Selected Shorts cover art

Selected Shorts

Selected Shorts

By: Symphony Space
Listen for free

Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. Selected Shorts connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy. New episodes every Thursday, from Symphony Space.2024 Symphony Space Art Literary History & Criticism Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Modest Expectations
    May 21 2026

    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 size. So if you’re “Medusa,” as in our first story, by Tania James, you try to figure out how to live in the world instead of turning it to stone. The reader is Constance Zimmer. Parents in our second story, “We Only Wanted Their Happiness,” by Alexander Weinstein, make a tactical choice about technology. It’s performed by Randall Park. The narrator of Honor Levy’s “Good Boys,” read by Annie Hamilton, understands that infatuation is a phase. And a man and a woman sidestep romance in “Arrangements” by Charlie Watts, performed by Laura Harrier and Will Harrison. The program was created in cooperation with Belletrist, an online book club created by Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • Save the Date with Belletrist Book Club
    May 14 2026

    Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about social occasions for introverts and extroverts alike, curated with the Belletrist Book Club, founded by actor Emma Roberts and producer Karah Preiss, and recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Humorist Samantha Irby asks “Please Invite Me to Your Party,” but we’re not sure she means it. The reader is Richa Moorjani. Victoria Lancelotta’s “The Anniversary Trip,” performed by Judy Greer, is, and is not, about the married couple making the trip. And Jen Spyra takes to extremes what it takes to get to the altar in perfect shape in “The Bridal Body,” performed by Erinn Hayes.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Show More Show Less
    59 mins
  • Fork in the Road
    May 7 2026

    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 them for the rest of their lives. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic, “Direction of the Road,” an ancient being has to make hard choices in its role as a guardian and a force of nature. The reader is Nikki M. James. In Helen Schulman’s “The Shabbos Goy,” a divorcee and a rabbi develop an interesting relationship around their mutual love of poetry. The reader is Jessica Hecht.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    Show More Show Less
    59 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet