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. The acclaimed writer and podcaster Jon Ronson has seen friends swallowed up in them to the extent that it’s ruined their lives.
Jon was curious to learn how things fell apart, and so he went back into the history of the culture wars to find some of the origin stories: the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led us to where we are today. He had no idea what he’d find, but he’s uncovered some extraordinary people and the strangest, yet most consequential tales.
Each episode unravels a story that has become a part of our social narrative today. For example, Ronson traces back the origins in the USA of book banning in schools and abortion rights. (Ronson lives in the USA). He identifies a key moment in time, from which impacts and consequences ripple out, wider and wider through the years, feeding into conspiracy theories with narratives gaining momentum to the point they are taken for granted today. Ronson is easy to listen to and very insightful. Straight after listening to these two series, I searched out other podcasts by him and found ‘So you’ve been publicly shamed‘ to be really interesting and thought provoking to listen to.
