Changeling by Ray Bradbury Episode #230
Ray Bradbury | July 1, 2024-
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Changeling by Ray Bradbury Episode #230
Ray Bradbury
CHANGELING
Episode #230 · Written by Ray Bradbury · Narrated by Scott Miller
CHANGELING takes place almost entirely within a single room, yet it never feels contained. The tension grows from intimate gestures that should feel reassuring but instead provoke doubt. A familiar presence begins to feel fractionally wrong, and that fraction is enough to unsettle everything that follows.
Bradbury builds unease through repetition, politeness, and patience rather than spectacle. Each attempt at reassurance sharpens suspicion. The story refuses to offer easy proof or clean explanations, forcing its central character to act without certainty. What begins as quiet discomfort escalates into a confrontation where love and vigilance cannot coexist.
The power of CHANGELING lies in its restraint. There are no warnings, no visible transformations, and no dramatic reveals to rely on. The danger emerges from timing, from delay, and from how long someone is willing to live with doubt before choosing violence or surrender.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ray Bradbury published hundreds of stories across magazines including Weird Tales, Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, and Astounding Science Fiction. His career spanned more than five decades, producing landmark works such as The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, and short fiction including “The Veldt” and “There Will Come Soft Rains.” CHANGELING belongs to a group of Bradbury stories that relocate science fiction from the laboratory to the living room, using speculative ideas to expose private fears that technology only amplifies.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to Changeling by Ray Bradbury — a chilling work of vintage science fiction where love, doubt, and imitation collide behind closed doors.
RELATED STORIES
Few writers shaped the emotional landscape of classic science fiction the way Ray Bradbury did.
Bradbury did not rely on hardware or technical spectacle to make the future feel real. He filled rockets with longing, placed ghosts in small towns, and turned distant planets into mirrors held up to the human heart. Whether he was writing about children seduced by virtual worlds, lonely travelers on Mars, or quiet suburban lives unraveling under strange pressure, his stories pulse with warmth, dread, nostalgia, and wonder.
On The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast we’ve explored Bradbury’s astonishing range. In The Veldt (also known as The World the Children Made), technology grants children terrifying power over their parents. Asleep in Armageddon traps a lone astronaut on a hostile world where even the wind seems alive. Dwellers in Silence carries us across the red deserts of Mars, where hope flickers against ancient ruins.
Then there are the quieter shocks: Referent, which exposes envy and obsession with razor precision. Defense Mech and The Monster Maker, where invention and ambition twist into unintended consequences. Even in collaborations like Final Victim (with Henry Hasse), Bradbury’s touch is unmistakable.
From the cold Martian well in The One Who Waits, where an ancient entity waits patiently beneath the sand for new flesh and new thoughts, to Martian longing in The Visitor, from the biting irony of Changeling to the haunting unease of Death Wish, these selections reveal a writer who could make a single image linger for decades. Explore the stories below and experience the voice that helped define vintage science fiction for generations.
- The Veldt (The World the Children Made) by Ray Bradbury
- Outcast of the Stars by Ray Bradbury
- The Creatures That Time Forgot by Ray Bradbury
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- Lazarus, Come Forth by Ray Bradbury
- It Burns Me Up by Ray Bradbury
- Defense Mech by Ray Bradbury
- A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury
- Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury
- The Monster Maker by Ray Bradbury
- Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury
- The Visitor by Ray Bradbury
- Morgue Ship by Ray Bradbury
- The Shape of Things by Ray Bradbury
- Referent by Ray Bradbury
- Final Victim by Ray Bradbury and Henry Hasse
- Death Wish by Ray Bradbury
- Changeling by Ray Bradbury
- Undersea Guardians by Ray Bradbury
- The One Who Waits by Ray Bradbury
- Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury
- And Then—The Silence by Ray Bradbury
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 3.7 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:
★★★★★
“Amazing show. Long time listener and big fan. I’ll always share and listen, thank you for bringing these sci-fi stories back to life for us!”
— orcababe
★★★★★
“Excellent podcast! This podcast features short stories from the “good old days” of science fiction- the era of the all-time grand masters of the form. Thank you so much for exposing the younger generations to these great authors in such an entertaining way. Scott’s narration is clear and enthusiastically animated, even after nearly 500 episodes! Your dedication (and stamina) is admirable. Well done, and thank you.”
— BobLNYS
Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.
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