How does reality television shape our politics and our opinions? This hour two reality TV scholars join us to discuss how reality TV helps us understand (or sometimes misunderstand) actual reality.

GUESTS:

• Danielle Lindemann: Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University and a Visiting Professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. She is also the author of the book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us.

• Eunji Kim: Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and Faculty Affiliate at the Data Science Institute. Her new book is The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy.

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, 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 July 24, 2025.

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Do you know your neighbors? This hour, we take a look at the role of our neighbors in our lives. We explore the psychological and social benefits of neighbors, hear listener stories, and discuss the role of neighbors in times of crisis. Plus, a look at "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" and how he thought about neighbors and community building.

GUESTS:

• Julie Beck: Staff writer at The Atlantic and the creator of “The Friendship Files.”
• Tricia Wachtendorf: Director of the Disaster Research Center and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Delaware. She is also co-author of American Dunkirk: The Waterborne Evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11
• Daniel Cueto-Villalobos: Sociologist and doctoral candidate at the University of Minnesota
• Maxwell King: Author of The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. His forthcoming book is Fire in the Night Sky: The Steel Mill Paintings of Aaron Gorson

Music featured (in order):

• Then Your Heart is Full of Love – Johnny Costa
• Neighbors – Lucius
• The People Next Door – Ray Parker Jr.
• Rescue Me – Fontella Bass
• No One Is Alone – Into the Woods 2022 Broadway Cast
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Fred Rogers, Johnny Costa
  from ep. 1765 “Mister Rogers Celebrates the Arts”
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor? – Benny Benack III

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This hour we convene a roundtable of faith leaders to ask: what is their role right now? How is it changing?

GUESTS:

• A.J. Johnson: Pastor at the Urban Hope Refuge Church in Hartford. He is also Director for Neighborhood Organizing at the Center for Leadership and Justice, and Deputy Chaplain to the Connecticut House of Representatives
• Sierra Fox: Cantor for Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden
• Sister Mary Ellen Burns: Executive Director and Attorney at Apostle Immigrant Services
• Hierald Osorto: Senior Pastor at Saint Paul Lutheran Church/Iglesia Lutheran San Pablo in Minnesota

Music Featured (in order):

• Montgomery Variations (I. Decision) – Margaret Bonds
• Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around – The Holy Lights
• Woke Up This Morning With My Mind on Freedom – Sweet Honey in the Rock
• CUT FOR TIME Prayer for Peace (Ose Shalom) – The New York Cantors
• Anima Christi – Mary Lou Williams
• Calling All Angels – Jane Siberry w/ k.d. lang
• Song of a Bernadette – Jennifer Warnes

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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 Iran, the second Iraq war, Vietnam, would you rather be a cowboy or a pirate?, The Boston Dad, Little Bosses Everywhere: How the Pyramid Scheme Shaped America by Bridget Read, David Greenberg … 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):

• Only So Much Oil In The Ground – Tower of Power
• Masters of War – Joan Osborne
• My Muse – Leon Thomas
• Something Serious – Bruno Mars
• I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart – Alice Babs (1% Swedish Content)
• Hey Mister – Ray Charles
• (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding – Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Sarah Potenza

You can now watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or 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, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Secret Agent (O agento secreto) is a neo-noir political thriller written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho. It’s set in Brazil in 1977, and it’s currently nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for its star, Wagner Moura.

And: Network is a satirical comedy-drama written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it won four, including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Peter Finch, Best Actress in a Leading Role for Faye Dunaway, Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Beatrice Straight, and Best Original Screenplay for Chayefsky. It is one of just three movies that have ever won three of the four acting Oscars. Network celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year.

GUESTS:

• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Fantasy Filmball podcast
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: A writer and journalist covering culture, health, technology, bats, and anything else people will answer her questions about
• Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University

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

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This year’s Academy Awards will include the first-ever Oscar for Achievement in Casting. It’s the first new category in 25 years, since Best Animated Feature was added in 2001 (which inaugural award was won by Shrek).

Casting, though, is seen as kind of an illusive, inscrutable art form. We feel like we can separate out the writing and the editing and the costuming and the directing from a thing. But the cast kind of IS the thing a lot of the time, right? It’s kind of inextricable from the thing, it feels like.

This hour: a look at the art of casting.

GUESTS:

• Mellini Kantayya: An actor and writer and the author of Actor. Writer. Whatever. (essays on my rise to the top of the bottom of the entertainment industry)
• John Frank Levey: A four-time Emmy Award-winning casting director and the author of Right for the Role: Breakdowns, Breakups and Breakthroughs from 35 Years of Casting Iconic TV Shows
• Connor Ratliff: An actor, writer, and comedian and the creator and host of Dead Eyes
• Michael Schulman: A staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• Overture – The Producers
• Climbing Uphill – Anna Kendrick
• Everybody Plays the Fool – the Main Ingredient
• Audition – Jethro Tull
• Broadway Baby – Ethel Shutta
• Everything’s Coming Up Roses – Bernadette Peters

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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 — calls about grammar, gardening, long-distance dialing, autotune. Anything. Everything.

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

In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EST hour about whatever you want to talk about. 888-720-9677.‌

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• Don’t Let The World Pass You By – Jean-Luc Ponty
• S’posin’ – Champian Fulton, Bria Skonberg
• Easy to Love – Jordan Rakei, Tom McFarland
• Beat Yourself Up – Charlie Puth
• Hard to Say – Chris Morrissey, Norah Jones
• Oh Qué Será? – Willie Colon
• We’re Still Here – Alan Doyle

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

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This hour, we look at what rights individuals and protesters have. And we ask: are our rights changing? And what can we do about that?

Plus, we take a look at what rights we have online, and what we should know about digital surveillance and privacy.

GUESTS:

• Dan Barrett: American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut's legal director
• Dahlia Lithwick: Writes about the courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast "Amicus". She is the author of Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
• Cindy Cohn: Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Her forthcoming book is Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance

MUSIC FEATURED (in order):

• Cálice – Chico Buarque & Milton Nascimento
• Student Demonstration Time – The Beach Boys
• Is It Because I’m Black – Syl Johnson
• What’s Goin’ On – Marvin Gaye
• The People Have the Power – Patti Smith
• The Veil – Peter Gabriel

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.