Random Short stories Podcasts

Word for Word is a San Francisco based theater company that brings works of literature to the stage. Instead of adapting a script, they use every word of a text in a dynamic, evocative style that communicates the intended beauty of the prose or poetry. In this new podcast, the company brings their unique style into your home for the first time, revisiting some favorite stories from the past as well as exploring some works they haven’t previously performed. Fans of Word for Word will appreciate the same aesthetic from their full theatrical productions and their Off the Page reading series.

Categories: Arts, Fiction

Tags: drama, fiction, Short stories, theater, word for word, z space

The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, The Snow Queen, The Real Princess and a host of other wonderful tales which form so much a part of childhood are part of Andersen’s Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen. This volume contains eighteen selected stories. Some of them are old familiar friends, while others maybe new to some readers, but all of them equally enchanting and enthralling. Today, these stories are known almost everywhere in the world and have been translated into hundreds of languages. Their appeal is not just for children or young readers. As folktales and typical Scandinavian legends, they are a fascinating glimpse into the myths and legends, culture and ethos of the Northern Lands. Since their publication in 1835, they have continued to inspire and delight generations of children and adults. Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author whose work included plays, poetry, travelogues, novels and stories. Born in a noble Danish family, he was inspired to transcribe the tales he had heard as a child from people around him. The stories he selected were interesting, imaginative and unique. Some of them like The Little Mermaid were poignant and were not strictly just for a young audience. In fact, the story went on to capture public imagination to such an extent that today one of the most iconic monuments of Copenhagen is the statue of the Little Mermaid on the Langeline Promenade, which draws thousands of visitors every year. Andersen’s first foray into writing fairytales did not meet with much success because translating them from the original Danish was quite difficult and it had only restricted readership. However, in 1845, he reached out to the rest of the world through a brilliant translation of The Little Mermaid in Bentley’s Miscellany magazine. Great success followed as his stories began appearing in various English magazines and journals and a whole generation of young English speaking children discovered the treasures of Scandinavia. The stories have continued to enthrall people in many fields. Music, opera, art, literature, drama, film and television have become richer by the addition of various versions of Andersen’s tales and his name has become a byword for the genre. He also inspired hundreds of other writers to come out with folktales and stories designed to captivate the imagination of young and old. Stories like The Tinder-Box convey a feeling of mystery and awe, while The Nightingale provides pathos and beauty. As an invaluable addition to any library shelf, Andersen’s Fairy Tales can provide hours of reading pleasure to both young and old.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: Andersen's Fairy Tales, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fiction, free audio books, Hans Christian Andersen, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Short stories

Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was one of the outstanding Talmudists of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City. Ginzberg taught at the Jewish Theological seminary from 1903 to 1953. For 50 years, he trained two generations of Conservative Rabbis.The Legends of the Jews is an epic 7-volume compilation of traditional Jewish stories loosely related to the Bible. Volumes 1-4 contain the stories, while volumes 5-7 contain Ginzberg’s notes and commentary. Over the millenia, these stories, which expand on the Bible, flesh out the lives of biblical figures. In the process, they help bring to life the Bible’s valuable lessons.The Legends of the Jews has been called a monumental work of scholarship. It is studied by serious students of both Judaism and Christianity. And yet the stories continue to be accessible and understood by all. They were designed to impart lessons of the Torah, and any child or adult will find much to enjoy about this work.

Categories: Arts, Religion & Spirituality

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, religion, Short stories

Left Handed Radio is an indie narrative comedy podcast. It features some of the funniest, most talented comedians from across the country. The show is a hybrid of sketch comedy, audio plays, satirical short stories and parodies of podcasts and public radio programming. For our back catalogue, visit our new Patreon! As one of the first indie sketch podcasts ever, we pride ourselves on our independence and freedom to create whatever we want. We adore all of our Patreon supporters and listeners who share the program. Thank you for listening and enjoy!

Categories: Comedy, Fiction

Tags: Alternative Comedy, Audio Plays, Funny, hybrid, npr, public radio, satire, science-fiction, Short stories, sketch comedy

Written originally for his own children, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories have continued to delight generations of youngsters since they were first published in 1902. The thirteen stories collected in this book are meant for very young children, but they engage older kids and adults too with their charming conversational style and simple plot lines. These stories are typical examples of the “origin” story, where children are provided with imaginative rather than practical explanations for the “why” “what” “how” “where” “who” “when” questions of childhood. The Just So Stories were tales that Kipling would tell his own daughter who tragically died in infancy of pneumonia. An early forerunner of these stories can be found in The Second Jungle Book in the chapter, “How Fear Came” where the story of how the tiger got its stripes is narrated to Mowgli. All the fables in the Just So Stories follow a similar theme. They relate how a particular creature is altered from an original form into its present appearance either by a magical spirit or a human being. So the reader encounters wonderful and fantastical reasons why The Whale Got Its Throat, The Camel Got Its Hump, The Rhinoceros Got Its Skin, How the Alphabet was Made, and so on. Written in a pretend grand style, as though the narrator was recounting a great and important myth, the stories are studded with fabulous made up words and turns of phrase that catch the reader’s attention. Comic exaggeration, wordplay, lots of spontaneous, funny poems, juxtapositions of everyday events with the fantastical tales, amusing and entertaining “explanations” and a short poem at the beginning of each story serve to highlight Kipling’s prodigious story telling talents. The reader is always called “Best Beloved” which adds to the personal touch, reminding us of the original listeners of these stories, who were Kipling’s own children. Some of the stories may seem politically incorrect to modern day readers, but they must be read in the context in which they were written and could in fact become a starting point for discussions on such issues as race, gender etc. with your own children. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Comedy, Kids & Family

Tags: animals, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, humor, Just So Stories, Kids, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, nature, Rudyard Kipling, Short stories, Teen/Young adult

The human voice is music that works as a tuning fork for the soul. In times of trouble it brings solace and comfort. We also find refuge in stories – they can allay our fears, comfort our anxieties and instruct us on better ways to be. On this series, renowned culinary historian and author Jessica B. Harris shares stories and reads poems from around the world. Some might bring a smile of recollection or a nod of recognition – others might startle with their aptness to todays world. May they all help us find peace of mind body and soul.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: full service radio, jessica b. harris, poems, readings, Short stories, Stories

History made interesting for young readers—This Country of Ours by Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall provides a simple and easy to comprehend way of looking at the history of the United States. Arranged chronologically in seven long chapters, it presents events in a story form, making them memorable and very different from other formats. One of the challenges that writers of history face is about fleshing out the characters and making the bland repetition of dates and dynasties seem relevant to modern day readers. Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall was a British writer who wrote several children’s books. Her most famous work is Our Island Story, a book of British history, which was considered to be the definitive children’s history of Britain for more than half a century. However, some of Marshall’s books may be found to be historically inaccurate, racially biased and often rely on mythology, legend and even Shakespeare as the source of material. This Country of Ours was published in the UK in 1917 and later was also reissued as The Story of the United States in 1919. It begins with a brief account of the Vikings and how they were the people who really discovered America, before the advent of Columbus. The story of Columbus and his famous expedition are thrillingly recounted along with stories of the English and French explorers who also sailed to the New World. New England, the Middle and Southern Colonies, the American War of Independence, the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of Slavery and finally the coming of World War I where the book ends make up the rest of the story. Apart from children, adults will also find it interesting to skim through as many of us have forgotten the details of our history lessons learned in school. Another important aspect is that This Country of Ours was written at a time when it was still fashionable to be patriotic! Today, we are so accustomed to having our great leaders’ lives ripped open to public scrutiny and very few of them have survived the onslaught of scandal and the loss of personal reputation. This Country of Ours takes us back to a more innocent era when the great figures of history were still role models for children to be emulated. As a general overview of American History, This Country of Ours is indeed a good book to read.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall, History, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Politics, Short stories, Teen/Young adult, This Country of Ours

H. P. Lovecraft’s name is synonymous with horror fiction. His major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally alien. This collection contains 24 Lovecraft works that are in the public domain. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Collected Public Domain Works of H. P. Lovecraft, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, H. P. Lovecraft, Horror/Ghost stories, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Short stories

The Gift of the Magi is an O. Henry short story in which a young couple are very much in love with each other but can barely afford their one-room apartment. For Christmas, they each make a sacrifice to purchase a gift for the other, with ironic results. The moral of the story is that physical possessions, however valuable they may be, are of little value in the grand scheme of things. The true unselfish love that the characters, Jim and Della, share is greater than their possessions. O. Henry ends the story by clarifying the metaphor between the characters in the story, Della and James (or Jim), and the Biblical Magi. The Gift of the Magi features O. Henry’s characteristic twist ending and use of flowery diction.

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, O. Henry, Short stories, The Gift of the Magi

Peadar O’Guilin, author of The Call and The Invasion, reads out some of his creepy short-stories.

