Simon Rich explored dog missed connections ads and the sad life history of a condom. Rob Davidson read the kind of emo story "First Position" from his collection The Farther Shore. Diane Weipert told of dead teenagers stealing the energy from the living, in a scene from her Wattpad.com sensation The Waking Moon. Nahid Fattahi talked of the Taliban and Terry Gross and Taylor Swift. Julie Gengo, subbing for Yvonne Daley who had to cancel, brought a story of a woman who channels alarming information from coins in a fountain.