The Alpha Course has been a widely popular - and controversial - initiative by the Church of England to get people more interested in the Church. In 2000, the Jewish journalist Jon Ronson attended a course to see what was going on.
posted by mippy on Jul 7, 2009 - 197 comments

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes: is it possible to get to understand such a man – and his extraordinary working methods – by looking through the hundreds of boxes he left behind? [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Aug 2, 2008 - 18 comments

"I want to recreate a great Bond journey," I say. "I want to take a passage from one of the novels and assiduously match Bond car for car, road for road, meal for meal, drink for drink, hotel for hotel." [more inside]
posted by beaucoupkevin on May 12, 2008 - 39 comments

Death's Midwife: Jon Ronson meets the Reverend George Exoo, controversial right-to-die activist. [more inside]
posted by tiny crocodile on May 12, 2008 - 11 comments

“He'd speak wistfully about some future day when he'd have less work on and could investigate the paranormal for real. And now that day has come.” Jon Ronson attends a UFO conspiracy conference with Robbie Williams. Compare and contrast, Dan Aykroyd.
posted by fearfulsymmetry on Apr 19, 2008 - 31 comments

Jon Ronson on a cruise with controversial psychic Sylvia Browne.
posted by ClanvidHorse on Oct 28, 2007 - 38 comments

The weird world of Deal Or No Deal.

"My God," I thought, as I climbed off the treadmill, exhausted. "They're in a bubble. They've got no sense of reality. They have, in Noel Edmonds, a charismatic leader who believes in nutty things. It's like a religious cult! An incredibly nail-biting and entertaining cult, brilliantly presented by Noel, but a cult none the less."

Jon Ronson (previously discussed here, here, here and here) goes behind the scenes of the wildly successful British version of Deal Or No Deal.
posted by afx237vi on Oct 22, 2006 - 37 comments

"I am standing at the traffic lights when the woman next to me, lost in her thoughts, suddenly bursts out laughing. Then she immediately covers her mouth with her hand and glances around, embarrassed. This gives me an idea. I phone the photographer Stephen Gill. 'Let's walk around looking for people who are laughing to themselves because of something they've just thought of,' I say. 'When we find them, you take their photograph and I'll ask them what they were thinking about that was so funny.'" Jon Ronson sets out to discover the secret source of joy.
posted by Blue Stone on Dec 10, 2005 - 31 comments