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At the end of last week’s show about Vikings, I typed in Slack to producer Lily Tyson: “Hall of Fame guest.”
That was Eleanor Barraclough, whom I had heard in 2024 talking about Leif Erikson on a podcast called You’re Dead to Me.
I immediately told Lily, “We have to do a show with her when her book comes out.”
It wasn’t so much that I urgently needed to do a show about Vikings. It was more that I wanted to do a show with Eleanor, who clearly had “it” — the hard-to-describe set of qualities that make for an outstanding guest on our show.
Smart. Funny. Playful. Fully marinated in the topic at hand. Able to handle spontaneity.
I suggested that we should devote part of this newsletter to the idea of a Guest Hall of Fame. One problem with this concept is that we fall in love with our guests on a regular basis. Picking one or two is almost heartbreaking. Really, we’re not inducting Dennis Duncan (whom we first met on a show about the idea of the index) or Nicola Twilley (refrigeration)? We adore both of them and many others as well.
Another problem is that some guests are more like family. David Edelstein isn’t a guest. When he’s on the show, he’s at home, sitting at the dinner table and leading the conversation into amusingly troublesome thickets.
Azar Nafisi is family in a different way. When this show and I are both gone, some of you will remember the long talks with Azar. She’s more like my smarter, deeper sister, and I feel comfortable reading her a William Meredith poem and asking her to react on the spot.
John Dankosky once said that nobody figured out how to be on The Colin McEnroe Show faster than singer-songwriter Jill Sobule. True that. I’ve lost track of the number of Jill appearances, but from the jump, she knew there was no script and that she and I could make it up as we went along.
We do have a type. Women will outnumber men by a ratio of at least 2-to-1 in the Hall. Brits will be overrepresented, partly because they’re so good at combining the high and the low, the serious and the risible. Eleanor Barraclough would have been prepared to talk extensively about the connections between Vikings and, as the Brits say, poo. The conversation with her — which felt like a leaf dancing and spinning in a November breeze — wound up moving to other places.
A last thought before we hear from producers. We don’t take many guests who make the first approach, either on their own or through publicists. Typically, we do the asking, and we might call you up about a book you wrote four years ago because we suddenly got interested in the subject.
And if we loved you, we’ll find excuses to ask again. If Trump really tries to annex Greenland, we’ll be pinging Eleanor sooner rather than later. Dennis Duncan came back for a show about reading aloud. Ella Al-Shamahi, who identifies as a “British explorer, paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist, writer, and standup comic,” has anchored shows about handshakes and Neanderthals.
And now, let’s hear from the people who actually tracked down these guests.
Betsy F. Kaplan, senior producer emeritus
I can think of so many guests that would fit my criteria — Emily Bazelon, Mary Roach, Adam Gopnik, Mark Oppenheimer, Maria Konnikova, Rose George, Jay Owens, etc.
I think Sam Waterston would be a candidate for a one-appearance guest because he was so engaged in the process, writing back and forth extensively about his thoughts on the noisiness of the world, the life of the spirit, and the joy of farming.
I’m going to vote for author Mary Roach as a Hall of Fame guest. Why? She’s curious about big questions that percolate under the surface of our conscious brains. She notices what we so often overlook or avoid. Those are my favorite guests. They maintain a sense of wonder with their world. Mary (and so many other guests like the ones I mention above) treated every appearance on the show like it was her first, always eager to engage during the pre-interview to make sure we got to the bigger questions and observations that excited her. She’s funny, curious, and quirky.
Jonathan McNicol, producer
When the idea of a Guest Hall of Fame first came up, I started thinking about people who think kind of like we do. We try, I hope, to take a sort of holistic approach to things. We try to find the pop culture hidden in politics. We try to find the politics hidden in sports. We try to find the science and math hidden in pop culture. So then the trick, a lot of the time, is to find guests who haven’t siloed themselves off from most of the universe in one particular discipline or another.
James Poniewozik, for instance, looks at congressional hearings as television. Kurt Andersen is a public radio legend precisely because of his curiosity about all of these different things at once. Jon Macks writes for comedians and politicians alike. Marcel Danesi is, as a semiotician, interested in all things at once just by trade.
