Episode 670: Father's Day w/ Stephen King & Joe Hill

Summary

Last Podcast On The Left – Episode 670: Father’s Day w/ Stephen King & Joe Hill

Podcast: Last Podcast On The Left
Date: June 26, 2026
Special Guests: Stephen King & Joe Hill
Summary By: [Expert Podcast Summarizer]

---

Overview

This special Father’s Day episode is a landmark for Last Podcast On The Left, featuring not just acclaimed horror writer Joe Hill, but also his legendary father, Stephen King. The episode dives into their familial dynamic, the creative process behind their works, anecdotes from their lives as writers, their influences, and the personal and professional interplay within the King-Hill family. There’s candor, humor, and an honest look at what it takes to write horror (and why horror still resonates), all wrapped up in the hosts’ signature irreverent style.

---

Key Segments & Topics

---

1. Opening & Guests Introduced

[01:20 - 03:35]

• Hosts (Ben Kissel, Henry Zebrowski, Marcus Parks) announce the major “get”: Stephen King, accompanied by his son Joe Hill.
• They recall a previous episode with Joe Hill and joke that they were so cool about not bringing up Stephen King that Joe brought him in person this time.
• They reflect on King's influence as a cultural icon – “he raised us” (Ben, [03:40]).

---

2. Father & Son: The Family Dynamic and Fans

[04:33 - 09:45]

• The group swaps jokes about urns and ashes—a running dark comedy bit on dead dads.
• Joe Hill shares a bizarre fan gift: a mortician’s bag reeking of chemicals, promptly disposed of after a signing ([05:33]).
• Stephen King discusses uncomfortable fan encounters, including a “sequel” to ‘Salem’s Lot and odd requests ([07:07]).
• Joe mentions John Wayne Gacy gifting King artwork, leading to a riff on serial killer art clubs in prison.

Memorable Quotes:

• Joe Hill: “John Wayne Gacy sent my dad some art...I found that so disturbing, that’s in the first paragraph of Heart Shaped Box.” ([08:06])
• Ben Kissel: “He literally was a job creator…He was a project manager.” ([09:09])

---

3. Collaborating as Authors: Process and Anecdotes

[09:49 - 14:44]

• Joe Hill on writing with King:
  “It’s like when Wile E. Coyote lights the Acme rocket and it takes off—writing with my dad is like hanging on for dear life.” ([10:13])
• Stephen King alludes to being “chemically assisted” in the early days versus writing sober now ([10:56]).
• References to joint stories: “In the Tall Grass” and “Throttle.”
• Riffs on casting for adaptations—Clint Eastwood, Javier Bardem, Stallone, and thoughts on the failed Dark Tower film.

Quote:

• Stephen King: “Clint Eastwood back in the day…he wouldn’t say shit if he had a mouthful. So that was great.” ([12:41])

---

4. Influence and Inspiration

[15:05 - 17:13]

• Discussion on the impact of spaghetti westerns and movies in general on King’s work, especially ‘The Dark Tower.’
• King: “Roland isn’t much of a hero at first—he’s kind of a bad guy.” ([15:27])

---

5. Growing Up King: Childhood & Family Writing

[19:12 - 27:18]

• Joe Hill talks about their close family group chat, mostly about rock & roll and “meatloaf—Bob Dylan and Meatloaf, we talk about meatloaf a lot.” ([20:06])
• Joe recounts being taken to a preview of The Shining at age six, not fully realizing his dad "invented these fictional people" ([20:47]).
• Stephen reveals Joe’s cameo in Creepshow and the resulting drive-thru incident with a makeup-induced bruised child ([21:47]).
• The mother’s influence: Tabitha King is the “first reader” and toughest editor for both sons and Stephen.
• Joe: “She writes all the bad reviews first…She said, the critics are going to say you left off two letters. (re: It)” ([26:04])

---

6. Writing Kill Your Darlings, Endings, and Family Editing

[27:18 - 29:31]

• Tabitha King’s advice shapes their books: “She said, this dope thing has all been done before…so fucking boring.”
• Joe: “You’ve really always felt in the end that actually she was probably right…” ([28:29])
• Stephen: “She changed the whole ending of Other Worlds than These…” ([28:56])

---

7. Process: Creating Characters, Letting Go, and Emotional Impact

[29:34 - 33:41]

• On killing off beloved characters—“Do you laugh or are you sad?” King: “How twisted do you think I am, sir?” ([30:17])
• Cujo’s ending: King describes controversy over killing a boy vs. the family dog—“Don’t let a dog die. I have heard more about that…” ([32:00])
• Joe: “That’s an automatic one-star off” (for killing a cat in ‘Jackknife’). ([32:46])

---

8. Music, Movies, and Directing

[34:07 - 38:12]

• King discusses the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary”—not as epic a backstory as rumored (“No.”) ([34:34]).
• AC/DC doing the soundtrack for “Maximum Overdrive.”
• King reflects on being thrown into directing without film school by Dino De Laurentiis; he’d “do a pretty good job the next time” ([35:28]).
• Joe on writing scripts for health care—but prefers novels ([36:44]).
• Praise for screen collaborators, especially Mike Flanagan and Jack Bender ([38:35]).

---

9. Pandemics and Parallels to The Stand

[43:33 - 46:07]

• Addressing if Covid matched King’s expectations from writing The Stand:
• Stephen King: “This is horrible to say, but…the book went through the roof again.” ([44:09])
• Joe introduces research showing that horror fans coped better with pandemic stress, referencing Matthias Clasen’s work. ([45:16])

---

10. Modern & Future Horror, and the Writing Craft

[47:08 - 52:07]

• Joe and Stephen praise new horror in books and film—Ross’s Coffin Moon, Nat Cassidy’s When the Wolf Comes Home, etc.
• On how an idea “tips” into a book—Joe: “If I can latch into a good character, I’m off and running…” ([48:45])
• King: “It’s got to be an idea, and then it’s got to be some nuts and bolts that connect it together…like shooting off an intercontinental ballistic missile…if the warhead’s big enough, it doesn’t matter if you hit exactly the spot…” ([49:46])
• Joe reveals the tidiness of King’s first drafts, Entertainment Weekly publishing a scan of one as proof ([51:35]).

---

11. On Doubt, Impostor Syndrome, & Validation

[52:10 - 53:20]

• King confesses: “I always think…I’m gonna send this manuscript in, and they’re going to say ‘it’s just blah blah blah…’” ([52:31])
• Joe jokes: “I always figure I wrote it, so it must be pretty.” ([53:01])

---

12. Comedy & Self-Reference

[53:47 - 56:44]

• Discussion on whether King and Hill are “stand-up guys.”
• Stephen King: “I like comedy, particularly. I like lame jokes. I like jokes that make you go, ‘Oh shit.’” ([54:27])
• How Joe includes references to Daddy’s worlds in his own books as a nod, not just for fan service.

---

13. Shared Family Inspirations and The Horror of Cars

[56:55 - 59:35]

• Both authors often write parallel stories seemingly by chance, such as both writing about “haunted prams.”
• On the prevalence of cars in their work: “If you’re going to get into an accident... it’s probably going to be in a car. Of course, I didn’t have an accident while driving a car, I got hit by a car.” – Stephen King ([57:59])
• King pitches a “haunted GPS” story; Joe is intrigued ([58:46]).

---

14. On Inventing Slang, “Shitters,” and Favourite Dads

[60:01 - 61:28]

• They revel in “shitters” from Christine; King highlights his love for coining curse words. The group jokes about whether the two have ever considered real-life “body hiding.”
• Both admit they’d be terrible criminals: “Best to leave the murders on the page.” – Joe Hill ([61:26])

---

15. Father Figure Reflections & Children’s Horror

[62:02 - 64:02]

• Joe wanted to be like Atticus Finch as a dad, “but I can’t live up to that.” Stephen replies: “Gregory Peck had a script.”
• King would tell his kids “funny stories too, because I liked funny to go to bed with,” but always with a twist (Goldilocks is eaten by the bears). ([63:01])
• On family bits: Joe remembers fearing dad’s mythical “ass-kicking boots.” ([63:34])

---

16. Culture, Generations, and Horror’s Resurgence

[65:35 - 69:57]

• Marcus asks if American culture is stuck in the 20th century; King says he’s “lost the beat” on some pop culture and doesn’t want to pretend otherwise: “It’s like Donald Trump when he tries to dance. Don’t do that.” ([65:35])
• Joe pushes back: “I don’t think we’re culturally stuck…especially in horror, which is full of new energy and voices.” ([66:36])
• They discuss why horror is the defining voice of the 21st century:
  • King: “It’s a scary time to be alive.”
  • Joe: “Maybe it’s cathartic to go scream in the dark…”

---

17. On Heroism in Horror

[69:10 - 69:53]

• Ben muses that what makes both King and Hill’s work special is “making heroes and putting them in the world,” providing courage and possibility for facing darkness.

