Death Sex Money
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What themes does Anna Sale explore in Death, Sex, and Money?
Death, sex, money, things we think about a lot and that are the turf of podcast host Anna Sale. This week on Selected Shorts, stories she chose are read by actors including Amy Ryan and Richard Kind. Your choice? Stay with me, Meg Wolitzer. You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.
Anna Sale was a political reporter at WNYC when she had an epiphany. Death, sex, and money were the subjects that everyone thought about and wanted to be brave enough to talk about. She provides that opportunity in her emotionally generous podcast, now in its 12th year.
How does the collaboration with Selected Shorts enhance storytelling?
In the podcast, she connects with real people and their stories. But these are also themes we see addressed time and again in fiction. Selected Shorts partnered with SAIL a few years ago, and we were delighted to have that opportunity again at a recent live show. For this program, we chose stories that engage directly with the core ideas at the heart of her show, how we navigate our relationships, our losses, and our desires, and how money and mortality shape the choices we make. Together, these stories reflect the shared human concerns that inspired this collaboration. Here's Anna Sale speaking from the stage at Symphony Space.
Hello, good evening. Welcome to Selected Shorts. I am your host this evening. My name is Anna Sale. I'm so glad to be here. In addition to hosting Selected Shorts this evening, I host the Slate podcast, Death, Sex, and Money. Yes. We have been making this show since 2014. Our team, we say it's the show about the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more. It's also a show about basically the things that short stories are written about.
What is the significance of starting over in the stories presented?
In fact, like the name of the show is kind of a short story. In our very first episode, I was interviewing the musician Bill Withers, and he said, death, sex, and money. If you reverse it, that's the story of rock and roll right there. Something special about the stories written tonight, they're all written by human beings. And each of them has at least one moment of deep cringe, like deep feelings of pathetic, feeling pathetic, feeling like a clumsy screw-up, feeling so, so alone. And reading them and hearing them tonight, you're going to feel that. And then you'll feel how at the end, just having touched that, you'll feel lighter. You'll feel light cracking through that cringe, feeling that awe of connection.
That is what you can go to when you have that feeling and you want to go to a keyboard. Just pull a short story off the shelf. It's as quick an emotional fix as ChatGPT. I want to just quickly acknowledge this is my second time hosting Selected Shorts.
Who is the main character in 'The Sacrament of Confession' and what is his struggle?
I'm so glad to be here. All of our performers here this evening have been on the Selected Shorts stage before. And speaking of regulars on Selected Shorts, I just want to take a moment and just appreciate this institution. I feel so honored to be a part of this show. I remember being a kid listening to Selected Shorts on West Virginia Public Radio when I was growing up. And we are coming to the end of a year where so much of how we connect and share stories has been upended, cut, totally wiped away, and it feels so good to be here together with you, with these incredible performers, celebrating this institution with such staying power, Selected Shorts at Symphony Space. Thank you for coming.
That was Death, Sex and Money host Anna Sale speaking from the stage. While Sale's overall themes can wrap themselves around many stories, the two works on this show also share a common element, the idea of starting over. In one, a man hopes to live down a seedy past. In the second, the afterlife turns out to be a lot like life. Our first work, The Sacrament of Confession, is by Ernie Wong. Wong's short fiction and essays have been published in magazines including McSweeney's Quarterly and Penn America, and he was the recipient of Penn's Robert J. Dow Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.
What humorous elements are found in Ernie Wong's story?
This story was commissioned by Selected Shorts for our comedy project.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What themes does Anna Sale explore in Death, Sex, and Money?
0:07–1:02
2
How does the collaboration with Selected Shorts enhance storytelling?
1:02–2:22
3
What is the significance of starting over in the stories presented?
2:22–3:33
4
Who is the main character in 'The Sacrament of Confession' and what is his struggle?
3:33–5:03
5
What humorous elements are found in Ernie Wong's story?
5:03–7:24
6
What does Toby Beckham reflect on during his confession?
7:24–9:43
7
How does 'You Again' by Seth Fried address themes of identity?
9:43–11:03
8
What lessons can be learned about love and second chances in the stories?
11:03–57:49