“What if there were no grownups? Suppose the whole idea of grownups was an illusion?”
Is “Low Men in Yellow Coats” a good title or a dumb one? Is it a novel or a novella? And is it best remembered as a gutting portrait of lost innocence or an integral stop on the road to the Dark Tower? As The Losers’ Club discovers during this discussion of the first story in Stephen King’s Hearts In Atlantis, there are no easy answers.
In the first of two episodes dedicated to King’s 1999 collection, the Losers focus specifically on its first story, which follows a pre-teen in 1960 as he bonds with an elderly traveler, Ted Brautigan, who’s clearly on the run from someone (or something).
Join Losers Randall Colburn, Mac Gerber, Dan Pfleegor, and Ana Marie Cox as they confront that horrible moment when your parents become actual people, when the apathetic cruelties of life come into sharp focus. Together, they talk overbearing mothers, absent fathers, and magic pixie dream elders that are too pure for this world (or any world, really).
Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers slap peace signs on their foreheads to discuss the four other stories in the 1999 collection. For further adventures, join the Losers’ 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 exclusive content in The Barrens (Patreon).