Ryan Hopkins filmed his first TEDx talk from a toilet cubicle, ran a hundred episodes of Toilet Break Wellbeing on LinkedIn and turned the script into an Amazon No. 1 business book. Three years before any of that he was a former rugby player with a broken leg, an eating disorder, and a Halifax bank clerk who found himself unable to speak across the counter.

In an hour with James Kirkham, Ryan draws the line the wellness industry refuses to draw: wellness is a $9.2 trillion industry trying to sell you a hot stone massage; wellbeing is your subjective satisfaction with your life, and the two are not the same thing.

He explains why an Oxford Wellbeing Research review found that eleven of thirteen workplace wellbeing interventions worsened wellbeing in the short term, and why a stress-management webinar inside a 49-hour week shines a light on the problem and does nothing to fix it.

He covers his rugby injury and the bulimia that followed, the one-way flight to Argentina with £600 from a sold Vauxhall Tigra, the Ecuadorian hostel he helped build on the side of a mountain, the wildcard slot onto the Deloitte grad scheme, the LinkedIn show Toilet Break Wellbeing that ran a hundred episodes and became 52 Weeks of Wellbeing, the Wetherspoons table in Putney (212, by the water) where the book got written, the fintech where he cut five hours a week off the average work week and saved 2.4 million hours, the NatWest project with JAAQ that correlates with a 6.9% drop in mental health absence, why bricklayers are the best meditators in the world, what 'orthosomnia' is doing to your sleep, and Rory Sutherland's argument that an office needs a library space and a pub space and nothing else.

He ends on the call he used to make to his nan every day at 12:15.

Chapters

(00:00) Cold open and intro

(02:00) Tell me a story: the book that started on a toilet

(06:30) Rugby, debt and a one-way ticket to Argentina

(09:30) Bulimia, a Halifax bank counter and the call to mum

(12:30) Oxford Brookes, the Deloitte wildcard and the work

(16:00) Wellbeing is the output of good work, not an event

(19:00) Wellness vs wellbeing: the $9.2 trillion confusion

(23:00) Why bricklayers are the best meditators in the world

(24:30) Sleep apps, orthosomnia and the wellness paradox

(27:30) Healthi: putting a number on the value of looking after people

(36:00) Calling Nan at 12:15

(38:00) Library space and pub space: what work looks like after the laptop

"Everything I do is to help people not end up where I did, and if they do, to know they're not alone." — Ryan Hopkins

About the guest

Ryan Hopkins is a workplace wellbeing specialist, a TEDx Shoreditch speaker, and the Amazon No. 1 bestselling author of 52 Weeks of Wellbeing (Kogan Page). He started his working life as a trainee electrician, came back through Oxford Brookes after a year travelling through South America, joined Deloitte as a wildcard grad, led wellbeing at Sainsbury's Tech, and returned to Deloitte to build out its wellbeing consultancy with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He is now the founder of Healthi, a corporate health platform that quantifies the impact of an organisation's healthcare spend, with pilots launching in the UK, UAE and US.

Listen elsewhere Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast Website: https://www.storyco.site Follow: @StoryCoPodcast

Credits Host: James Kirkham Guest: Ryan Hopkins Producer: Jago Lee Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt Editor: Ryan O'Meera Music: Doubt Point Recorded at TYX Studios, Kings Cross, London

Joe Fattorini sat in a bath of red wine in the Atacama Desert, filmed himself talking to camera and uploaded the clip to YouTube. Years later the producer Mel Jappy found it, four-by-three and badly cropped, and built The Wine Show around him.

