Unknown Origins
Roy Sharples
Cultural Storytelling for a Braver Future: Stories that scar, heal, and build futures — fearless conversations with artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, and entrepreneurs shaping culture through creative bravery.
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Top 10 Unknown Origins Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Unknown Origins episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Unknown Origins for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Unknown Origins episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Tech Entrepreneurs: The Artists of Tomorrow
Unknown Origins
05/04/25 • 8 min
A Manifesto for the Creators Who Code, Craft, and Conjure the Future
In a world where keyboards replace canvases and platforms are the new punk, tech entrepreneurs have emerged as the artists of our time.
In this electrifying, manifesto-driven episode, Roy Sharples reimagines the startup founder not as a disruptor—but as a cultural visionary. From code as poetry to platforms as protests, this lyrical reflection explores how the next wave of innovation is shaped by creativity, ethics, and soul.
What if startups were symphonies?
Can product design be a form of protest?
What’s the true legacy of a tech founder: IPO or impact?
From Steve Jobs to Basquiat with bandwidth, Roy delivers a poetic provocation for the creators of tomorrow—urging them to build with conscience, design with intention, and launch like artists.
This is a rallying cry for the rebels with product roadmaps, for the dreamers with data, for the builders who still believe in beauty.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
05/03/25 • 8 min
A Manifesto in Stone, Fire, and the Art of Reinvention
Europe is not just a place.
It’s a living myth — carved in marble, scrawled in ink, reborn in rebellion.
In this lyrical and story-driven manifesto, Roy Sharples charts the creative and cultural journey of Europe across millennia — from the wisdom of Ancient Greece and the fire of the Enlightenment to the contradictions of the modern Union. Through wars and renaissances, revolutions and resurrections, Europe has endured not by clinging to the past, but by reimagining it.
How did Europe’s creativity survive empire, war, and collapse?
What can its cultural history teach us about resilience and reinvention today?
Why is creativity still Europe’s greatest force for unity and transformation?
From the Celtic edge to the startup cities of tomorrow, this is Europe as you've never heard it — brave, broken, brilliant, and always becoming.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
05/03/25 • 7 min
A Cultural Manifesto of Identity, Irony, and Reinvention
What does it mean to be "Great" — and can a nation ever truly stay that way?
In this lyrical and story-driven episode, Roy Sharples explores Britain’s ongoing identity quest: from the rise of empire to the chaos of Brexit, from punk rock to AI labs, Shakespeare to Stormzy. This is not a love letter to nostalgia, but a poetic reckoning with what greatness means in the modern age — eccentric, inventive, resilient, and gloriously self-deprecating.
Why is British greatness not about power, but reinvention?
What connects Shakespeare, tea, punk, and Brexit?
Can a country be culturally radical while politically confused?
From the fog-draped roots of its past to the technicolor contradictions of its present, Britain isn’t marching — it’s muddling through. Still trying. Still adapting. Still Great — on its own peculiar terms.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
America Is Not the World – And That’s Okay
Unknown Origins
05/03/25 • 7 min
A Global Manifesto on Exceptionalism, Woke Culture, and Finding Purpose Beyond the Podium
Is America still the world’s moral compass — or just the loudest voice in the room?
In this cultural manifesto, Roy Sharples unpacks the contradictions of American exceptionalism, the rise of woke culture, and the country’s often unconscious tendency to dominate global discourse. From the Trump-era wrecking ball to the polished rhetoric of modern political correctness, this lyrical commentary offers a brutally honest — and surprisingly affectionate — reflection on America’s place in the world.
Why does America feel the need to be the moral referee of the planet?
How do other cultures view the U.S.’s hyper-performative identity politics?
Can America still lead by listening, not just lecturing?
This is not anti-Americanism.
This is a love letter wrapped in satire — a wake-up call from one voice among many.
It’s time for America to lower the volume, kick off its platform shoes, and rejoin the global conversation — not as host, but as participant.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
05/03/25 • 9 min
What if the Renaissance never ignited?
No Sistine ceiling. No Da Vinci inventions. No rebellious art or radical thought.
This immersive, story-driven episode explores a haunting alternative history: a world where creativity was never set free. Through the lens of cultural revolutions — from the Renaissance and Enlightenment to Modernism, Punk, and the Digital Age — we trace the seismic role imagination plays in shaping civilization.
What happens when curiosity is outlawed?
What does culture become when rebellion is erased?
What world emerges when the digital revolution is left unwritten?
This is not just a thought experiment.
It’s a mirror. A warning. A call to ignite the next creative revolution.
