Origin Story
Episodes
European Union – Part One – Come Together
29 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hello and welcome to season nine of Origin Story. After last season’s history of socialism, we’re returning to our usual format of taking on a com...
Origin Story – Live at Bloomsbury Theatre, 15th April 2026
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode is an edited version of Origin Story Live at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre on Wednesday 15 April 2026. It was a thrill to take t...
The General Strike – The Revolution That Wasn’t
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Hello and welcome to another bonus episode. It’s the centenary of the General Strike of May 1926, the most important industrial dispute in British h...
Introvert / Extrovert – In Two Minds
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The terms introvert and extrovert have never been more popular. People seem to increasingly latch onto them as a core element of their personality, cl...
Stephen Miller – American Fascist
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to a bonus episode of Origin Story. Sometimes we profile people who are psychologically complex, who have undertaken fascinating intellectual ...
15-Minute Cities – How Urban Design Entered the Culture War
25 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to another between-season bonus episode of Origin Story. This week Ian tells the story of 15-minute cities: the notion that every urban reside...
Blue Labour: We Need to Talk About Maurice
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Origin Story is live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on Weds 15th April 2026 - tickets selling fast, get yours here Welcome to a between-season bon...
Socialism: The Finale – What’s Left?
20 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the finale of Origin Story season eight: the story of socialism. Thanks to everybody who has followed our most ambitious season yet, especi...
The Fall of the USSR – End Game
17 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the penultimate episode of Origin story season eight: the story of socialism. We close the book on Soviet communism with the story of how i...
Che Guevara – Guerrilla in the Mist
10 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story season eight: The Story of Socialism. This time, we take a look at hands-down the sexiest revolutionary of socialist hist...
The New Left – Part Two – Children of the Revolution
06 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the second episode of the week as we conclude the story of the New Left. In part one, we explained the various groups and thinkersthat fed ...
The New Left – Part One – Generation Next
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story season eight: The Story of Socialism. This time, we’re explaining the New Left, the messy constellation of ideas and mo...
Origin Story – Live at the Tabernacle, 13th Nov 2025
26 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This week’s episode is an edited version of Origin Story Live at the Tabernacle in London on Thursday 13 November. The theme is political insurgent...
The Labour Party – Part Three – One Battle After Another
19 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the third and final part of the story of the Labour Party, from Keir Hardie to Keir Starmer. Margaret Thatcher’s first election victory ...
The Labour Party – Part Two – War and Peace
12 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story season eight: The Story of Socialism. This week, we continue the tale of the UK Labour Party, from Keir Hardie to Keir St...
The Labour Party – Part One – A Very British Socialism
05 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story season eight: The Story of Socialism. This week, in the year of its 125th anniversary, we begin the tale of the UK Labour...
Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin – Part Three – Terror
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
• See Origin Story LIVE at The Tabernacle on Thur Nov 13. Buy tickets here. Welcome to the third and final part of the story of Lenin, Trotsky ...
Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin – Part Two – Power
22 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
• See Origin Story LIVE at The Tabernacle, London on Thur Nov 13. Buy tickets here. Welcome back to Origin Story: The Story of Socialism as we r...
Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin – Part One – Revolution
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
• See Origin Story LIVE at The Tabernacle, London on Thur 13 Nov. Buy tickets here. Welcome to Origin Story. The Story of Socialism is our first...
Karl Marx – Part Two – The Father
08 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Season Eight: The Story of Socialism as we conclude the story of Karl Marx and the birth of Marxism. It’s 1849. In the wake of the ...
Karl Marx – Part One – The Fighter
01 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A spectre is haunting Origin Story — the spectre of Karl Marx. Welcome back to season eight: The Story of Socialism. Last week, we explored the vari...
The Birth of Socialism – A Better World is Possible
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to season eight of Origin Story. This season we’re trying something different: one big narrative across multiple topics. It’s the story of...
The British Chinese – Hidden generations
03 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
British Chinese compose nearly one per cent of the British population, but they are culturally and politically ignored with precious little representa...
Rivers of Blood – How Enoch Powell poisoned Britain
20 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story. In this bonus episode Dorian tells the unnervingly relevant story of Enoch Powell’s so-called “Rivers of Blood” sp...
