Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick Episode #149

Philip K. Dick | November 27, 2023

Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick Episode #149
Philip K. Dick

BEYOND LIES THE WUB

Episode #149 · Written by Philip K. Dick · Narrated by Scott Miller

A seemingly harmless Martian creature is brought aboard a starship, destined to become the crew’s next meal—until it speaks, revealing a mind far beyond human expectations. What follows is a battle of philosophy, instinct, survival… and something far stranger.

When a spaceship crew loads its cargo for the return trip from Mars, no one thinks twice about the enormous, docile creature one crewman bought from a native for half a dollar. The Captain sees only a future meal—four hundred pounds of slow, greasy meat—but the creature, called a wub, has other plans. It speaks. It debates. It knows mythology, history, psychology, and ethics. And worst of all for the hungry crew, it has very strong feelings about not being eaten. Suddenly the men find themselves outmatched in a way they never imagined—not by strength or speed, but by thought.

“Beyond Lies the Wub” was Philip K. Dick’s first published short story, appearing in Planet Stories in July 1952. Even here, at the very beginning of his career, Dick demonstrated the ideas that would later make him legendary: the blurred line between human and alien, the fragility of identity, the arrogance of power, and the unsettling possibility that the universe is far stranger than we’re prepared to admit. The story begins like a joke about a talking pig and ends as something much darker, funnier, and more unforgettable—a classic example of early 1950s speculative fiction that still feels modern today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) became one of the most adapted and discussed sci-fi writers of the 20th century. His work inspired Blade Runner, Minority Report, The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, and many more films and series. Winner of the Hugo Award and known for bending the borders between reality and hallucination, Dick explored everything from simulated worlds to artificial intelligence, pre-crime police, drug-altered identity, parallel timelines, and the ethics of technology. With more than 120 short stories and 40 novels, he changed the genre forever—and it all started here, with a talking alien who refuses to be dinner.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick — a vintage sci-fi tale of a strange alien creature, human arrogance, and unexpected intelligence on a starship.