Another fascinating episode of Origin Story by Dorian Lynskey and Ian Dunt. Death, environmental calamity, myth, history, gothic literature, and apocalypse cults. After the pod finished I had to pull over the car over to buy Dorian's Everything Must Go. 5*
open.spotify.com/episode/27kSYp…

the lede on the NYT's original 1995 story about OJ Simpson's trial is insane

We see you Blackwell's, Oxford’s Bookshop
We raise you Waterstones Bradford Wool Exchange 😉

classic

Yeah. This would all be more convincing if you hadn't unlawfully suspended parliament. There's a cost to that sort of thing. And it's being able to play the elder statesman when you've left office.

Together we call upon Congress to do the right thing. Ukrainians are fighting for their existence. Ukrainians are also fighting for our safety and for everyone's freedom. We should not let our allies down.
Read the letter linked in thread, signed by
JJ Abrams, filmmaker…

The sun is out. There are queues for the ice cream guy. Everything's going to be ok.

Ian Dunt Was there this week, and found my new favourite shrine - of Medieval Latin & English parallel texts

Every time I question whether it was worth writing a book that unpacks the lies, oversimplifications, and half-truths politicians tell about trade policy, one of them comes along and reminds me I should have written it ten years ago.

Ian Dunt Oddly enough, this part of Blackwells (the Norrington Room) is directly underneath Trinity College. It's said to have 3 miles of shelves and 150,000 books. That would be very respectable for a large public library, let alone a bookshop.

It's publication day so I'm going to share some nice words throughout the day. Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered. It's out in the wild now. Picador Books

Chatted to Ian Dunt for a bonus episode of Origin Story about how science, scandal, grief and a volcano led Lord Byron and Mary Shelley to invent apocalyptic fiction.
pod.link/1624704966/epi…

Quick reminder, given that we are having our bi-annual 20-second conversation about it: Nuclear weapons are an invention of unparalleled insanity and any morally serious country would be having a conversation about how to get rid of them iandunt.substack.com/p/the-oblivion…

Maybe a better use of the government’s ‘headroom’ would have been to throw the guts of £10bn at this across two fiscal events, who can say? ft.com/content/cd3f4d…

FREE AND EQUAL is out in paperback in the UK TODAY!

What a year it's been 🤩

The paperback includes a new Afterword ‘From What to How?’, about turning ideas into a political movement for change ✊

ORIGIN STORY SPECIAL: Dorian on the end of the fucking world.