James Bryan's Podcast

The Furnished Room O. Henry Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side. Homeless, they have a hundred homes. They flit from furnished room to furnished room, transients forever--transients in abode, transients in heart and mind. They sing "Home, Sweet Home" in ragtime; they carry their lares et penates in...

The Open Window HH Munro (Saki) "My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel," said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; "in the meantime you must try and put up with me." Framton Nuttel endeavored to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal...

This is a long one (for a short story), and Faulkner is known for his use of words that are difficult to grasp and pronounce. So don't get stressed. Relax. And you will enjoy this to the end. WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house,...

Bartleby Herman Melville I am an old lawyer, and I have three men working for me. My business continued to grow and so I decided to get one more man to help write legal papers. I have met a great many people in my days, but the man who answered my advertisement was the strangest person I have ever heard of or met. He stood outside my office and waited for me to speak. He was a small man, quiet...

Narrator: A man stood on a railroad bridge in Alabama looking down into the swift waters of the Owl Creek River below. The mans hands were tied behind his back. There was a rope around his neck. The rope was tied to part of the bridge above him. Three soldiers of the northern army stood near the prisoner, waiting for their captains orders to hang him. Everybody was ready. The prisoner stood...

True! Nervous -- very, very nervous I had been and am! But why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses -- not destroyed them. Above all was the sense of hearing. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in the underworld. How, then, am I mad? Observe how healthily -- how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Narrator: The valley known as Sleepy Hollow hides from the world in the high hills of New York state. There are many stories told about the quiet valley. But the story that people believe most is about a man who rides a horse at night. The story says the man died many years ago during the American revolutionary war. His head was shot off. Every night he rises from his...

Strummin' Through the Ashes of Free Speech The college town of Crestview, Oregon, was a tinderbox in October 2025, its streets a circus of protest signs and kombucha-stained hoodies, the air thick with rage and Wi-Fi. Papa, a grizzled drifter with a face like a sun-baked saddle and eyes sharp as a hawk's talon, leaned against a graffiti-smeared lamppost, his busted six-string guitar slung across...

"4 Da Boys – Strummin' Through the North Korean Nightmare" Papa's playin A raw, off-key guitar riff, like a campfire tune twisted by a cold wind off the DMZ, backed by a gritty, defiant hum Alright, sons, huddle up by the fire. This is 4 Da Boys, where your old Papa, strums this beat-up guitar—soundin' like a rusty tractor tryin' to play "Boston" tune—and dishes the raw truth about our Fabulous...

"Strummin' Through the Scales of Justice" Papa's noodling A raw, off-key guitar riff, like a campfire tune twisted by a jailhouse wind, backed by a gritty, defiant hum Alright, sons, huddle up by the fire. This is 4 Da Boys, where Papa, strums this beat-up guitar—soundin' like a drunk mule tryin' to play "Sweet Home Alabama"—and dishes the raw truth about thinkin like a man. Tonight, we're makin'...