Department of English

Professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier Joins RadioWest KUER Podcasts to talk about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

February 12, 2026

Professor Jean-Christophe Cloutier was a guest on RadioWest KUER Podcasts to talk about Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and the new documentary, Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation, directed by Ebs Burnough. The episode is available on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, and other platforms.

"Hitting the Road with Jack Kerouac”

Jack Kerouac published “On the Road” in 1957, and it became the defining novel of the Beat Generation. Today, a new documentary explores the book’s legacy.

“Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation” pairs an exploration of Kerouac’s life and writing with three contemporary stories of people doing just what Kerouac did — getting in the car and setting out. Today, it’s an American tradition. There’s a young man leaving home for college, a woman visiting her estranged father and a couple leaving behind their usual roles as they roam from place to place. Those stories point back to Kerouac’s novel, in which fictionalized versions of himself and his friends embrace a rough and rowdy life away from the American mainstream.

GUESTS

Ebs Burnough | He directed the film “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation.”

Jean-Christophe Cloutier | He’s an associate professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He appears in “Kerouac’s Road.”