And for me, personally, if you think about the world in this all-encompassing way AND you’re interested in sports, then you’re my damn hero. Ben Lindbergh has been on innumerable times to talk about baseball, but he’s also been on shows about Tom Cruise and Liam Neeson. Nick Davis came on to talk about Ted Williams and, later, Herman Mankiewicz. Will Leitch writes about sports for The Nation, of all places. And Mike Pesca, who probably fits into Colin’s “family” category at this point, was a big deal sports reporter before he started his own daily news show.
I’ve already broken all the rules and written about way too many people, but I have to name just one more: John McPhee is maybe the grandfather of this thing we’re aspiring to do all the time. (I mean, he wrote a whole book about oranges.) And the show we did with him is probably my single favorite interview I’ve ever produced.
Lily Tyson, senior producer
It’s impossible to pick just a few. I have worked with so many wonderful guests over the past few years, people who have brought topics to life in entertaining and engaging ways and frankly made my job really fun. Colin said I could nominate three (again, not enough!), and although this is woefully inadequate, here’s a start:
Maryanne Wolf. We had her recently on our show about reading. I loved her book Reader, Come Home, and when she came on air, she was a ray of sunshine. I believe Colin used the word “ebullient.” Sometimes I talk to someone and know right away that they will be a perfect guest for Colin. She was one of those people.
Tamar Gendler has joined us a few times now. If you haven’t yet, I recommend you listen to this episode about philosophy, where she brings these somewhat complicated ideas completely to life. My favorite part is at the end, when she and Colin start riffing on what the ancient philosophers would be doing if they were alive today. I did not warn her that this would happen, and the results are just amazing. Not just anyone can do that.
Dominic Couzens. One of my favorite shows I’ve produced was one from May, 2023, about rabbit holes. We talked about Lewis Carroll and internet rabbit holes, and then we of course had to talk about actual rabbit holes. I was having a hard time booking the segment, and I remember being excited when Dominic, a nature writer, agreed. We were delighted when he ended the segment with a story about chasing a wombat down a hole. You don’t hear that every day.
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Some behind-the-scenes looks at our two end-of-the-year shows from 2024: our two-part holiday spectacular, recorded December 18 at Watkinson School in Hartford, and our yearly year-end look at the year in jazz, recorded December 11 in Connecticut Public’s Studio 5. Photos by Mark Mirko.
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Two comedies
I want to nod to two dates here. On January 16, the Hall of Fame broadcaster (and not very good Major League catcher) Bob Uecker died at age 90. And this January 26 would’ve been Paul Newman’s 100th birthday.¹ There isn’t, I guess, a super obvious connection to make between Uecker and Newman², but the proximity of those two dates had me thinking about how they both made important contributions to a now largely dormant genre: the vulgar sports comedy.
Bob Uecker is nothing short of hilarious as the usually drinking, always unimpressed radio announcer Harry Doyle in Major League. And Paul Newman continued his career-long quest to subvert his own looks and charisma (poor guy) as the potty-mouthed player/coach Reggie Dunlop in Slap Shot.
These two movies are two of my favorite comedies of any sort, sports or no. But I should say: Neither one was anything approaching politically correct when it came out (Slap Shot in 1977 and Major League in 1989), and neither one has aged anything approaching well either. But if you can suspend all expectations in those sorts of areas, I think you’ll find that both of these movies will make you laugh quite a bit.
¹ Incidentally, Uecker was also born on January 26, in 1934, on Newman’s ninth birthday.
² Other than that shared birthday thing, it turns out.
Major League and Slap Shot are available for digital rental.
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The Traitors
So, are you a Faithful or a Traitor? I still don’t know which one I am, but I do know that The Traitors is the best reality show on television. Actually, it might be one of the best TV shows period. For the uninitiated, The Traitors is essentially a glamorous and campy version of the party game Mafia. It’s got everything: (fake) murder, fabulous cloaks, silly challenges, and oh so much drama. The murder mystery game is back with its third U.S. season — and so is the devious, charming, and incredibly stylish host, Alan Cumming. With him at the Scottish castle? A whole new crop of legendary reality stars (and one British aristocrat). I could write a dissertation on this TV show, but an endorsement will have to do for now.
