Just Listen Podcast
Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
Episodes
"A Lodging for the Night"
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Louis Stevenson, famed author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, continues to provoke both hatred and idolatry...
"The Lady or the Tiger?" and "The Discourager of Hesitancy"
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
“The Lady or the Tiger?” is one of the most anthologized short stories for adolescents and teens, often appearing in literature collections and po...
"The Revolt of 'Mother'"
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s author, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, sought to demonstrate her values as a feminist.
Christmas Poems
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s selections, a group of twenty-five Christmas poems, come from some of the greatest poetic voices of the English language.
"That Will Be Fine"
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We return today to the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi, made somewhat famous by William Faulkner as the locus for many of his short stories.
"The Sequel to a Divorce"
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today we examine another one of the three hundred short stories written by the French author Guy de Maupassant, who is featured here on Just Listen se...
"Little Selves"
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s author, Mary Lerner, had her 1916 story “Little Selves” published in the September issue of Atlantic Monthly.
"Mademoiselle Fifi"
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Mademoiselle Fifi" is a short story by Guy de Maupassant.
"The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes"
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of the things I most enjoy about presenting stories here is the great fun I find in discovering the personal lives of authors. Not only do our aut...
"The Ledge"
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s story, “The Ledge” by Lawrence Sargent Hall, won first place in the 1960 O Henry Prize Collection, and has appeared in more than 30 anth...
"The Farmer's Children"
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s story, “The Farmer’s Children” by Elizabeth Bishop, an American poetry and short story writer, seems a showcase for the evil stepmothe...
"Desiree's Baby"
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Among the stories in the collection Bayou Folk by Kate Chopin is today's story, "Désirée's Baby," a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana, f...
"A Village Singer"
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Through her different genres of work including children's stories, poems, and short stories, Mary Wilkins Freeman sought to demonstrate her values as ...
"Two Friends"
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Turning once again to one of America’s greatest fiction voices, we present today a story that displays Willa Cather’s keen observation and underst...
"The White Silence"
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We are happy today to bring you our third Jack London story here.
"The Last of How It Was"
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Reid Pearson, aka T.R. Pearson, is fun, fun, fun to read. If you haven’t yet encountered this very imaginative author, you’re in for a tre...
"Roman Fever"
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today's story, by one of our foremost story contributors, Edith Wharton, has been the subject of scores of critical analyses and touches on numerous t...
"Rip Van Winkle"
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Almost anyone could tell you the story of Rip Van Winkle in a sentence or three. Today we get to enjoy the tale in its entirety as presented by one of...
"The Yellow Wallpaper"
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, lived from July 3, 1860 to August 17, 1935, and witnessed ev...
"A Pair of Silk Stockings"
16 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The characters in Kate Chopin’s stories are usually residents of Louisiana, and many are Creoles of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. Many of he...
"Kerfol"
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to our Christmas celebration of ghost stories by Edith Wharton. For the curious, alert, and not-too-easily frightened, we have several co...
"The Devoted Friend"
28 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We are back with our old friend Oscar Wilde, who has several stories to hear here on Just Listen, with a didactic tale meant to be read to children ca...
"A Retrieved Reformation"
19 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We welcome again our friend O. Henry, master short story author, poet, and newsman.
"Araby"
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
James Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet, teacher, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is...
"Boule de Suif" Part II
07 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In our last episode, a group of wartime travelers attempts to escape the Prussian-occupied city of Rouen. They includea prostitute named Boule de Suif...
"Boule de Suif" Part I
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Boule de Suif,” translated variously as "Dumpling," "Butterball," "Ball of Fat," "Tallow Ball," or "Ball of Lard," is a famous short story by th...
"The Storyteller"
17 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Always one to point out the pretentions of the upper classes, Saki is also famous for usually giving us a wry twist to the endings of his stories.
"Up the Slide"
03 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With a youth full high jinks followed by travels through the Yukon and South Pacific, Jack London became during his lifetime one of the highest paid A...
