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Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

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Desert Island Discs: Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster

Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster

Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne.

Jon Ronson, writer and broadcaster, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item he would take with him if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Jon Ronson is a writer and broadcaster whose award-winning podcast and Radio 4 series Things Fell Apart investigated the stories behind today’s culture wars. His television programmes and books – from Them: Adventures with Extremists to So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed - explore what he calls “the worlds that are going on underground” and his subjects - from conspiracy theorists to internet trolls - inhabit the fringes of society. 

Jon was born in Cardiff in 1967.  He started a media studies degree at the Polytechnic of Central London but left after two years to become the keyboard player for the musician and comedian Frank Sidebottom’s Oh Blimey Big Band.  He also managed the Manchester indie band Man from Delmonte. 

He worked as a presenter on KFM Radio with Terry Christian, Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash before moving back to London where he wrote for the listings magazine Time Out and later produced a weekly column about family life for the Guardian. 

In 1993 he began his television career with a BBC series called the Ronson Mission which he describes as having little adventures and interviewing people who were classed as outsiders by the mainstream. He went on to make programmes about the Ku Klux Klan, the Jesus Christians cult and the First Earth Battalion about a secret New Age unit which was set up within the US Army in the late 1970s.

In 2012 Jon moved to New York.  He became an American citizen in 2020.

DISC ONE: A Message to You Rudy by The Specials 
DISC TWO: Cabaret sung by Jane Horrocks, from the Sam Mendes production of the musical Cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse, London in 1993  
DISC THREE: Underground by Tom Waits
DISC FOUR:  Drivin’ on 9 by The Breeders   
DISC FIVE:  Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear by Randy Newman
DISC SIX: Extraordinary Machine by Fiona Apple
DISC SEVEN: America by Simon & Garfunkel
DISC EIGHT:  Jersey Girl (Live at Meadowlands Arena, E. Rutherford, New Jersey - July 1981) by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

BOOK CHOICE: A Magnum photography book
LUXURY ITEM:  Legal medical marijuana
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Jersey Girl by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band  

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

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