Best-selling author Jon Ronson uncovers strange but true stories from the history of the culture wars

Exclusively available today in the US and Canada on BBC Podcasts Premium on Apple Podcasts, and in the UK on BBC Sounds

“If you’ve ever argued with someone on social media about, say, cancel culture or mask wearing, then you are a soldier in the culture wars. These wars can obsess us, tear families apart. I wanted to find the origin stories, the people whose choices led us to where we are today…" - Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson, the New York Times best-selling author, tracks down the people involved in some of the defining battles that have raged across cultural lines in recent decades - to hear their stories and to help us understand how we got to a point where it can feel like every aspect of our lives has the potential to divide us.

The episodes span more than 50 years of history, from the polarization galvanized by the arrival in America of the ‘60s counter-culture, through the moral panics of the ‘80s and ‘90s; from the days of the early internet to the forces unleashed by ‘post-truth’ politics.

Things Fell Apart will explore, among other stories:

• How did a kid growing up in the Alps in the 1970s, dreaming of making Fellini-like movies in Hollywood, inadvertently kickstart a campaign of murders in the 1990s?
• Who was the very first person to be publicly shamed because of something they did online? And how did the incident shape the internet we all live with today?
• How did a poem by Liverpool poet Roger McGough, misinterpreted by a West Virginian church minister’s wife, contribute to events that led to the bombing of a school in 1974?
• And how might a prank played by a Hollywood actor on his friend have helped to inspire the Capitol insurrection of January 2021?

The eight stories are rooted in the experiences of the people involved: individuals compelled for different reasons into behaving in extreme, sometimes lethal ways, in service of causes that they deeply believe in.

BBC Podcasts Premium (launched November 2, 2021) offers ad-free listening for a range of its most popular titles, as well as exclusive access to new, original audio series – all available only on Apple Podcasts at $2.99 per month (U.S.) and $3.99 per month (Canada).

Ed: The podcast is also available, for free, in BBC Sounds in the UK.

About Jon Ronson:

Jon Ronson is a gonzo journalist in the spirit of Hunter S. Thompson, but with the comic heart of Monty Python. An award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker, his unique brand of intellect and comic wit has been described by comedian Jon Stewart as “satirical investigation.” Jon is a regular contributor to the BBC and NPR and is the author of eight books, including the best-selling So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, The Psychopath Test, The Men Who Stare At Goats and the Amazon Kindle Single, The Elephant in the Room: A Journey into the Trump Campaign and the Alt Right. Jon’s original screenplays include the critically acclaimed Netflix Original, Okja.