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I suspected we might be listening to The Beatles in this episode. Instead I got Blondie and The Monkees, neither of which were expected… both of which put a big smile on my face!

Welcome to another episode of All About The Music, where I’m joined by Samira Ahmed — broadcaster, journalist and author – whose interest in music is every bit as great and varied as you’d expect from a presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Front Row.

From her first album – Blondie’s Parallel Lines – via piano lessons and Claude Debussy, to the bizarre brilliance of William Shatner covering Pulp’s Common People, Samira and I chat our way through many times in her life and find music at the heart of all of them.

I absolutely loved picking apart the simple poetic magic of Nick Drake with someone who adores his work. And it’s always a pleasure to discuss how much better The Monkees are than many people assume!

Follow Samira Ahmed: https://twitter.com/SamiraAhmedUK

Find the Spotify playlist of all Samira’s selections here. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1zesdmdIW0rheIt2Jkm96q

Featured artists & tracks:

Blondie, “One Way or Another”, “Heart of Glass”

Nick Drake, “At the Chime of a City Clock”, “Parasite”

Claude Debussy, “Arabesque No.1”

The Monkees, “The Girl I Knew Somewhere”

Frank Sinatra & Betty Garrett, “Come Up To My Place”

Pulp, “Babies”

William Shatner, “Common People”

Connect With Us 

Stay in tune with All About The Music and join the conversation wherever you are: 

Website: allaboutthemusicpod.com — explore episodes, guest playlists, and behind-the-scenes stories. 

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Because wherever you listen, it’s all about the music. 

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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 Party, from Keir Hardie to Keir Starmer.

“The British Labour Party is an expression of the Socialist movement adapted to British conditions,” wrote Clement Attlee. But British socialism meant different things to different people. When the Labour Representation Committee was formed in 1900, its socialism was a tense alliance of Marxists and liberals, hard-nosed trade unionists and Fabian intellectuals, puritans and hedonists, pragmatists and romantics. From the start, they were arguing about everything from alcohol to war. It was the job of two remarkable Scotsmen to keep it united: the eccentric idealist Keir Hardie and the canny, charismatic Ramsay MacDonald.

The social upheaval of the First World War turned Labour into a mass party which supplanted the Liberals as the main opposition to the Tories and took office for the first time in 1924. MacDonald’s minority government lasted for just over eight months but it proved that Labour could be a respectable party of government and not reckless “wild men” under the spell of Moscow.

MacDonald returned to Number 10 in 1929 but his second government was capsized by the Wall Street Crash and ended two years later in rupture, betrayal and trauma. While some Labour MPs joined MacDonald’s National Government, most lost their seats, leaving the surviving leadership troika of George Lansbury, Clement Attlee and Stafford Cripps to rebuild the party amid the turmoil of the Great Depression and rising fascism. The challenge was existential. In 1935, Lansbury was felled by his untimely pacifism and Attlee took the job that nobody predicted he would hold for the next 20 years.

We conclude, as tradition dictates, on the eve of the Second World War: the cataclysm that will be the making of the Labour Party.

Why did British socialism break from Marx? What different traditions did Labour pull together and how did Hardie and MacDonald make them cohere? How did MacDonald go from hero to villain? Has the Labour Party always been at war with itself? And — pub quiz! — which four Labour leaders had the first name James?

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• See Origin Story ⁠live at the Bloomsbury Theatre⁠ on 15th April 2026.

Reading list

Histories and Biographies

• John Bew – Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee (2016)

• Jon Cruddas – A Century of Labour (2024)

• Simon Hannah – A Party with Socialists in It: A History of the Labour Left: Second Edition (2022)

• Bob Holman – Keir Hardie: Labour’s Greatest Hero? (2010)

• David Marquand – The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair: Second Edition (1999)

• Henry Pelling – The Origins of the Labour Party 1880-1900: Second Edition (1965)

• Martin Pugh – Speak for Britain! A New History of the Labour Party (2010)

• Donald Sassoon – One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century (1996)

• Andrew Thorpe – A History of the British Labour Party: Fourth Edition (2015)

• David Torrance – The Wild Men: The Remarkable Story of Britain’s First Labour Government (2024)

... reading list continues 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

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On October 11, 2025, Diane Keaton — the Oscar-winning actress, director, author, and one of the most singular voices in American cinema — passed away at the age of 79. Over a career spanning more than five decades, Keaton evolved from quirky ingénue to one of Hollywood’s most admired and enduring figures. She first drew notice in The Godfather, but it was her performance in Annie Hall — the role that won her the Academy Award for Best Actress — that cemented her status as a cultural icon. Known for her distinctive style, quick wit, and emotional authenticity, Keaton redefined what it meant to be a leading woman in Hollywood — and in life — inspiring generations of artists and audiences alike

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Yascha Mounk and George Packer discuss autocracy in literature and real life.

George Packer is an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest book is The Emergency. 