Three seasons of The Traitors are available to stream on Peacock. New episodes appear on Thursdays.
Meg Dalton is director of audio storytelling and talk shows at Connecticut Public.
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Three Women
This is a limited series adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s bestselling nonfiction book, and it stars Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise, and Gabrielle Creevy. Since I finished Three Women last fall, I haven’t been able to stop recommending it. Its impact recalls the way Miranda July’s All Fours and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl provoke conversations about sex, femininity, power, and eroticism — in many circles, in ways the conversation has never gone before. Three Women doesn’t just center on those themes. It also reminds us that what motivates us is so individual, yet lifting each other and changing our narrative is not only a source of collective power but a necessity.
Ten episodes of Three Women are available to stream on Starz.
Megan Fitzgerald is senior manager of projects and radio programming at Connecticut Public.
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Reflecting through photos
Is it just me? Or is it getting harder and harder to reflect on the year as a whole? Post-2020, everything is a blur! Come New Year’s Eve, I usually know what I want to work on in the new year, but I find it hard to distill what exactly happened the year before, what the lessons learned were, etc. A friend recently suggested going through my camera roll from the entire year and writing down the highlights to make some meaning out of it. Genius! There were big moments, like my nephew getting into college and lots of WNBA games. And small moments, like making a tiramisu and finding a cool shadow on the sidewalk. This year’s goal? Take more photos.
Sabrina Herrera is editor of the Latino Initiative at Connecticut Public.
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Saturday at noon: In the century since Russia’s “Mad Monk” was poisoned, we’ve come to believe a lot of things: he was mystical, he was evil, he was the world’s greatest lover. This hour: Rasputin — the all-too-human peasant who found his way to friendship with the Romanovs and the comical, absurd version of him that just won’t die. Plus, a look at the global rise of the “new Rasputins.”
Monday at 1 pm: We’re off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which also happens to be Inauguration Day this year. In our place, you’ll either hear NPR’s live special coverage of the inauguration or:
“A Burning House”: MLK and the American Experiment
From WNYC and the Apollo Theater, this annual event explores the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s enduring legacy through the lens of his profound reflection on integration and his call for deeper societal transformation. Inspired by his conversation with Harry Belafonte about America as a “burning house,” we look at the complexities of belonging, justice, and collective responsibility in our contemporary moment. The event brings together distinguished scholars, faith leaders, artists, and public intellectuals for substantive dialogue about building an equitable society that truly embraces all of its members.
Monday at 9 pm: A special live Inauguration Night edition of The Middle
This hour, host Jeremy Hobson takes calls from around the country as a new Trump era begins in America. Two guests will join Hobson: Phillip Bailey, chief political correspondent for USA Today, and Mary Sanchez, a columnist for Tribune Content Agency in Kansas City.
Tuesday at 1 pm and 9 pm: We’ve been doing these shows where we don’t book any guests, where we fill the hour with your calls, calls about anything, 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. EST hour about whatever you want to talk about. 888-720-9677.
Wednesday at 1 pm and 9 pm: Socrates is thought of as the founder of Western philosophy. But what do we really know about his actual philosophical views? This hour, philosopher Agnes Callard joins us to talk about her new book, Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life.
Thursday at 1 pm: This hour, a look at our cultural fascination with dead bodies. What do we owe the dead? What can the dead teach us about life? We talk to a death investigator, a poet who is also a mortician, and a reporter who has investigated the large — and legal — market for body parts.
Friday at 1 pm and 9 pm: Randy Newman has won seven Grammy Awards, two Academy Awards, and three Emmy Awards. Bruce Springsteen has called him “our great master of American song and storytelling.” And now the music critic Robert Hilburn has published what may well be the definitive biography of Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country. This hour, Hilburn joins us to talk Randy Newman.
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