Beautiful, compelling, endlessly surprising.

I want to start off with saying that I love both seasons. However, by the time I was finished listening to season 1, I felt strongly about how thing's have evolved. Considering that season 1 was released in 2017, I'm aware that I'm pretty late to listening (in 2023). Therefore, I understand that the podcast has bookmarked a specific timeline. That being said, I would love to hear additional documentation aimed towards the rise of onlyfans & how that platform has impacted the industry. (in addition to context of how it wasn't originally intended to become a staple for adult content, etc.) Onlyfans is the biggest platform since Pornhub. "The butterfly effect from 1 platform ripples out to the rise of another platform, & changes an industry, yet again." would be an amazing listen.

This is a well-done podcast, but the producers seem too naive to address this subject with anything but the most simplistic “porn is evil” framework, despite their protestations to the contrary. Either that, or they are so committed to finding a hook for their podcast, they ignore the obvious explanation in pursuit of a story. There’s certainly a lot of speculation and theorizing, with no real proof. And yet it’s an intriguing subject, so I can’t say it’s not worth listening to.

I really want to hear more of this story, it is so well produced and the host is excellent, but for the dramatic music is too much.

Super interesting, the story takes many twists and turns

This was very frustrating for me. I listened to the end. I was frustrated because the stories of liars, drinks and schizophrenics were never questioned. The husband was the only one who was held accountable. His ex wife claims he was sobbing and she had to call her brother to say she doesn’t know how to handle this emotional husband. She turns around a few minutes later and claims he was emotionally distant. She admits she was a drunk, but it was because her husband was never home. There is constant blaming of a man who in my opinion, did try to steer these women in an industry that is so over the edge and dangerous emotionally, that he might have felt he needed to. One person interviewed explained that everyone in the industry are already dead. I believe that to be true. People can claim feminism and empowerment all they want, while these young women take their lives by suicide and overdosed on the constant.

Hopping on a tragedy to get clout. Very sad

Great story telling

Leaving this review to counteract the middling ones that paint the emphasis on Kevin Moore as too targeted or severe. Ronson does this with good reason! Frankly, if you have ever spent time with someone who is emotionally abusive or studied abusive behavior, this guy sets off alarm bells with his own words, far beyond just how the story is presented or anything in control of Ronson’s presentation/narrative. Calling the veracity of everyone who is even remotely critical into question, saying things about August’s motives and relationships that are proven objectively false, the *immediate* reaching out to the journalist to correct the narrative after any development. All of it. However, this does not make him SOLELY responsible, as many are making out Ronson to be presenting. This is more of a story about how the needs of men in these womens’ lives come first in so many ways—despite being their primary moneymakers—not just from Moore but from many other areas of the industry.

I love all of his work. He’s brilliant.

Ronson did some good interviews and shows some good insight here but I feel like he missed the mark in his conclusions, unfairly laying too much blame with the victim’s husband. In his conclusion, he essentially swept under the rug the sexual abuse suffered by August/Mercedes as a child, a tragic history shared by too many strippers and adult film actresses. The common theory explains that women seek out this work as a way to reclaim control over their bodies and sexuality. Weeks before her suicide, Mercedes is raped on set. According to her internal narrative, and the porn industry’s, this can’t happen. And how can it be rape if she doesn’t say no or stop, and she signs the paperwork claiming she was fine with it? It’s abundantly clear that she felt speaking up was a threat to her career. Her husband’s attempt to do so after the fact, and her damage control brings that home. The industry exposes the lie a second time when she draws the line with the crossover, and the community, via Twitter, sends the message loud and clear that her control over her body and feeling safe at work is not as important as avoiding the appearance of homophobia. These two incidents make it painfully clear that the power and control she had claimed for herself, and any solidarity she may have hoped to find from fellow actresses like Jessica Drake, was simply not to be had. This important and revealing story about consent in the adult film industry was sadly missed.

With 8 minutes left to go in Episode 6, I’m bailing. Reminds me of how I felt with the podcast S-Town, which I also stopped listening to with 1 or 2 episodes to go. After a while the focus on the subjects evolves into something I don’t feel right listening to.

Love freaky porn mystery

The host is great at what he does. The music was completely wrong, though...especially the music at the end of every episode. It almost sounded happy, like something you’d hear at the end of a lighthearted family movie. Maybe it’s dumb for me to care about that, but I feel like it threw off the whole narrative.

