The Colin McEnroe Show

Sticks & Stones is Dave Chappelle's fifth standup comedy special for Netflix in three years. All four previous specials won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album, and one of them won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special. The critical response to this latest special, though, has been a bit more muted. The Last Black Man in San Francisco (out this week on DVD/Blu-ray/iTunes/Amazon/etc.) tells the semi-autobiographical story of Jimmie Fails, a man just trying to get his grandfather's house back. It's Joe Talbot's directorial debut, and it's been called the best film of the first half of 2019. Also this hour: an AccuFrankie dispatch live from Nedstock.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last year, there was a movie about Charles Manson. This year, there was another movie about Charles Manson. Charles Manson is a character in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and in the second season of David Fincher's Mindhunter. The Manson Family murders were fifty years ago this summer, and Manson still seems to fascinate us and our popular culture. This hour, we wonder why.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chuck Klosterman is a man for all seasons. He's a pop culture icon. He's a sports geek. He's interviewed Jimmy Page. He appears as himself in other people's movies. He was part of a rock band. He's an author of fiction, non-fiction, and fictional nonfiction. Top that! Today, an hour with someone at least one person would call, the smartest man on earth. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Barbie Millicent Roberts -- yes, that's her name -- turns 60 we, as a plastic loving nation, celebrate! For six decades the impossibly proportioned fashion doll has been delighting children and adults around the world. But the road to 60 hasn't always been easy. Critiqued by feminists, diversity advocates, and even child psychologists for her role in perpetuating harmful sterotypes, eating disorders, and body dysmorphic syndrome among young women, Barbie may be just as controversial as she is iconic. In recent years, however, Mattel has made some long overdue changes. The new Barbies are more diverse in their career choices, body shapes, and ethnicities than ever before, and her new ad campaigns focus heavily on issues of women's empowerment and equality. But the question remains: Is it too little, too late for Mattel or are these changes enough to see Barbie into her seventies? We speak with expert guests about the good, the bad and the ugly side of Barbie, as well as about the doll's creator, Ruth Handler. And in case you were wondering, we may even get to Ken along the way!Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You responded so enthusiastically to our all-call show last Monday, we decided to try it again this week. What's on your mind? The world is you oyster, at least from 1-2 pm this afternoon. Not sure what you want to talk about? Worried about the economy? Trump's 'loyalty' test for Jewish Democrats? Who's in and who's out of the next Democratic debate? No debate on climate change?  The president taking a toll on our national psyche? How about 29-year-old NFL star Andrew Luck retiring over health concerns?  These are suggestions. We're more interested in what you want to talk about. (We even had a proctologist call in last week to remind people to get their colonoscopy) And we're (still) excited about our new toll-free call-in number. So, give us a call at 888-720-WNPR. That's 888-720-9677.  Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Nose has this odd habit of covering basically every new Taylor Swift single/video. And so there's a new Taylor Swift single/video. And so The Nose is covering it. And: As this is the way the world works now, a Facebook post has started a backlash against Frank Pepe Pizzeria over... politics. Sigh. And finally: In the great tradition of A Bug's Life/Antz, Deep Impact/Armageddon, and The Prestige/The Illusionist, this year gives us Yesterday/Blinded by the Light. This week's Nose has seen Blinded by the Light, a coming-of-age story about the music of Bruce Springsteen and a British-Pakistani teenager whose life is forever changed by it.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there's one thing we know about the public radio audience, it's that you love... sports. You crave sports coverage. You live for sportstalk radio. And so this hour, we talk sports... on the radio. And there's plenty to talk about: There's the fallout over Jay-Z's new partnership with the NFL (and impending ownership within the NFL?). There's the hot take question, "Do running backs even matter?" There're all the interesting players in baseball right now: a trio of the best young players ever to play at the same time playing at the same time as one of the best two-way players ever to play playing at the same time as one of the best players, period, ever to play. Oh, and then there're all the baseball players apparently hopped up on gas-station sexual-enhancement pills. Like I said: plenty to talk about. GUESTS: Des Bieler - Sports reporter for The Washington Post Ben Lindbergh - Staff writer at The Ringer; his most recent book is The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players Erin Tarver - Associate professor of philosophy at Oxford College of Emory University and the author of The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter. Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today we speak with actor and human-rights activist George Takei, not about his role as Liutenant Sulu on the original Star Trek, but about a far more troubling chapter in his life. In his new graphic memoir They Called Us Enemy, George writes in detail about his childhood spent in an internment camp for Japanese-American citizens. It's a vivid account of one of the darkest times in America’s history as well as a wake-up call to a country currently detaining tens of thousands of immigrants and their families.  Is there still time to learn from our past mistakes or have the politics of fear and division already caused us, as a nation, to repeat them?Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tracking, rewinding, ejecting, collecting - VHS broke ground in home entertainment like never before. The culture of VHS and its enormous best friend, the VCR, were kings of consumer media for decades. Despite the last VCR and VHS being manufactured just three years ago, videotapes are still consumed, collected, and in some cases, sold(!) across the country. But why? With streaming service giants like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and (soon) Disney, giving us on-demand content with the push of a button and with Blu-ray and 4K players displaying movies and TV shows at crystal clear resolutions, videotapes offer a simpler, analog experience that will just not go away. Today, a look inside the impact, history, and legacy of VHS. Plus, video stores! It was the place to get your VHS rental and consume the content you couldn’t get anywhere else. A look at life owning and working at a video store. Betsy Kaplan and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on May 16, 2019.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've got no guests today. So much of the burden of making today's show any good at all rests with, well: you. We can talk about pretty much whatever you want. The economy. Plastic bags. Greenland. The Little League Classic. 2020. Or 2020. Or 2020. Or 2020. Oh! And we've got a brand new (and toll-free) call-in line that we're pretty excited about: 888-720-WNPR. That's 888-720-9677. Call in, today at 1:00 pm.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.