Book · 1957 · Beat generation
On the Road
#80 of 16,999 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 37
- people
- 23
- podcasts
- 11
- episodes
- 30
- critical mentions
- 0
Yeah, "On the Road" - Yeah. - by Jack Kerouac. - Best book I've ever read (Lex chuckles) in my life.
Lex Fridman · Lex Fridman Podcast · Apr 2024 Listen at 1:10:03 What they say about it
- Writing process and speed“wrote On the Road in 3 weeks”4
- Read it as a teenager“I read On the Road when I was 17”3
- Called it a seminal work“the seminal work”2
The best things said about it
This book changed my life and and changed my life to the extent that a it sent me out there into the world myself, hitchhiking, traveling, trying to find a different place.
On the Road was very important to me, because it gives permission to be expansive.
And the one that really the seminal work that I think really changed my my impression of where I wanted to go or what I wanted to be was Jack Carowaks on the road.
The end of On the Road by Kerouac: Forlorn rags of growing old. I just remember closing that and thinking, What the fuck am I doing in this big world?
Lex Fridman Lex Fridman Podcast · Oct 2025 I was 17 I remember this so clearly and I read on the road by Jack herak and it sounds so cliche but it world and that was actually spurred me to go I can move to New York.
Where and when it comes up
How it comes up
23 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a seminal autobiographical novel that chronicles the cross-country road trips of its protagonist and captures the restless energy of the Beat Generation. Lex Fridman and Andrew Callaghan endorsed the novel on the Lex Fridman Podcast, with Fridman playfully calling it the best book he had ever read and later quoting its melancholic ending to describe the feeling of finishing a great work. Adam Skolnick and Rich Roll discussed the book on The Rich Roll Podcast, with Roll noting that it is essentially required reading for any young man embarking on a major road trip. The novel also inspired creative and historical reflections across other podcasts; Norman Ohler mentioned its rapid amphetamine-fueled composition on the Lex Fridman Podcast, Seamus Murphy used its fiftieth anniversary as the conceptual anchor for a photography project on Conversations with Tyler, and David Rutherford shared on The Shawn Ryan Show how reading the book during his college years profoundly shaped his worldview.
Every mention
Lex Fridman Until then, you guys should go read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. - [Andrew] Yeah, read off- - You should… 7
Discussed
“The end of On The Road by Kerouac: "Forlorn rags of growing... ...old." I just remember closing that and thinking, "What the fuck am I doing in this big... ...world?"”
Recommended
“Until then, you guys should go read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. - [Andrew] Yeah, read off- - You should read it. (Andrew laughing) I don't know if you read it before. - If you can't get my book, get "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac.”
Recommended
“Yeah, "On the Road" - Yeah. - by Jack Kerouac. - Best book I've ever read (Lex chuckles) in my life.”
Discussed
“I'm currently reading on the road by Jack Kerouac and uh would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my favorite quotes from that book that feels relevant here”
Discussed
“and he actually realizes in uh spoiler alert for on the road that they're actually heading the same way”
Discussed
“and then he actually realizes in uh spoiler alert for on the road that they're actually heading the same way”
Discussed
“but i will also talk to the people who jack kerouac called the mad ones in his book on the road that is one of my favorite books he wrote”
Adam Skolnick I'm still On the Road, the Seminal work. 2
Recommended
“I'm still On the Road, the Seminal work.”
Discussed
“On the Road was very important to me, because it gives permission to be expansive.”
Rich Roll Without reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Are you even allowed to go on a four month road trip as a youn… 2
Discussed
“Yeah, I remember reading On the Road when I was driving cross country one year, when I was probably 20.”
Recommended
“Without reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. Are you even allowed to go on a four month road trip as a young man? Without having read On the Road?”
Joe Rogan like even people talk about kowak and kowak was like you know he rode on the road he on the road and it was… 3
Discussed
“like even people talk about kowak and kowak was like you know he rode on the road he on the road and it was Hunter S Thompson type of thing”
Discussed
“you could read on the road in a week”
Discussed
“Well they said when Jack Kerouac rode on the road they were a lot of Benzedrine or like this”
Andrew Callaghan Ultimately, I wrote a book about my hitchhiking experience years later. And everyone was like, have you rea… 2
Discussed
“Ultimately, I wrote a book about my hitchhiking experience years later. And everyone was like, have you read "On the Road"?”
Discussed
“Ultimately, I wrote a book about my hitchhiking experience years later. And everyone was like, have you read 'On the Road'? And then, 'On the Road', I probably heard the title of that book every day at least 10 times for two years.”
Niall Ferguson one of my earliest literary simulations was to reenact jack kerouac tripping on the road when i was 17 culm… 2
Discussed
“one of my earliest literary simulations was to reenact jack kerouac tripping on the road when i was 17 culminating and getting very wasted in the hanging gardens of zochimilco”
Discussed
“I actually reenacted Jack Kerouac's On the Road with considerable fidelity to the original.”
David Perell Jack Kerouac lived on the road for 7 years. He wrote On the Road in 3 weeks. Fact. 1
Discussed
“Jack Kerouac lived on the road for 7 years. He wrote On the Road in 3 weeks. Fact.”
