THE LONG QUESTION

Episode #519 · Written by David Mason · Narrated by Scott Miller

What would you do if someone offered you a hundred thousand dollars for predicting the future?

Don Gerson, a quiet accountant with a talent for careful reasoning, wins the chance to try. A television quiz program sends him to a small island for two months with nothing but books, magazines, and his own logic. When he returns, he must answer questions about events that occurred while he was cut off from the world. If he guesses well enough, the money is his.

At first Don treats the challenge like a complicated puzzle. He studies politics, science, sports, and economics, writing page after page of possible developments. Elections might swing one way. A famous scientist might announce a discovery. A championship team might rise or fall. His notes slowly grow into something larger than guesses. They become a sweeping timeline of the years ahead.

But isolation does strange things to a person’s sense of time. The routines of ordinary life vanish. Predictions stretch further forward. Don begins outlining decades, then centuries, imagining the shape of the world long after the quiz show cameras have turned elsewhere.

Then a troubling fact appears. The helicopter that was supposed to collect him never returns.

What began as preparation for a television stunt becomes something entirely different. Alone on the island, Don continues writing a history of the future, filling volume after volume with the events of centuries yet to come. The money no longer matters. The only question left is how far the future can be written before the present disappears.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Mason published science fiction during the mid-twentieth century when magazine anthologies and radio programs helped bring speculative fiction to a wide audience. “The Long Question” reflects the period’s fascination with game shows and the growing public interest in science and technology.

This story imagines the future not through machines or laboratories but through the reasoning of an ordinary man left alone with books and time. The result is a quiet, haunting piece that turns a game-show premise into a reflection on knowledge, curiosity, and the long reach of imagination.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Long Question by David Mason — a vintage science fiction short story where a quiz-show challenge leaves one man predicting the future alone on a deserted island.

LOST SCI-FI PREMIUM

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 43 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 4.2 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:

★★★★★ “Great stories, well narrated! Still loving Scott’s excellent selections, narration and overall quality of the production.”
— ronny23

★★★★★ “What are you waiting for? I found this podcast through my library’s app. But while my library app allows for 5 audio book check-outs a month, this podcast has no constraints. The audio is clear, the stories and well read, and the selection is varied enough that I have not heard most of these stories. I am only a recent lister, but I am already 30 episodes in.”
— M Coats

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.

📬 JOIN LOST SCI-FI WEEKLY

40,000+ Listeners Can’t Be Wrong

Get vintage sci-fi stories, podcast episodes, and surprises every Monday.

FREE SCI-FI EVERY WEEK

✅ Check your email and confirm — that unlocks your free sci-fi downloads.

No spam in this galaxy. You can eject anytime.