Selected Shorts – “Remakes and Replicas”

Date: April 9, 2026
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Venue: Symphony Space

Episode Overview

This episode of Selected Shorts explores the captivating terrain of “Remakes and Replicas”—stories in which characters remake, reimagine, or reinterpret reality in surprising, funny, and poignant ways. Through three richly varied pieces, the show investigates the power of creative recreation as a way to manage life’s overwhelm, illusion as solace or complication, and the enigmatic boundaries between genuine and invented connections. Readings feature skilled performances from Santino Fontana, Nathan Hinton, and Maggie Siff.

Key Discussion Points & Story Summaries

1. Introduction: The Appeal of Remakes

• Host Meg Wolitzer introduces the theme (01:00–03:30), reflecting on how people create manageable "models" of reality—through fiction, art, even conversation—to cope with life’s complexity.
• Quote:

  “Life presents a character with something wild and overwhelming, something that requires a kind of creative recreation. Either that or life supplants something real with something we don’t recognize.”
  – Meg Wolitzer (03:20)

2. Story #1: "The Vatican" by Ben Loory

Read by Santino Fontana (03:42–11:11)

Synopsis

• A couple, inspired by their visit to the Vatican, decide to turn their home into a replica Vatican. The renovation proves expensive, and they take odd jobs to fund it—he works nights at 7-Eleven; she makes and sells clay pigeons.
• Their “Vatican” becomes a neighborhood sensation, drawing crowds. Charging admission only increases demand. Eventually, they cede management to a tour company, losing all privacy.
• Exhausted and displaced, they move into a motel down the street, returning to simpler satisfactions—she resumes her craft; he takes pleasure in humble work.

Key Points & Insights

• Creative recreation as both coping mechanism and Pandora’s box.
• The couple’s quest to bring grandeur home yields unintended consequences: chaos, exhaustion, and alienation from their own life.
• Satirical lens on the cost of “authenticity” and the urge to replicate awe-inspiring experiences.

Notable Quotes

• On creative ambition:

  “But there’s no reason it couldn’t be, she adds. So the two of them decide to turn their house into the Vatican. Or if not the Vatican, a Vatican—whatever.” (04:10)

• On success and disillusionment:

  “The man and his wife are rich now, but completely exhausted.” (07:56)

• On finding peace:

  “It’s kind of like being at the beach, the man says... And the ice machine is close, which is good, because the asphalt gets hot… Clay pigeons, they say to all the tourists. Five dollars. And with the money they buy a fine Italian wine.” (09:43)

3. Story #2: "I Love Betty" by Kaitlyn Greenidge

Read by Nathan Hinton (12:19–30:46)

Synopsis

• Elderly Henry Thompson, in a nursing home and slipping into dementia, repeatedly says, “I love Betty”—a phrase that confounds and moves his grown children, Douglas and Claire.
• The siblings grapple with its meaning—mere neurological artifact or a vital declaration of love for their late mother, Betty?
• Claire becomes fixated on “capturing” the family story via a recorded oral history. The project highlights tensions and estrangement between Claire (lonely, whimsical) and Douglas (pragmatic, distanced).
• The phrase “I love Betty” reverberates through their attempts at connection and understanding, at once touching, absurd, and ambiguous, culminating in a scene of tenderness and grief.

Key Points & Insights

• The struggle to assign meaning to repeated rituals and phrases in the face of illness or decline.
• The ways families attempt to remake old wounds, memories, and identities through storytelling—or resist doing so.
• Contrasts between the siblings’ responses to their father: empathy, nostalgia, avoidance.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On love and retelling:

  “Life is not always a celebration, Claire,” Douglas said. “No, not like celebrating to deny anything. I mean celebrating to accept who he is now.” (14:12)

• On subjective family experience:

  “In a family, everyone has a different experience. In fact, in a family, everyone almost has a different family.” – Meg Wolitzer (31:39)

