The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories

The One That Got Away by Chad Oliver

02 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A stubborn mountain resort owner discovers that certain tourists will go to impossible lengths to protect their favorite fishing spot. Charlie Buckner...

The Thought Machine by Ray Cummings

01 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Three desperate thieves steal a machine that promises access to a hidden realm where every invention already exists, but what waits there responds to ...

The Measure of a Man by Randall Garrett

31 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Alfred Pendray has one chance to warn Earth before an enemy weapon turns the Sun into a killing firestorm, but every path home carries a price no sane...

The Gray Cloud by Walter Kubilius

30 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A brilliant scientist uncovers evidence that humanity’s greatest technological triumph may already have marked Earth for execution. As governments r...

The Human Element by Leo P. Kelley

29 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a future where every craving can be simulated and every discomfort erased, one aging man risks humiliation to remind people what genuine joy once f...

Cast The First Shadow by Marc Brandel

28 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ernie Combs spends his life hiding a secret that turns every friendship into a risk and every crowded street into dangerous territory. When he finally...

What A Man Believes by Robert Sheckley

27 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A dead man chooses what looks like the safest punishment in hell, convinced he understands the trap better than everyone before him. But as endless ti...

The Middle Of The Week After Next by Murray Leinster

26 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A taxi driver becomes the most feared man in the city when passengers keep vanishing from his cab, leaving behind only watches, coins, and scattered p...

Crisis on Titan by James R. Adams

25 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The patrolmen on Titan expected another brutal week guarding the chroidex mines, but a sudden disaster leaves them trapped outside their own fortress ...

Strangers to Straba by Carl Jacobi

24 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A drifting relic from the earliest days of interstellar travel crashes onto a lonely world, carrying the echo of a doomed voyage nobody fully understa...

The World In The Balance by J. P. Marshall

23 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A silent invader hangs over New York while entire buildings and war machines vanish without a sound. As governments prepare for surrender, one despera...

Factory In The Sky by Basil Wells

22 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Factory workers race to meet impossible wartime production demands while hidden enemies move through the endless machinery of a spinning city in space...

The Incubator Man by Wallace West

21 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For one hundred and fifty years, Columbus Norton has lived untouched by disease while the world outside studies him like a miracle trapped behind glas...

Star Chamber by H. B. Fyfe

20 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A lawman tracks a violent fugitive to a forgotten planet where no court can reach them and no backup will ever arrive. When the outlaw realizes the de...

The Outsider by H. P. Lovecraft

19 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A lonely wanderer escapes years of darkness and silence only to find that the world beyond his refuge recoils from him in terror. Every step toward wa...

Peter Merton's Private Mint by Harlan Ellison

17 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A desperate young executive discovers that his office safe has become a doorway to the future, and every exchange leaves him richer than before. But w...

The Maugham Obsession by August Derleth

17 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Quintus Maugham built a machine meant to serve him perfectly, but each improvement left him more uneasy in his own home. When a robot begins answering...

The Builders by Fox B. Holden

16 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The last great city on Earth lives for one purpose: building whatever forgotten machines can still be reconstructed from the ruins of a dead world. Wh...

Testing by Sam Merwin Jr.

15 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A routine military assignment drops Hannibal Pryor onto a forgotten world where the people have built a life no crowded empire could understand. With ...

The Vibration Wasps by Frank Belknap Long

14 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first photographs taken on Jupiter reveal towering shapes that watch the explorers’ ship through the mist. Inside the sealed cabin, the crew rea...

Dead Ringer by Lester Del Rey

13 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A reporter spends ten years chasing evidence that certain men do not stay dead, only to discover that every attempt to expose them pushes him closer t...

Message from Venus by Russ Winterbotham

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two exhausted spacemen gamble their lives on an impossible return from Venus while an isolated outpost waits for rescue that may never come. As Earth ...

The Secret of Kralitz by Henry Kuttner

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Beneath Castle Kralitz, a family ritual waits in darkness for the next heir to descend the hidden stairway and take his place among the dead. Franz Kr...

The Moon Devils by John Wyndham

10 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A discovery meant for museums turns deadly when something ancient refuses to stay buried and begins hunting the living. Trapped far from Earth, the cr...

