Episoder
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Rachel B. Glaser has been recognized as one of Granta Magazine's Best Young American Novelists, and her work has been showcased in prestigious publications such as The Paris Review and McSweeney's. "Ira & the Whale" was honored with an O. Henry Prize in 2023. Jeff Hiller is an actor who has been a charming anchor of the HBO series Somebody Somewhere. He's appeared in many other funny shows, such as 30 Rock; was on Broadway in the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; and performs solo shows at Joe's Pub. After the reading, Hiller talked to host Aparna Nancherla about the character, finding your place in the world, and his own book, Actress of a Certain Age, which come out in June of 2025.
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Host Meg Wolitzer is presents two stories from a live SELECTED SHORTS evening celebrating the OâHenry Prize, with guest editor Amor Towles, bestselling author of volumes including A Gentleman from Moscow.On todayâs show, Allegra Hyde imagines the very near future as a never-ending road trip, in âMobilization,â read by Jane Kaczmarek. And a family is disrupted by the arrival of a young woman in âThe Import,â by Jai Chakrabarti, read by Arjun Gupta.
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories in which characters give, and get, a little assistance, from friends, strangers and family. A daughter copes with a cantankerous parent in âHow to Take Dad to the Doctorâ by Jenny Allen, performed by Jennifer Mudge. A woman moves to a new town and makes a strange new friend in Laura van den Bergâs âFriends,â performed by Roberta Colindrez. A Tyrolean cafĂ© improbably situated in South America is home to mysterious strangers and new and old romances, in Isabel Allendeâs âThe Little Heidelberg.â Itâs performed by Kathleen Turner. And a budding singer and socialist gets unwelcome help from Mom in Grace Paleyâs âInjustice,â performed by Jackie Hoffman.
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents a program celebrating the 100th anniversary of The New Yorker. One of the magazineâs strengths has always been its fiction, and honor of this winning literary streak, this year saw the release of the collection, A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker. The quartet of stories on this show is drawn from that volume.
The program includes a pithy satire by E. B. White, âLife Cycle of a Literary Genius,â read by Liev Schreiber; âLove,â by William Maxwell, a tender recounting of an collective adolescent crush, read by Fred Hechinger; âBullet in the Brain,â a powerful reversal of fortune tale by Tobias Wolff, read by Liev Schreiber; and âAll Will be Well,â an intriguing tangle of truths and half-truths by Yiyun Li, read by Ann Harada.
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about secrets that are just beneath the surface of the narratives and lives of the characters. In Walter Dean Myersâ âThe Beast in the Labyrinthâ children must conceal their real selves in a hostile society. The reader is Jelani Alladin. And the Shirley Jackson classic âThe Lotteryâ demonstrates how the inconceivable can become the norm in a community if everyone accepts it. The reader is Amy Ryan.
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Selected Shorts celebrates this important collection each year, and this show, presented by host Meg Wolitzer, reprises works from the 2022 Best American edition selected by guest editor Andrew Sean Greer. Included are âThe Little Widow from the Capital,â by Yohanca Delgado, performed by Krystina Alabado, and a second story selected by John Updike for the volume Best American Stories of the Century. Itâs Grace Stone Coatesâ âWild Plums,â performed by Mia Dillon.
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories by contemporary Japanese writers that were featured during a live program created in collaboration with the Japan Society. Each touches on the idea of letting go. In âHawaii,â Aoko Matsuda imagines a afterlife for garments. Itâs read by Maria Dizzia. In âSunrise,â by Erika Kobayashi, a womanâs life parallels the world of nuclear power. The reader is Rita Wolf. And Hugh Dancy meets a mermaid in Hiromi Kawakamiâs âI Wonât Let You Go.â
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories and two poems the celebrate the power and mystery of reading and writing. Billy Collins contributes magical verse from two perspectives in âBooksâ read by Kirsten Vangsness, and âDear Reader,â performed by Dion Graham. N.K. Jemisin entices us with a tricky narrative that contemplates the cost of literary celebrity. Itâs read by Yetide Badaki.And at least one character in Ian McEwanâs âMy Purple Scented Novelâ wants celebrity at all costs. It's read by Tony Hale.
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Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about selves obscured and revealed, by characters whose own identities are mysteries to them. In Aimee Benderâs âUn-Selfie, a woman reveals her extraordinary past to a stranger.The story was a commission for our 2022 Small Odysseys anthology, and is read by Alysia Reiner. In our second story, âBest Westernâ by Louise Erdrich, a young wife struggles to maintain a romantic fiction, until the real world crashes in on her. Itâs read by Patricia Kalember.
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"The Ballad of Bagel Rat," is by Jen Spyra. She's written for The Onion, The New Yorker, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After reading her short story collection Big Time, we not only brought two of Spyra's stories to the stage, but commissioned this one, too. Actor Busy Phillips read this story onstage. She's been in shows from Freaks & Geeks to Cougar Town, though these days you may know her from Girls5Eva or the movie musical Mean Girls. Also, she is the best at social mediaâwhich gave her a strange kind of insight into this story. This episode is hosted by Aparna Nancherla.
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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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This piece is by writer Maeve Dunigan. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker and in McSweeney's; and her first collection of humor pieces and essays, Read This to Look Cool, will be published in 2025. Our reader was none other than Susie Essman, the longtime stand-up comic who spent many years yelling at Larry David while playing Susie Green on Curb Your Enthusiasm. She has also had recurring roles in series including Broad City and Hacks. After the story, Host Aparna Nancherla talks to Meg Wolitzer about this story; she's a novelist and the regular host of Selected Shortsâthe show which provides Too Hot with its cornucopia of highbrow demi-smut. On top of all this, she is an avid Scrabble and Words with Friends player; so she surely knows about the feeling described in the story.
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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 âidealâ life. âBoy Meets Girlâ is Jen Kimâs humorous version of a Hollywood love story. Itâs read by Tony Hale. In the John Cheever classic âThe Worm in the Appleâ a couple have the perfect lifeâbut no one can believe it. Itâs read by Anne Meara. And a harried mother fantasizes about a brand new life in Vanessa Cutiâs âOur Children,â 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 âHomeâ 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 OâHare 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.
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In this bonus conversation, writers Margaret Atwood and A.M. Homes discuss everything from feminism, time, writing and dystopian fiction, to Atwoodâs new short story collection âOld Babes in the Wood.â The interview was recorded in front of a live audience at Symphony Space.
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