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.

Today, we have a brand new story written by Turkish journalist and author

and my old friend, Asli Perker, and a song written in response by musician, poet, and author,

Tuna Kidmichi. Like all episodes in season six, this was made possible by a grant from

Templeton World Charity Foundation.

And as part of that, I'll be speaking with Dr. Itier-Ehrart about empathy, forgiveness, and polarization.

We begin with a conversation I had with Asli at her Istanbul apartment.

What I'm writing my books, her Istanbul apartment.

When I'm writing my books, once I move to the next book, I forget about the previous one.

Sometimes the names or the places. But I remember when I first wrote this, as I said here, it is very honest, I really cried.

...