Selected Shorts: "Better with You?"

Date: September 25, 2025
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Episode Theme:
Exploring the nuanced human drive for something “better”—be it relationships, connection, or circumstance—through two compelling short stories: Kim Fu’s Fair and Kristen Iskandrian’s Quantum Voicemail. Both works probe envy, longing, intimacy, and the complexity of wanting connection but fearing its consequences.

Overview

This episode of Selected Shorts investigates the slippery nature of longing for “better,” whether as envy of those closest to us or the pursuit of an ideal connection. Host Meg Wolitzer introduces two stories that delve into different types of relationships: one neighborly and fraught with envy, the other a friendship carefully curated and distanced by technology.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction: On the Pursuit of "Better"

• Wolitzer opens (00:55–03:50) with reflections on the paradox of human aspirations:
  • We want companionship but also solitude, love but only on our terms.
  • Social media has heightened our ability to compare lives, prompting questions about rekindling old bonds and whether the past fits our present.
  • "Every time we’re faced with the past, we need to consider how it might or might not fit into the future." (03:24, Meg Wolitzer)

Story 1: Fair by Kim Fu

Read by: Julie Benko
Segment: 04:32–12:53

Summary

• Jo, isolated and starved for touch and connection, obsessively envies the beautiful family across her street—down to their dog.
• Longing leads her to impulsively dognap their pet outside a grocery store, seeking comfort in its presence. The dog, loyal to its family, rebuffs her advances for connection.
• Guilt and impracticality force Jo to return the dog. In the process, she exposes herself to the very people whose life she envies, reaching a poignant moment of vulnerability.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• Jo’s internal struggle:

  "She longed to be the husband, to wrap her arms around his wife... She even longed to be the dog, to be stroked across her neck and flank, reassured of her goodness."
  (05:41, Julie Benko)

• After Jo steals the dog but is rejected:

  "She could give the dog more attention than they could undivided by a child or a lover... She heard the desperation in her voice."
  (09:21–09:45, Julie Benko)

• The moment of return—a mix of shame, exposure, and surrender:

  "If Jo turned and ran, they would see where she lived, the perch from which she'd watched. She held up her hands in the universal gesture of surrender, appealing for mercy."
  (12:40, Julie Benko)

Meg Wolitzer's Commentary (12:53–14:38)

• Wolitzer commends Fu for upending conventional narratives of envy:
  • Rather than longing for material possessions, Jo covets a living relationship.
  • The dog's loyalty transforms the theft into a profound, active rejection, making loss and longing feel acute.

  "A dog, unlike say, a painting, has feelings and allegiances... And the protagonist, lacking that relationship, decides to deprive them of it."
  (13:23, Meg Wolitzer)

• Wolitzer humorously suggests a website called “Is the Dog Dognapped?” paralleling “Does the Dog Die?”

Story 2: Quantum Voicemail by Kristen Iskandrian

Read by: Lauren Ambrose
Segment: 16:36–57:03

Summary

• The unnamed narrator, a busy bookseller and freelance editor, has maintained a decades-long, long-distance friendship based solely on creative, extended voicemails—never real-time conversation.
• Voicemails serve as narrative capsules and emotional lifelines, covering everything except work and spouses. Parenting struggles, daily observations, and everything in between are shared.
• A proposal from her best friend to visit in-person sends the narrator spiraling:
  • The thought of their ritual being disrupted is terrifying, akin to loss.
  • She contemplates avoidance, even changing her phone number, but ultimately prepares for the visit.
• When her friend arrives, she is so changed physically and temperamentally that the narrator is convinced she’s a stranger. The dissonance throws her into discomfort, but over time, she finds ease, laughter, and a revised sense of time and self.
• By the visit’s end, the narrator finds herself changed—present and content in ways she hadn’t expected.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• On time and perfectionism:

  "I simply wanted to believe that I could accomplish a certain number of goals in an arbitrarily delineated period of time, and then one day accomplish them... until a new pattern could be created, one of success and satisfaction..."
  (16:38, Lauren Ambrose)

• The art of the perfect voicemail:

