Selected Shorts
Episodes
Modest Expectations
21 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories, recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, in which characters shape their expectations and dreams to a man...
Introducing Wayfinder: Life-Changing Travel
21 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents the Wayfinder podcast. It’s a podcast about travel journeys that transform us, told through immersive stories of places,...
Save the Date with Belletrist Book Club
14 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about social occasions for introverts and extroverts alike, curated with the Belletrist Book Club, founded ...
Introducing Wayfinder: Life-Changing Travel
14 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents the Wayfinder podcast. It’s a podcast about travel journeys that transform us, told through immersive stories of places,...
Fork in the Road
07 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzerpresents two stories about characters who find themselves in a place in which they need to make a choice, something that will affect...
Too Hot For Radio: Jonathan Lethem "The King of Sentences"
04 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today's story is all about what happens when you become infatuated with someone you don't really know. And what strange or scary things you might do i...
Elements of Nature
30 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzerpresents four works in which nature and the out-of-doors drive both plots and character. Humorist Jenny Allen does battle with her...
Jane Austen at 250
23 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzercelebrates Jane Austen’s 250th with works by, and inspired by, the enduring romance novelist. Ann Harada performs an early Au...
Tell Me More: Jodi Kantor
20 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a wide-ranging and fascinating discussion, the two authors sit down to discuss journalism, the #MeToo movement, the Supreme Court, and what it take...
Extended Families
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works with unusual family dynamics. In Zadie Smith’s “Grand Union,” the mother-daughter bond transcends dea...
Remakes and Replicas
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about scaling the outsized real world down to manageable proportions. A couple brings the Papal seat home i...
Selected Shorts Goes to the Movies with the Tribeca Film Festival
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that crossed the boundaries between fiction and film for our collaboration with this prestigious New York fil...
Best American Short Stories
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories from the volume Best American Short Stories 2025, selected by guest editor Celeste Ng. In “An Early Depa...
Homewreckers
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two humorous stories about marriages not made in heaven.In James Thurber’s classic “The Breaking Up of the Winships,”...
Meg Wolitzer Talks with Louise Erdrich
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus feature, host Meg Wolitzer talks with author Louise Edrich about “The Big Cat,” her craft, and her Native American roots. Hosted by ...
What Are the Odds?
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with unlikely scenarios, rare events that have, at least fictionally, come to pass.Naomi Kritzer uses the idea ...
Reality Checks
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which reality contrasts with the dreams, perceptions, and actions of the characters.In “The Leap,” by ...
Meg Wolitzer Talks with Denis O'Hare
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 sto...
Too Hot For Radio: Paul La Farge "Another Life"
02 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Haruki Murakami: Then and Now
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories by the extraordinary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami that demonstrate the breadth of his emotional imagination ...
Changing the Narrative
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week on SELECTED SHORTS, guest host DeRay Mckesson presents four works that consider the Black experience in America from bold perspectives. Fo...
Problems without Solutions
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week on SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about problems without solutions. In Elif Batuman’s “The Board,” read b...
I Contain Multitudes
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that demonstrate the ways in which characters—like all of us—can play many different roles in one another's...
On the Couch
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about therapy—the benefits and perils of sharing your troubles with a stranger. In “Therapy,” by J. R...
To the Rescue
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzerpresents three stories about characters who try an end run around trouble, sometimes doing more harm than good. In Joe Meno’s “...
Surprising Interventions
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about sudden interventions that change lives. In Stephen King’s “The Fifth Step” a beguiling stranger a...
Ken Burns Presents Willa Cather’s America
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer helps a great documentarian celebrate a great American author. Cather is the of author of novels like My Antonia and O Pioneers! ...
Too Hot For Radio: Carmen Maria Machado "Persephone Rides at the End of Days"
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
The Role You Were Born to Play
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters wrestling with their roles in life. In “The Ugly Sister,” by Joanne Harris, a fairy-tale...
Introducing Explain like I'm 5
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 tha...
A Simple Solution
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about finding solutions to complex problems, and to simple ones. T. C. Boyle tackles evolution and government...