Quote:

• Stephen King: “That’s a beautiful thing. Yeah, you said it well.” ([69:53])

---

18. Closing Moments

[70:07 - 70:16]

• King playfully insists: “None of that ‘Mr. King’—it’s Steve.”
  All: “You got it, Steve!”

---

Notable Quotes, Moments & Timestamps

• On working together:
  Joe Hill: “Writing with my dad is like when Wile E. Coyote lights the Acme rocket…it takes off and I’m hanging on for dear life.” ([10:13])
• On losing dogs in fiction:
  Stephen King: “When children die or adults die in books, that’s one thing. Don’t let a dog die. I have heard more about that.” ([32:00])
• On impostor syndrome:
  Stephen King: “I always think, I’m going to send this manuscript in…and they’re going to say, Steve, this doesn’t say anything. It’s just blah blah blah blah blah.” ([52:31])
• On cultural nostalgia:
  Stephen King: “I don’t want to be one of those people in their 70s saying ‘I’m hip’. It’s like Donald Trump when he tries to dance. Don’t do that.” ([65:35])
• On horror’s relevance:
  Stephen King: “Because it’s a scary time to be alive.” ([67:32])

---

The Tone

The episode is exuberant, irreverent, and affectionate. King and Hill display warmth, humility, and self-awareness, fielding both goofy and insightful questions from the hosts. There’s genuine camaraderie and admiration between all parties, peppered with dark jokes, literary philosophy, and pop culture riffs, true to Last Podcast On The Left’s style.

---

Conclusion

This episode stands out as a high-water mark for the series—balancing in-depth literary discussion, horror fandom, family storytelling, and the hosts’ particular comedic flavor. It's a must-listen for Stephen King and Joe Hill fans, writing nerds, and anyone who loves the intersection of horror and humor.

---

For Further Reference:

• Favorite sections include [10:10–14:50] (collaborative writing with anecdotes), [27:18–29:31] (family edits and Tabitha King’s influence), and [65:35–69:53] (cultural nostalgia and the state of horror).
• Skip ads and focus on the above segments for the heart of the episode.

Transcript

[Ben Kissel]

On July 10, get ready for the family reunion from hell. From the producers of the horror classic Evil Dead comes a brand new nightmare and the scariest installment yet. After her husband's mysterious passing, a widow seeks comfort with her in laws in their secluded cabin in the woods. But as they one by one turned into something much more sinister, she discovers that every family has its demons. Evil Dead burn Only in theaters July 10th. Rated R under 17. Not admitted without parent. At marathon gas stations, every stop is the start of fun. Like the awesome fuel savings you can get with marathon rewards. Join marathon rewards today and start earning rewards on every gallon of gas. You can redeem rewards at any time, saving up to $1 per gallon of gas. And don't forget, marathon stations are packed with all the conveniences you need to stock up and live life on the go marathon, where fun runs on full. Available at participating marathon locations. Terms and conditions apply. See marathonrewards.com for details.

[Stephen King]

There's no place to escape to.

[Henry Zebrowski]

This is the last on the.

[Stephen King]

That's when the cannibalism started. What was that? You ready for us? We're recording. I'm ready.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Big day here, boys.

[Marcus Parks]

Big day.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Big day.

[Joe Hill]

Massive day.

[Ben Kissel]

This is a such a. Let's just say a victory. Yeah. This is a victory for lpn. This is a victory for last podcast on the left.

[Stephen King]

Validation.

[Ben Kissel]

Validation. We got him. The white unicorn.

[Marcus Parks]

First of all, welcome to last podcast on the left. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Marcus Sparks. I'm here with Henry Zabrowski.

[Ben Kissel]

Pink unicorn.

[Marcus Parks]

The pink unicorn.

[Ben Kissel]

Henry Zabrowski filled with shrimp.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And the hairy unicorn.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I was going to say illiterate unicorn.

[Marcus Parks]

Just your beard is looking quite nice. Have you been trimming?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, well, yeah, I have a person who trims.

[Marcus Parks]

It looks great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Thank you. I appreciate it. Because I was worried it was looking bad, but now it gets another week like this.

[Ben Kissel]

You really look good in that way. Like, thing is the guy who trims your beard, definitely woman.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Wow.

[Ben Kissel]

But he makes you look like an Iranian lord. You know what I mean?

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'll take that.

[Ben Kissel]

Y. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

You do look like a lord of some kind.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Hey, you want to get through the straight, you come talk to me. You right. I get you through the straight.

[Ben Kissel]

I'll get you through the game.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Submarines. I can jle submarines.

[Stephen King]

Oil.

[Ben Kissel]

All right, we got.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We're off topic here.

[Marcus Parks]

We're off topic. The big topic that we have today is that, okay, we interviewed Joe Hill, author Joe Hill, few months ago. Yeah, fantastic, man. It went so well.

[Ben Kissel]

And we never. We didn't really even say anything about his dad.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, we didn't say. We said nothing about his dad.

[Ben Kissel]

We were so cool during that interview.

[Marcus Parks]

But it went so well that he came back and he brought his father, Stephen King, with him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

That's right.

[Joe Hill]

He was like, I got my dad.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You guys are talking about me, And I got my dad here now.

[Ben Kissel]

But then he did a whole thing, you'll see in the interview, where he's like, my dad will beat you all up.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

And Stephen King stood up, and he was like, come here, you little f words. Five or six times.

[Marcus Parks]

You'll see. It's all there.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's all.

[Marcus Parks]

It's all there.

[Ben Kissel]

But this is our Father's Day special.

[Marcus Parks]

It is.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

Because in many ways, Stephen King raised us. He was definitely a big part of my childhood and a very big part of everything I've ever known about horror and novels. Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, he's one of the cultural voices of the 20th century. He's one of the guys who created. The 20th century is culturally.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. It's unbelievable. I. I watched a documentary called King in Movies, and I was like, oh, he's like. Shaped my thoughts completely.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm very excited for this, but let's just get to it.

[Marcus Parks]

Let's just get to it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Because I finally. I finally got to ask him about

[Ben Kissel]

shitters, and I didn't even. I just re. Watched Christine, and I was like, oh,

[Marcus Parks]

yeah, you should read it in the. They tone it down in the movie a lot.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, he asked him about it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I look at that book on my shelf all the time.

[Marcus Parks]

Let's get to it.

[Joe Hill]

How are you guys?

[Marcus Parks]

We're doing fantastic. How are y' all doing today?

[Stephen King]

I'm good.

[Henry Zebrowski]

First question out the gate. Doing well. Wow. This is New York.

[Ben Kissel]

Watching this, I just want to say I hate to disappoint, because, honestly, our dads really wanted to meet you guys, too. And one of the hardest things was is that I noticed when I was bringing them over here, the urn was really loose.

[Stephen King]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

And so I didn't want to spread them all over the stuff. I didn't want to spread them all over my car.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, well, the urn was loose because when you weren't paying attention, I actually switched out my dad's ashes with your dad's ashes. And so now I got your dad in my house and your dad's. My dad's at your house.

[Ben Kissel]

How many ashes have you been presented with as a couple?

[Joe Hill]

Oh, no one's given me their ashes. Yet

[Stephen King]

I have made an ash of myself once in a while.

[Joe Hill]

I was at a signing at a library in, like, Boise. This was years and years ago, when a guy came up to me. He was one of the last guys in line, sort of a decrepit old fella. And he said, you know, I loved Heart Shaped Box so much, and your dad's books have meant so much to me, and I just wanted to give you something to express that how much those books meant to me. And he lifted up this leather bag. It looked like a doctor's bag. And I accept. I said, thank you. And I opened it and this stink just rolled out. Like there was, you know, I don't know, like a rotten piece of meat in it or something like that and a chemical odor as well. And I said, what is this? And he said, my dad embalmed people for 40 years. And that was his. That was his bag. That was the bag he did for his work. And I was like, boy, you shouldn't have. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, And I will say that I had him chuck it as soon as, like, I left the thing. I'm not bringing a fucking bag like that on an airplane.

[Henry Zebrowski]

No, he cared to bring it to the Hilton.

[Stephen King]

You know, it's always the last person in line when you're really tired and you just want to go back to your hotel and pee. Somebody shows up with that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Stephen, what was something that sticks out in your mind that a fan brought to you that you were just immediately revolted by?

[Stephen King]

Well, it wasn't so much that, but I was at a place one time signing books, and this fat kid comes up to me and says, hey, kid, where's the Nazi books? And so I took him to the Nazi book. I'll tell you what, you just can't tell what people are going to do. One guy came up to me and said, you know, about Salem's Lot? He said, you know, you ought to write a squeal in that Jenner. And I said, what are you talking about? He said, a sequel in that genre,

[Joe Hill]

you know. You know, one thing speaking of grotesque gifts, you know, disturbing gifts, John Wayne Gacy sent my dad some art back in the day from prison. And actually, I found that so disturbing. That's in the first paragraph of Heart Shaped Box.

[Ben Kissel]

Yes.

