Best Barbara Harpers Podcasts (2024)

1
Beauty and the Facelift: Conversations with Charlotte’s Iconic Barbara McKay 32:35

25d ago32:35

32:35

In this episode of The Doc Dudes, Charlotte icon Barbara McKay joins the doctors to talk about her experience at Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery. Barbara McKay is a beloved media star who is known across the Carolinas and the world for her roles in TV news, print media, podcasting, social media, and much, much more! The Doc Dudes talk about the proc…

1
An Insider’s Look Into Skincare with Dr. Alisar S. Zahr, PhD 36:28

2M ago36:28

36:28

In this episode of The Doc Dudes, the Charlotte NC cosmetic surgeons at Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery talk with Dr. Alisar S. Zahr, PhD, about skincare and the difference between OTC products and medical grade skincare products. Dr. Zahr is an accomplished industry veteran who has worked with brands like Nuetragena, and she currently serves as the…

1
The Perfect Fit: Navigating Size, Shape and Lifestyle in Breast Augmentation 30:05

3M ago30:05

30:05

In the latest episode of The Doc Dudes, Dr. Garrett and Dr. Robert Graper of Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery in Charlotte, NC, discuss modern breast augmentation, implants, and more! Learn the best practices in today's breast surgery from the experts who perform these procedures. Discover tips for selecting the right implants, and find out how cosme…

1
Not Yo’ Mamma’s Makeover: The Mommy Makeover Revealed 34:17

4M ago34:17

34:17

In this episode of The Doc Dudes: The Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery podcast, learn all about the "mommy makeover" and what goes into giving women their confidence back through aesthetic medicine. Join Dr. Garrett Harper and Dr. Evon Zoog of Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery in Charlotte, NC, as they talk all about tummy tucks, breast augmentation, an…

1
It’s All About That Face, That Face: The Latest Advancements in Facial Rejuvenation 51:17

5M ago51:17

51:17

In the debut episode of The Doc Dudes: The Graper Harper Cosmetic Surgery Podcast, learn all about the latest advancements in facial rejuvenation! Join Dr. Garrett Harper, Dr. Robert Graper, Dr. Evon Zoog, and special guest Linda Owens, Aesthetic Injection Specialist, and Allergan Medical Institute Trainer, as they discuss how cosmetic surgery can …

1
Pulp Fiction 1:03:12

8M ago1:03:12

1:03:12

Inspired by the pulp collectors Gary Lovisi and Lucille Cali, Harper’s Magazine senior editor Joe Kloc embarked on a freewheeling search for a magazine lost to time: the inaugural issue of Golden Fleece Historical Adventure. In this week’s episode, Kloc joins Violet Lucca to discuss his adventures exploring the world of pulp magazines, the act of c…

1
Party Fouls 41:25

9M ago41:25

41:25

With Trump as the forerunning Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election, the Democratic Party appears to be falling back on the same familiar logic: better than the alternative. But certain progressive candidates are still looking to disrupt the status quo, however unlikely support from the establishment left may be. In this week’s ep…

1
From the Audio Archive: Rachel Kushner 57:04

9M ago57:04

57:04

Today we’re rerunning an episode from 2018 featuring two interviews with Harper’s Magazine’s former New Books columnist, Lidija Haas, and with our current Easy Chair columnist Rachel Kushner. Listen in advance of our event tonight at the Center for Fiction, “What Happened to Gen X?,” which will see Harper’s editor Christopher Beha in conversation w…

1
Hamed Esmaeilion 48:59

9M ago48:59

48:59

Isolated for years by strict censorship laws, community infighting, and language barriers, the writer Amir Ahmadi Arian often turned to Hamed Esmaeilion’s work for solace. In addition to authoring short stories and two novels, Esmaeilion chronicled mundane moments with his family on a blog that resonated deeply with Arian, someone of the same gener…

1
The Gen X Novel 31:54

10M ago31:54

31:54

Reviewing Zadie Smith’s The Fraud for the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, Adam Kirsch takes stock of Generation X as a literary phenomenon. He finds “Gen X lit” to be composed of two distinct waves, between which Smith is caught. The younger wave, including writers Ben Lerner, Teju Cole, Sheila Heti, and Tao Lin, has formed its ideas about art, …

1
Generation X 44:35

10M ago44:35

44:35

In his September cover story for Harper’s, Justin E. H. Smith sets out to define Generation X, that nameless cohort wedged between boomers and millennials whose members, in midlife, now face “an annihilation of almost everything that once oriented us.” Smith argues that Gen X, having come of age before the erosion of fixtures like liberal democracy…

1
Richard E. Maltby Jr.’s Cryptics 1:06:16

10M ago1:06:16

1:06:16

Stephen Sondheim may have brought the cryptic crossword to America, but Richard E. Maltby Jr. brought it to Harper’s Magazine. The lyricist, director, and cryptic creator sat down with Harper’s and one of his checkers, Roddy Howland Jackson, to talk about the history of the puzzle, the declining use of dictionaries, and the rise in word puzzle fasc…

