Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works with unusual family dynamics. In Zadie Smith?s ?Grand Union,? the mother-daughter bond transcends death and brings with it a whole family history. The reader is Kaneza Schaal. And Richard Bausch?s ?What Feels Like the World,? read by James Naughton, explores the bond between a grandparent and a grandchild.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents the Explain Like I'm 5 podcast, a show that takes the questions you always wanted to ask and talks about them in a way that is easy to understand. Some times we want simple answers to complex questions! We here at Selected Shorts have become big fans and hope you enjoy it too!

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about scaling the outsized real world down to manageable proportions.  A couple brings the Papal seat home in Ben Loory?s ?The Vatican,? read by Santino Fontana; In ?I Love Betty,? by Kaitlyn Greenidge, communication problems invite interesting solutions, in a story read by Nathan Hinton. And in Shirley Jackson?s ?The Beautiful Stranger? a wife and mother wonders if she?s in the right life, but tries to fit into it.It?s read by Maggie Siff. 

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that crossed the boundaries between fiction and film for our collaboration with this prestigious New York film Festival. An eerie game has unexpected consequences in Richard Matheson?s ?Button, Button,? performed by Marin Ireland. Michael Stuhlbarg gives a rousing performance of Lewis Carroll?s ?Jabberwocky;? and Andrea Martin reads the story that inspired the Hollywood classic All About Eve?Mary Orr?s ?The Wisdom of Eve.?

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories from the volume Best American Short Stories 2025, selected by guest editor Celeste Ng.  In ?An Early Departure,? by Jessica Treadway, a family relationship is altered in a moment at the train station. The reader is Cynthia Nixon.  In ?Third Room,? by Julian Robles, an apartment, and its mysterious tenant, take on lives of their own.  The reader is Ivan Hernandez.   

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two humorous stories about marriages not made in heaven.In James Thurber?s classic ?The Breaking Up of the Winships,? a long-married couple fall out over Donald Duck. The reader is Kristine Nielsen. And in Louise Erdrich?s ?The Big Cat,? read by Keir Dullea, two powerful wives, a bemused husband, and a symphony of bone-jarring snores.   The program also features an interview with Erdrich.

 

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In this bonus feature, host Meg Wolitzer talks with author Louise Edrich about ?The Big Cat,? her craft, and her Native American roots.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with unlikely scenarios, rare events that have, at least fictionally, come to pass.Naomi Kritzer uses the idea of ?The Little Free Library??one of those impromptu structures that facilitate the swapping of books?to imagine an exchange of quite a different sort.  The reader is Melora Hardin.  And Ling Ma imagines how winning the lottery?292.2 million to one?actually plays out.  ?Winner? is read by Cindy Cheung.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which reality contrasts with the dreams, perceptions, and actions of the characters.In ?The Leap,? by Louise Erdrich, a mother?s unusual skill set changes the outcome of events.  The reader is Elizabeth Reaser.  In ?Death and the Lady,? by Ben Loory, even the Grim Reaper harbors illusions.   And his parents? damaged marriage haunts an adult child in Delmore Schwartz?s ?In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.? Both the Loory and the Schwartz are read by multi-talented actor Denis O?Hare, and Wolitzer talks to him about his craft.

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In this bonus feature, host Meg Wolitzer talks with actor Denis O?Hare about his craft, and his approaches to readings of the two very different stories on this program.

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This story is one from our archives, by Paul La Farge. Pay attention because the author delivers lots of little hints about what is happening behind the scenes?to the protagonist, and the peripheral characters, too. But it isn't clear until the very last moments of the story exactly what kind of a story we've been listening to. La Farge is the author of novels including Luminous Airplanes and The Night Ocean. He unfortunately died in 2023 when he was still in his early 50s; and while we never had the chance to host him on the show, he had a lot of friends in the literary world. Reading the story is actor and musician Josh Radnor. Radnor is best known for the series How I Met Your Mother, but he's always busy; recent credits include Fleishman Is in Trouble and Hunters. Aparna Nancherla hosts this episode.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories by the extraordinary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami that demonstrate the breadth of his emotional imagination over a career of 35 years.  In an early story, ?The Window,? a professional letter-writer recalls an intimate encounter with a woman, and a hamburger steak.  The reader is Mike Doyle.  In the later story, ?Kahu,? read by Jennifer Ikeda, a woman goes on a blind date, only to be blindsided. Both stories were recorded at the Japan Society in New York City, as part of an ongoing collaboration with Selected Shorts.