Shostakovich and Stalin – The Composer and the Dictator
06 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story. This bonus episode is something a bit different: a story about the power of music and the music of power. Tortured ge...
ICE – How Trump built an American Gestapo
23 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is ICE? Who are these men we see gathered around students and politicians in the US, with their faces covered, wearing unmarked clothing, often t...
Martin Luther King Jr. – Part Two – Owning the dream
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the grand finale of Origin Story season seven, as we conclude the remarkable story of Martin Luther King Jr. With the march from Selma to M...
Martin Luther King Jr. – Part One – Eyes on the Prize
04 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the final topic of Origin Story season seven: the extraordinary life and legacy of Dr Martin Luther King. By Origin Story standards, there’...
Growth – GDP is the Magic Number
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story, where we’re discussing the concept of economic growth. Growth is the world’s great obsession. When it’s booming, i...
Mars – The Next Frontier?
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the first ever episode of Origin Story dedicated to a planet. We’re taking a long look at the place of Mars in the popular imagination, f...
Appeasement – Part Two – Betrayal
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story and join us as we wrap up the story of appeasement. It’s 1938. After the Anschluss, Hitler makes his bid for the Sudete...
Appeasement – Part One – The Bitter Cup
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story. This week we turn to the story of the appeasement of Hitler’s Germany during the 1930s. With appeasement in the news a...
Origin Story Live at 21 Soho – Grand Theft America
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We had a very good time at Origin Story Live at 21 Soho on Wednesday night. Thanks to everyone who showed up or watched the livestream. The theme of ...
Partition – Part Two – Dividing Lines
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story, where we’re concluding the story of the partition of India and Pakistan. We resume in March 1947 with the arrival of t...
Partition – Part One – Before Midnight
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome back to Origin Story. This week we begin the immense story of the partition of India and Pakistan at midnight on 14-15 August 1947. In a strok...
Thatcherism – Part Two – Imperial phase
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of Thatcherism, Margaret Thatcher has survived a grim first term and her political and economic bets have paid off. She’s ready to wage ...
Thatcherism – Part One – Birth of a Notion
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hello and welcome to season seven of Origin Story, where Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey continue to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape...
Kemi Badenoch – Identity crisis
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Season seven is almost upon us and we’ll be starting with an epic two-parter on Thatcherism, so consider this bonus episode a warm-up. We’re unrav...
The Myth of Cultural Marxism – Anatomy of a conspiracy theory
12 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to another Origin Story bonus episode. This week we’re discussing the conspiracy theory of Cultural Marxism. In the 1990s, cultural conserva...
Doctor Who – The Regeneration Game
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Travel into the furthest reaches of space and time as we investigate the history of Doctor Who. From its inception in 1963, as a longshot gamble to fi...
Trump’s inauguration: Can we call it fascism yet? – Plus exclusive audiobook excerpt
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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Elon Musk and the Death of Twitter
08 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Happy new year, Origin Story listeners. We’ll be releasing regular bonus episodes between now and the launch of season seven in April and we’re ki...
The Daily Mail – Part two – Paper Tigers
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
•Fill in our listener survey for a chance to win an exclusive Origin Story t-shirt. Welcome to part two of the story of the Daily Mail. We pick thi...
The Daily Mail – Part one – Barons and Blackshirts
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
•Fill in our listener survey for a chance to win an exclusive Origin Story t-shirt. Welcome to the season finale of Origin Story. We put it to the ...
The BBC – Part two – Balancing act
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to part two of the story of the BBC. The Second World War is over, radio is booming and television is back. The BBC is stronger than ever, wit...
The BBC – Part one – Inform, educate, entertain
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
So far this season we’ve had to deal with Russell Brand and Benjamin Netanyahu, and we’ve got the Daily Mail coming up, so we all deserve a more u...
Benjamin Netanyahu – Part two – Divide and conquer
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we complete the story of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s most politically successful prime minister — and its most divisive. We pick up t...
Benjamin Netanyahu – Part one – Making enemies
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we commence the story of Benjamin Netanyahu. The 75-year-old has become Israel’s longest serving prime minister despite never winning the ...
