Selected Shorts

Nov 14 2024 25 ep. 33 mins 7.1k

Selected Shorts Podcast artwork

Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. Selected Shorts connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy. New episodes every Thursday, from Symphony Space.

Arts Fiction Society & Culture

Copy RSS

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Domestic Rearrangements

Nov 14 2024 58 mins

A routine that never changes can get old. So this week on Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that shake up domestic life, teaching the characters something new about themselves and their circumstances. In “Scaffolding Man” by Jenny Allen, performed by Patricia Kalember, a woman in a drab marriage is intrigued by a “hot” stranger. In "Myrna's Dad" by C

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Nov 07 2024 59 mins

Host Meg Wolitzer presents works that reflect on the loss of love, creatively imagined by a quartet of thoughtful writers. In “The Space,” by Christopher Boucher, a lost love is replaced by—her absence. The reader is Rob Yang. In Wendi Kaufman’s “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street,” the loss is the backstory, as a lively ‘tween, voiced by Donna Lynne Champlin, finds ways to

Too Hot For Radio: Carlos Greaves "Even I, Satan, Am Appalled by the State of the Republican Party"

Nov 04 2024 19 mins

Since political satire is a type of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics, it's a good time for today's story. And what makes it "too hot?" Well, some people find politics to be the dirtiest word of all. The author of the story is Carlos Greaves. The reader is Jon Cameron Mitchell. The episode is hosted by Aparna Nancherla.

Love Object

Oct 31 2024 58 mins

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about objects of love, and feelings that can't be returned, for very different reasons. In “A Love Letter” by Greg Ames, a boy falls head over heels in a crosswalk. Actor and Young Adult author Maulik Pancholy really captures teen ardor and angst in his reading. And in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s “Sugar Babies,” another teenager learns ab

History’s Clown Car with Andy Borowitz

Oct 24 2024 69 mins

Meg Wolitzer presents four works drawn from an evening of satirical stories about American political history, hosted by Andy Borowitz. Nothing is sacred. First, Joe Yan imagines Abraham Lincoln, huckster, in “I’m Abraham Lincoln and I Beg Of You, Please Commemorate My Birthday With Mattress Sales,” read by Ikechukwu Ufomadu. In “Running for Governor,” Mark Twain imagines

A Conversation with Andy Borowitz

Oct 24 2024 13 mins

Host Meg Wolitzer talks with political satirist and author Andy Borowitz in this bonus interview.

When Push Comes to Shove: Stories by George Saunders

Oct 17 2024 58 mins

Rarely do we devote one show to just one writer, but on this Selected Shorts, we turn the show over to universally beloved author George Saunders. Saunders somehow finds the good, or at any rate the imperfectly human, in his characters. The result is a catalog as funny as it is moving, as devastating as it is hopeful. On this program, two stories that perfectly illustrate this. “

Grass is Greener

Oct 10 2024 59 mins

Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about the tricky subject of envy that question whether the grass is in fact always greener somewhere else. In Alexandra Petri’s “Seneca Falls for You,” feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton almost gets trapped in a romance novel. The reader is Ophira Eisenberg. Ben Phillipe’s sly fairy tale, “The Luck of Others,” read by Joanna Gleason, rem

Didn’t See It Coming

Oct 03 2024 58 mins

Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with surprises the characters didn’t anticipate. A smart Mom defies expectations in “Agouti,” by Brenda Williams, performed by Laurine Towler. And a smart house has unexpected features in a classic by sci-fi master Ray Bradbury. Stephen Colbert reads “The Veldt.”

A Full Plate

Sep 26 2024 62 mins

Meg Wolitzer presents two favorite Selected Shorts works in which food and nourishment figure both literally and symbolically. The narrator of Haruki Murakami’s “The Year of Spaghetti” seems to be just sharing pasta recipes, but it’s the recipe for assuaging loneliness that may elude him. The reader is Sopranos alum Michael Imperioli. And unusual family dynamics shape Amy B