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About This Podcast
Welcome to our little corner of the literary world! We're a husband and wife team who, like so many exhausted parents, found ourselves craving connection—with each other and with the stories that remind us we're more than just people who wipe surfaces and answer the same question seventeen times. After our daughter finally goes to bed each night, we pour a drink, collapse onto the couch, and somehow muster the energy to dive into a single short story from A Century of Fiction in the New Yorker. One story, one episode. That's it. We started this because, honestly, who has the brain capacity to read a whole book anymore? But a short story? We can handle that. And the conversations they spark when we're too tired to pretend we have it all together? Those are everything. Join us as we explore tales of love, loss, absurdity, and human nature—sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling, always discussed through the haze of parental fatigue.
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Recent Episodes
Separate Beds: The Living is Easy by Dorothy West (1948)
Luise is back for part two of Separate Beds. The Living is Easy is Dorothy West at her most vivid and alive, and a mother-daughter read was exactly the right way to come at it. We spent a good chunk…
Separate Beds: A Perfect Day for Bananafish (1948)
Sam tapped out this week—so Alan called in reinforcements: Sam's mom, Luise, who turned out to be exactly the reading companion this story deserved. "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is Salinger at his…
To Salinger or Not to Salinger
This one got complicated fast. We were supposed to dive into J.D. Salinger this week, but we couldn't even get to the actual reading without talking about the man—specifically, the deeply unsettling…
"The Weeds" by Mary McCarthy (1944)
We're back with Mary McCarthy—our second woman writer, and honestly, where has she been all our lives? "The Weeds" is hands down our favorite story so far, and we couldn't stop quoting it to each…
"Such a Pretty Day" by Dawn Powell (1939)
We're back from the holidays with Dawn Powell—finally, our first woman writer in the book! And honestly, it's criminal how overlooked she's been. While F. Scott Fitzgerald was busy romanticizing Jazz…
Screen Test: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller, 2013)
We finally broke free from short stories and dove into film, actually, two versions of the same film. The central question: how do you transform a 5-page story into a two-hour movie? We dug into what…
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber (1939)
We're officially in a rut—three middle-aged white men in a row, all deeply unsatisfied with their lives. James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1939) gave us a protagonist who escapes…
S1E2 "Over the River and Through the Wood" by John O'Hara (1934)
We doubled our runtime for this one, and honestly? Worth it. John O’Hara’s “Over the River and Through the Wood” (1934) immediately had us both leaning forward on the bed, which is saying something…
S1E1 "Life Cycle of a Literary Genius" by E. B. White (1926)
We're kicking things off with E.B. White's 1926 "Life Cycle of a Literary Genius"—and honestly, we almost didn't make it past the title. After forgetting to read the introduction (parenting brain…
Frequently Asked Questions
Bedtime Stories for Tired Parents has published 9 episodes since November 2025, covering topics in Arts, Books.
Bedtime Stories for Tired Parents is currently moderate with new episodes every 2 weeks. Average episode length is 35m.
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