Is there a book in you? Have you checked? Do you need to be talked into it? Or out of it? And who cares? You care! But will anyone else? Matt Bird helps people write their story. So this is a conversation about the pain, euphoria, self-delusion, vanity and the therapeutic nature of writing a book.

Find out more about Matt Bird and PublishU HERE.

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Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

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What is Christmas? When does it start? And how long does it last? What is advent? So many questions! James Cary has a few answers in this solo episode with a bonus bit of The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer at the end.

Get hold of Word Made Flesh

Sitcom Geeks Ep208 What’s so special about the Christmas Special?

Popcorn parenting Christmas Movies episode

Christmas Carol read by Hugh Grant.

And here’s that unicorn:

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O84543/tapestry-unknown/

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Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

There was a time when the BBC completely ruled the airwaves, both TV and Radio. What happened? Where did it go? Especially the comedy. And where did the BBC come from? In this episode, James talks to comedian, writer, author and presenter of the British Broadcasting Century podcast, Paul Kerensa.

 

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

Stand-Up Theologian James Cary talks to James Sherwood, musical comedian (or comedic musician?). Together they've been writing a musical, although they could have sworn that they wrote one in 2017 (A Monk's Tale) and again in 2019 (A Turbulent Priest). Apparently not. James and James (you decide which is which) explain how they found out what a musical actually was, and then explain what a musical actually is.

Please support the Death in Canterbury campaign.

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

In this solo episode, I connect my long-running fascinations with comedy, World War II, and Indiana Jones — exploring why one scene in my favourite Indy film falls flat, why Armstrong and Miller’s RAF sketches are so funny (and a bit sad) and how The Producers got away with being in such poor taste. Timed around Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day, it’s a reflection on humour, history, and why we’re so captivated by the wars that shaped the modern world - and that man at the heart of it. Am I talking about Jesus? Or that other guy?

The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It 

HUT 33 on Audible (affiliate link) 

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Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

In this episode, James talks Aaron Edwards from That Good Fight and Pod of the Gaps podcast about 'The Machine' as laid out by Paul Kingsnorth, who as written Against the Machine which I recommend listening to on Audible - and here's an affiliate link to THAT BOOK.

We also talk about Jacques Ellul and The Technological Society, CR Wiley and The Household and The War for the Cosmos, Paul Vanderklay and Joel Sallaton, The Lunatic Farmer and author of The Marvellous Pigness of Pigs!

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

Graham Linehan is frequently in the news because of jokes and comments on Twitter. This is one that won't go away, so let's talk about it. I already talked about it with Glen Scrivener on his podcast, Speak Life. Listen to those - and the original HERE. We talk about whether sins are crimes and how sins can be worse than crimes; freedom, what we want to be from from, and what that freedom is for; and how words our actually more powerful than we realise. Sticks and stones may break our bones - but words last forever.

Links from the show:

Sacred Art of Joking on Audible

That Australian comedian Steve Hughes talks about being offended

Bluestone 42 on iPlayer (in the UK, anyway) 

Latimer documentary, Playing with Fire

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

This is a solo episode! Does that excite you? Or fill you with dread, like meeting The Dread Pirate Roberts? 

A reflective, rambling solo episode recorded on a morning walk in which I talk about why this show is audio-first, whyI'm making it, and how he thinks about cadence, audience and membership communities and Christian comedy among the crunching leaves and a cameo from some geese.

How should this podcast work? Best weekly with seasons - or weekly with more solo episodes? I also explain Kevin Kelly’s “1,000 True Fans,” the Loyal Lollards/Wycliffe Papers, and how the podcast supports live shows (God, the Bible & Everything); turning 50, kids now at school after home-ed, asking new questions of ageing parents, and thinking while walking. Plus an exclusive on the name of my next tour show.

I mention: Adam Buxton, Jonah Goldberg (The Remnant/The Ruminant), Cal Newport (Deep Questions/Deep Life), Scott Adams, Paul VanderKlay, Buzzsprout’s Buzzcast; Paul Kingsnorth (Against the Machine), Dominic Sandbrook (Never Had It So Good), Anthony Trollope (Barchester Towers, read by Timothy West), Bishop Hugh Latimer (new video supported by the Latimer Trust), Wycliffe & the Lollards, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs; Jordan Peterson vs. Cathy Newman as a lesson in media dynamics; and the realities of hard rives and music/licensing.

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

The Bible is a rich and stunning tapestry of woven wisdom and truth - and yet we are bizarrely resistant to reading it. Why is that? And why do we treat it differently from other books and media? How can we read it more, and dig deeper? James Cary, the stand-up theologian, talks to Andrew Sach, author of: 

Dig Deeper into 1 & 2 Kings by Andrew Sach, Alasdair Henderson

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The Wycliffe Papers on Facebook

And please consider becoming a Loyal Lollard for the extended version of this podcast. Go on over to The Wycliffe Papers and Upgrade to Paid.

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...

James has a chat with pastor and author Ed Shaw about friendship, intimacy and his old school reports. Do we change? Can we change? And how can we be intimate with God?

Check out The Intimacy Deficit by Ed Shaw

The Wycliffe Papers on Facebook

Why not join the podcast's new and experimental Facebook Group?

And consider becoming a Loyal Lollard for the extended version of this podcast. Go on over to The Wycliffe Papers and Upgrade to Paid.

Get in touch via text and tell me what you like about the show

Want to talk about the podcast and engage with other listeners? Come on over to the Facebook Group.

Find out about my touring show, God the Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes) and get in touch via my website.

If you’re serious about the Bible and church history and like jokes, I’d recommend subscribing to The Wycliffe Papers. It's free. But you can also support the podcast by coming a Paid Subscriber to the Wycliffe Papers, making you a Loyal Lollard. Could you consider that?

Or email me in gmail now you can see how to spell Wycliffe...