"The Finish of Patsy Barnes"
19 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“The Finish of Patsy Barnes” tells the story of the titular character, a poor young African-American boy, who enters a horse race in order to earn...
"The Catbird Seat"
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"The Catbird Seat" is a 1942 short story by James Thurber. The story first appeared in The New Yorker on November 14, 1942. The story was also publish...
"Ashputtle"
05 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Ashputtle,” is one of large number of fairy and folk tales published by the Brothers Grimm – Jacob and Wilhelm. The brothers were Hessian acade...
"Two Friends"
22 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“Two Friends,” by French short story maestro Guy de Maupassant, is a melancholic story about loyalty in which the characters Sauvage and Morissot ...
"By the Waters of Babylon"
01 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by American writer Stephen Vincent Benét, first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday ...
"The Dog That Bit People"
25 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
James Grover Thurber, born December 8, 1894, was an American cartoonist, author, humorist, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. He was best kno...
"The Other Woman"
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sherwood Anderson was a very introspective and subjective writer, whose work was often loaded with personal experience.
"The Tapestried Chamber"
20 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“The Tapestried Chamber,” believed by many scholars to be the first “modern” ghost story, was first published in 1828.
"Memoirs of Marie Antoinette"
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The closing years of the French monarchy could scarcely have found a more faithful chronicler, or one better fitted for the task both by training and ...
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln...
"An Episode of War"
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Crane's short stories about the Civil War are stock items in student anthologies. They are often used to contrast Naturalism to Romanticism, ...
Poetry Panoply III
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our final episode of English Romantic poetry - Poetry Panoply III.
"A Rose for Emily"
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Highly anthologized, “A Rose for Emily” begins with a title reminiscent of a lover’s offering and ends with a grisly reminder of the extent to w...
Poetry Panoply II
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Poetry Panoply II continues our celebration of English Romantic Poetry.
Poetry Panoply I
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The three Poetry Panoplies are comprised of English Romantic Poetry.
Readings from The Decameron and Dante's Inferno
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today we examine excerpts from the writings of two famous Italian writers, whose works have influenced Western culture for over 600 years: Dante Aligh...
Poems That Tell a Story
13 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Three poems full of suspense and excitement.
Japanese Ghost Stories
06 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve never read or heard of the Japanese ghost stories of Lafcadio Hearn, you are in for a real ghost story lover’s treat.
Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market"
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Christina Rossetti's poem Goblin Market is one of her best known. Although it is ostensibly about two sisters' misadventures with goblins, critics hav...
Poetry - Christina Rossetti
26 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Christina Georgina Rossetti, born on December 5, 1830, was an English poet who wrote a variety of romantic, devotional, and children's poems. We begi...
Poetry - Sara Teasdale and Edna St. Vincent Millay
12 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today we examine the work of two American poets, Sara Teasdale and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Both poets are featured in a new book by John Dizikes enti...
Winesburg, Ohio: "Loneliness"
15 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A short story cycle is a collection of short stories in which the narratives are specifically composed and arranged with the goal of creating an enhan...
Winesburg, Ohio : "Hands"
01 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Winesburg, Ohio is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The book consists of twenty-two stories, with the first story, "...
"The First Seven Years"
02 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s author Bernard Malamud was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Phillip Roth, he was one ...
from The Diary of Samuel Pepys
19 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Samuel Pepys is most famous for the diary he kept from 1660 until 1669, while still a relatively young man. Writing for himself alone, he used a littl...
"The Interlopers"
05 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hector Hugh Monroe, also known as Saki, is famous for his tongue-in-cheek commentaries on the upper classes and the quick, startling way in which many...
"The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection"
22 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Virginia Woolf was born into intellectual and social aristocracy. She was not sent to school, in accordance with the custom of the times. She received...
"The Lagoon"
11 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"The Lagoon" is a short story by Joseph Conrad, a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Th...
"Elegy in a Country Churchyard"
01 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a poem by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750 and first published in 1751. The poem's origins are unknown, but ...