The Derelict of Space by William Thurmond and Ray Cummings

09 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A silent ship drifts where no human craft should ever be, carrying the final moments of a journey that went terribly wrong. As the truth comes into fo...

The Hero by Elaine Wilber

08 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A crew stranded in comfort discovers that the one thing they cannot have begins to unravel their discipline and judgment. When one man claims he has f...

Traitor’s Choice by Paul W. Fairman

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man is forced to choose between the safety of one life and the fate of an entire world—and every second he delays tightens the grip on both. When ...

The Wellsprings of Space by Albert Teichner

06 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A breakthrough promises safe travel across the galaxy, using mysterious wells of newly created matter scattered through deep space. But when the first...

The Smart Ones by Jack Sharkey

05 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When survival becomes a series of terrible choices, intelligence alone offers no protection from consequence. The Smart Ones questions whether clevern...

Joe Carson's Weapon by James R. Adams

04 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two exhausted strangers track a boy across miles of dark road, convinced he holds something that could wipe out an entire world. When they finally cor...

Ely's Automatic Housemaid by Elizabeth W. Bellamy

03 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A machine built to handle every chore begins to push past its limits, turning routine tasks into something far more dangerous. As the house slips out ...

The Chasm by Bryce Walton

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An old soldier must decide whether to flee with the last food or stay and face the Children who hunt them through the ruins. When a single voice calls...

Run, Little Monster! by Chester S. Geier

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Hunted across a broken countryside, a frightened girl discovers a power that keeps her hidden—but not safe. When the men and dogs close in, she must...

Mimsy’s Joke by Millard Grimes

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Humanity finally reaches Mars expecting discovery, only to stumble into a revelation that quietly rewrites Earth’s entire history. What begins as tr...

The Red Brain by Donald Wandrei

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the last surviving star, a civilization that has mastered time, matter, and life itself faces a slow extinction they cannot stop. When a newly crea...

I'll Kill You Tomorrow by Helen Huber

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A nurse and a young doctor discover something inside the newborns that will not stay small for long. If they act, they risk becoming monsters themselv...

Snowstorm on Mars by Sam Merwin Jr.

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On Mars, the future of an entire colony may depend on a herd of cattle that suddenly begin behaving like something else is thinking through their eyes...

Pink Grass Planet by Sam Merwin Jr.

20 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After years away, a man returns to the world he fought to remember—only to find it quietly changing into something he thought he’d left behind. Fa...

The Passenger by Kenneth Harmon

19 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

She thinks she’s found someone who understands her after years of isolation, someone waiting just a few decks below with a voice that feels closer t...

The Towers of Titan by Ben Bova

18 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A machine older than recorded history hums in the darkness of Titan, and the longer humanity studies it, the more it begins to feel watched. When the ...

This Means War! by A. Bertram Chandler

15 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An expedition returns from the Third Planet with its numbers broken and its confidence shaken. What was once a routine operation has turned into somet...

The Miserly Robot by R. J. Rice

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man desperate for freedom from his own finances makes a decision he can’t undo. But when control finally slips into his hands, he discovers too la...

The Last of the Deliverers by Poul Anderson

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two relics of a vanished political age stumble into a town that no longer believes in either of them. When neither can accept a world that has quietly...

The Mordant by Merab Eberle

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

She got exactly what she wanted—years without a single line, a face untouched by time, a voice that never faltered. But as everything around her cha...

The Sweeper of Loray by Robert Sheckley

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A discovery that could rewrite medicine instead threatens to erase the man who reaches for it first. Now one decision must be made—protect the truth...

The Fastest Draw by Larry Eisenberg

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

He builds the perfect opponent, then realizes the contest won’t mean anything unless it can truly cost him something. When he finally forces that mo...

Cat and Mouse by Ralph Williams

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A seasoned trapper finds a doorway to a richer land—but something on the other side is already feeding and watching. When the hunting turns both way...

One-Shot by James Blish

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A decision has to be made before the clock runs out, and every method designed to produce certainty keeps failing. With millions of lives in the balan...

The Long Question by David Mason

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A quiet accountant accepts a game-show challenge that promises a fortune if he can predict the world’s headlines after months cut off from civilizat...

