Today’s episode considers the alternate history. What if things had been different in our lives? What if the people we think we know, know nothing about who we are, or were? And what happens when they try to find out? In our first story, a girl’s father returns to his family after years working abroad. At first, he’s a stranger, but who was he before he came home? Tania James introduces us to the girl and her father in  “The Gulf.” Then Kyle Minor begins at a man's end – a funeral home, survivors, a suicide -- and moves backwards to the answer all of the questions left behind in "The Question of Where We Begin."

Unbound: Tania James and Kyle Minor on Alternate Histories

Today’s episode looks at friendships between two pairs of girls, complex in nature and sometimes fraught with danger. Like roommates. Can’t live with them, can’t exile them to space. College is a time to make lasting friendships, but what if your freshman roommate turns out to be from another planet? Our first story is Tessa Mellas with “Bibi From Jupiter.” Then "our girl" takes her best friend to Sin City to get over her boyfriend. Claire Vaye Watkins explores the things that happen in Vegas, but don't quite stay there, in “Rondine Al Nido.”


Unbound: Tessa Mellas and Claire Vaye Watkins on 'Girlfriends'

On today’s episode, we’ll consider the distance between two people. What keeps a couple bound together, and what drives them apart?  In Matt Bell's “For You We Are Holding,” a city throbs with missed connections and swells with the memories of all that we want and what we have lost. Then, an estranged wife returns home to a sick dog and brings hope with her in Brian Leung's “Dog Sleep.”

Unbound: Matt Bell and Brian Leung on 'Far Away, So Close'

On today’s episode, we’re going behind the front lines in the war at home. In our first story, a young boy in Eastern Kentucky writes to his pen pal, an Indian immigrant living in Manhattan, about life in the mountains during the 2008 elections. Silas House reads a chapter from “Same Sun Here.” Then, a man shrinks his wife and gives her a doll house to live in. The wife doesn’t take it lying down. Manuel Gonzales reads “The Miniature Wife.”

Unbound: Silas House and Manuel Gonzales on 'The War at Home'

On today’s episode, we’re looking at the objects that define people and their place in time. In our first story, we go back to the 1960s, to Eastern Kentucky, to an odd little house in the country with no right angles. Jacinda Townsend reads “Rhombus,” a chapter from her forthcoming novel. Then, we climb into a white Chevy Nova and head to Astoria. It's 1979, and a grandmother has traveled from Bombay to New York to watch her grandchildren for the summer. Or are they keeping an eye on her? Neela Vaswani reads "Five Objects in Queens."


Unbound: Jacinda Townsend and Neela Vaswani on 'Object Permanence'

On today’s episode, we’re catching glimpses into other worlds – into a hospital’s viewing room, where the dead are presented before they’re moved, and out a car window, where a prank unravels into an adventure. Hasn’t everyone dreamed of having super powers? In our first story, a boy with a secret identity reaches for something like power for the first time in Kirby Gann's “Anybody But Me.”   Then, we make the rounds with a hospital chaplain and look into the viewing room in Jacquelin Gorman's "Ghost Dance."

Unbound: Kirby Gann and Jacquelin Gorman on 'Windows Into Other Worlds'

Unbound is a new radio show focused on short fiction produced by Louisville Public Media and 89.3 WFPL, Louisville’s NPR radio station. The first season will be ten episodes of two authors on one theme. Awesome short stories read by memorable voices in new fiction. 

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