That's all for today …
Liam Quane asks:
What was it like working on Okja with Bong Joon-Ho?The film really filled up my senses!
Guardian contributor I loved it - director Bong was amazing. Incredibly talented and incredibly generous.
scrapegoat asks:
Do you think Alex Jones believes the things he says?
Guardian contributor I've totally changed my mind on this. I used to think no, now I think yes. This is because disenfranchised people who've worked with him have got in touch and told me.
scrapegoat asks:
If people had no shame would the world be better or worse?
Guardian contributor I admire the way Max Mosley refused to feel ashamed. But that's because I don't think he'd done anything to be ashamed of. The orgy was consensual. I think people who behave cruelly deserve to feel shame.
'My favourite colour? Inconspicuous'
Tarantella asks:
Do you still (or did you ever) feel Welsh?
Guardian contributor I've just spent time there for my father's funeral. We went to some really beautiful places. In fact, the wake was at Llanishen golf club, with all its beautiful rolling hills. But I can't disentangle my memories of growing up with the fact that I had such a bad time at school.
Simon Pressinger asks:
Are there any interviews you’ve conducted over the years where you wished you’d pushed harder but, for whatever reason, didn’t – the way Louis Theroux wishes in regards to the Savile interview, for example?
Guardian contributor Some people think I should have pushed harder with Omar Bakri – I didn't predict that some of his fans would start driving into people in vans and blowing themselves up.
ID7573131 asks:
On occasions when I can’t sleep, I listen to you, usually Jon Ronson On. I’m practically word-perfect. Your voice has a cosy, comforting sound, and the quality of your thinking has a way of making the world seem less unsettling in the difficult 2-4am slot. What do you do when you can’t sleep? What or who reassures you? Is there anyone whose way of thinking or speaking has this conciliatory effect?
Guardian contributor I fall asleep listening to either ArseCast or Generation Why – there's just something about their voices that I find comforting. Even though Generation Why is about serial killers and I do consequently have a lot of serial killer dreams.
Dazinho asks:
I saw you in Sheffield as part of the So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed book tour and really enjoyed hearing your thoughts about how social media may be used in facilitating public shaming. This week sees Twitter’s latest shambolic misunderstanding of its own service and its users, and that made me wonder: if you were in charge of Twitter, what changes would you make?
Guardian contributor An edit button. I can't understand why they refuse to put in an edit button. If I was a conspiracy theorist I'd think that they like it when people fuck up because they make more money. Hence the fact that they'll never suspend Donald Trump's account. I think they know that hate and outrage is what keeps them afloat. I think all tech billionaires realise at some point that the way to make money is to identify people's worst instincts and then give it back to them.
Franklfurter asks:
Are you enjoying watching Arsenal on Thursday nights?
Guardian contributor When I moved to New York I gave up my season ticket. And besides religiously listening to ArseCast, I'm losing touch a bit. I realise that being at the Emirates was the thing I loved the most about supporting Arsenal. I've never been smart enough to understand the nuances of the game, for me it was just all the colours and the players running around like horses.
'I am still haunted by the casual cruelty of nice people on Twitter'
mishmash33 asks:
I loved your books Psychopath Test and Publicly Shamed. Are you still haunted by some of the stories you reported?
Guardian contributor I am still haunted by the casual cruelty of nice people on Twitter. I found Shamed to be a very stressful book to write for that reason.
'Craig Cash, Caroline Ahern, Terry Christian and I all got fired on the same day'
Andy Reed asks:
Any stories about your time at the wonderful KFM? As a teen, I’d listen to you, Craig Cash, Caroline Aherne and Terry Christian, among others.
Guardian contributor We all got fired on the same day. The programme controller was rubbing my back as he was firing me. Craig got successful earlier than I did and he'd keep leaving answer phone messages for me: "Ronno, it's Craig, I'm in London for the Baftas. Will I see you there? Oh no I won't. Because you haven't been nominated again. Poor old Ronno, with his face pressed up against the glass."
JeremyCapsicum asks:
Is your dad’s great hotel and restaurant near Brecon still going? Had a lovely chat with him once …
Guardian contributor They sold the hotel a few years ago, but it's still going. Sadly my father died in September.
