The Colin McEnroe Show

During his remarkable career with the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams earned many nicknames: The Kid, The Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame… but the only nickname that he ever wanted was “the greatest hitter who ever lived.” And maybe he really was? He’s baseball’s all-time leader in on-base percentage, and he’s second behind only Babe Ruth in both slugging and on-base plus slugging percentages. He’s the last guy to hit .400, and that was 80 years ago. And on top of all that, he lost close to five full seasons (and three of them in the prime of his career) to serve in two different wars. This hour, a look at the man, the hitter, and the pitchman (you see what I did there) that was Ted Williams. GUESTS: Jim Baumer - A Maine-based writer and the author of Moxie: Maine in a Bottle Nick Davis - Produced and directed Ted Williams: “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived”; his newest film, about the 1986 New York Mets, is Once Upon a Time in Queens Sam Miller - National baseball writer at ESPN Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Catie Talarski contributed to this show, which originally aired July 19, 2018.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these almost weekly shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. The last few times, we haven’t even started with the suggestion of a topic that your calls might, potentially, be about. And those shows have been fun. So we’re doing that again. In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour about anything at all. 888–720–9677. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So you get home from a long day of work, and then you spend a long evening dealing with the family and the dinner and the house and the pets. And then you finally get some time to yourself to… play stupid Candy Crush on your phone. Or watch hours of HGTV that you don’t even like. Or whatever. While you should be sleeping so you can be well-rested for your long day of work tomorrow. There’s a term for that: revenge bedtime procrastination. Plus: A look at the vocal minority of vaccine refusers in the NBA, of all places. And: Cry Macho is a neo-Western drama directed by, produced by, and starring Clint Eastwood. It’s in theaters and on HBOMax. Eastwood, 91, takes his 39th turn directing, and it’s his 53rd credited acting role in a motion picture career dating back to the Eisenhower administration. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Tommy Kirk, Old Yeller And The Shaggy Dog Star, Has Died At 79 Joel Coen: Streaming Is Reason ‘Risky’ Films Like ‘Tragedy of Macbeth’ Can Still Exist “The worst nightmare as a filmmaker is that someone watched your film on an airplane,” Coen said at NYFF, while acquiescing that streaming is how movies like “Macbeth” get made. How does a comedy outsider make sense of Norm Macdonald? What I found valuable after hearing about Norm Macdonald’s death was not watching his old greatest hits on Youtube. It was reading the eulogies written for him by people who appreciated his genius. The Complicated Legacy of Norm Macdonald Norm Macdonald, who passed away at 61 from cancer, was a comedy legend. But these women say he sexually harassed them, and comedy clubs took measures to protect women from him. ‘Law & Order’ Revived By NBC For Season 21 From Dick Wolf & Rick Eid Beck Bennett Leaves ‘SNL’ as Cast Veterans Set to Return, Three New Featured Players Join for Season 47 For Al Franken, a Comeback Attempt Goes Through Comedy Clubs Onstage, the ex-senator and “S.N.L.” star doesn’t exactly address his fall from grace. But he doesn’t not address it either. Asked if he’ll run again, he is noncommittal. America as an Internet Aesthetic TikTok’s Americancore meme critiques cultural appropriation by exoticizing the familiar. Who has the last laugh? For $84,000, An Artist Painted Two Blank Canvasses Titled ‘Take The Money And Run’ Why Is Every Young Person in America Watching ‘The Sopranos’? The show’s new audience is also seeing something different in it: a parable about a country in terminal decline. Why Are People Nostalgic for Early-Pandemic Life? Pandemic fatigue is fueling a bizarre sense of longing. The Best Movies Of 2021 So Far You Can Spend The Night In The House From Scream This Halloween Scientists created the world’s whitest paint. It could eliminate the need for air conditioning. Marvel’s What If…? Episode 8 Appears To Enter The Star Wars Universe Shakira Was Attacked By Wild Boars “They’ve destroyed everything.” The Melting Face Emoji Has Already Won Us Over Of the 37 new emojis approved this year, one has stood out as a visual proxy for our collective malaise. Super Bowl 2022 Halftime Performers Revealed: Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg ‘Drunk’ man reported missing joins his own search party Men weaponize incompetence to avoid housework, caring for kids GUESTS: Tracy Wu Fastenberg - Development officer at Connecticut Children’s Bill Yousman - Professor of Media Studies at Sacred Heart University Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a math show. So this hour, some discussion of just what mathematics even is in the first place. Plus, some news from the world of math: A look at three landmark papers bridging the gap between quantum physics and formal mathematics. And: the low-dimensional topology of… knitting. GUESTS: Sabetta Matsumoto - A theoretical physicist and applied mathematician at Georgia Tech, where she leads The Matsumoto Group studying the geometry of materials Alec Wilkinson - Staff writer at The New Yorker Charlie Wood - Contributing writer to Quanta Magazine Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we’re joined by novelist Ruth Ozeki. Her latest novel is The Book of Form and Emptiness. We talk about animism, hearing voices, and how Zen Buddhism informs her writing. GUESTS: Ruth Ozeki - Novelist, filmmaker, and professor of English language and literature at Smith College Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we talk about movie trailers. Maybe you wonder what a movie critic thinks of them. Actually, critics don’t see as many as you do because they often go to special screenings. I asked America’s Greatest Living Film Critic, David Edelstein, about trailers. He