1
The Lost Child 35:02

10M ago35:02

35:02

In the spring of 2001, Benjamin Hale’s six-year-old cousin went missing in the Arkansas Ozarks, prompting one of the largest search-and-rescue missions in Arkansas history. Her miraculous discovery is a story in itself, but in a long Folio for the current issue of Harper’s Magazine, Hale also tells of the loss of another young girl in the same wood…

1
Joyce Carol Oates 42:17

11M ago42:17

42:17

In “The Return,” Joyce Carol Oates’s story for the latest issue of Harper’s Magazine, a woman visits an old friend whose husband has recently died, only to discover that the nature of her friend’s grief is more chilling than she could have imagined. Oates is joined by her former student Christopher Beha, the editor of Harper’s, to discuss the conne…

1
Scientism and COVID-19 40:59

11M ago40:59

40:59

In his August cover story for Harper’s Magazine, Jason Blakely argues that an overreliance on scientific authority, or “scientism,” only furthered the divide between those who adhered to and those who disobeyed public health guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of engendering legitimacy through dialogue, Blakely says, policymakers passe…

1
Genetic Responsibility in Nigeria 39:34

11M ago39:34

39:34

An estimated one out of every four Nigerians is a silent carrier of sickle cell disease, a hemoglobin disorder that can cause serious health problems and even death. With recent advancements in genetic testing, many Nigerians won’t take the risk of reproducing with other silent carriers or people with the disease. But, as Krithika Varagur reports, …

1
New Books 33:34

11M ago33:34

33:34

Christopher Carroll, the reviews editor at Harper’s, sits down with the former New Books columnist, Claire Messud, and her successor, Dan Piepenbring, to discuss the history, challenges, and pleasures of the storied column. The three critics go over their influences, the changes in publishing today, and, above all else, the great opportunity the co…

1
The Good Witches of Pennsylvania 45:04

12M ago45:04

45:04

Braucherei, a form of healing used in Amish and Mennonite communities, might seem like an appropriately antiquated practice for a traditional culture. But the writer Rachel Yoder returned to her Mennonite roots to investigate the practice’s modern uses. Embodying all the contradictions and complexities of the much-discussed Amish community overall,…

1
The Doomsday Machine 51:36

12M ago51:36

51:36

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock has never been closer to midnight, yet the nuclear panic of the 1960s feels like history. Jackson Lears, who served as a naval officer on a nuclear-armed ship during the Cold War, discusses how we have embraced the myth of technological prowess to detach ourselves from the horrors of war. “War i…

1
After the Titan 37:11

12M ago37:11

37:11

After the Titan submersible imploded last week, Matthew Gavin Frank’s journey to the depths with Karl Stanley, a friend of Stockton Rush’s, took on a new meaning. (Frank rode in Stanley’s sub in February of this year; his essay, in which Frank meditates on the eternal dangers and allure of deep-sea exploration, went online the day after the OceanGa…

1
The DIY Submariner 57:11

1y ago57:11

57:11

Exploring 2,000 feet below the sea’s surface is something only professionals—or billionaires—are able to do. However, the writer Matthew Gavin Frank found Karl Stanley, an eccentric submariner, to take him to the depths in a DIY sub off the coast of Honduras. Frank dived to the bottom of the sea against his own anxieties and explored not only biolu…

1
The Kissinger Centennial 23:50

1y ago23:50

23:50

Only the good die young—no, really. The historian and Harper’s Magazine contributor Daniel Bessner joins Violet Lucca to discuss the series of love fests for Henry Kissinger, and Christopher Hitchens’s “The Case Against Henry Kissinger,” an iconic two-part takedown of the statesman published in early 2001. You can read this masterwork—and everythin…

1
Nancy Lemann 38:46

1y ago38:46

38:46

It’s a familiar story, but one no less tragic because of its familiarity: a female author makes a huge splash with her debut novel, but despite her promise, the doors slam shut and she fades from view. Nancy Lemann, author of the cult novel Lives of the Saints (1985), discusses the experience of that career trajectory, as well as the recent, renewe…

1
The Writers’ Strike, or: the Writers Strike 46:07

1y ago46:07

46:07

On May 2, 2023, the Writers Guild of America called a strike. While this may seem far afield from an august magazine that specializes in literary nonfiction, the WGA’s demands are in-line with the mission of Harper’s: to uphold the rights and unique voices of writers. As the balance of power in Hollywood has shifted away from traditional studios an…

