{"podcast":{"title":"Selected Shorts","slug":"selected-shorts-2124093","podcast_index_feed_id":2124093,"rss_url":"https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:84350815/sounds.rss","website_url":"https://itunes.com/selectedshorts","image_url":"https://i1.sndcdn.com/avatars-yCn4mB9PGy6HGkGm-yV7Yag-original.jpg","author":"Symphony Space","episode_count":265,"summary":"Spellbinding short stories by established and eme…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T06:17:23.000607+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/selected-shorts-2124093"},"episode":{"title":"Fork in the Road","slug":"fork-in-the-road","published_at":"2026-05-07T17:00:37+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/selected-shorts-2124093/fork-in-the-road","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/selected-shorts-2124093","url":"https://soundcloud.com/selectedshorts/fork-in-the-road","audio_url":"http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2315654657-selectedshorts-fork-in-the-road.mp3","summary":"Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters who find themselves in a place in which they need to make a choice, something that will affect them for the rest of their lives. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic, “Direction of the Road,” an ancient being has to make hard choices in its role as a guardian and a force of nature. The reader is Nikki M. James. In Helen Schulman’s “The Shabbos Goy,” a divorcee and a rabbi develop an interesting relationship around their mutual love of poetry. The reader is Jessica Hecht.","meta_description":"Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about characters who find themselves in a place in which they need to make a choice, something that will affect the…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3523,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/selected-shorts-2124093/episodes/fork-in-the-road/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/selected-shorts-2124093/fork-in-the-road.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}