Episodes

  • Prof Responds: Hogwarts & the Pedagogy of Wartime Education

    Prof Responds: Hogwarts & the Pedagogy of Wartime Education
    Jan 28 2026
    In this Prof Responds episode, Professor Wamble reflects on listener responses to the “Best & Worst Teachers at Hogwarts” discussion and steps back to ask a larger question: What does it mean to teach in the shadow of war?

    Drawing on Hogwarts faculty, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Dumbledore’s leadership, this episode explores how education changes under sustained threat, how silence functions as pedagogy, and why students, especially marginalized ones, so often bear the cost of adult indecision. The conversation connects the magical world to the present political moment, examining the dangers of ignoring reality, the limits of preparing students without transparency, and the ethical responsibility educators carry when the world outside the classroom is already on fire.

    This episode is invites us to reckon with power, authority, and the consequences of what schools choose to teach and what they refuse to name.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Two Years of Critical Magic: Best & Worst Teachers at Hogwarts

    Two Years of Critical Magic: Best & Worst Teachers at Hogwarts
    Jan 21 2026
    In this two-year anniversary episode of Critical Magic Theory, Prof. takes a step back from individual character deep dives to ask a bigger question about pedagogy, power, and responsibility in the wizarding world—and beyond.

    Drawing on listener survey data, this episode explores why some teachers are remembered as effective despite being deeply troubling, while others are overwhelmingly rejected. The conversation then shifts away from the most dramatic figures to examine the quieter labor that keeps Hogwarts running: teachers like Flitwick, Sprout, Binns, Charity Burbage, Madam Hooch, and especially Madam Pomfrey. Through them, we see what Hogwarts values, what it neglects, and how unresolved trauma and institutional ambiguity shape classrooms in harmful ways.

    As the show enters its third year, this episode invites listeners to reflect not just on Hogwarts, but on their own role in shaping how knowledge, care, and critical thinking are passed on.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 19 mins
  • Prof Responds: Secrecy, Sacrifice, and the Dumbledores We Never Questioned

    Prof Responds: Secrecy, Sacrifice, and the Dumbledores We Never Questioned
    Jan 14 2026
    In this Prof Responds episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble revisits the Dumbledore family to examine how secrecy, sacrifice, and institutional failure shape Ariana Dumbledore’s life, and the lives of those around her.Drawing on listener reflections, the episode explores how the Wizarding World’s commitment to secrecy creates harm rather than protection, forcing families to absorb the cost of systemic failure.

    From Kendra Dumbledore’s quiet labor and Percival Dumbledore’s punishment to the rumors surrounding Ariana’s absence from Hogwarts, this reflection asks how trauma is misread, victims are silenced, and care becomes indistinguishable from containment.

    Ultimately, this episode challenges us to rethink what protection actually looks like—both in the Wizarding World and in our own, and why societies so often ask victims to pay the price for keeping systems intact.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • Ariana & Aberforth Dumbledore & the Price of Secrecy

    Ariana & Aberforth Dumbledore & the Price of Secrecy
    Jan 7 2026
    In the first episode of Critical Magic Theory in 2026, Professor Julian Wamble steps away from the six-part Albus Dumbledore arc for a rant/rave on Ariana and Aberforth Dumbledore—two characters whose stories expose the wizarding world’s obsession with secrecy. Prof revisits Ariana’s childhood attack by Muggle boys and argues it reveals how ignorance fuels entitlement and violence, while the Ministry of Magic prioritizes concealment over care, pushing families toward isolation instead of healing.

    The episode then turns to Aberforth: the sibling who stayed, the caretaker who absorbed the fallout, and a cautionary tale of what happens when grief and resentment fester in silence—yet who still chooses to protect Harry and resist Voldemort’s world. Finally, the episode complicates what it means to be a “good” half-blood, showing how the Dumbledores don’t fit neat categories of supremacy or bridge-building when their relationship to Muggles is shaped by trauma, passing, and retreat.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • IT IS CHRISTMAS... AT HOGWARTS

    IT IS CHRISTMAS... AT HOGWARTS
    Dec 25 2025
    MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL (WHO CELEBRATE)!! AND TO ALL.... AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK!!

    USE IT WELL!

    In this episode of Critical Magic Theory, Prof. looks at the various Christmas moments throughout the series and analyzes them.
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
  • Prof Responds: Dumbledore, Necessity, and the Myth of “No Other Choice”

    Prof Responds: Dumbledore, Necessity, and the Myth of “No Other Choice”
    Dec 18 2025
    In this Prof Responds episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble returns to Harry Potter to engage listeners’ reflections on Albus Dumbledore. Rather than asking whether Voldemort had to be defeated, this episode interrogates how necessity becomes moral justification, why “not a villain” is not the same as “good,” and what responsibility adults bear when children are asked to fight a war they did not choose.

    Through questions of prophecy, hindsight, and power, Prof Responds examines whether Dumbledore’s choices were truly constrained—or whether “no other choice” narratives obscure avoidable harm and institutional failure. The episode ultimately shifts the focus away from hero-versus-villain debates and toward harm, accountability, and the moral residue left behind in the Harry Potter universe after the war is won.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 8 mins
  • The Fears, Fallacies, and Folly of A.W.P.B. Dumbledore

    The Fears, Fallacies, and Folly of A.W.P.B. Dumbledore
    Dec 10 2025
    In this penultimate episode of our Critical Magic Theory series on Albus Dumbledore, Professor Julian Wamble takes a deep look at one of the most complicated figures in the Harry Potter universe. Is Dumbledore a villain? Was he ever a good mentor to Harry? And, after two Wizarding Wars, was everything he did actually worth the cost?

    Drawing on listener responses, scholarly insight, and the emotional legacy of the series, we explore why Dumbledore causes so much harm yet remains so difficult to label as a villain. We examine his failures as a mentor, his manipulation of children, and his reliance on secrecy — all while confronting the intergenerational trauma that shapes both Wizarding Wars. And finally, we ask the most challenging question of all: can saving the world justify the sacrifices it demands?

    Whether you love Albus Dumbledore, distrust him, or don’t know what to make of him, this episode offers a powerful and nuanced analysis of the headmaster who shaped and scarred the Wizarding World.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr
  • Prof Responds: If Not Him, Then Who? Dumbledore & the Pitfalls of Wartime Necessity

    Prof Responds: If Not Him, Then Who? Dumbledore & the Pitfalls of Wartime Necessity
    Dec 3 2025
    In this Prof Responds episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble takes a critical look at Albus Dumbledore’s most morally complicated choices in the Harry Potter series. Drawing on listener reflections from the Patreon post-episode chat, Prof examines how Dumbledore’s permanent state of war shaped his treatment of Harry, the Order of the Phoenix, and the entire wizarding world — and how the myth of wartime necessity allows us to excuse harm done in the name of the “greater good.”

    Through connections to real-world wartime politics and parallels to The Hunger Games, this episode explores why Dumbledore fought evil without ever changing the system that produced it, and why loving a character doesn’t mean we can’t tell the truth about their actions. This is a deep, nuanced dive into power, trauma, leadership, and the limits of heroism in the Wizarding World.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 9 mins