About this episode

Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories exploring how characters manage their expectations and dreams.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents four stories, recorded at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, in which characters shape their expectations and dreams to a manageable size. So if you’re “Medusa,” as in our first story, by Tania James, you try to figure out how to live in the world instead of turning it to stone. The reader is Constance Zimmer. Parents in our second story, “We Only Wanted Their Happiness,” by Alexander Weinstein, make a tactical choice about technology. It’s performed by Randall Park. The narrator of Honor Levy’s “Good Boys,” read by Annie Hamilton, understands that infatuation is a phase. And a man and a woman sidestep romance in “Arrangements” by Charlie Watts, performed by Laura Harrier and Will Harrison. The program was created in cooperation with Belletrist, an online book club created by Emma Roberts and Karah Preiss.

People in this episode

Host: Meg Wolitzer

Guests: Constance Zimmer, Randall Park, Annie Hamilton, Laura Harrier, Will Harrison

Topics covered

• expectations
• dreams
• technology
• infatuation
• romance

Keywords

• Modest Expectations
• stories
• fiction
• expectations
• dreams
• technology
• infatuation
• romance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Belletrist

More episodes of Selected Shorts

• Nothing to Do with Love · June 11, 2026 · 58 min
• The Pursuit of Happiness with Death, Sex and Money · June 4, 2026 · 58 min
• Death Sex Money · May 28, 2026 · 58 min
• Save the Date with Belletrist Book Club · May 14, 2026 · 59 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Selected Shorts podcast page.