Author: Robert Sheckley

Length: Short story

First Publication: Galaxy Science Fiction, 1953

What the Story is About: Two starving astronauts find what may be a cache of food on an alien planet. Should they eat it?

The story’s teaser:

They could eat a horse, only luckily there was none … it might have eaten them first!

Author: Robert Sheckley as Ned Lang

Length: short story

First Publication: Galaxy, 1959

What the Story is About: “Of all the irksome, frustrating, maddening discoveries—was there no way of keeping it discovered?”

He had gone to Harvard, served a hitch in the Navy, then continued his education at M.I.T. Since the age of thirty-two, he had been engaged in private research, working in his own small laboratory in Riverdale, New York. Plant biology was his field. He published several noteworthy papers, and sold a new insecticide to a development corporation. The royalties helped him to expand his facilities.
[... snip ...]
Not long after his fortieth birthday, Dennison stumbled across an intriguing clue which led him into a different branch of biology. He pursued his clue, developed it, extended it slowly into a hypothesis. After three more years, a lucky accident put the final proofs into his hands.

He had invented a most effective longevity drug.

Author: Robert Sheckley

Length: short story

First Publication: Galaxy, 1956

What the Story is About: A man looking for psychotherapy is accidentally sold a Martian therapeutic machine – with unexpected consequences.

Download the audio version at Project Gutenberg or the X Minus One Radio Show version at the X Minus One Radio Show site or the Internet Archive