The Last Days of August: Episode Six

The Last Days of August

K Seabury

Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2019

⏱️ 32 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,
0:05.5	assault, and self-harm.
0:07.5	It may not be suitable for all audiences.
0:09.5	I'm sitting with Shazia Sahari in an ale house in Loyola, her old college district in
0:17.9	Chicago.
0:18.9	It took us six months to find her, and this is how we managed it.
0:24.9	Back in 2012, a disgruntled porn actor stole from Los Angeles STD clinic, a place where
0:31.1	porn performers go for routine testing, the real names, the 15,000 of them, and then
0:37.3	he posted them online.
0:38.9	So that's how we first learned Shazia's real name, which is Amna.
0:45.0	We had no clue where she might be living.
0:47.2	But the Pierre Woodman Casting Culture video offered a lead.
0:52.3	From which city do you come?
0:54.3	Chicago.
0:55.3	Chicago.
0:56.3	Yeah, the western girl.
0:57.3	And so Lena emailed everybody in Illinois with her name.
1:01.8	One runs marketing for a HALAL catering company.
1:05.3	Another's entire online presence is dedicated to Hamilton the Musical, neither were her.
1:11.7	The police station, you know, wasn't found.
1:14.9	Oh, I agree with you.
1:15.9	Yeah, and have a gay brother, so they have their daughter.
	...

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