Selected Shorts: "Fooling Yourself"

Original Airdate: October 23, 2025
Host: Meg Wolitzer

Episode Overview

This episode of Selected Shorts explores the many forms of self-deception—why we do it, how it feels, and what surprises come when illusions are shattered. Across three stories, listeners are treated to meditations on awards that never meant what we thought, communities blinded by hope for progress, and the bittersweet delusions of young love and parenthood. With performances by Colton Dunn, Suzy Nakamura, and Kirsten Vangsness, the episode traverses genres and moods but always circles back to the universal desire to fool ourselves and the poignant gravity of truth.

Key Discussion Points & Story Summaries

Introduction: The Theme of Self-Deception

[01:03]

• Host Meg Wolitzer opens with humor and honesty about her own acts of "fooling herself," particularly regarding junk food.
  • “If I buy an item at the supermarket that I know is bad for me, but I feel like giving myself a treat anyway… And even though [my husband] has no idea, he is inadvertently ruining my fun because he’s keeping me from being able to fool myself.”
• Frames the show around the classic Lincoln quote, tweaking it to ask: What if the only person you’re fooling is yourself?
• Gives preview of the three stories:
  1. An inanimate participation trophy seeks recognition ("Participation Trophy" by Simon Rich).
  2. A town pays the price for progress ("Factory Town" by Betsuyaku Minoru).
  3. A young woman gets an accidental education in love and motherhood ("Mama, Mama" by Lauren Pruneski).

Story 1: "Participation Trophy" by Simon Rich

[04:10] Performed by Colton Dunn

Summary

• Told from the point of view of a childhood participation trophy, the story recounts its "relationship" with Simon, a boy who initially adored it and then grew to mock and ignore it as he got older.
• The trophy observes Simon’s evolving attitude towards achievement, adulthood, and his own children.
• Laced with nostalgia, loss, and humor, the narrative gently chides the protagonist (and by extension, us all) for moving away from simple joys and the value of genuine participation in life.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• On childhood wonder:
  “If you had fun, you won. And while your reaction was muted at first, you eventually figured out that the sentence rhymed, which thrilled you to your core.” [05:19]
• On growing up and losing innocence:
  “Maybe all this time, instead of ignoring life or scavenging it for material, you should have… participated.” [10:30]
• On redemption, regret, and hope:
  “Even though you’ve spurned me, mocked me, and on that afternoon... confused the hell out of me, I haven’t given up on you. … The race isn’t over. For God’s sakes, turn around. Pass the baton. Go out there and prove yourself worthy of my love.” [11:45]

Tone

Wry, affectionate, bittersweet—a blend of comedy and emotional truth.

Story 2: "Factory Town" by Betsuyaku Minoru (trans. Royal Tyler)

[13:47] Performed by Suzy Nakamura

Summary

• A mysterious factory appears at the edge of an idyllic, sleepy town.
• The townspeople speculate about what it might be making, gradually growing dependent on the bustle and the smoke it produces, mistaking activity for progress and meaning.
• When they finally discover the product—cough drops to soothe the throats they've ruined by tolerating the smoke—the punchline lands: the factory’s real product, from the huge machine, is just smoke.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• On misplaced hope:
  “That black smoke, billowing up so bravely from the little factory, stirred everyone deeply.” [16:23]
• On self-delusion:
  “Of course, no, not briquettes. … That’s a brick factory. They’re making bricks.” [15:52]
• The punchline:
  “Excuse me, Mr. Factory Chief… what does the big one make?”
  ‘That one? … That one doesn’t make anything. … Just smoke.’” [23:51]

Tone

Fable-like, slyly satirical, reminiscent of The Twilight Zone. Moves from curiosity to collective delusion to a gently devastating revelation.

Host Reflection

• Meg Wolitzer:
  “The moral which connects directly to our theme about the lies we tell ourselves isn’t clear until the last line. By then, the title Factory Town hits in a very different way.” [24:18]

Story 3: "Mama, Mama" by Lauren Pruneski

[28:12] Performed by Kirsten Vangsness

Summary

• Set in San Francisco, 2001. A college-aged woman becomes involved with an older man, Paul, who has a son, Shiloh.
• Through a summer of infatuation and self-discovery, she is inadvertently drawn into the dramas of parenthood, culminating in being left alone with the boy after Paul disappears.
• Through awkward, distressing, and vulnerable moments, she confronts her naiveté and the reality behind her romanticized vision of the relationship and herself.
• The story closes with her realization that her real attachment might be to the time and the city—not to Paul or the illusions she had about adulthood.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• On idealizing adulthood:
  “I would see these things and feel a terrible, specific yearning, but I also had the frightful sense of being watched, as if tiny fissures had opened in the surface of my existence and that other alternate life was peeking through.” [28:54]
• On emotional labor and the illusion of control:
  “I had the sensation of watching myself on television, trying to plot out the twists and turns of someone else’s life.” [39:19]
• On confrontation and awakening:
  Jenny (Shiloh’s mother):
  “He’s really fooled you, hasn’t he? Have you considered, even for a minute, what it means that he left you with his son and you have no idea where he is?” [50:44]
• On hindsight:
  “I didn’t know then that I could choose this too, that Paul would fade faster than I could catch him, his face softening until I couldn’t remember the shape of it or what I felt when he touched me.” [56:06]

Tone

Intimate, wistful, quietly gutting, and grounded in everyday details.

Host Reflections & Closing Thoughts

[56:37] Meg Wolitzer:

• Comments on the narrator’s naiveté and notes that "the saving grace… is knowing that she’s on the other side of it, wiser, if wounded."
• Draws the episode’s themes together: “It just seems easier to identify someone else’s foolishness than it is to detect our own. Fooling ourselves can feel very natural, and truth be told, we engage in comforting little delusions all the time.”
• Ends on a self-deprecating note:
  “I, for one, am a person who, you may recall, fools herself into thinking she is not harming her one wild and precious life each time she bites into an individually wrapped devil’s food cupcake pie.” [57:14]

Notable Quotes by Timestamp

• “If you had fun, you won.” — Participation Trophy [05:19]
• “Maybe all this time, instead of ignoring life or scavenging it for material, you should have… participated.” — Participation Trophy [10:30]
• “Excuse me, Mr. Factory Chief… what does the big one make? … That one doesn’t make anything. … Just smoke.” — Factory Town [23:51]
• “He’s really fooled you, hasn’t he? Have you considered… what it means that he left you with his son and you have no idea where he is?” — Jenny, Mama, Mama [50:44]
• “I didn’t know then that I could choose this too, that Paul would fade faster than I could catch him, his face softening until I couldn’t remember the shape of it or what I felt when he touched me…” — Mama, Mama [56:06]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Participation Trophy: [04:10] – [12:16]
• Factory Town: [13:47] – [24:18]
• Mama, Mama: [28:12] – [56:37]

Episode Tone & Takeaway

The episode blends humor, melancholy, and subtle wisdom, suggesting that self-deception is both universal and—at times—comforting. The stories range from satirical to painfully intimate, but each reveals the difficulty and necessity of confronting the truths we hide from ourselves. Whether with nostalgic trophies, looming smokestacks, or fleeting summer loves, all of us are, now and then, our own best audience for the stories we wish were true.

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