Stephen King’s ‘The Institute’ Is a Grab Bag of Greatest Hits You’d Rather Revisit [The Losers’ Club Podcast]

A scoop of Firestarter, a dash of IT, and just a soupçon of Carrie and The Shining — Stephen King’s novel The Institute is like a bowl brimming with the author’s greatest hits. But does it go down smooth? That’s what the Losers’ Club asks in their episode about the 2019 tome, which takes readers inside the eponymous Institute where a mysterious gaggle of doctors, scientists, and thugs subject psychically-touched children to terrible tests, many of which border on pure torture.

Join Losers Randall Colburn, Ashley Casseday, Justin Gerber, and Dan Pfleegor as they dissect what the story has to say about friendship, U.S. foreign policy, and the youth of today. Questions abound! Can King write modern kids as well as he can those of the ‘50s and ‘60s? How does the paranoia of early books like Firestarter and The Stand factor in here? Does adding “-ster” to someone’s name make for a good nickname? They also comb through the book’s reviews and King’s pre-release interviews to puzzle over the relentless comparisons to the crisis at the Southern border. Weird stuff.

Stream the episode below and return later this week when the Losers celebrate the best of the 2010s with the Kingies. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).

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