TheChickenForecast asks:
The Butterfly Effect was brilliant! I particularly like the music. What was it like collaborating (if that’s the right word) with your son?
Guardian contributor It was great. He was really good and not a prima donna. He did a brilliant job.
CorbynBeardFace asks:
I think Shamed is so far the most important book about social media ever written. It has stopped me joining baying mobs online, but sadly it has also greatly increased how much I have self-censored to avoid them. Do you think in the Twitter age self-censorship is as big an issue as mob mentality?
Guardian contributor I self-censor too. It's ironic that the great thing about social media is that it gave a voice to voiceless people, but more and more people are realising that the way to stay safe is to go back to being voiceless.
'Twitter feels like a stage for constant high drama'
ID6438693 asks:
Other than just asking everyone to be a bit nicer, have you got any thoughts about how social media could be redesigned to reduce the number of unjustified shamings?
PS: Apologies if you explained this at the end of SYBPS, and I’ve forgotten it.
PPS: YOU DEFINITELY DESERVE AN MBE.
Guardian contributor Twitter feels like a stage for constant high drama. Which is fine when it's affecting real social change like the sexual predators stuff. But not when it's disproportionately punishing people for minor transgressions. When you look at who's trending at any time, it's usually because they've been deemed either the most awesome hero or the most terrible monster. But most people actually live in the space between those two things, and the more we can see people's grey areas the more healthy it will be.
gruniadreader666 asks:
Given the recent way the accusations of sexual harassment have quickly become a witch hunt, with only an allegation and media pressure being enough to cause someone to loose their livelihood leading to one suicide so far, what can be done to prevent the uncovering of legitimate problems becoming a righteous feeding frenzy?
Guardian contributor Obviously, I've been all in favour of the shamings of people like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, not to mention the Charlottesville white supremacists. Those transgressions are completely different to the ones I write about in the book. It's important that we don't lose our capacity to distinguish between serious and less serious transgressions.
chazwomaq asks:
I really enjoyed reading [the book] So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. It struck me that maybe you didn’t focus on a key element of modern shamings: the way authorities react to Twitter mobs and the like.
Could you argue that who cares whether a 100,000 people berate Justine Sacco or whoever, but it really matters when her boss fires her? Isn’t the worst bit when bosses or the state treat this irrelevant online stuff as something actually important, when it really isn’t? Shouldn’t authorities just shrug and say, “Nothing to do with us” unless it clearly is?
Guardian contributor I totally agree with you. I touched on it in the book. But yes, it's outrageous when everybody knows the transgression is being punished disproportionately, but the companies that the transgressors work for just go into a frenzied damage limitation mode. It's like they're saying "don't hurt us too".
TwigDenWunderkid asks:
I really enjoyed your recent Audible series on the evolution of internet pornography. Has there been any situation you have been in on such [film] sets where you have felt as though any of the performers are struggling with the shoot and are having to be coaxed into it, or have you ever thought somebody was on drugs during the filming?
Guardian contributor We wanted to do a show about the tech takeover of the porn industry. Hot Girls Wanted had just come out and that was about a really sleazy corner of the porn industry in Miami, so we decided to spend all of our time in the most respectful, collegiate part of porn - which is the San Fernando Valley. I didn't see anything like what you've described above, but I did ask Mike Quasar - a big porn director - if he's ever seen things like that and he said a lot of young women turn up with their boyfriends who do coax and pressurise them. In the industry they're called Suitcase Pimps - they just carry a suitcase and, Mike presumes, take the money.
BryanMacFayden asks:
Why did you write Frank, a film that was essentially about you instead of the genius of Chris Sievey?
Guardian contributor It wasn't primarily about either of us. Chris didn't want it to be a film about him, which gave us two options - we either did a film like Pee Wee's Big Adventure where Frank Sidebottom would be the main character, or we'd make it a tribute to all outsider artists and that's what we did. So the Frank in Frank was a mix of Frank Sidebottom, Daniel Johnston and Captain Beefheart.
ianlarsen asks:
When Fabien [Thylmann of] Pornhub said that he didn’t steal anyone’s porn but just made a website where people uploaded stolen porn, did anyone point out to him that when YouTube upset people by making a website where people could upload stolen music they went into business with record labels and content creators and gave said creators loads of money, while Fabien keeps all the cash from Pornhub?
