The Colin McEnroe Show

There are plenty of questions about what the future of live performance looks like right now, and, in certain ways, no form seems more displaced by social distancing and everything else than does standup comedy. As such, people are just going to have to try new things, right? New York club comedian Ted Alexandro's YouTube comedy special is one of the first such experiments. And: Do you feel like you're running out of movies to watch? Have you crossed just about everything off of your must-see list? The Nose has compiled its own list of semi-obscure, semi-forgotten, semi-overlooked movies to help get you through this time. Nothing too artsy-fartsy, nothing too oddball. Just some titles you might've missed that are worth your time. (Here's the full list in handy Twitter-thread form. It runs fully 43 titles.) Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: G.I. Joe Artist Hector Garrido Passes Away At Age 92 For Graduation, Cal Students Build 'Blockeley University' in Minecraft SNL Promotes Kate McKinnon's Cat to Featured Player Someone Edited Every Star Wars Movie To Play At Once, And I Can't Look Away Pentagon officially releases UFO videos Comedy Community Mourns The 'End Of An Era' As UCB Closes New York Locations Academy Alters Oscars Rules: Streaming Films Eligible, Sound Categories Combined, and More AMC Theatres Refuses to Play Universal Films in Wake of 'Trolls World Tour' Museums Challenge Each Other to Show their Creepiest Object Have Serena Williams And Roger Federer Won Their Last Grand Slams? FAA looking into a runway incident involving Harrison Ford Coffin Floats Are Real And You Can Bury Yourself In One This Summer The Erotic Chaos and Suspense of a Zoom Orgy Little League Cancels 2020 World Series and Region Tournaments GUESTS: Susan Bigelow - A librarian, a columnist for CT News Junkie, and a science fiction/fantasy novelist Shawn Murray - A standup comedian and writer 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.

Three years ago, we did a show where we asked which fictional dystopian future we were actually already living in. Now that we've arrived at, ya know, this present moment, that show has been on our minds. But we've realized we've got a new set of questions now too. After all the dystopian and apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction there's been over the past couple decades -- and there's been KIND OF A LOT, right? -- has any of it actually prepared us for our very present, very current, actual nonfiction dystopia? Well, mostly no. But some of it just may have. And then: What exactly is dystopian fiction going to look like after this is all over? GUESTS: Naomi Kritzer - A science fiction and fantasy writer; she wrote "So Much Cooking" in 2015, and her novel Catfishing on CatNet just won the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Novel Laurie Penny - An author, columnist, journalist, and screenwriter Ben Winters - The author of ten novels; his new collection of short stories, Inside Jobs: Tales from a Time of Quarantine, is out tomorrow as an Audible original 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.

Humans typically make enough collective noise to keep the earth vibrating at a steady hum. But the pandemic has quieted that hum enough to let seismologists study the vibrations that can be hard to detect in the din of our noise. The world is eerily silent now, showing us how accustomed we have become to cacophony of loud sound in our lives. We're hardwired to focus on the sounds we need to hear and tune out those we don't. It's hard to notice what we miss when cars and horns and other noisemakers compete for our sonic attention. And we don't always notice how loud it is until it's quiet. Today, an ode to the sound we take for granted, including the soothing sound of another human voice on the telephone. Yep, that's what I said. The telephone.   GUESTS: David Owen is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of more than a dozen books. His newest book is Volume Control: Hearing in a Deafening World Chris Hoff is a sound engineer and co-creator with Sam Harnett, of the podcast, "The World According to Sound." (@chrisjameshoff) Sam Harnett is a reporter and co-creator with Chris Hoff, of the podcast, "The World According to Sound." (@samwharnett) Heather Radke is a writer and critic. Her work has appeared in The Believer, The Paris Review Daily, and RadioLab, among others. Her book, BUTTS, will be published in 2021. (@hradke) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This show originally aired on July 25, 2018. Two years ago, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security ran an intricate simulation of a rapidly spreading pandemic with government leaders to talk about the difficult ethical questions that arise in the event of a pandemic and the same questions we are confronting today.     They learned what had to be done in the event of a real "Clade X". We haven't done it.  The CDC said another pandemic was coming and that there was a good chance it President Trump would be confronted with it just as the two presidents before him. Yet, he cut funding for pandemic preparedness that has helped curb prior deadly global outbreaks and rid his administration of scientific advisors.  Just under 150 million died globallyby the end of the Johns Hopkins simulation. It doesn't have to end this way or when the next pandemic hits. But the threat won't go away simply because we choose to ignore it.  GUESTS: Ed Yong - Science writer for The Atlantic and is the author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. (@edyong209) Eric Toner - Senior Scholar with the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and Senior Scientist for John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Environmental Health and Engineering. (@JHSPH_CHS) Laura Spinney - Science journalist and the author of most recently, Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed The World. (@lfspinney) Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in several states came together last weekend to protest against stay-at-home orders. Their actions followed President Trump tweets of support to "liberate" their states and start reopening the economy. Dr. David Grew makes the case that resuming "normal" business activity in the absence of testing and credible messaging will do more economic harm than good.  Also this hour: What would President Selina Meyer do in a pandemic? How about Logan Roy? We talk to Frank Rich, the Executive Producer of HBO's VEEP and Succession. Could even they do a better job?   Lastly, we talk trash with an essential worker.  GUESTS:  Dr. David Grew is a radiation oncologist, co-chair of the Cancer Committee at St. Francis Hospital, and a public health messenger. You can find him on Instagram @davidgrew. Frank Rich is Writer-at-Large for New York magazine and Executive Producer for the HBO series, VEEP and Succession. (@frankrichny) Mike Paine is the president of Paine's Incorporated.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fiona Apple's new album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, is currently the best-reviewed album, um, ever, according to Metacritic. Bon Iver has a new benefit single out that seems to have been written specifically for the present moment. Norah Jones has a new tune. Bob Dylan has kind of randomly put out two new songs, one of which charted in the U.K. despite being very nearly 17 minutes long. And then, here's a trivia question: There are five artists who have charted singles in the Top 40 in each of the last four decades, Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, Kenny G... and who's the fifth? Would you believe it's this guy? Some other stuff that happened this week, give or take: Paul Schrader Does Not Have Much Hope for the Future of Movies Randall Beach: Small CT theaters in a new fight for survival MLB might not be back to normal until 2023So says one high-ranking executive. Plus, other thoughts about what might happen with baseball in 2020. A 2020 Minor League Baseball Season Grows More And More Unlikely The Wire Forever: David Simon on the Quarantine Favorite and His Equally Pissed-Off New Show, The Plot Against America Social-distancing detecting 'pandemic drones' dumped over privacy concerns Craving the Roar of a Crowd? Online Reruns of Concerts, Sports Provide Solace for SomeWith gatherings at theaters and arenas banned, videos of prepandemic events have become a source of humanity; 'That's what people are yearning for' Put on your sad clown face: The Gathering Of The Juggalos has been canceled A Seaside Irish Village Adopts Matt DamonBut don't you dare ask what it's like living under lockdown with Matt O'Damon. Ben Affleck won't let face mask stop him from smoking GUESTS: Rebecca Castellani - A music writer for the Red Hook Star Revue Eric Danton - A reporter and critic 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.

The Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble's The Rock & the Redemption is a jazz concept album of sorts that recasts the Sisyphus myth around the heroism of perseverance and persistence. Keyboardist and composer Noah Baerman joins us for the hour. To purchase The Rock & the Redemption (including the full-length concert video), visit Noah Baerman's Bandcamp. All proceeds from the album go to Claire's Continuum, an initiative of Resonant Motion, Inc., to commission socially conscious musical and interdisciplinary work by first-time collaborators. GUEST: Noah Baerman - Jazz pianist and composer Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe contributed to this show, which originally aired August 31, 2018.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In March, President Trump blamed our global pandemic on China. When that didn't work, he blamed the World Health Organization (WHO) for not responding quickly enough to the virus. When that didn't work, he blamed governors for not getting their own supplies. Now, he says immigrants will take away American jobs. The Bible defines a scapegoat as one of two kid goats. One goat was sacrificed and the living “scapegoat” was supposed to absorb the sins of the community and carry them into the wilderness. Is that what's happening here? Are the president's scapegoats supposed to carry away the sins of Mr. Trump? Also this hour: Politics and our human need for a scapegoat has defined the way we name diseases almost as much as the goal of accurately describing a threat to public health.  And, the story of one of our earliest scapegoats, the sin-eater.  GUESTS: Graeme Wood is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With the Islamic State (@gcaw) Lili Loofbourow writes about culture, gender, and politics for Slate (@Millicentsomer) Laura Spinney is a science journalist and author who has been published in National Geographic, Nature and The Economist, among others. Her latest book is Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World.  (@lfspinney)   Thomas Lynch is a poet and author of five collections of poems and four books of essays, including The Sin-Eater: A Breviary. His latest book of essays is The Deposition: New and Selected Essays On Being and Ceasing To Be. He has been a funeral director since 1974. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That headline is just a direct quote from James Poniewozik's Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America. I was torn between that line from the book and this one: Donald Trump is not a person. Poniewozik's take is that "Donald Trump" is really a character that Donald Trump has been playing on television since at least the early 1980s. "Television has entertained America, television has ensorcelled America, and with the election of Donald J. Trump, television has conquered America," Poniewozik writes. Audience of One is a cultural history of television and a television history of Donald Trump. Poniewozik joins us for the hour. GUEST: James Poniewozik - Chief television critic for The New York Times and the author of Audience of One: Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired October 24, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One can't help but wonder if the President understands that getting through this pandemic will not be a quick sprint.  On Thursday, the Trump Administration announced guidelines for states to begin reopening the economy, with a goal to begin by May 1. On Friday, the President personally encouraged protesters in Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia, to "liberate" their states from onerous social-distancing guidelines imposed by their Democratic governors.  On Saturday, protesters from other states joined the fray.  Social distancing seems to be flattening the curve but we haven’t yet turned a corner. The U.S. averaged 30,000 new cases of Covid-19 during the five days leading up to Friday, April 17.  Yet, there’s a good chance the Trump Administration will encourage a partial reopening before we’ve significantly increased testing or set up the infrastructure needed to trace the contacts of the infected.   How do we continue in the shadow of Coronavirus?  We want to hear from you. Call us at (888)-720-9677 or (888)-720-WNPR. What have you learned you can live without? How has your life changed?  What do you envision life will be like this time next year? GUEST: Ed Yong covers science for The Atlantic. He’s that author of I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander Way of Life (@edyong209) Martha Gulati is the Chief of Cardiology and Physician Executive Director, Banner Health Institute, at the University of Arizona-Phoenix. She is the Editor-in-Chief of CardioSmart, a patient education website by the American College of Cardiology. @DrMarthaGulati Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.