On this SELECTED SHORTS, host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about moving out of familiar territory into new spaces and new understanding. In Meron Hadero’s “The Thief’s Tale,” read by Teagle F. Bougere, an émigré can’t leave some of his old ways behind. “The Tallest Doll in New York City,” by Maria Dahvana Headley, imagines what happens when two iconic skyscrapers fall in love.It’s read by Becca Blackwell. And summer trip yields unexpected treasures in Anne Tyler’s “The Feather Behind the Rock,” read by Jane Curtin.

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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 commission, a woman’s envy of her neighbors takes a dramatic turn. The reader is Julie Benko. In Kristen Iskandrian’s “Quantum Voicemail,” a long-distance friendship is tested by a bold move. The reader is Lauren Ambrose.

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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 stories. This new show will give us the chance to talk about many different kinds of stories—not just fiction! In the future, we'll talk to actors and journalists and, who knows, scientists, visual artists, even chefs. Creative people all tell stories of some kind, and this is our chance to look behind the scenes and find out how those stories get made.

On this episode, podcaster and author Kathryn Nicolai of Nothing Much Happens joins Meg. The title of her podcast tells you a lot of what you need to know. Her show is entirely fiction written and performed for occasional insomniacs who need something calming in their ear at night to help them fall asleep. In their conversation, they get into the power of sleep, and the power of stories, and they unpack a curious condition in which people literally cannot picture things in their minds.

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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 reader is Santino Fontana. Attentive parents want to keep their baby safe at all costs in “The Cage,” by Tania James, read by Nicole Kang. And a widowed man looks for love—with some guidance from his late wife--in “The Dark,” by Jess Walter, read by Jason Alexander.

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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 unexpected encounters that end up affecting a character's life in some unusual or enduring way. “Missed Connection—M4W” by Raphael Bob-Waksberg takes the idea of “chance encounter” to its limits. It’s performed by Richard Kind. “My Years of Living Dangerously” by Danielle Henderson explores the idea of sin and redemption. It’s performed by Karen Pittman. And in Melissa Bank’s ruefully comic “Run Run Run Run Run Run Run Away,” performed by Julianna Margulies, one sibling makes a bad choice the other has to live with.

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Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about neighbors and the unexpected relationships that can develop between people who live adjacent to one another. In Tess Gallagher’s “Mr. Woodriff’s Neckties,” a famous novelist lets his neighbor in on a secret. The reader is Dion Graham. In “Hoodie in Xanadu,” by Ann Beattie, a woman discovers that her shy neighbor possesses creative genius. The story is performed by Kirsten Vangsness.

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Meg Wolitzer presents stories celebrating a quarter century of clever, funny, playful, weird, and literary writing, in print and online, showcased by the powerhouse indie publisher McSweeney’s. These include a comic fantasy, “Poor Little Egg-Boy Hatched in a Shul, by Nathan Englander, performed by Ophira Eisenberg; an unusual mother/son story, “Crumb Cake,” by Etgar Keret, performed by Andy Richter; and unlikely heroism at the amusement park in “Stay Brave, My Hercules,” by Ernie Wang, performed by BD Wong.

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