Selected Shorts – "The Way I See It"

Date: September 18, 2025
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Podcast: Selected Shorts (Symphony Space)

Overview

This episode of Selected Shorts explores the theme of perspective—how we see ourselves and others, and how fiction allows us to step into new ways of seeing. Host Meg Wolitzer guides listeners through three short stories performed by renowned actors: a comic-mythic reflection on dating from the perspective of a Cyclops, a moving heist set in a hair salon that examines beauty and self-worth, and a haunting tale of a child’s fear and a family’s attempt to soothe it with technology.

Key Discussion Points & Story Summaries

1. "You Can Find Love Now" by Ramona Ausubel

Performed by: Amy Ryan & Martin Short
Segment Starts: [02:53]
Theme: Finding oneself through the act of seeking love; self-acceptance; myth and modernity.

Story Breakdown

• Setup: Modern online dating guide reimagined for a Cyclops (a figure from Greek myth), coached through building an online dating profile.
• Narrative Techniques: Call-and-response banter between the Cyclops (Short) and the profile coach (Ryan), blending deadpan dating advice with mythic and comic asides.
• Highlights:
  • Cyclops' self-description mixes monstrous and vulnerable traits, poking fun at dating profile conventions:

    “Find me at cyclops15. Cyclops 1 to 14 were taken.” – Cyclops, [03:26]

  • Admissions about interests and turn-offs are both self-aware and mythically grotesque:

    “I hand sew my own shoes using a needle made from the fang of a wolf. I sleep hot. I want nothing more than a sheet on my bed. Even in winter, even in a cave.” – Cyclops, [03:53]

  • On openness and desire:

    “I like fat girls, old girls, tall girls, tired girls... Girls whose best idea for getting my attention is to send a photo of themselves holding a suggestive popsicle, their fists covered in red.” – Cyclops, [04:15]

  • Cyclops' reflection on family and identity, tying myth to the ordinary (“I teach online English classes, not to get paid, but because I like to feel smarter than someone else... And I teach all the classic books except the Odyssey.” [05:39]), along with longing and a sense of isolation.
• Notable Moment:
  • Dark humor when describing a traumatic visit to the eye doctor:

    “I do not fit in the chair. And I wish I could forget lying on my back on the floor of that darkened room while a small man climbed onto my chest with that sharp point of light. I’m not sorry for what I did to him. Now he can see for himself what it’s like to have one eye.” – Cyclops, [09:02]

• Conclusion: A combination of awkward honesty, myth, and yearning for connection—ends with a pitch for love that is both touching and a little unsettling.

  "Your grandmother will tell you. All the good men are gone. But then, here I am. And I'm ready for you.” – Cyclops, [13:45]

Commentary

Meg Wolitzer:

“A story about trying to see yourself in the best light, whether you’re looking with two small eyeballs or one big one. Still, if you encounter Cyclops on Hinge, you might think twice before you swipe right… he seems to be throwing a few red flags in there.” ([13:50])

2. "The Weave" by Charles Johnson

Performed by: Arnell Powell
Segment Starts: [15:08]
Theme: Beauty, self-worth, and the social, historical, and economic forces that define them.

Story Breakdown

• Setup: After being unjustly fired, Aisha and her boyfriend Tyrone execute a heist, stealing duffel bags of coveted human hair extensions from a beauty supply shop.
• Narrative Style: Richly detailed, blending noir-caper rhythms with introspection and social critique.

Key Insights & Notable Quotes

• Societal Observation:

  “Permeating every particle in that exchange of desire is a profound historical pain, a hurt based on the lie that the hair one was unlucky enough to be born with can never in this culture be good enough…” ([17:53])

• On Identity and Beauty:

  “I tell her she’s beautiful as she is, but when she peers at television movies or popular magazines… she says with a sense of fatality, ‘I can’t look like that.’” ([20:43])

• The Heist:
  • Practical details as Aisha sneaks into her old workplace, tinged with emotional significance.
• On the Value and Origin of the Hair Extensions:

  “The bags, she says, come from a Buddhist temple near New Delhi where young women shave their heads in an ancient ceremony of sacrifice called taking pabaja… this letting go of things cosmetic and the chimera called the ego is their first step as nuns…” ([29:45])

• Insightful Reflection:

  “You find it rattled to the rest of the world. I didn’t see any of that coming till it arrived.” ([33:21])

• Finale:
  • After their crime, Aisha’s discomfort leads her to burn the stolen hair and turn herself in, paralleling the hair’s original act of self-renunciation.
  • As police arrive, Tyrone proposes to Aisha.

