Selected Shorts podcast artwork
Arts

Selected Shorts

by Symphony Space
BooksArtsFiction

Today: #69 in Arts on our combined chart.

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DateApple PodcastsPocket Casts
Oct 1#51#49

About the show

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.

Latest episodes

  • The New American West

    September 24, 2026 · 58 min

    Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works that reassess and redefine our ideas of “the West.”  It’s both a landscape of awesome beauty, and the scene of cultural appropriation, and we’ve got two masters sharing and shaping our experience.  In…

  • Introducing What Could Go Right?

    September 24, 2026 · 2 min

    Host Meg Wolitzer presents the podcast What Could Go Right, by the Progress Network. It’s a current affairs show that tries to find a more balanced way of looking at what’s happening in the world. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

  • Love and UFOs

    September 17, 2026 · 58 min

    Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that combine different sorts of unknowables:  unidentified—or hard to identify—flying objects, and romantic love.  In “The Duck,” by Ben Loory, a heartsick mallard has chosen a really unattainable object…

  • A Full Plate

    September 10, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min

    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…

  • Forsaking All Others

    September 3, 2026 · 57 min

    Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works about love and marriage.  In Amy Silverberg’s “Have You Met Husband?” two men and a dog vie for this title.  The reader is Molly Bernard.  And Mary Gordon’s “The Magician’s Wife” is a touching portrait…

  • Tim Curry Performs "Ziggurat" by Stephen O'Connor

    August 30, 2026 · 46 min

    British actor Tim Curry died on August 26th at the age of 80. Celebrated for his infamous portrayal of Frank-N-Furter in the musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show, his decades-long career included many other roles on stage and screen…

  • Building Worlds, with N.K. Jemisin

    August 27, 2026 · 1 hr 0 min

    Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works of speculative fiction curated by best-selling author N.K. Jemisin.  In John Scalzi’s “When the Yogurt Took Over” a popular breakfast staple decides it’s good for everyone.  The reader in Jin Ha…

  • Up in the Air with Radiolab

    August 20, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min

    SELECTED SHORTS host Meg Wolitzer presents four works that were read as part of our live evening with WNYC’s Radiolab and hosts Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser.The theme was flight in many imaginative manifestations. Randa Jarrar’s “The…