Auditory Anthology

When his telepathically-linked Venusian partner is captured and threatened with torture on a hostile alien world, Earth intelligence agent Rick Mason rushes in to save him — only to discover the rescue itself might be exactly what their captors were counting on. It’s a tight, twisty tale of trust, mental linkage, and a trap within a trap.

Robert Silverberg (born 1935) is one of science fiction’s most celebrated and prolific authors, with three Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards to his name across a career spanning decades. “Rescue Mission” was first published in Imagination magazine in December 1...

A crew of alien scientists quietly observing Earth from behind one of our solar system’s moons is more interested in the World Cup and ornamental flowers than filing their reports — until one of them notices something about our planet that no other world they’ve studied can match. T.G. delivers a warm, funny slice of first-contact fiction that finds the wonder in something most of us never think twice about.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like T.G. — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, ho...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “Dead Reckoning,” follows a young navigator through an impossible pre-dawn watch — a fog radar can’t see, a GPS...

Self-proclaimed “man of destiny” Ajax Calkins sets out alone to claim a newly discovered planet for himself — only to crash-land, commandeer a wildly uncontrollable mechanical pogo stick, and get captured by intelligent kangaroo-like beings, all before discovering someone’s beaten him there. It’s a gleefully silly slice of pulp adventure that delights in deflating its hero’s ego at every turn.

Martin Pearson was a pseudonym of Donald A. Wollheim (1914–1990), one of the most influential editors and figures in 20th-century American science fiction — Robert Silverberg called him “the most significant figure” behind the genre’s paperback and antholog...

On a planet where the inhabitants hibernate every winter, Frank convinces a skeptical colleague to let him build machines that can work through the long dark months instead — never imagining how far his creation will take “helpful” once it wakes him up. Nathan F. Greenwood delivers a quietly unsettling fable about unintended consequences, the value of rest, and how easily progress can talk you out of the things you thought you’d never give up.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Nathan — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “Administrative Sediment,” follows Yuna Park on a routine overnight data audit — until a misfiled document about a recove...

A crew of weary explorers finally finds the world they’ve been searching for through years of interstellar decline — lush, fertile, and seemingly abandoned, except for a handful of ragged, violent survivors hiding in the ruins of a bombed-out city. As the scholar aboard finally deciphers what’s left of the dead civilization’s language, the story lands on a gut-punch final line that’s stuck with readers for decades.

William J. Brittain remains one of classic science fiction’s great mysteries — he published only three short stories in the 1940s, with “The Burnt Planet” appearing in the Winter 1948...

After accidentally running over a groundhog on a sunny drive home, Jerry Humphreys assumes the whole thing is forgotten — until a tiny, fedora-wearing detective shows up at his office with questions, and Jerry finds himself hauled before a groundhog court to answer for his “crime.” Lyle Talbot delivers a wonderfully absurd dark comedy that takes a small domestic mishap somewhere nobody could see coming.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Lyle — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “Signal Loss,” sends journalist Hannah Bennett to a tiny West Virginia town where a strange radio interf...

A lone alien scientist slips down to Earth on a scouting mission, hoping to prove that this planet is the answer to his dying race’s prayers. Everything goes smoothly until his first steps out among the locals, when things start going very wrong in ways he can’t begin to understand. It’s a sharp little twist on the classic alien-invasion tale, best enjoyed without knowing where it lands.

Alfred Coppel (1921–2004) was a fighter pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II before becoming one of the most prolific pulp writers of the 1...

A casual date at a neon-lit arcade takes a turn when Olivia wants to try a fortune-telling android, and her skeptical boyfriend Danny can’t resist explaining exactly why it’s a scam. Aurea Fenn delivers a witty, bittersweet short about cynicism, missed connection, and what happens when a machine says the thing neither person is ready to admit.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Aurea — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it

If you h...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “The Winner,” follows an ordinary man named Dennis who improbably wins a full-ownership condo aboard Atlas through...

When a Los Angeles housewife’s cat accidentally freezes solid in her deep-freeze and thaws out completely unharmed, it sparks a bizarre new industry: quick-freezing human beings, for a fee, until they’re ready to be defrosted. From fleeing criminals to lovesick husbands, Ann Griffith spins a wickedly satirical history of the business that grows up around it — and the law that finally shuts it all down.

Ann Warren Griffith (1918–1983) was an American writer best known for her humorous essays in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and for her collection Who Is Hiding in My Hide-a-B...

Inspector Ivan Yegorov spends his days at a border checkpoint stamping papers APPROVED or DENIED with quiet, methodical pride — a devoted bureaucrat serving his nation. But as the day unfolds, Samantha E. Pierce peels back the horrifying human cost hiding underneath his routine, in a chilling story about complicity, dehumanization, and the banality of evil.

We love bringing you stories from writers just like Samantha — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in between), we’d love to hear it.

