Best Christopher Harper Podcasts (2025)

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734 The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (#16 GBOAT) | 1925 - A Literary Encyclopedia (with Tom Lutz) 56:09

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4d ago56:09

56:09

Jacke talks to author Tom Lutz about 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia, which provides a fascinating window into a year when literature was arguably at its peak centrality. PLUS a look at J.R.R. Tolkien and his influential Lord of the Rings, #16 on the list of the Greatest Books of All Time. Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup open th…

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#415 Rachel Murphy from The Grafter: How Founders Can Grow, Raise, and Exit The Smart Way 55:50

5d ago55:50

55:50

In this week’s episode, James is joined by Rachel Murphy, founder of The Grafter, a consultancy that helps entrepreneurs maximise the value of their businesses ahead of an exit. Rachel shares her extensive experience in building and successfully exiting healthcare companies, offering practical insights on what founders should focus on. Connect with…

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Evil Animals - Hamsters 38:18

5m ago38:18

38:18

Join comedian Russell Kane as he gets to the bottom of hamsters (not that bottom). Are they cute little chaos merchants or agents of psychological warfare and cannibalism? Helping Russell decide whether hamsters are misunderstood marvels or pint-sized monsters are comedian Laura Smyth and zoologist and hamster expert Jules Howard. Additional materi…

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Ep 452 - Remembering Ricky Hatton, MOTM Madueke, Brilliant Bergvall, Long Throws, Late Winners, Derby Delight and Crawford's Masterclass 2:29:40

6d ago2:29:40

2:29:40

PLENTY to get into this week. We start by remembering Ricky Hatton in the wake of his tragic passing, before getting onto the weekend's results and Crawford's win over Canelo. Indulge! Hosted by Luke Byron. Joined by Tom Kennett and Jack Harper. Chapters (00:00) Intro Music (00:14) Remembering Ricky Hatton (10:05) Arsenal Reserves Smash Forest (42:…

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733 Haruki Murakami (with Mike Palindrome | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (#17 GBOAT) | A Letter from Tehran 1:24:11

6d ago1:24:11

1:24:11

Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the rare writers who combines literary admiration with widespread appeal. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by lifelong Murakami fan Mike Palindrome to discuss what makes his novels so compelling, so mysterious, and so popular. Works discussed include The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore, and …

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Mary-Frances O’Connor, The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can be an Opportunity for Healing (Harper One, 2025) 37:16

1h ago37:16

37:16

The Grieving Body: How the stress of Loss Can be an Opportunity for Healing (Harper One, 2025)by Mary-Frances O’Connor, Ph.D. The follow-up to celebrated grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor’s The Grieving Brain focuses on the impact of grief—and life’s other major stressors—on the human body. Coping with death a…

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732 The Bible (#18 GBOAT) | The Diaries of Samuel Pepys (with Kate Loveman) | Health Advice 1:13:35

10d ago1:13:35

1:13:35

Jacke starts the episode by looking at the different ways that ten writers have viewed the Bible, #18 on the list of the Greatest Books of All Time. Then he's joined by scholar Kate Loveman, one of the few people in the world who's been able to read the diaries of Samuel Pepys in the original shorthand, for a discussion of her book The Strange Hist…

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Theology by thirty-second clip 4:25

3d ago4:25

4:25

Short, vertical videos drive engagement on social media platforms. But they provide very little of the detail we need to evaluate a creator’s credibility.By Christopher Harper

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#414 Olivia Burns from Hypoplas: What Startups Get So Wrong About ‘Patient-Centric’ Design 1:07:45

12d ago1:07:45

1:07:45

In this week’s episode, James is joined by Olivia Burns, Founder of Hypoplas, a company on a mission to redesign the hospital gown to be more sustainable, dignified, and cost-effective for patients. Her mission is to drive sustainable innovation in healthcare by improving both patient care and system integration. Connect with James: https://www.lin…

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Armin W. Schulz, "Presentist Social Functionalism: Bringing Contemporary Evolutionary Biology to the Social Sciences" (Springer, 2025) 1:05:06

12d ago1:05:06

1:05:06

Humans live in richly normatively structured social environments: there are ways of doing things that are appropriate, and we are aware of what these ways are. For many social scientists, social institutions are sets of rules about how to act, though theories differ about what the rules are, how they are established and maintained, and what makes s…

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Movie Madness #210 : 2012 Draft 1:55:36