It seems to me that that is one of the many reasons he has done a bad thing.
Guardian contributor To Pornhub's credit, they are going into partnership with porn stars. But the money that the porn stars make through these affiliate deals are a fraction of what they would have made in the pre-Pornhub days. I'm really struck by the amorality of tech utopians. By the way, all of this is in my podcast The Butterfly Effect.
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TimSkellett asks:
Were you disappointed by the movie adaptation of [your book] The Men Who Stare at Goats? After all, it left out two big points you made, one of those being the example of banality of evil in torture. It also had an ending wholly at odds to your book.
Guardian contributor I think the last ten minutes don't quite work. But I really love other parts of it – and I really enjoyed working with Peter Straughan, the screenwriter. It was through that experience that we ended up writing Frank together.
pizzapizzapizza asks:
What do you think of Louis Theroux?
Guardian contributor We used to be very competitive in the 1990s. I sometimes joke onstage that we were like conjoined twins, and that for one of us to grow stronger the other had to die. But I luckily matured my way out of that destructive thought spiral, and now I can enjoy his documentaries without feeling weird about it. And I enjoy them very much. I think he's especially good at just being very sharp in the moment.
thedavemc asks:
Could you tell us about your process? How do you pick your topics and what sort of research process do you have?
Guardian contributor There's no process. I talk to people, I follow my curiosity, I go on the internet. And I'm just looking for a spark of mystery. I remember asking Christiane Kubrick what her husband was looking for in the gaps between movies, and she said "That magical moment of falling in love with a story"
'The internet cut a swath through journalism, like it did through music and porn'
theblueworm asks:
Will giving content away for free have the same effect on writers that it’s had on porn?
Guardian contributor I think it already has. The internet cut a swathe through journalism just like it did through music and porn. But one rare positive impact of the Trump presidency is an increase in subscriptions to the Guardian and the New York Times and Washington Post - so there's hope.
MrChevette asks:
You were in contact with [prosecutor] Ken Kratz from [the TV show] Making a Murderer. Did anything come of this?
Guardian contributor I met Ken Kratz at a convention for fans of true crime podcasts. He was there to basically diss the genre. I really wanted to try and do a story about the rise of true crime podcasts but I couldn't find a way in so I abandoned it.
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jdixon asks:
Do you have a favourite swimming pool? If so, which one?
Guardian contributor I have stopped swimming because swimming pools are full of urine and snot.
Oliver_OBrien asks:
Anxiety is a common theme in many of your books and programmes. On the penultimate episode of [podcast] The Butterfly Effect, we heard about anxieties related to not being able to use a toilet that has been used by others and only being able to eat a set meal. Do you believe forms of anxiety can be fully treated, or simply managed to not become worse?
Guardian contributor Obviously it's a spectrum, but I know people who have had severe anxiety disorders and have really managed to overcome them. Not necessarily through medication but through learning how to see the world in a different way. So I think there's hope for sufferers of even the most severe anxiety disorders. I was hypnotised by Paul McKenna to stop fixating on the possibilities that my wife was dead when I couldn't get her on the phone. It worked, but I forgot to ask him to stop me from fixating on my son being dead when he doesn't answer the phone. So I still have that.
StoolOrgy asks:
Why is Alex Jones such a massive bellend? And why do Americans believe his monumental stream of galloping bollocks?
Guardian contributor I'm actually thinking about trying to get back into Alex Jones's world. It's extraordinary that Donald Trump is a fan of his, it's unprecedented and I would never have anticipated it. I do think that the reason why the Trump base are fans of Alex is in part as a reaction against the biases of the mainstream media. They take comfort in lunacy because they feel disenfranchised. When Megyn Kelly interviewed Alex Jones, they only used the parts where he was a stammering, sweating idiot – as much as you ought to despise what Alex Jones promotes, he's eloquent.