Categories: Arts

Tags: creepy, fantasy, fiction, horror, Short stories

The Library of the World’s Best Mystery and Detective Stories is a six-volume edition, which contains one hundred and one tales written by authors as diverse and separated by history as Pliny the Younger (first century AD), Voltaire (17th century) and Guy de Maupassant (19th century) and also from different parts of the world. This volume which is the first, contains twenty interesting stories, and an introduction by the editor. The fascinating aspect of mystery stories is that sometimes the author allows the puzzle to solve itself without expert detective aid, while in other cases, a sleuth bends his or her deductive powers to the mystery. In rare cases, the author leaves the tale unexplained and allows the readers to draw their own conclusions. The stories contained in this volume include Francis Marion Crawford’s strange yarn, By the Waters of Paradise, which recounts how a young man’s tragic past takes a turn for the better when he meets a lovely young stranger. The New England writer, Mary Wilkins Freeman’s chilling tale of the supernatural, The Shadows on the Wall, tells of the strange circumstances which face a young woman who arrives at the home of her dead fiancé to find his three adoring sisters behaving in a very odd fashion. From the creator of the famous amateur sleuth, Uncle Abner, comes another charming puzzle in the form of the story, The Corpus Delicti. This story by Melville Davisson Post is certainly a deliciously enjoyable one! Other stories include two by Ambrose Bierce entitled The Heiress from Redhorse, a seemingly trite tale with a happy ending about a foolish heiress, but one which employs a sinister twist in the tail. Bierce’s other creepy tale The Man and the Snake tells of the horror experienced by a lonely man when he finds a snake in his apartment. No anthology of mystery stories is complete without at least one from the master, Edgar Allan Poe. This one too, has its share – The Gold Bug, a story of a man who visits his entomologist friend on a remote South Carolina and becomes obsessed by a weird bug that looks like a skull but seems to be made of pure organic gold! Washington Irving and Charles Brockden Brown are also featured in this collection. One of the most fascinating aspects of this anthology is that it was edited by Julian Hawthorne, the star-crossed son of the famous writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. A great read for all ages!

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, editor, fiction, free audio books, Julian Hawthorne, Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, MYSTERY, Short stories

Published in 1910, The Lilac Fairy Book is the last book in the series of fairytale collections known as Andrew Lang’s “Coloured” Fairy Books and features stories from various folklores and cultures including Welsh, Portuguese, Scottish, Italian, and many other foreign literary branches. Moreover, the collection is a gem in the short story genre due to the fact that Lang collected some of the featured stories from foreign languages and made them available to English audiences. Featuring 33 stories, The Lilac Fairy Book offers a different perspective to the happy-ever-after fairytales most people are accustomed to and expect. The compilation combines faeries, animals, giants, ogres, kings, mermaids, and troubled characters, as it offers not just entertainment, but also enlightens with its allusions. Awe-inspiring for children with its vibrant characters and vivid descriptions, the short stories are equally engaging for adults who want to revive some childhood memories, while being open to some unexpected twists.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fiction, free audio books, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Short stories, The Lilac Fairy Book, Unknown

Dark Concepts is a bi-weekly podcast dedicated to the telling of original horror stories written and read by Brian J Cummings.

Categories: Arts, Fiction

Tags: dark, dark concepts, fiction, horror, Short stories

The purpose of The Junior Classics is to provide, in ten volumes containing about five thousand pages, a classified collection of tales, stories, and poems, both ancient and modern, suitable for boys and girls of from six to sixteen years of age.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Fairy tales, fiction, free audio books, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Short stories, The Junior Classics, William Patten

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi with varying punctuation and case) is a broad genre of fiction that often involves sociological and technical speculations based on current or future science or technology. This is a reader-selected collection of short stories originally published between 1931 and 1963, that entered the US public domain when their copyright was not renewed. Summary by Cori Samuel, with Wikipedia input.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, science-fiction, Short Science Fiction Collection, Short stories, Teen/Young adult, various

Although Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a wealthy landowner, in his later life he had what was considered a “religious awakening.” This experience went on to inform his writing and his lifestyle in profound ways. His views transcended the specifics of religion, as known in his day – so much so he came to be a helpful guide both to Mohandas Gandhi and to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The four stories in this collection ask profound questions and gently supply helpful, non-dogmatic hints to their answerings: What is the most important thing to do? Who is the most important person? When is the most important time? What is worth owning? What is the most profound religion? What rules should men live by? How much land does a man need? Who is God? What should we bother to discuss? How should we act towards one another? How should we respond to cruelty and violence? And many more. Wonderful stories written in a relaxed style. Summary by Alan Drake

Categories: Arts, Education, Religion & Spirituality

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Languages, Leo Tolstoy, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, religion, Short stories, What Men Live By and Other Tales

A midwife and a wild, industrious French Canadian builder embark on building their dream homestead on 400 acres of wilderness in Downeast, Maine. The results are poignant, educational and most often…hilarious.

Categories: Comedy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

Tags: bad beaver, bad beaver tales, carol leonard, downeast, good to go studios, homesteading, maine, Memoir, midwife, Short stories, Wilderness

The What if its True Podcast features odd stories from ordinary people like you and me. Each episode will have one or more stories the writers claim are true. You can dismiss them as told by folks with great imaginations. You might even call them liars. Most people do. If you’re like me though, there is always that nagging question you ask, but can’t get an answer to. That question: What if it’s True?

This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5445587/advertisement

Categories: Fiction

Tags: alien, audiobook, bigfoot, creepy pasta, Dogman, ghost, narration, paranormal, sasquatch, scary stories, Short stories, space ship, UFO, Werewolf, yeti