Jon Ronson

We’re back for Season 4 with the award-winning author, writer, and documentary maker, Jon Ronson. Jon is the author of many best-selling books, including So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Men who Stare at Goats which was adapted to become a movie starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, and The Psychopath Test which is the first book of Jon’s that I read, and was hooked ever since.

He’s an acclaimed screenwriter, most recently co-writing the 2017 Netflix film, Okja, with Bong Joon-Ho, the South Korean director of Parasite, last year’s Best Picture winner at the Oscars. 

And if you’re not already familiar with Jon’s work, I’d suggest checking out one of his recent podcast series, which have been huge hits around the world - The Butterfly Effect and The Last Days of August both look at the effects of the porn industry. Both are fascinating, disturbing and addictive to listen to.

Jon’s now based in the US, so we spoke online as per usual these days, and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.


Destination Recap:

  • Marlborough College, Wiltshire, England
  • Avebury, Wiltshire, England
  • Cardiff, Wales
  • South Africa
  • QE2 ship
  • Queen Mary ship
  • Rhodes, Greece
  • Manhattan, New York, USA
  • Union Hall, Brooklyn, New York, USA
  • The Bell house, Brooklyn, New York, USA
  • Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant, New York, USA
  • Barney Greengrass, New York, USA
  • Inns of Aurora, Fingerlakes, New York, USA
  • Hudson, New York, USA
  • Forte Village Resort, Sardinia, Italy
  • Forte dei Mami, Tuscany, Italy 
  • Pacific High Way One, California, USA
  • Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Florida, USA
  • New Zealand
  • Iceland 


A big thank you to Citalia for their support for today’s podcast. You can discover the real Italy with Citalia, the UK’s leading Italian holiday specialists.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, then it would wonderful if you could leave a rating or a review - it really makes a big difference because it helps other people to discover the podcast. 

To hear future episodes as soon as they’re available just search for The Travel Diaries on your podcast app of choice, and hit subscribe. 

To find out who’s joining me on next week’s episode, come and follow me on Instagram, I’m @hollyrubenstein - I’d love to hear from you. 

If you can’t wait until then, there’s always the first three seasons to catch up on, from Michael Palin to Rick Stein, and Sir Ranulph Fiennes to Simon Reeve. 


Today’s episode was recorded during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown. It was produced by Holly Rubenstein.


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