1
Tucker Carlson and National Conservatism 41:01

1y ago41:01

41:01

What is it about Tucker Carlson that unites the divergent ideologies of national conservatism? In July 2019, the writer and historian Thomas Meaney attended the first National Conservatism Conference in Washington, where Tucker Carlson, Peter Thiel, and other right-wing thinkers sought to expand on Donald Trump’s politics. One reason that Carlson i…

1
A “Native American Church” Without Native Americans 49:39

1y ago49:39

49:39

Do non-indigenous people have a right to perform or practice indigenous rituals? There’s no single answer, as Native Americans are not a monolithic group with a single opinion on the matter. Sierra Crane Murdoch reports on a group of religious organizations that purportedly offer “authentic” ceremonies—run by people with dubious claims to indigenou…

1
On David Foster Wallace 1:10:35

1y ago1:10:35

1:10:35

“The reason it’s so hard to write a cruise piece is because of David Foster Wallace,” explains Lauren Oyler, a critic and the author of the novel Fake Accounts. In her recent Harper’s Magazine cover story, she takes on Wallace’s 1997 cruise essay, also published in Harper’s, as she describes her experience aboard the Goop cruise. “But I didn’t want…

1
Panic Attack 35:24

1y ago35:24

35:24

Internet culture has made different types of neurodivergence—particularly anxiety—more visible than it has ever been. Michael W. Clune, author of White Out, offers an account of how difficult it was to understand what a panic attack was before mental illness was instantly diagnosable with Dr. Google. More remarkably, his essay eloquently and accura…

1
The Crisis Of Work 48:43

1y ago48:43

48:43

In the May issue, Erik Baker and Hari Kunzru debunk the conservative and leftist visions of the “crisis of work.” Rather than automation and quiet quitting, the problem lies with the shared feeling that the American experiment is failing. The all-consuming entrepreneurial drive we’ve been taught will give our lives meaning has revealed itself to be…

1
There’s Another Ex-President Who Needs to Be Arrested! 44:32

1y ago44:32

44:32

A little after the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, Lewis Lapham discusses three essays he wrote during the George W. Bush era. With fine prose and razor-edged contempt for war, lies, and complacent members of the commentariat, each article captures a distinctive historical moment.“The American Rome” (August 2001): https://harpers.org/archive/2001…

1
Trump Arrested 52:58

1y ago52:58

52:58

The unprecedented has happened: a former president was arrested and charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. Though some of Donald Trump’s supporters dismiss it as spectacle, others see it as the fulfillment of prophecy. Jeff Sharlet, a contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine and the author of the new book The Undertow: Scenes from a…

1
The Enduring Allure of Pilgrimage 40:16

1y ago40:16

40:16

Lisa Wells, author of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, explores modern pilgrimage from a secular perspective, attempting to comprehend the force of conviction that motivates someone to eschew all worldly possessions. Ann Sieben, a middle-aged pilgrim from New Jersey who has walked through conflict zones and remote wildernesses in w…

1
Changing Views on Climate Change 51:10

1+ y ago51:10

51:10

What’s wrong with a little bit of climate optimism? Kyle Paoletta discusses how the pendulum of climate coverage swings between catastrophism and heavy-handed reassurance, and has a chilling effect on climate resilience. Like doom-scrolling, catastrophism can be paralyzing—and sweeping optimism can make an equally harmful impression on the public, …

1
The Trouble with Israel’s Supreme Court 1:29:31

1+ y ago1:29:31

1:29:31

Mass demonstrations have swept through Israel since January 4, when Yariv Lenin, Israel’s justice minister, announced proposed changes to the country’s judiciary. If enacted, this so-called “Supreme Court override” bill would limit the Court’s power, as well as the power of government legal counselors; in their place, Prime Minister Benjamin Netany…

1
The Ethics Of Pet Ownership 47:53

1+ y ago47:53

47:53

Anne Fadiman unpacks her latest essay, “Frog,” a 6,000-word piece about Bunky, her family’s African clawed frog. Although he was easy to care for, this “unpettable pet” raised a number of philosophical and ethical questions about pet ownership. For nearly two decades, Bunky lived inside a too-small aquarium on Fadiman’s kitchen counter, ribbitting …

1
Books! The Podcast 47:24

1+ y ago47:24

47:24

Christian Lorentzen sat through the entirety of United States v. Bertelsmann, et al., an antitrust case taken up by the Department of Justice to block Penguin Random House’s purchase of Simon & Schuster. In this episode, he discusses the industry—born in the 1920s as part of a middlebrow revolution, and consolidating in the 1970s to ultimately beco…

1
The Future of the War on Terror 41:43

1+ y ago41:43

41:43

Caitlin Chandler talks to Violet Lucca about the nature and purpose of the largely unremarked U.S. military presence in Niger. They discuss the history of the conflict in Niger and the way that U.S., European, and Russian interventions in the region have exacerbated the problems left behind by colonial borders. Chandler explains what the U.S. milit…