I really appreciate the research of the internet porn model but moreso the human effect it has played out on so many lives

Not very even. I started out believing this was straight journalism, but towards the middle and end it seemed he was reaching on many conclusions and pushing his own narrative due to his personal views of Moore. Of all the people interviewed Lisa Ann was the scariest. She comes off cold and calculating. Everyone else seemed to be doing the best they can in whatever reality they are in. You can identify with them in some way, but she seems evil.

Ok I was into this podcast...until the “children” episode....where the host talks to a guy who is a registered sex offender and his mom and they talk about how awful his life is because he’s registered. He sent 50-60 images of anime porn to a girl and said he wanted to bend her over and rape her. Blaming this guy’s actions on the availability of porn is both dangerous and disgusting. It’s a version “Marilyn Manson is the reason school violence happens”. And the flippant way the host and the guy and his mom handle talking about it.....“It’s like being grounded permanently HA HA HA”. Seriously?! And talking about how the neighborhood where sex offenders have to live is gloomy.....are you KIDDING me with this? 🤦🏻‍♀️ hard pass on the rest of this podcast. It’s sad too, because I was really enjoying this podcast

When I first heard this show I couldn’t believe that retired MLB pitcher, Bronson Arroyo had traded in his fastball for a notepad! He traded in his curveball for storytelling with curves! He traded in his sinker for a narrative that will make your stomach sink! What a second act. Bronson is British now, which is a little odd but Madonna did the same thing, tbqh. The story follows the hot and steamy world of adult “entertainment,” and you should NOT listen if your children are present. But it is a good story with a lot of twists and turns. I can’t believe Bronson Arroyo did this!

Sad broken people with sad broken lives......no clear villains or heroes here. Much like real life the conclusion is most people struggle and have their own demons to manage.

Jon Ronson comes across as pretentious, smug, condescending and two faced.

I recently have become a Jon Ronson fan, he has some great stuff “out there.” Stumbled across this podcast & figured I’d give it a try. I’ve listened to it twice in one week so far. Great & insightful.

Despite all the negative reviews I thought this podcast covered the story fairly. My main takeaway was that this business still exploits the majority of women who are in it and that some have mental health and substance abuse issues that made porn seem like a great vocation. Not a business for the fragile with men having most of the power jobs and it sounds like they are able to dominate the actors who are young. It’s sad that there are endless amounts of women who want this as a job. Unless your one of the lucky few superstars,you are completely disposable.

In the 2017 season, you hear no mention of the August Aimes story. Instead, you The Butterfly Effect. Listen to this first to learn that the porn industry is dumb, weird, corrupt, and highly lucrative. It’s good. The 2019 season covers the real topic of the podcast and actually matches the name of the podcast. But thanks for cleverly attaching the butterfly affect as a prelude. I didn’t want to pay to hear this on Audible anyway. This podcast and the Butterfly effect should be marketed as two different podcasts, different titles. If you only wanted to hear the August Ames story, you’d skip the first season all together. They should not overlap, except maybe on 20m summary of the butterfly effect. Otherwise, good investigative report by Jon.

The narrator's delivery was often times judgemental and condescending. Sure Kevin may not be liked and has flaws - and I really don't want to take his side in this - but I felt as if this turned into a hit piece on Kevin and then didn't find enough evidence to outright blame him. In the end I felt like this was way more about Kevin than the industry or even August.

I can't believe Time rated this a top 10 for 2019. I enjoyed Butterfly Effect, which was rooted in a bigger story about the evolution of sex and business in the age of the Internet, but I found this one to be petty and voyeuristic. The main reason to keep listening was to wait for a murder accusation (or at least proof that her husband drove her to it) or to hear more graphic on-set porn stories. Gross.

Although I did like aspects of this podcasts, I must say that I grew more and more disappointed as I listened. This podcast is more about Kevin, her husband than it is about her. Jon really tries to play out how he is the one most responsible. Kevin sounds like a bad husband. But that’s it. I don’t believe he drove her to kill herself. She obviously had bad mental health issues. Her marriage obviously didn’t help, but to make a 7 episode podcast basically about how she killed herself because her husband was distant is foolish and irresponsible. If this podcast wanted to do any justification for her, they should of delved more into mental illness, bullying and all of the relationships she had with people and not make this about her husband.

