Jon Ronson (born 10 May 1967) is a British-American journalist, author, and filmmaker. He is known for works such as '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), '' The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), and '' The Psychopath Test'' (2011). He has been described as a gonzo journalist, becoming a '' faux-naïf'' character in his stories. 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 ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', '' City Life'' and '' Time Out''. He has made several

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

documentary films and two documentary series for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

Early life

Ronson was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

on 10 May 1967. He attended Cardiff High School and later worked for

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

in Cardiff, before moving to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

to study for a media degree at the Polytechnic of Central London.Nathan Bevan
Who is Jon Ronson?
WalesOnline.co.uk, retrieved 13 June 2011.

Career

Writing

Ronson gained fame writing a column for '' Time Out'', consisting of a series of challenges he set himself. He later adapted this into a television series, '' The Ronson Mission'', for

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

in 1993. Ronson's first book, ''Clubbed Class'' (1994), is a travelogue in which he bluffs his way into a

jet set The jet set is a social group of wealthy and fashionable people who travel the world to participate in social activities unavailable to ordinary people. The term was introduced in 1949 and replaced " café society"; it reflected a style of life ...

lifestyle, in search of the world's finest holiday. His second book, '' Them: Adventures with Extremists'' (2001), chronicles his experiences with people labelled as extremists. Subjects featured in the book include

David Icke David Vaughan Icke ( ; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist, author and a former Association football, footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more tha ...

, Randy Weaver,

Omar Bakri Muhammad Omar Bakri Muhammad (; born Omar Bakri Fostock; 1958) is a Syrian Islamist militant leader born in Aleppo. He was instrumental in developing Hizb ut-Tahrir in the United Kingdom before leaving the group and heading to another Islamist organisati ...

Ian Paisley Ian Richard Kyle Paisley, Baron Bannside, (6 April 1926 – 12 September 2014) was a loyalist politician and Protestant religious leader from Northern Ireland who served as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 1971 to 2008 and ...

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

, and Thomas Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg Meeting (also known as the "Bilderberg Group", "Bilderberg Conference" or "Bilderberg Club") is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally ...

. The narrative tells of Ronson's attempts to infiltrate the "shadowy cabal" fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' 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 Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

for a feature film. Ronson contributed the memoir "A Fantastic Life" to the

Picador A ''picador'' (; pl. ''picadores'') is one of the pair of horse-mounted bullfighters in a Spanish-style bullfight that jab the bull with a lance. They perform in the ''tercio de varas'', which is the first of the three stages in a stylized bull ...

anthology ''Truth or Dare'', in 2004. Ronson's third book, '' The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004), deals with the secret

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

unit within the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

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 The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...

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 Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. Ronson is played by the actor

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...

in the film. Ronson's fourth book, '' Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness'' (2006;

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

psychopath Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality Construct (psychology), construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with boldness, bold, disinhibited, and egocentrism, egocentric traits. These traits are often ma ...

ic behaviour, learning how to apply the

Hare Psychopathy Checklist The Psychopathy Checklist or Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, now the Psychopathy Checklist—revised (PCL-R), is a psychological assessment tool that is commonly used to assess the presence and extent of psychopathy in individuals—most of ...

, 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". '' Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries'' (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

public humiliation Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was regularly used as a form of judicially sanctioned puni ...

in the internet age.

Radio

Ronson's main radio work is the production and presentation of a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

programme, ''Jon Ronson on...'' The programme has been nominated for a

Sony award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

four times. In August 2008, Radio 4 aired "

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

and Jon Ronson Journey to the Other Side", a documentary by Jon Ronson about pop star Williams' fascination with UFOs and the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

. In the early 1990s, Ronson was offered the position of sidekick on Terry Christian's Show on

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

radio station KFM. 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 ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

''. , 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 Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

and was subsequently made available on other podcasting platforms. The show concerns internet pornography, and Fabian Thylmann and

PornHub Pornhub is a Canadian-owned Internet pornography video-sharing website, one of several owned by adult entertainment conglomerate Aylo. , Pornhub is the 16th- most-visited website in the world and the most-visited adult website. The site al ...

'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 BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...

in a similar format to his previous works for Amazon.

Music

In the late 1980s, Ronson replaced Mark Radcliffe as the

keyboard player A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

for the Frank Sidebottom band for a number of performances. Ronson was the manager of the

indie band The Man from Delmonte (band).

