Jon Ronson's Butterfly Effect sequel to investigate the death of porn star August Ames
The Last Days of August will take us back to California's porn capital in the San Fernando Valley
In December 2017, world-famous porn star August Ames killed herself in a park in California's San Fernando Valley.
Her suicide came a day after she'd been at the centre of a Twitter pile-on – and now Jon Ronson has followed up his podcast The Butterfly Effect with a sequel that will unravel the dark and unexpected story behind her death.
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Ames was targeted after making controversial statements about gay porn actors that many in the industry found homophobic. What followed was a period of intense criticism online, after which Ames (real name Mercedes Grabowski) took her own life.
A month later, writer and podcaster Ronson approached Ames' husband – pornography producer Kevin Moore – and asked to tell the story of how cyberbullying had killed his wife. Ames' death would be the focus of his new series, The Last Days of August.
Ronson had previously investigated the human cost of free online porn for his critically-acclaimed Audible podcast The Butterfly Effect, which took viewers inside the pornography industry in the San Fernando Valley.
But, as Audible teases, "what neither Kevin nor Ronson realised was that Ronson would soon hear rumours and secrets hinting at a very different story – something mysterious and unexpected and terrible."
Ronson said: "The Last Days of August was a very challenging and mysterious story for my producer Lina and I to unravel. But it’s an extraordinary and important story, I’m proud of it, and I hope listeners will feel the same."
The Last Days of August will be released on Audible on January 4th 2019
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