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A weekly podcast delving into the deeper themes and meaning of the Harry Potter novels.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'harry potter'
Episode #99: Literary Criticism and Harry Potter
Hey everyone! In this week’s episode, we had on two LOVELY guests who we met at Portus: Nikki and Darcy. They are a lot smarter than we are and actually have an educational background in Literature, so we picked their brains a little on the dif...
Episode #97: Dumbledore’s Self Esteem Issues
Welcome back. We actually recorded an HP Progs podcast!!! In this week’s episode, we talked about Dumbledore’s self loathing behaviors. Specifically those that were evidenced at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as i...
Episode #95: The Tales of Beedle the Bard
If you thought there were no more Harry Potter books…THINK AGAIN! We got our hands on The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and made our way through it just about as quickly as possible. The first thing we did, of course, was sit down and put a podcast...
Richard Dawkins Hates Harry Potter (And Everything Else, Including Small Children)
Richard Dawkins, noted zoologist and atheist, is the subject of an article published today in the Telegraph entitled Harry Potter fails to cast spell over Professor Richard Dawkins. The article states: The prominent atheist is stepping down from his...
Episode #92: New Half Blood Prince Trailer
It was a shock to everyone when the newest international Teaser Trailer for Half Blood Prince leaked online this morning. Now that we have gotten over the initial shock of the unexpected gift, we have had sometime to look at and analyze the trailer. ...
HPProgs Episode #91: Wizard Rock and YouTube Contest Winner
Hey everybody! We’re back for another exciting episode of HPProgs! We don’t have much to talk about this week. It’s October which means we have to announce the winner of our September Beedle the Bard YouTube contest. And we do...
Episode #90: Interview with Steve Vander Ark of the Harry Potter Lexicon
If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter books and J.K. Rowling, and were alive during the month of April of 2008, you probably heard about a little law suit over a book called “The Harry Potter Lexicon.” The author of that book, Steve...
HP Even Inspires Ralph Lauren
Rugby Ralph Lauren has just released their Fall 2008 collection and the new clothes seem to have been inspired by the Hogwarts houses. Jennifer, the Harry Potter Fandom Fashionista, writes the following: “It seems Hogwarts-Chic, or the donning ...
Episode #88: Delayed!?! And, The Eyes Have It
So, it’s been a week or so since the last episode of HPProgs; while you were waiting for the next show, and even larger wait was sprung upon you: Half Blood Prince, The Movie, was delayed from 2008 to 2000-and-freakin-9. Penny’s been cov...
Episode #87: Our Worst Episode Ever: Plus: Twilight vs. Harry Potter
We always get comments about how when they listen to our podcast, people feel like they’re getting a glimpse into our lives. They usually follow up with a statement about how they love the rapport the two of us have. Well, for those of you who ...
Episode #86: Half Blood Prince Trailer Podcast
Hopefully by now, you’ve seen the trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. We sat down immediately after watching to record out thoughts. What do you think of the trailer? Does the voice of the woman in the orphanage belong to J.K...
Episode #85: Free Will and Choice in Harry Potter
One of the over-arching meta-themes of the Harry Potter books is, without a doubt, choice. From early on the books the theme of choice is empasised, when the Sorting Hat defers to Harry’s wish to be in Gryffindor, or when Dumbledore makes it cl...
First Official Half Blood Prince Teaser Online
The first official Half Blood Prince Teaser is now being shown at Imax viewings of the Dark Knight movie. BlogHogwarts.com put it up on youtube and you can see it here: I think we can all agree that the HPProgs/Hogshead collaborative trailer is MUC...
Episode #84: Post Portus Podcast
As you may have read, we just got back from Portus 2008, a Harry Potter convention that took place July 10-13 in Dallas, Texas. And, guess what? We had a blast! From Jim Dale giving a live performance, to meeting lots of fun and interesting peo...
Half Blood Prince Teaser Trailer…Revealed?