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and George Packer discuss authoritarianism in fiction, living humanist virtues in morally complex times, and how the Democrats can defeat Donald Trump.

Note: This conversation was recorded on October 21, 2025.

If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠.

Email: [email protected]

Podcast production by Jack Shields and Leonora Barclay.

Connect with us!

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X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠

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LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community

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Verbal Diorama meets Verbal Kint in a neo-noir crime thriller, based somewhat on a true story, from the mind of Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie.

An idea based on a line from Casablanca, The Usual Suspects takes five felons in a line-up and creates the layers of deceit and twists, before the final realisation that Keyser Söze may not be who we thought it was - or was he?

Who is Keyser Söze?

With a heavyweight cast of big names and character actors, everyone in this movie is impeccable to the very end. The film's iconic twist ending cleverly invites viewers to question everything they thought they knew about the characters.

The Usual Suspects' atypical non-linear storytelling made it stand out against other neo-noir crime dramas of the 90s, along with its extremely unreliable narrator. What is true? What isn't? The line-up scene and Benicio del Toro's unexpected flatulence during filming is very true, and led to a scene that became one of the film's most memorable and humorous moments.

But really the legacy of the film and how it became a cult classic, aided by a brilliant marketing campaign, is the lingering mystery and pop culture creation of Keyser Söze.

I would love to hear your thoughts on The Usual Suspects !

Verbal Diorama is now an award-winning podcast! Best Movie Podcast in the inaugural Ear Worthy Independent Podcast Awards and was nominated for the Earworm Award at the 2025 Golden Lobes.

CONTACT....

• Twitter @verbaldiorama
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• Facebook @verbaldiorama
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• Website verbaldiorama.com

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ABOUT VERBAL DIORAMA

Verbal Diorama is hosted, produced, edited, researched, recorded and marketed by me, Em | This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

Theme Music: Verbal Diorama Theme Song. Music by Chloe Enticott - Compositions by Chloe. Lyrics by Chloe Enticott (and me!) Production by Ellis Powell-Bevan of Ewenique Studio

Patrons: Simon, Laurel, Derek, Cat, Andy, Mike, Luke, Michael, Scott, Brendan, Ian, Lisa, Sam, Jack, Stuart, Nicholas, Zo, Kev, Heather, Danny, Stu, Brett, Philip M, Xenos, Sean, Ryno, Philip K, Adam, Elaine, Kyle, Aaron and Conner.

Why are birth rates plummeting across the developing world? Why should we even care about the baby bust? Where can we find the most elastic baby? Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains why Japan’s decline might be the best case scenario, the problems with childcare subsidies, why you shouldn’t study David Hume, and why the real fertility crisis isn't in rich countries.

You can find Jesús on Twitter (https://x.com/JesusFerna7026/) where he tweets about on economics, history, and demographics, and read about Korea's fertility crisis in the new print edition of Works in Progress http://worksinprogress.co/print.

The Right Honourable Sir Keir Starmer is the seventh Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Prior to his political career, he was a barrister and served as Director of Public Prosecutions. He was elected as a Member of Parliament in 2015 and became Labour leader in 2020.

A former Guildhall School of Music scholar, Sir Keir Starmer is a flautist but also played piano, recorder, and violin in his youth.

He shares his love of music including works by Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich and Brahms.

Presenter: Michael Berkeley

Historians Dominic Sandbrook & Tom Holland feel surprisingly aroused and chuffed, respectively, about being Conan O’Brien’s friends.

Hosts of The Rest Is History podcast Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland sit down with Conan to discuss laughing through the grimmest historical episodes, all-time favorite heroes of yore, and allowing history to remind us that everything is cyclical. Later, Conan consults his (not so) fake lawyer David Melmed about singing popular songs on the podcast.

For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.

Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: (669) 587-2847.

Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/conan.

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This special episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson features our most requested guest: Hoover senior fellow and acclaimed economist and author Dr. Thomas Sowell. But rather than discussing Sowell’s many books, this conversation explores the full arc of Sowell’s life — from his childhood, along a dirt road in North Carolina, through his years in Harlem, the Marine Corps, Harvard, and ultimately to his long tenure at the Hoover Institution.

Through rich storytelling and candid reflection, Sowell recounts his early struggles and triumphs: growing up in poverty yet surrounded by love, discovering books and ideas in a Harlem library, working his way through school and menial jobs, and eventually earning degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Chicago. Along the way, he shares how experience and evidence—not ideology—shaped his transformation from a young Marxist to one of America’s most influential champions of free markets and individual responsibility.

The interview reveals the wit, humility, and intellectual rigor behind the man who has spent decades challenging conventional wisdom. From tales of family and resilience to his enduring skepticism of government programs, Sowell’s reflections illuminate a life defined by hard work, empirical reasoning, and independence of mind.

This is Thomas Sowell’s American story—told in his own words.

Recorded on December 19, 2024.

Subscribe to Uncommon Knowledge at hoover.org/uk