[Joe Hill]

You know, that kind of hung in my mind. Because the other thing is, is Gacy wasn't terrible. I mean, he was obviously terrible. I can't underline enough how terrible he was.

[Ben Kissel]

Well, he was a funny guy.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

He was a funny guy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We've already singled it out. You're screwed.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah. That's gotta be the clip to sell this episode. John Wayne Gacy was pretty good, you know, but. But he did mushroom.

[Ben Kissel]

He was a fun guy.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He could.

[Joe Hill]

He could do a passable. He could do passable, like, Disney characters and stuff.

[Ben Kissel]

Well, he used to do paint by numbers. He used to go and get the. Like, he would have a whole system of other serial killers, including one of the. The guys from the Chicago Rippers. And he also had the guy that killed everybody to avoid the earthquake. And in Southern California.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, the. Herbert Mullen.

[Ben Kissel]

Herbert Mullen. He had other serial killers working for him on an assembly line painting these paintings for him.

[Joe Hill]

That's not true.

[Ben Kissel]

Yes, it is.

[Joe Hill]

Is that true?

[Ben Kissel]

Yes, because he's. He literally was a job creator. He was a executive manager. He was a project runner. That's what he did. He was a project manager.

[Joe Hill]

So they had an art club in prison.

[Ben Kissel]

It was kind of like a chain gang. Like, literally, you kind of force them to do stuff, and then they would bring in. There's a whole story about how John Way Gacy was sort of gamed by this young man that called him and pretended to be really into him. And so this young man started arriving to visit with John Wayne Gacy. And then the two of them would talk to the other serial killers like they were his little, like, crew. Like, it was like. Like his little brothers.

[Henry Zebrowski]

So don't feel that honored about the art.

[Ben Kissel]

Is it like that?

[Stephen King]

It was like Hair Club for Men, but with art?

[Ben Kissel]

Yes, yes. Do you find that in speaking of terms of collaboration, because you guys worked together, because John Wayne Gacy can really run that type of collaboration. I'm sure you gu. Really. You guys put some really good stuff together, like, because in the Tall Grass was a great thing. Like, how do you guys feel like when you're together working?

[Joe Hill]

We've only done it twice. We've only done it twice. We.

[Ben Kissel]

We.

[Joe Hill]

We wrote in the Tall Grass and we wrote Throttle. And, you know, I mean, I feel like when I. The times I've written with that. You ever see in, like, the. The Warner Brothers cartoons when Wiley Coyote climbs on an Acme rocket and lights the fuse and then suddenly it takes off under him? Yeah, that's what it's like writing with my dad. I feel like I'm just kind of hanging on for dear life. You know, I. I'd sort of, like, sweat and pull my hair out over, like, three pages or something, and then I. I'D email it to him and like, 45 minutes later, he'd be like, it was great. Here's five. Here's five more pages.

[Ben Kissel]

Jesus Christ.

[Joe Hill]

I wrote five. I wrote five. I'm keeping up.

[Stephen King]

Well, you know, there was. There was a time when I was chemically assisted by some of those things. And the books with Peter Straub in the early days. But those days are behind me now.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, now it's just what Cialis. A lot of. Lot of Snapple. That's what I do. I crush up my Cialis right into the. Right into. I just do it. I do it line by line each day just to get me going. To do podcasts.

[Stephen King]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And under the lid of those Snapples, they got little things you can just slide right into the book, you know, if you wanted to.

[Stephen King]

So, man, if you say so.

[Joe Hill]

We had a pretty good movie made out of in the Tall Grass.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, it was so. It's so good.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah, that was pretty cool. That was pretty cool. And for a while. For a while, Sylvester Stallone was talking about doing throttle behind the scenes. And, like, as a guy who grew up in the. You know, I mean, me and dad went to go see all those Rocky films and everything together, and wow, what a blast that would have been. But it didn't happen.

[Ben Kissel]

I just want to say right now, Sylvester Stallone as the gunslinger, can it just like, let's just do it. Make it Expendables.

[Stephen King]

I don't think that would really work in his age. I mean, Chuck Norris could have done it. I mean, Chuck Norris could have just wiped that shit out entirely.

[Joe Hill]

Guns at all. He could have just used his hands.

[Ben Kissel]

I always saw Daniel Day. Daniel Day Lewis was my gunslinger in my mind. Who do you have a gunslinger that you wish? Besides, I mean, I loved Idris, but you got a gunslinger in your mind that you wish you could see walking around.

[Stephen King]

Clint Eastwood back in the day. Yeah, back in the day. It would have been great. Would have been great. I mean, I got the idea for those books in a large part because of those Sergio Leone Westerns. You know, I saw them in the theater because, you know, I'm old and, you know, they were just widescreen men and it was. Eastwood was so quiet in those movies, you know, he wouldn't say shit if he had a mouthful. So that was great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. They didn't even give him a name.

[Marcus Parks]

The man.

[Joe Hill]

He was literally the man with the name.

[Marcus Parks]

That's right.

[Ben Kissel]

How did you respond, Joe? Like, do you, like, are you as big of a fan of The Dark Tower as the rest of us. I'm sorry, Marcus. I'll get you your questions. I'm just.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Sorry.

[Ben Kissel]

I just started on Dark Tower, and it means. It actually means the whole world to me. But you've seen a lot of fat guys and say this to you, Stephen, So I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm doing this at you. I'm just.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I love those.

[Joe Hill]

I'm a big Stephen King fan. I love all those books. And, I mean, the thing about the gunslinger books is I always think of them as the gunslinger books, not the Dark Tower books. And they're kind of like the unified theory of the Stephen King of Stephen King World, because it picks up so many threads from all the other books, and it's almost like a nervous system running through the whole body of Dad's work. And they're just such great reads. They're just so much fun and such a terrific cast of characters. And it is a little bit. In some ways, it is a little bit surprising. There haven't been, you know. Well, there was no. No, there was the Idris. There was the Idris film, but it didn't do very well.

[Ben Kissel]

It's because it needs to be 25 hours long,

[Stephen King]

either. But they talked for a while about Javier Bardem. That's sexy. That would have been great.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, he's sexy. That would have been good.

[Joe Hill]

I mean, I think there is an attempt right now to try to make it five seasons, you know, to try to do a TV thing, but I'm not sure how far along it's gotten.

[Stephen King]

Have any of you guys seen Cape Fear, the new one where Javier Bardem plays the bad guy?

[Henry Zebrowski]

Not yet. Not yet. I'm very excited for it, though.

[Stephen King]

I am, too.

[Joe Hill]

I am great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It looks great.

[Joe Hill]

I can't wait.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Harvey Abraham's scary as hell, man.

[Marcus Parks]

Steven, earlier you mentioned that the spaghetti Westerns were a big influence on the Dark Tower series. When you were writing all those iconic works, how much inspiration did you take from other mediums and other genres for your own stories?

[Stephen King]

Well, I mean, I was a big fan of Western movies, period. And I tried to get in a lot of the things that those books and movies were based on. You know, the idea that the guy has to be alone and he has to be a hero. And although in the early books, Roland isn't very much of a hero, he's actually kind of a bad guy.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, he is. He is. And then he changes. Yeah, go then. There are other worlds in these. I think about this, and I'm so happy that you brought that back. I'm so happy you brought that back for the next book.

[Joe Hill]

I'm so excited.

[Ben Kissel]

Mr. King, I'm gonna. Oh, I'm gonna show up at your house. I'm gonna show up. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sir, can I. No, I won't. I won't. I'm sorry. Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why drivers have trusted progressives. Name your price tool for years. Just tell Progressive what you want to pay and they'll show you coverage options that fit your budget. Visit progressive.com to find a car insurance rate that works for you. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. This podcast is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is an all in one website platform that helps you stand out online. Yes, that's right. You don't have to smash your face with a hammer. You can just start a business. It's got everything you need on Squarespace. Securing your domain to building a professional site and showcasing your work all in one place. Let's say you want to show everybody how you can carve your ribs out of your lower abdomen so that you look more like a Ken doll. That's amazing. You can bring your vision to life with AI powered design or curated templates. Plus flexible editing tools that help you create something that truly reflects your style. Especially if you are somebody that is trying to corrupt the young men of America. That's what Squarespace is really going to help you. Squarespace makes it easy. It makes it easy for you to put all that together and you just go to Squarespace and do it all. Thanks, Braden. Head to squarespace.com left for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code left to save 10 off your first purchase of a website or domain. Mint Mobile plans are only 15 per month. Wondering what's the catch? There isn't one. There are no gimmicks and no gotchas. Just unlimited talks, text and data. Fast, reliable leverage on the nation's largest 5G network and an award winning care team that makes Mint Mobile a catch. And you know what's nice is we have Mint Mobile hooked up to the studio iPhone here for three months and it really is quite remarkable. Great service, extremely cheap. And we gotta say, since switching to Mint, we've saved a lot of money. So will you. So get over there. Hit your new wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month. Go to mintmobile.com lpotl that's mintmobile.com lpotl cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com lpotl THAT'S IT. There's no catch 45. Upfront payment required. Equivalent to 15amonth. New customers on first 3 month plan only. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes. Unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. C Mint Mobile for details. Joke. I've been watching a lot of interviews to prep for this between. Between and your dad. And I gotta say one.