8h ago1:55:36

1:55:36

Conor joins us this week as we draft the best films released in 2012. Indulge! Hosted by Luke Byron. Joined by Tom Kennett and Conor Palmer Not sure on something we’ve chosen? All films can be found here - https://boxd.it/OBnUG Chapters (00:00) Theme Music (00:14) Intro (06:29) TK's 1st Pick (10:47) Conor's 1st Pick (14:25) Luke's 1st Pick (17:52) …

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May Friedman, "Fat Studies: The Basics" (Routledge, 2025) 23:15

22h ago23:15

23:15

Fat Studies: The Basics (Routledge, 2025) introduces the reading of fat bodies and the ways that Fat Studies, as a field, has responded to waves of ideas about fat people, their lives, and choices. Part civil rights discourse and part academic discipline, Fat Studies is a dynamic project that involves contradiction and discussion. In order to under…

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731 The Brothers Karamazov Reclaimed (#19 Greatest Book of All Time) 1:21:06

13d ago1:21:06

1:21:06

Responding to a special request from a listener, Jacke discusses Fyodor Dostoevsky, his novel The Brothers Karamazov, and the search for meaning in a meaningless world. This episode was originally released as episode #250 on October 7, 2020. For reasons Jacke discusses, it has not been available for several years. One show note: at several points i…

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Christopher Willard et al., "College Mental Health 101: A Guide for Students, Parents, and Professionals" (Oxford UP, 2025) 45:11

14d ago45:11

45:11

With a growing number of students entering college with an existing mental health diagnosis, College Mental Health 101: A Guide for Students, Parents, and Professionals (Oxford UP, 2025) offers hope and clear direction to those struggling with mental illness. There is an undeniable mental health crisis on campuses these days. More students are anxi…

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Peter Lamont, "Radical Thinking: How to See the Bigger Picture" (Swift Press, 2024) 43:36

10d ago43:36

43:36

Radical Thinking: How to See the Bigger Picture (Swift Press, 2024) is a book about how you view the world. It's about the things that shape your thoughts, from what you notice and how you interpret it, to what you assume, believe and want. It's also about how, if you think in a radical way, you can look beyond your limited view of the world to see…

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Molly Worthen, "Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump" (Random House, 2025) 1:05:57

16d ago1:05:57

1:05:57

Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here? In Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to …

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Tom Wooldridge, "Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction" (Routledge, 2022) 50:25

4d ago50:25

50:25

Eating Disorders: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge, 2022) presents an accessible introduction to the conceptualization and treatment of eating disorders from a psychoanalytic perspective. Each of the chapters offers a different perspective on these difficult-to-treat conditions and taken together, illustrate the breadth and depth that psychoa…

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Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, "Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East" (UP of Colorado, 2025) 58:49

16d ago58:49

58:49

Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East (University Press of Colorado, 2025) by Dr. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni offers an in-depth exploration of the Urartian empire, which occupied the highlands of present-day Turkey, Armenia, and Iran in the early first millennium BCE. Lesser known than its rival, the Neo-Assyrian empire, …

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Madness & Acute Religious Experiences, with Richard Saville-Smith 51:15

6d ago51:15

51:15

Host Pierce Salguero sits down with Richard Saville-Smith, an independent scholar of madness, religion, and psychiatry. We discuss Richard’s book Acute Religious Experiences (2023), which argues that frameworks from Mad Studies can get us out from under the academy’s current habit of either pathologizing or sanitizing religious experiences. Along t…

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730 "To Autumn" by John Keats | The Invention of Charlotte Brontë (with Graham Watson) | My Last Book with Sara Charles 1:06:20

17d ago1:06:20

1:06:20

Jacke looks forward to a new season by exploring the language and imagery of John Keats's famous ode to autumn. Then he talks to Graham Watson about his new book The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life, which tells the story of how how Charlotte reinvented herself as an acclaimed author, a mysterious celebrity, and a passionate lover. PLUS Sa…

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Helen C. Epstein, "Why Live: An Anatomy of Suicide Epidemics" (Columbia Global Reports, 2025) 31:34

19d ago31:34

31:34

What causes suicide epidemics—and how can we prevent them? Many suicides are caused by biological mental illness, but sometimes the suicide rate of a particular group jumps—two-, three-, or even ten-fold—in a short time, behaving like an epidemic. Suicide epidemics unfold more slowly than microbial plagues like flu or malaria, but they happen far t…

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#413 James O’ Donovan from CHIC: Why the Future of Healthcare Starts with Community Health Workers 1:07:47

