Journalist, writer and documentary filmmaker Jon Ronson is coming to Vicar Street in May with his latest show, Tales from The Last Days of August and The Butterfly Effect. We caught up with the story-teller to find out more.
You may know Jon Ronson as the man behind the books, movies and viral Ted Talks with eye-catching names - The Men Who Stare at Goats, So You've Been Publically Shamed and The Psychopath Test, to name but a few.
Evidently, the Welsh journalist has a knack for finding bizarre and brilliant stories from a vast range of sources, whether it be the halls of Broadmoor hospital or 'special units' within the US army.
What's most interesting about Ronson's career though is the man himself. Speaking over the phone, he tells me that he's the type of person who would much rather lunch with a Scientologist or chat with a psychopath than put himself through the hell of attending a dinner party.
"I can't tell you how much more comfortable I am on a porn set or in an asylum for the criminally insane" he laughs.
"One time, I went to a dinner party and I hated it so much I ended up with the flu. Now, it's quite possible that I was getting the flu anyway but my memory is that I had just moved to New York, went to an ill-advised dinner party, came home, and was so exhausted I went to bed for about a week."
With a nervous disposition and an aversion to conflict, it's a wonder that the introvert's interest was ever peaked by a stranger's story. However, the 52-year-old believes that his brain differentiates his social life from his work life, allowing him to build connections and delve into stranger's lives in the name of a good story.
"I hate eye contact with strangers and I can't do dinner parties but, I suppose, when I'm doing a story, I'm so passionate about it. There's a mystery to solve or a person that I'm going to interview that's providing the missing piece - those exciting feelings that I get temporarily override my introversion."
"When I do get out of my comfort zone and meet people it leads to really good things," he admits. "One example is the Irish comedian Maeve Higgins."
Yes, reader. No matter who you speak to or what you discuss, there will always be an Irish connection.
"I made the really big effort to be friends with Maeve because we had both moved to New York at the same time. As a result of that, all sorts of nice things have happened. I must remember that the next time."
In 2017, the journalist dipped his toe into the world of podcasting with The Butterfly Effect, an extraordinary examination of how one man orchestrated a tech takeover of the porn industry and the devastating ripple effect that followed.
The following year, one of these ripples led to Ronson's second podcast, The Last Days of August, which follows the life and death of pornstar August Ames who died by suicide*. As part of their research, Jon and his producer Lina Misitzis studied the online abuse that August received following one of her Tweets.
"How long do we have to touch the boiling hot stove for before we learn that it's burning us?"
Between this, his book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed, and his Ted Talk, How one tweet can ruin your life, Jon has become reluctantly savvy to a once well-meaning social media site that morphed into a hunting ground.
"I think Twitter has changed society for the worse; it's made for more polarisation and suspicion and a lack of curiosity and selective empathy. I wouldn't say a lack of empathy because, on Twitter, we're extremely empathetic towards people in our own circle."
While Jon admits that "irrefutable positives" have come from the site, namely #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, and #OscarsSoWhite, he believes the company needs to take responsibility for its user's actions.
"These are young hipsters who have too much power for the amount of time they're putting into figuring out how they're contributing to a worse world. Does Jack Dorsey [Twitter CEO] ever think about Trump's malevolent power on Twitter?"
"How long do we have to touch the boiling hot stove for before we learn that it's burning us?"
Tickets for Tales from The Last Days of August and The Butterfly Effect are priced €31 on www.ticketmaster.ie and usual outlets nationwide.
*Samaritans provides confidential non-judgemental emotional support, 24 hours a day. Click here for more information or call 01 671 0071.
