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 politics, Greenland, President Trump, hope, fear … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• United States of Whatever – Liam Lynch
• Eyeball – They Might Be Giants
• RIP Romeo – Mariachi el Bronx
• My Very Own Ride – Kurt Elling, WDR Big Band
• Pass Me Not – Ron Carter, Ricky Diller
• Michael – Alison Brown, Steve Martin (ft. Aofie O’Donovan, Sarah Jarosz)
• Lift Every Voice And Sing – Kirk Franklin

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For many of us, handbags are an essential part of our lives. They allow us to leave the house with everything we need, and they also can be another place to show off our status or style. This hour, we look at the evolution of the handbag. We'll talk about famous "It Bags", how handbags contributed to human development, and the impact of the Walmart "Birkin."

GUESTS:

• Nancy MacDonell: Fashion journalist and fashion historian. She writes the Wall Street Journal column "Fashion with a Past.” Her new book is Empresses of Seventh Avenue: World War II, New York City, and the Birth of American Fashion

• Hannah Carlson: Senior Lecturer in the Apparel Department at the Rhode Island School of Design. She’s also the author of Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close

• Audrey Wollen: Book critic and writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Review of Books and other outlets. Her article “A Unified Theory of the Handbag” recently appeared in The Yale Review

• Aarushi Bhandari: An Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College. Her new book is Attention and Alienation

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, which originally aired on June 4, 2025.

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Marty Supreme is the first movie written and directed by Josh Safdie without his former filmmaking partner, his brother Benny Safdie. It is a sports comedy-drama-thriller about a professional ping pong player played by Timothée Chalamet, who just won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy.

And: Good Night, and Good Luck.: Live on Broadway is the recorded version of the live television broadcast of the stage version of the 2005 film mostly about the production of a live television show. Like the movie, it is written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, with Clooney this time starring as Edward R. Murrow. The play was nominated for five Tony Awards, including Best Actor in a Play for Clooney.

GUESTS:

• Xandra Ellin: Produces The Global Story for the BBC
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmball podcast
• Irene Papoulis: Taught writing for a long time at Trinity College

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• I Have the Touch – Peter Gabriel
• Change – Tears for Fears
• When I Fall In Love - Georgia Heers
• How High The Moon - Georgia Heers
• See You On The Radio – Grayson Hugh

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Are we as a population getting dumber? How would we know if we were? This hour: stupidity. We’ll look at the history and philosophy of stupidity, and explore how it shows up in our daily lives and politics.

GUESTS:

• Lane Brown: Features writer for New York Magazine, who recently wrote "A Theory of Dumb"
• Stuart Jeffries: Journalist and author. His new book is A Short History of Stupidity
• Shannon Mancus: Teaching Professor and Associate Department Head in the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Department at the Colorado School of Mines. You can follow Dr. Shan on Instagram and Substack at “Pop Smart Media”

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• Able Sisters – Animal Crossing New Leaf OST
• Manchild – Sabrina Carpenter
• Dumb All Over – Frank Zappa
• Get Stupid – Aston Merrygold
• How Sweet to Be an Idiot – Neil Innes
• Idiot Wind – Bob Dylan

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Touch, grip, read, dance, gesture — what can’t they do? Our fingers are so vital to our everyday life, sometimes it seems they have minds of their own.

This hour, a look at the hidden language of finger gestures, the future of Braille, and the joys and challenges of animating fingers for the movies.

GUESTS:

• Kensy Cooperrider: Cognitive scientist, writer, and host of the Many Minds podcast
• Jonathan McNicol: Producer of The Colin McEnroe Show
• Sile O’Modhrain: Professor at the University of Michigan studying sound and touch and the ways in which they interact
• Carlos Fernandez Puertolas: Animator with DreamWorks

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, Cat Pastor, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show, which originally aired May 31, 2022.

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 U.S. Postal Service, Between Boston & New York, the spillover from digital life, the national anthem at sports events, The Flintstones theme song, Neutral Milk Hotel, vocal fry … 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):

• Blame It On The Moon – Cory Wong, Magic City Hippies
• When A Good Man Cries – CMAT
• Dans les Rues de Québec – Emilie-Claire Barlow
• Sweet Love – Stephen Sanchez
• In the Aeroplane Over The Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
• CUT FOR TIME Firefly – John Pizzarelli
• I Was Not A Nazi Polka – The Mitchell Trio
• The Telephone Call – Kraftwerk

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What is the status of expertise in our world? This hour we look at the so called "death of expertise." We talk about the role of experts throughout society. Plus, we learn how to master a skill, and the joy of trying.

GUESTS:

• Tom Nichols: Staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. He is also a professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, and a five-time undefeated Jeopardy champion

• Alan Dove: Science journalist and co-host of the podcast This Week in Virology

• Adam Gopnik: Staff writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of The Real Work: On The Mystery of Mastery, among other books

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, which originally aired on May 22, 2025.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, America’s Greatest Living Film Critic, David Edelstein, joins us to look back at the year in movies that was 2025.

Plus, The Nose tries to catch up on some of the awards-season movies it’s missed — movies like After the Hunt, Cover-Up, It Was Just an Accident, Jay Kelly, Sentimental Value, Train Dreams, and more.

GUESTS:

• David Edelstein: America’s Greatest Living Film Critic
• Sam Hadelman: Director of public relations at Dark Matter Media
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmball podcast
• Carolyn Paine: An actress and comedian; she’s the founder and director of CONNetic Dance and the creative producer and choreographer for The Bushnell’s Digital Institute
• Irene Papoulis: Taught writing for a long time at Trinity College
• Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.