[{"id":258491,"date":"2026-09-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longreads.com\/?p=258491"},"modified":"2026-08-28T14:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T18:06:24","slug":"longreads-questionnaire-jon-ronson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longreads.com\/2026\/09\/03\/longreads-questionnaire-jon-ronson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jon Ronson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI do unashamedly want to write page-turners,\u201d Jon Ronson told The New Yorker<\/em><\/a> in an interview. \u201cI can never understand why most nonfiction books have such limited creative ambitions.\u201d Ronson, who is \u201cnot a thrill-seeker,\u201d then recounts fearing for his life while being pursued by members of a secretive political gathering\u2014a chase that found its way into Them: Adventures with Extremists<\/em>, his 2001 breakthrough book. Thrills have a way of finding Ronson, either through active pursuit or some subtler means of revelation. The Men Who Stare At Goats<\/em> begins with a US Army general who attempts to walk through walls, repeatedly smacking into them. In the opening of The Psychopath Test<\/em>, a neurologist hands Ronson a baffling package, copies of which have been anonymously mailed to academics throughout the world. The pages turn themselves.<\/p>\n

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Ronson’s latest, The Castle<\/a><\/em>, earned a starred review<\/a> from Publisher’s Weekly<\/em>, which praised the book as “a blockbuster portrait of men gone mad\u201d and Ronson’s style as “intuitive but rigorous.” His podcast, Things Fell Apart<\/em>, was recently renewed for a third season, in which Ronson will shift focus from American culture wars to individual battles against institutions. He once told The Guardian<\/em><\/a>, \u201cI get called faux-na\u00eff all the time. But I honestly think I am just genuinely naive.\u201d It\u2019s an observation that reminds me of Joan Didion\u2019s own famous self-assessment: that she was \u201cso physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive . . . that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests.\u201d Ronson is warmer than that, but his access is no less astonishing. Time and again, someone allows him to get very close\u2014closer, perhaps, than they might be aware of. Each of Ronson’s books is a testament to his depth of inquiry, his proximity to the surprising, and his conviction that a good narrative should be propulsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Brendan Fitzgerald<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where did you grow up?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Cardiff, Wales. In a suburb called Lisvane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What places feel like home?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

