The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

This book by Tom Wolfe came up once on Joe Rogan in the episodes we index. That mention was a genuine on-air recommendation, not just a passing reference. The people who brought it up: Peter Thiel. Every occurrence below links to the episode page and to the exact second it was said on YouTube.

One of the most essential works on the 1960s counterculture, Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Test is the seminal work on the hippie culture, a report on what it was like to follow along with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they launched out on the "Transcontinental Bus Tour" from the West Coast to New York, all the while introducing acid (then legal) to hundreds of like-minded folks, staging impromptu jam sessions, dodging the Feds, and meeting some of the most revolutionary figures of the day.