The Last Days of August: Episode One

The Last Days of August

K Seabury

Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jon Ronson, the creator of Audible Original The Butterfly Effect, delves into the pornography industry again as he unravels the never-before-told story of what caused a beloved 23-year-old actress’s untimely death.

In December 2017, famed adult film star August Ames died by suicide in a park in the Conejo Valley. Her death came just a day after she’d been the victim of a social media pile-on by fellow porn professionals—punishment for her tweeting out something deemed homophobic.

A month later, August’s husband and pornography producer Kevin Moore connected with journalist Jon Ronson to tell the story of how cyberbullying via Twitter killed his wife. Neither of them could predict the rumors and secrets that Ronson would soon hear, revelations that hinted at a very different story—something mysterious and unexpected and terrible.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The last days of August contained some explicit and upsetting material involving sexuality, assault, and self-harm.
0:07.0	It may not be suitable for all audiences.
0:10.0	I work a lot, so at my free time, I really just chill out.
0:14.0	I have my two cats, kush and ninja, a shop at Target, you know?
0:18.0	Who doesn't shop at Target? Target's the best.
0:21.0	Target.
0:23.0	Like, I'm normal, you know, with just like a little crazy job.
0:28.0	I love your snort, by the way.
0:31.0	So speaking of your dorky silly personality, we see a lot of that on your Twitter profile,
0:38.0	which by the way, for those listening, what, where can we find you on Twitter?
0:42.0	Oh well, you can find me on Twitter at August Ames XXX.
0:48.0	That's AMES XXX.
0:52.0	We just spent a year making a podcast about the tech takeover of the porn industry.
0:59.0	This was me and my producer, Lena.
1:02.0	We'd found a porn world that seemed like a kind of family.
1:05.0	People looked out for each other.
1:08.0	We left in the summer of 2017 when our reporting was done.
1:13.0	Six months later, something terrible happened.
1:19.0	One of the world's most famous porn stars is now dead only days after a controversy
1:24.0	erupted over her alleged anti-gay remarks.
1:28.0	The full fury of Twitter came down her names and she was bullied relentlessly online
1:33.0	for her supposed homophobia.
	...

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