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Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast

Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast

By: Prof. Julian Wamble
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Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.Copyright Prof. Julian Wamble Art Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • Prof Responds: Harry Potter & the Unreachable Standard

    Prof Responds: Harry Potter & the Unreachable Standard
    Jun 24 2026
    This episode of Critical Magic Theory picks up where the last episode left off, this time handing the floor to the CMT community. Listeners push back, dig deeper, and refuse to agree — on whether Harry's flaws are his fault, on what standard we're even using to evaluate him, and on the question that generated the most heat: is he extraordinary? Four themes emerge from the conversation: Harry as a product of his environment, the impossible standard applied to a child, the tension between goodness as practice and goodness as grade, and the case, argued with a bevy of receipts, that Harry Potter is, actually, extraordinary. Prof weighs in throughout and closes without resolving the question. That's the point.
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    52 mins
  • Harry Potter: The Boy who Survived, not Lived

    Harry Potter: The Boy who Survived, not Lived
    Jun 17 2026
    Is Harry Potter a good person? A good friend? A victim? Extraordinary?

    We heard from over 600 listeners, and the results were more chaotic than you might expect. In this episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble digs into the survey data to explore what our answers to these four questions reveal not just about Harry, but about the standards we hold him to. From the Dursleys' cupboard to the horcrux hunt, we examine what Harry actually learned growing up and why so many of the behaviors we criticize in him trace directly back to Privet Drive.

    PRE-ORDER: Behind the Cloak: Race, Identity, and Harry Potter
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • Prof Responds- Who is a Hero?

    Prof Responds- Who is a Hero?
    Jun 10 2026
    What does it mean to call someone a hero, and how much of what we believe about heroism in the Harry Potter series was shaped for us before we ever thought to question it?

    In this Prof Responds episode, Professor Julian Wamble sits with the community's response to the Heroes and Half-Bloods episode, working through three themes: the impossibility of a clean definition of heroism, the double standards of heroic accountability across age and blood status, and whether heroism freely chosen and heroism thrust upon someone are really the same thing.

    The reflection asks something harder: how much of our understanding of Harry Potter heroism is actually ours, and how much were we socialized into by the text itself?

    Harry Potter Survey
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    55 mins
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