The Colin McEnroe Show

Mark Twain has many literary sites; yet Henry James has none. You can visit Edith Wharton's house but not Shirley Jackson's. You can walk where Wallace Stevens walked but you can't buy a ticket to go through his front door. And can you believe there's no single museum devoted to all American writers-- yet?New England is about to get two great new writers’ museums: The Dr. Seuss museum in Springfield, Massachusetts and-- if we're lucky-- the Maurice Sendak Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Today we look at who gets a writer's house and why-- and what sort of experience we’re looking for when we make pilgrimages to the desks of our literary heroes. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, you think it's easy to write a Broadway song? I say not so fast. The four aspiring writing teams that attended Goodspeed's Festival of New Musicals this past January say it's plenty hard. They spend a lot of time kicking around ideas, most of which never see the light of day. But, really, they have no choice. "If you can do anything else, you do do anything else," says Marcy Heisler, one half of one of our amazing teams. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's hard to imagine: the idea that the arts, the grand bastion of our creative genius, may soon be bankrupt. But are new ideas really an unlimited commodity, or wont we one day exhaust them all? Some say we already have; that the bulk of what's being churned out by today's filmmakers, musicians and writers, are simply re-imaginings of the ideas of their predecessors.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Once upon a time Nancy Butler lived in the Beltway and used her MBA to secure a high paying job with a defense contractor.  But Butler had considered herself a devout Christian since the age of 9, and something about a job with a company that made torpedoes started to bother her. So she left and embarked on a journey that included mission work in Asia and enrollment at Yale Divinity School. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In some ways, the 'bro' is not new. He's there, for example, in Philip Roth's "Goodbye Columbus" as Ron Patimkin, the big athletic empty-headed brother of Brenda. What's different is that in the 1960s, it seemed fundamentally untenable to be Ron for an extended period of time. Ron only really made sense as a college athlete, and now he's stuck with a bunch of mannerisms and interests that seem vaguely out of place.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At 28, Jessica Fechtor suffered a life-threatening brain aneurysm that knocked out some of her senses. Now she has written Stir: My Broken Brain and the Meals that Brought Me Home. She'll be our guest today as we talk about life, death, food, and healing.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the right of gays and lesbian to marry, as a matter of equal protection. In New York City, the cops were closing of Christopher Street, so people could party. Similar pop-up public parties are happening all over the nation, including here in Connecticut. But some hearts are heavy.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Eagles first album touched a cultural nerve in 1971, with songs like "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman," a prelude to the hits to come. And, the music never stopped. Despite mounting criticism from critics and fans alike, within five years they rolled those hits into one of the biggest selling Greatest Hits albums of all time. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We usually think of propaganda as a tool used by autocrats eager to manipulate minds and limit rights we take for granted in the West. Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un or King Salman bin Abdulaziz wouldn't have a chance with us.But Western culture is steeped in propaganda that's more insidious and less blatant.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1997, more than 180 nations signed the Kyoto Protocol. The idea was clear and ambitious: Begin the process of saving the planet from global warming. The Kyoto protocol outlined what were thought to be realistic guidelines for reducing greenhouse gas emissions among developed nations. In the nearly 20 years since the protocol was signed, climate change has showed few indications of slowing.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.