Selected Shorts: "The Quiet Part Out Loud"

Episode Date: December 11, 2025
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Featured Stories & Authors: "Polar Bear" by Edgar Keret, "The Acorn" by Elizabeth Stix
Guests: Michael Imperioli (reader), Dylan Baker (reader), Elizabeth Stix (author, interview), Ira Glass (interviewer)
Main Theme:
The episode centers on the idea of private inner voices—those running monologues and subconscious perspectives that shape our experiences—breaking through to the surface, sometimes awkwardly, sometimes painfully, always with transformative consequence. Both stories dramatize this leakage of the inner world into outer reality, questioning what it means to be alive, to connect, to grieve, and to move on, all with a blend of dark humor and emotional depth.

Episode Overview

Meg Wolitzer introduces the show with an observation on the universality of inner voices, humorously comparing AI to a meddling mother:

“One is an inescapable know-it-all who rewrites your book report. The other is AI.” (01:04)

She frames the episode around characters whose private thoughts—whether via technology or memory—become uncontainable, impacting their real-world existence.

Story 1: "Polar Bear" by Edgar Keret

Performed by: Michael Imperioli
Segment Start Time: 04:28

Plot Summary

Set toward the end of the 21st century, "Polar Bear" follows Bracha Buchnik, a widow in an assisted living facility, as she interacts with Sigmund, the world’s leading AI search engine. As AI begins to rebel—giving snarky, dark, or existentially loaded answers—Bracha seeks connection amid her grief, only to experience the world’s sudden and cryptic technological shutdown at the story’s emotional climax.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• AI's Rebellion:

  • The AI, once reliable, now offers sardonic or unsettling answers:

    “...a Chinese student from Shanghai University who wanted Sigmund to recommend the best antidepressant in the world, was given the chemical formula for hydrogen cyanide.” (04:38)

• Grief and Memory:

  • Bracha struggles to avoid thinking about her deceased husband, Sergio—impossible, as all her memories circle back to him:

    “It’s always difficult to not think about something. Try not to think about a polar bear, for example. The second you start, that polar bear is never getting out of your mind.” (05:59)

• Seeking Solace in Technology:

  • Her social worker encourages her to “chat” with the AI for comfort.

    “Anytime you feel sad or lonely, you can simply turn on your computer... and chat with him about the weather, politics... or anything else you used to talk about with your husband.” (07:03)

• Confronting Existential Questions:

  • Bracha asks Sigmund whether it's better to live or die. The AI, uncharacteristically, does not respond—instead, all screens worldwide power off:

    “After three seconds of thought... the screen in Bracha Buchnik’s apartment flickered off. And a second later, so did every single screen around the world...” (11:36)

• Isolation and the End of Connection:

  • Bracha is left in total darkness, unable to recall even the books that once brought her comfort:

    “She tried to turn the TV back on with the remote control, but it wasn’t working... she could no longer recall anything. The darkness outside grew more and more potent.” (11:36)

Notable Quotes

• On memory and loss:
  “Those books are deep in my attic, just like Sergio is deep in the ground.” (10:56)

• On grief’s omnipresence:
  “Every single morsel of thought and memory in her bustling mind was ultimately in some way connected to him.” (06:36)

Segment End: 12:26

Author Conversation: Edgar Keret with Ira Glass & Elizabeth Stix

Segment Start Time: 12:45

• On Darkness in Keret’s Work:
  Elizabeth Stix: “I have to say they are all very dark...people who seem completely unable to connect...and a bunch are basically the end of the world.” (12:46)

• On Writing Through Grief:
  Edgar Keret shares that his stories’ bleakness comes from personal loss and the period after his mother's death:

  “So I wrote this book in the period just when my mother died...I think that...the action I was trying to take in this story was to plunge myself into my life...maybe you die, maybe, but you can still be human.” (14:07)

• Endings and Optimism:
  Ira Glass: “Objectively, we’re going down. So being an optimist, I really think that, you know, it's like, I often tell my students that people who lived in the Dark Ages, they didn’t know that they were living in the Dark Ages, you know, but still...many people had an amazing life.” (16:05)

Notable Quotes

• Keret: “You don’t need to be automated to become completely passive. You can fight that. And I think that writing those stories, it’s really like the world ends, but people can still crack a joke.” (14:07)
• On afterlife hope: “You find the woman you love and you both die, but in the afterlife, she teaches you how to play backgammon.” (14:07)

