Do we really need politicians? What would our politics look like without them? These are some of the ideas that Yale political scientist Hélène Landemore explores in her work, including in the Connecticut Citizens’ Assembly, taking place this summer. Landemore joins us for the hour.

GUEST:

• Hélène Landemore: Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Her new book is Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule

Music featured (in order):

• Hands Across The Sea – John Philip Sousa as performed by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band
• Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart – Stevie Wonder
• People Have the Power – Patti Smith
• Democracy – Leonard Cohen
• Love Is Sweeping the Country – Chris Connor
• Of Thee I Sing – Ella Fitzgerald

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The word "like" has been around for centuries, but it reached a new cultural prominence in the 1980s, partially thanks to Frank Zappa's song "Valley Girl." Since then, "like" has taken on a life of its own, inspiring strong emotions. This hour, we look at the meaning and evolution of "like." Plus, how movies like the now 30-year-old Clueless have impacted our language.

GUESTS:

• Megan C. Reynolds: Former editor at Dwell and author of Like: A History of the English Language’s Most Hated (and Misunderstood) Word

• Kory Stamper: Lexicographer and author of Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

• Veronica Litt: English Professor and author of Ugh! As If!: Clueless

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, Dylan Reyes, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, and Isaac Moss contributed to this show, which originally aired August 20, 2025.

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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 spousal knowledge, tree sperm, progressive candidates, tree sperm, hitpeople, tree sperm, sleepy bees … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

These shows are fun for us, and they seem to be fun for you, too. So we’re doing another one.
In other words: Give us a call during the 1 p.m. EDT hour about whatever you want to talk about. 888-720-9677.‌

Music featured (in order):

• thank u i guess – forrest nolan
• Museum of Idiots – They Might Be Giants
• Love Is Salvation – Jesca Hoop
• I Don’t Know Anything – Alan Hsiao
• Something’s Coming – Laura Anglade
• Mary Singletary – Deer Tick
• With New Eyes – Simon Lynge

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Billy Joel has reportedly sold more than 160 million albums. He’s been nominated for 24 Grammy Awards (and won six of them), an Emmy, and a Tony Award (which he won). In the U.S., he’s had 33 top 40 singles and 11 top 10 albums. He’s simply one of the most popular recording artists in the history of music.

But. Critics have never been terribly kind to him, and a lot of the general public hasn’t either.

This hour, we look at the two-part, nearly five-hour HBO documentary Billy Joel: And So It Goes. And we look at Billy Joel more generally and at the love/hate relationship we all seem to have had with him and his music for more than 50 years now.

GUESTS:

• Jen Allen: A pianist, composer, arranger, and educator; her new album is Possibilities
• Rebecca Castellani: Co-founder of Quiet Corner Communications and the director of marketing at Washington Montessori School
• Jack Hamilton: Slate’s pop critic and the author of Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination
• Gene Seymour: A “writer, professional spectator, pop-culture maven, and jazz geek,” and he now writes the That Gene Seymour Substack

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 Isaac Moss contributed to this show, which originally aired August 8, 2025.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hartford circus fire in 1944 was the deadliest disaster in the history of Connecticut.

Our friend Jacques Lamarre (if you listen to The Nose most Fridays, you know Jacques) has written a big-deal new play about the fire and its aftermath that TheaterWorks Hartford is currently world premiering.

This hour, a conversation recorded in front of a live audience at TheaterWorks about the play Circus Fire and the actual Hartford circus fire.

Note: This podcast version of the show is more than 12 minutes longer than the episode as it’s airing on the radio, and it includes our full interview with circus fire survivor Charles Ericson.

GUESTS:

• Charles Ericson: A survivor of the Hartford circus fire
• Jacques Lamarre: A playwright and a frequent guest on The Nose; he wrote and co-conceived Circus Fire
• Rob Ruggiero: Artistic director at TheaterWorks Hartford and a co-conceiver of Circus Fire

TheaterWorks Hartford is a current underwriter of Connecticut Public.

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.

Thanks to Kate Cudworth, Dennis Dowding, Ethan Pervere, and Katherine Plutnicki at TheaterWorks Hartford.

Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it mean to have 'good taste'? And what would it take to develop it? This hour, we talk about taste and discernment. Plus, a look at flavor and why some things taste good.

GUESTS:

• Henry Oliver: Writes the literary Substack “The Common Reader,” and is the author of Second Act: What Late Bloomers Can Tell You About Reinventing Your Life. He is part of the Emerging Scholars Programme at the Mercatus Centre

• Becca Rothfeld: Staff Writer at The New Yorker, an editor at The Point, and a contributing editor at The Boston Review. She is the author of All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess

• Nik Sharma: A molecular biologist turned two-time James Beard finalist, best-selling cookbook author, photographer, columnist, and editor at America’s Test Kitchen. His cookbooks include The Flavor Equation: The Science of Great Cooking Explained in More Than 100 Essential Recipes, among others

Join the conversation on Facebook.

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, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Colin McEnroe, Dylan Reyes, Isaac Moss, Coco Cooley, and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired on August 6, 2025.

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 vertical hold, campus protests, the Catholic church, Bob’s Burgers, Luke Bronin, the fears of men … Anything. (Seemingly) everything.

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

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael M. Grynbaum's book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America, traces the rise of Condé Nast's magazines. This hour Grynbaum joins us to explain how Condé Nast magazines and their editors achieved their status as cultural tastemakers, and where these magazines, and that industry, stand today. Plus, we hear from an editor at The Week about how that magazine is approaching this moment.

GUESTS:

• Michael M. Grynbaum: A media correspondent for The New York Times and author of the new book Empire of the Elite: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America

• Mark Gimein: Former managing Editor at the print edition of The Week

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.

Colin McEnroe, Dylan Reyes, and Eugene Amatruda contributed to this show, which originally aired on August 15, 2025.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.