Why Is This Good?

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Nine Lives” by Ursula K. Le Guin . What can we learn from another great story from a master of speculative fiction? How can we portray unusual experiences that are nonetheless fundamentally huma...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury . What can we learn from this story of dangerous technology? How can a mystery drive a story? How can a future-looking story remain timeless? What are some ways a stor...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “How to Be an Other Woman” by Lorrie Moore. (Read First Section and Second Section .) What can we learn from this mock self-help instructional story? How are emotional moments developed? How do t...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Daemon Lover” by Shirley Jackson . What can we learn from this psychological thriller? How can anxiety drive a story? How can the prose and details create and develop a psychology or mood fo...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Babylon Revisited” by F. Scott Fitzgerald . What can we learn from this story? How can fiction subtly reveal character motives? How can we use a slippery point of view to direct the reader&#8217...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Martyr” by Mary Gordon . What can we learn from this story of a character trying to remember and understand their brother? How does foreshadowing structure the unfolding of the story and our...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “A Visit of Charity” by Eudora Welty . What can we learn from this story about lonely people? How can distinct characters help develop a theme from several directions? How do the characters help...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick . What can we learn from this classic work of science fiction? How can a story keep redefining itself? How can a consistent character keep...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut” by J. D. Salinger . What can we learn from this classic Salinger story? Can a third person point of view be purely external? How does subtext deepen a story? How ca...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Unaccompanied Sonata” by Orson Scott Card . What can we learn from this borderline science fiction story? What can happen when a story establishes a system in which the protagonist exists? Shoul...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Werewolf” by Angela Carter . What can we learn from this quick, little take on a folktale? How can setting help characterize a story? How can the prose reflect the mood of a setting or chara...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Zombie” by Joyce Carol Oates . What can we learn from this portrait of a real-life serial killer? How do we feel about a portrait of a monster? Why do we write fiction in the first place? What c...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Wind” by Lauren Groff . What can we learn from this tense, action-packed story? How can we make a story so gripping? How can a removed point of view help reveal more depth in a story? How ca...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “These Golden Cities” by K. David Wade . What can we learn from this story about taking an acid trip? How does the story guide us through the character’s experience? How do the character&#8...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Non-Zero Probabilities” by N. K. Jemisin . What can we learn from this bit of speculative fiction? How can world-building be personal to a character? Can we set up the reader to infer the nature...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “A Telephone Call” by Dorothy Parker . What can we learn from this intense interior monologue story? How does this nearly 100-year-old story still reflect modern reality? How does the representat...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss Curtis Sittenfeld vs ChatGPT . What can we learn from this experiment in comparing a literary author with an AI-generated story? How would we critique the ChatGPT story? What makes the Sittenfeld story human...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado . What can we learn from this exploration of a familiar horror scenario? How can we expand on a common symbol in a story? How can we structure a story...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast On this episode, we discuss “The Celestial Omnibus” by E. M. Forster (starts page 54) . What can we learn from this literary version of a fairy-story? How does the story pit pedantry against ingenuousness? Does it pick a wi...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Complete” by Gabriel Smith . What can we learn from this story made up of semi-connected snippets? How can disconnected pieces of narrative connect with one another to create interwoven thre...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Sour Milk Girls” by Erin Roberts . What can we learn from this story about damaged people? Can a story explore a broken character? How can we present background as part of a scene happening in t...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “An Outpost of Progress” by Joseph Conrad . What can we learn from this classic story? How can a story incorporate a “thesis statement”? Can we step back from a story to offer editori...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “The Island of the Immortals” by Ursula K. Le Guin . What can we learn from this quick story that examines a philosophical question? How does perspective on the central question change through th...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Jeffty is Five” by Harlan Ellison . What can we learn from this nostalgic story? How does the ending wrap up the arc of the story? How can we tell which character the story is meant to change? W...

If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining our Patreon. Your support helps us keep the show running. Find out more at http://www.patreon.com/whyisthisgoodpodcast In this episode, we discuss “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner . What can we learn from this richly voiced story? How can we develop a stream-of-consciousness voice for a story? How can sentence length help guide the reader...