history, and its impacts. Plus, we talk about why artists destroy their own work or the works of others. And, the history and evolution of erasers.

GUESTS: 

• Jason Stanley: Bissell-Heyd-Associates Chair in American Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto. His latest book is Erasing History: How Fa...

President Donald Trump has found inspiration for tariffs and more in the 25th President of the United States: William McKinley. This hour, we look at the life and legacy of McKinley, and why Trump is drawn to him. Plus, we'll learn about the Gilded Age and its parallels to today.

GUESTS: 

• Kevin Kern: Associate Professor of History at The University of Akron. He is co-author of Ohio: A History of...