19d ago1:07:47

1:07:47

In this week’s episode, James is joined by Dr. James O’Donovan, Head of Research at the Community Health Impact Coalition (CHIC). CHIC is a global movement working to ensure community health workers are recognised as essential, salaried professionals. Their mission is to transform healthcare systems by scaling high-impact, community-led models and …

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Ep 451 - Deadline Day Special 3:07:00

10d ago3:07:00

3:07:00

Another long one! 7 guests join us to talk about their teams and the players that they've brought in for this season. Indulge! Chapters (00:00) Theme Music (00:14) Intro (01:09) James Smith on Newcastle (28:12) Jack Harper on Chelsea (49:00) Cam Major on Everton (59:39) Troy Weaver on Arsenal (01:30:29) Brad Martin on Manchester United (01:55:45) S…

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729 Milton the Revolutionary (with Orlando Reade) | My Last Book with Jodi Picoult | More Exciting News 1:07:45

20d ago1:07:45

1:07:45

Since the publication of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost in 1667, readers and critics have noted the relationship between the poem and the author's political and personal struggles. What has been less prominent - at least until now - is how the poem came to haunt various political struggles over the next four centuries. In this episode, Jacke…

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John Lisle, "Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA" (St. Martin's Press, 2025) 1:14:56

24d ago1:14:56

1:14:56

The inside story of the CIA’s secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves. Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerous—even deadly—experiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending d…

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#412 Aashima Gupta from Google Cloud: Can AI fix healthcare? Unpacking tech change at scale 1:14:46

26d ago1:14:46

1:14:46

This week, James is joined by Aashima Gupta, global director of healthcare strategy and solutions at Google Cloud. With 26 years of experience growing, differentiating, and improving businesses through technology transformation, Aashima is passionate about collaborating with and empowering companies to elevate the strategic value delivered to their…

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Ep 450 - Bank Holiday Barclays 1:47:34

16d ago1:47:34

1:47:34

We go early on the Bank Holiday to talk Chelsea's big win over West Ham, Tottenham's big win over Man City, Arsenal's big win over Leeds, Everton's big win over Brighton and everything else. Indulge! Hosted by Luke Byron and joined by Tom Kennett

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Walter Scheidel, "What Is Ancient History?" (Princeton UP, 2025) 59:20

21d ago59:20

59:20

It’s easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity’s pivotal role as a decisive phase in human de…

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728 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (#20 GBOAT) | Lorraine Hansberry - RECLAIMED 1:30:35

28d ago1:30:35

1:30:35

As part of the "25 for '25" series, Jacke starts the episode with a look at #20 on the list of Greatest Books of All Time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Then he reclaims a previous episode devoted to Lorraine Hansberry, author of A Raisin in the Sun, a brilliant playwright who died at the tragically young age of 34. (The Hansbe…

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Christopher Kemp, "Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation" (Norton, 2022) 50:51

26d ago50:51

50:51

Inside our heads we carry around an infinite and endlessly unfolding map of the world. Navigation is one of the most ancient neural abilities we have―older than language. In Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation (Norton, 2022), Christopher Kemp embarks on a journey to discover the remarkable extent of what our minds can do. Fueled…

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Robyn Koslowitz, "Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle and Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be" (Broadleaf Books, 2025) 42:10

1M ago42:10

42:10

Every good parent wants to create relationships with their children that are filled with joy, connection, and healthy attachment. Yet well-meaning but traumatized parents--those who suffered as children or who are dealing with traumatic events as adults--tend to see the world from a survival point of view. If that's you, you might suspect that your…

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727 Earthly Paradise in Old French Verse (with Jacob Abell) | My Last Book with Victorian Literature Expert Allen MacDuffie | A Dueling Neapolitan Passionate for Poetry 1:04:12

1M ago1:04:12

1:04:12

What happened to Eden? While today we might view the story of Adam and Eve as metaphorical, for many generations of Christians, the Earthly Paradise was a vibrant symbol at the heart of the cosmos. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jacob Abell about his book Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse: Contemplating the Walls of the Earthly…

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#411 Dr Ross Harper from Limbic: Is It Unethical Not to Use AI in Mental Health Care? (Part 1) 48:45

1M ago48:45

48:45

In the first episode of this two-part series, James is joined by Dr. Ross Harper, CEO and co-founder of Limbic. Limbic is developing clinical-grade AI tools for mental health care, designed to be deployed in clinical settings. Their goal is to enhance the capacity of trained professionals and help meet the overwhelming demand for mental health serv…