We showed this teaser trailer (which may or may not…ok, may not, be the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie) at our panel at the Portus Podcast Palooza (which was awesome, thank you so much for everyone who came ...
Episode #83: Patterns in Potter - Deathly Hallows
We’re back for another action-packed episode of Patterns in Potter. This time, we take on the latest contender in the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. We begin with an analysis of the prologue, of both The Libation Bearers by ...
Half Blood Prince Movie Poster?
This appeared in a survey I took from Borders Books. It seems that it might be some kind of Half Blood Prince Promotional poster which will grace the cover of the book once the movie comes out. What are your thoughts? What do you think? Could this b...
Episode #81: Patterns in Potter, Book 6 - Definitely Evil
This week, we discuss J.K. Rowling’s commencement address to Harvard University’s graduating class of 2008 (with audio snippets!) and conclude our Patterns in Potter discussion for the theme of Book 6. JK Rowling’s Speech at the Har...
Episode #80: Patterns in Potter, Book 6 - Black, White and Gray
This week, we begin our Patterns in Potter coverage for Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The theme of this book is quite ambiguous; in fact, it is ambiguous. Sorry if I’m not being too clear here, but you’ll have to liste...
What’s Going On
Hey everyone. Believe it or not, Greg and I are both under the weather right now and if we would sit down to podcast tonight the result would be a raspy, nasal, and moany sounding episode. So we are going to do you all a favor and not subject you...
Episode #79: Harry Potter and Gödel’s Theorem
This week, we finish up our Patterns in Potter discussion for Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This time, we focus on Harry’s visions (courtesy of Lord Voldemort) and his driving urge to understand the truth of these visio...
Episode #78: The Truth Hurts
In the week’s episode, we continue our discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the central theme of truth and knowledge, specifically how the book presents the theme in context of Hogwarts, education, careers and experientia...
Amazon Announces Semi-Finalists For the Beedle The Bard Ballad Contest
Amazon has announced the semi finalists for the Beedle The Bard Ballad Writing Contest. Vote for your favourite in the 13-17 age group Vote for your favourite in the 18-and-over age group Through May 11, 2008, Amazon customers are invited to vote f...
Episode #77: A Dramatization; and, Patterns in Potter, Book 5
In what will go down in history as being HPProgs’ finest hour *or* our worst episode yet, we bring to you Episode #77. We decided to go a slightly different route for part of this episode and after our very short news discussion we re-enacted ...
Is Harry Potter Becoming Obsolete?
Thanks to Travis for the heads up that for the first time in ten years a Harry Potter book is NOT on the New York Times Best -Seller List. What is interesting is that this comes on the same day as Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People cam...
Harry Potter Coming To YOUR Town? Harry Potter Exhibition Announced
This is exciting news! BALTIMORE, April 25 /PRNewswire/ — Becker Group, in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products, today announced it will bring worldwide audiences “Harry Potter: The Exhibition,” a state-of-the-art ...
Episode 77
Hi Everyone! This is just a heads up that as of now, we will not be releasing episode 77 this week. Things are very busy around here and unfortunately there is no time to prepare, record, and edit the episode this week. We look forward to re...
Day 3: J.K. Rowling/Steve Vander Ark Trial Continues
Ginny, have you seen my Firebolt? The trial over Steve Vander Ark and his Harry Potter Lexicon continued today in New York, in what appears to be the final day of testimony. According to the WSJ Law Blog (which may be suing HPProgs for copyright, as...
Partial Settlement Reached in JK Rowling/Steve Vander Ark Trial
Well the hopes of a full settlement were apparently too much to ask for. Darn. The WSJ law blog tells us that when the courts reconvened today, the attorneys informed Judge Patterson that they had reached a settlement only on the false advertising a...
Episode #76: Harry Potter Goes To Court
This week, we take a break from the Patterns in Potter series to disucss the court case currently underway in New York between J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. on one side, and RDR Books and Steve Vander Ark on the other. There’s been excellent c...
