Things Fell Apart
Explore the origins of the culture wars, ad-free
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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.
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Best podcast I’ve listened to
May 14
All of Jon Ronson’s work is stellar. But Things Fell Apart is by far the best one. His fact checking is spot on and his manner of storytelling is down right addictive. Thank you for seeing and telling all sides! He’s the first I’ve seen to transcend the culture wars.
Bad reporting or…
Aug 31
Unfortunately the formatting for these reviews doesn’t come thru. Sry for the block of text. I swear it was easily parsed paragraphs when I first wrote it! lol. • Fun game: listen to an episode, say season 2 episode 2, when things really start to become egregious. Take notes. Write down what the episode told you happened. • Now go look into it yourself. See who she was long before the supposedly unjustified arrest. She was already a conspiratorial liar. An antivaxxeer working g with other antivaxxers for decades beforehand. Everything down to her yacht club story is a lie and it’s just presented as fact. Look into the arrest and what happened after. • The entire narrative of the episode is dishonest, and dishonest with a motivation. I’d like to be charitable and say the show just has bad reporting and doesn’t do any fact checking… but given how much they like to let right wing propagandists spout off completely unchallenged, and even try to back up those lies (even when info in the same episode contradicts them), it’s hard to think this isn’t intentional. • I mean, this is the guy who was asked a question on knowledge fight and claimed he couldn’t know the answer to said pertinent question, when the answer is the first google result. “Turn over the cell line”?? IT SAYS RIGHT ON THE RETRACTION that SILVERMAN TURNED OVER THE CELL LINE AND CONFIRMED CONTAMINATION. He shouts it from the rooftops. Ignoring inconvenient answers to questions is more than a red flag. WHY ARE YOU on knowledge fight SAYING NO ONE IS ACCUSING HER OF MAKING IT ALL UP WHEN EVERYONE IS, and she definitely did? It’s even on her Wikipedia that they are, and the sources explain all the details!• –She got fired for stealing another scientist’s work and arrested for stealing the lab’s material and property that she had no right to– and no that didn’t turn a good scientist bad. She was always bad and you know it if you read anything about her at all– And more generally than that one story, they’re pandering to the “anti-woke” fools, who are at best dupes of conspiracy theory thinking, and at worst outright fascists manipulating people. • The Where There’s Wome podcast has like three episodes on this if you’re interested
Fabulous Storytelling
May 14
A joy to listen to. Fabulous storytelling. Binged both seasons over a weekend.
Tremendous podcast
Apr 1
Jon Ronson has an extraordinary way of connecting the dots, and his interviews are done with the deft and even hand of a remarkably skilled, curious and intelligent man. I would nominate him as the most important and accessible journalist on the topic of conspiracy theories today.
About
Information
- Channel
- CreatorBBC Radio 4
- Years Active2021 - 2024
- Episodes22
- RatingExplicit
- Copyright© (C) BBC 2024
- Show Website
- ProviderBBC Studios Distribution Limited