US Post-Election Live Show – Part Two
16 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Part two of Ian and Dorian’s post-Presidential Election show at the Tabernacle in West London, recorded on the 7th of November. After signing books ...
US Post-Election Live Show – Part One
16 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Part one of Ian and Dorian’s post-Presidential Election show at the Tabernacle in West London, recorded on the 7th of November. The show turned into...
Artificial Intelligence – Part Two – Skynet’s the limit
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The final episode of our two-part story of Artificial Intelligence. Having looked at the emergence and development of AI in part one we now turn to th...
Conspiracy Theory - Exclusive audiobook excerpt
09 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It can seem like conspiracy theories have travelled at warp speed from the eccentric margins to the heart of modern politics. But in fact conspiracism...
Artificial Intelligence – Part One – Deus ex machina
06 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we begin the story of Artificial Intelligence. Since the launch of Chat-GPT in late 2022, we have been more excited, and anxious, about AI t...
The Suffragettes – Part Two – By any means necessary
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we finish the story of the suffragettes. We pick up the narrative in 1912, when parliament’s failure to deliver women’s suffrage trigger...
The Suffragettes – Part one – Deeds not words
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we begin the tumultuous story of the suffragettes. In 1903, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Uni...
Russell Brand – Confidence man
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What the hell happened to Russell Brand? Ten years ago, the comedian and actor was the loudest voice on the British left as his florid calls for spiri...
The British Board of Film Classification – Who watches the watchers?
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sex! Violence! Censorship! These days the British Board of Film Classification rarely makes headlines but it was on the cultural frontlines throughout...
Emmanuel Macron – The centrist cannot hold
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Emmanuel Macron is one of the most fascinating and infuriating figures in 21st century politics. Seven years ago, the philosopher-statesman shredded F...
Gaslighting – No, you’re not imagining it
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past eight years, the word “gaslighting” has transformed from an obscure term in psychiatric literature into a ubiquitous buzzword to des...
The Battle of Cable Street
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Battle of Cable Street on 4 October 1936 has been described as “the greatest anti-fascist victory on British soil”. It is certainly the most m...
Bonus edition: Far-Right Riots
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Racist violence has inflamed several British cities this past week. Should we call the events protests, riots or pogroms? Are the participants actual ...
Origin Story Post-Election Special – Live in Islington
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Couldn’t make it to the Origin Story live show in London on Monday 15 July? Don’t worry, we’ve got audio for you. Listen up as Dorian and Ian ta...
The Rushdie Affair – Blasphemous Rumours
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The final episode of season five covers the Rushdie Affair. On 14 February 1989, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie made The Sata...
Keir Starmer – PM Dawn
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The season five finale coincides with the general election, so we’ve decided to get very topical indeed with the story of Labour leader and likely p...
Anti-vaxxers – Herd impunity
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode tells the tale of the anti-vaxxers. The word has only been around since 2001 but inoculation has inspired opposition for as long as it ha...
Genocide – Part Two – The search for justice
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The war in Gaza has led to accusations of genocide but that word operates on two levels. It’s both a strict legal term that has to be adjudicated by...
Genocide – Part One – The ultimate crime
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The war in Gaza has led to accusations of genocide but that word operates on two levels. It’s both a strict legal term that has to be adjudicated by...
John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor Mill – Part Two – Love, bravery and feminism
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lyn...
John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor Mill – Part One – Liberalism's original power couple
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lyn...
George Orwell Part 2 – From Broadcasting House to Airstrip One
22 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lyn...
George Orwell Part 1 – From Eton to Barcelona
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Back for season five, Origin Story continues to explore the misunderstood ideas and people that shape our politics today. With Ian Dunt and Dorian Lyn...
10 Downing Street – The makeshift mansion
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve covered ideas, phrases, people and historical events. Now Origin Story profiles its first building: Number 10 Downing Street. Following Dori...
The Illuminati – Top of the Plots
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
• Join Ian and Dorian for Origin Story Live in London on Tue 7 May. They’ll be looking at how the Conservative Party got addicted to conspiracy t...