David Rutherford And the one that really the seminal work that I think really changed my my impression of where I wanted to… 1
Discussed
“And the one that really the seminal work that I think really changed my my impression of where I wanted to go or what I wanted to be was Jack Carowaks on the road.”
Duncan Trussell kowak wrote on the road apparently in what what was it one night two nights on speed 1
Discussed
“kowak wrote on the road apparently in what what was it one night two nights on speed”
Dwight Garner This book changed my life and and changed my life to the extent that a it sent me out there into the world… 1
Discussed
“This book changed my life and and changed my life to the extent that a it sent me out there into the world myself, hitchhiking, traveling, trying to find a different place.”
Harry Dry Jack Kerouac lived on the road for um 7 years and he wrote On the Road in 3 weeks. 1
Discussed
“Jack Kerouac lived on the road for um 7 years and he wrote On the Road in 3 weeks.”
James Frey There's an interesting parallel with Carowak where the original draft of On the Road had all the characters… 1
Discussed
“There's an interesting parallel with Carowak where the original draft of On the Road had all the characters real names in it and they debated whether to publish it as fiction or non-fiction.”
John Williams and he met Jack herak through other people she knew and so she essentially became an on and off again roman… 1
Discussed
“and he met Jack herak through other people she knew and so she essentially became an on and off again romantic partner of Jack herak right around the time that on the road was published”
Josh Clark like it's it pops up here there and on the road from Jack caroak 1
Discussed
“like it's it pops up here there and on the road from Jack caroak”
Norman Ohler "On the Road" was apparently written in two weeks on amphetamines. 1
Discussed
“"On the Road" was apparently written in two weeks on amphetamines.”
Pamela Paul so I think the book that started for me was on the road I mean cirak you know it's a novel but it's based o… 1
Discussed
“so I think the book that started for me was on the road I mean cirak you know it's a novel but it's based on a lot of his own trips”
Rosamund Pike I didn't you know I think when books really excited me at a younger age it was often American novels I mean… 1
Discussed
“I didn't you know I think when books really excited me at a younger age it was often American novels I mean on the road I remember just sort of blitzing my brain when I read that”
Seamus Murphy well I I've been working on a project on America for a number of years and I wanted to first of all I wante… 1
Discussed
“well I I've been working on a project on America for a number of years and I wanted to first of all I wanted to do a book that was going to be in time for the the 50th the anniversary of On the Road, the Jack Carowak book, I thought if I did a book on America now, um”
Stefan Molyneux he had Jack kowak on the road uh sitting on his uh night table open 1
Discussed
“he had Jack kowak on the road uh sitting on his uh night table open”
Steve Sweeney I read Jack Kerouac on the road 1
Discussed
“I read Jack Kerouac on the road”
Steven Pressfield One of the concepts I had in my mind came from Jack Kerouac's book, "On the Road," 1
Discussed
“One of the concepts I had in my mind came from Jack Kerouac's book, "On the Road,"”
Timothy Denevi realizes that neil cassidy who's blackout drunk who is dean moriarty and on the road by jack herreck 1
Discussed
“realizes that neil cassidy who's blackout drunk who is dean moriarty and on the road by jack herreck”
Win Butler But that was like stuff you're saying here, like I read On the Road when I was 17 and I was like, I gotta l… 1
Discussed
“But that was like stuff you're saying here, like I read On the Road when I was 17 and I was like, I gotta leave where I'm at! But that wasn’t stuff I did in high school; that was stuff I did on my own.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“I was reading, you know, Sam Shepard. I was reading, you know, on the road. I was reading, you know, all these great writers and just opening up my imagination.”
Discussed
“I was 17 I remember this so clearly and I read on the road by Jack herak and it sounds so cliche but it world and that was actually spurred me to go I can move to New York”
Often mentioned with
Other mentions (10: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“This one focused on the great road trip books since Jack Carowaks On the Road.”
Passing
“it's it's another myth like the tortured artist the it's a myth like the you know caroak sat down and wrote on the road in 24 hours on a bender and it's like no almost everything that is impressive yeah was methodically and gradually built yeah and painstakingly”
Passing
“I felt like I was you know it was the only thing left from those Jack caroak books how you would go to a town”
Passing
“whether it's uh obviously Jack carox on the road is a big one”
Passing
“Whether it's obviously Jack Kerouac's On the Road is a big one, or Tom Robbins even Cowgirls Get the Blues. The Gus Van Sant movie, the main character was born with an abnormally large thumb, so she obviously had a talent as a hitchhiker, and that's kind of one of the subplots of the book and film, right?”
Passing
“Yeah and if you were into jazz at the time you were probably somewhat familiar of bop talk but um it filtered into the beats um who kind of introduced it to an even wider audience in the United States like it pops up here there and on the road from Jack Kerouac sure.”
Passing
“So what was, so you grew up out there and everybody's [__] punching cattle and drilling oil and flattening the mountains and you're doing what, reading Jack Kerouac?”
Passing
“kerouac any of this stuff i have on the road i read and i read a biography of him”
Passing
“I actually reenacted Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' with considerable fidelity to the original.”
Passing
“you remember the Truman Capote quote about on the road Jack Kerouac Capote said that's not writing that's typing”