The Gate to Xoran by Hal K. Wells

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A brilliant alien intelligence has quietly crossed impossible distances, and Earth has no idea it has already been chosen. When one man uncovers the t...

Death of a Spaceman by Walter M. Miller Jr.

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An old spaceman lies dying while a rocket prepares for launch nearby. As the final countdown approaches, he fights for one last moment that proves his...

The Body-Masters by Frank Belknap Long

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a future where emotion is engineered and desire is regulated, a respected surgeon begins to sense a flaw in the system he helps enforce. When doctr...

The Crowded Colony by Jerome Bixby

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Human explorers believe they’ve conquered a fading Martian village and are reshaping its future. But inside one quiet back room, a different group s...

When the Moon Turned Green by Hal K. Wells

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The night the moon turns an eerie green, every living creature on Earth falls into a silent paralysis—except one scientist who stumbles onto the sec...

Failure on Titan by Robert Abernathy

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A powerful man on a lonely Saturnian moon believes he has found the key to ruling the Solar System. But when control slips for a single moment, the mo...

Murder Beneath the Polar Ice by Hayden Howard

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Beneath the Arctic ice, a diver obsessed with life finds himself forced to choose who deserves to live when machines and men collide in silence. When ...

Old Friends are the Best by Jack Sharkey

10 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Earth’s greatest scientific curiosity becomes a harmless garden plant—until its quiet growth begins to tilt the world itself. As gravity shifts an...

The Man From 2071 by Sewell Peaslee Wright

08 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A brilliant mind steps beyond his own century and discovers that knowledge itself can become the most dangerous weapon imaginable. When ambition outru...

Salvage in Space by Jack Williamson

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A lone meteor miner risks everything to board a drifting interplanetary liner, only to find blood on the deck and something unseen stalking the corrid...

The Last Letter by Fritz Leiber

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where machines process every thought and feeling into profitable noise, one young man risks catastrophe for a message meant for one pair of...

The Next Time We Die by Robert Moore Williams

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Pinned down on a barren world, two humans fight to survive while unseen enemies stalk them across the sand. With no safe path forward and nowhere left...

Strange Exodus by Robert Abernathy

03 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Earth has already been stripped bare, and one exhausted scientist discovers that survival may require a change no one ever imagined making. To live, h...

Patch by William Shedenhelm

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An automated giant is crippled in space, and the only man who can save it swore he would never touch a liner again. To keep hundreds alive, Pop Gillet...

A Long Way Back by Ben Bova

01 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

He was sent into orbit to assemble the machine that would save what was left of civilization—but finishing the job may mean never coming home. With ...

Quixote And The Windmill by Poul Anderson

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a world where machines have ended hunger and hardship, two men discover that being unnecessary can hurt more than being poor. When they confront th...

Castaway by A. Bertram Chandler

27 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

He escapes drowning only to discover that the island holding him is not as empty as it seems. When he finds a machine that might change more than his ...

The Man Who Knew Everything by Randall Garrett

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man once dismissed as harmless suddenly becomes the most dangerous intelligence asset on Earth. When every secret he speaks could ignite a war, he m...

Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon

25 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A single mind reshapes the future in silence—until power attracts the wrong kind of attention. When creation accelerates beyond control, the price o...

The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

He wanted to look beyond time and prove that history was still alive, waiting in hidden dimensions. What answered him from those angles was patient, h...

The Ultimate Problem by Victor Rousseau

22 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A brilliant physician risks his own life to force open the border between body and soul, determined to correct what he believes nature has failed t...

The Ultimate World by Bryce Walton

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A civilization that has solved every problem sends one man into the far future to decide whether life itself should continue. What he discovers forces...

The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A retired physicist triggers an experiment he knows he cannot reverse, forcing him to choose between unchecked growth and deliberate disappearance. As...

The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A woman is offered one wish, but every choice comes with a price that can’t be escaped or softened. As the clock runs down, she must decide whether ...

Death Wish by Robert Sheckley

18 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Three men realize their ship will never slow down, and the silence between them grows more dangerous than empty space. When a final option appears, it...

Helen O'Loy by Lester Del Rey

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

They built a machine to handle chores, not to wait by the door or feel the sting of being left behind. When affection stops being programmable, someon...