In an hour with James Kirkham, Joe and Mel walk through how a show ostensibly about wine ended up in 110 countries and in front of hundreds of millions of viewers by refusing to be about wine. The first rule Mel set Joe: never talk about anything you cannot taste in the glass. The second, when pitching: three sentences only — a question, two numbers, a visual image. They cover the Argentina episode about Malbec they were filming the day the Trump administration announced its Muslim ban, and the producer who burst into tears on a vineyard wall; the Georgian supra, a dinner whose name means tablecloth because the food is meant to hide the cloth; the Moldova shoot where a Red Army parade gatecrashed a piece to camera and a bear of a man told the crew, on the lens, to be quiet; Hermann Göring's wine collection in a Chișinău cellar; Howard Gossage's 1962 Paul Masson ad copy ("cheaper than cars, quieter than hi-fis, tastier than stamps") that Joe still considers the best wine ad ever written; The Picnic Society's 1801 rule of six bottles a head; and the 1791 Vin de Constance, dropped in Constantia and sieved before it reached the glass, that Napoleon drank on Saint Helena in the year Mozart died.

Chapters(00:00) Cold open and intro

(01:30) Tell me a story: a bath of red wine in the Atacama

(05:00) Pitching a show that should not work(

08:00) Finding Joe at the bottom of a YouTube recommendation column

(14:00) Cheese, not snobbery: why most people think they don't know wine

(19:00) Ego in a box and the wrong-size trousers

(24:00) The drunken monkey, the pheasant slippers and the show's real fans

(30:00) Evergreen by design: would you make it the same today

(32:00) Argentina, Georgia, Moldova — the day the show wasn't the show

(44:00) Three sentences to pitch: the producer's rules that travel

(53:00) The 1791 Vin de Constance: Napoleon's wine, Mozart's year

"The wine show is not about wine. It's about great stories." — Mel Jappy

About the guests

Mel Jappy is a BAFTA-nominated executive producer with nine years at the BBC and credits including Who Do You Think You Are? and Heston Blumenthal: In Search of Perfection. She trained as a solicitor, came into television as a MasterChef contestant, and created and produced The Wine Show.

Joe Fattorini is a philosophy graduate, was wine correspondent for The Herald for fourteen years, an International Wine Challenge Personality of the Year, and the presenter The Guardian once called "the Attenborough of Oddbins."

Listen elsewhere

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storyco/id1886770413YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast

Website: https://www.storyco.siteFollow: @StoryCoPodcast

Credits

Host: James Kirkham

Guests: Joe Fattorini and Mel Jappy

Producer: Jago Lee

Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt

Editor: Ryan O'Meera

Music: Doubt Point

Recorded at TYX Studios, Kings Cross, London

Kathleen Saxton was repossessed out of her family home at 11. By 40 she was running C-suite headhunting at The Lighthouse Company. She trained as a psychotherapist along the way and now argues boards have governance for cash, finance and risk, and none at all for behaviour.

In an hour with James Kirkham she walks through the memoir she wrote on domestic abuse and the lawyer she hired to defend it; the flute teacher Norman Blow who took her on after she got a clean note out of the mouthpiece on her second try; the safe-cracking interview method she used to read C-suite candidates at Lighthouse; the candidate's story that pushed her to enrol at Regent's University; what private equity buyers and founders are actually doing to each other after the deal closes; "human remains" wellbeing post-COVID, and the executive whose chair refused him half an hour off a board to dial into a friend's funeral; AI as triage versus AI as treatment; what covert narcissism actually looks like, the dark tetrad, and the moment her ex-fiancé asked if she was wearing that to the wedding; lobbying the BACP and UKCP to add narcissism as a search specialism; the difference between what UK and US guests will say on tape; and the Felix Dennis answer she keeps thinking about.

Chapters :

(00:00) Cold open and intro

(01:30) The memoir her lawyer warned her not to publish

(03:30) Repossessed at 11: shame, sofas and two gerbils

(07:30) Sweet tooth and 'don't be a Coca-Cola bottle'

(10:30) Cracking the safe: how she read C-suite candidates

(14:00) The interview that sent her to train as a therapist

(21:00) Founders, private equity and the wellbeing mask

(25:30) AI in therapy and in the boardroom

(30:30) No governance for behaviour

(33:00) Narcissism: grandiose, covert and the dark tetrad

(39:30) Writing the book and training other therapists

(47:30) What's next: live radio, a documentary, accessibility

"I can't bear the thought that someone can't be helped." — Kathleen Saxton

Mentioned in this episode

• My Parent the Peacock — Kathleen Saxton (book, on narcissistic parents)

