The Backstory: Jack Kerouac: On the Road With a Brilliant Disaster

Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND

Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, News, Music, Music History, Entertainment News, Comedy

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Few authors have impacted literature and our culture like On the Road author Jack Kerouac. But his short life was filled with pain, depression, addiction, and murder... as well as brilliance. This is a peek at his rise and fall.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, how about we take a wild road trip with a true original, an episode suggested by a listener who goes by 9-1-1 Grail.
0:08.2	This is about on-the-road author Jack Kerouac, the guy who practically invented the beat generation.
0:14.9	His life was messy, passionate, and heartbreaking, filled with stories that changed American literature forever.
0:21.8	But who knew that he was involved in a front-page murder story?
0:26.2	I'm Patty Steele.
0:27.5	Jack Kerouac, restless, reckless and brilliant, but unable to save himself.
0:33.4	That's next on the backstory.
0:37.1	You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.
0:42.4	I'm Soledad O'Brien, and on my new true crime podcast, Murder on the Toe Path,
0:48.0	I'm taking you back to 1964 to the cold case of artist Mary Pinch O'Meyer.
0:54.2	She had been shot twice in the head and in the back.
0:57.5	It turns out Mary was connected to a very powerful man.
1:02.7	I pledge you that we shall neither commit nor provoke aggression.
1:07.1	John F. Kennedy.
1:09.0	Listen to Murder on the Toothatch with Soledat O'Brien on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
1:21.2	My husband has a secret son from a past partner.
1:24.0	Hold up Sam.
1:24.6	How do we know?
1:25.2	Have we done the DNA test?
1:26.3	Well, John, luckily, it's mother.
1:27.8	May I have a DNA test week on the OK Storytime podcast?
1:30.8	So we'll find out soon.
	...

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