Origin Story Origin Story

In this special bonus episode for Patreon backers, Dorian and Ian discuss the horseshoe theory — the popular notion that the far right and the far left have far more in common than they would care to admit.

Who came up with this potent image? Is it a bona fide theory, a handy metaphor or just a political insult? Can something that was designed to explain similarities between totalitarian regimes in the 1930s still illuminate the strange alliances of the conspiracy-addled 2020s?

And what about the so-called fish-hook theory, which claims that centrists are the ones you really need to keep an eye on? All will be revealed in this bonus episode, exclusive to the generous listeners who keep Origin Story going.

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production by Simon Williams, music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

It's finally here. He's threatened it for years. He's tried to cram it into every seemingly-unconnected conversation for over a dozen episodes. He has cynically exploited every conceivable opportunity to discuss his pet subject. But now Ian finally gets the chance to talk for a whole episode about the Dreyfus Affair, while Dorian desperately looks for ways to escape from the studio.

It's all here: honour, bravery, hatred, conspiracy and mass hysteria, in one explosive package. Learn about the event which some believe gave birth to Zionism and Fascism at the precise same moment. And pray that we never give Ian this chance again.

Reading List:

Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century, by Ruth Harris
The Dreyfus Affair: The Story of the Most Infamous Miscarriage of Justice in French History, by Piers Paul Read
The Dreyfus Affair: J’accuse and other writings, by Emile Zola
The Anti-Semitic Moment: A Tour of France in 1898, by Pierre Birnbaum
Origins of Totalitarianism, by Hannah Arendt
Witch Hunts: From Salem to Guantanamo Bay, by Robert Rapley
And last and very much least, How To Be A Liberal by Ian Dunt

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production by Simon Williams, music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast

Christopher Nolan has been generous enough to put together a full-on Origin Story film, combining key elements from the Nuclear War and McCarthyism episodes. So Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt put on their Oppenheimer cosplay outfits including suit trousers waisted up to the chest, and set off to the cinema to watch it. 
Here's what they had to say…

Support Origin Story on Patreon for more bonus episodes: www.Patreon.com/originstorypod 

Reading List: 
Luis Alvarez – Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist 
Martin Amis – Einstein’s Monsters 
Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin – American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer 
David C. Cassidy – J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century 
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi – The Worlds of Herman Kahn 
Herman Kahn – On Thermonuclear War 
William Lanouette – Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilard 
William L. Laurence – Dawn Over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb 
Robert Jay Lifton and Richard Falk - Indefensible Weapons 
Ronald Reagan – An American Life 
Jonathan Schell – The Fate of the Earth 
P.D. Smith – Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon 
H.G. Wells – The World Set Free 
The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy, by Lawrence Freedman and Jeffrey Michaels
The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production by Alex Rees, music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast 
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Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey host an evening of storytelling, debate, gallows humour and intense irritation recorded with an audience on a balmy evening in Soho, London.
They look at the idea of The Elite. What the hell does it mean? Where did it come from? How has it changed over the years? And why does it always seem to refer to whoever you happen to disagree with? 
For their sins Dorian and Ian read Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics by Matthew Goodwin and pick apart the case against the so-called “new elite".

Reading list:
Matthew Goodwin - Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics
Charles Wright Mills - The Power Elite

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.
https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast
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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 on a living figure: the ubiquitous and divisive richest man in the world, Elon Musk.
In the past two years the public perception of Musk has changed dramatically, from Time's Man of the Year and “real-life Iron Man" to radicalised right-wing troll and destroyer of Twitter. Ian and Dorian trace his journey from sci-fi obsessed child prodigy in Apartheid-era South Africa to dotcom entrepreneur to the self-appointed techno-messiah at the helm of SpaceX and Tesla, and ask what happened to the man who said he wanted to save the world. They discuss what his career says about the arc of Silicon Valley and 21st-century capitalism, the cult of technocracy and the dangers of believing your own hype.

Support Origin Story on Patreon for exclusive benefits: www.Patreon.com/originstorypod 



“He doesn’t seem that interested in money. The choices he’s made have not been your regular ‘rich guy’ choices.” – Dorian Lynskey



“On Twitter some of the disinformation has been morally abysmal. You think, how could you be a person who would even write these words?” – Ian Dunt



"He said it was the duty of the educated to reproduce so ‘we don’t devolve into a not very literate, theocratic and unenlightened future.’ It’s low-level eugenics.” — Dorian Lynskey



Reading list:
Eric Berger – Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
Agustin Ferrari Braun – The Elon Musk Experience: Celebrity Management in Financialised Capitalism
David S. Kidder – The Startup Playbook
Hamish McKenzie – Insane Mode: How Elon Musk’s Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil
Ashlee Vance – Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Is Shaping Our Future
Douglas Coupland, ‘The smartest person in any room anywhere:’ in defence of Elon Musk, The Observer, 2021
Tad Friend, Plugged In, The New Yorker, 2009
Jordan Liles – What We Know About Elon Musk and the Emerald Mine Rumor, Snopes, 2022
Linette Lopez, Elon Musk Doesn’t Care About You, Business Insider, 2018
David J Roth, Burning Down the House, Defector, 2023
Neil Strauss – Elon Musk: The Architect of Tomorrow, Rolling Stone, 2017
Matthew Sweet, Why Jeff Bezos and Elon’s Musk real business inspiration is science-fiction, The Times, 2021
The Elon Musk Show, BBC documentary, 2022
I Do Not like Elon Musk Very Much, Behind the Bastards podcast
Elon Musk: The Techno Shaman, Decoding the Gurus podcast

Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast 
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Explaining the most misunderstood ideas and people in politics
In another two-parter, Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt break down the long, THORNY history of Zionism. In part two, the horror of the Holocaust persuades the international community to mandate a Jewish state in Palestine, with the surprising endorsement of Stalin, but Zionism remains divided. 
In the year of Israel’s 75th anniversary, Ian and Dorian discuss how successive governments lost the left and courted the right, what happened to Theodor Herzl’s utopian vision, and what people really mean when they say they are anti-Zionist.

Hear the next episode right now when you support Origin Story on Patreon: www.Patreon.com/originstorypod 



"In 1948 Israel is one of the most popular countries in the world, perhaps the only country supported by both sides of the Cold War." – Dorian Lynskey



"Ultimately if you restrict Zionism to the oldest idea of a homeland for Jews for safety and identity, that is a really provocative, radical and interesting idea.” – Ian Dunt



Reading list:
Steven Beller – Herzl
Lenni Brenner – Zionism in the Age of Dictators
Walter Laqueur – A History of Zionism
Alex Ryvchin – Zionism: The Concise History
Avi Shlaim – The Iron Wall
Michael Stanislawski – Zionism: A Very Short Introduction
Melvin J. Urofsky – American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust
Jeff Walker – The Revisionists and the Rise of Right-Wing Zionism
Geoffrey Wheatcroft – Churchill’s Shadow
Paul Bogdanor’s critique of Lenni Brenner
https://fathomjournal.org/an-antisemitic-hoax-lenni-brenner-on-zionist-collaboration-with-the-nazis/
The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State, by Shlomo Avineri


Written and presented by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Audio production and music by Jade Bailey. Logo art by Mischa Welsh. Lead Producer is Anne-Marie Luff. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production.

https://twitter.com/OriginStorycast  
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