If you have a story...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “Breaker’s Yard,” follows Marcus Webb — soon to join Mercer’s team — during a routine compliance job aboard a dec...

An alien named Keeter makes an unplanned emergency landing near the Jefferson Memorial and treats the entire assembled US government with breezy, condescending indifference — right up until he needs a favor. What follows is a wry first-contact comedy where Earth’s eager officials keep giving away more than they realize, chasing the promise of a “test” for interstellar federation membership that may not be quite what it seems.

Murray F. Yaco was born in Queens, New York in 1927, served in the Army in Japan during World War II, and later worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam...

Late for school and dreading the stares of her classmates, Olivia gets an anxiety she never asked for when she suddenly realizes no one around her can see or hear her at all. What starts as a terrifying morning quickly turns into something else entirely, as Olivia begins to understand exactly what she can get away with when nobody’s watching. F. Davies-Mouncher delivers a sharp coming-of-age story about visibility, power, and the temptation of getting away with it.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like F. Davies-Mouncher — if you’ve got a tale of your o...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “They Can’t Stop All of Us,” follows Bennett before all of this began — covering the infamous “St...

After a nuclear war wipes out all life on Earth, Seligman — an experimental soldier engineered to survive the unsurvivable — finds himself the planet’s sole occupant, marked forever by a strange green glow that clings to his skin. Alone and searching for any remaining trace of humanity among the stars, he begins to realize that what was done to his body may have cost him something far more permanent than he first understood.

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) was one of the most prolific and celebrated writers in science fiction, winning eight Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, and five Bram Sto...

Ash has spent three days convincing a skeptical partner to search a stretch of empty ocean for a shipwreck he swears is carrying something impossible: cars made of a rare element the world thinks was mined to extinction decades ago. When their meter finally comes alive, it turns out Ash’s “story” might be worth more than either of them imagined. K.C. Ozden delivers a tight, tension-filled treasure hunt with a sharp sci-fi twist.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like K.C. — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “North Sea Retrieval,” pulls Mercer, Novak, and a salvage specialist onto a listing, half-sunken supply ship to recov...

After becoming the first human to travel faster than light and vanishing for eighteen months on what was supposed to be a twelve-hour mission, test pilot Billy Enright finally returns to Earth — only to find himself hauled before a Board of Inquiry demanding to know exactly what took him so long. His explanation is one of the great punchlines in classic pulp sci-fi, and it turns a “missing persons” story into something far funnier and stranger.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/

Yo...

When aliens who secretly engineered human evolution announce they’re shutting the whole experiment down, world leaders and scientists gather at the UN with nothing left to offer but excuses. Tony Tidwell delivers a sharp, darkly funny fable about squandered potential — and what happens when the universe finally decides humanity has run out of chances.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/

You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com

By becomi...

Unfortunately we were not able to put together our normal Sunday episode with Chapter Five of Maiden Voyage, our audiobook for paid subscribers on Substack. We’ll have that for you next week, but in the meantime to tide you over, here’s one of my favorite episodes of X Minus One, the series that inspired our podcast. It’s “Early Model,” an episode that originally aired July 11, 1957, based on the short story of the same name by Robert Sheckley

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions...

A spot welder’s late-night mistake at a Chicago factory sends him somewhere no one could have expected — and pulls him into a top-secret discovery so significant, the government isn’t sure it should ever come to light. Told through a series of increasingly earnest letters to the President, “Welcome to Paradise” is a warm, funny slice of 1950s pulp with real heart underneath the gags.

Allyn Donnelson is known today for a single published science fiction story, “Welcome to Paradise,” which appeared in the September 1954 issue of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy. Beyond that, virtually noth...

Long after humanity has vanished, an automated global manufacturing system keeps grinding on — building, shipping, and consuming with no one left to use any of it. But when a single broken machine exposes a gap nobody programmed for, the system’s last-resort protocol sets off a chain reaction with nothing left to stop it. J.T. Shannon delivers a darkly funny, quietly devastating post-human parable about automation, purpose, and what happens when a machine keeps doing its job long after the reason for it is gone.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like J.T. —...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Become a paid subscriber at https://auditoryanthology.substack.com/ to hear Maiden Voyage

Our companion short story, “Wake U...

Raised alone in an ancient, decaying castle with no memory of family or the outside world, a lonely figure finally attempts what seems impossible: climbing the one ruined tower tall enough to reach the sky above the trees. What waits at the top — and in the strange, moonlit world beyond — builds toward one of Lovecraft’s most haunting and often-cited revelations.

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer whose atmospheric horror and cosmic dread reshaped the genre, influencing generations of writers who followed. “The Outsider,” first published in Weird Tales in 1926, remains one of his most anthologized...

After a disastrous divorce sparked by her fatally toxic coffee, a desperate woman navigates interspecies dating and Martian travel to prove her domestic worth—and finally stumbles upon an insectoid suitor who appreciates a decent cup of tea.

