Selected Shorts

By Symphony Space

What's Selected Shorts about?

Spellbinding short stories by established and emerging writers take on a new life when they are performed by stars of the stage and screen.

4.4

2,131 ratings

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LAST EPISODE

Forgiving and Forgetting

05.13.2021

Guest host Robert Sean Leonard presents stories about transgression, misunderstandings, and betrayal. “Initials Etched on a Dining Room Table Lockeport Nova Scotia” call up a host of memories in this story by Peter Orner, performed by Maulik Pancholy. A chef ...

Selected Shorts episodes:

05.13.2021 Forgiving and Forgetting Guest host Robert Sean Leonard presents stories about transgression, misunderstandings, and betrayal. “Initials Etched on a Dining Room Table Lockeport Nova Scotia” call up a host of memories in this story by Peter Orner, performed by Maulik Pancholy. A chef ...
05.06.2021 Revise the Rules Guest host Roxane Gay presents three stories in which personal codes and rules of behavior are tested. In “Miss Laura’s School for Esquire Men,” by Carmen Maria Machado, hopelessly macho men are learning to be kinder and gentler. The reader ...
04.29.2021 Mending Families Guest host Maulik Pancholy presents two stories about families. In Heather Monley’s “Paddle to Canada,” a risky family boating trip becomes contested history. Jenna Ushkowitz is the reader. And Jamel Brinkley’s “A Family” shows people coming together in unexpected ways ...
04.22.2021 Reading the Russians with George Saunders Guest host Kate Burton presents three Russian classics that reflect on the humor, humanism, and poetry of this great literary tradition, from an evening curated by Saunders. In addition to his award-winning short-story anthologies and novel, Saunders teaches at Syracuse ...
04.19.2021 Too Hot For Radio: Tiphanie Yanique "The Special World" A gorgeous story read by actor Hampton Fluker (The Blind Side, Patriots Day, and Shades of Blue) about race, leaving home, and the dramas of young life. After the reading, host Aparna Nancherla talks with the delightful author Tiphanie Yanique ...
04.15.2021 Make ‘Em Laugh: A Celebration of James Thurber Guest host Jane Kaczmarek presents a program celebrating the great American humorist in some of the many genres in which he was drop-dead funny. Thurber confesses that he’s all thumbs in “I Break Everything I Touch,” performed by Keith Olbermann. ...
04.08.2021 Test the Waters Guest host Hope Davis presents two coming-of-age stories that mingle memory, rebirth, and water. Davis herself reads Elizabeth McCracken’s “It’s Not You,” in which a young woman checks into a grand hotel to cure a broken heart. And from Isaac ...
04.01.2021 Afterlife Guest host John Darnielle presents favorite works that reflect on life, death and what comes next. He reads Robert Browning’s chilling poem “My Last Duchess;” Molly Ringwald performs “No More Loves,” by Javier Marias, in which a ghost learns to ...
03.25.2021 Gravitational Forces Guest host Hope Davis presents three stories involving irresistible impulses and twists of fate. In Shirley Jackson’s “What a Thought” an awful idea threatens a happy marriage. It’s read by Andrea Martin. A science teacher has a crush in Jess ...
03.18.2021 No Place Like Home: Best American Short Stories Guest host Maulik Pancholy presents two selections from the 2018 Best American Short Stories anthology, with comments by guest editor, Roxane Gay. In “Suburbia,” by Amy Silverberg, a young girl leaves home for the first time, and both she, and ...
03.08.2021 Too Hot For Radio: Kirsty Gunn "Dangerous Dog" Read by actress Kirsten Vangsness, this Jane Eyre fan fiction imagines Mr. Rochester as a pit bull. After the story, host Aparna Nancherla talks to Jane Eyre expert, author Patricia Park, about the enduring allure of Charlotte Brontë's novel. Join ...
02.02.2021 Too Hot for Radio: Tony Tulathimutte "Saint Pantaleone" Our story today addresses, or should I say undresses - why snacking on your underwear might not be all that’s promised on the box. In this hilarious story written by Tony Tulathimutte, the narrator, played by actor Maulik Pancholy, is ...
11.05.2020 Only Human: Anton Chekhov Guest host Jane Curtin presents works by Anton Chekhov that were part of a celebration sponsored by Columbia University and hosted by Chekhov scholar Laura Strausfeld. We’ll hear “A Drama,” performed by Cynthia Nixon—an ambitious writer overwhelms her idol; “Rapture,” ...

Selected Shorts

What's Selected Shorts about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Selected Shorts episodes:

Forgiving and Forgetting

Revise the Rules

Mending Families

Reading the Russians with George Saunders

Too Hot For Radio: Tiphanie Yanique "The Special World"

Make ‘Em Laugh: A Celebration of James Thurber

Test the Waters

Afterlife

Gravitational Forces

No Place Like Home: Best American Short Stories

Too Hot For Radio: Kirsty Gunn "Dangerous Dog"

Too Hot for Radio: Tony Tulathimutte "Saint Pantaleone"

Only Human: Anton Chekhov

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