Hi, I'm Deborah Treesman, fiction editor of The New Yorker and host of the New Yorker Fiction

podcast. On the podcast, I ask a great contemporary writer to select a favorite story from

the magazine's almost 100-year archive to read and discuss. Together, we delve into the story,

exploring its themes, its style, and what makes fiction work.

You can listen to authors like Otessa Moshweg talk about why we write.

Story, or attaching a story or creating a story, is this inclination that we all have to stop spinning.

And you can hear writers like George Saunders discuss the nature of storytelling.

On the first read, you accept these things as descriptions, and they make you see the scene.

But every line is a chance to inflect the reader's mind.

You'll discover new favorite authors and read old favorites in new ways.

Episodes of the New Yorker Fiction podcast are released on the first of every month.

Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

From PRX, this is Songwriter, the podcast that turns stories into songs.

My name is Ben Arthur.

Season 6 of Songwriter is made possible by a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation.

In each episode, we've been exploring elements of human flourishing.

And along with the usual stories and songs written in response,

I've been including the perspective of scientists who study that particular element of flourishing.

Today's episode features a conversation with Dr. Salma Musa, who studies polarization and empathy, as well as a brand new song from H. Sino of the band Mashruailela.

But first, a poem that inspires it all.

Music at all.

My name is Halalian.

...