Jon Ronson on truth-telling and the culture wars

How To Fail With Elizabeth Day

Sony Music

Society & Culture

4.8 • 9.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jon Ronson is a journalistic hero of mine, as he is to many. He was one of the first people to write about the culture wars, well before the phrase became commonplace in our news cycles. His two audio series exploring real-life origin stories from these everyday battles ‘Things Fell Apart' (BBC Sounds) have been a huge commercial and critical success. Ronson has written a handful of fascinating works of non-fiction including ‘Them: Adventures with Extremists’; ‘The Psychopath Test’ and ‘So You’Ve Been Publicly Shamed’ and his book ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’ was made into a feature film starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges. We explore Jon’s love of storytelling, what being bullied at school taught him, why truth-telling is vital and whether he will ever regret his solitary nature. Plus: why (according to him) he sucks at screenwriting despite having been portrayed by two Star Wars actors. Oh, and his deadly professional rivalry with Louis Theroux… Season 2 of Things Fell Apart is available now on BBC Sounds And as always, I’d LOVE to hear about your failures. Every week, my guest and I choose a selection to read out and answer on our special subscription offering, Failing with Friends. We’ll endeavour to give you advice, wisdom, some laughs and much, much more. Have something to share of your own? I'd love to hear from you! Click here to get in touch: howtofailpod.com Production & Post Production Manager: Lily Hambly Studio Engineer: Gulli Lawrence-Tickle Mix Engineer: Josh Gibbs Senior Producer: Selina Ream Executive Producer: Carly Maile Head of Marketing: Kieran Lancini How to Fail is an Elizabeth Day and Sony Music Entertainment Production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:01.0	And when you're ready to launch, offer code fail-10 to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Hello and welcome to How to Vale with're Elizabeth Day.
1:23.0	In my podcast we look at and celebrate our unique
1:26.6	individual failures because ultimately they're the
1:29.7	stepping stones to success.
1:31.8	Every week I invite guests to look at their failures and what
1:35.1	has come afterwards that might have helped them grow and succeed. Just before
1:41.8	we get to my chat with John Ronson, please do join me after this episode on
1:46.1	failing with friends, my subscriber series where I continue my conversation with him.
1:52.3	Every week I'll be looking at your failures or
	...

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