Welcome back, travelers! Every Monday I step into the booth and bring another lost world to life—tales of cosmic peril, daring explorers, and strange new realities. Pour your coffee, slip on your headphones, and let’s launch into another orbit of imagination.

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“Arena,” a story about a man forced to fight for humanity’s survival against an alien, inspired which Star Trek episode? (We’ll reveal the answer later in this issue!)

Every time we step into the booth — yes, it’s a real WhisperRoom 4242 recording booth — we do everything possible to honor these authors’ amazing work. That means pronouncing every word perfectly and bringing each character to life. For “The Man Without a Body” we found ourselves checking Merriam-Webster for words like buccinators and pterygoid. It slows us down, but giving you the best vintage sci-fi possible makes it worthwhile.

Robert Silverberg’s career spans more than seven decades — a master of every era of science fiction, from 1950s pulp to literary speculation. Few authors have combined imagination and intellect so seamlessly. And yes, out of all the writers we’ve featured on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, he’s the only one still alive today.

From The Day the Monsters Broke Loose to Postmark Ganymede and Monsters Who Once Were Men, Silverberg’s stories balance humanity and wonder with the sharp edge of social insight — reminding us why his legacy still shines so bright across the galactic airwaves.

Henry Slesar’s razor-sharp wit meets mid-century paranoia in A Message From Our Sponsor, first published in Infinity Science Fiction (October 1956). Long before targeted ads or data tracking, Slesar imagined a world where marketing doesn’t just sell to you — it owns you.

Blending satire, suspense, and a dash of black humor, this story turns consumer culture into a cautionary tale that still feels disturbingly current. It’s witty, unsettling, and pure speculative brilliance from one of sci-fi’s sharpest minds.

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“Love The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast! Scott’s narrations and characterizations sound like the voices I imagine when reading. I found the podcast on Spotify when I searched for ‘Sci-Fi,’ checked out the first story, and never looked back. Many thanks for an entertaining podcast that reminds me of the days when I subscribed to the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.”

— RickBase456 on Spotify

Homer was a shy Faderfield bachelor. His visitor was a beautiful Pleiades girl — and she had very different ideas about ownership, privacy, and morality.

Russ Winterbotham’s A Matter of Ethics blends humor, philosophy, and alien misunderstanding into one of the most human stories of the Atomic Age.

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First published in Astounding Science Fiction in August 1954, Tom Godwin’s The Cold Equations remains one of the most unforgettable — and most debated — stories in all of science fiction.

A lone pilot discovers a young stowaway aboard his emergency dispatch ship. The mission: deliver life-saving serum to a dying colony. The problem: there isn’t enough fuel for them both to survive. What follows is a story of duty, compassion, and the merciless laws of physics that care nothing for human tears.

Raw, tragic, and hauntingly real, The Cold Equations isn’t about villains or heroes — it’s about the cold, unbending truth of the frontier. Coming soon on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Don’t miss this week’s free vintage sci-fi stories — available for a limited time! Forward Lost Sci-Fi Weekly to a friend. Enjoy!!

Answer: “Arena” (Season 1, Episode 18, 1967)

The transmission fades, but the stories never stop echoing. My dad always said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing to the best of your ability.” Until the next signal — stay curious, stay inspired, and stay Lost in Sci-Fi.