The Colin McEnroe Show

Home birthing? Doulas? Midwives? Hypnobirthing? Prenatal massage? Today, we’re talking about alternative birthing.Fifty years ago, it was pretty simple: you went to the hospital, they knocked you out, and you had your baby — while dad smoked a cigar in the waiting room. Or if no hospital was nearby, you gave birth at home and hoped a savvy neighborhood lady could to help out. In later years, the question became home birth versus hospital birth.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let me tell you, in the bluntest possible manner, why we're doing a show with Ivor Hugh today.Last year, I had the idea of doing a show that would have been a gathering of some of the voices from the era when radio was king. One of the names in my head was Ivor's. The other one was my friend and former colleague Arnold Dean. Arnold started in radio within a year of  Ivor; and, like almost everybody doing radio in the 1950s, both men then dabbled in the early days of television, because the early tv talent was radio talent.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know who needs this show today?Me.I'm having a musically starved summer, at least in terms of modern recorded music. I've made it out to some live shows, but I really have no idea what's being released these days.I can sum up my relation to music his summer in the following way: I was going to order the new Laura Marling CD, but I didn't. That's it. Meanwhile to force myself to do bicycle training runs every night, I've been playing an obscure 1978 Todd Rundgren song called "Determination." Sad, really.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Lennon said they were the greatest comedy team since the Marx Brothers.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're not a hobbit or a college professor, smoking a pipe is a differentiator.  It's a signal to the world that your tastes run in a slightly unusual direction. The character played by Chion Wolf's brother Michael Gladis in the early seasons of Mad Men was one of those people. Always looking for a way to be different. Hence the ever present pipe. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, hear a live, in-studio performance by and conversation with the Punch Brothers, before their performance at Jorgensen Theater at UConn, Storrs. They are a five-piece band enjoying an explosion of critical esteem and new popularity over the past few years. Its leader, Chris Thile, just won a MacArthur Genius Grant, and has been working with giants from other genres, including cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, and jazz great Brad Mehldau.See all the photos by Chion Wolf here.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are more than 800 miles of Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails in Connecticut. Today we're doing our show from one of them. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The problem with invasive species is, of course, that they compete for resources with local species, and sometime they're a lot better at it. and sometimes they just incidentally wipe something out. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

[Featured on the Audio to the left: A one-hour conversation and performance with and by Sobule in which she sings "Jetpack" and "Heroes" and some rarities.]Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's just a dance, right?Actually, maybe that's the last thing the prom is. Maybe the photo is even more important, because it freezes you. It's your chance, as high school trickles away, to say "This is who I am. This will be who I was."We've been looking at prom photos by Mary Ellen Mark, who will be on our show today, and they're striking in the range of emotional states they convey. We see joy, hesitation, confidence, detachment and some flat-out haunted looks.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.