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 House, this story, “Persephone Rides at the End of Days," was commissioned for the Selected Shorts anthology Small Odysseys. It's about a Greek goddess coming to terms with who and what she is. Is her name, meaning "bringer of death," her fate? Or will she channel the other side of her mythological self? Our reader is Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role on Sex & the City as well as its sequel, And Just Like That. She has also appeared in so many other television series, including The Gilded Age, and is big on Broadway. Aprana Nancherla hosts this episode.

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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 tells her side of the story. The reader is Jayne Atkinson. And a young wife struggles to find her place in a close-knit family in “Underwater,” by Hannah Kingsley-Ma, read by Marin Ireland.

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Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about finding solutions to complex problems, and to simple ones. T. C. Boyle tackles evolution and government intervention in “Top of the Food Chain,” read by Zach Grenier. In Matthew Ryan Frankel’s “Carapace,” a young boy struggles with feelings at a family funeral—with the help of some crabs. The reader is Philip Estrera. And a young woman traveling between two worlds and two families has to deal with what to put in “The Suitcase” by Meron Hadero. The reader is Renée Elise Goldsberry. The show also includes an interview with Hadero.

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