David Pescovitz and Mark Frauenfelder speak with Jon Ronson, a journalist, documentary filmmaker, and the author of the bestselling books, The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Jon’s  latest work is a very short book, or long article, available as an ebook, called The Amazing Adventures of Phoenix Jones, which explores the growing phenomenon of real life superheroes.  It’s available as an eBook through Amazon and other online ebooksellers. (Photo of Jon Ronson by Barney Poole)

Here's Jon's descriptions of his interests:

Most of all, I suppose, I write about mysterious worlds. I write about them in as human a way as I can. These worlds have included powerful secret societies like Bohemian Grove and The Bilderberg Group (I infiltrated them in my book Them), extremist communities - Islamic militants, politically correct Klansmen (also in Them), people who believe the world is ruled by 12-foot shape-shifting lizards (Them), and Military Intelligence chiefs who believe it possibe to pass through walls and kill goats just by staring at them (The Men Who Stare At Goats). In Goats, I also look at how these crazy ideas have mutated themselves and live on in the War on Terror.

In this episode of Gweek, Mark Frauenfelder is joined by Boing Boing's managing editor Rob Beschizza and Seth Godin, an author, entrepreneur, and human wunderkammer.

Here's what we talked about:

The Domino Project: Seth's partnership with Amazon to publish short books loaded with useful ideas

Searching for an adjustable standing desk that doesn't cost a fortune

Test driving the Mitsubishi i electric car

The undiscovered or overlooked or underappreciated work of John Taylor Gatto, eduction reformer

A wonderful how to book called Handmade Music Factory: The Ultimate Guide to Making Foot-Stompin'-Good Instruments

Penguin Magic Shop: An online magic trick store with good video demos

Sasha Dichter: Reflections on generosity, philanthropy and social change

Collin's Lab: excellent introductory videos to electronics

Bizarro comics

Seth's fondness for buckwheat soba noodles

Bobo Explores Light: A swell iPad app that teaches kids about light

Rising Card: A great $0.99 iPhone magic trick

Kaweco Liliput Ballpoint Pen from JetPens

Sous Vide Turkey for Thanksgiving

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In this episode of Gweek, I'm joined by Boing Boing’s managing editor, Rob Beschizza, and Joel Johnson, editorial director of Kotaku.

Here's what we talked about: The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim Rob has been playing it incessantly but says it feels "like walking around a ren faire where everyone is heavily medicated." Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack Minecraft is going 1.0 Kotaku’s upcoming gift guides Make’s Ultimate Kit Guide Joel read The Postmortal tng_s8 Mixel - a free iPad collage app Mark's Dungeon Raid addiction relapse Mophie Juice Pack Plus Outdoor Edition iPhone 4S and Siri

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In this episode of Gweek, Ruben Bolling and I are joined by the cartoonist and illustrator Michael Kupperman, who has a hilarious new book out, called Mark Twain's Autobiography 1910-2010. Ruben interviewed Michael about his work and then the three of us went on to talk about the folllowing things:

I got rid of my standing desk last week and am looking for a better solution.

Using an hour-timer as a self-check throughout the day

Esther Williams' autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid

Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson

Cul de Sac Golden Treasury, by Richard Thompson

Orchid

Twitter

Uni-watch: The Obessive Study of Athletic Aesthetics

Secret Fun Blog

The Walking Dead TV show

The Last Man Alive

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