This hour, a look at the myth of Sisyphus, and how we invoke it today. Plus, we'll hear from a musician who has found inspiration in the story, and we'll discuss when it's time to give up.

GUESTS:

• Joel Christensen: Professor of Classical Studies and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Brandeis University. His newest book is The Many-Minded Man: The Odyssey, Psychology, and the Therapy of Epic

• Noah Baerman: Pianist, composer, and educator. He is director of the Wesleyan University Jazz Ensemble and artistic director of the nonprofit Resonance Motion. His most recent album is Live at the Side Door

• Joshua Rothman: The New Yorker’s Ideas Editor, who writes the weekly column “Open Questions”

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show, which originally aired on November 21, 2024.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls. And your calls have been interesting and surprising and amusing.

This hour, the conversation winds around to temporary tattoos as an “I’m Spartacus” type of protest, Americans emigrating elsewhere, MobLand and Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren’s accents, why people are intimidated by classical music … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we did another one.

You can now watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Colin McEnroe, Megan Fitzgerald, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Note: This episode contains strong language.

Easily the hardest part of turning something like our live event celebrating the chemistry between Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick (and lyricist Hal David) into a radio show is figuring out what NOT to include. Onstage at Watkinson School in Hartford, we went nearly 80 minutes. The finished radio version runs just 50 minutes.

So we thought we’d present to you here separately some of that excised half hour.

This podcast extra includes four full song performances that didn’t make it into the radio show plus some odds and ends from rehearsals at soundcheck that we particularly enjoyed.

GUESTS:

• Lou Bocciarelli: Bass
• Atla DeChamplain: Vocals, Atla & Matt
• Matt DeChamplain: Piano, Atla & Matt
• Latanya Farrell: Vocals
• Steve Metcalf: Piano
• Molly Sayles: Drums

This show was produced, mixed, and edited by Dylan Reyes.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe and Jonathan McNicol contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With rare exceptions, The Nose doesn’t usually cover movies from the previous Oscar season once the actual Oscars have happened. But major world events are the sort of things for which one might break with tradition, and with the death of Pope Francis on April 21, we thought we might make an exception.

Conclave is a 2024 political thriller melodrama based on the 2016 Robert Harris novel. It’s set at the Vatican and tells the story of the death of one pope and the election of the next. Conclave was nominated for eight Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes, and Best Supporting Actress for Isabella Rossellini. It won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

And: MobLand is a British crime drama television series. It was originally developed for Showtime as a spinoff origin story for Ray Donovan. But it eventually morphed into the standalone gangster story that has become the most-watched series launch ever for Paramount+. It stars Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine, and Helen Mirren.

GUESTS:

• Taneisha Duggan: Director of arts, culture, and entertainment for the city of Hartford
• Shawn Murray: A stand-up comedian, writer, and the host of the Nobody Asked Shawn podcast
• Lindsay Lee Wallace: Writes about culture, health care and health equity, and other stuff, too
• Bill Yousman: Professor of media studies at Sacred Heart University

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, it’s our show on the relationship and chemistry between Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick (and the lyricist Hal David) recorded live onstage at Watkinson School in Hartford.

It’s an hour of music, conversation, and demonstrations of how GPS can help you find the way to San Jose.

GUESTS:

• Lou Bocciarelli: Bass
• Atla DeChamplain: Vocals, Atla & Matt
• Matt DeChamplain: Piano, Atla & Matt
• Latanya Farrell: Vocals
• Steve Metcalf: Piano
• Molly Sayles: Drums

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Maegn Boone, Meg Dalton, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Megan Fitzgerald, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, we look at the political erasure of history, and its impacts. Plus, we talk about why artists destroy their own work or the works of others. And, the history and evolution of erasers.

GUESTS:

• Jason Stanley: Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. His latest book is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future
• Preminda Jacob: Associate Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she is also an Associate Professor of Art History and Museum Studies
• Caroline Weaver: Former shopkeeper at CW Pencil Enterprise, a pencil shop in New York City. She is founder of The Locavore Guide and author of The Pencil Perfect: The Untold Story of a Cultural Icon

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since we just spent a number of years thinking about viruses, here’s a question: Should we be pretty worried about funguses, too?

This hour, a look at the real-life fungal infection of ants that inspired the video game and HBO series The Last of Us, which is now back for its second season. Plus, we talk with a local mushroom farmer and an author who writes fungal fiction and looks at the role of fungi in our world.

GUESTS:

• William Beckerson: Post-doctoral research Fellow with the National Science Foundation

• Patricia Kaishian: Mycologist and visiting assistant professor of biology at Bard College

• Chris Pacheco: Owner of Seacoast Mushrooms in Mystic, Connecticut

• Jeff VanderMeer: Author of a number of books, including the Southern Reach Trilogy, which includes Annihilation; he co-founded The Sunshine State Biodiversity Group

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired February 6, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour we took your calls about anything you wanted to talk about.

You can now watch our calls shows on Connecticut Public’s YouTube. Subscribe and get notified when we go live. Or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.