London, for sure. As a child, when we\u2019d visit my grandparents, I\u2019d sneak away and jump on a bus and just get lost in the City. Even when it wasn\u2019t home, it felt like home. Eventually I lived there for decades, loving especially Soho and Islington. I also love our tiny town in the Hudson Valley. We\u2019ve lived here since 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than family members, who or what has shaped you the most?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As a teenager, watching Nick Broomfield documentaries and reading the great nonfiction adventurers from the \u201960s and \u201970s like Hunter S. Thompson and PJ O\u2019Rourke and the writers featured in Tom Wolfe\u2019s The New Journalism<\/em>. And when I started in journalism, the editors who first gave me a break: Ian Parker, Chris Heath, Deborah Orr, Ian Katz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite time of day?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Early morning. I make a coffee and for the first few hours my brain is at its best and I can write a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are you really<\/em> good at?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Narrative nonfiction. If I go off on some journey, I know exactly<\/em> how to make it work. It\u2019s the only thing I\u2019m good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the best gift you\u2019ve ever received?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Recently the BBC gave me a subscription to Descript, a text-based audio editing program. It\u2019s a dream gift for a detail-oriented storyteller. I can finally do the audio editing myself. I sit there for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Describe your favorite meal.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I guess some kind of salad with lots of fruit and vegetables and a good dressing. You can\u2019t beat Greek dressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sound or silence? (And if sound, what sound?)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Silence! I can\u2019t believe how great the silence is here in the Hudson Valley. There\u2019s something very comforting about knowing it won\u2019t end. They\u2019ll never turn this country lane into a big road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you do your best thinking?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I\u2019m out on a story, in some strange place, gathering material. I just instinctively know what\u2019ll work, what the best moments are. Fiction people can do that in their imaginations. I can\u2019t. But when I\u2019m out on a story, I just know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What journey\u2014physical, creative, intellectual, or otherwise\u2014has meant the most to you?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The journey of leaving Cardiff and moving to London when I was 18. I felt like finally my life could begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do you like to read?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I listen to audiobooks when I\u2019m out walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the last rabbit hole you disappeared into?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). I went to the cage match on the White House South Lawn for GQ<\/em><\/a>, because it was theme-adjacent to my new book The Castle<\/em>. So I watched all manner of fighter interviews and UFC super-fan videos for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Name three publications you enjoy reading these days.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The New Yorker<\/em>, The Guardian<\/em>, The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s one longread that you can\u2019t stop thinking about?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAndrew Tate\u2019s Empire Of Abuse<\/a>\u201d was the last one I listened to from beginning to end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the last book you read?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Shakespeare: The World as Stage<\/em> by Bill Bryson. I listen to it over and over to get to sleep. So I still don\u2019t know how he dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What piece of nonfiction are you most proud of writing?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Every book I\u2019ve written has chapters I\u2019m equally proud of: sneaking into Bohemian Grove with Alex Jones and getting chased by the Bilderberg Group in Them<\/em>, the goat staring in The Men Who Stare At Goats<\/em>, pretty much all of The Psychopath Test<\/em>, much of Lost at Sea<\/em>, Justine Sacco in So You\u2019ve Been Publicly Shamed<\/em>. The Castle<\/em> feels really good. I felt very confident writing it, mixing up tones and styles in a way I don\u2019t think I could have managed before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your most reliable way to get creatively unstuck?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Just wandering around Reddit can be good. The whole world is somewhere on Reddit. And if you don\u2019t find your next story, it might still unlock some part of your brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019s a writer you turn to when you need some inspiration?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Kurt Vonnegut, for his brevity and his clashes between comedy and horror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What words do you overuse?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It used to be \u201cThere was a silence\u201d but I\u2019ve cured myself of that, thank God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favorite guilty pleasure?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if this counts, but every book I read for pleasure is a celebrity memoir, mostly musicians and actors. Cher. Anthony Hopkins. Bruce Springsteen. I LOVED the English actor Kathy Burke\u2019s one, A Mind Of My Own<\/em>. Right now it\u2019s Johnny Marr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What superpower would you like to have? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I think I\u2019d like to be able to shoot fire out of my hands. No. Teleportation through space and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What animal or nonhuman being do you most identify with?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I really identified with my dog, Floppy\u2014how he wanted to be around people but didn\u2019t want to interact with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have a free solitary hour in your day, what do you typically do?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Run or walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What five items would you place in a time capsule?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Talking Heads\u2019 Stop Making Sense<\/em>. The Pitt<\/em>. Succession<\/em>. All of NPR\u2019s Tiny Desk Concerts, especially Doechii, Sierra Ferrell, and Chappell Roan. Bruce Springsteen\u2019s 1979 No Nukes concert video. Huh, it\u2019s almost all music. I guess that\u2019s the stuff we should remember. People being their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does your writing space look like?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Jon Ronson\u2019s nonfiction books include <\/em>So You\u2019ve Been Publicly Shamed, <\/em>The Psychopath Test, <\/em>Them: Adventures with Extremists, <\/em>Lost at Sea, and <\/em>The Men Who Stare At Goats. <\/strong>They have all been international and\/or <\/em>New York Times bestsellers and have been translated into more than 30 languages. His latest book, <\/em>The Castle, is now available<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jon Ronson<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t

The author of The Castle<\/em> likes his music in a time capsule and silence in his home\u2014but definitely not in his stories.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Longreads Questionnaire, Featuring Jaya Saxena<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t

The former Eater<\/em> correspondent has a new home\u2014and a full plate. Here, she talks about growing up in NYC, favorite meals, and memorable reads.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t

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