Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family Cover
Podcast Mentions

Hidden Valley Road Inside the Mind of an American Family

Robert Kolker

#1

Podcasts 2
Quotes 10
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

It was described as a fascinating true story about a family with 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and how they became a study in the science of schizophrenia.

"

So I'm listening to this incredible book called Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. And it's the true story of this family with 12 children and from the 1945 on and six of those children end up getti...

— Episode: 250 - Look Who’s Crossing

Episode: 250 - Look Who’s Crossing

It was described as a fascinating true story about a family with 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia, and how they became a study in the science of schizophrenia.

"

So I'm listening to this incredible book called Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. And it's the true story of this family with 12 children and from the 1945 on and six of those children end up getting diagnosed with schizophrenia.

And so psychiatry and brain doctors and scientists study them to figure out the how and the why of and the what of schizophrenia and the diagnosis and what it means and how it can be treated. And it's just really fascinating.

So that's Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.

That's great. Yeah, I love it. I highly recommend it.

That sounds really good.

Rotten Mango

The podcast host read the book as the primary source for an episode about a family with multiple schizophrenia cases, noting it offered a comprehensive biography that the family endorsed. They preferred it to a documentary because several siblings were dissatisfied with the film's portrayal. The hosts highlighted the book’s depth and the author’s access to the family, presenting it as a trusted account.

Highly Recommended

Episode: #376: Most “Mentally Insane” Family In America- Si...

The hosts said they had read the family's biography to learn about the Galvin case.

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I read the family's biography Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.

Episode: #376: Most “Mentally Insane” Family In America- Si...

The podcast host read this book as source material for the episode, focusing on the Galvin family's experiences with schizophrenia and the family's biography. It was preferred over an HBO Max documentary due to the family's concerns with the latter's portrayal.

"

So for this episode I read the family's biography Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker.

The two youngest siblings, they actually sought out Dr. Kolker to the author of the book to share their stories.

The author had the blessing of the whole family including the mother but a few of the siblings chose not to even participate in the HBO Max documentary and even after the documentary came out, a few that did participate they did not like it.

So we focused most of our research on the book.

Note: The book recommendations on this page are discovered automatically from podcast transcripts, and may be incorrect or incomplete.