Jon Ronson on curiosity, compassion, and the stories that shape us
White Wine Question Time
Stak
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 23 May 2025
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Joining us this week is a master of observation – an author, journalist and documentarian whose work has delved into the furthest margins of modern life. From conspiracy theorists to the inner world of psychopaths, his stories always keep one foot in the world of misfits and outsiders. It’s the brilliant Jon Ronson!
In this episode, Jon reflects on his remarkable journey from a bullied teen in Cardiff to one of the most distinctive non-fiction storytellers of our time. He shares how a squatting stint in London and a chance role in the Frank Sidebottom band helped him find his tribe, and how a single regretful sentence written in his twenties changed his entire approach to journalism.
Jon also reflects on how being fired from a local Manchester radio station became a painful but pivotal moment that reshaped both his career path and creative outlook. He goes on to explore how his work has evolved alongside the shifting media landscape – from his early days at Smash Hits, to creating the acclaimed BBC podcast Things Fell Apart – and shares why he remains optimistic about the future of factual storytelling, even in the age of AI.
Tickets for Psychopath Night, Jon’s latest live UK tour, are available now. You can also catch up on both series of Things Fell Apart on BBC Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Coming up on this episode of White Wine Question Time. |
| 0:09.2 | I did something that was so bad that it courts me to this day, |
| 0:14.4 | like many, many days. |
| 0:16.5 | I don't even know whether to kind of admit it because it was so awful. |
| 0:19.4 | It's like the worst thing I ever did. |
| 0:20.7 | Barely a day goes by when I don't think about it. |
| 0:23.7 | Before I move off of this, |
| 0:24.9 | could you recommend three places for me to go that I might not have been |
| 0:27.8 | to consume content in a way that is exciting to your ears and eyes? |
| 0:32.0 | Well, lately, just in the last couple of days, |
| 0:34.2 | I've been, I've been, I've been, I've been, I've been listening to a lot, |
| 0:39.0 | I've been listening to a lot of audio points about Jesus lately. The car chase ensued. And it was |
| 0:49.4 | terrifying. I felt the British embassy and I said, I'm being tailed right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| 0:55.0 | And she said, and then she said, go on. |
| 0:57.4 | And I said, hold on a minute, I just heard you take a sharp breath. |
| 1:01.8 | And she said, what are you doing here? |
| 1:04.1 | And I said, I'm essentially a humorous journalist out of my depth. |
| 1:09.1 | I then went on to say, I'm a bit like Louis Thruh. |
| 1:12.6 | And she went, oh! |
| 1:13.6 | And I said, but actually he cites me as an influence. |
| 1:19.6 | And she was like, oh. |
| 1:21.6 | And she was thinking, this guy might be about to be killed by the Bilderberg group, |
... |
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