[Joe Hill]

Sorry.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, you know, it's. I'm. I'm. I'm getting a taste for them. But Joe, my question is, you're. You seem like your father seems so proud of you. What's that like?

[Joe Hill]

I'm sure there's a joke here somewhere, but I. But I can't find it, you know? You know,

[Stephen King]

just. Just pretend I'm not here, Joe.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah, I know, right? I mean, like, I hardly know how to talk about it. I have a great relationship with my dad. We love a lot of the same things, you know, Owen and dad and myself, my brother Owen. Owen is a wonderful writer. He wrote Sleeping Beauties with that and. And Owen's last novel, the Curator, is an absolute, you know, stunner. The first two pages of the Curator are better than anything I've written in my whole life. That's great. You know, and the three of us have, have both a playlist and a message thread and we talk to each other every day. And mostly what we talk about is rock and roll and sometimes what we're watching on, on TV and, you know, Bob Dylan and meatloaf. We talk about meatloaf a lot.

[Stephen King]

We talk about meat a lot. You know, we really did.

[Joe Hill]

And you loves meatloaf.

[Stephen King]

One time, Meat and Jim Steinman showed up at some place where I was shooting a commercial or something like that. And they were wearing these white gloves, man, like Disney characters, you know, and now they're both dead. But I didn't have anything to do with that.

[Henry Zebrowski]

The white gloves should have been a sign of the afterlife.

[Stephen King]

It should have been.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, Joe, you say that you and your dad, like, love a lot of the same things. Did you have to watch the Shining in a friend's house or something? Or could you watch that at home?

[Joe Hill]

I saw dad took me to a screening of it before the film was theatrically released, like a day or two before, or maybe it was the premiere night when it opened in Bangor. And I was just like six or something when I came out. I was gripping his hand and I said, I know. I know, I know, but it was the 70s, it was different. I know.

[Ben Kissel]

You know, we're the same. We're all the same.

[Joe Hill]

I mean, like, you know, and when I came out, I said, who wrote all the great dialogue? And my dad said, me. I just thought that was. That thought had never crossed my mind. That was kind of like this unbelievable realization, you know, that my, that my dad was a guy who invented fictional people and then put them into terrible situations and stuff. Somehow I hadn't really realized his connection to that material. Yeah, I mean, I also saw. We also watched Salem's Lot together when I was way too young.

[Stephen King]

What?

[Joe Hill]

The kid out the window?

[Stephen King]

Oh, Salem's Lot. Yeah. But you know, Joe played a part in Creepshow. You know, he was the little kid who stuck pins into the doll and his father was kind of an abuser and beat him up. It wasn't on the screen, but it was off scre so that when he shows up, they had done makeup so that there were a couple of bruises on his face. And one night the shooting wrapped late and Joe said, could we get a hamburger? Could we like drive through McDonald's? And so we drove through McDonald's and here's this little kid that's up at 11 o' clock at night and he looks like. Got all these bruises all over his face. And the lady in the drive thru called the cops.

[Ben Kissel]

That's so funny. Because, like that I was like, isn't. Is because of Creepshow? Is Father's Day a thing in your home? Like, because of that? Like, is there a. Where's my cake? Like is that, does that come from your own Personal experience, Mr. King? Like, is that the. Did you not receive your cake?

[Stephen King]

Well, yes, but I didn't get my cake. But nobody came out of the grave, you know, brought me the cake. So, you know, that didn't happen. That was make believe. Okay, guys.

[Ben Kissel]

I know, I know, I know.

[Stephen King]

Make believe.

[Ben Kissel]

I know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I thought you made documentaries.

[Ben Kissel]

You're ruining my life, Mr. King. You're ruining my life.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Right, so you were also in Creep show, the Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrell. Now your performance in that, was that intentional or did you.

[Stephen King]

Well, we, we won't even talk about that.

[Joe Hill]

Terrific. It's a terrific comic turn. I, I love that.

[Stephen King]

Thank you.

[Joe Hill]

When I, when I watched that the first time as a little kid, I got teary.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh yeah.

[Joe Hill]

It was so sad. What happened to. What happened to Jody Verrell or you

[Henry Zebrowski]

were just teary eyed because you were a better actor than your father.

[Stephen King]

A lot of times people will come up to me in autograph lines and say, media shit.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah. Yeah, great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Honestly, I just watched Sleepwalkers the other day, and as a comedian, your commitment to that awful joke is. It bombed in on screen over and over again. I do. I love a comedian that really sticks by a bad joke. So I appreciate you. The mother and son relationship in Sleepwalkers, is that anything similar to what you experienced in real life?

[Joe Hill]

Oh, yeah. It was just like my home.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

Did you, Mr. King, did you get with Tabitha to breed authors? Is the goal was for you guys to get together? Was this like a program that you was like a King based program to install?

[Joe Hill]

Let me just rephrase. I just want you. I just want to remind you guys that I'm sitting here.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah. I just want to know,

[Joe Hill]

Steve, did you get together with your wife? Wherever that question is going, it's already gone someplace I don't want to think of.

[Stephen King]

Okay.

[Ben Kissel]

It's science.

[Stephen King]

We're talking about Southern Freud chicken here.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Stephen King]

But still, you know, the thing is, my wife is a writer, and I met her in a poetry seminar. And so we come by it quite naturally. We're both writers. And she's as good as I am or better in some ways. So she's like, what, five, Jo. Five books? Seven books.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah. I think six. Everyone in the family takes the manuscript to her first.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

You know, and I'll tell you a story about my mom. I. My third novel, Nosferatu, had a really bleak ending. Dark and dark, ugly ending, you know, where, you know, hopeless. And I'm like. And I'm not changing a word because I'm a artist, man. I'm gonna keep the reader and just rub their face in the hopelessness and futility of life. You know, when I was dead set, like, I'm staying with it. And the first person I sent the book to was Mom. And she blasted through and. And she called me up, you know, a week later, and she said, joe, I. I finished the book and it's just so wonderful, but that ending really won't do. And I said, okay, Mom, I'll change it. So that's how long my artistic integrity held. You know, the other thing about mom, and it's. I think it's given us everyone in the family sort of tough skin when it comes to reviews and stuff, is she writes all the bad reviews first. When dad finished it, she said, the critics are going to say you left off two letters. And when he finished Insomnia, she said, oh, I Can see the reviews already. Stephen King's Insomnia cures it.

[Stephen King]

She talked a lot about misery too. She said the critics will say the whole review is written in that one word, misery.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, was she the one who came up with the phrase. It sounds like it came up the phrase kill your darlings. Because for me, that is one of the best pieces of writing advice that you've given is that kill your darlings. It's so difficult. Is there like a darling that you have, like something that you felt was just so beautiful but just didn't quite fit, that was, you know, that you had to kill, that sits out in your mind.

[Stephen King]

Going back to Tabby again, I wrote a book, it was published last year called Never Flinch and there were three main stories in it. There was a dog napping, which I finally got in another book, which is forthcoming. And there was a serial killer and there was a dope thing. And Tabby came to me and said, this dope thing has all been done before. You know, this is so fucking boring. I mean, I fought for it. I fought for it, but in the end she was right. She usually is.

[Joe Hill]

I've seen that a few times too. I've seen dad gnash his teeth for 48 hours because mom said something didn't work. But then he always makes the changes. You know, you've really never. You've really always felt in the end that actually she was probably right and that was the right direction to take stuff in. So there's been a. There's been a 50 year collaboration of ideas there, you know.

[Stephen King]

Yeah, she changed the whole ending of Other Worlds than these. In fact, there was a point where I thought to myself, I would really like her to write a chapbook about all the sub characters in that book. But she said, you know, somehow you have to bring it back around to the kid that he was, you know, because Jack Sawyer starts in the Talisman all those years ago.

[Joe Hill]

And what a great opening that first book had too.

[Ben Kissel]

The Talisman. It's my favorite. It's one of my. The first times I ever cried in a book was reading the Talisman when the. I'm not on your foot, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you. You feel like, because you've said this, like you don't know what's gonna happen. Like you guys are both kind of said similar things where you don't quite know what's gonna happen to the characters you create. When you start, they kind of go in a way. But when you write something like that like in the talisman, when you kill somebody beloved, like, do you laugh? Like, do you laugh to yourself? Like, are you like, I got these or are you like. Or are you sad?

[Stephen King]

How twisted do you think I am, sir?

[Ben Kissel]

I think you might be.

[Stephen King]

I don't laugh, Joe. Do you think ahead? Do you know then characters are gonna die or does this.

