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Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. Selected Shorts connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy. Hosted by Meg Wolitzer.

Selected Shorts

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Every week listeners hear stories about race and identity that expand their minds, and learn practical ways to make their lives better. It's lifelong learning that ranges from the big picture to tiny details and everything in between.
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Codeswitch / Life Kit

Every week listeners hear stories about race and identity that expand their minds, and learn practical ways to make their lives better. It's lifelong learning that ranges from the big picture to tiny details and everything in between.

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History

The Wharton Centre at 22nd Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
PlanPhilly
Urban Planning
PlanPhilly

A historic haven for black Philadelphians slated for demolition

A string of buildings that once housed one of the city’s first social service providers for black Philadelphians are set to meet the wrecking ball.

7 years ago

In this photo taken Thursday, April 4, 2019, the children of genocide survivors and perpetrators play together in the reconciliation village of Mbyo, near Nyamata, in Rwanda. Twenty-five years after the genocide the country has six
Community

25 years after genocide, can Rwanda heal? 6 villages try

Twenty-five years ago, Tasian Nkundiye murdered his neighbor with a machete. Today he lives near the widow of the man he killed. And somehow they are friends.

7 years ago

The Frank Furness-designed 19th Street Baptist Church (Alex Lewis for WHYY)
PlanPhilly
Urban Planning
PlanPhilly

City taskforce unveils new approach to preservation aimed at saving unrecognized Philly history

A spate of demolitions inspired city officials to think differently about how to save Philadelphia’s historic buildings.

7 years ago

Sara's father's embroidered undershirt is one of many intimate objects and stories passed down through the generations. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
Arts & Entertainment

Airing the cleaned, pressed, and folded laundry of the American experience

The wardrobe of Maira Kalman’s mother tells the story of a 20th century American Jewish experience. You can take a peek inside.

7 years ago

Trevor William Fayle and Stephanie Hodge as siblings in the Philadelphia Artists' Collective production of
Shapiro on Theater
Arts & Entertainment
Shapiro on Theater

”Tis Pity She’s a Whore,’ controversial for almost 400 years, from Philadelphia Artists’ Collective

The play has been the object of scorn and disgust for its subject matter and even for its title. But this flawed presentation satisfies as a glimpse of theater history.

7 years ago

Workers excavate a coffin from a construction site in the Old City neighborhood, Thursday, March 9, 2017, in Philadelphia. Crews working on an apartment building in Philadelphia's historic district got a shock last month when their backhoes started hitting coffins and unearthing fully intact human remains. The site was supposed to be a former burial ground from 1707, and all remains were supposedly exhumed in the 1800s and moved to a different cemetery. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The Why
Urban Planning

Why there’s no system to save Philly’s hidden graves under private construction sites

Archaeologists say the remains of at least 491 people were found on a construction site in Old City. Could there be more forgotten burial grounds waiting to be unearthed?

Air Date: April 3, 2019

Listen 14:45
(Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images)
Arts & Entertainment
Marketplace

Holy franchise, Batman! You’re 80!

For eight decades, the Caped Crusader has kept watch over the streets of Gotham City and beyond. In honor of the Dark Knight, Marketplace does the numbers.

7 years ago

The Whitman at 200 Symposium pop-up exhibition includes photographs of Walt Whitman. (Natalie Piserchio for WHYY)
Arts & Entertainment

Whitman at 200: Penn programming looks at the Good Gray Poet, his legacy across the river

Gearing up for Walt Whitman’s 200th birthday on May 31, Penn’s “Whitman at 200” project hosted a gathering showcasing material from the last 20 years of the writer’s life.

7 years ago

The African American Museum of Bucks County's exhibit “Building on the Dream: From Africa to Bucks County” is on display at the Pearl S. Buck House through July (Courtesy Sharon Lentz/The Philadelphia Tribune)
Arts & Entertainment
The Philadelphia Tribune

Bucks County group envisions African-American museum

The African American Museum of Bucks County wants to develop a permanent museum that tells the stories of blacks in Bucks County.

7 years ago

Arts & Entertainment

The plain white Confederate flag of truce and surrender inspires exhibit in Philly

The white dishcloth that ended the Civil War has been recreated in monumental size at the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia.

7 years ago

Listen 2:03
Aerial view of Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pa., scene of a nuclear accident, Thursday, March 28, 1979. The plant started leaking radioactive steam contaminating the area. (AP Photo)
Radio Times
Community

Listeners share memories of the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown

On the 40th anniversary of the partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania residents remember where they were and how they felt that day.

7 years ago

Dr. Anna Broomall established South Philadelphia’s first outpatient maternity-care clinic. (Courtesy of Delaware County Historical Society)
Health

Delco medical trailblazer Anna Broomall honored with historical marker

Anna Broomall broke gender barriers and worked to lower maternal and infant mortality rates.

7 years ago

President George H.W. Bush addressing the nation on Sept. 5, 1989. The president illustrated the threat of drugs by holding up a baggie of crack he said had been seized across the street from the White House. (Courtesy of George Bush Presidential Library and Museum)
Politics & Policy
Marketplace

30 years ago, George H.W. Bush held up a bag of crack on live TV. Where’d he get it?

Overall drug use, and the use of crack in particular, was in decline by 1989, but Bush turbocharged the war on drugs that night.

7 years ago

In a 1936 letter to Henwar Rodakiewicz, Georgia O'Keeffe updated her friend on recent goings-on, including a new commission. The middle section reads:
NPR
Arts & Entertainment

Newly uncovered Georgia O’Keeffe letters shed light on her greatest paintings

Imagine Georgia O'Keeffe needing "luck" to paint a flower. But there it is, in the artist's twirling calligraphy, in a letter to her friend, filmmaker Henwar Rodakiewicz.

7 years ago

A sample image of
NPR
Courts & Law

Harvard profits from photos of slaves, lawsuit claims

Tamara Lanier says "Papa Renty" is the patriarch of her family and that Harvard is using those photos without permission and profiting from photos taken by a racist professor.

7 years ago

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