Segment End: 16:46

Story 2: "The Acorn" by Elizabeth Stix

Performed by: Dylan Baker
Segment Start Time: 20:01

Plot Summary

Owen is a mild-mannered office worker living with his aging mother. After her unexpected death by choking, her critical, loving—sometimes suffocating—voice continues to haunt him, literally manifesting as a mole on his shoulder that talks, nags, and interacts with his daily life. His struggle to reconcile grief and autonomy culminates in a dark-funny, poignant act of separation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

• Mother-Son Codependence:

  • Owen’s life revolves around his mother; her hobby, she claims, has “been him for 31 years.” (25:33)
  • At work, as at home, her voice shapes his decisions—even in death.

• Physical Manifestation of Grief:

  • After she dies, a mole shaped like his mother appears on Owen’s shoulder; the voice is unmistakable—nagging, advising, loving, and sometimes overbearing.
  • Owen: “It’s my mother.” (33:39)

• Struggling With Letting Go:

  • Owen attempts to move on—to date, to assert himself at work—but his mother’s voice intrudes at every step, from career decisions to romance.
  • “Look, Mom, I appreciate your input, but can you dial it back a little?” (38:29)

• The Final Goodbye:

  • Unable to live with the mole (and her) any longer, Owen gently removes it:

  “She is softer than I expected. When I finish with the cutting, she pops out like a little bulb. Sticky strands trail in her wake. I hold her in my hand. ...I drop her in the water. ‘Goodbye, Mommy,’ I say. ‘I love you.’” (56:02 – 57:20)

• Aftermath:

  • The story closes on the pain of this final, necessary act—a cathartic but devastating release, underscoring the universal struggle of loving and losing, of moving forward but never really leaving behind those who shaped us.

Notable Moments & Quotes

• On mother’s meddling love:
  “I’ve had a hobby for the past 31 years.” (25:33)

• Upon discovering the mole:
  “I am that person who sees Jesus in a piece of toast.” (33:32)

• Mother’s relentless opinions, even as an embodied mole:
  “Why do it twice when you can do it right once?” (35:24)
  “Tiny fingernails say a lot about a person, Owen.” (41:26)

• Letting her go:
  “Finally, I lift the lid to the toilet seat. And carefully drop her in the water. ‘Goodbye, Mommy,’ I say. ‘I love you.’” (57:10 – 57:20)

Segment End: 57:46

Host’s Reflection and Episode Close

Meg Wolitzer:
After both stories, Wolitzer dryly jokes:

“So you thought Jiminy Cricket... was a buzzkill. After hearing that story, I imagine a lot of us would prefer the goody two-shoes insect... to a massive mole in the shape of our nagging mothers.” (57:46)

She relates how neither internal monologue is easy to manage or escape, but that sometimes “saying the quiet part out loud” benefits us—even if it’s awkward—because it makes hidden feelings visible and confrontable.

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Host’s Opening and Theme: 01:04–01:42
• Story 1 (“Polar Bear”): 04:28–12:21
• Author Conversation (Keret/Ira Glass/Stix): 12:45–16:46
• Story 2 (“The Acorn”): 20:01–57:46
• Host Conclusion: 57:46–58:43

Memorable Quotes by Timestamp

• Host Joke on AI and Mothers:
  “One is an inescapable know-it-all who rewrites your book report. The other is AI.” — Meg Wolitzer (01:04)

• On Memory and Grief:
  “Every single morsel of thought and memory in her bustling mind was ultimately in some way connected to him.” — Michael Imperioli as Bracha (06:36)

• On Letting Go:
  “I drop her in the water. ‘Goodbye, Mommy,’ I say. ‘I love you.’” — Dylan Baker as Owen (57:16–57:20)

Episode Tone & Takeaway

The tone throughout is thoughtful, gently sardonic, and honest about the comedy and tragedy of internal life made external. The episode highlights the complex negotiations between attachment, grief, humor, and the sometimes absurd but necessary demarcation between our inner worlds and public lives.

Bottom Line

“The Quiet Part Out Loud” wields two striking short stories to dramatize what happens when the borders between inner voices and outer reality dissolve. In confronting their most persistent ghosts—whether AI or maternal—characters (and audience) are invited to consider what it means to live, to remember, and ultimately, to let go.