• On unresolvable meaning:

  “I love Betty means life. I love Betty means life is always love.” – Claire’s narration (29:55)

• On ambiguity and sorrow:

  “Claire couldn’t look him in the eye. She put her hand to her father’s mouth to stop the sound.” (30:25)

Backstage Reflection

• Nathan Hinton comments on performing family tension:

  “The challenge... is a brother and sister kind of relationship. Trying to figure out a way to have a contentious difference in the siblings is the hardest part, but also the kind of most interesting thing to me as I... live through it.” (30:56)

4. Story #3: "The Beautiful Stranger" by Shirley Jackson

Read by Maggie Siff (36:09–56:17)

Synopsis

• Margaret awaits her husband’s return, but the reunion is fraught—the children are restless, the relationship strained.
• She suddenly perceives her husband as a stranger, not her real spouse. Oddly, this “stranger” brings her relief and joy; their marriage seems renewed with warmth and novelty.
• Over days, Margaret luxuriates in the fantasy: her affection grows for the “new” husband, who is attentive and kind in ways her real husband wasn’t.
• The boundaries between reality and illusion blur. Ultimately, Margaret returns home to find herself lost—emotionally and literally—in a world where replicas have supplanted the original, and her own sense of self and belonging is destabilized.

Key Points & Insights

• Jackson’s mastery in transmuting everyday unease into psychological suspense and subtle horror.
• The profound estrangement possible even in intimate relationships; how easily spouses can become “beautiful strangers.”
• Exploration of wish-fulfillment, escape, and the unsettling consequences of fully embracing illusion.

Notable Quotes

• On recognition and estrangement:

  “Who, she wondered, is he taller? That is not my husband. She laughed, and they turned to her... She thought, why, it is not my husband, and he knows that I have seen it.” (39:03)

• On relief:

  “It was relief. I’m glad you came, she said. She went over and put her head against his shoulder... This is not the man who enjoyed seeing me cry. I need not be afraid.” (39:30)

• On fantasy and loss:

  “She would gladly share with him, indeed, give him outright all that had been John’s so long as he stayed her stranger.” (41:15)

• On the boundary of the real:

  “The evening was very dark, and she could see only the houses going in rows, with more rows beyond them... and somewhere a house which was hers, with the beautiful stranger inside. And she lost out here.” (55:45)

Overarching Insights

• The episode’s stories each depict the impulse to remake reality—sometimes in hopeful, sometimes in desperate, sometimes in darkly comic ways.
• Wolitzer connects these tales with the broader idea that all fiction is a “model” of the world:

  “...all fiction is a kind of replica. People who make stories find something brilliant, wild, or unsettling in the real world, and then... heighten that real world phenomenon on the page…” (56:45)

• The show’s signature tone—thoughtful, witty, gently ironic—infuses even the darkest themes with warmth.

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Wolitzer’s wistful humor:

  “While I admire the pluck of the couple in that story, I’m happy to say the building my home most closely resembles is the public library. But if you borrow a book from me, I’ll give you, I don’t know, five to ten years to return it, and I won’t even fine you if you’re late.” (11:11)

• On making meaning:

  “Without even being aware, we constantly remake what we hear and see and feel through our own subjectivity.” – Meg Wolitzer (31:39)

Timestamps for Segment Reference

• Intro/Theme Framing: 00:58–03:30
• “The Vatican” (Loory/Fontana): 03:42–11:11
• Transition and “I Love Betty” (Greenidge/Hinton): 12:19–30:46
• Backstage interview with Nathan Hinton: 30:56–31:39
• Reflective host commentary & transitions: 31:39–36:09
• “The Beautiful Stranger” (Jackson/Siff): 36:09–56:17
• Final collective reflection: 56:17–End

Selected Shorts: “Remakes and Replicas” invites listeners to rethink the line between copies and originals—a fascinating, moving hour in which the boundary between real and reimagined is never quite what it seems.