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Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker. He is known for works such as (2001), The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), and The Psychopath Test (2011).
He has been described as a Gonzo journalism,Relative to the Gonzo characterization: 1) Ronson, Jon, 'I've gotta get my elephant tusks back', The Guardian, 22 February 2005. The article subtitle read in part: "... Hunter S. Thompson created a new style of writing – gonzo – and a generation of followers. Jon Ronson explains why he became one of them"; the article was written the day after Thompson's death by suicide; Ronson himself in the article does not lay claim to the term to describe himself; and 2) ____, James, Ffresh 2011 Programme Goes Live" , website for Ffresh: Student Moving Image Festival of Wales, 13 January 2011. "Highlights include sessions with … gonzo journalist Jon Ronson ...." Both retrieved 17 February 2011. becoming a faux-naïf character in his stories.Rosenbaum, Ron (2002), "Beyond the Fringe", The New York Times (13 January issue). He produces informal but sceptical investigations of controversial fringe politics and science. He has published nine books and his work has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, City Life and Time Out. He has made several BBC Television documentary films and two documentary series for Channel 4.
His second book, (2001), chronicles his experiences with people labelled as extremists. Subjects featured in the book include David Icke, Randy Weaver, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ian Paisley, Alex Jones, and Thomas Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the Bilderberg Group. The narrative tells of Ronson's attempts to infiltrate the "shadowy cabal" fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. Publishers Weekly noted: "It is how he reveals the all-too-real machinations of Western society's radical fringe and its various minions that makes this enjoyable work rather remarkable." The book was described by Louis Theroux as a "funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world." Variety magazine announced in September 2005 that Them had been purchased by Universal Pictures for a feature film.
Ronson contributed the memoir "A Fantastic Life" to the Picador anthology Truth or Dare, in 2004.
Ronson's third book, The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), deals with the secret New Age unit within the United States Army called the First Earth Battalion. Ronson investigates people such as Major General Albert Stubblebine III, former head of intelligence, who believed that people can walk through walls with the right mental preparation, and that goats can be killed simply by staring at them. Much was based on the ideas of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, ret., who wrote the First Earth Battalion Operations Manual in 1979, inspired by the emerging Human Potential Movement of California. The book suggests that these New Age military ideas mutated over the decades to influence interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. An eponymous film of the book was released in 2009, in which Ronson's investigations were fictionalised and structured around a journey to Iraq. Ronson is played by the actor Ewan McGregor in the film.
Ronson's fourth book, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness (2006; Picador and Guardian Books), is a collection of his Guardian articles, mostly those concerning his domestic life. A companion volume was What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness (2007).
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry (2011) is Ronson's fifth book. In it, he explores the nature of behaviour, learning how to apply the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, and investigating its reliability. He interviews people in facilities for the criminally insane as well as potential psychopaths in corporate boardrooms. The book's findings have been rejected by The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy and by Robert D. Hare, creator of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. Hare described the book as "frivolous, shallow, and professionally disconcerting".
(2012), Ronson's sixth book, is a collection of previously published articles by him.
Ronson's book So You've Been Publicly Shamed (2015) concerns the effects of online shaming in the internet age.
In the early 1990s, Ronson was offered the position of sidekick on Terry Christian's Show on Manchester radio station KFM Radio. Ronson also co-presented a KFM show with Craig Cash, who went on to write and perform in The Royle Family and Early Doors.
Ronson contributes to the American radio program This American Life. , he has contributed segments to 13 episodes including "Them" (#201), "Naming Names" (#211), "Family Physics" (#214), "Habeas Schmabeas" (#310), "It's Never Over" (#314), "The Spokesman" (#338), "Pro Se" (#385), "First Contact" (#411), "The Psychopath Test" (#436), "Secret Identity" (#506), "Tarred and Feathered" (#522), "To Be Real" (#620), "Beware the Jabberwock" (#670).
Ronson hosted and wrote the podcast The Butterfly Effect, which was released in November 2017 by Audible and was subsequently made available on other podcasting platforms. The show concerns internet pornography, and Fabian Thylmann and PornHub's effect on the industry. Ronson subsequently also hosted and wrote the podcast The Last Days of August, released in January 2019. Its subject is the 2017 death of pornographic actress August Ames.
Ronson returned to the BBC in 2021 with Things Fell Apart: a podcast on the culture wars for BBC Sounds in a similar format to his previous works for Amazon.
Ronson was the manager of the Manchester indie band The Man from Delmonte (band).
In the process of visiting the set during the shoot, Ronson began a collaborative writing project with Straughan. The Men Who Stare at Goats, DVD commentary by Jon Ronson. OV 21370. Overture Films, US. 2009. This was the screenplay for Frank, a 2014 black comedy inspired in part by Ronson's time in Chris Sievey's band.Donald Clarke, "First get Michael Fassbender for your film. Then give him a giant comedy head", The Irish Times, 9 February 2013
With Bong Joon-ho, Ronson wrote the screenplay for the 2017 Netflix film Okja.
Ronson is Cultural Judaism and is a "distinguished supporter" of Humanists UK. He is a fan of the football team Arsenal FC and has spoken of his "adoration" of the club.
In an interview for Louis Theroux's Grounded
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| Pavilion Books Ltd, hardcover, |
| Picador, hardcover, 2001, Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 2002, Simon & Schuster, paperback, 1 January 2003, |
| Picador, hardcover, |
| Picador/Guardian Books, paperback, |
| Picador/Guardian Books, paperback, |
| Riverhead Books, hardcover, |
| Riverhead Books, e-book |
| Penguin Group, hardcover, |
| Picador, paperback, |
| Picador, paperback, |
| E-book, Kindle single |
| podcast series |
| Audible Originals, Audio book |
| Audible Originals, Audio book |
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