Guest host Jane Curtin presents two stories about ‘the first time.’ Rick Moody’s playfully inventive “The Grid” uses the idea of Thomas Edison’s invention for threading electrical power throughout the country as an extended metaphor. In the story, a first kiss leads to a whole interconnected network of lovers and the moments in their lives [...]

Jane Curtin and Radiolab‘s Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich introduce stories about time, love and identity. The hosts of the storytelling science program Radiolab created a special program at Symphony Space featuring tales in which science and inquiry intersect with ordinary and extraordinary lives. We feature two of those stories on this program. First, Jenny [...]

David Sedaris presents a Flannery O’Connor classic, and a bittersweet road story by Amy Hempel. On this program, two stories about convergence. In Flannery O’Connor’s classic “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” two cultures collide, and so do mother and son. The title is taken from an essay by a Jesuit priest, Pierre Chardin, and refers, [...]

Guest host David Sedaris presents two stories about the powerful pull of family. Patricia Highsmith is best known for her taut psychological thrillers, like The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, but “The Door Is Always Open and the Welcome Mat Is Out” is a brilliant character study of an independent New York [...]

Guest host David Sedaris presents three stories about hard choices. Amy Hempel’s “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” is about life and death, but you wouldn’t know it at first, as two women trade hilarious zingers and rebuild an old friendship. Sedaris calls the story “beautifully devastating.” Amy Hempel’s works include At the [...]