[Joe Hill]

I mean, sometimes I know I'm working towards a big scene. Sometimes I, sometimes I have like a set piece in my mind and so I'm working towards that. A few characters died in the last one, King Sorrow. And when, when one of them died, it took me by surprise. I didn't realize that was going to happen and I felt a little bit shaken up by it. What's funny is when Ryan, my 22 year old, read the book, he said, oh, I knew that character was going to be the first one to die. You, you, you really gave that one away way in advance. And I thought I did because I had no clue.

[Stephen King]

Yeah, fascinating.

[Ben Kissel]

How, how far along in the writing career did you get when it was like that? Or is it a thing that you have to have like the idea that you get to the point where the characters just live, where you create the characters and they just live in your. Is that just natural or is there a thing, is there a craft in that way that you learn? I know you guys went to school, but it's like, how do you guys get to that point where you could just be like, yeah, I don't know what the character's gonna do. How do you write books? How, how write books?

[Stephen King]

One of the things that, you know, you talk about characters that, that died. A little boy died at the end of, of Cujo. You know, in the novel, in the, in the movie.

[Joe Hill]

Jesus. Spoilers.

[Stephen King]

Joe, the 50 years old almost go read Cujo. Anyway, the little boy dies at the end of the book, but in the movie he lives. But he got licked by the rabid dog. So I think he died horribly of rabies after the fade out. But you know, the thing is, when children die or adults die books, that's one thing. Don't let a dog die. You know, I have heard more about that. I mean, Greg Stilson kicks a dog to death at the beginning of the Dead Zone. I've never heard the end of it.

[Joe Hill]

That's an automatic one star off your Goodreads rating. I killed a cat in a story called Jackknife. And I have eaten so much shit about it online.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know, my, my mother's dog who I took in Tootsie. She actually passed away yesterday out of complete, you know, randomness. She was only 19 years old. So, you know. Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

She could almost buy a beer.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Why do they go so young? But I. So we did a wonderful thing with her. We. We took her up and we. We put her up. We brought her body up a hill. And then, you know, we. We put her in the ground. And there was a beautiful rock structure on the ground. It was like some kind. It was just go. And we were putting her in the ground, and it was thin soil. It was sour. And so I'm hoping when I get home, she'll be there waiting for me.

[Stephen King]

The pet cemetery.

[Ben Kissel]

Yes. Go and go down that road.

[Henry Zebrowski]

See, I don't think that's better.

[Joe Hill]

I'm sorry. Was that your Judd Crandall?

[Ben Kissel]

Sometimes that's better.

[Joe Hill]

I hope that your routine doesn't depend on the quality of your impersonation.

[Stephen King]

He was good.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, he was great.

[Henry Zebrowski]

He's the best.

[Marcus Parks]

But I have to ask about Pen Cemetery because, like you, I am a. A massive Ramones fan. Massive, Massive Ramones fan. And, you know, and the story goes that's been told that, you know, you invited them over to your house when, you know, before Pet Sematary was being made, and Dee Dee Ramone took a copy of Pet Sematary, disappeared for an hour and came back with the song fully written.

[Joe Hill]

Did that.

[Marcus Parks]

Did it actually happen that way?

[Stephen King]

No.

[Ben Kissel]

Okay, great.

[Marcus Parks]

How did it actually happen?

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, I love getting past a musician stories.

[Stephen King]

I said, would they. Would they write. You know, my idea was that they would do the soundtrack for Pet Sematary, and that didn't fly, but they did do that song, I don't want to be buried in a Pet cemetery. And that was what you talk about. A great line, buried cemetery.

[Joe Hill]

I don't want to live my life again. That's such a sad little. Sad little.

[Stephen King]

You know.

[Ben Kissel]

But every lanky nerd boy knows that feeling. They're all just like, I don't want to go through junior high again. That's what it's about.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

We get a whole album out of acdc.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Joe Hill]

You know, they did. They did the whole soundtrack to Maximum Overdrive.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I just saw that movie to prep for this. Do you remember directing any of that, Mr. King?

[Stephen King]

Yeah, I remember too. Too much of it. But, you know, the thing is, I didn't know. Dino said. This is Dino De Laurento. He said, stephen, I think what we want to do is make a movie. And you're gonna direct it. Well, I'd Never done anything before. I hadn't been in film school or anything. I learned as I. As I went along I could actually do a pretty good job the next time.

[Henry Zebrowski]

But it was a blast. I have to say, I also feel a lot of.

[Ben Kissel]

It's because you have such a deep understanding of movies, because you guys were both big media. You guys watch a lot of movies. When you guys are writing novels versus, like, are screenplays, like, easier than a novel? Or is it like. Like, because sometimes you're retrofitting from one of your other previous works? Like, what's the hardest thing that you do? What's the thing besides getting up in the goddamn morning?

[Stephen King]

I mean, going to the dentist, I think.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Stephen King]

Or probably having a proctological exam, but those are. I mean, is it easier to write scripts or books? Which one is.

[Joe Hill]

I mean, looks. I'd want to write books any day of the week over writing screenplays. But I do write screenplays because that's how I get my health care. So I try to write at least one script every year. You know, you've had a lot. You've done a lot more in that space. You've written whole TV shows, you know, like, not just like the pilot or something, but like every. Literally every episode. I think you wrote every episode of Golden Years. You wrote every episode of Lisa's Story. You wrote every episode of Storm of the Century.

[Ben Kissel]

But does it suck to go from being able to be lord and creator in your own world of writing a novel to like, having to go talk to a bunch of suits in a building and trying to tell them what your ideas are? Do you just. You just not care? Are they just like, oh, Whatever you want, Mr. King?

[Stephen King]

No, I mean, it isn't that way, really. But what I do, because I have this wonderful cushion that I don't have to write for the rent every month. And that's a big fucking deal, as you guys probably know. The thing is, I can write a script on spec, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I did a series of scripts for a show called Storm of the Century.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Stephen King]

And that's. That's my favorite one. Really. You know, that really turned out well. And because I had a good relationship with director, you know.

[Ben Kissel]

Well, I'm. It's also really glad. I'm glad to hear that the only fans is really working out for you guys and then that. That is really paying the bills. And I just really. I think that that's really great for you guys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's regular. I've Noticed that you have the same director. Do your stories, you know, like you have multiple movies. Is there a certain director, you think that understands your. Your. Your stories better than anyone else?

[Stephen King]

Mike Flanagan.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Life of Chuck.

[Joe Hill]

He's good. But who's the other guy? I want to say he's got like a name like Jack Holden or something. Or like maybe he directed the Hitcher.

[Stephen King]

You're talking about Jack.

[Ben Kissel]

Jack Bender.

[Joe Hill]

Jack Bender. With Jack Bender. Thank you. You just saved us. He's done a lot of your stuff.

[Stephen King]

Bad Jack Bender is terrific. And he's somebody who can do things that are just wonderful on a low budget and short time. And he's fantastic at both of those things. And it doesn't look phoned in, you know, That's. That's great.

[Joe Hill]

Oh,

[Henry Zebrowski]

I see. I hate looking out my window every day. I get up and I look outside of my window, and what do I see? Cybertruck. Every day. A guy who lives across the street from me, he's got a cyber truck. And you know how I fix that? Blinds.com. that's right. Go grab the little poll to the left of the blinds. And you squeaky, squeaky, squiky, squiky, squeaky. And they shut. Cybertruck.

[Stephen King]

No more.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Blinds.com saves the day again. They'll help you not look at all kinds of stuff outside your house and keep all those peeping toms from looking at your naked wife. So go to blinds.com and do something right for your family right now. Blind Blinds.com has given our listeners an exclusive $50 off when you spend $500 or more. Just use the code left at checkout. Limited time offer rules and restrictions apply. See blinds.com for details. Hey there, everybody. I want to talk to you about horticulture. Yeah. Did you know that Fast growing trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery? I did it. I got trees from them. I got bushes to cover up that stinky, stinky wall that my neighbor has in my house. It looks good. It's really going nice. But last year, I got an avocado tree and doggy. She grow fast. She grow real fast. It's button already. It's been a year. Usually it takes a little bit longer than that. You know what?

[Stephen King]

What?

[Henry Zebrowski]

I don't even know if that's true or not, but it is button and it is growing. And you know what I did was I rent. I don't own my home, so I put it in a pot so I could take it with me and it could be with me for the rest of my life. And now I got avocados forever. And just like Forrest Gump says, that's one less thing. All right, so go on to fast growing trees and get yourself a tree that you want to see get tall super, super quick right now. They have great details on spring planting essentials up to half off on select plants and listeners to Our show get 20 off their first purchase when using the code left at checkout. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Fast growing trees.com

[Ben Kissel]

Summer schedules can get busy fast with camps, vacations, sports, family time and you know, every single time Carmi eats a block of dark chocolate, we gotta take her to the emergency room. You know how many, how much time that takes.

[Joe Hill]

All right.