• Endless — Kathleen Saxton (forthcoming memoir)

• DSM-5 — American Psychiatric Association (the diagnostic manual Kathleen references on cluster B and the nine narcissism traits)

• Billions — Showtime (the Wendy character as house psychologist)

• Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over — BBC (cited as the format Kathleen would borrow for a narcissism documentary)

• This Morning — ITV (Kathleen's regular phone-in slot)

• The Lighthouse Company — C-suite executive search firm Kathleen founded

• Psyched Ventures — Kathleen's clinical-psychology-into-business venture

• Sky, Global, Omnicom — Kathleen's prior media and advertising posts

• Regent's University, London — where she trained as a psychotherapist

• The Priory — psychiatric placement during training

• BACP and UKCP — UK psychotherapy accrediting bodies; Kathleen successfully lobbied for narcissism as a search specialism

• Felix Dennis — publisher; the "I forgot to get married" anecdote

• Bruce Daisley — interviewer in the Dennis story

• Matt Shetna — co-founder with Kathleen of Advertising Week Europe

• Ronnie Scott's, London — venue of the Dennis interview

• Cambridge Analytica — referenced via the whistleblower lawyer Kathleen hired

About Kathleen Saxton

Kathleen Saxton spent three decades at Sky, Global and Omnicom and founded the C-suite headhunters The Lighthouse Company. She is a qualified psychotherapist with rooms in London and New York and a co-founder of Psyched Ventures. My Parent the Peacock hit Amazon category number one. Endless is forthcoming.

Listen elsewhere

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storyco/id1886770413 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast

Website: https://www.storyco.site

Follow: @StoryCoPodcast

Credits

Host: James Kirkham

Guest: Kathleen Saxton

Producer: Jago Lee

Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt

Editor: Ryan O'Meera

Music: Doubt Point

Recorded at TYX Studios, Kings Cross, London

Will Storr has spent thirty years working out what a story actually is. He sits down with James for the longest, most personal version he has given of how that obsession started — and what it has cost him to get good at it.

It starts with six words. A tiger. A hunter. A tiger. Will calls this an ancient Bengali story, and inside ninety seconds it has done more to explain how stories work than most books on the subject.

From there he tracks his own arc against the architecture he has spent four books describing — Selfie, The Status Game, The Science of Storytelling, A Story Is a Deal. The Catholic-comp kid who failed every A-level and started a school magazine called The Groover.

The phone call from Loaded where, as he puts it, you were judged on how good your first sentence was. The Oxford open day where an English tutor asked his favourite Tennessee Williams and he wondered, briefly, if it might be a brand of crisps. The great-great-uncle, Samuel Smiles, who in the mid-1800s wrote the book that named the self-help genre.

The thesis of A Story Is a Deal: the most persuasive stories say I see you. I know you. I know how to get you from there up to there. And the question James eventually puts to him — would the boy who pinned a newspaper column to his bedroom wall have had any idea this was coming? Not a chance.

Chapters

(00:00) A tiger, a hunter, a tiger

(02:00) The Catholic comp, The Groover, and the local fanzine

(05:00) Inside Loaded: judged on your first sentence

(10:00) What AI might give back to long-form

(14:00) A Story Is a Deal: hero, connection, status

(16:00) Apple, Sport Club Recife, and the architecture of persuasion

(22:00) The Status Game: virtue as the second route

(24:00) "What's your favourite Tennessee Williams?"