answered, “Actually, I avoid them like the plague. I don’t watch them online, and when I see movies in theaters, I often whip out my Kindle and plug my ears. If I’m on the aisle, I leave and get a Diet Coke. Trailers give away everything. They give away jokes. More than that, they orient you to the narrative in a way I don’t like being oriented. (Of course, I have the luxury of going into a movie not knowing what it’s even about because I get paid to do so, but that’s my preferred way to work – to be left in the hands of the storyteller.) As for as awful ones I have seen… I remember Nebraska in particular as being terrible because the pace and tone of that movie are antithetical to the way mainstream trailers work. It said quirky. Offbeat. Lovable. Among the best, I recall Batman Returns as being so great. I thought the movie itself was an overrated shambles – a really terrible piece of storytelling – but even Tim Burton’s worst movies have so many good images and set-pieces that they really read in trailers.” For the rest of us, trailers are either a pain or a pleasure. GUESTS: Allan Arkush - Contributor to Trailers from Hell; he worked in the trailer department for Roger Corman Stephen Garrett - Founder of Jump Cut Sam Hatch - Co-hosts The Culture Dogs on WWUH Kevin O’Toole - Co-hosts The Culture Dogs on WWUH Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Lydia Brown, John Dankosky, Greg Hill, Tucker Ives, Harriet Jones, Betsy Kaplan, Jonathan McNicol, Patrick Skahill, Catie Talarski, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired July 2, 2014.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Francisco Goldman made a big choice as a young man. He chose to spend a year in Guatemala living with his uncle instead of pursuing the master’s degree he could have had from a prestigious school offering him a full scholarship. It turned out to be one of the most consequential decisions of his early life. This hour, Colin talks with Goldman about his novel Monkey Boy, a story about the legacy of violence on a family and much more, including how his decision to go to Guatemala has shaped his life. GUEST: Francisco Goldman - Author of seven books; his most recent is the novel Monkey Boy Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired May 27, 2021.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Y: The Last Man is an FX on Hulu television series (whatever that means) based on the DC comics series. It stars Diane Lane as President Jennifer Brown and Ben Schnetzer as Yorick Brown, the last living person with a Y chromosome. And: Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were (at least aspiring) #vanlife influencers. Tragedy, and our culture around this particular sort of tragedy, has turned them into pop culture figures of an entirely different kind. Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Melvin Van Peebles, Godfather of Black Cinema, Dies at 89 He directed ‘Watermelon Man,’ did everything on ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song’ and wrote a pair of Broadway musicals. Beloved ‘Sex And The City’ Actor Willie Garson Dies At 57 Chris Rock says he has COVID-19, urges vaccination The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ Sustains The Man Behind Those Annual ‘Sept. 21’ Videos Has Made His Last Masterpiece Not Enough Has Changed Since Sanford and Son The unwritten rules of Black TV James Corden Is Getting Called Out For Making An Ageist Joke About BTS Fans And…Yikes When will celebs learn not to come for the fandoms?! Johnny Depp Says Cancel Culture Is “So Far Out Of Hand” & “No One Is Safe”, Asks People To “Stand Up” Against “Injustice” The Emmys Underlined the Paradox of Too Much TV The people handing out the awards were a diverse lot. The ones receiving them, much less so. Japanese school students sent a message in a bottle. 37 years later, it washed up in Hawaii No sign of £4.8m golden toilet stolen from Blenheim Palace, two years on World’s first 108-key concert grand piano built by Australia’s only piano maker Netflix now owns the screen rights to Roald Dahl’s entire catalog The acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company follows three years of partnership Eddie Murphy Signs Three-Picture & First-Look Film Deal With Amazon Studios Reading a Novel Set Entirely in Slack In “Several People Are Typing,” Calvin Kasulke takes office agony to its outer limits. Elon Musk and Grimes break up after three years together GUESTS: Raquel Benedict - Claims to be the most dangerous woman in speculative fiction; hosts the Rite Gud podcast Brian Slattery - Arts editor for the New Haven Independent and a producer at WNHH radio Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Radiation is everywhere. It’s emitted by our sun, by cat litter, by bananas, and occasionally by nuclear bombs. It’s even emitted by you and by me and by every living (and dead) person in the world. So why are we so scared of something so prevalent in our everyday lives? While certain types of radiation can be very harmful in high doses, our fears may have more to do with how radiation is portrayed than it does with the actual danger of exposure. This hour, we talk with experts about the benefits, risks, and oftentimes misguided fears of radiation. GUESTS: Francis Cucinotta - Professor for the department of health physics and diagnostic sciences at the University of Nevada Tim J. Jorgenson - Author of Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation David Ropeik - Author of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Match The Facts Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Ray Hardman, Jonathan McNicol, and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired November 21, 2017.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Glass is all around us: from windows and mirrors, to phone screens and fiber optic cables. This hour, we learn how glass helped shape our world, about efforts to create different types of glasses, and what it's like to make art out of glass. GUESTS: John Garrison - Professor at Grinnell College, and author of the book Glass Alexis Clare - Professor of Glass Science at Alfred University  Eric Meek - Senior Manager of Hot Glass Programs at the Corning Museum of Glass Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.