Unwrapping the Holidays
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meg Wolitzer presents three unexpected stories that let us see the holidays’ associations—family, friends, food, gifts, and goodwill—in differen...
Introducing Explain like I'm 5
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tha...
The Quiet Part Out Loud
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two provocative stories that address the idea of communing with something “other”. In Etgar Keret’s “Polar Bear...
Bonus: Etgar Keret and Ira Glass
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 i...
Intervention
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about people inserting themselves into the lives of others—in their own best interests. In Simon Rich’...
Introducing Explain like I'm 5
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 tha...
Now You See Him, Now You Don’t
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three fictionaldisappearing acts. In “We Have Your Son,” by Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw, a kidnapping goes wrong....
Just the Thing
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents stories about characters coping with pre-existing difficulties, large and small—and then encountering someone or somethin...
Classics with a Twist
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three imaginative and funny reworkings of classic stories. In Ginny Hogan’s “Phantoms and Prejudice,” Jane Austen...
Meg Wolitzer Talks to Author Michael Cunningham
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meg Wolitzer sits down with her friend, writer Michael Cunningham. Michael is an American novelist, screenwriter, and educator. He is best known for h...
It’s About Time
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the nature of time and how it shapes our lives. In Helen Phillips’ “The Knowers,” a woman choose...
Accidental Revelations
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories in which characters are faced with unexpected revelations that alter their lives. In “A Fable with Slips of W...
Fooling Yourself
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about self-deception. In “Participation Trophy,” by Simon Rich, the author is taken to task by a discar...
Generation Gap
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that cross generations. In Justin Torres’ “Trash Kites,” performed by Colman...
Too Hot For Radio: Pam Houston "Jackson Is Only One of My Dogs"
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pam Houston is a novelist, memoirist and short story writer whose titles include Cowboys Are My Weakness, Waltzing the Cat, and her latest autobiograp...
Off the Leash
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about our relationship with man’s best friend, from an evening of dog stories hosted by Saturday Night Live alum...
Uprooted
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about moving out of familiar territory into new spaces and new understanding. In M...
Tell Me More: Kathryn Nicolai
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 s...
Too Hot For Radio: Roxane Gay "Requiem for a Glass Heart"
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This story was read as a part of a live show hosted by the great Judy Blume, on the subject of banned books, something she personally knows about. Thi...
Bonus: A.M. Homes interviews Margaret Atwood
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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. Hosted by ...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks with Judy Blume
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Meg Wolitzer speaks with author Judy Blume about her life, her writing and the challenges of book banning. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. S...
A Conversation with Andy Borowitz
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer talks with political satirist and author Andy Borowitz in this bonus interview. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.ad...
Too Hot For Radio: Ottessa Moshfegh "The Weirdos"
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Picture Perfect
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about idealized lives, and ideas about what constitutes an “ideal” life. “Boy Meets Girl” is Jen Kim...
Bonus: A Conversation with Elizabeth Strout
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer talks with author Elizabeth Strout about her story “Home” and the fictional family Strout has created. Hosted by Simplecast, a...
Meg Wolitzer interviews Louise Erdrich
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks to Denis O’Hare
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Visits Her Favorite Indie Bookstore
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Host Meg Wolitzer visits a favorite indie bookstore, Three Lives & Company in Greenwich Village, remembers her early years there as a writer and reade...
Bonus: Margaret Atwood and A.M. Homes
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus conversation, writers Margaret Atwood and A.M. Homes discuss everything from feminism, time, writing and dystopian fiction, to Atwood’...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks to Alison Stewart
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks to Patricia Marx
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and New Yorker humorist Patricia Marx about her story “Singin’ in the Acid Rain,” ...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks with George Saunders
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and Booker Prize-winning author George Saunders about crafting short stories, where idea...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer Talks to Elizabeth Strout
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout about writing, short stories, and the...
Host Meg Wolitzer Talks to Comedian Michael Ian Black
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer and Mona Eltahawy Talk Being a Dangerous Woman
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this bonus conversation, host Meg Wolitzer talks to journalist, activist and feminist writer Mona Eltahawy about her life, literature and what it m...
Bonus: Meg Wolitzer and Alison Stewart Talk Fiction
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...