The Harry Podcast

Madeline and David discuss the cruel prank that Fred and George play on Dudley, as well as how class plays a leading role in the culture clash between Weasleys and Dursleys.

Your hosts discuss Harry’s coping strategies for living with the Dursleys this year, and how the power dynamics between him and Uncle Vernon have shifted.

David and Madeline discuss how this chapter serves as a bridge between narratives and the series as a whole, as well as the symbolism of Harry’s scar and why it’s important in this moment.

Welcome to Season Four! In this episode, your hosts explore the wonderfully creepy setting of this chapter and how it acts as a primer for the events of this book in a very clever way, as well as serving as commentary on Voldemort’s relationship with Wormtail, and society’s relationship with veterans and PTSD.

Madeline and David briefly discuss JK Rowling's recent online posts where she outed herself as a transphobe and a bigot. Having wrestled with this for some time, we have come to the conclusion that we can condemn her personally while still upholding the Harry Potter series as an example of everything she is speaking out against--inclusivity, opposition to bigotry and hatred, and solidarity with the downtrodden. We understand if you believe it is wrong to support a bigot by buying HP books, or films. We believe it is okay to continue discussing them on their literary merits, and we hope you'll stay awhile and listen. If not, best of luck to you. We're glad you stopped by.

In this final episode of season three of the show, David and Madeline discuss Pettigrew’s legacy, the loss of Harry’s father figures, and where Prisoner of Azkaban fits into the Harry Potter series as a whole.

In this hour-long episode, the hosts, along with special returning guest Corey Thibodeau (https://www.ritualsweatsociety.com/ ) discuss one of their very favorite chapters in the series, covering everything from the complex nature of time-travel and paradoxes, to Dumbledore’s seeming omniscience, to how Harry found the inner strength to conjure a true Patronus.

Madeline & David discuss the way the author plays with emotions to give the conflict in this chapter even more weight, as well as the metaphorical significance of the dementors trying to kill Harry.

In this episode, covering one of the best chapters in the series, your hosts discuss the theme of Revenge in the book overall and in this chapter specifically. What kind of revenge does each character want, and what is the author trying to say about revenge in general? Harry’s change of heart in particular is a pivotal moment in the series.

In this episode, David and Madeline closely examine Lupin’s tale, how Harry, Ron, and Hermione each react to the revelation that Scabbers is not a rat but a man in animal form, and Snape’s pivotal, dramatic entrance at the end of the chapter.

Your hosts discuss the confrontation between Harry and Sirius Black, between Hermione and Lupin, and between “the Grim” and Harry throughout the book so far.

In which we go on many long digressions about prophecy, Fudge, and how Ron and Hermione are changing.

In which we finally reunite with Hermione, whose character undergoes a dramatic shift. What does Rowling's portrayal of the Quidditch match say about Gryffindor and Slytherin as Houses?

We’re back in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic to celebrate our 50th episode, and discuss Snape’s and Lupin’s respective roles in the larger narrative at play in this book as well as in the series overall. Who is Snape’s grudge against, really?

Wherein we talk about how the Firebolt is like Quidditch steroids and what Crookshanks is up to.