Origin Story

What are the real stories behind the most misunderstood and abused ideas in politics? From Conspiracy Theory to Woke to Centrism and beyond, Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey dig into the astonishing secret histories of concepts you thought you knew. Want to support us in making future seasons? There are now two ways you can help out: • Patreon – Get early episodes, live Zooms, merchandise and more from just £5 per month. • Apple Podcasts – Want everything in one place with one easy payment? Subscribe to our premium feed on Apple Podcasts for ad-free shows early and bonus editions too. From Podmasters , the makers of Oh God, What Now?, American Friction and The Bunker.

Origin Story is a society podcast hosted by Podmasters, with 127 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Podmasters hosts Origin Story, a society show with 127 episodes published.

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  Episode #19

  The Battle of Cable Street – Origin Story Revisited

  Sep 29, 202645 minS9

  Hello Origin Story listeners. We’re launching season 10 in the second half of October and to mark that milestone we thought it would be fun to revisit some of our old episodes under the name Origin Story Revisted. Somehow we’ve recorded over 150 episodes so we’ve chosen four of our favourites to reissue with new introductions where we discuss making them and reflect on how subsequent events have changed how we think about these stories. Our first Revisited episode is The Battle of Cable Street from August 2024. It’s not just because the 80th anniversary of that event falls on 4 October. In light of the emergence of Patriot Platform and other forms of far-right intimidation, it’s a good time to look again at the day a vast anti-fascist alliance stood up to Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists in the East End, and at how popular resistance can spur state action. Hope you enjoy it. • Support Origin Story on Patreon Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Episode #18

  John Rawls – Philosopher king of the 20th Century

  Sep 22, 20261h 5mS9

  This week we dive into the life and ideas of John Rawls, the most celebrated liberal philosopher of the post-war period. Even in his own lifetime he was compared to Plato and Hobbes, becoming the only figure of our era to enter the canon of Western thought alongside the greatest figures in the philosophical tradition.  Rawls' work was a deadly surgical attack on neoliberalism and a rigorous defence of a more progressive form of liberalism, grounded in equality, rights and social justice. His notion of the veil of ignorance is perhaps the single most influential philosophical idea of the 20th Century and one of the most beautiful concepts in political theory. He provided a systematic justification for a centre-left worldview and policy programme, with a firm moral grounding and extremely radical repercussions. We trace his life story, from early childhood tragedy, through the battlefields of the Second World War, to a long and distinguished career in Harvard. We find a quiet, shy, unassuming man, uncomfortable in large groups and immune to self-importance, who nevertheless shook the philosophical world to its foundation. As his libertarian opponent Robert Nozick admitted: "Political philosophers must either work within Rawls' theory or explain why not."  We then delve into Rawls' political philosophy, providing a concise explanation of a foundational idea in the history of progressive thought. If you've ever wondered what the limit of the market should be, or how much inequality we should allow, or why people should be entitled to rights, Rawls will provide the explanation. Join us for an inspiring story of a world-changing idea. • Support Origin Story on Patreon Reading list • Daniel Chandler - Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? (Penguin, 2024) • Thomas Pogge - John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice (Oxford University Press, 2007) • John Rawls - Political Liberalism (Columbia University Press, 2005) • John Rawls - Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press, 1999) Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Episode #17