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Written by Carmen Maria Machado, the dark, inventive and sensual writer behind the collection Her Body and Other Parties, and the memoir In the Dream House, this story, ?Persephone Rides at the End of Days," was commissioned for the Selected Shorts anthology Small Odysseys. It's about a Greek goddess coming to terms with who and what she is. Is her name, meaning "bringer of death," her fate? Or will she channel the other side of her mythological self? Our reader is Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role on Sex & the City as well as its sequel, And Just Like That. She has also appeared in so many other television series, including The Gilded Age, and is big on Broadway. Aprana Nancherla hosts this episode.

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Symphony Space was thrilled to host an evening with Israeli writer Etgar Keret, whose stories we?ve featured many times on Selected Shorts. He was interviewed by his longtime friend, and host of This American Life, Ira Glass. In this condensed version of their talk, they playfully challenge each other on a wide range of topics, some political, some creative, but mainly about what it?s like to live in these uncertain times.

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Meg Wolitzer sits down with her friend, writer Michael Cunningham. Michael is an American novelist, screenwriter, and educator. He is best known for his novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was later adapted into an Oscar-winning film and opera. What happens when two writers get together? Well, of course, they talk about writing, specifically his story, ?Jacked,? read by Jim Parsons, which we featured on Selected Shorts, but they also nerd out about the semicolon and Scrabble.

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The host of Selected Shorts, Meg Wolitzer launches the spin-off podcast, Tell Me More. If you know Selected Shorts you know that we're obsessed with stories. This new show will give us the chance to talk about many different kinds of stories?not just fiction! In the future, we'll talk to actors and journalists and, who knows, scientists, visual artists, even chefs. Creative people all tell stories of some kind, and this is our chance to look behind the scenes and find out how those stories get made.

On this episode, podcaster and author Kathryn Nicolai of Nothing Much Happens joins Meg. The title of her podcast tells you a lot of what you need to know. Her show is entirely fiction written and performed for occasional insomniacs who need something calming in their ear at night to help them fall asleep. In their conversation, they get into the power of sleep, and the power of stories, and they unpack a curious condition in which people literally cannot picture things in their minds.

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As part of our live event with Margaret Atwood, host A.M. Homes interviewed her from the stage at Symphony Space.  Here is that interview.

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Meg Wolitzer speaks with author Judy Blume about her life, her writing and the challenges of book banning.

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

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From the author of Eileen and My Year of Rest and Relaxation, a story about weird people doing weird things. Read by Colby Minifie from The Boys, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fear the Walking Dead. Michael Ian Black hosts this episode, which includes an interview with Moshfegh.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about idealized lives, and ideas about what constitutes an ?ideal? life.  ?Boy Meets Girl? is Jen Kim?s humorous version of a Hollywood love story.  It?s read by Tony Hale.  In the John Cheever classic ?The Worm in the Apple? a couple have the perfect life?but no one can believe it.  It?s read by Anne Meara.  And a harried mother fantasizes about a brand new life in Vanessa Cuti?s ?Our Children,? performed by Claire Danes, followed by an interview with Danes.

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Host Meg Wolitzer talks with author Elizabeth Strout about her story ?Home? and the fictional family Strout has created.

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to author Louise Erdrich about her story; her writing life; and what do with left over index cards.

 

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to actor Denis O?Hare about his craft, and his approaches to readings of the two very different stories on this program.

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Host Meg Wolitzer visits a favorite indie bookstore, Three Lives & Company in Greenwich Village, remembers her early years there as a writer and reader, and is let in on some trade secrets. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this bonus conversation, writers Margaret Atwood and A.M. Homes discuss everything from feminism, time, writing and dystopian fiction, to Atwood?s new short story collection ?Old Babes in the Wood.? The interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Symphony Space.

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In this bonus conversation, host and best-selling author, Meg Wolitzer, talks to host of WNYC?s All of It, Alison Stewart. Wolitzer reveals some of the secrets to great writing and the two share their own reading habits and thoughts about the importance of fiction.

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and New Yorker humorist Patricia Marx about her story ?Singin? in the Acid Rain,? and writing funny.

 

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders about crafting short stories, where ideas come from, and how his work has evolved over the years.

 

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout about writing, short stories, and the use of recurring characters in her work.

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to comedian and writer Michael Ian Black about what he?s been reading and the tricky business of being funny. 

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In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to journalist, activist and feminist writer Mona Eltahawy about her life, literature and what it means to be a "dangerous woman."

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A bonus interview between our host and best-selling author, Meg Wolitzer, and the host of WNYC?s All of It, Alison Stewart. Wolitzer reveals some of the secrets to great writing and the two women share their own reading habits and thoughts about the importance of fiction.

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