Television

Ronson presented the late nineties talk show ''For the Love of...'', in which each week he would interview a gathering of guests and experts on different phenomena and conspiracy theories. Ronson has also appeared as a guest on various shows, including '' Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled''.

Films

Ronson sold the

film rights Film rights are rights under copyright law to produce a film as a derivative work of a given item of intellectual property. In US law, these rights belong to the holder of the copyright, who may sell (or " option") them to someone in the film indus ...

to ''The Men Who Stare at Goats'', and subsequently a film of the same name was released in 2009 as a comedy

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by Grant Heslov and written by

Peter Straughan Peter Straughan (born 1968) is a British playwright, screenwriter and author. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for ''Conclave'' (2024), and was previously nominated in the category for '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (2011). ...

. According to Ronson's DVD-commentary, the journalist-character Bob Wilton (

) did experience some elements of Ronson's self-recounted story from the book. However, unlike Ronson, Wilton was an American from

Ann Arbor Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

. Also, unlike Ronson, Wilton went to Iraq. 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 Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

inspired in part by Ronson's time in Frank Sidebottom's band. With Bong Joon-ho, Ronson wrote the screenplay for the 2017 Netflix film ''

Okja ''Okja'' (, ) is a 2017 science-fantasy action-adventure film directed by Bong Joon Ho with a screenplay by Bong and Jon Ronson from a story by Bong. The film is about a teenage girl who raised a genetically modified "super pig" (the titular Ok ...

''.

Personal life

Ronson and his wife Elaine have one son. Ronson is Jewish and is a "distinguished supporter" of Humanists UK. He is a fan of the football team Arsenal F.C.">Arsenal FC and has spoken of his "adoration" of the club. In an interview for Louis Theroux's ''Grounded'' podcast, Ronson states that he became a naturalised American citizen in early 2020.

Works

Books

Filmography

* ''The Ronson Mission'' (1993), BBC 2 * ''New York to California: A Great British Odyssey'' (1996),

* ''Hotel Auschwitz'' (1996),

* ''Tottenham Ayatollah'' (1997), Channel 4 * ''Critical Condition'' (1997), Channel 4 * ''Dr Paisley, I Presume'' (1998), Channel 4 * ''New Klan'' (1999) Channel 4 * '' The Secret Rulers of the World'' (2001), Channel 4 * ''The Double Life of Jonathan King'' (2002), Channel 4 * ''Kidneys for Jesus'' (2003) Channel 4 * ''I Am, Unfortunately, Randy Newman'' (2004) Channel 4 * ''Crazy Rulers of the World'' (2004), Channel 4 ** Part 1: "The Men Who Stare at Goats" ** Part 2: "Funny Torture" ** Part 3: "The Psychic Footsoldiers" * ''Death in Santaland'' (2007),

More 4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content The i ...

, about a foiled

school shooting A school shooting is an Gun violence, armed attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of a firearm. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shooti ...

plot in the Christmas-themed town of North Pole, Alaska. * ''Reverend Death'' (2008), Channel 4, about George Exoo, an advocate of

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

. * '' Stanley Kubrick's Boxes'' (2008) * ''Revelations'' (2009) * ''Escape and Control'' (2011) * '' Frank'' (2014) * ''

'' (2017) * '' Comrade Detective'' (2017) as Himself

Theatre

* '' Life and Trust'' (2024)

References

'', 7 December 2001
Interview
Joanna Smith Rakoff, ''Salon.com'', 14 March 2002

Andrew Lawless, ''threemonkeysonline.com'', February 2005

''rinf.com'', February 2005

Anthony Brockway, ''ntlworld.com'', May 2005
Video interview

Robert Llewellyn Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956) is a British actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He plays the Android (robot), mechanoid Kryten in the Science fiction, sci-fi television sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and formerly presented the engineering gam ...

on ''

Carpool Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...

'', '' blip.tv''
Jon Ronson audio interviews (2005–2009)
''littleatoms.com'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Ronson, Jon 1967 births Living people 20th-century Welsh writers 21st-century Welsh writers British documentary filmmakers The Guardian journalists Journalists from Cardiff Welsh humanists Welsh Jews Welsh journalists Welsh non-fiction writers Jewish humanists British secular Jews Alumni of the Polytechnic of Central London