Things Fell Apart

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Rating
4.7
from
461 reviews
This podcast has
20 episodes
Language
Publisher
Explicit
No
Date created
2021/11/01
Average duration
34 min.
Release period
65 days

Description

If you've ever yelled at someone on social media about, say, cancel culture or mask-wearing, then you are a soldier in the culture wars - those everyday battles for dominance between conflicting values. In Jon Ronson’s award winning first series of Things Fell Apart, he explored the origin stories of these culture wars which have divided us so toxically for decades. But now new battle lines have been drawn. Many of them are linked by one extraordinary thing: they all snowballed within days of each other, just weeks into lockdown. And so in Season Two of Things Fell Apart, Jon Ronson uncovers intriguing and wholly unexpected origin stories, but this time of the culture wars that ignited during lockdown, and now dominate society.

Podcast episodes

Check latest episodes from Things Fell Apart podcast


S2. Ep 8: Mikki’s Hero’s Journey
2024/01/09
How a former actor and model, burned by Hollywood and devastated by the death of his brother, has become an important culture warrior, fueling the flames of every story we tell this season. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 7: You’ll Own Nothing and You’ll Be Happy
2024/01/09
How a young man with a novel idea for affordable accommodation, and an Oxford man with a plan for bus lanes, and a Danish woman writing a thought experiment about car rentals, unwittingly became hate figures for conspiracy theorists. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 6: A Hierarchy of Trauma
2024/01/09
How a bestselling book about trauma - lockdown’s number one bestseller - helped the culture war over free speech burst out of colleges and into the workplace. A shift some people pejoratively call the Great Awokening. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 5: Things Weren’t Going Back to Normal
2024/01/09
How a schism between a mother and her teenage daughter during lockdown contributed to Governor Ron DeSantis enacting new and far-reaching laws in Florida. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 4: Spicy Brando
2024/01/09
How a disenfranchised young man, maddened by the strict lockdown laws in Michigan, joined a club of like-minded men and suddenly found himself under arrest for the most unlikely and horrific crime. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 3: Tonight’s the Night, Comrades
2024/01/09
How an American media polarized over Antifa led to an innocent family on a Twilight-themed lockdown-escaping camping trip getting barricaded in the woods by armed, hostile townspeople. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 2: We’re Coming After You, Honey
2024/01/09
How a chance encounter in a yacht club in the early 2000s between a bartender and a very wealthy couple with a daughter sick with a mystery disease ended with the creation of the first great covid conspiracy theory. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
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S2. Ep 1: The Most Mysterious Deaths
2024/01/09
How the mysterious deaths of 32 black sex workers in Miami in the 1980s led to a whole new (and spurious) mental health diagnosis, ending with another murder that occurred during the height of lockdown. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell Archive credits: NBC News June 1984; Fox Television’s A Current Affair 1989.
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S2. Things Fell Apart is back
2024/01/02
Since Jon Ronson’s first series, new battle lines in the culture wars have been drawn. And many of them are linked by one extraordinary thing: they all snowballed within days of each other, in May 2020, six weeks into lockdown. Millions of us spent our days locked at home with only the internet for company. People lost their jobs. Politicians told us what to do. We lived in fear of an invisible enemy nobody understood. This bizarre experience changed people psychologically. People and institutions fell apart. The pandemic – and lockdown – were to become dangerously fertile ground for conspiratorial thinking, and for new frontlines in the culture wars. And so in Season Two of Things Fell Apart, Jon Ronson again uncovers intriguing and wholly unexpected origin stories, but this time of the culture wars that ignited during lockdown, and now dominate society. Written and presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Original music by Phil Channell
more
S1. Bonus Episode: Jon Ronson Live at Hay
2023/07/05
In front of a live audience at the Hay Festival 2023 in Wales, Jon Ronson and journalist and author Dolly Alderton discuss Jon’s multifarious adventures in nonfiction, and all things Culture Wars, including an appearance from a mystery guest from series one of Things Fell Apart. Producer: Sarah Shebbeare
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S1. How Things Fell Apart, with Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux
2022/03/30
In this bonus episode of Things Fell Apart, Jon Ronson's friend and fellow documentary maker Louis Theroux asks him all about how he made the series. They take a deep dive into Culture Wars battles and explore Jon's storytelling methods, all while chatting about Jon's broken arm, putting old rivalries to bed, and how they deal with difficult interviewees when they both hate conflict. Produced by Sarah Shebbeare
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S1. Ep 8: A Mock Slave Auction
2022/01/25
An incident of racist bullying on Snapchat is currently tearing apart a small town on a lake in Michigan. As the ripples spread, practically every conflict we’ve encountered throughout our series rears its head. Presented by Jon Ronson Produced by Sarah Shebbeare Assistant Producer Sam Peach Music composed by Phil Channell
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Podcast reviews

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4.7 out of 5
461 reviews
Survivor of Hathsin 2024/01/24
God Save the King… of Objectivity
Jon Ronson is the absolute best. Everyone gets a fair hearing and he is great about withholding judgement and letting his readers/listeners decide. Th...
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peevermouse 2024/02/11
Needs to go more in depth
I love the idea of dogging into the small things that turn into a major issue in America, but it’s hard to get any nuance in a half hour. Multiple of ...
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The Onion Rocks 2024/01/30
Jon Ronson is afraid of Freedom
It’s an interesting podcast, but the British are afraid of freedom.
Adrian Marcado 2024/01/21
Jon Ronson is super cool!
I love this writer. He confronts the strange and bizarre of the world with humility and respect no matter how wild the situation. And I always learn s...
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almennur 2024/01/20
Each episode is a little gem
… of engaging and nuanced storytelling. It’s a hands-down one of the best podcasts out there.
kuaikuai 2024/01/20
Captured
Series 2: was once again convinced to give this a try. But it’s the same old same old by a manipulative git with saccharine charm. Btw ep 1 is about G...
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Different_Drummer 2024/01/20
Very Good Food for Thought
Love this series. However Jon seems to display a leftward leaning bias. Specifically the myth about the litter box in schools consumed a lot of the ...
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Kékcsillag 2024/01/20
Limp faint voice
The topic and the way it’s done may be good editorially but Jon Ronson’s delivery (speech) leaves a lot to be desired. You simply can’t hear him prope...
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El jlglke 2024/01/16
Excellent podcast
This is an excellent podcast.
brainslikepickles 2024/01/17
This show fell apart
In the first season, Ronson was in his element, telling personal stories that reflect broad cultural trends. In the second, Ronson is a creature of th...
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