Apocalypse How? Dorian on the birth of end of the world fiction
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For 1800 years, Western conceptions of the end of the world were dominated by the Book of Revelation: Armageddon, the Millennium, Judgement Day. But i...
Effective Altruism: Morality by numbers
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the last episode of season four, Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey discuss effective altruism. Last month the US entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was convi...
Eugenics Part Two: The Murderous Science
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In part two of the history of eugenics, Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey explain how the pseudo-science of “racial hygiene” seduced everyone from femin...
Eugenics Part One: Gene Genies
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey get started on the history of eugenics, the idea of finding biological solutions to social problems. Say the wo...
Night of the Living Allegory: The Politics of Zombies
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Haitian folklore and inadvertently reinvented by director George A. Romero, the zombie is the most flexible metaphor in horror fiction, if not...
John Maynard Keynes Part Two: We’re all Keynesians now
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Part Two of John Maynard Keynes, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt reconnect with Keynes in the 1930s, as he slowly pulls together his magnum opus, The G...
John Maynard Keynes Part One: The Establishment Radical
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey discuss perhaps the most extraordinary individual they have encountered so far: John Maynard Keynes. The most significant ...
Boomers: You never had it so good
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt look at the most powerful and divisive generational cohort of them all: boomers. The people born between 1946 a...
Jordan B Peterson Part Two: The Unravelling
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, it’s part two of the riddle of Jordan B Peterson, the bestselling author and culture warrior. Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey dig into his tw...
Jordan B Peterson Part One: Ascension
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Origin Story is back. The critically-acclaimed podcast uncovering the hidden histories of concepts, people and events you thought you knew. To kick...
Bonuscast! Oppenheimer: Fallout
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Nolan has been generous enough to put together a full-on Origin Story film, combining key elements from the Nuclear War and McCarthyism ep...
Live in London
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey host an evening of storytelling, debate, gallows humour and intense irritation recorded with an audience on a balmy evenin...
Elon Musk: The Man Who Fell to Earth
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts, people and events you thought you knew. In a first for Origin Story, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt focus ...
Zionism Part 2
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Explaining the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics In another two-parter, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt break down the long, THORNY history ...
Zionism Part 1
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Explaining the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics. In another two-parter, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt break down the long thorny history ...
Climate Change Denial part 2: Fuelling the Flames
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts, people and events you thought you knew. In part two of the story of climate change denial Ian Dunt and Do...
Climate Change Denial part 1: Science Friction
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts, people and events you thought you knew. This time: Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey try to cool their temper...
Nuclear War part 2: The Final Countdown
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts you thought you knew. Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey pick up the story of nuclear war in the 1950s with the a...
Nuclear War part 1: The Unthinkable
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Uncovering the hidden histories of concepts you thought you knew. This time: the ‘genocide machine’ – nuclear war. With Christopher Nolan’...
Atheism: No God, What Now?
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This time: the tumultuous history of Atheism. The concept has been around since the ancient world but for centuries it was demonised and suppressed. W...
Churchill part 2: Inside the Enigma Machine
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt explain the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics. This time: part 2 of their Winston Churchill deconstruction. ...
Churchill part 1: Rebel Without A Cause
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New Series! Explaining the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics. This time: Winston Churchill is caricatured as either a bigoted villain or...
Special: Gary Lineker, Free Speech and the Nazis
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A between-seasons special: The Lineker Affair didn’t just expose the BBC’s fear of the Government. It triggered a flood of bad takes on whether it...
New podcast: Mugshots with Michael Crick
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
New series preview: How much do we really know about the people who make the headlines? In a provocative new series the acclaimed journalist Michael C...
A taster of JAM TOMORROW with Ros Taylor – our new documentary podcast
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A taster of our new series. Search for Jam Tomorrow in your favourite podcast app or visit https://kite.link/JTS1 Episode One: Every Day Is Like D-Day...
Freedom of Speech: Censors working overtime
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“We surely live in the stupidest possible era of debate about free speech,” says Ian Dunt. When a key arbiter of free expression is the smirking t...
The War on Drugs: The smack of firm government
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drugs won the War on Drugs decades ago, so why are governments still squandering billions on this unwinnable battle? Where did the idea come from? Can...