[Ben Kissel]

Iexcel makes it easy to keep learning part of the routine in just a few minutes a day. Iexcel is an award winning online learning platform that helps kids truly understand what they're learning. Learning whether they're building math confidence, strengthening reading and writing skills, or reviewing science concepts from Pre K through 12th grade. IXL offers personalized interactive learning that adopts to each child's level and pace. Which is great because Carmi has been really slow in biology and Wendy has really been struggling with American history, mostly just because she doesn't agree with the way it's being taught. So it's really important you make an impact on your child's learning. Wendy, as soon as she gets her chicken, she is ready for all of her lessons and Carmi just really has to eat five or six bites of liver, beef liver, chicken liver, and then she can really get down to. I'm hoping this is the year she reads To Kill a Mockingbird. So really, ixl, thank you. Make an impact on your child's learning. Get IXL now and last podcast on the left. Listeners can get an exclusive 2020 off IXL membership when they sign up today at ixl.com left visit ixl.com left to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price from your grave.

[Marcus Parks]

Let's see. Speaking of, you know, things that you've written for the screen, like one of a massive influence on On Me was the, the, the TV miniseries for the Stand that, you know, came back in 1994 like that. It blew my mind when I saw that when I was a kid. But you know, with, you know, writing that and also, you know, writing the novel, which is also of course incredible. When Covid came around in 2020, were you surprised by how people acted or were you Pretty much like, okay, this is what I expected to happen when a plague hits.

[Stephen King]

Well, one thing that did happen is. This is horrible to say, but. But the book went through the roof again, right? It's like that story. Like, other than that. Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the plague?

[Marcus Parks]

Well, I mean, we did a whole series in 2021 on the Black Plague, like the history of the Black Plague in Europe. And one of the things that really struck us was how similarly people acted back then, how they reacted to the Black Plague in medieval Europe as people reacted in, you know, 2020 to, to Covid? Like, do you think that people are basically the same always in, in the

[Stephen King]

days of the Black Plague, did they have like arrows in the supermarket so that people would only go one way?

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, that was a huge thing. It was a huge thing. And they had. It was a lot of zooms.

[Stephen King]

Yeah. A lot of zoom calls. Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

There's a. There's a Dutch researcher named Matthias Claussen who wrote one of the best non fiction books about horror as a genre. It's called why Horror Seduces. And he's really the. He's really the sharpest, you know, the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to, you know, talking about the genre. And he co authored a now fairly famous paper that showed that horror fans dealt with COVID psychologically and emotionally better than people who don't enjoy horror. You know that if you're, if you consume a lot of horror films and read a lot of horror novels that you, you absorb the emotional shock of the COVID years at a higher level better. And, and like, to me, that makes sense because we've all read the Stand and so we've already got our action plan for when Captain Trips hit.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

And I.

[Stephen King]

Have you guys seen Back Rooms?

[Ben Kissel]

We're on our way. We're on our way to see that

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tickets to see it tonight. I'm very excited. I've seen plenty of the, the, the YouTube videos.

[Marcus Parks]

Oh, yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

We spoke to the boy himself. We spoke to Kane.

[Joe Hill]

I almost. I came this close to going to see Obsession last night, but Jillian's got a sore throat and I, I didn't want to. I didn't want to dump the kids on her when she wasn't feeling well, so I stayed home.

[Ben Kissel]

Obsession is amazing because Obsession does it great. Which is what I think you guys have just destroyed. You guys have this ability to do, which is take a simple idea, like a, like a kind of like a flatter idea, and then explode it out. Like Joe, I was Just. You guys have an idea.

[Stephen King]

Like, there's a scene in Obsession where the girl smiles for about 20 seconds.

[Ben Kissel]

It's so good. It's so good. She's so frightening. She makes hot chicken. So frightening.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, so it just seems like. It seems like you still keep up on, you know, pretty much every horror movie that comes out still.

[Joe Hill]

There's so much good stuff out there right now, right? I mean.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Joe Hill]

There's so much like. I mean, Ross had that great novel Coffin Moon last year. Nat Cassidy had When the Wolf Comes Home. That was incredible. Widow's Bay is great. I love that movie Weapon.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

Like, I feel thrilled by all this stuff, but also a little bit challenged and stressed out. Like, of course. Kind of got to step up my game to keep up with some of what's coming out now because there's just. There's just so much great stuff.

[Ben Kissel]

Well, I honestly wonder if that's a question you even ask your dad. Because, like, think about that. Like, you. You have changed formats too, Mr. King. You also do, like, you write some crime, you write some drama, and you, like, obviously, Joe, you're in the same way. You got. You go. If you go into fantasy, you go into sci fi, you go into horror. One of my favorite stories you ever wrote, Joe, was the one where the guy's trapped on the cloud.

[Joe Hill]

Oh, aloft. Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

That just scared the fucking shit out of me. Just because it's so. But it's so simple. Like, how do you take an idea that might be like, as you say this. So it's like an idea might not work out. I listened to your anecdote about the ladies room story you were working on, Mr. King, where you talked about how you. You spent 90 pages. You never figured out what happened inside that fucking bathroom, right? When does the idea tip? How do you. When the idea is going to tip to become a novel versus. I've just spent a hundred dollars. I've just spent 100 pages doing nothing,

[Stephen King]

Joe.

[Joe Hill]

I mean, I mean, I. I don't know. I mean, I can. When I have a really great concept, I can usually write on that for a couple days. But if I don't have a great character after a couple days, there's got to be someone I give a about, you know, there's got to be a character who I want to spend a few weeks or a month or a couple years with. You know, someone who's got some stuff inside them that seems like it would be interesting to explore and whose way of interacting with trouble seems Interesting and a little bit different, you know, If I can latch into a good character, I feel like I'm off and running. Then I, you know, then I'm really excited to see where the story goes. When stories die on me, you know, usually there was a good concept there. There was some. It had a clever hook, but I just couldn't find anyone interesting to write about. It didn't seem to, you know.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I don't know.

[Joe Hill]

What about you, Dad? I mean. You know what I mean?

[Stephen King]

I start with an idea, something that's interesting to me. Sometimes it's just an image, but it has to connect with something else. I mean, it's like an engine without a transmission. It's got to be two parts, you know, it's got to be an idea, and then it's got to be some nuts and bolts that connect it all together. And then, man, I just go, and I hope that everything's going to turn out pretty good in the end, you know, it's like shooting off an intercontinental ballistic missile. If the warhead is big enough, it doesn't matter if you really hit exactly the spot, because everything blows up in the end. So I just try to do the best I can. And, you know, you gotta try to be honest with the characters, and you can't bullshit, you know, like, say, oh, guess what? It was all a dream.

[Ben Kissel]

I hate it.

[Joe Hill]

You know, like, the other thing, though, is, like, Dad's first drafts are so clean, you know, I came across something. I was cleaning out the basement. I came across an old Entertainment Weekly where he had written a book review for Entertainment Weekly, but he had written it. He was in New York at the time, and he wrote the review on a ruled yellow legal pad longhand, and then had it sent over to the Entertainment Weekly offices by courier. And Entertainment Weekly was so shocked to receive the manuscript that way that they actually printed the review, but they also printed a scan of his copy.

[Stephen King]

That was the days before email.

[Ben Kissel]

I hear the Wagon Wheels.

[Joe Hill]

There's no strikeout. There's no. Every sentence is clean in first draft. There's no corrections or edits or anything. It was just. It was just this sort of perfect, you know, straight from. Straight from your mind onto the page. And maybe he's ever read that way. None of my.

[Ben Kissel]

Maybe he's a demon. Maybe he's a demon and he needs to be exercised. I don't know, man, because that scares me. Hearing you say that, Joe, scares me.

[Stephen King]

Yeah, I certainly need exercise.

[Marcus Parks]

I could do that well, with something like that. Like when. When you get back a manuscript or review or something like that with, with no strikethroughs, you know, nobody is giving you any notes. Do you ever ask yourself like, is this good because it's good or is this good because I'm Stephen King?

[Stephen King]

No. Yeah, I always think that. And you know what I always think is I'm gonna send this manuscript into the publisher and they're going to call me up, up and say, Steve, this doesn't say anything. It's just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. Have you ever had that feeling, Joe, that it's not good? That, that it's. No,

[Henry Zebrowski]

no.

[Joe Hill]

I always figure it's. I wrote it, so it must be pretty.

[Marcus Parks]

Every word.

[Joe Hill]

Delicious.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah. It's so nice to have that confidence. I love it too. I never doubt. I'm just like everything I walk out of, I go, man, I was fantastic.

[Stephen King]

You know, one of the things that excites me is the, the audio version of Other Worlds. In these, Louis Patton Oswald is going to do the, the recording of that and he's a character in the book who's a stand up comedian who was kidnapped into this other world. So I think that. I can't wait for to hear that.

[Ben Kissel]

Are you guys both big? Are you stand up guys? Do you guys watch stand up? Do you guys. Are you into stand up? Like, do you or do you have. You go to comedy clubs,

[Henry Zebrowski]

Ma?

[Joe Hill]

Not really. I, you know, I had some of the, you know, so old fashioned. I have some like comedy records.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, wow.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, I love my Milton Berl. I always listen to my old. That's my favorite Burns and Allen.

