Sweetman Podcast # 276: Jon Ronson

I’m a huge fan of Jon Ronson. I’ve been following his work for around 25 years now, and when I wrote a short piece here recently plugging his upcoming Wellington gig, I could never have believed I might get to actually talk with him. First of all, I couldn’t believe my luck that he was coming to NZ. I was trying to work out how to afford a trip to Melbourne…

Anyway, this podcast episode — my first ‘proper’ podcast chat in a year, finds me rusty, but eager. And hoping from here to be able to do this a bit more often, and via this Substack medium (but you can still find the podcast in all the usual places like Spotify, Amazon, Apple, etc).

We talked about his show that he’s bringing to Wellington. His only NZ show, and his first time in the country. He told me he’s got a day to look around and is eager to hit up one of the wildlife sanctuaries, such as Zealandia. We also talked about how he’s knee-deep in a new book, his first proper book project in a decade. Recent years have seen a focus on podcasts, and audiobooks, his brilliant Things Fell Apart series is well worth your time.

We talked about The Psychopath Test, the book he wrote over a decade ago, which is the basis for his live shows; we talked Trump (related), and his recent encounter seeing Bruce Springsteen, as well as archival stories about Randy Newman, Malcolm Gladwell, and, um, Robbie Williams…

Look, I just can’t believe this happened. There’s a handful of times in my life, after all that putting up with people calling me an arsehole for not liking their favourite band, where I can say at least I got to speak with absolute heroes of mine. Sonny Rollins. Suzanne Vega. Lionel Richie. George Benson. And now Jon Ronson. It makes it all worthwhile really.

Here we are just chatting. He seems really nice. I seem — correctly — fanboy/ish and way-too-eager. But I believe in sharing. I believe in Publish and Be Damned. And I don’t really think I exactly fucked this up. In fact, I feel like we were getting on really well…am I allowed to say that?

Anyway, can’t wait for the show. And here’s a return-episode of Sweetman Podcast which you can listen to right here, right now, or through your preferred podcast platform. Thanks for listening.