"The Invalid's Story"
17 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“The Invalid’s Story” is a raucous story by Mark Twain about a case of mistaken identities. It is a testament to how olfactory images can truly ...
Tennyson Poetry
10 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson was a British poet. He was the Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign an...
"Michael"
13 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Michael" is a pastoral poem, written by William Wordsworth in 1800 and first published in the 1800 edition of Lyrical Ballads. The poem is one of Wor...
"The Duchess and the Jeweller"
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In March 1941, Virginia Woolf wrote a letter to her husband Leonard. It would be the last letter to her beloved. On the 28th of that month, she filled...
From A Journal of the Plague Year
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The harsh reality of plague asserts itself not only in Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death,” but also in Daniel Defoe’s first...
"The Most Dangerous Game"
15 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Widely anthologized, and the author's best-known work, "The Most Dangerous Game,” also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff”, is a short story by Ri...
"A Wagner Matinee"
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“A Wagner Matinée” combines two familiar Willa Cather themes—the hardship and desolation of pioneer life and the sustaining power of music on t...
"The Masque of the Red Death"
29 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death, Prince Prospero attempts to avoid a dangerous plague, known as the Red Death, by hiding in his ...
"To Build a Fire"
25 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most widely anthologized stories in American literature is Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.”
"One Thousand Dollars"
18 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
William Sydney Porter, known to posterity as the author O. Henry, is famous for stories that have surprise endings. A very adventurous life, including...
"A Modest Proposal"
04 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729, “A Modest Proposal” is a satirical essay. It suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease thei...
"Winter Dreams"
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s story, “Winter Dreams,” is considered one of Fitzgerald‘s finest stories and is frequently anthologized. Writing his editor Max Perki...
Excerpts from _Into Terrible Light_
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
David Rutschman is the author of _Into Terrible Light_, published by Forklift Books (2017).
"The Marriages," Parts III & IV
18 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s conclusion to “The Marriages,” we see the fruit borne of jealousy and carelessness.
"The Marriages," Parts I & II
15 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Although sharply criticized by his English contemporaries, American author Henry James is now valued for his psychological and moral realism, his mast...
"The Sculptor's Funeral"
28 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Two things I find striking and worthy of special note in today’s selection by Willa Cather, “The Sculptor’s Funeral.” One is the sense of plac...
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890) is a short story by the American writer and Civil War veteran Ambrose Bierce. The story, which is set durin...
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne about a doctor who claims to have been sent water from the Founta...
"The Gift of the Magi"
20 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A perennial Christmastime favorite, "The Gift of the Magi," written by O. Henry, is about a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challeng...
"The New Dress"
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The New Dress” by Virginia Woolf is perhaps one of the finest examples of stream-of-consciousness writing produced by an American or British auth...
"Theft"
21 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Algernon Henry Blackwood, a Commander of the British Empire, was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost...
"The Schartz-Metterklume Method"
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
At a railway station an arrogant and overbearing woman, Mrs Quabarl, mistakes the mischievous Lady Carlotta, who has been inadvertently left behind by...
"The Open Window"
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Saki is the pen name of the British writer Hector Hugh Munro, also known as H. H. Munro (1870 - 1916). In"The Open Window," possibly his most famous s...
"The Necklace"
16 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Saki is the pen name of the British writer Hector Hugh Munro, also known as H. H. Munro (1870 - 1916). In"The Open Window," possibly his most famous s...
"Transcendental Wild Oats"
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Louisa May Alcott, most famous for her coming of age novel Little Women, wrote in a variety of genres to support her family, including humor. As a chi...
"My Dead Brother Comes to America"
18 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Katz, writing under the pen name of Alexander Godin, immigrated to the United States from the Ukraine with his family in l922. “My Dead Brot...
"The Happy Prince"
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The fairy tales of the notorious Oscar Wilde are considered by many to be among his best writings. Today we consider two stories that fall somewhere i...
The Story of an Hour
16 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“The Story of an Hour” is considered by many to be a hallmark of early feminist fiction.