Our Next Project!
Added 2025-01-25 01:06:20 +0000 UTCThe last episode of our Mockingjay reread will be out soon, concluding SHHG! as a project (for now). What's next?
For those who would rather read announcements than listen to them, the pitch is this: a new seasonal show going back to the beginning of the Potter phenomenon. Not a reread show, and certainly not a TV recap podcast. Instead, we're putting together an exhaustive, granular, piece-by-piece history of the business and fandom surrounding Harry Potter, and how it shaped media and popular culture.
Much like with our reread show, this is a topic that has been researched and written about in ample detail by books titled things like "Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon" or "How Harry Cast His Spell". There are breathless treatises on the power of fandom, too, most often presented as a good and healthy thing that thrived on the inherent quality of the books and films, propelled forward by a genius author. But--naturally--we aim to tie all these things together through a different lens. How did the business capitalize on the fandom? What power moves were being made behind the scenes? What built an empire so lucrative that nobody in charge seems to care that the golden goose is the de facto mascot of a hate movement?
These questions--plus many more silly ones in between--are the driving force behind our new show. We hope it's something you'll all look forward to! Also, as I note in the episode itself, please feel free to drop suggestions for Patron rewards and whatnot.
Comments
they had borange beer zero at my fred meyer today but it was $11! i have been waiting to taste it, once it goes on sale I'm pouncing
Angela N
2025-03-15 21:38:16 +0000 UTCI know it's probably too late for the Mockingbird Part 3 podcast but please give us a reaction to the insane news that a black actor is playing Snape and what that means for the HP show's context.
DJ
2025-03-14 06:13:30 +0000 UTCHarry Potter Made This World, I'm all in.
JoeyBangledesh
2025-02-28 19:07:09 +0000 UTCI live in hope of a Xeecee “what the hell are you doing you motherfukers” sound clip
Crock272
2025-02-09 04:25:11 +0000 UTCI missed the entirety of the potter cultural zeitgeist in America, I’m looking forward to the dive.
Crock272
2025-02-09 04:08:38 +0000 UTCThis is a great thought.
DJ
2025-01-30 02:42:29 +0000 UTCI’m really excited for the fandom history aspect of this. A lot of “Fandom Studies” (including published academic work) buys way too much into fandom’s narratives about itself. There’s a recurring idea that fandom is actually a subversive force that goes against the interests of the culture industry, which gets undercut by that industry seeing fandom mostly as free marketing. With Harry Potter in the state it’s in a lot of people have proposed “fandom against the work” as something that’s possible, which I’m deeply suspicious of. How valuable is your “subversive fanfiction” when it’s still an expression of fandom for the thing you’re trying to subvert? Excited to see you guys talk about this.
Ryan
2025-01-29 21:28:28 +0000 UTCAs someone who didn't grow up reading the books, I always faded in and out of the summaries but I adored the third segments. A more expanded analytical version of that sounds amazing!
Doctor Starky
2025-01-28 19:59:10 +0000 UTClove the new direction for the podcast!
Polly
2025-01-28 12:14:27 +0000 UTCFUCK YESSSSSSSSS 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Angela N
2025-01-27 20:02:49 +0000 UTCI gasped out loud when you said “the first Harry Potter fanfiction ever posted” because I love hearing about fandom history like that. So I guess I am exactly the target audience for this (as a non-HP person just holding my popcorn and cheering)
Megan Dere
2025-01-27 16:18:05 +0000 UTCThis is so exciting!!! I'd love to hear you guys tackle the marauders fandom at some point because I have seen some truly bizarre tweets from those still in it recently and as a fandom with basically no source material it's so fascinating to me.
Robyn
2025-01-27 07:34:27 +0000 UTCMashle was.a big surprise for me. A straight up parody with a hero who straight up feels like I do about HP and has no time for stupid fantasy sports.
TiredScribe
2025-01-26 23:10:17 +0000 UTCI’m pretty excited for this! The third segments were always my favorite part. I was never really attached to HP so I sometimes didn’t understand what the joke was as well… I feel like this might start feeling really grim towards the later years so good luck with that. 😬 Kinda disappointed you aren’t doing ballad of songbirds and snakes because I think it is a uniquely wild book in the context of the other 3 but I kinda get it. I prefer the off the cuff style but it prob wouldn’t work here drama, characters, etc. forever !
Zachary Coleman
2025-01-26 15:40:44 +0000 UTCThis is very exciting. I agree that the time is now, especially with the way google and other archives online are going, it doesn't looks like doing internet archaeology is going to get any easier.
A sudden absence of bees
2025-01-26 11:55:14 +0000 UTCOh this is very exciting news! I feel like this is going to be something very unique, I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever seen a critical deep dive into HPs success story aside from the odd article
Cornix
2025-01-26 09:17:27 +0000 UTCmy god i thought i was cursed by knowledge about the tiktok marauders renaissance but i had no idea about the death eater parks actor fandom. Lowkey interested on a primer on THAT if you have? 👀
Susan T
2025-01-26 09:03:27 +0000 UTCOn the fandom side I would love to see you guys engage with HP fanfiction as this... cultural force. Like, the way SO many of this newer generation of fantasy authors got their start in HP fanfic, or filed the numbers of their fanfic and published it, or were inspired by it in their professional career. Cassandra Clare is the obvious one, and there's so much fantasy published post-2010 that engages with and critiques HP the text and popular HP fanon. Carry On and the Scholomance series off the top of the dome were absolutely engaging with HP and, cynically, probs published to capture the same audience. But that's maaaany seasons in the future.
