Before Tortoise Imy studied History as an undergrad at Exeter before going on to do the Broadcast Journalism MA at City University in London. She’s held various freelance positions for academic journals, local radio stations and production companies. Imy was nominated for the RTS Student Television Awards in 2019 in “Postgraduate News” and by the British Olympic Association to the European round of the IOC Young Reporters Programme.
Imy Harper
Project manager
“At Tortoise I get to listen to such an array of voices, opinions, thought tracks, rants and rambles, moving between the editorial, planning and partnerships teams, learning from every corner of the newsroom as I go.”
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Tuesday 20 July 2021
10 minute read
Sensemaker: “Get Covid, live longer.”
What just happened
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Friday 5 March 2021
The Covid Variants
Further Reading
For those keen to dig a little deeper and find out more about Covid-19 mutations, herd immunity and the science behind it all…
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Thursday 16 January 2020
Trees: Saviours of the planet
How can I help?
The planet needs more trees, and one of their strengths as a climate change solution is that everyone can plant them, or help others to. Whichever your preference, here’s the Tortoise guide to trees
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Thursday 14 October 2021
A frosty relationship
The UK has left the European Union. Why is trying now to renegotiate the way it left?
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Tuesday 12 October 2021
The priceless price cap
Gas bills are rocketing – but there’s supposed to be a ‘price cap’ on them to protect consumers. Why isn’t it working?
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Thursday 7 October 2021
Breaking open shell companies
The leak of financial documents known as the Pandora Papers shines a light on ‘shell companies’ which allow people to hide their wealth. Has the time come for tax authorities to clamp down on them?
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Monday 4 October 2021
A long way from home
After the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, the UK agreed to take thousands of refugees. What’s happening to them?
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Thursday 30 September 2021
The vaccine war
Pfizer makes one of the most important vaccines against Covid-19. Did it go beyond supporting its own vaccine and start undermining others?
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Monday 27 September 2021
Down’s syndrome, discrimination, and Heidi Crowter
Heidi Crowter has Down’s Syndrome. She fought to change a UK law which allows women with a Down’s baby to have an abortion much later in pregnancy.
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Thursday 23 September 2021
Will the lights stay on?
The looming energy crisis erupted this week – gas prices rocketed and more energy suppliers went bust. So why didn’t we see it coming?
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Tuesday 21 September 2021
Andrew Neil’s minority of one
GB News faces an uncertain future. Its star and chairman, Andrew Neil, has left. Viewer figures make for grim reading. So is there an audience for an ‘anti-woke’, Fox News style channel?
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Friday 17 September 2021
Instagram’s big problem
When an internal presentation by Instagram was leaked this week, it showed the social media giant knows how harmful its platform can be. So why aren’t they being transparent about it?
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Wednesday 15 September 2021
Danger in the Channel
The UK’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has announced plans to authorise “pushbacks” of migrant boats in the English Channel. It is a policy condemned as dangerous and… possibly, illegal.
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Friday 10 September 2021
The crypto country
El Salvador has become the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender. Will it come to regret its decision?
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Wednesday 8 September 2021
National Insurance – the misunderstood tax
The government has just put up National Insurance to help pay for the NHS to recover from Covid and to improve social care. Did they choose to increase that particular tax because a lot of us don’t know what it is?
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Friday 27 August 2021
The fatal border
A little-known US law, brought back in by Donald Trump, has caused a surge in migrants from Mexico. It’s not what President Trump intended.
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Friday 20 August 2021
America’s classroom war
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has blocked a mask mandate for the state’s schools, going against advice from the Center for Disease Control. But with a fourth Covid wave causing more hospitalisations, can the state really afford to “get back to normal”?
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Monday 16 August 2021
Code red on climate
Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a code red report on climate change. But with Cop26 just around the corner, will leaders act fast enough to avoid the worst effects?
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Wednesday 11 August 2021
Fires and fury in Greece
Fires have ripped across the island of Evia, in Greece. And when help finally came it was too little, too late.
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Monday 9 August 2021
The dating app that cares?
Bumble has announced it will be offering free therapy to anyone who experiences sexual assault from someone they meet on the app. It this a meaningful change, or just smart PR?
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Thursday 5 August 2021
Dying in the line of duty
Four police officers have taken their own lives since the Capitol riots in Washington DC in January, but their deaths are not considered “in the line of duty”. Why?
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Monday 2 August 2021
The Stormzy effect
Grime artist Stormzy has been supporting Black students at Cambridge university. He’s making an impact, and it’s part of a wider change at elite British universities.