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'It's psychopathic to be drunk on your psychopath-spotting skills'
Peadar76 asks:
Are you tired of people asking you if you think they are psychopaths?
Guardian contributor Yes. Because I think it's kind of psychopathic to be too drunk with your psychopath spotting skills, and there's something a little odd about defining people by their outermost edges.
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TheViewFromOz asks:
I really enjoyed (and was somewhat unnerved by) The Psychopath Test. what was the most frightening moment you encountered while researching the book? Do you still sometimes apply the test to people you know or meet? Thanks so much for your fascinating writing!
Guardian contributor I guess meeting the Haitian death squad leader in prison. He kept telling me that he kept wanting people to like him, and finally I said "Isn't that a weakness?" And he said "No, because if you can get people to like you, you can manipulate them to do whatever you want them to do."
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HoratioHufnagel asks:
Are there any further news/updates on Mingering Mike? I can’t seem to find much online, and your article a few years back [about him] was gripping and moving.
Guardian contributor I hope and think that there's going to be a movie about him. I know lots of people are trying to develop his story into a film. I'd have loved to, because his story is such an amazing insight into the way that inner-city Washington DC mutated over the decades, but I got in too late and other people have optioned his life story.
KK47 asks:
How do you find your weirdly wonderful subject matters and interviewees? The “men who stare at goats” was an unexpected delight. Is there any more other sub-worlds you’re interested in exploring further for Channel 4 or the BBC?
Guardian contributor You just hunt around until the find something that you feel is mysterious. For me trying to solve mysteries is what inspires me to do the stories that I do. I'm always looking for something that also resonates with the way society works. And something that can be both funny and dark.
Tomius asks:
Can you tell us about any books or projects you have started and never completed, and if so, why you never finished them?
Guardian contributor I abandoned a book about the credit card business - about the secret tricks credit card companies use to enslave people. I abandoned it because all the people I met were boring and I couldn't work out how to make it a page-turner, which doesn't reflect well on my abilities. So I abandoned it and instead wrote The Psychopath Test and in fact there's a line in that where I say - if you want to get away with wielding true malevolent power, be boring, so journalists won't want to write about you.
Jon is with us now
Follow along here.
Updated
This webchat has been rescheduled. Jon will now be answering your questions on Wednesday 15 November at 2pm. See you then!
Jon Ronson webchat – post your questions now!
If you need a conspiracy theory investigated, a charismatic cult leader profiled or a shadowy cabal of experimental pseudo-scientists infiltrated, Jon Ronson is your man. The mild-mannered journalist and broadcaster has been charming and disarming his way into secretive circles since the early 90s, authoring numerous books, magazine articles and radio shows on people and phenomena that might otherwise fly under the radar.
His adventures have taken him all over the world, from North Pole, Alaska (where he investigated a foiled school shooting plot) to UFO-spotting in the Nevada Desert with Robbie Williams. His most famous book is 2004’s The Men Who Stare at Goats, about a secret US army battalion who tried to put “new age” ideas into practice and become rainbow-powered supersoldiers who could kill animals by looking at them. It was subsequently made into a film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor as the Ronson-esque protagonist.
Despite all this, Ronson’s weirdest adventure might still be the one he undertook in his early-20s, playing keyboards for Frank Sidebottom. Ronson used this experience as a jump-off for his first foray into screenwriting; 2014’s Frank was an offbeat success, with Michael Fassbender unexpectedly jumping at the chance to don Sidebottom’s trademark papier-mache head. Earlier this year, Ronson’s second screenplay, a sweet fantasy adventure about a giant pig called Okja, was released by Netflix to rave reviews.
He also recently made a podcast series called The Butterfly Effect about the tech takeover of the porn industry (described by Slate as “unexpectedly moving”) and is currently taking his Psychopath Night tour around the UK. Put simply, Ronson has seen some things in his time. So why not ask him about them when he visits us for a webchat on Wednesday 15 November at 2pm? Simply post your questions below (and please stick to one question per comment, thanks!).
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Thank you so much for your questions. I'm sorry I didn't answer all of them. But thank you!