He began adult life as a clean-cut champion college wrestler who idolized John Wayne and practiced ventriloquism, then became a defining figure of 1960s counterculture. This episode explores the contradictory and ultimately tragic life of author Ken Kesey and the transformation that turned an athlete into a bridge between the Beats and the hippies.

We follow how his life became as much a work of art as his novels, blending creative genius, government experimentation and genuine tragedy.

• His wrestling career at the University of Oregon and the shoulder injury that redirected his competitive drive toward literature.
• His participation in Project MKUltra drug studies and night shifts at a psychiatric hospital that inspired One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
• The Merry Pranksters, the painted bus named Further, and the Ac ...