A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Short story by Flannery O'ConnorWikipedia
11
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 11 mentions across 8 episodes found for "A Good Man Is Hard to Find".
Nov 5, 2026
Brendon HolderGUEST
But it is a short story collection.
Brendon HolderGUEST
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find, which...
Brendon HolderGUEST
Another, like, problematic phase.
Brendon HolderGUEST
That white lady be writing down, okay? But I...
Gregory CrosbyGUEST
Just read Flannery O'Connor.
Gregory CrosbyGUEST
If you've never read Flannery O'Connor, if you've never read A Good Man is Hard to Find, you're missing out on one of the great short stories and great villains.
Gregory CrosbyGUEST
of the 20th century literature i i you know i read wise blood and then watch john houston's unhinged version of felon o'connor's novel because brad dora is it is the if i had to pick like the all-time great brad dorff performance it would be wise blood all right i'm done
Jeff MooreHOST
yeah so there was a story and i i read a story in an erotic horror collection called a hard man is good to find Oh, jeez.
Adrian Van YoungGUEST
And it makes there's no one else like her.
Sebastian LangdellHOST
I return often in my mind to like the last two pages of A Good Man is Hard to Find, which I think is exactly what you're talking about.
Sebastian LangdellHOST
Right.
Sebastian LangdellHOST
Like that tension between religious culture, the numinous and chaos.
Shane CashmanGUEST
And, you know, so it's like a costume, though, because on the inside, they're rotten people, you know.
Shane CashmanGUEST
And one of her favorites, one of my favorite stories from her is A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Shane CashmanGUEST
It is brutal.
Shane CashmanGUEST
She kind of writes with almost like an Old Testament violence.
KatieHOST
And as I read these stories, I'm like, man.
Jonathan RogersGUEST
Did you start with A Good Man is Hard to Find? Is that the story you started with? I
KatieHOST
did start with that one.
KatieHOST
These things come out of nowhere in these stories because short stories, you know, you don't really get a back of the book blurb that tells you what it's about.
9 MINS LATER
Jonathan RogersGUEST
Even at the beginning of the story, she's the kind of person who couldn't possibly humble herself enough to receive, to acknowledge that she needs something that she doesn't already have.
Jonathan RogersGUEST
So Revelation is a great place to start.
Jonathan RogersGUEST
And once you see that pattern, you can make even a story like A Good Man is Hard to Find, which was mistaken as people read it as it was some sort of nihilistic story.
KatieHOST
oh
Sim KernGUEST
So I mean, I'm not sure I would say spite, but yeah, it...
Sim KernGUEST
So Real Sugar is Hard to Find, if the title sounds sort of vaguely familiar, it's because it's sort of a chopped and screwed climate change version of A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor, which was one of these stories that I just ended up having, throughout my, you know, uh, schooling I had a number of teachers assign, I ha- I was assigned it three times, um, just by different teachers at different-
Clara Sherley-AppelHOST
Yeah
Sim KernGUEST
... schools, um, twice I think in, uh, I think in eighth grade, and then in high school, and then again in college.
Sim KernGUEST
You know, all of the sort of social services we normally rely on are down, and then all of a sudden people start being really wonderful to each other and helping each other and sharing resources and doing whatever they can to sort of survive and get through and I know that doesn't happen everywhere after every natural disaster or crisis, but I think it's the more common response.
Clara Sherley-AppelHOST
Mm.
Sim KernGUEST
And so that really informed my sort of view of, of other people and of neighbors, um, and it's, it's totally diametrically opposed to the kind of strangers are danger idea in A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Sim KernGUEST
So I wrote this story, Real Sugar is Hard to Find.
Matthew YglesiasHOST
Hmm.
Jerusalem DemsasHOST
Um, one, I mean, her, if you've read one story, it's probably A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Jerusalem DemsasHOST
That's where that phrase also comes from, I think.
Jerusalem DemsasHOST
Well, I read it in college, and it was, uh, it was great.
9 MINS LATER
Matthew YglesiasHOST
I'm going to now
Jerusalem DemsasHOST
...
Jerusalem DemsasHOST
I'm, I'll send you, I'll send you A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Matthew YglesiasHOST
Yeah.
Iseult GillespieNARRATOR
Even as O'Connor probes the most unsavory aspects of humanity, she leaves the door to redemption open a crack.
Iseult GillespieNARRATOR
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, she redeems an insufferable grandmother for forgiving a hardened criminal, even as he closes in on her family.
Iseult GillespieNARRATOR
Though we might balk at the price the woman pays for this redemption, we're forced to confront the nuance in moments we might otherwise consider purely violent or evil.
Iseult GillespieNARRATOR
O'Connor's mastery of the grotesque and her explorations of the insularity and superstition of the South led her to be classified as a Southern Gothic writer.