Because creativity isn’t a luxury — it’s the thread that holds us together.
In a time of global crises, we don’t need more compliance — we need imagination.
We must create our way forward.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
What If Money Didn’t Exist? | Rethinking Value, Power, and Creativity in a Post-Currency World
Unknown Origins
05/03/25 • 8 min
What happens when the world no longer runs on money?
This lyrical, thought-provoking episode explores a radical question: What if money didn’t exist? Through a vivid, story-driven narrative, we dismantle the economic systems that shape our lives and imagine what might rise from the rubble — a world where creativity, empathy, and community replace currency.
How would we define value without price?
Could cooperation replace competition?
Would art flourish if it wasn’t made to sell?
We examine the collapse of traditional economies, the evolution of power without profit, and the liberation of human creativity from market forces. From resource-based economies and time-based currency to gift cultures and sustainability credits — this episode offers blueprints for a new kind of wealth: measured not in digits, but in dignity and meaning.
This isn’t escapism.
It’s a design brief for the future.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
Rasmus Smith Bech on Creative Direction
Unknown Origins
12/21/21 • 34 min
From Copenhagen to being a runner in Hollywood to a serial creative at advertising and brand agencies, media and entertainment companies; Zupa, KesselsKramer, GREY London, Adam & Eve DDB, Channel 4, Uncommon Creative Studio, and now the Executive Creative Director at the BBC, Rasmus Smith Bech leads the creative output across all BBC campaigns and branding.
Creativity Without Frontiers available at all relevant book retailers
Stay in touch with Unknown Origins
Music by Iain Mutch
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
Roy Sharples on Philosophy in the Bedroom
Unknown Origins
04/24/21 • 18 min
Roy Sharples, is Founder and CEO of Unknown Origins, and author of "Creativity Without Frontiers: How to make the invisible visible by lighting the way into the future."
He reads its first chapter from his inaugural book, "Philosophy in the Bedroom," about what creativity is, why it matters, and what difference it makes. Aspire to be as great as the things that are influencing you. Aim not to be like them, but to be as influential by defining your own unique structure and style. Constraints, barriers, principles, and standards are critical to expressing yourself through what you are, what you are not, and appreciating the differences.
Creativity Without Frontiers is available at all relevant book retailers
Stay in touch with Unknown Origins
Music by Iain Mutch
Vicki Dobbs Beck on Immersive Content Innovation
Unknown Origins
06/14/22 • 26 min
Named by Variety as a "Digital Innovator to Watch in 2020", and in 2019, recognized by the Advanced Imaging Society with a Distinguished Leadership Award for being a significant "entertainment industry growth catalyst," Vicki Dobbs Beck is the Executive in Charge of ILMxLAB, the award-winning division launched by Lucasfilm in 2015 to pioneer in the field of immersive storytelling. ILMxLAB wants to make it possible for people to 'Step Inside Our Stories' in ways never before possible. Using technologies like virtual and augmented reality, ILMxLAB aspires to create connected experiences that transform places, spaces, and our daily lives as we transition from storytelling to storyliving.
Creativity Without Frontiers available at all relevant book retailers
Stay in touch with Unknown Origins
Music by Iain Mutch
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
The Art of the Unacceptable: A Love Letter to the Unordinary
Unknown Origins
05/14/25 • 8 min
This isn’t a brand story. It’s a whispered revolution.
In The Art of the Unacceptable, Roy Sharples of Unknown Origins delivers a lyrical manifesto for creative bravery—a rallying cry for the beautifully disobedient.
For the misfits who won’t tick boxes.
The originals who refuse to be optimized.
The rebels who still choose soul over scale.
This isn’t about KPIs, virality, or playing it safe.
It’s about making the things only you can.
The art that howls.
The work that scars.
The future that doesn’t arrive—it’s made.
And it begins here.
With you.
Attitude. Imagination. Execution.
Create Without Frontiers.
🌐 www.unknownorigins.com
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FAQ
How many episodes does Unknown Origins have?
Unknown Origins currently has 116 episodes available.
What topics does Unknown Origins cover?
The podcast is about Filmmaking, Entrepreneurship, Creativity, Music, Podcasts, Arts, Business and Innovation.
What is the most popular episode on Unknown Origins?
The episode title 'Andre (Dede) Laurentino' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Unknown Origins?
The average episode length on Unknown Origins is 35 minutes.
How often are episodes of Unknown Origins released?
Episodes of Unknown Origins are typically released every 3 days, 7 hours.
When was the first episode of Unknown Origins?
The first episode of Unknown Origins was released on Oct 2, 2020.
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