What would it mean if nothing matters? This hour, a look at the philosophy of nihilism, and how it shows up online and in children's books.

GUESTS:

• Nolen Gertz: Associate Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. He is author of books including Nihilism and Nihilism and Technology
• Charlie Warzel: Staff writer at The Atlantic and the host of its technology podcast, "Galaxy Brain"
• Jon Klassen: Author and illustrator of books including I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, The Rock From The Sky, and The Skull

Music featured (in order):

• Caring is Creepy – The Shins
• I Got Plenty O’ Nuttin’ – Shirley Horn
• Nothing from Nothing – Billy Preston
• Battle of Who Could Care Less – Ben Folds Five
• Hurt – Johnny Cash
• Nothing – A Chorus Line Broadway cast

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we look at the spread of measles in the United States. And we talk to health and science communicators who are working to tell the story of that disease in new ways.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo: Director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown School of Public Health, and a Professor of Epidemiology
• Brinda Adhikari: Award-winning executive producer, showrunner and journalist, who is Co-Host of the "Why Should I Trust You?" podcast
• Teri Mills: Retired nurse educator, grandmother, and Board member and Vice President of Media for Grandparents for Vaccines

Music featured (in order):

• Sickness – runo plum
• Contagious – Ani DiFranco
• Cat’s Got the Measles – The New Lost City Ramblers
• Catch My Disease – Ben Lee
• Soul Vaccination – Tower of Power
• Grandma’s Hands – Bill Withers

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Ringo Starr. Charlie Watts. John Bonham. Hal Blaine. Moe Tucker. Dave Grohl. Lars Ulrich. Meg White. Tony Thompson. Questlove. Karen Carpenter. Sam Lay.

The list goes on.

This hour, a look at the backbone (and the backbeat) of rock and roll: the drummer.

GUESTS:

• Jim Chapdelaine: An Emmy-winning musician and a patient advocate for people with rare cancers
• John Lingan: The author, most recently, of Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers
• Molly Sayles: A percussionist and music educator and the Official Drummer of The Colin McEnroe Show

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, Maegn Boone, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Iran war, what to do with the old stuff of deceased parents, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Gov. Lowell Weicker, our Mary show, whether or not you can tell time by a cat’s eye … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

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

Music featured (in order):

• Can I Believe You – Fleet Foxes
• Joy Spring – Karrin Allyson
• I’m In Trouble – Alessia Cara, Norah Jones
• A Brother (Just Like You) – Nnenna Freelon
• Both Can Be True – Trousdale
• Anyone in Love – Jalen Ngonda
• June It’s Gonna Happen – Rumer

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Josephine Riesman, author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America, argues that understanding WWE can help us understand President Donald Trump and his politics. This hour, we learn about WWE and its impact on Trump, and discuss the experience and appeal of watching wrestling.

GUESTS:

• Josephine Riesman: Author of Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America

• Tim Kail: Creator of “The Work of Wrestling” website and podcast. He is also the host and producer of “The Sarah Lawrence College Podcast”

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, Meg Dalton, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on March 7, 2025.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 Relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor at The Costs of War Project. She is also author of books including The Pentagon, Climate Change, and War: Charting the Rise and Fall of U.S. Military Emissions

• Joseph Ellis: Author of fourteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize winning Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, and National Book Award winning American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. His newest book is The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding

Music featured (in order):

• The World Is A Ghetto – War
• Loose Ends – Sergio Mendes, Justin Timberlake, Pharoahe Monch
• The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar – Bob Dylan
• When the War Came – The Decemberists
• Hiway 9 – Eliza Gilkyson
• Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) – Hamilton Original Broadway Cast

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

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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.

But we’re doing it anyway.

*It’s our 16th one of these, unless it isn’t. Our story is that we’ve done this every year since 2010 except for 2020 — which is to say, every year our show has been on that there actually was a March Madness tourney. And we’re pretty sure our story is true. One of those years, the show was actually about birds. But so what?

GUESTS:

• Bill Curry: Playing the part of Bill Curry
• Mike Pesca: Hosts the independent daily podcast The Gist
• Julia Pistell: A founding member of Sea Tea Improv, among a number of other things
• Elizabeth Davis: The 12th president of Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina

Music featured (in order):

• D-Code – Dust Devil
• This Happy Madness – Frank Sinatra (ft. Antônio Carlos Jobim)
• I Wish I Could Go Back To College – Avenue Q
• The Paladins Song – Furman University Fight Song
• Ballad of Paladin – Johnny Western
• I Wish (Radio Edit) – Skee-Lo
• Basketball (edit) – Kurtis Blow

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 lawns … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

Music Featured (in order):

• bite my tongue – wilt
  won’t make it out alive – Nicole Zuraitis, Larry Goldings
• Just Say You Want Me – Lo Steele
• Teach Me Tonight – Ledisi
• I Do, I Do – Dua Saleh
• Penny In The Lake – Ratboys
• We Made It – Sammy Rae and the Friends ft. CELISSE

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.