Shows / Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts
Spellbinding short stories by established and emerging writers take on a new life when they are performed by stars of the stage and screen. Listen free on your computer or mobile device. Symphony Space, the home of Selected Shorts, was founded almost 40 years ago in the belief that the arts bring people together, transcend barriers, and celebrate both our similarities and our differences. That belief remains our guiding principle and is more important now than ever. Your generosity during the…
Episodes
- Selected Shorts
Charming Devils
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about persuasive, but not always trustworthy, characters. In “Fortune-Telling,” by Alix Ohlin, an actor tries on new role…
- Selected Shorts
Unexpected Guests
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about unexpected guests. In Carlos Greaves’ “A Visit from the Tune Squad,” a procrastinating writer gets a surprise…
- Selected Shorts
Mostly Good Intentions
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that explore good intentions and how they can go wrong. In “Mantis,” by Gina Chung, a deadly insect tries to mend her ways…
- Selected Shorts
Fitting In
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in that explore the idea of “fitting in,” and whether it’s worth the effort. In “Reality,” by Diana Spechler, a woman longs…
- Selected Shorts
Passport to Ireland with Colum McCann
On this Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer invites us on a literary tour of Ireland with bestselling author Colum McCann, who hosted a live event at Symphony…
- Selected Shorts
The New American West
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…
- Selected Shorts
Love and UFOs
Meg Wolitzer presents two stories that combine different sorts of unknowables: unidentified—or hard to identify—flying objects, and romantic love. In “The…
- Selected Shorts
A Full Plate
Meg Wolitzer presents two favorite Selected Shorts works in which food and nourishment figure both literally and symbolically. The narrator of Haruki…
- Selected Shorts
Forsaking All Others
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…
- Selected Shorts
Building Worlds, with N.K. Jemisin
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…
- Selected Shorts
Up in the Air with Radiolab
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…
- Selected Shorts
Seeing is Believing
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about perception and the relationship between what we see and what we believe. In “Heart of a Champion,” T.C. Boyle…
- Selected Shorts
Romance of the Summer
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three lively stories about the allure—or not—of summer. Italian writer Massimo Bontempeli creates a magical beach inside an…
- Selected Shorts
Shifting Identities
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works about shifting identities. In “Voices”, by German writer Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Carol Brown Janeway, a computer…
- Selected Shorts
Picture Perfect
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about idealized lives, and ideas about what constitutes an ideal life. “Boy Meets Girl” is Jen Kim’s humorous version of…
- Selected Shorts
Walking on Eggshells
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works about being careful. The title says it all in George Saunders’ “Lars Farf, Excessively Fearful Father and Husband,” as the…
- Selected Shorts
Lost and Found
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works about losing something, but finding something revealing to take its place. In “Light,” by Lesley Nkeka Arimah, parents…
- Selected Shorts
Stories from the City of Immigrants with Waterwell
In this program, created in collaboration with Waterwell and the New York Immigration Coalition, guest host Arian Moayed takes listeners through a live…
- Selected Shorts
Roz Chast: While You Were Dreaming
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works from an evening with New Yorker author and cartoonist Roz Chast, inspired by Chast’s book I Must be Dreaming. “The Wife…
- Selected Shorts
Twisty Tales: O’Henry Prize Winners with Edward P. Jones
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two O’Henry Prize-winning stories, from the volume guest edited by Edward P. Jones. The Prize was created in honor of the…
- Selected Shorts
Nothing to Do with Love
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two unconventional love stories, one classic, one contemporary, that avoid the usual tropes of “meet cute,” “opposites attract,” or…
- Selected Shorts
The Pursuit of Happiness with Death, Sex and Money
In the second of two programs created with the podcast Death, Sex, and Money and our live event host Anna Sale, we explore issues of happiness. Host Meg…
- Selected Shorts
Death Sex Money
In the first of two programs created with the podcast Death, Sex, and Money and host Anna Sale, we explore issues of identity and connection. In “Sacrament of…
- Selected Shorts
Modest Expectations
Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories, recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, in which characters shape their expectations and dreams to a manageable…
- Selected Shorts
Save the Date with Belletrist Book Club
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about social occasions for introverts and extroverts alike, curated with the Belletrist Book Club, founded by actor…
- Selected Shorts
Fork in the Road
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters who find themselves in a place in which they need to make a choice, something that will affect them for…
- Selected Shorts
Elements of Nature
Host Meg Wolitzer presents four works in which nature and the out-of-doors drive both plots and character. Humorist Jenny Allen does battle with her stubborn…
- Selected Shorts
Jane Austen at 260
Host Meg Wolitzer celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th with works by, and inspired by, the enduring romance novelist. Ann Harada performs an early Austen piece…
- Selected Shorts
Extended Families
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two works with unusual family dynamics. In Zadie Smith’s “Grand Union,” the mother-daughter bond transcends death and brings with it…
- Selected Shorts
Remakes and Replicas
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works about scaling the outsized real world down to manageable proportions. A couple brings the Papal seat home in Ben Loory’s…
- Selected Shorts
Selected Shorts Goes to the Movies with the Tribeca Film Festival
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three works that crossed the boundaries between fiction and film for our collaboration with this prestigious New York film Festival…
- Selected Shorts
Best American Short Stories
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories from the volume Best American Short Stories 2025, selected by guest editor Celeste Ng. In “An Early Departure,” by…
- Selected Shorts
Homewreckers
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two humorous stories about marriages not made in heaven. In James Thurber’s classic “The Breaking Up of the Winships,” a…
- Selected Shorts
What Are the Odds?