Susan T
2025-01-26 09:00:11 +0000 UTCHELL YEAH
Susan T
2025-01-26 08:57:47 +0000 UTCgot this notif while driving in a blizzard and pulled into a rest area to do a full *sickos* yes hahaha yes!! in my car seconding the comments about whatever the fandom has morphed into now wrt the marauders and tiktok and its weird relationship with jkr and her canon. i see it peripherally in general internet spaces and oh boy… what a deep well that must be!
cml
2025-01-26 06:53:55 +0000 UTCI'm super excited for this!! Hell yea
stac
2025-01-26 04:08:18 +0000 UTCbrought this up with a friend who mentioned that, in addition to the inevitable My Immortal mention (probably not a full episode), it might be worth touching on Thirty Hs and its weird impact in spaces that were not traditionally "harry potter fandom"
Kzinssie
2025-01-25 20:04:37 +0000 UTCSounds like this will be a fun project
Le Master
2025-01-25 20:03:57 +0000 UTCThis sounds amazing! You asked for ideas, and one of the things I'd love to see is having guests to offer a British perspective. I love your commentary, but you have often approached it from an American-centric perspective which is valid. But having some different perspectives, especially on the politics or ideas surrounding the franchise from those who are in the deep end with it, could be a great addition.
Pamela Koehne-Drube
2025-01-25 20:01:48 +0000 UTC(Liz and XeeCee, doing something, anything) (Me): Hell yeah!
David
2025-01-25 18:37:24 +0000 UTCLet's fucking go(o)
Riley
2025-01-25 18:23:04 +0000 UTCThis sounds great. Because listening to the teaser, I vaguely recall my mom getting me the first HP book because she saw it on like, the Today Show or something. It was all money-fandom from the start!
Cruxist
2025-01-25 18:08:30 +0000 UTCOoh that’ll be fun I’ve been thinking about a shriek cast relisten for that type of thing. I do hope you guys do the hunger games movies at some point though
Marisa
2025-01-25 15:17:08 +0000 UTCMovie podcasting feels like a less time intensive project than what they're describing here, so maybe those could be bonus episodes?
Frejo
2025-01-25 09:43:04 +0000 UTCIf you guys want any kind of primer or someone to point you in the right direction with regards to the tiktok fandom when the time comes, I am more than happy to help. I fell into a rabbit hole months ago and now know too much about this. Manacled and All the Young Dudes and people selling fanfiction for hundreds of dollars on etsy, the random Wattpad OCs that people are obsessed with, Jegulus, Slytherin Skittles, the extremely uncomfortable fandom that popped up around the Death Eater actors from the theme park. I will gift you with so much cursed knowledge.
artemis daphnaea
2025-01-25 09:17:31 +0000 UTClooking forward to money fandom and fanfic history! honestly, if harry potter didnt have a personality quiz or appeal to the fantasy of being a gifted kid i dont think it would be as popular.
Lins
2025-01-25 06:55:37 +0000 UTCSo excited!
Anna
2025-01-25 05:37:47 +0000 UTCas it was when you finished with harry potter originally i've been ride or die shrieking shack with whatever you wanted to do. looking forward to what comes next
Shift
2025-01-25 04:38:21 +0000 UTCHere for it! And whatever y'all do frankly.
Jess
2025-01-25 04:32:04 +0000 UTClooking forward to this; i love your analysis and there's (still, after all this time) really very little interesting critique of HP as a phenomenon out there.
faith noel
2025-01-25 03:44:34 +0000 UTCI I don't know anything about the novels and I wasn't planning on checking it out, but your comment makes me curious so I might! The anime does introduce some interesting darker themes - the fucked upedness of the society and the situation is definitely on display. The edgyness makes sense with the word building; I think they pulled the tone off really well. I'm curious to see the author whip out more surprises...
Leigh
2025-01-25 03:03:35 +0000 UTCI only read like half of what’s out before taking a break from it, but now you have me thinking that I would *love* reactions to the bizarre way the 7 Spellblades novels escalate after starting from “wizard boarding school”. And that’s definitely not a realistic thing to want, especially with how edgy they can be (to put it lightly), but still. I haven’t seen the anime adaptation but it looks like it ends about 3 books in? Which is probably a good taste of it and I bet they toned down some of the rougher parts, but there’s some stuff about the state of the world that’s introduced a couple books later that makes everything about the wizards and the school waaaay wilder.
deepFlaw
2025-01-25 02:38:13 +0000 UTCI'm here for anything yall do, but I am a little disappointed that this seems to imply that you won't be watching the HHG movies. Am I getting that wrong?
Keith
2025-01-25 02:02:14 +0000 UTCOh man, that sounds really interesting. I loved all the fandom stuff that was sprinkled in the original run, something more focused sounds great!
Begemott
2025-01-25 01:48:11 +0000 UTCI'm happy about the new topic. It feela like those myths are keeping the fandom and the franchise going. For bonus stuff - since y'all are getting back to Potter stuff, what about examining media inspired and adjacent to HP? Reign of the 7 Spell blades anime borrows a lot from HP, but it takes those starting points into really fun directions. And then there's Witch Hat Atelier, which deals with questions hp only skims over - like the seperation of wizards and non wizards - into very complicated and nuanced directions.
Leigh
2025-01-25 01:21:33 +0000 UTChell yeah this is so exciting
Cromalin
2025-01-25 01:17:09 +0000 UTCexciting!! :)
sarah
2025-01-25 01:09:48 +0000 UTCOoh, that's an interesting direction! I'll be looking forward to hearing about the things you talk about. My only experience with the topic is living through it so it will be a lot of great perspectives I hadn't considered, I'm sure!
Brooke
2025-01-25 01:08:55 +0000 UTCSounds great to me! I miss the slime chamber.
Sam Harrison
2025-01-25 01:07:41 +0000 UTC
