Podcast Summary:

Selected Shorts – Too Hot For Radio:

"Persephone Rides at the End of Days" by Carmen Maria Machado
Host: Aparna Nancherla
Performer: Cynthia Nixon
Release Date: January 5, 2026

Episode Overview

In this special Too Hot for Radio installment, host Aparna Nancherla introduces Carmen Maria Machado’s "Persephone Rides at the End of Days," a modern, irreverent, and sensual story inspired by Greek myth. The episode explores the weight, baggage, and possibilities of names and identity, channeling both comedic and tragic energies as it follows the goddess Persephone through a surreal coming-of-age in a world poised for apocalypse. Cynthia Nixon’s evocative reading brings the story’s blend of myth, social satire, and emotional vulnerability to life.

Key Discussion Points & Story Highlights

Aparna’s Introduction: Names, Fate, and Myth (01:03–05:01)

• Names as Destiny: Aparna riffs humorously about how names can feel like prophecies or burdens, especially those linked to deities:
  • “Can your name hint at your destiny?... Are all Karen's rule following haters of picnics and joy?” (01:18)
• She connects this to her own name, Aparna, derived from the Hindu goddess Parvati, hinting at expectations and destiny.
• Context for the Story: Setting up Machado’s retelling of Persephone, Aparna deftly foreshadows the myth’s dual themes of death and renewal:
  • “But is her name her fate? Or will she channel the other side of her mythological self—the part about spring and joy?” (03:45)
• Content Warning: The story has adult themes—“vaginal lubrication, some incest, and some street hot dogs. The last one by far the grossest.” (04:17)

The Story: "Persephone Rides at the End of Days" by Carmen Maria Machado

Read by Cynthia Nixon (05:09–21:32)

Persephone’s Urban Dislocation and Disinheritance (05:09–08:00)

• Cabs as Existential Liminal Spaces:
  • “Persephone rides in so many cabs... She likes them. They are simultaneously real and unreal. They are physical objects that pass into and out of her consciousness many times a day…” (05:14)
  • She feels in limbo: present but unanchored, carried through life.
• Alienation from Wealth: She is set to inherit vast fields, but feels disinterested and disconnected from it:
  • “She forgets how much she has. She finds hundred dollar bills... folded into jeans she hasn't worn in six months.” (06:19)
• Friendship & Superficial Socializing: Relationship with Aglaea, her only real friend, is layered with competitive, subtle cruelty:
  • Aglaea’s father “owns all sunflowers and the sun, some say, but that is just a nasty tabloid rumor.” (06:36)

Family Dynamics, Identity Struggles, and Planning the Apocalypse (08:00–15:30)

• Mother-Daughter Tensions: Persephone’s mother offers tone-deaf encouragement:
  • “What you doing, Poppy?... I have an idea. What if you planned an event, like a party, and then you can invite whoever you want. It can be the social event of the year.” (09:07)
• Estrangement & Yearning: The story underscores Persephone’s emotional distance, yearning for approval, and discomfort with her name’s associations.
• Reunion with Half-Brother (Arian): Core discomfort and blurred boundaries:
  • “Arion is her son from her fury days, as she calls them her wild youth. He is suspiciously handsome...” (10:24)
• The Apocalypse Party: Persephone, feeling unloved and unseen, suggests that her party’s theme should be “an apocalypse”:
  • “The world is sort of overdue for one, honestly.” (11:09)
• Satirical Planning: The party devolves into a parody of myth and modern life, with Aglaea and friends suggesting outlandish decor and ration-themed food.

Surreal Revelry, Incestuous Overtones, and Cataclysmic Freedom (15:30–21:32)

• Road Trip with Arian: Surreal, sensuous drive to the fields; Persephone is distracted, untethered.
  • She and her half-brother become physically intimate, a nod to the myth’s boundary-blurring.
• Party Execution – Controlled Ruin:
  • The ballroom becomes “a bomb ravaged wasteland ... It looks hopeless. Perfect, persephone says. Let them in.” (19:22)
• Persephone’s Isolation Peaks: Her mother doesn’t show up; Persephone is simultaneously orchestrator and outcast at her own apocalypse.
• Climax in Escape: She leaves with Arian, takes the wheel for the first time:
  • “Do you know how to drive?”
  • “‘No,’ persephone says, and turns the key.” (21:26)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Aparna Nancherla, on destiny:

  • “Does that mean I'm fated to be a perpetually hungry girlfriend forever appeasing a significant other whose most defining personality trait is a death complex? ... I'd like to think I'm more than the origin of my given name...” (02:44)

• Persephone’s existential malaise:

  • “She rides them drunk. Drunk. She imagines herself clean. No, no, not clean. Clear. She imagines her stomach is a giant fishbowl full of salty vodka martinis and olives...” (05:29)

• On the inheritance she neither wants nor deserves:

  • “Her mother says, take this cash here, here, and Persephone takes it. She forgets how much she has.” (06:18)

• Dark humor about myth and motherhood:

  • “Aglaea knows what Persephone's name means. She just wants Persephone to say it. Aglaea is Persephone's best friend, but she can be a bitch sometimes.” (07:32)

• On the ease of ending the world:

  • “Somehow Persephone thought the world would be harder to dismantle, but it's the easiest thing she's ever done.” (19:50)

• Final line, reclaiming agency:

  • “Do you know how to drive?”
  • “‘No,’ persephone says, and turns the key.” (21:31)

Notable Structural Moments & Timestamps

• Host’s Monologue & Thematic Framing: 01:03–05:01
• Beginning of Story Reading (Cynthia Nixon): 05:09
• Mother-Daughter Bath Scene: 08:30–09:30
• Party Planning with Aglaea & The Sisters: 12:15–14:50
• Arian & Persephone’s Road Trip and Intimacy: 16:30–18:30
• Party/Apocalypse Execution: 19:00–21:00
• Final Escape: 21:20
• End of Story & Outro Begins: 21:32

Tone & Language

• The episode exudes Machado’s trademark blend of mythic grandeur and contemporary melancholy, delivered in a voice both wryly funny and mournfully lucid.
• Aparna’s introduction is playful, meta, and gently irreverent, perfectly teeing up the subversion and sensuality of Machado’s story.

For First-Time Listeners

Why Listen:
This episode reimagines Greek myth with wit, lust, and modern malaise, amplifying the tensions between fate and self-invention, longing and disappointment. Through Cynthia Nixon’s intimate, nuanced narration, listeners are pulled into a world where apocalypse becomes both metaphor and literal party, and Persephone’s journey to drive—though she “doesn’t know how”—pulses with hope, rebellion, and possibility.

Listen if you’re:

• Curious about feminist retellings of myth
• Fans of Carmen Maria Machado’s surreal, sensual prose
• Drawn to stories of existential dislocation, inheritance, and dark, funny explorations of identity