The Lottery

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In the lottery, a small town gathers to do a lottery. The head of every household draws a slip of paper out of this old black box. And then the member of the family that draws the card with the black dot on it is stones to death. It's one of those stories where you know what happens and knowing like what the twist is sort of ruins the story.

We double-dip a bit in this week's show, reading two short stories and proving that you don't have to have a ton of time to read something thought-provoking. The theme is "female authors writing about controversial-at-the-time ideas," and the stories are The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

One is about a misdiagnosed "hysterical" woman slowly going insane through lack of mental stimulation, one is about a seemingly innocuous small town that is slavishly devoted to its own traditions. Both remain subversive and retain their impact even today.

Oh yeah and we also talk about which grocery store animal mascot would win in a fight.

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