The Crawlers by Philip K. Dick Episode #114

Philip K. Dick | October 7, 2023

The Crawlers by Philip K. Dick Episode #114
Philip K. Dick

THE CRAWLERS

Episode #114 · Written by Philip K. Dick · Narrated by Scott Miller

The children born near the radiation lab weren’t human, at least not in any way people wanted to accept—and they were multiplying fast. But when the government finally decides to “solve” the problem, the crawlers prove they’re not done changing, building, or becoming something far more dangerous than anyone imagined.

They were born near the radiation lab—soft, crawling, half-human things that no one wanted to claim as children. At first there were only a few, then dozens, then enough that cars began running over them on lonely highways and farmers started moving away in fear. Ernest Gretry is sent from Washington to quietly “take care of the problem,” but when he sees the creatures up close—building, learning, forming a colony—he realizes the real threat isn’t simply that they exist, but how fast they are changing. They don’t walk. They don’t speak. But they think. And they build.

What begins as a cleanup operation turns into a moral nightmare as parents must decide whether to hand over their own mutated children, towns collapse under anxiety and silence, and the crawlers continue to grow their underground city—spreading, tunneling, preparing. The story starts as body horror and ends as something closer to cosmic inevitability. If humanity hoped to contain the mutants, it may already be too late… because the crawlers have plans of their own.

“The Crawlers” is classic Philip K. Dick: a brutal, thought-provoking collision of science fiction, paranoia, and social commentary written long before most readers were ready to face its ideas. Dick asks the hard question beneath every “invasion” story—what if the new species isn’t invading… what if it’s replacing us?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) reshaped science fiction by treating it as a laboratory for what-ifs about identity, perception, government power, and the fragile nature of reality. His novels and stories became the foundation for films like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Adjustment Bureau, and A Scanner Darkly. His work has been adapted into TV series, taught in universities, and debated by philosophers and futurists. Dick was nominated for the Hugo Award five times, won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and after his death received a special citation from the Library of America. More than forty years later, his writing still feels like tomorrow’s headlines—strange, unsettling, and dangerously plausible.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Crawlers by Philip K. Dick — a chilling vintage sci-fi tale of mutation, fear, and a new species rising where humanity least expects it.

PHILIP K. DICK SHORT STORIES

No writer has shaped The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast more profoundly than Philip K. Dick.

From the very beginning, Dick’s uneasy visions have pulsed at the heart of this show. Episode 1 featured The Hanging Stranger, a chilling tale of a corpse swaying in a public square while ordinary citizens hurry past as if nothing is wrong. That opening story set the tone for everything that followed — paranoia in broad daylight, reality bending at the edges, and the quiet suspicion that the world you trust has already been replaced.

Dick’s genius was not in rockets or distant galaxies alone. He brought the strange into living rooms, offices, schoolyards, and suburban streets. In The Father Thing, a young boy becomes convinced his father has been replaced by something wearing his face. Human Is asks whether a man who returns from space truly is the same person — or whether “better” might mean something far more unsettling. Adjustment Team reveals unseen bureaucrats pausing and resetting reality itself while one man accidentally slips between the cracks.

Some stories strike with dark humor. The Eyes Have It turns casual figures of speech into proof of alien invasion. Sales Pitch unleashes a relentless robotic salesman that refuses to take no for an answer. Others cut deeper. Foster, You’re Dead! exposes the fear-driven consumerism of the Cold War era. Breakfast at Twilight drops an unsuspecting family into the aftermath of atomic catastrophe.

Across more than thirty narrated stories, we’ve traveled through Dick’s shifting realities: the eerie colonization of Mars in Tony and the Beetles, the strange evolutionary leap in The Golden Man, the quiet dread of Beyond the Door, the aching nostalgia of Exhibit Piece, and the philosophical unease of The Turning Wheel. Whether he’s writing about android prejudice in James P. Crow, divine intrusion in Upon the Dull Earth, or time paradoxes in The Skull, Dick always returns to one question: what does it mean to be real?

No other author appears more often in our catalog. No other writer has unsettled us so consistently. Explore the stories below and step into the shifting, unstable, unforgettable worlds of Philip K. Dick — the writer who launched this podcast and continues to haunt it.

ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.8 million listens.

Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.

What listeners are saying:

★★★★★ “A legitimate Top Tier Pod. I can’t do justice to how good this podcast is, truly. The host has an affect and vocal style that’s just perfect. The stories are buried gems, sure, there’s problematic vocabulary but you have to enjoy it in the spirit it’s offered. I LOVE seeing how creative people from 40-50 years ago, imagined how the world would exist. It’s just glorious and I love it.”
— bwdesmo

★★★★★ “Your narration is so damn good. You’re so easy and pleasant to listen to.”
— Dimitrikorsakov2570

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.