Some people want to meet their heroes; writer/historian Dennis McNally made a career out of meeting his. Already the author of the definitive Beat biography, Desolate Angel: Jack Kerouac, the Beat Generation and America, his life changed when he met with Jerry Garcia in 1980. He became the Grateful Dead’s biographer, and then a few years later the band’s publicist, a role he held for more than a decade. He came away from the experience with another book, A Long, Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead, and too many stories to for a one-hour podcast. Join us this week as McNally shares some of his adventures in rock and roll and academia and recounts his own long, strange trip from military brat to chronicler of American Bohemia.