[Stephen King]

I am old enough to remember. Hello, mother. Hello.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Hello, father.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah,

[Stephen King]

I like comedy particularly. I like lame jokes. I like jokes that make you go, oh shit.

[Joe Hill]

You know, it's interesting to think that stand up comedians are also writers, that they're, you know, that they spend time writing and they're building up material and that it is the same process as, you know, writing an essay or a short story or a piece of fiction.

[Ben Kissel]

My dick is so small and does not work.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Heads in a basket.

[Ben Kissel]

My dick is so small. Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

By the way, basket full of heads. Heads. It was hilarious.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I had such a good time with that and I gotta. Now do you have to talk, do you talk to your dad about referencing Shawshank and Derry and stuff like that? Or does it all live in the same world? Or is that just you throwing an homage in there?

[Joe Hill]

Someone asked me about that online and I, I said, I just thought it was like you know, dad, me going in the backyard to throw the ball around. Not that we ever really did that, because I'm a. I'm. I, I. I'm not much of a baseball player. I like to watch it. Owen was the one. Owen. Owen's Little league team went all the way to the playoffs.

[Henry Zebrowski]

There's other balls, you know.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Stephen King]

We played games, and we did a whole bunch of, you know, we had

[Joe Hill]

Frisbee, I guess we throw the Frisbee around. So it's like that. So it's just. It's. I mean, we did have one thing. When he was working on doctor Sleep and I was working on Nosferatu, at some point, we both realized we were writing books about vampires that steal energy from people, steal their souls. Basically, his antagonist and my antagonist operated along the same lines. And when you realize something like that is happening, there are two things you can do. You can either run from it and try to obscure the similarity, or you can run towards it and kind of embrace it and just. I just think it's. Yeah, it's just better to embrace it. So. So he stuck my bad guy and doctor Sleep, he stuck Charlie Manx in doctor Sleep, and I stuck the true knot in Nosferatu.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

And it seemed like sort of a way to, you know, acknowledge, you know, sort of acknowledge in passing that there was a similarity there.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah. Was there, like, one horrible person that both of you met at the same time that made you think, like, I need to write something about energy vampires.

[Ben Kissel]

Let me guess. An editor or a publisher.

[Marcus Parks]

I don't know.

[Joe Hill]

But, you know, I remarried in 2018, and my wife and I had twins, you know, and around about that time, dad wrote a story about a haunted pram, and I wrote a story about. I wrote one called the Pram. And what was the one you wrote? Rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes, was it called?

[Stephen King]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

You know, and, And. And neither of us knew what the other one was doing. And then we found out. And I remember saying to Jillian, what are the odds that we both write that the two of us would both write stories about, you know, haunted baby strollers at the same time? And she's pushing the baby stroller back and forth with one hand to keep the twins asleep. And she's like, what inspires you? I can't imagine. Where do you guys come up with this?

[Ben Kissel]

Where does it come from?

[Henry Zebrowski]

How scared are you two of cars? What is the deal?

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, what? You guys both. That is the truth. In your work, there's a lot of scary cars. A lot of haunted cars, trucks, evil cars.

[Stephen King]

You know, the cars are part of our lives. You know, they're just everywhere. And you know that if you're going to get into an accident, a serious accident, it's probably going to be in a car. Of course, I didn't have an accident while driving a car. I just had an accident while I was walking along the road and I got hit by a car. Yeah, but, you know, this was before that.

[Ben Kissel]

The cars were there before.

[Stephen King]

Yeah. Cars are a part of our lives, you know, so that's it. I want somebody to do a good story about a good haunted GPS story. Haunted GPS story. Think about that, guys.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, yeah. It just keeps leading you to John Wayne Gacy's house.

[Stephen King]

Yes.

[Ben Kissel]

Honestly, that is not. It's not a bad idea. Obviously, it's because it comes from Mr. Stephen King.

[Joe Hill]

That is pretty good, guys. That is pretty good. You know, every time, you know, you program the GPS and you think it's taking you one place, but it keeps taking you back and to the same place and it's someplace you didn't want to go. There's something interesting there. That's not bad.

[Ben Kissel]

Keep working on that, you guys, keep

[Joe Hill]

working on that one. I like writing about cars because it's like a shortcut to letting you know something about the character, you know, because when you think about it, the biggest purchase a lot of people make in their lives is their automobile, you know, after. And it's such a reflection of. Of, you know, the things you think are cool or will make you look

[Stephen King]

cool or will meet a set of objectives, personalities. Right, Joe?

[Joe Hill]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Marcus Parks]

I mean, that was the whole thing with, you know, with, With Christine. The car makes the man. And I, I loved Christine, but I, for some reason, I, I became obsessed for some reason with the, the insult shitters that was used. I have to ask, man. Like shitters? What's up with shitters? Because I, I.

[Ben Kissel]

You're so good at coining a curse word.

[Stephen King]

I do. I remember that. The best line in that movie was, the guy says, I'm gonna sell this and buy a condo. I was popping this line.

[Ben Kissel]

So good a question. All right, now in Full Dark, no stars, the story 1922, you guys wrote about. You wrote about Mr. King about a father and son hiding the body of.

[Stephen King]

How long are you gonna call me Mr. King?

[Ben Kissel]

Mr. King. Steve. Mr. Steven.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Stevie baby.

[Ben Kissel]

Mr. Steven.

[Marcus Parks]

Hey,

[Ben Kissel]

is that something that you guys want to do?

[Joe Hill]

Do you guys bury a body together?

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah. Is that something that you've ever thought? Like, if you really thought about putting your strengths towards crime?

[Joe Hill]

I'd be scared to go to jail.

[Stephen King]

No, in my. In my imagination.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

You don't think you'd do well in jail.

[Joe Hill]

You know, for a guy. I have to tell you, for a guy who writes fiction for a living, too, I'm a terrible liar. I think I just confess whatever it was. I wouldn't be able to. I wouldn't be able to get away with it. I just. You know, I just blab everything the first. First time a police officer looked at me sideways. So, yeah, no, it's a shame. Best to leave the murders on the page.

[Marcus Parks]

I understand.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Likely story.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah. You guys are also creators. Because this is a part of why we had this. And I want to say thank you guys an incredible amount for doing this with us. Part of this was because it was about. It's Father's Day, right? Father's Day is coming up, and you have created some of the scariest fathers that have ever existed. Right. You guys have both together created some very scary fathers. Who is your favorite father figure in media? Like, if there's, like, a. There's a dad. Like, either look up to a dad, or you don't want to be that guy.

[Joe Hill]

I. I said to my dad once when I was a young dad, I said, I just. I just wanted to be like Gregory Peck playing Atticus Finch and To Kill a Mockingbird. And I'm just.

[Stephen King]

Just.

[Joe Hill]

I'm just so not able to rise to that level. And dad seemed very perplexed by that. And he said, joe, you know, Gregory Peck had a script.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Did you tell scary stories to your children?

[Stephen King]

Yeah, I did. I did. But I told him funny stories, too, because I looked funny to go to bed with, you know, a. A scary thought in. In mind. I mean, a funny story would be, you know, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. But at the end, Goldilocks doesn't get away. She's. She's eaten by the bears. That is funny to me.

[Ben Kissel]

But you never threaten him with, like, Pennywise. You mean, like, you know, I made up Pennywise. Like, Pennywise is right.

[Stephen King]

Right here.

[Marcus Parks]

I got Pennywise. Like, you know, Henry's dad used to say, like, I got. I got Santa Claus's number. Did you ever say, I got Pennywise's number?

[Ben Kissel]

I can call Pennywise.

[Stephen King]

No, I mean, Pennywise now is out there. He's not in my head anymore. So, you know, I'm fine. You know, kind of like you, you know,

[Joe Hill]

and actually, he did used to say. He did used to Say when I was little, he would sometimes say, if we were just being crazy and, you know, the house was in chaos and stuff, he'd say, hey, don't make me go put my ass kicking boots on. And I remember looking in the closet to try to find them. Speculating. We were looking at, you know, at shoes and boots and, you know, sort of speculating about which were the ass kicking pair. He never put them on.

[Stephen King]

Joe would come after me, I'm very ticklish. And he would go, seller dweller. I hated that.

[Ben Kissel]

My dad used to go, he used to, when he was like, wanted to do this. We do this bit as a family where he'd go, you know what happens when I take my belt off and the whole family goes, your pants fall down. And it was like a funny every time. But it was a subtle threat.

[Henry Zebrowski]

My father, my. The first horror movie I ever saw was Silver Bullet. And my father used to torture me. He knew, so he had this like, furry hand and he'd grab my baseball bat and hit my window in the middle of the night with it and scare the shit out of me. So thanks.

[Stephen King]

It's wonderful.

