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 Wallitzer.

Stay with me and give dads a break.

We'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's lives.

Just 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, Morty Wallitzer, was a clinical psychologist, a lover of jazz and cooking.

He died of COVID in 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

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