  "The perfectly left voicemail could take up the cellular phone standard of three minutes, or it could span nine minutes, 15 minutes—each voicemail a discreet chapter that tantalizingly flowed into the next..."
  (20:15, Lauren Ambrose)

• On the friendship's unique rituals:

  “We never mentioned it, never alluded to the fact that it was not merely holding our friendship together. It was our friendship, the body and blood of it...”
  (26:30, Lauren Ambrose)

• Her horror at the idea of an actual visit:

  “The disappointment I felt was catastrophic, the panic annihilating. Would she stay in my house among my things? The dream of being in the school hallway in your underwear. This was worse.”
  (33:10, Lauren Ambrose)

• On embracing in-person connection:

  "Suddenly I wanted her here. I wanted the now that she was in. I felt like she had become the familiar and I had become a stranger in the best possible way."
  (54:50, Lauren Ambrose)

Memorable Scenes

• The narrator calling her friend’s phone while she’s in the bathroom to prove to herself it’s really her (51:10).
• The subtle slippage between memory and reality: friends change, and ritualized distance can both protect and limit us.

Host Reflection: What Is "Better"?

Meg Wolitzer’s Closing Thoughts (57:03–end):

• Wolitzer draws connections between both stories:
  • In Fair, “a woman is cut off from joy by her conviction that material circumstances define her and that only a desperate act will make things better.”
  • In Quantum Voicemail, the narrator “is afraid that a long friendship won’t weather change, but will in fact become worse.”

  “So maybe the question we’re posing is what is better, and why are we so driven to seek it?”
  (60:15, Meg Wolitzer)

• She observes the necessity and comfort of old friendship rituals, and how the test arrives when change threatens the status quo.
• The imaginative use of outmoded technology—voicemails—highlights how friendship can be both sustained and constrained by boundaries, and how stepping past them can lead to unexpected joy.

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |---------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:55 | Episode introduction by Meg Wolitzer | | 04:32 | "Fair" by Kim Fu performed by Julie Benko | | 12:53 | Wolitzer’s analysis of "Fair" | | 15:44 | Introduction to "Quantum Voicemail" | | 16:36 | "Quantum Voicemail" by Kristen Iskandrian | | 57:03 | Wolitzer’s analysis of "Quantum Voicemail" and episode themes |

Notable Quotes (with Attribution and Timestamps)

• Meg Wolitzer:

  • “Every time we're faced with the past, we need to consider how it might or might not fit into the future.” (03:24)
  • “A dog, unlike say, a painting, has feelings and allegiances... And the protagonist, lacking that relationship, decides to deprive them of it.” (13:23)
  • “Maybe the question we’re posing is what is better, and why are we so driven to seek it?” (60:15)

• Julie Benko as Jo (Fair):

  • “She longed to be the child, safe and naive enough to fall asleep in the grass on a hot night, knowing she'll be carried to bed.” (05:47)
  • “If Jo turned and ran, they would see where she lived, the perch from which she'd watched. She held up her hands in the universal gesture of surrender, appealing for mercy.” (12:40)

• Lauren Ambrose as Narrator (Quantum Voicemail):

  • “I felt bad for anyone who didn’t have a best friend they never saw. I felt bad for anyone who thought voicemail was an outdated, annoying technology.” (19:30)
  • “The disappointment I felt was catastrophic, the panic annihilating. Would she stay in my house among my things?” (33:10)
  • “Suddenly I wanted her here. I wanted the now that she was in, I felt like she had become the familiar and I had become a stranger in the best possible way.” (54:50)

Episode Tone & Style

• Warm, witty, self-aware narration—blending literary insight with humor.
• Deeply empathetic readings by Julie Benko and Lauren Ambrose, each imbuing their characters with vulnerability and relatable longing.
• Carefully crafted analysis by Wolitzer, connecting personal anecdotes, literary allusions, and the emotions stirred by each story.

Conclusion

This episode masterfully explores the tension between longing and satisfaction, the safety of rituals versus the risk and reward of change. Both stories challenge the notion that “better” is ever simple or stable, suggesting that the pursuit itself—and our openness to transformation—may be the most human trait of all.