[Marcus Parks]

We had time for, for one more question. And this one, it's. It's a little large, but it, it, it's kind of a question that I've been asking myself a lot lately. You know, Stephen, you know, you're one of the most prolific and influential cultural voices of the 20th century. But, you know, like, I'm not the only one that's noticed that American culture, we keep dipping back into the 20th century for our stories, for our music, for our movies. Like, do you think that, you know, like, as one of those voices, do you think over the last 20, 25 years that American culture has become sort of stuck? And if it has, how do we get unstuck?

[Stephen King]

Man, I don't really know because it's even like we have this thread, me and my two boys, and a lot of them are about music, for instance, music and movies and tv, all the cultural things that are kind of like pop culture. I don't follow a lot of what they say because I kind of like have lost the beat in some ways. And I don't want to be one of those people who gets into their mid or late 70s and say, well, I'm hip. You know, it's like Donald Trump when he tries to dance. Don't, don't do that.

[Ben Kissel]

I love seeing you dance, though. It is never seen you move like that. It's great to see it.

[Stephen King]

Yeah. Well, there you go, but I don't

[Joe Hill]

think that we're, I don't think that we're culturally stuck. This, when we were just talking about, I mean, you know, and especially in the genre of horror, we just had back rooms and obsession open up, you know, to enormous, you know, and they're new and they're being directed by 20somethings and you know, and, and there's, you know, there's, there are all these, you know, terrific. There's been just, you know, an avalanche of great books in the genre written at a really high level.

[Marcus Parks]

Well, you know, but that opens up another, another interesting question is that like it's it. I do agree that like horror is, you know, across media is where like all the best comic books coming out right now, horror, the best movies, the best tv, like it's all like horror seems to be the one thing that's doing new stuff. Why is it that it seems like the 21st century has chosen horror

[Stephen King]

because it's a scary time to be alive? I think in a lot of ways because the media, you know, to get clicks, you want to get something that's really horrible. Joe, do you agree?

[Joe Hill]

I mean, yeah, I mean it's like in the 50s when there were all those great horror movies about nuclear war, you know, about like giant ants being created by, you know, the nuclear test blast and stuff like that. You know, people have these feelings. I mean maybe it's cathartic to go scream in the dark, you know, especially when, when the times are really stressful and you know, you can go to a movie and sort of let it out.

[Stephen King]

Yeah. And you know, audiences go to two movies. This is the great thing about movies when they really work. You know, somebody screamed behind me in, in back rooms last night. That was really good. And, and it just, it brings you together, you know, you can laugh together like in a comedy. You remember Three Amigos, Joe, how, how much fun we had at that.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah, I remember. Martin, Martin shorts on the exercise machine.

[Stephen King]

Montoya, it's time for you to die. What does that mean?

[Joe Hill]

Princess Bride, which was so great. I mean the thing about, the thing about the horror film, you know, going to a horror film is we're so politically divided these days, but when we're in the dark and something, there's a really good scare. Nothing brings everyone together like that because we're all frightened together at the same time. That's powerful.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

Also, I'll say you, you guys, you said something, Joe, about your dad's work and I'll say it about yours too, where you tell you about how saying, oh, the work, so frightening. And you said something along the lines of, like, my dad's works about bravery. It's about standing up to things despite insurmountable challenges. And I actually think that what we're finding ourselves now is almost like we sci fi our way in 80s dystopia sci fi. We sort of sci fi our way into this reality. And now it's up to sort of like us to create the next version of the future, which seems. Which we need a hero and we need the works of you guys because you're making heroes and putting them into the world. When you do, when you write what you do, you do put heroes.

[Stephen King]

That's a beautiful thing. Yeah, you said it well.

[Ben Kissel]

So thank you.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, thank you. Hey, thank you all so much for joining us today. This has been a true honor and just a lot of fun. And thanks for letting me talk about shitters for a second.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Stephen King]

And remember, next time you see me, none of that. Mr. King, it. I'm Steve.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, Steve.

[Stephen King]

You got it, Steve.

[Henry Zebrowski]

You got it, Steve. From your grave.

[Marcus Parks]

And how wonderful was that?

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, man, I hope it was okay. I hope so. I'm still. I still am scared.

[Stephen King]

Yeah.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah. Should we do a boner check?

[Ben Kissel]

No. I mean, there's at least I'll say

[Marcus Parks]

If you're watching this on Netflix, you can obviously see we're all wearing different clothes.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. It is a different day. But he deserved an outro.

[Ben Kissel]

I came. Yes, I'd already come. It was right after I jerked off real hard, my card in the parking lot. Just thinking about how I got to look at him.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, you hear that, Steve Henry Cape? I'm looking.

[Ben Kissel]

I'm looking at you when I go.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Oh, man. Oh, wow.

[Marcus Parks]

Can't believe we got him to do the obsession face. Well, we actually didn't even have to get him to do the obsession phase. He volunteered. He wanted to. He wanted to so bad.

[Henry Zebrowski]

I'm angry.

[Ben Kissel]

I didn't see it at the time because I would have loved to have talked with him about obsession. And honestly, he did a great obsession face.

[Marcus Parks]

He really did. Patreon.com lastpodcast on the left is where you can go to support us monetarily and get ad free episodes. If you want to watch last podcast on the left, if you want to see that obsession face that Stephen King made, you can go watch us on Netflix.

[Ben Kissel]

Is that how it goes?

[Henry Zebrowski]

You know what?

[Marcus Parks]

I think most people watch it on TVs I don't know why. I don't know why I felt compelled to put the dot com in there.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Sitting at your computer. You would have to write it that way.

[Marcus Parks]

You would have to write it that way.

[Joe Hill]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

If you're at the bus station, you're on your phone.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, even your phone has an app.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah. And don't forget to follow us on all of the socials at LP on the left. Tick Tock and Instagram. That's where you can find us in all the live shows we got coming up. We got Grand Rapids coming up. We got Tulsa and Oklahoma City coming up. Those are on our website. Last podcast on the left dot com, the JK Ultra Tour is winding up.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah, we're working on like a live stream situation for one of those. Right.

[Marcus Parks]

For Tulsa.

[Stephen King]

Tulsa.

[Ben Kissel]

So we. We can say that it will be live streamed.

[Henry Zebrowski]

We are working on it. And we don't know how.

[Ben Kissel]

Yeah, we're saying right now there it's in the works, but we don't have any general information and our manager told us to run with that.

[Marcus Parks]

Yeah, yeah. But if you are in that area, come see the show live. Come actually check it out in person. If you have to see it on the live stream, that's great. But if you can see it live, make the drive. Make the drive to New Mexico. Make the drive from the Panhandle. Make the drive from anywhere.

[Ben Kissel]

Seriously, get out.

[Stephen King]

Get out of there.

[Ben Kissel]

Get out of the Dust Bowl. Leave the farmer's daughters alone. Let them have a break. Come to the big city.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tulsa.

[Joe Hill]

Hot.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Your air conditioner is in your car. Get in your car where it's cold and come to our show.

[Ben Kissel]

I bet you'll find food closer to where the place is in Tulsa than you will wherever you live.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Tulsa's got food. Tulsa's got all kinds of food.

[Ben Kissel]

You want to go to Best Buy. Tulsa's got it.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Yeah.

[Ben Kissel]

You need any inoculations? Yeah.

[Marcus Parks]

And if you drive to Tulsa, you can take I40. You can stop at the largest cross in the western hemisphere. They have a fantastic statue of Jesus holding an aborted baby.

[Ben Kissel]

Wow, that is nice.

[Henry Zebrowski]

And have to find the largest man

[Ben Kissel]

to nail to to it.

[Marcus Parks]

And they have a replica of Jesus's tomb that you can go and sit in.

[Ben Kissel]

Oh, I want to go wake up screaming. How do you like your aborted baby? I like mine sunny side up.

[Henry Zebrowski]

See, I like mine rare, as in I don't like them around. Whoa.

[Ben Kissel]

In the toilet.

[Marcus Parks]

I like mine bronzed permanent.

[Henry Zebrowski]

It's bad on your teeth, but it's delicious.

[Ben Kissel]

Well, enjoy. I hope you enjoyed our interview with Stephen King.

[Joe Hill]

Thank you. Bye.

[Marcus Parks]

When it comes to designing your outdoor space, there's more to it than pure function. You need a space to unwind, make memories and enjoy a meal.

[Ben Kissel]

You need versatility, style and craftsmanship. Belgard pavers are different. They're designed to elevate your life outdoors.

[Marcus Parks]

They're designed to forward weather.

[Ben Kissel]

Tested and built to last. No matter your style, Belgard can bring it to life. Just a paver.

[Henry Zebrowski]

Think again.

[Ben Kissel]

Learn [e-mail] that's B E L G

[Marcus Parks]

A R D.com

[Stephen King]

it's a cold day here in Alaska, but there's one animal seemingly unaffected. Bright eyed and determined enters the husky observation nerve as they go up the mountain guided by pure instinct. They are truly amazing masters of this wilderness. But even these amazing pets can't sign up for Lemonade Pet insurance. You can sign up now at lemonade.

[Marcus Parks]

Com.

[Stephen King]

Amazing.