Marching bands are now a staple at halftimes. But why? This hour, we discuss the art of the marching band. We’ll talk about all of the work that goes into coordinating them, and the evolution of marching band music and competitions. Plus, a look at the history of halftime.

GUESTS:

• Justin McManus: Director of Athletic Bands at the University of Connecticut

• Dylan Reyes: Occasional board operator for The Colin McEnroe Show who marched competitively through high school

• Mark Dyreson: Professor of Kinesiology and Affiliate Professor of History at Penn State, where he is also Co-Director of Research and Educational Programs for the Penn State Center for the Study of Sports in Society. He is the author of numerous books and articles about the history of sport

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired on November 13, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back before radio stations (ours included) started re-airing daytime programs during the night as a default, nighttime airwaves were a place for experimentation, confessions, and wondering that wouldn't be welcome in the light of day.

“Why don’t we try that?” said we!

On June 20th, Colin McEnroe, a team of intrepid radio producers and engineers, and one very generous security guard stayed in the office from 11 p.m. - 1 a.m. The resulting radio program, which featured live music, poetry, and phone calls about UFOs, Boy Scout horror stories, and siphonophores, is available here (in an abridged format) for your listening pleasure. Click here to listen to the unabridged episode.

GUESTS:

• • Hugh Blumenfeld Folk musician and singer-songwriter from Connecticut
  • Mike Penicello: State Director of the Connecticut Mutual UFO Network
  • Keith Trosell: Truck driver and owner/operator of Boba Freight, which is based in Columbia, CT
• Zulynette: Performer, artist, author, and creator of the annual storytelling event, “A Little Bit of Death.” Her most recent book of poetry is “Seeing in the Dark”

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Jonathan McNicol, Lily Tyson, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's becoming easier every day to pay for things without cash. You can pay with your credit card, your phone, an app, or even your palm. So how does the move away from cash change how we think about our money? This hour, we look at our changing attitudes towards money, and what we gain and lose as we use less cash. Plus, we'll look at the history and future of ATMs.

GUESTS:

• Jay Zagorsky: Clinical Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law at the Boston University Questrom School of Business

• Ursula Dalinghaus: Cultural anthropologist who specializes in economic anthropology and the anthropology of money. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ripon College

• Bernardo Batiz-Lazo: Professor in the Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired on November 8, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remote controls date all the way back to the 1800s, but they only entered most households in the 1950s or later. What impact did this have on how we watch television, and how we use other devices in our homes? This hour we look at the history and the impact of the remote control, and discuss what the remote control of the future will look like. And we'll take a look at buttons, and how they shape our interactions with the technology in our lives.

GUESTS:

• Caetlin Benson-Allott: Professor of English, Director of Film and Media Studies at Georgetown University, and a member of the Program in American Studies. She is the author of Remote Control, among other books

• Rachel Plotnick: Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in The Media School at Indiana University Bloomington, and author of Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic and the Politics of Pushing

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on November 7, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back before radio stations (ours included) started re-airing daytime programs during the night as a default, nighttime airwaves were a place for experimentation, confessions, and wondering that wouldn't be welcome in the light of day.

“Why don’t we try that?” said we!

On June 20, Colin McEnroe, a team of intrepid radio producers and engineers, and one very generous security guard stayed in the office from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The resulting radio program, which features live music, poetry, and phone calls about UFOs, Boy Scout horror stories, and siphonophores, is available here for your listening pleasure.

GUESTS:

• Hugh Blumenfeld: Folk musician and singer-songwriter from Connecticut
• Major Jackson: Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and host of the podcast The Slowdown from American Public Media; his most recent book is Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems
• Mike Penicello: State director of the Connecticut Mutual UFO Network
• Keith Trosell: Truck driver and owner/operator of Boba Freight, which is based in Columbia, Connecticut
• Zulynette: Performer, artist, author, and creator of the annual storytelling event A Little Bit of Death; her most recent book of poetry is Seeing in the Dark

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Jonathan McNicol, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nose is off this week. In its place, a look at how we imagine extraterrestrial life.

What do you picture when you picture aliens? Is it like E.T.? Or little green men? Or an alien from Star Trek?

This hour: how we imagine extraterrestrial life and how those visions are shaped by our TV and movies and more.

GUESTS:

• Jaime Green: Freelance writer, editor, writing teacher, and the author of The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos
• Doug Jones: Actor known for his roles in Hellboy, The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth, and more; he plays Saru in Star Trek: Discovery

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired December 1, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

News outlets and opinion writers have called it: The traditional dinner party is dead. But are dinner parties really so bad? Or are we just bad at hosting them?

This hour, the history of dinner parties and some advice from people who turn party-hosting into an art form.

GUESTS:

• Rand Richards Cooper: Fiction writer, contributing editor at Commonweal, and the restaurant critic for the Hartford Courant
• Nandita Godbole: Author of several cookbooks including Masaleydaar: Classic Indian Spice Blends; she also writes the blog Curry Cravings
• Julia Skinner: Culinary historian and food writer whose work includes the book Our Fermented Lives

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired October 26, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 favorite TV theme songs; the Ham Primus House in Guilford, Connecticut; the upcoming Poor People’s March; the upcoming presidential debates; the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.