The Colin McEnroe Show

Greek writer Herodotus "invented" history by turning away from myth to a new kind of writing. And although he wrote his Histories nearly 2,500 years ago, local author and classicist Emily Katz Anhalt argues that his example and prose are more relevant than ever. This hour, we look at what we can learn from Herodotus and the ancient Greek myths.

GUEST:

• Emily Katz Anhalt: Professor of Classics at Sarah Lawrence College. She is ...

The microphone makes everything we do on the radio possible. This hour we celebrate the invention and look at the role of microphones in music. Plus hot mics, mic drops, and more.

GUESTS: 

• Susan Rogers: Multi-platinum record producer, cognitive neuroscientist, professor at Berklee College of Music and co-author of the book This is What It Sounds Like: What the Music You Love Says About You

• Azi...

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 “No Kings” protests, Star Wars merchandise, the labor market, Gilmore Girls, yacht rock … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. ...

Rope is an interesting movie in Alfred Hitchcock’s œuvre. It’s his first color picture. It’s one of 13 movies he made based on plays, and it’s one of four movies he made that are set basically entirely in single locations (along with Lifeboat, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window).

But of the four single-location pictures, Rope is the only one that Hitchcock made to really seem like a filmed play. It unf...

Women scientists and inventors have been making ground-breaking discoveries since Agnodice pretended to be a man in order to become the first female anatomist in ancient Greece.

Yet, women's scientific contributions have historically been hidden in the footnotes of the work men claimed as their own.

Women scientists are banding together to call out bias and give credit where it’s due— one Wikipedia page at a time. This ...

Rope has been foundational to so much of human civilization. It's made sailing, hunting, building, and so much more, possible. This hour, we look at the history and utility and future of rope.

GUESTS:

• Tim Queeney: Author of Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization, among other books
• Manuel Medrano: A PhD candidate in Harvard’s History Department, who studies quipus
• Tahi...

This hour is all about notebooks. We'll talk about the history and evolution of notebooks, favorite examples, and celebrate the joy of writing things down. Plus, a look at the Notes App.

GUESTS: 

• Roland Allen: Book publisher and author of The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper

• Charley Locke: Journalist, and contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, who wrote “Keep Your No...

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 — with our old friend Chion Wolf at the helm this time! — winds around to family shorthand, tech bros, bunkers, bodies, adventures… Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to...

This year is the 50th anniversary of A Chorus Line and Chicago and the 10th anniversary of Hamilton. Meanwhile, new Broadway shows are struggling to make their money back. This hour, we take stock of stage musicals today, learn how they’re developed, and ask about their status in our culture.

GUESTS:

• Alexander Gemignani: Actor, music director, orchestrator, conductor, composer/lyricist, educ...

COVID has caused more than 7 million confirmed deaths (and estimates of the actual total go well past 20 million).

Here’s the even worse news: It wasn’t the truly devastating pandemic epidemiologists have feared for decades.

But here’s the good news: We learned every possible lesson from COVID, and now we’re utterly prepared for the next big pandemic that’s inevitably barreling towards us.

No. Wait. Ma...

This hour, a look at words and usage and grammar and language and all that fun stuff.

Have you noticed how we Americans have become “so bloody keen on Britishisms?” Ben Yagoda joins us to talk about his book, Gobsmacked! The British Invasion of American English.

Plus, there’s been an update to The Chicago Manual of Style. We take a look at the CMOS, in particular, and bang on (there it is...

We once did a show about beer jingles, which is a great example of how a product becomes a culture. Cereal as a culture, is off the charts. There’s the box, there’s the prize, there’s the character, there’s the jingles, there’s the commercials. Most of us can probably sing some jingles and discuss favorite cereal personae from our childhoods, which makes it kind of weird when marketing experts tell us ...

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 Bad Bunny, the Supreme Court, recycling, midges, nominative determinism, speed cameras, the government shutdown … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

...

One Battle After Another is the 11th feature film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is written and produced by Anderson and inspired by the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, and more. It is the widest release, the widest opening, and the highest-grossing opening of Anderson’s career. One Battle After Ano...

Numbers are so fundamental to our understanding of the world around us that we maybe tend to think of them as an intrinsic part of the world around us. But they aren’t. Humans invented numbers just as much as we invented all of language.

This hour, we look at the anthropological, psychological, and linguistical ramifications of the concept of numbers.

And we look at one philosophical question too: Are numbers even real in the...

The 2025 winner of The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in a few weeks. President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants it.

This hour we look at the history of the Nobel Peace Prize and its status in our world. We learn about past winners, how winners are selected, and ask about its relevance.

GUESTS:

• Jay Nordlinger: A political journalist and music critic. He is a Senior Resident Fellow at the Renew Democracy I...

Most of the Western world is organized by alphabetical order, which is so much more than the 26 letters that make up the alphabet.

Alphabetical order is an organizing principle that allows us to save, order, and access thousands of years of humankind’s most precious documents and ideas. Without it, we’d never know what came before us or how to pass on what’s with us. It’s ubiquitous, yet invisible in daily l...

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 Bridgeport’s socialist former mayor, Sneaky Pete and our show on psychics, the possible link between double jointedness and neurodivergence, the state of streaming, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ appearance on The ...

The singer and songwriter Nick Drake died in 1974. He was just 26, and he remains a bit of a mystery. He recorded three albums but played very few shows. There is no known film or video footage of him.

But his music is maybe more popular now than it’s ever been. It shows up on movie soundtracks, in TV shows, in commercials.

And then there’s Nick Drake’s mother, Molly Drake. It turns out she was an accomplished (an...