There's a lot written about mothers and children, but sometimes it seems as if fathers remain in the background, shadowy authority figures,

or the guy who was always in the garage fixing something or stuck at the office placating an angry boss.

But on this selected shorts, fathers are front and center.

I'm your host, Meg Walitzer.

Stay with me and give dads a break.

You're listening to selected shorts,

where our greatest actors transport us

through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time.

In classic literature and in popular culture, mothers are often the focus. They are powerful nurturers or domestic goddesses or fascinating and transgressive figures.

But they're always big shapers of their children. or fascinating and transgressive figures.

But they're always big shapers of their children's lives.

Fathers get less of the stage,

unless it's Greek tragedy or Shakespeare.

This selected shorts gives them their due with stories about three flawed dads who need to find their own brand of fatherhood.

In one a Hollywood screenwriter is trapped in a classic fairy tale.

In the second, roles are reversed when a young son guides

his father out of despair. And in the third, a father and daughter start to drift apart,

but a crisis brings them together. My own father, Mordee Walitzer, was a clinical psychologist, a lover of

jazz and cooking. He died of COVID and April of 2020, and of course we weren't allowed to be with

him in the hospital.

But the doctor who took care of him told us that every night,

while my father was still well enough to speak,

...