THE ULTIMATE PARADOX

Episode #496 · Written by Thorp McClusky · Narrated by Scott Miller

Dr. Charles Severance is not surprised when his experiment works. He built it carefully, tested it mentally for years, and understands the cost before he activates it. What he cannot fully predict is how quickly controlled growth becomes an ongoing necessity, forcing him into a journey where stopping is often more dangerous than continuing.

The story unfolds as a sequence of lived decisions rather than a spectacle of destruction. Worlds pass beneath his feet, universes compress into passing details, and survival becomes a matter of timing, density, and oxygen rather than heroics. Each new environment offers possibility, then quietly withdraws it, leaving Severance to choose whether to adapt or move on.

Rather than racing toward a climax, The Ultimate Paradox builds pressure through accumulation. The farther Severance travels, the more apparent it becomes that scale itself carries consequences. By the time familiarity returns, the listener is left to question whether anything encountered along the way can truly be left behind.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thorp McClusky was an early contributor to American speculative fiction magazines, with stories appearing in Weird Tales during the 1930s. His work frequently combined detailed physical mechanisms with unsettling implications, favoring methodical escalation over shock. The Ultimate Paradox represents his most expansive story, using speculative physics as a framework to examine permanence and the limits of human endurance.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky — as a physicist unleashes an experiment that cannot be reversed and learns that stopping may be deadlier than continuing.

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