Ronson’s third book, The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004), deals with the secret New Age unit within the United States Army called the First Earth Battalion. Ronson investigates people such as Major General Albert Stubblebine III, former head of intelligence, who believe that people can walk through walls with the right mental preparation, and that goats can be killed simply by staring at them. Much was based on the ideas of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, ret., who wrote the First Earth Battalion Operations Manual in 1979, inspired by the emerging Human Potential Movement of California. The book suggests that these New Age military ideas mutated over the decades to influence interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay. An eponymous film of the book was released in 2009, in which Ronson’s investigations were fictionalised and structured around a journey to Iraq. Ronson is played by the actor Ewan McGregor in the film.

Ronson contributed the memoir A Fantastic Life to the Picador anthology Truth or Dare, in 2004.

His second book, Them: Adventures with Extremists (2001) chronicles his experiences with people labelled as extremists. Subjects in the book include David Icke, Randy Weaver, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ian Paisley, Alex Jones, and Thom Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the Bilderberg Group. The narrative tells of Ronson’s attempts to infiltrate the “shadowy cabal” fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. The book was described by Louis Theroux as a “funny and compulsively readable picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadow world.” Variety magazine announced in September 2005 that Them was purchased by Universal Pictures for a feature film.

Ronson’s main radio work is the production and presentation of a BBC Radio 4 programme, Jon Ronson on… The program has been nominated for a Sony award four times. In August 2008, Radio 4 aired “Robbie Williams and Jon Ronson Journey to the Other Side”, a documentary by Jon Ronson about pop star Williams’ fascination with UFOs and the paranormal.

Ronson sold the film rights to The Men Who Stare at Goats, and subsequently a film of the same name was released in 2009 as a comedy war film directed by Grant Heslov and written by Peter Straughan. According to Ronson’s DVD-commentary, the journalist-character Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) did experience some elements of Ronson’s self-recounted story from the book. However, unlike Ronson, Wilton was an American from Ann Arbor. Also, unlike Ronson, Wilton went to Iraq.

Ronson hosted and wrote the podcast The Butterfly Effect, which was released in November 2017 by Audible. The show focuses on internet pornography, and Fabian Thylmann and PornHub’s effect on the industry. Ronson subsequently also hosted and wrote the podcast The Last Days of August, released in January 2019. It focuses on the 2017 death of pornographic actress August Ames.

Ronson was born in Cardiff in Wales and attended Cardiff High School. He worked for CBC Radio (since renamed Capital South Wales) in Cardiff before moving to London for a degree in Media Studies at the Polytechnic of Central London (now known as the University of Westminster). Ronson, who is culturally Jewish, is a “distinguished supporter” of Humanists UK. He is married to Elaine Patterson, with whom he has a son. Ronson is a supporter of the football team Arsenal and has spoken of his “adoration” of the club. Ronson resides in upstate New York and became an American citizen in 2020.