Second Childhood by Clifford D. Simak Episode #86
Clifford D. Simak | August 1, 2023-
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Second Childhood by Clifford D. Simak Episode #86
Clifford D. Simak
SECOND CHILDHOOD
Episode #86 · Written by Clifford D. Simak · Narrated by Scott Miller
In a future where death has been engineered out of existence, Andrew Young has lived longer than any human was ever meant to. His life is filled with accomplishments, descendants, and centuries of responsibility—but none of it brings relief. Time no longer opens possibilities. It only adds weight.
When his request to end his life is denied, Young chooses a more radical path. He begins stripping away adulthood itself, rebuilding his surroundings to mirror a world where scale, memory, and meaning once felt new. What begins as a controlled attempt to escape exhaustion becomes a far riskier surrender, as his mind moves toward something it cannot fully plan or measure.
Second Childhood unfolds quietly, with mounting tension that comes not from action, but from uncertainty. The story asks how much of a person is built from memory, and whether erasing that memory is renewal or annihilation. Every step backward raises a single question: can innocence be reclaimed without losing the self entirely?
First published in 1951, this story reflects Clifford D. Simak’s distinctive approach to science fiction—one grounded in personal consequence rather than spectacle. While immortality often appears in fiction as a triumph, Simak treats it as a condition that must be endured, negotiated, and ultimately confronted on human terms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Clifford D. Simak was a central figure in American science fiction for decades, publishing stories in Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy, and other leading magazines from the 1930s onward. His work includes the fix-up novel City, the Hugo-winning Way Station, and numerous short stories that emphasize mood, memory, and moral pressure over technological display.
Second Childhood fits squarely within Simak’s recurring interest in time, identity, and the cost of progress. Rather than treating the future as a place of endless advancement, he focuses on the inner life of those forced to live with its consequences—an approach that has made his quieter stories endure long after louder visions have faded.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to Second Childhood by Clifford D. Simak — a vintage science fiction story where immortality forces one man to choose forgetting himself or living forever.
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CLIFFORD D. SIMAK SHORT STORIES
Few writers blended rural quiet with cosmic wonder the way Clifford D. Simak did.
Across decades of classic science fiction, Simak returned again and again to ordinary people confronted by extraordinary events — a stranger at the door, a signal from the stars, a small-town mystery that refuses to stay small. His prose is calm, measured, and deeply human, even when the universe presses in.
The stories below showcase Simak at his best — quiet streets that bend, visitors from impossible distances, gentle humor beside looming immensities, and endings that feel both intimate and vast.
- The Street That Wasn’t There by Clifford D. Simak
- The World That Couldn’t Be by Clifford D. Simak
- The Call from Beyond by Clifford D. Simak
- Mr. Meek—Musketeer by Clifford D. Simak
- Mr. Meek Plays Polo by Clifford D. Simak
- The Shipshape Miracle by Clifford D. Simak
- The Space Beasts by Clifford D. Simak
- Message from Mars by Clifford D. Simak
- Second Childhood by Clifford D. Simak
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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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