FOREVER

Episode #360 · Written by Robert Sheckley · Narrated by Scott Miller

Charles Dennison, a quiet, disciplined plant biologist, has spent years shaping an idea that begins as a simple curiosity—until it expands into the most transformative discovery imaginable: a drug that grants practical immortality. After cautious experimentation and slow, methodical work, Dennison finally has the proof he needs. All that remains is to file the patent and share his breakthrough with the world. But the world is already watching him. The moment he steps into a New York subway, he becomes prey to forces far more determined, coordinated, and ruthless than any he could have imagined.

Dennison’s attempt to evade capture spirals into a desperate chase through the city, where undertaker-like pursuers accuse him of theft as they close in from all sides. When he awakens in a hidden facility deep underground, he learns an unsettling truth: immortality has existed for decades, guarded by a clandestine organization that collects suppressed inventions—world-changing technologies the public never sees. In the name of “Earth’s welfare,” they believe that only a permanent elite, stabilized by immortality, should shape humanity’s future. Anyone who discovers the serum independently is captured and locked away forever.

But in the depths of this subterranean prison, Dennison finds a different group: scientists, innovators, and creators who refuse to surrender. They call themselves the Immortality Club, and they’ve spent decades planning their escape, determined to reveal the truth and end the shadow rule above them. With forever ahead of them—and nothing to lose—they are committed to a project that may take centuries: Project Forever.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Sheckley stands among the most imaginative voices of the Golden Age and New Wave eras, a writer whose brilliant conceptual twists and razor-sharp satire reshaped the possibilities of short-form science fiction. Born in 1928, Sheckley’s work appeared in nearly every major magazine of the time, where he quickly gained a reputation for humor, philosophical speculation, and the ability to dismantle social assumptions with a single clever premise. His stories often explore what happens when ordinary people collide with extraordinary circumstances—bureaucracies gone mad, technologies with unintended consequences, and systems built with impeccable logic but questionable morality.

Across his prolific career, Sheckley wrote hundreds of stories, numerous novels, and several screenplays, influencing generations of writers, filmmakers, and creators. His ideas echo in the works of Douglas Adams, John Scalzi, Philip K. Dick, and countless others who admired his playful yet incisive storytelling. Whether comedic, suspenseful, or deeply reflective, Sheckley’s fiction remains timeless—always surprising, always inventive, and always unmistakably his.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Forever by Robert Sheckley — a vintage science fiction story about an inventor’s flight for survival after creating an immortality serum.

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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.

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