Hi, I'm Lovar Burton and this is Lovar Burton Reads.

In every episode I handpick a different piece of short fiction and I read it to you.

The only thing these stories have in common is that I love them and I hope you will too.

Hey, I'm back today with the first episode of season 8.

Yes, season 8 of Lovar Burton Reads.

Now to give you a little window into how I process and choose the stories for this podcast,

basically every season we start fresh reviewing stories.

Then I read stories that have been published in collections and anthologies and journals

in the last few months and we go through stories published by independent presses from years

back and I read your suggestions and then ultimately I go by what strikes me.

I usually don't have a theme or particular authors or genres or anything in mind but

as soon as we begin to put the season together a pattern begins to form and a theme starts

to crystallize.

And it seems like this season it's about individual acts in the face of big moral questions.

I think when things feel so out of control like they have this past year your one individual

act, your choice can feel insignificant and reading these stories has reminded me that

those individual acts are not insignificant in the least.

And so I'm excited to read you this story today on that very theme.

It's by Bishop Garrison and it was published in issue number 16 of FIA, the magazine of

Black Speculative Fiction.

This story is a co-founder of the Raney Center and director of National Security Outreach

at Human Rights First.

...