(27:00) Donkins, Smiles, and the comp boy at Cambridge

(36:00) Forget Scott Galloway: get good at something

(39:00) The best of masculinity

(48:00) The method, the jewels, The Five Obstructions

"I see you. I know you. And I know how to get you from there up to there." — Will Storr

Mentioned in this episode

- Will Storr, A Story Is a Deal

- Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling

- Will Storr, The Status Game

- Will Storr, Selfie

- Tom Wolfe, The New Journalism

- Samuel Smiles, Self-Help (1850s)

- George Loewenstein on the psychology of curiosity

- Apple, "Here's to the Crazy Ones"

- Sport Club Recife organ donation campaign

- Lars von Trier, The Five Obstructions (2003)

- Jørgen Leth, The Perfect Human (1967)

- John Gray, Straw Dogs

About the guest

Will Storr is a journalist and author whose books — Selfie, The Status Game, The Science of Storytelling, and most recently A Story Is a Deal — have made him one of the most forensic chroniclers of how identity, status and narrative actually work. He came up at Loaded in the late 1990s, trained in the Tom Wolfe school of long-form, and treats the architecture of a story the way an engineer treats a bridge.

Listen elsewhere

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/storyco/id1886770413

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StoryCoPodcast

Website: https://www.storyco.site

Follow: @StoryCoPodcast

Credits

Host: James Kirkham. Guest: Will Storr. Producer: Jago Lee. Assistant Producer: Nelly Batt. Editor: Ryan O'Meera. Music: Doubt Point. Recorded at TYX Studios, Kings Cross, London.

"I had an early midlife crisis. I ended up at a work event rearranging the downstairs of a restaurant."

Alex Wade is a lawyer, a writer, and a surfer ; in that order of discovery, maybe the reverse order of importance. Fleet Street defamation lawyer. Night lawyer at the Mirror. Head of legal affairs for Richard Desmond. White-collar boxer. Journalist at The Times and The Guardian. Author. Mont Blanc climber. Now co-CEO of Clear Draft, an AI-powered legal clearance business for publishers and broadcasters.

In this conversation, James Kirkham and Alex talk about being risk-friendly as a life strategy; what the ocean and a boxing ring have in common when it comes to telling you the truth about yourself; working for Richard Desmond on Fantasy Channel election night; the moment he sat on a bench outside a church and thought he'd ruined his life; the bedtime poem his 8-year-old daughter preferred in its AI-assisted form; and what Clear Draft is trying to fix.

StoryCo : the podcast about the business of story featuring the people who built it.

Hosted by James Kirkham. Produced by Jago Lee. A Telltale Industries production.

Alex Wade, Clear Draft, StoryCo, James Kirkham, storytelling, AI, legal clearance, surfing, boxing, reinvention

"Is there a formula for fame?" "Definitely." "Can you tell me?" "No."

PR legend Mark Borkowski has spent four decades bending media to his will: from circus stunts to celebrity crisis management, Alcopop scandals to political warfare.

Mark opens with the greatest dilemma of his career , chasing the Holy Grail or pitching Bisto gravy granules, before unravelling how spectacle, nerve, and story have driven his work from the PT Barnum era to the age of TikTok.

He explains why "idea pornography" gets people fired, how fame has collapsed from 15 minutes to 15 seconds, and why the young generation's return to lo-fi, intimate culture gives him hope.

The conversation turns sharply political: Mark dissects Trump's genius as a communicator, Starmer's inability to connect, and makes the case for Citizens Assemblies as democracy's best remaining tool. He closes with a raw reflection on losing his father at 17 and why he's never stopped looking for the next adventure.

Topics covered:

— The Holy Grail vs. Bisto: choosing adventures over accounts

— PT Barnum, elephants, and the birth of experiential PR

— Celebrity + controversy = ignition: Kanye to Bonnie Blue

— The formula for fame — and its 15-second shelf life

— Idea pornography: the stunt that wiped out an entire department

— Soul not scroll: QR codes on lampposts and lo-fi rebellion

— Social media as tobacco: addiction, doom scrolling, and regulation

— Trump vs. Starmer: a masterclass in political communication failure

— The Holocaust memorial stunt that silenced a far-right politician

— Crisis management: why every crisis is unique

— Ricky Jay, dead cats, and the magic of misdirection

— Adventure capitalism: 40 years of fierce independence

StoryCo is a podcast about the business of story and storytelling, hosted by James Kirkham.

