Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson is a gonzo journalist in the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson, but with the comic heart of Monty Python. An award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker, his unique brand of intellect and comic wit has been described by comedian Jon Stewart as “satirical investigation.”
He is a regular contributor to the BBC and NPR and he is the author of eight books including the bestselling The Psychopath Test, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, and the Amazon Kindle Single, The Elephant in the Room: A Journey into the Trump Campaign and the Alt Right. Jon’s original screenplays include the critically acclaimed Netflix Original Okja, which he co-wrote with Bong-Joon Ho, and Frank which he co-wrote with Peter Straughan. In July 2017, Jon released an Audible Original audio series called The Butterfly Effect, which went straight to number one on the US audio charts and has remained there ever since.
Fascinated by madness, strange behavior and the human mind, Jon Ronson has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. In The Psychopath Test, which The San Francisco Chronicle called “...no ordinary piece of investigative journalism,” he explores the concept of psychopathy and how we define sanity, insanity and eccentricity in our society and in ourselves. The book was adapted into a story for NPR's This American Life and is one of the show's most downloaded episodes of all time.
In So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, Jon investigates our obsession with social media and it’s sometimes disastrous impact on our lives and collective conscience. It’s a timely and humane account that has been selected by many communities and campuses as a community-wide read. NPR called the book “[a] big-hearted take on an important and timely topic.”