1
Homelessness, Empty Houses, and Eric Adams 48:55

1+ y ago48:55

48:55

“Every New Yorker deserves dignity, and we are demonstrating that this is possible,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams in May of 2022, shortly after rolling out an initiative to remove homeless encampments throughout the five boroughs. In the following months, Adams implemented other policies—including involuntary hospitalizations for the mentall…

1
The Antitrust Case Against Google 39:44

1+ y ago39:44

39:44

Google’s domination of internet search is a fact of life. What’s less apparent—if you don’t work in publishing or advertising—is Google’s control of internet ad sales. It’s estimated that the company pulls in nearly 30 percent of all digital advertising dollars. The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that it “…

1
Apocalypse Nowish 42:53

1+ y ago42:53

42:53

Michael Robbins explores the shape that apocalyptic thought has taken in American Christianity (despite its slim textual basis) and in contemporary secular contexts like climate catastrophe. Robbins also draws on systems analysis to bring out the structural factors that could be pushing us to the edge of apocalypse. He discloses his own attitude, w…

1
The Search for Perfect Sound 54:10

1+ y ago54:10

54:10

Violet Lucca talks to Sasha Frere-Jones about the signs and symptoms of audiophilia. Frere-Jones explains how Spotify Wrapped, yearly best-ofs, and other attempts to quantify and rank music have disfigured the listening experience. He criticizes the assumption underlying audiophilia: that there is a Platonic ideal of what an album is supposed to so…

1
Kate DiCamillo 35:34

1+ y ago35:34

35:34

Kate DiCamillo—the author of Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tale of Despereaux, The Beatryce Prophecy, and many other novels—speaks with Harper’s Magazine editor Christopher Beha about discovering her vocation in children’s literature. DiCamillo discusses how her writing for children is shaped by a sense of responsibility toward them, and what children…

1
Casanova 31:09

1+ y ago31:09

31:09

Clare Bucknell talks to Violet Lucca about Giacomo Casanova, the man whose surname is synonymous with romance. Bucknell discusses the difficulty of separating fact from self-invention in his memoir, Histoire de ma vie. She identifies the novelistic tropes that eighteenth-century readers would have recognized in Casanova’s writing and discusses whet…

1
Nabokov’s Berlin 58:55

1+ y ago58:55

58:55

Ryan Ruby talks to Violet Lucca about Vladimir Nabokov’s Berlin period. He describes seeing Berlin through Nabokov’s eyes and noticing the quotidian texture of the city in the author’s novels from this period. He recalls the birth of his own son, in the same neighborhood where Nabokov’s son, Dmitri, was born, and learning to appreciate Nabokov’s no…

1
Sarah Smarsh on the Midterms 55:51

1+ y ago55:51

55:51

It’s expensive to run for any elected office—something that’s reflected in the highly educated, wealthy individuals who make up most of our representatives. Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, joins Violet Lucca to discuss the potential outcome of the midterm elections. With v…

1
Animal Rights 57:17

1+ y ago57:17

57:17

Elizabeth Barber and Matt Johnson speak to Violet Lucca about the politics and methods of factory farming. Barber and Johnson offer insights into the subject from the perspective of a not entirely neutral observer and a criminally liable activist, respectively. Barber discusses the difficulties of writing about a subject that intrudes uncomfortably…

1
The Right to Not Be Pregnant 54:01

1+ y ago54:01

54:01

Charlotte Shane speaks to Violet Lucca about the state of abortion rights in post-Dobbs America. Shane expresses her frustrations with pro-choice arguments based on the right to privacy or on medical prudence. Instead, she argues that the right to abortion follows from the principle of bodily autonomy. Shane also touches on the difficulty of writin…

1
Louise Bourgeois 51:38

2y ago51:38

51:38

Claire-Louise Bennett speaks to Violet Lucca about Louise Bourgeois’s work and the process of free association she chose to document her experience of it. Bennett discusses what it means to regiment pain—the persistent subject of Bourgeois’s work, her “business”—to the demands of form in writing. She follows other threads of association that weave …

1
What Happened to Cecil Rhodes’s Nose? 49:15

2y ago49:15

49:15

There are many monuments to Cecil Rhodes, the mining magnate and politician who founded the DeBeers Company, around Cape Town, South Africa. These statues have been vandalized and reconstituted, respectively, by his detractors and supporters—the latter camp embedded a GPS device inside concrete within a replacement for a Rhodes statue’s decapitated…

1
Addiction, Recovery, and Experimental Brain Surgery 1:27:10

2y ago1:27:10

1:27:10

Only 13 percent of Americans receive treatment for substance abuse disorder. The reasons for this alarming gap are, like the causes of addiction itself, multifarious. In West Virginia, the state hardest-hit by the opioid epidemic—where the number of deaths outpaces births—four people who struggled with long-term addiction underwent an experimental …

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Barbara Harpers Podcasts

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