Produced by Telltale Industries.

Recorded at TYX Studios, London.

Follow StoryCo: storyco.site | @storyco on Instagram and TikTok

Andrew Lownie spent thirty years as one of Britain's leading literary agents — establishment, discreet, well-connected. Then he started digging into the royal family, and he kept going. His new biography of the former Prince Andrew, Entitled, was called "among the most lurid ever published about a senior royal." Simon & Schuster's US imprint dropped it weeks before publication; he is suing them for breach of contract and self-published the American edition himself. In The Biographer They Tried to Silence, James Kirkham sits down with Lownie to talk about lawfare, lone-voice tenacity, and what it costs to tell a story powerful people would rather you didn't.

The Biographer They Tried to Silence is an episode of StoryCo, hosted by James Kirkham and produced by Jago Lee. Production management by Archan Mohile. Developed by Issa Gibson. Recorded at TYX Studios, King's Cross. Theme music by Doubtpoint. StoryCo is a Telltale Industries production.

• Host : James Kirkham
• Guest : Andrew Lownie
• Producer :Jago Lee
• Production Manager : Archan Mohile
• Development : Isa Gibson
• Theme Music : Doubtpoint
• Studio :TYX Studios, King's Cross

A Telltale Industries Production

Charlie Webster was in a coma on life support for two weeks. She had malaria and multiple organ failure. Doctors gave her 24 hours. She survived, and the story of what came before and after is unlike anything you have heard.

Charlie tells James Kirkham how a TV executive told her the boxing world was not ready for women. Two years later she became the first woman in the world to host a heavyweight world title fight.

She grew up working class in Sheffield, raised by a teenage mother, and coped with a violent home life by reading Stephen King at nine years old and writing her feelings on scraps of exercise books.

She discusses the double standards she faced as a female sports broadcaster: the sexism, the classism, the abuse. She describes being told to sit there and look pretty.

She describes campaigning against a convicted rapist returning to professional football and the rape threats she received. When she nearly died of malaria in 2016, people told her she got what she deserved.

Charlie made the BBC documentary Nowhere to Run about the running coach who sexually abused her and other girls in her athletics group. She made it to change a specific law. She succeeded. The position of trust loophole was closed. The documentary was later used in court to convict another abusive coach.

She explains how she created Scamanda, the most successful podcast of 2023: a story with no murder, built entirely on betrayal, deception and human behaviour. She describes working with 50 Cent on a podcast about the Flores twins and El Chapo, where the real story was PTSD and family loyalty, not cartel action.

Charlie reflects on what resilience actually means, why she has friction with the word, and the difference between getting back up and actually healing. She talks about AI, the future of long-form storytelling, and why she now sees herself as a conduit for other people's voices.

Chapters

1. 00:00 — Introduction
2. 01:05 — The boxing world isn't ready for women
3. 06:30 — Fear, class and the chip on her shoulder
4. 08:30 — Sheffield, Stephen King and a teenage mum
5. 11:15 — The box of scraps she kept for decades
6. 14:00 — London with no money and no contacts
7. 18:00 — Why she has friction with the word resilience
8. 22:30 — Social media and live broadcasting collide
9. 26:00 — Malaria, a coma and being told she should die
10. 29:00 — Nowhere to Run: a documentary to change the law
11. 33:15 — Story first, then format
12. 37:00 — Scamanda, 50 Cent and the Flores twins
13. 42:30 — AI and why human stories endure
14. 54:00 — What comes next

StoryCo is presented by James Kirkham. Sponsored by TYX Studios in London, with special thanks to Jack Freeguard, Panos Agamemnos, Craig Heptinstall and Thailah Newton.

Produced by Jago Lee.

Production managed by Archan Mohile.

Developed by Issa Gibson.

Theme music by Doubt Point.

A Telltale Industries Production.