  Origin Story Live at Union Chapel

  Sep 8, 20262h 7mS9

  Hello listeners. This week’s episode is an audio recording of our live show at the Union Chapel in London on 1 September 2026. This time we did something different and made a live show out of a classic Origin Story narrative. It’s the story of how the Daily Telegraph’s deterioration from grey citadel of High Toryism to feral troll farm mirrors the cognitive decline of conservatism in Britain. In part one we tell the story of the Telegraph. Founded in 1855 by a crank army colonel to pursue an obscure vendetta, it was soon bought by the Levy-Lawson family, who turned into Britain’s liveliest newspaper and the world’s largest. During the 20th century, it became the heart of British conservatism: solidly — sometimes alarmingly — right-wing yet respectable and conscientious. It was proud to be boring: a safe harbour in a changing world. “Was, is, and will be,” its masthead boasted. The Telegraph took a strange turn after 2004, with its acquisition by the Barclay brothers and the rise of online journalism. Drawing more of its editors and energy from the Daily Mail, it began platforming more extreme voices in the hunt for clicks. By the time of Brexit in 2016, the viciousness and paranoia that characterised its online output had colonised the newspaper itself. Could its recent purchase by Germany’s Axel Springer trigger a return to normality? In part two we play headline tennis with some of the Telegraph’s barmiest articles, dig into the feverish, apocalyptic world view of columnist-editor Allister Heath, and explore what the paper’s decline says about the crumbling of the Tory mind. Then we take questions from the audience. Hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed doing the show.  Reading list Books Lord Burnham – Peterborough Court: The Story of The Daily Telegraph (1955) Colin Coote – Editorial: The Memoirs of Colin R. Coote (1965) W. F. Deedes – Dear Bill: A Memoir (2005) Duff Hart-Davis – The House The Berrys Built: Inside The Telegraph (1990) Max Hastings – Editor: A Memoir (2002) Jane Martinson – You May Never See Us Again: The Barclay Dynasty: A Story of Survival, Secrecy and Succession (2023) Peregrine Worsthorne – Tricks of Memory: An Autobiography (1993) Articles Stephen Bates – ‘Sir Peregrine Worsthorne obituary’, Guardian (5 October 2020) Jason Cowley – ‘The lost magic of England’, New Statesman (11 February 2016) Bryan Curtis – ‘Paper Tiger’, Slate (25 October 2006) Allister Heath – ‘Vast forces are mobilising to stop Britain’s only real chance of survival’, Telegraph (18 February 2026) Allister Heath – ‘The Fall of Britain: A tragedy in three horrifying acts’, Telegraph (19 April 2026) Liz Truss – ‘Trump has been proven right about pretty much everything’, Telegraph (14 April 2025) Jim Waterson – ‘“Toxic” Telegraph made me feel nauseous, says Graham Norton’, Guardian (7 October 2019) Peregrine Worsthorne – ‘The “Daily Telegraph”: No other British institution has been so badly degraded’, Independent (21 November 2005) Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Episode #15

  The Duke of Buckingham – How a queer love story predicted modern politics

  Aug 11, 20261h 18mS9

  Welcome to another bonus episode of Origin Story, where we look at the short and extraordinary life of the Duke of Buckingham (1592–1628). It's a bizarre, tragic tale which weaves together queer history, courtly romance, unending war and the early resistance of parliament against royal power.   More than anything, it is the story of the Favourite, that strange underdiscussed role of the leader's key ally. In our modern era, we've seen figures like Dominic Cummings and Morgan McSweeney take this position – operating as the prime minister's chief loyalist and then being used as a sacrificial pawn to placate their critics. We see a very similar arrangement in the 17th Century, albeit in a significantly more sexy way.   As Sir Francis Bacon said: The favourite is a "shadow" who can be "offered as a sacrifice to appease the multitude". Come with us back to an era where the modern world is slowly being formed, and see how exuberant, unpredictable, emotional and dramatic the early days of the English parliament truly were.   Books   Lucy Hughes-Hallett – The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham (4th Estate, 2024)   Roger Lockyer - Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham 1592-1628 (Routledge, 1981)    • Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/originstory  • Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/originstory • ⁠See Origin Story live at the Union Chapel⁠, London on September the 1st  • Support Origin Story on ⁠Patreon⁠  Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Producer: Chris Jones. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production  ⁠www.podmasters.co.uk⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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  Episode #14

  Origin Story live show announcement!

  Jul 22, 20263 minS9

  Tickets are flying out of the door for Ian and Dorian’s biggest live show yet at the stunning Union Chapel in London’s sophisticated Islington on Tue 1 Sept. A spectacular Gothic Revival church on Upper Street, the Union Chapel is a breathtaking venue just a few moments’ stroll from Highbury & Islington Tube – and therefore close to Euston and King’s Cross for the Not-London crowd. As well as the Victoria Line, it’s on the Mildmay Overground so whether you’re in leafy West London or sourdough-and-cold-drip-coffee East London you can be there and home with ease.You can buy tickets here, or Patreon supporters get exclusive discount, so now is as good a time as any to sign up: https://www.patreon.com/c/originstorypod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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