Episodes

Marriage takes the simple concept of procreation and turns it into a lifelong commitment that can, at times, lead to unexpected anger and resentment. As Mark Twain once said, "God's great cosmic joke on the human race was requiring that men and women live together in marriage.” Anyone who has ever been married will see parallels to their own partnerships. Despite the fact that Edna Ferber never married, she was an astute observer of people. That led her to great success as a writer. Her 1925 no...

How times have changed. Just over a century ago, women were still fighting for the right to vote and the prevailing belief among men was that they were too emotional and fragile to do so. Our next story takes place, ironically, in a fictional Britain in the wake of a great plague. Join me as we travel back to a very different world in Hermann the Irascible by Saki Saki was the nome de plume of British author, H.H. Munro who was a prolific short story writer around the turn of the twentieth cent...

Women’s health issues have long been explained away as emotional issues due to their role as the “weaker sex.” Serious illnesses were diagnosed as nothing more than hysteria and rest was prescribed. This ignorance of women’s real health problems is brilliantly portrayed in this haunting tale of a woman driven to the brink. The author, Charlotte Perkins Gilman actually suffered a horrible case of post partum depression for which she was treated in a similar condescending manner. Hosted on Acast...

This witty tale is about a veritable snake-oil salesman who uses his wares to help win the love of a beautiful young ward of an English Baronet. British author P. G. Woodhouse was one of the mid-20th century’s most popular humorists – on both side of the Atlantic. He was also a lyricist and screenwriter. While living in France a the beginning of World War II, he was imprisoned by Germany, for whom he made some controversial broadcasts. After the war he and his wife Edith moved to the United Sta...

What is the best way to study life?

Life in the ancient world was often brutal and cruel. Resources were often limited leading to leaders ruthless edicts. In this old Japanese folktale, a young peasant is faced with an impossible decision. Matsuo Basho, one of Japan’s most famous poets, was born 1644 and is known for creating the poetic style that eventually evolved into what are now known as haikus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Human cruelty is nothing new. It has been a demon we have had to battle since the dawn of our kind. Yet, we also have the capacity to defeat our callousness and inhumanity (a term that drips with irony). This short powerful short story illustrates the depth our inner evil. Note: while this story shares a name with a Disney animated movie they are in no way related. One of the true masters of the short story, Guy de Maupassant was born in France in 1850. After serving in the Franco-Prussian War...

This tale flips the traditional "boy meets girl" fairy-tale narrative by introducing a strong-willed nature loving girl who puts her own desires and beliefs ahead of those of a young man she meets in the woods. The child of a rural family doctor in Maine, Sarah Orne Jewett was writing short stories professionally from age 18. Most of her work was purchased by The Atlantic magazine, with the glaring exception of "The White Heron." The story went of the become the title piece of her first book an...

Here is a story for those times when you only have a few minutes for a story. While not long itself, this incredibly Kafkaesque parable may leave you pondering its meaning long after you have listened to "Before the Law." Bohemian author Franz Kafka is considered one of the greats. Few storytellers have had their names turned into adjectives. Orwellian, maybe Hitchcockian come to mind. But the best known of these is Kafkaesque, whose meaning is elusive, like that of many Kafka stories. I have m...

For almost a century, the profound words of The Prophet have stirred the hearts and moved the souls of millions of readers around the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here is the second half of Kahlil Gibran's global bestselling book with sage advice on pain and pleasure, good and evil, and the inevitability of death. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Loneliness can grind a man down like a millstone—yet grief, transformed, can become the miller’s divine salvation. A widowed man turns a forgotten mill into a memorial for his lost little girl, and fate brings a stranger—fragile, secretive—who just might be the miracle he’s been waiting for. He called himself O. Henry, but the man behind the pen was William Sydney Porter—a sneaky little Texan with a mustache, a wicked sense of irony, and a knack for surprise endings that snap like mousetraps. H...

Record summer temperature’s take their toll on both our physical and mental health. Extreme weather has been known to bring about strange and often dangerous behavior among those suffering its effects. How strange, I’ll let you be the judge in our special summer tale, August Heat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grief and heartbreak are the typical reactions to the loss of a loved one, but other emotions may lurk within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So far, all of our public domain stories were created prior to 1925. However, there are a few newer tales that are no longer copyright protected. From one of the world’s best science fiction writer’s comes a tale of idioms and aliens. Essentially, this story is a long dad joke. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I, a dad, did. Even if you don’t know his name, you know the work of Philip K. Dick. Several of his books and stories have been adapted into movies and Tv shows like: Total Recall, Minor...

While forward to the future we often forget the darkness that is part of life.

A young man's longing for love is briefly fulfilled on one moonlight evening on the sea off the coast of Cannes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thankfully, I can now read Hemingway to you. This story is a powerful way to start. It’s a tale of duty, pain, suffering, racism and so much more. It has myriad twists and turns and all manner of fascinating subplots for such a short story. You may need to listen more than once. Hemingway penned this early work at the age of 24, shortly after the birth of his first child (which may explain the subject matter) by his first wife. It wasn’t published until 1925 and later became part of his first s...

Here is a biting satire of Victorian Era British upper class from the perspective of the family cat who gains a startling new skill. Saki was the pen name of British author, H.H. Munro who was one of true masters of the short story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Being a dog person, some of my favorite stories feature dogs. It only seems fair to feature a feline character. And you couldn’t ask for a story than one from a two time Pulitzer Prize winner. This story was part of Booth Tarkington’s extremely popular Penrod stories, that, during their day rivaled the popularity of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Tarkington is only one of three authors to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction. The other two: Faulkner and Updike. Hosted on Acast. S...

Welcome aboard an early 20th Century trans-pacific ocean liner where one is likely to be stuck for weeks with any number of unusual characters. Of course, we are likely to put a great deal of stock in first impressions when it often pays to wait to get to know someone. Never a darling of the critics, W. Someset Maugham (the W is for William) was a prolific author and playwright. He was best known for his short stories many of which were fictional global travelogues. Because so many of his works...

A rural mountain couple struggle with their differences, anger, and overpowering love for each other. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new love springs from the conversations of two sisters and a couple of moles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a preacher failed to stir the emotions of his congregants he resorts to the time tested tradition of embellishment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.