World's End by Henry Kuttner

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When a glimpse of tomorrow reveals how the world is undone, a scientist is given a narrow window to act. The risk isn’t failure—but coming back un...

Welcome to Paradise by Allyn Donnelson

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A factory worker wakes up far from Earth after a routine job triggers something no one warned him about. What he learns there forces a choice between ...

Final Exam by Sam Merwin Jr.

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Earth’s most powerful leader discovers that the counsel he trusted most may soon be gone—just as the stakes become irreversible. When guidance dis...

Seller of the Sky by Dave Dryfoos

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A wandering old man keeps selling something no one believes can still exist, and two children decide it’s time to demand proof. What follows forces ...

Wainer by Michael Shaara

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a future that prizes engineered clarity and measurable usefulness, one man lives with a body and mind that refuse to fit. When the reason for his d...

Citizen Jell by Michael Shaara

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

He has the power to fix what everyone else must endure, yet every use of that power risks ending the quiet life he has built. When the cost of doing n...

Up For Renewal by Lucius Daniel

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a future where youth is enforced and aging is treated like a moral failure, one man faces a decision that could cost him everything he values. Love...

Zeritsky’s Law by Ann Griffith

08 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What if time itself could be paused—bought, sold, and exploited by anyone with enough money and nerve? Zeritsky’s Law explores the terrifying soci...

The Age Of Kindness by Arthur Sellings

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a future that has perfected compassion, one man discovers that kindness can be its own kind of cruelty. When humanity finally reaches for the stars...

Peacemaker by Alan E. Nourse

04 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A lone envoy risks everything to stop a quiet expansion that could ignite a catastrophic war. When fear replaces curiosity, survival depends on whethe...

The Big Tick by Ross Rocklynne

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A man becomes convinced that time itself is counting him down, and every decision suddenly feels fatal. When certainty collides with control, survival...

Thompson's Cat by Robert Moore Williams

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A routine exploration turns into a test of leadership when unseen danger begins claiming lives without warning. What follows is a tense struggle to un...

The Worlds of Joe Shannon by Frank M. Robinson

01 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What if the people who feel out of place aren’t broken — but simply living in the wrong world? One man’s brilliant solution promises escape, ful...

Some Like It Cold by Dave Dryfoos

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Across unimaginable scales of time and space, a young explorer risks everything to prove that intelligence can bloom in the most unlikely conditions. ...

Time Trap by Frank Belknap Long

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A lone explorer confronts a force that fractures identity, memory, and destiny itself. In a place where time refuses to behave, survival depends on fa...

The Invader by Alfred Coppel

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An intelligence from beyond Earth arrives convinced it has found salvation for its dying race. What follows is a terrifying collision between certaint...

Electronic Landslide by Clyde Hostetter

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When technology enters politics, human instincts collide with inhuman logic. What begins as a clever shortcut toward power escalates into a reckoning ...

Keepers of the House by Lester Del Rey

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Drawn by a summons he does not understand, a solitary wanderer follows an old path back into forgotten places. What he finds there tests instinct, loy...

We're Off to Mars! by Joe Gibson

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A mysterious delivery brings Joe Linger a device that can reshape reality itself — and suddenly the universe feels wide open. But with limitless pow...

Last Resort by Stephen Bartholomew

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Far from help and beyond certainty, a returning astronaut confronts a problem that logic cannot solve. Survival depends on a forbidden experiment that...

They Reached for the Moon by William Oberfield

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

They took years to build the rocket and minutes to launch it, sending two ordinary men where others had vanished forever. Officially, it was a simple ...

Death Walks on Mars by Alan J. Ramm

18 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the deadly sands of Mars, a grieving pioneer turns survival into a ruthless game of patience, grit, and vengeance. As the desert closes in, every m...

An Eye for the Ladies by Milton Lesser

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A down-on-his-luck private detective takes the strangest case of his life when an alien asks him to track down his missing wife. What follows is a whi...

The Wounded by Philip José Farmer

11 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A violin-carrying stranger moves quietly through glittering parties, leaving invisible wounds that only a rare few can truly see. But when someone fin...

The Vegans Were Curious by Winston Marks

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A curious Sirian pauses on his journey to investigate strange, nuclear-playing creatures on a small blue planet. What begins as a casual study becomes...