Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster

Published: July 3, 2022, 11 a.m.

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Jon Ronson is a writer and broadcaster whose award-winning podcast and Radio 4 series Things Fell Apart investigated the stories behind today\\u2019s culture wars. His television programmes and books \\u2013 from Them: Adventures with Extremists to So You\\u2019ve Been Publicly Shamed - explore what he calls \\u201cthe worlds that are going on underground\\u201d and his subjects - from conspiracy theorists to internet trolls - inhabit the fringes of society.

Jon was born in Cardiff in 1967. He started a media studies degree at the Polytechnic of Central London but left after two years to become the keyboard player for the musician and comedian Frank Sidebottom\\u2019s Oh Blimey Big Band. He also managed the Manchester indie band Man from Delmonte.

He worked as a presenter on KFM Radio with Terry Christian, Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash before moving back to London where he wrote for the listings magazine Time Out and later produced a weekly column about family life for the Guardian.

In 1993 he began his television career with a BBC series called the Ronson Mission which he describes as having little adventures and interviewing people who were classed as outsiders by the mainstream. He went on to make programmes about the Ku Klux Klan, the Jesus Christians cult and the First Earth Battalion about a secret New Age unit which was set up within the US Army in the late 1970s.

In 2012 Jon moved to New York. He became an American citizen in 2020.

DISC ONE: A Message to You Rudy by The Specials \\nDISC TWO: Cabaret sung by Jane Horrocks, from the Sam Mendes production of the musical Cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse, London in 1993 \\nDISC THREE: Underground by Tom Waits\\nDISC FOUR: Drivin\\u2019 on 9 by The Breeders \\nDISC FIVE: Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear by Randy Newman\\nDISC SIX: Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple\\nDISC SEVEN: America by Simon & Garfunkel\\nDISC EIGHT: Jersey Girl (Live at Meadowlands Arena, E. Rutherford, New Jersey - July 1981) by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

BOOK CHOICE: A Magnum photography book\\nLUXURY ITEM: Legal medical marijuana\\nCASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Jersey Girl by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Presenter: Lauren Laverne\\nProducer: Paula McGinley

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