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Friday 30 July 2021
The mind Games
Simone Biles is the greatest female gymnast ever. By talking openly about mental health she may have changed elite sport forever.
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Wednesday 28 July 2021
Money for medals
If the UK does well at the Tokyo Olympics, there’s a reason why: money. Britain pays for its elite sports to do well. But it turns the taps off if they don’t. They’re wrong.
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Monday 26 July 2021
The next Olympics
After Tokyo comes Paris in 2024. If these Olympic games are difficult because of Covid, what legacy will they hand on?
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Tuesday 20 July 2021
The pingdemic
As Covid infections in the UK multiply, the NHS app is pinging hundreds of thousands of people to tell them to self-isolate. Businesses are wondering how they can cope.
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Thursday 15 July 2021
The truth about Sputnik V
Sputnik V is the Russian vaccine against Covid. The world isn’t sure it’s getting the whole truth about it
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Tuesday 13 July 2021
A masked U-turn
At first Boris Johnson said that after the great unlocking, masks would no longer be mandatory. Just days later, he changed his mind. Why?
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Thursday 1 July 2021
Why Bill Cosby was freed
Comedian Bill Cosby was jailed for sexual assault – one of the highest-profile stars held to account after the #MeToo movement. So why has he just walked free?
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Wednesday 30 June 2021
China’s rap patriots
China’s ruling party are about to celebrate their 100-year anniversary. But their new anthem isn’t quite what you’d expect…
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Monday 28 June 2021
The paranoid pioneer
John McAfee invented anti-virus software and made millions. Last week he took his own life in a Spanish jail, convinced that politicians and the FBI were out to get him.
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Friday 25 June 2021
Britney’s back
Britney Spears’s speech to a court about the conservatorship that runs her life has made headlines. But it’s also raised an important question: who gets to decide if you can have a child?
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Tuesday 22 June 2021
Blame the burrito
The American track star Shelby Houlihan has lost her place at the Olympics after testing positive for a steroid. She blamed a Mexican takeaway
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Thursday 17 June 2021
Murder and corruption
A 34-year-old unsolved murder has led to the Metropolitan Police being labelled ‘institutionally corrupt’.
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Tuesday 15 June 2021
Football’s duty of care
After Christian Eriksen collapsed on the football pitch, it was left to the players to decide whether to carry on with the match.
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Monday 7 June 2021
Waiting at the bar
British pubs and restaurants have reopened after a long lockdown. But can they find anyone to serve us?
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Tuesday 1 June 2021
Fever pitch
How one country may have tried to buy their way to win at the Eurovision song contest
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Friday 21 May 2021
The forever war: abortion in the USA
Presidents come and go, but the fight over abortion continues regardless in the United States
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Tuesday 18 May 2021
The new variant
Has the government made the right call on the ‘Indian’ variant, otherwise known as B1617?
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Thursday 13 May 2021
What counts as junk food?
The British government wants to ban junk food adverts. But who decides what’s junk?
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Tuesday 11 May 2021
Keir Starmer mis-fires
The Labour leader tried to sack his deputy. It could hardly have gone worse for him.
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Thursday 6 May 2021
Bollywood politics
Why one of Bollywood’s biggest stars, Kangana Ranaut, has been removed from Twitter.
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Thursday 29 April 2021
Another vaccine breakthrough?
The man who has dedicated his life’s work to fighting malaria may have finally cracked it.
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Thursday 22 April 2021
A president killed in battle
The remarkable story of Chad’s Idriss Déby, and what his death means for the fight against extremism
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Thursday 15 April 2021
The lost (again) Leonardo
The Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction: $400m. After it was sold it vanished. But the arguments about it rage on.
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Tuesday 6 April 2021
Amazon vs the workers
How one man could change workers’ rights across the United States for good.
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Tuesday 30 March 2021
Britney’s sideways step to freedom
Britney Spears is trying to escape from her father’s control – by putting someone else in charge of her life
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Friday 26 March 2021
David Cameron’s texts
The story of the former British prime minister, a company called Greensill Capital, and a series of risky texts
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Thursday 18 March 2021
The ‘first lady of hell’
Is justice coming for Asma al-Assad, the glamorous face of Syria’s brutal civil war?
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Thursday 4 March 2021
The rise and rise of Rishi
How the Chancellor rewrote the rules of political branding – and embraced the power of the hoody, and the meme.