  “She looks vulnerable but not weak, free, and more than enough for herself… her head nods, yes. Yes. Yes.” ([38:56])

Commentary

Meg Wolitzer:

“Setting that story in a salon is a playful choice… in life, you usually want someone who commits a crime to be quickly apprehended, but in fiction, not so much… we tense up when sirens are heard because we already know and like these characters…” ([38:57])

3. "Blue Light, Red Light" by J. Robert Lennon

Performed by: Fred Hechinger
Segment Starts: [42:58]
Theme: Childhood anxiety, family communication, technology as false comfort.

Story Breakdown

• Setup: A young boy, unsettled after accidentally seeing a violent true crime show, develops compulsive safety rituals to protect his baby sister.
• Parental Response:
  • The parents, worried about his anxiety, purchase “Baby’s Calming Globe,” a device said to monitor danger (blue = safe, red = danger).
  • The father explains:

    “It’s blue now, see, that means the doors and windows are locked and there are no monsters inside or outside. Blue means safe. If anything is wrong… it’ll turn red. You got that?” ([44:47])

• Escalation:
  • The boy is unconvinced, secretly monitors the light, and tries to "test" it—with increasingly dangerous experiments.
  • In a climactic moment, he sets a small fire in the nursery, believing it’s a controlled test. The device stays blue; chaos ensues as half the house is lost to fire.
  • When confronted by his anguished father:

    “It didn’t turn red, I was watching and it didn’t. … It didn’t work.” ([56:55])

• Emotional Impact:
  • The motif of misunderstood intentions and the dangers of indirect communication between children and adults.
• Reflection:
  • Fred Hechinger, backstage commentary:

    “I felt very connected to what Lennon writes at the end... the boy knowing that what he’s saying is not the right thing, but it’s the only thing that he can say in that moment and he just needs to say it over and over and over again. I think that’s a very moving and very real way for this piece to end. I’ve felt that a lot in life.” ([58:19])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Perspective and Self-Acceptance:
  • “I am me and no one else is me. And that is a miracle. I am a miracle.” – Cyclops, [06:48]
• On the Price of Beauty:
  • “For some reason, these sacks of something as common and plentiful as old hair are worth a lot of bank.” – Narrator (Arnell Powell), [22:36]
• On Childhood Anxiety:
  • “It didn’t turn red, I was watching and it didn’t. … It didn’t work.” – The Boy, [56:55]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Theme Setup: [00:52] – [02:52]
• "You Can Find Love Now": [02:53] – [13:50]
• Host Commentary / Transition: [13:50] – [15:08]
• "The Weave": [15:08] – [38:57]
• Host Commentary / Transition: [38:57] – [41:15]
• "Blue Light, Red Light": [42:58] – [58:09]
• Fred Hechinger Backstage Interview: [58:19] – [59:40]
• Host Wrap-Up: [59:40] onward

Tone and Language

• The episode fluidly combines comic, poignant, and sharply observed moments. It moves from satirical self-effacement in the Cyclops’ confession, to the lyrical and socially engaged narrative of “The Weave,” to the unsettlingly honest and minimalist style of “Blue Light, Red Light.”
• Wolitzer’s commentary maintains an empathetic, playful tone, encouraging listeners to engage with each story both emotionally and intellectually.

Closing Thoughts

This episode connects the magical with the all-too-real, inviting us to reimagine ourselves, challenge received notions of beauty and danger, and question how we construct the boundaries between safety and risk. Each story offers a new “way of seeing it”—whether through a mythic eye, a stolen weave, or a child’s relentless vigil for monsters in the dark.