We’re excited to debut the news today that Mike Flanagan, Tananarive Due, and Anthony Breznican will join Jason Sechrest in a 6-episode limited series podcast discussing Stephen King’s epic novel, The Stand.
The Company of the Mad: The Stand Podcast will debut on Friday, May 29, 2020 at TheStandPodcast.com, and will subsequently be available on iTunes, Spotify, and most other apps where podcasts can be found. Video will be available exclusively at TheStandPodcast.com, where you can sign up now for notifications when each episode goes live.
“The idea is that the four of us will read 200 pages a month, and then meet up on the podcast to discuss what we just read. Sort of like a virtual book club, but one the whole world can join in,” says Sechrest, horror author and writer of the popular column What I Learned from Stephen King. Sechrest will serve as the host of the podcast, guiding the conversation. “We’ll be encouraging listeners to join us in #TheStandChallenge, committing to reading 200 pages a month and letting us know their thoughts. We’ll also be encouraging them to donate to The EMS FDNY HelpFund, benefiting first responders of New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
While the superflu nicknamed Captain Trips in Stephen King’s The Stand is far deadlier than COVID-19, there are eerie similarities. “The Stand is a book everyone should read, and if you’ve read it before, there is no better time to re-read it,” Sechrest says. “There’s this great quote from the book that reads, ‘Love didn’t grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn’t grow very well in a place where it was always dark.’ For all the scares King packs with a punch into his stories, there are equal parts wisdom, spirituality, and life lessons to be found – perhaps more in The Stand than ever. King doesn’t just write horror, he writes about people. He writes about the nature of the human condition, and that is what makes the horror work. That’s a big part of what we’ll be exploring in the podcast.”
For more information, visit thestandpodcast.com.
JASON SECHREST is the host and producer of The Company of the Mad. He is an author of horror fiction, and the writer of “What I Learned From Stephen King,” a popular column exploring the wisdom, spirituality, and life lessons in King’s many works. Sechrest’s horror stories have appeared in various publications and anthologies. His short story “Orange Grove Court” is featured in the latest issue of Cemetery Dance Magazine. Sechrest publishes a new short horror story or chapter from a serialized novel every month to subscribers of his Patreon page. Twitter: @jasonsechrest
MIKE FLANAGAN has brought Stephen King’s novels to the screen as the writer/director of Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game. Flanagan is also the writer/director of the hit Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. He is currently adapting King’s novel Revival, while finishing production on The Haunting of Bly Manor, a standalone second season of the Netflix series. Flanagan’s work has attracted the praise of critics for his directing, focus on characters and themes rarely depicted in horror. Twitter: @flanaganfilm
TANANARIVE DUE is an award-winning novelist who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. She is also the executive producer of Shudder’s groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. Due has been reading King since she was a young girl, having first read The Stand while in bed sick with the flu, and has played with King on stage in the rock band The Rock Bottom Remainders. Twitter: @tananarivedue
ANTHONY BREZNICAN is an author and journalist who has worked as a reporter for The Arizona Republic, Associated Press, USA Today, and Entertainment Weekly. Breznican’s debut novel Brutal Youth — a funny, tough, and heartbreaking book about the darker side of growing up — received high praise from critics and peers alike, including Stephen King, who provided a blurb for the dust jacket. Breznican is currently a correspondent with Vanity Fair. Twitter: @breznican