Why people recommend it
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a powerful 1962 novel by Ken Kesey that examines institutional control, sanity, and rebellion through the perspective of a patient in a psychiatric hospital. Andrew Scull discussed the novel and its iconic film adaptation on the Lex Fridman Podcast in the context of public perceptions regarding electroconvulsive therapy and conditions in mental asylums. Steven Pressfield referenced the story on How I Write to illustrate character transformation and pivotal narrative moments involving Nurse Ratched and a high-energy inmate. Norman Ohler spoke on the Lex Fridman Podcast about Kesey's involvement with MKULTRA and how taking LSD in a psychiatric ward inspired the book. Jimmy Carr and Duncan Trussell discussed the novel and its movie adaptation on The Joe Rogan Experience, comparing the literary version's themes and narrator to the screen adaptation, while Bill Burr humorously referenced the psychiatric environment of the story on the Monday Morning Podcast.
Who recommended it
- Joe Rogan Discussed
- Andrew Scull Discussed
- Lex Fridman Discussed
- Steven Pressfield Discussed
- Norman Ohler Discussed
- Jimmy Carr Discussed
- Andrew Huberman Discussed
- Timothy Denevi Discussed
- Theo Von Discussed
- Urijah Faber Discussed
- Ben Shapiro Discussed
Joe Rogan — 3 mentions
Discussed
“Okay, I I think I must have read it when I was in high school and just didn't pay attention it's completely different from the movie like 100 different or maybe I never read it King keezy”
Discussed
“I I think I must have read it when I was in high school and just didn't pay attention it's completely different from the movie like 100 different or maybe I never read it King keezy he would he was like can you wrote it”
Discussed
“like who wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”
Andrew Scull — 2 mentions
Discussed
“And of course in the popular mind I think the, probably the most famous, instance of telling the public about some of these interventions was the film of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest where you see Jack Nicholson giving I think the performance of a lifetime who is given ECT, electroconvulsive therapy,”
Discussed
“So One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the poverty of the environment, room that the patients were in, I think fairly successfully recreates that way in which staff very often put patients down”
Lex Fridman — 2 mentions
Discussed
“what do you make of the idea of somebody like ken kizi who wrote one flew over the cuckoo's nest in part under the influence of lsd”
Discussed
“you've talked about that you first began to reconsider the negative health myths around psychedelics when you learned that the book one flew over the cuckoo's nest was written by ken gizzy when he was in part under the influence of lsd”
Steven Pressfield — 1 mention
Discussed
“Well, Jack Nicholson is this guy who is a kind of a livewire high energy guy and he gets sentenced to um an insane asylum, right, where all the people are sort of really down and he kind of energizes everybody, you know, but he runs the foul of nurse Ratchet, uh the bad nurse that runs him and the”
Norman Ohler — 1 mention
Discussed
“So then it spilled out, obviously, because one of the guinea pigs was Ken Kesey. He received 75 US dollars for taking LSD for the CIA, and he was working in Menlo Park in a psychiatric ward. And on LSD, he basically had the idea to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
Jimmy Carr — 1 mention
Discussed
“obviously the book existed Ken KY and then when he made the movie for him it was about the Communist system”
Andrew Huberman — 1 mention
Discussed
“and he was actually at the va near stanford that's where he eventually in menlo park he wrote one flew over the cuckoo's nest”
Timothy Denevi — 1 mention
Discussed
“he had moved up to la honda on the success of his first book um one flew over the cuckoo's nest and had just written another beautiful book”
Theo Von — 1 mention
Discussed
“what's the what's the book what One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the book”
Urijah Faber — 1 mention
Discussed
“you ever what's the what's the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the book”
Ben Shapiro — 1 mention
Discussed
“mental illness was basically one flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest nobody was seriously crazy”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker — 1
Discussed
“She came in with all this stuff and was like accusing me of not drinking it, pretending to drink it like I was in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (12: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“Never read or seen one flu of the cuckoo's nest. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Chaotic good is Jack Nicholson taking care of patients doing the opposite of the dominant nurse Ratchet”
Passing
“They used to be, you know, like one flew over the cuckoo's nest situation and uh some investigative reporter named Nelly Bllye back”
Passing
“Can you steel man the case that you are in fact experiencing in a state of delusion, like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and can you argue against it?”
Passing
“And it you know, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was one example, crazy, but the other example is that we there too many that would nobody goes to lock mental facilities.”
Passing
“The wind started blowing ahead on my [ __ ] Jack Nicholson one flew over the cuckoo's nests black knitted hat and I had shaved my head so it was extra smooth”
Passing
“and you know I'm I'm done with it like I I feel like One Flew Over the [__] Cuckoo's Nest”
Passing
“It was much more One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.”
Passing
“I mentioned my love for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and how those portrayals aren't reflective of reality. Selena and I don't live in that world every day, although I have been in a facility; it wasn't as media portrays it.”
Passing
“and this [ __ ] giant woman who was she was like the size of chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest screaming at everybody”
Passing
“cuz then everything's going to be on the arm with the [ __ ] one flu of the cucko nest all right much older man”
Passing
“Don't have all your eggs in one basket. We all know that, right? Cuz then everything's going to be on the arm with the [ __ ] one flu of the cucko nest. All right much older man”
Passing
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”