The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories

A brilliant physician risks his own life to force open the border between body and soul, determined to correct what he believes nature has failed to complete. When the experiment ends and only one flame returns, his assistant must decide whether to protect a dangerous legacy—or let it rise again in a new form. The Ultimate Problem by Victor Rousseau. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Victor Rousseau joins us on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast for the first time today.

Born in Belgium in 1879, Rousseau was educated in Europe before emigrating to the United States as a young man. He eventually settled in New York, where he moved from journalism and translation work into fiction. Like many early pulp writers, he didn’t begin in science fiction alone. He wrote adventure stories, historical fiction, and romances, building a reputation for fast-paced storytelling long before the science fiction boom fully took shape.

Rousseau became a regular presence in magazines, Adventure, Argosy, and later Weird Tales. Over the course of his career, Rousseau wrote dozens of novels and a large body of short fiction across multiple genres. In science fiction alone, he produced almost 100 short stories and several novels, most of them in the 1920s and 30s.

The Ultimate Problem appeared in U.S. newspapers in 1911. We found it in the Stevens Point Journal of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Friday, March 3, 1911, published under Victor Rousseau’s H. M. Egbert byline.

Sixteen years later it was published in the July 1927 issue of Weird Tales Magazine on page 77, The Ultimate Problem by Victor Rousseau…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, He wanted to look beyond time and prove that history was still alive, waiting in hidden dimensions. What answered him from those angles was patient, hungry, and already on his scent. The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long.

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A civilization that has solved every problem sends one man into the far future to decide whether life itself should continue. What he discovers forces a choice no perfect world can face without risking its own end. The Ultimate World by Bryce Walton. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.
We want to give a huge thank you to Miriam, who just bought us five coffees ☕☕☕☕☕

Miriam wrote: “I love your podcast. I’m a big sci-fi fan, and listen to your podcast first thing in the morning drinking my coffee & playing with my cats while waking up. Thanks for starting my day in such a great way.”

Miriam, that means more than you know.

The idea that Lost Sci-Fi is part of your morning routine — coffee in hand, cats nearby, classic science fiction in your ears — that’s exactly why we do this.

If you’ve been enjoying the podcast and would like to support what we’re building, there’s a “Buy Me a Coffee” link in the description.
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And Miriam — this episode is for you and the cats. 🐾☕

Let’s turn back the clock to Winter 1945 and open our copy of Planet Stories magazine to page 63, The Ultimate World by Bryce Walton…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A brilliant physician risks his own life to force open the border between body and soul, determined to correct what he believes nature has failed to complete. When the experiment ends and only one flame returns, his assistant must decide whether to protect a dangerous legacy—or let it rise again in a new form. The Ultimate Problem by Victor Rousseau.

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A retired physicist triggers an experiment he knows he cannot reverse, forcing him to choose between unchecked growth and deliberate disappearance. As the universe recedes and reality reshapes itself around him, one question remains unresolved: whether returning home means survival—or something far stranger. The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Thorp McClusky makes his debut on the podcast today. He wrote twenty science fiction short stories across the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, with nearly all of them appearing between 1936 and 1945.

Yesterday we featured The Ultimate Wish. Today it’s The Ultimate Paradox, followed by The Ultimate World and The Ultimate Problem.

You might call this the Ultimate Run.

Turn to page 58 in the May 1945 issue of Weird Tales magazine, The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A civilization that has solved every problem sends one man into the far future to decide whether life itself should continue. What he discovers forces a choice no perfect world can face without risking its own end. The Ultimate World by Bryce Walton.

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A woman is offered one wish, but every choice comes with a price that can’t be escaped or softened. As the clock runs down, she must decide whether wanting everything means accepting something far worse. The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

The heart of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast has always been simple: we go looking for the voices that history misplaced.

Not just the household names you see in every anthology. Not the writers who built towering reputations while others stood quietly in their shadow. We search for the authors who did remarkable work and somehow slipped through the cracks. The ones who published briefly. The ones whose stories are worthy of discovering.

And when we find them, we bring them to you.

That’s exactly how we discovered today’s author, E. M. Hull, born Edna Mayne Hull in Manitoba, Canada, in 1905.

Before we go further, she is not the same person as Edith Maud Hull, the British romance novelist also credited as E. M. Hull. That Edith Maud Hull became famous for bestselling romantic fiction.

Hull’s career in science fiction was brief. She wrote only five short stories. Five. That’s it. She also co-wrote one novel with her husband, A. E. van Vogt, one of the most influential science fiction writers of the era.

Nearly all of her published work was produced during the three years she lived in Toronto. Three years. A creative burst. Then silence.

A writer who contributed to one of the most exciting periods in speculative fiction. A writer who published alongside giants. A writer whose voice still resonates. And yet her entire body of science fiction work can be counted on one hand.

That is exactly why The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast exists. Because writers like Edna Mayne Hull deserve to be heard again. We love uncovering these authors, dusting off their work, placing their stories directly into your ears so you can enjoy them.

From Unknown Worlds in February 1943 on page 71, The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A retired physicist triggers an experiment he knows he cannot reverse, forcing him to choose between unchecked growth and deliberate disappearance. As the universe recedes and reality reshapes itself around him, one question remains unresolved: whether returning home means survival—or something far stranger. The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky.

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Three men realize their ship will never slow down, and the silence between them grows more dangerous than empty space. When a final option appears, it forces them to decide what kind of survival they are actually asking for. Death Wish by Robert Sheckley. That’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

Many of the Robert Shockley stories we’ve featured on the podcast have been humorous but this isn’t one of those.

We will discover our story on page 38 in the June 1956 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, Death Wish by Robert Sheckley…

Next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, A woman is offered one wish, but every choice comes with a price that can’t be escaped or softened. As the clock runs down, she must decide whether wanting everything means accepting something far worse. The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull.

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