Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson's nonfiction books include So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, Them: Adventures with Extremists, Lost at Sea and The Men Who Stare At Goats. They have all been international and/or New York Times bestsellers.

His most recent published work is the Audible original podcast The Debutante (2023). Before that came the acclaimed BBC podcast Things Fell Apart (2021) – which won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for podcast of the year, and was named by the Observer as the number one audio show of 2021. For Audible Originals Jon also made the audio series, The Butterfly Effect (2017) and The Last Days of August (2019). Both were named by multiple critics as two of the best podcasts of recent years. The Butterfly Effect topped the US audiobook charts.

His books have been translated into more than 30 languages, and his two TED talks have been watched more than 30 million times. One of them – Strange Answers to The Psychopath Test – is among the 25 most watched TED talks of all time.

The Psychopath Test spent more than a year on the UK bestseller list. Jon’s live show based on the book – Psychopath Night – has sold out theatres and concert halls across the UK and Ireland.

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is frequently cited as having kickstarted the conversation about the perils of social media shaming. The book is used by hundreds of educators across America to teach compassion and curiosity and to illuminate the damage that results from a reactionary shaming culture. It also inspired an episode of Black Mirror, Hated in the Nation.

The Men Who Stare At Goats was adapted into a film starring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey.

Jon’s original screenplays include the acclaimed Netflix original Okja (Tilda Swinton, Jake Gyllenhaal) which he co-wrote with Bong-Joon Ho, and Frank (Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal) which he co-wrote with Peter Straughan. Okja was selected to compete for the Palm D’Or at the 2017 Cannes film festival. For Frank, Jon and Peter won the 2014 best screenplay award at the British Independent Film Awards. Jon also wrote the short e-book Frank: The True Story That Inspired the Movie.

In the US Jon is a contributor to This American Life, the New York Times magazine and GQ magazine, and has appeared many times as a guest on shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The New Yorker Radio Hour, Joe Rogan, Conan, Craig Ferguson, and Inside Amy Schumer.

In the UK Jon has written regularly for The Guardian, as a columnist and feature writer. His many UK documentaries include Stanley Kubrick's Boxes, The Secret Rulers of the World, and seven seasons of the multi award winning BBC Radio 4 programme Jon Ronson On…

He lives in New York.