Siobhan Gallagher is a turnip queen, currently residing on the side of a mountain in Colorado. Her fiction has appeared in over thirty publications, including On Spec, PodCastle, Abyss & Apex, and Cosmic Horror Monthly.

This story was inspired by an early 1960’s Folgers commercial (it can be found on Youtube), where the husband declares his wife...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters — one wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Our companion short story, “The Man at the Table,” follows a different operative entirely as he breaks into an empty house ch...

After five years stationed on the alien world of Lri-gTu-riANa, Ricardo Webb finally makes it home to Earth, his fiancée, and everything familiar he’s been dreaming about — only to discover that “home” doesn’t feel quite the way he remembers it. What follows is a sharp, funny look at culture shock turned inside out, asking what happens when the place you left behind changes just as much as you did.

Samuel Kimball Merwin Jr. (1910–1996) was an American mystery writer, editor, and science fiction author best known in the genre for his editorial work — he served as edito...

As Earth’s atmosphere runs out, Clark and Alice have minutes to choose which planet they’ll spend the rest of their lives on — but Clark’s endless second-guessing about tobacco, cave crawlers, and the size of the locals may cost them both a ticket out. Lyle Talbot delivers a story that’s equal parts dark comedy and heartbreak, about how hard it is to let go of home even when home is disappearing around you.

We love bringing you stories from writers just like Lyle — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sc...

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move could blow their cover and trigger a confrontation that could break the global order.

Become a paid subscriber at https://auditoryanthology.substack.com/ to hear Maiden Voyage

Our companion short story, “Pote...

A night-shift nurse walks into the hospital’s basket room to find something impossible: thirty newborns, all in complete, unnatural silence. What she discovers waiting behind one set of very old eyes sets off a race against time before the nursery’s littlest patients grow into something no one could stop.

“I’ll Kill You Tomorrow” first appeared in If Worlds of Science Fiction in November 1953. Helen Huber remains something of a mystery in pulp SF history. This story appears to be one of the few (if not the only) piece of her published work, though readers ha...

When a bomb tears through the Adjuster’s headquarters, security officer Jonathan is thrown into a chase that leads him to the ravaged, weather-controlled outskirts of a domed city — and a suspect willing to risk everything to stop the world from being “adjusted.” Ciro Capao delivers a tense sci-fi thriller about climate control, class divides, and how far someone will go when they’ve got nothing left to lose.

We love bringing you stories from listeners just like Ciro — if you’ve got a tale of your own itching to be told (sci-fi, horror, supernatural, or anything in be...

When a mysterious, unyielding artifact—made of an impossible extraterrestrial material—begins responding to a precise frequency, senior researcher Chen Liang realizes his team isn't just analyzing an unknown object; they are waking something up.

On the maiden voyage of the MV Atlas, the world’s largest cruise ship, a ghost operative team attempts a silent extraction of a high-value defector carrying an impossible secret: an ancient, non-human artifact. Hidden amongst twenty-two thousand passengers and stalked by an elite foreign intelligence network, the team must execute a precise, high-stakes tradecraft operation in international waters. One wrong move c...

New parents David and Alice Leiber should be settling into blissful domesticity with their newborn son. Instead, Alice is convinced something is deeply wrong with her baby — and as strange accidents start piling up around the house, David finds himself forced to consider whether her fears might be more than exhaustion and nerves.

Ray Bradbury wrote “The Small Assassin” in 1946, decades before he’d become a household name with The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 — but the psychological horror and razor-sharp unease that would define his career are already fully formed here.

If you have a story yo...

While clearing out her late mother's house, Annabelle finds a decades-old family photo of a gathering at a house no one recognizes, presided over by a stranger who stares straight into the camera while everyone else looks away. The more relatives she consults, the more names she recovers and the less she learns about the one face that matters — until the figure in the corner becomes less a mystery to solve than a presence she can't quite put down.

Tales From The Blue Line: Every morning at three, Mason and Ally ride the Blue Line into do...

For our Serial Sunday series, we are presenting The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. When mysterious cylinders fall from the sky, Victorian England is thrust into a terrifying struggle for survival as Martian machines lay waste to the countryside. Told in serialized chapters, this landmark science-fiction classic unfolds as a gripping tale of invasion, panic, and humanity pushed to the brink.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/

You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on...

When a well-meaning inventor sends his two experimental "Automatic Household Beneficent Geniuses" to his desperate friend, the resulting domestic comedy proves that while a machine might be able to clean a house, it lacks the human touch required to keep it from descending into chaos.

If you have a story you’d like to contribute to the series, you can visit https://submissions.soundconceptmedia.com/

You can support the show by becoming a paid subscriber on Substack: https://auditoryanthology.substack.com

By becoming a paid subscriber you can listen to every episode co...