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories with unlikely scenarios, rare events that have, at least fictionally, come to pass. Naomi Kritzer uses the idea of “The…
- Selected Shorts
Reality Checks
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in which reality contrasts with the dreams, perceptions, and actions of the characters. In “The Leap,” by Louise…
- Selected Shorts
Meg Wolitzer Talks with Denis O'Hare
Meg Wolitzer Talks with Denis O'Hare by Symphony Space
- Selected Shorts
Haruki Murakami: Then and Now
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories by the extraordinary Japanese writer Haruki Murakami that demonstrate the breadth of his emotional imagination over a…
- Selected Shorts
Changing the Narrative
This week on SELECTED SHORTS, guest host DeRay Mckesson presents four works that consider the Black experience in America from bold perspectives. Former…
- Selected Shorts
Problems without Solutions
This week on SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about problems without solutions. In Elif Batuman’s “The Board,” read by Cindy Cheung…
- Selected Shorts
I Contain Multitudes
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 lives, and…
- Selected Shorts
On the Couch
perils of sharing your troubles with a stranger. In “Therapy,” by J. Robert Lennon, the patient follows a recursive loop of doubt about the whole process. The…
- Selected Shorts
To the Rescue
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about characters who try an end run around trouble, sometimes doing more harm than good. In Joe Meno’s “Animal…
- Selected Shorts
Surprising Interventions
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about sudden interventions that change lives. In Stephen King’s “The Fifth Step” a beguiling stranger asks for help. The…
- Selected Shorts
Ken Burns Presents Willa Cather’s America
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! And Ken…
- Selected Shorts
The Role You Were Born to Play
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters wrestling with their roles in life. In “The Ugly Sister,” by Joanne Harris, a fairy-tale villainess…
- Selected Shorts
A Simple Solution
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about finding solutions to complex problems, and to simple ones. T. C. Boyle tackles evolution and government…
- Selected Shorts
Unwrapping the Holidays
Meg Wolitzer presents three unexpected stories that let us see the holidays’ associations—family, friends, food, gifts, and goodwill—in different ways. Amy…
- Selected Shorts
The Quiet Part Out Loud
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two provocative stories that address the idea of communing with something “other”. In Etgar Keret’s “Polar Bear” an AI program, and…
- Selected Shorts
Just the Thing
Host Meg Wolitzer presents stories about characters coping with pre-existing difficulties, large and small—and then encountering someone or something ready to…
- Selected Shorts
Classics with a Twist
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three imaginative and funny reworkings of classic stories. In Ginny Hogan’s “Phantoms and Prejudice,” Jane Austen’s Bennet sisters…
- Selected Shorts
It's About Time
Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the nature of time and how it shapes our lives. In Helen Phillips’ “The Knowers,” a woman chooses to learn a vital…
- Selected Shorts
Accidental Revelations
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories in which characters are faced with unexpected revelations that alter their lives. In “A Fable…
- Selected Shorts
Fooling Yourself
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about self-deception. In “Participation Trophy,” by Simon Rich, the author is taken to task…
- Selected Shorts
Generation Gap
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories that cross generations. In Justin Torres’ “Trash Kites,” performed by Coleman Domingo, teens…
- Selected Shorts
Off the Leash
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 Ana…
- Selected Shorts
Uprooted
On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about moving out of familiar territory into new spaces and new understanding. In Meron…
- Selected Shorts
Better With You?
On this Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the risks and rewards of making things “better.” In Kim Fu’s “Fair,” a Selected Shorts…
- Selected Shorts
The Way I See It
On this Selected Shorts, host Meg Wolitzer offers up stories about limited viewpoints and larger visions. In “You Can Find Love Now" by Ramona Ausubel…
- Selected Shorts
Reinventing the Wheel
Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about the attraction and perils of reinvention. In “Kerosene,” by Simon Rich, timing is all in matters of invention. The…
- Selected Shorts
Tangled Lives
Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about those moments, those situations, those people that pull you in and won’t let you go. These works focus on…