Sad story respectfully told

Do not agree with the people who don’t like narrators voice - I like it! I really enjoy his style and have listened to his other stuff too.i thought this was sensitive to the tragic story and subject matter and well done. Keep the good work coming

What I don’t like about the interviewer is that one moment he’s kind and understanding to he person he’s interviewing and 10 minutes later into the podcast he’s discrediting him. The same with August. And there’s something about his arrogant tone that grates... I’m not having it and I’m deleting the podcast entirely...

Literally the most grating, annoying voice I’ve ever heard on a podcast. I appreciate that this is the creator, but if you’re a songwriter and can’t sing, you find someone else to sing. Awful!

It’s like because the subject matter is so sensitive, Ronson has to whisper throughout the whole podcast which seriously irritating. And also reminds me of a little boy speaking quietly so his parents don’t hear him because he saying dirty things. Anyone else irritated by his voice like I am?

Great podcast. Sad, tragic but juicy story. It sort of goes in circles a bit towards the end, but still a really good listen! Interesting topics that included mental illness, addiction, grief, the porn industry and more.

Great writer BUT pretty annoying to listen narrate.

Completely turned off within minutes from the narrators voice.

Podcast tries to create cliffhangers from episode to episode and prove some sense of purpose, but ultimately doesn’t uncover or accomplish anything. I think the creators thought they may have a goldmine story when they started to research, then after they realized there wasn’t much of a story to tell they basically said “oh well, let’s release it anyways”.

I was very interested in season 1 because you get an inside view of what the porn industry is. I was glad to hear all of the positive stories about the stars but I was expecting more of some of the darker stories such as girls getting stuck in the industry or corrupt directors. If those things are not happening in this world, then that is fantastic but that’s what I thought the podcast was about. Season 2 was also interesting, it just wasn’t the turn I was expecting. And if we did season 2 about August Ames then we should also look into the other girls who killed themselves as well.

Jon’s voice is ridiculous. But I respect his instincts. My instinct tells me that he thought this was going to be a juicier story than it turned out to be. I mean no disrespect to August and her loved ones.

What I’m saying is you should listen to season 1. S2 is interesting too, but S1 is particularly eye-opening.

I think things started out interesting, but turned into a podcast about Kevin more so than Mercedes.

Found the story to be captivating and easily binge-worthy. Well researched and narrated. Fully enjoyed it.

I went into this expecting another Butterfly Effect or a podcast on the online hive mind. I ended up getting a prolonged podcast on a toxic relationship. The podcast tried to say so much it ultimately said nothing. Disappointed by Jon Ronson this time.

For parents to listen to.

I paid to get this “book” that’s now available for free? Ridiculous. Audible selections and membership are never solid and always changing. Great story, but I’ll never support audible again.

I’m sure people have different takes on this excellent podcast on the whole - but one thing I think we can all agree on, is that the world would be a better place if Kevin Moore hadn’t been born. His parents are failures.

A serious attempt to humanize this issue without generalizations—not an editorial, a primary journalistic endeavor. This is very hard to do well, especially with the darkness of this situation.

I love Jon Ronson. This is another great story by him and a deep dive into the porn industry we don’t normally get. I binged this whole series in a day

This is so well produced, I’m shocked it’s not at the top of the charts. I’ve learned so much about the porn industry (good and bad!) Amazing investigative journalism into a vast world i never really knew existed.

Ronson fails completely to hold the porn business to account as if it’s innocuous, ignoring the darkness at the core of the industry. He could have followed the butterfly effect of free porn and the psychological development of young boys

Endings are a challenge, I know this as a content creator. I am a long time fan of Jon, I devoured the Butterfly Effect, and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed was a delicious read. The Last Days of August had something to deliver and a message to convey, it did so, slaying with concision.

When I first heard The Butterfly Effect, I was amazed at Ronson‘s ability to find stories that no one else was looking for. The world of free porn on the Internet? That’s like the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about, yet Ronson teases out the stories of many different people who have seen their lives drastically changed by it. Each episode offers some new revelation on how our lives are being changed by technology, in ways that we don’t recognize until it’s too late, almost like a real life episode of Black Mirror. The sequel, The Last Days of August, is just pure tragedy, such a sad, sad story, which takes an almost Rashomon-like approach to the suicide of one young actress. Yet despite the industry particulars, if you’ve ever lost someone to suicide, the emotions on display here are all too recognizable. Ronson’s best point is his compassion, his ability to just open up to people and hear their stories, no matter how offbeat. Without doubt, this is one of the best podcast series I’ve heard; fans of S-Town will no doubt want to hear this as well.