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 two megasellers, 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order, and try to understand why these very strange cocktails of self-help advice, comparative mythology and biological essentialism resonated with millions of readers, especially men and boys. 

Do his ideas add up to a coherent view of how to live? How does he reconcile mythology with zoology? What on earth is “postmodern neo-Marxism”? And what is it with Peterson and Pinocchio? 

Dorian and Ian discuss how the man with so many rules for life wound up at the end of his tether in a Russian hospital, and how to reconcile his books with his increasingly eccentric and extreme social media presence. Is he really an intellectual at all?

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Reading list for both episodes:

Books:

Ben Burgis, Conrad Hamilton, Matthew McManus and Marion Trejo — Myth and Mayhem: A Leftist Critique of Jordan Peterson, 2020

Jordan B Peterson — Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief, 1999

Jordan B Peterson — 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, 2018

Jordan B Peterson — Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, 2021

Sandra Woien, ed. — Critical Responses to Jordan Peterson, 2022

Online:

Jason McBride — ‘The Pronoun Warrior’, Toronto Life, 2017

https://torontolife.com/city/u-t-professor-sparked-vicious-battle-gender-neutral-pronouns/

David Brooks — ‘The Jordan Peterson Moment’, The New York Times, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/opinion/jordan-peterson-moment.html

Dorian Lynskey — ‘How dangerous is Jordan Peterson, the rightwing professor who “hit a hornets’ nest”?’, The Guardian, 2018

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/07/how-dangerous-is-jordan-b-peterson-the-rightwing-professor-who-hit-a-hornets-nest

Kelefa Sanneh — ‘Jordan Peterson’s Gospel of Masculinity’, The New Yorker, 2018

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/jordan-petersons-gospel-of-masculinity

Pankaj Mishra — ‘Jordan Peterson & Fascist Mysticism’, The New York Review of Books, 2018

https://www.nybooks.com/online/2018/03/19/jordan-peterson-and-fascist-mysticism/

Nellie Bowles — ‘Jordan Peterson, Custodian of the Patriarchy’, The New York Times, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html

Vinay Menon — ‘Jordan Peterson is trying to make sense of the world — including his own strange journey’, Toronto Star, 2018

https://web.archive.org/web/20191219104703/https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2018/03/16/jordan-peterson-is-trying-to-make-sense-of-the-world-including-his-own-strange-journey.html

Bernard Schiff — ‘I was Jordan Peterson’s strongest supporter. Now I think he’s dangerous’, Toronto Star, 2018

https://web.archive.org/web/20200115120600/https:/www.thestar.com/opinion/2018/05/25/i-was-jordan-petersons-strongest-supporter-now-i-think-hes-dangerous.html

Johanna Thomas-Corr — ‘Jordan Peterson, Agent of Chaos’, The New Statesman, 2021

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/02/jordan-peterson-agent-chaos-psychology

James Marriott — ‘Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson review’, The Times, 2021

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beyond-order-by-jordan-b-peterson-review-qnhtgs2zj

Helen Lewis — ‘What Happened to Jordan Peterson?’, The Atlantic, 2021

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/what-happened-to-jordan-peterson/618082/

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.

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