Episodes Witch, Please

Image from page 375 of “The Haverfordian, Vols. 26-27, 1904-05” (1905) Hey witches! We’re dropping back into your feed momentarily to let you know about three upcoming events! On Sunday, April 23, at 1pm UPDATE: 3:30PM, Hannah and previous guest Rachelle Saunders will be hosting a meet-up at the Parcel Yard in King’s Cross. Come hang out! On Sunday, April 30, at 1:30pm, Marcelle (and the robot of our hearts!) will be giving a talk at the Calgary Expo on “Harry Potter and Social Justice” in room Palomino FG. “What can the Harry Potter series teach us about fighting the surge of what is popularly known as “white nationalism” in North America? Lots, as it turns out! This talk looks at allyship and how to resist systems of power that seek to eliminate difference.” On Thursday, May 25, from 5-7pm, HANNAH AND MARCELLE TOGETHER AT LAST will be doing our long-promised Toronto meet-up at The Lockhart Bar. Please be advised that, while it is Hannah’s bi

Image courtesy of Huffington Post Hold onto your hard drives, witches, because we have an announcement for you! We’ve been thinking over the past months about ways to make Witch, Please sustainable. After two years of fortnightly episodes, we’re worried about fizzling out over the next year. We don’t want to fizzle out, dear witches, because hanging out with you is too much fun. And so we have arrived at: A PLAN. Proudly announcing: Witch, Please 2.0, this time with seasons, and maybe an even more incomprehensible numbering system? Starting this summer, we are going to begin producing annual seasons of new episodes. Shorter seasons will let us keep going for longer, and ensure that we can stick around to talk about the next 4,000 Harry Potter movies. Episodes this summer will include Hannah’s visit to London, our promised viewing of A Very Potter Musical, a discussion of the music of the wizarding world, and more! Until then, we’ll stay on Twitter and in your hearts. But for now:

HAPPY 2017, WITCHES!We don’t believe in resolutions because they are a neoliberal conceit intended to keep you politically docile by convincing you that your very being is a perfectable project. But we do believe in trying to educate yourself every damn day, and in that spirit, this minisode is accompanied by some recommended readings. Enjoy!Content Warning for this episode: discussion of racialized violence and murder.Fantastic Beasts is Not So Fantastic With DiversityTilda Swinton’s Email To Margaret Cho Is Textbook White Feminism How to Make White Movies What Doctor Strange Got Wrong About Asian Representation Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography10 Black Female Directors You Need To Have On Your Radarhttp://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/WitchPlease-20170116-E18B-FantasticAsks.mp3Download Episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image source: Miss Nobody on tumblrGreetings from the Roaring Twenties, witches!In this excitingly lengthy new beast of an episode, Marcelle and Hannah are joined by your favourite Guy with a Film Degree: Neale Barnholden! Your hilarious hosts FINALLY talk about that new venture into the Wizarding World by money machines JK Rowling and Warner Brothers: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!Get cozy, because this episode is fantastically long!http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WitchPlease-20161219-Episode18-RoaringAnachronismsAndWhereToFindThem.mp3Download this roaringly cute episodeCredits: The jazzy interlude rounding out our six minute CW conversation comes to us from bensound.com  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image credit: Ashley Hostetter “The Charming Classroom”Welcome back, witches! We are gearing up to tackle Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! In this fantastic minisode, Marcelle sits down with Harry Potter marketing wiz and wandmaker-in-training Rachelle Saunders (of Science for the People fame) to talk about branding and Harry Potter. So grab your House Scarf and an official Witch, Please mug of hot cocoa and cozy up for this magical exploration of marketing in the Potterverse!http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/WitchPlease-161205-EpisodeSigma-HarryPotterAndTheBrandOfLoyalty.mp3Download this totally on-brand minisodeCredits: The sound effect of the melodious human singing “Sexyyyyyyyyyy” came from maurolupo.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Photo credit: Max Lalanne / The Tufts DailyHowdy, witches! This extended universe not-so-mini minisode comes to you hot off the mics in America! Hannah and Marcelle (and Trevor!) (and the hippogriff baby, too!!) had the pleasure of visiting Tufts University to deliver a workshop on podcasting and to speak on a panel with Tufts Experimental College Professor Lydia XZ Brown about disability, race, and queerness in the Harry Potter series. It was awesome!If you’d like to learn more about Lydia and their work (and you really should!), visit their website: autistichoya.netThanks to everyone who came out to the workshop, the panel, AND OUR AWESOME MEETUP AT GRENDEL’S DEN! You fantastic humans truly inspire us and we are stoked to be chipping away at the white supremacist patriarchy by your sides.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WitchPlease-20161121-EpisodeRho-LiveAtTufts.mp3Download this awesome minisode   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out inform

Image source: Fantastic Beasts “Final Trailer”Welcome to the future, witches! In this episode, Marcelle and Neale tackle the trailers for the first (of FIVE?!?!) movie in the Fabulous Beasts and Their Locations Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film franchise. We honestly cannot believe we are going to do this five more times, but for sure by the second or third movie release we’ll live in the same city as Hannah again so these minisodes will be even more hilarious!HEY! Speaking of being in the same city: Marcelle and Hannah and Trevor and the hippogriff baby will be in Medford/Boston, MA on Monday November 14th and Tuesday November 15th, so check out our twitter account (link to your left) for details about your Fantastic Hosts and Where to Find Us! Here’s the Facebook event for our panel at Tufts with Lydia XZ Brown!http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/WitchPlease-20161107-FabulousTrailersAndTheirLocations.mp3Download this fabulous minisodeCredits:

Image from page 988 of “Popular electricity magazine in plain English” (1912) (Internet Archive Book Image)This arbitrarily-categorized Extended Universe Episode saw one of your brave hosts venture out of her cozy living room and into stormy Vancouver in search of a real live theatrical BUT TOTALLY COMMUNITY-DRIVEN AND FREE SO IN NO WAY LEGALLY LIABLE reading of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.Thanks to Laura Fukumoto, Nicole Yukiko, and everyone who took part in this magical event, for letting me record SHORT AND THUS COVERED BY FAIR DEALING segments of the reading, as well as a number of delightful interviews. Enjoy!http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WitchPlease-20161024-EOmicronWitchPleaseLiveandCursed.mp3Download this cursèd episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image: filmratings.comGather ’round, witches! We’re back with another minisode! This week, Marcelle asks resident Guy With A Film Degree Neale Barnholden all about trailers and somewhat ironically they talk for an hour!PSA: we had a LOT of unexpected technical difficulties before, during, and after recording, so please think of this episode as a rather rough cut.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/WitchPlease-20161010-TeasersTrailersAndSpoilersOhMy.mp3Download this re-cut minisode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pull out your rulers, witches, and start measuring your margins, because this episode we’re getting into the nitty and the gritty of book design. Hannah is joined by book designer (and brand new colleague at her brand new job!) Mauve Pagé in a discussion of three different editions of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. We talk about kerning! We talk about x-height! We talk about widows! And as all those exclamation marks indicate, you should be excited!P.S. Things get visual in this one, so you might want to follow along with the gallery below.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WitchPlease-20160926-E155HarryPotterandtheDubiousKerning.mp3Download this well-designed minisode   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome back, witches! Today’s episode wraps up our discussion of the second half of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and after this we’ll never speak of it again—at least, not until the next edition of play script gets published with all that sweet, sweet paratext you know we crave…….. Seriously, though, we’re stoked for the re-issuing of the post-production script with, like, photos and shit. But for now we make do with the incomprehensible stage directions and many, many title pages.Enjoy!Credits:Dramatic reading background music once again care of Bensound. In fact, we like Ben’s work so much that this week the delightful tune “Cute” accompanies the Twitter list! And the melodious songstress singing “Sexyyyyyyyyyy” came from maurolupo.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WitchPleaseEpisode20160912CuriouserAndCuriouser.mp3Download this even curiouser episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image: Tasha Chawner, flickrGrab your contraband Time Turners, witches, because we’re zipping back in time to episode 15A: the first half of our discussion of the play script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child!Speaking of time, in this episode Hannah and Marcelle dive into recording from two different timezones! The results are PRETTY GOOD!Dramatic reading background music by Bensound.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/WitchPlease160829CuriousChild-Hawtfix.mp3Download this Curious Episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Source: Flickr, The CommonsGrab your opera glasses, witches, because this week Hannah is joined by actor, director, and playwright Jeremy Mason for a discussion about the pleasures of reading plays, and why Rowling might have turned to the theatre for her newest addition to the Harry Potter canon. Don’t forget to take notes, because we’ll be asking you for your questions about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the coming weeks.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WitchPlease-20160815-E1655JeremyMasonandtheCursedChild.mp3Download this Theatrical minisode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image source: Deviant ArtAre you prepared for a rambling, margarita-fuelled discussion of pamphlets, propaganda, British fascism, lightning bolts, and how to browbeat your beloved hosts into getting your very own episode? No? Then you should probably skip this one. But if you actually love all those things, plus gratuitous lightning sound effects*, then this minisode is for you!http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/WitchPlease-20160801-E165BritishTechnocraticWetDreams.mp3Download this Ministry-Approved minisodePlease note: as lightning doesn’t actually make a sound, we used thunder instead. But it’s, like, symbolic, you know?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image source: TumblrWelcome to our brand new podcast, The Harry Potter Hour, Starring Feminism! It’s a lot like our old podcast Witch, Please except, uh, Newer and Different!This truly is the last episode of classic Witch, Please, though. After this it’s all paratexts, minisodes, and shenanigans! No more rules, no more social decorum, no more consistency. If the episode seems a little early, that’s because the Internet screwed up and we didn’t know how to fix it we wanted to give you a special present before leaving you NOT FOREVER PLEASE DON’T FREAK OUT. Look to your podcatchers on August 1 for the next minisode. Until then, you can settle in comfortably with your reliably clever and hilarious hosts as we’re joined by the über popular Guy With A Film Degree Neale Barnholden to talk about the last official Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WitchPlease-20160711-E16-WitchPleaseNewAndImproved.mp3Download this New

photo credit: slgckgc on flickrBut we’re not dead yet! cry your coven mistresses as we claw our way back into your podcast apps. That’s right, witches! We still have two more official (and, like, scores more unofficial) episodes for you!Tonight we’re joined by real life guy with a film degree, Neale Barnholden, for the ultimate—no, no then penultimate—wait no! the antepenultimate—WHATEVER, FOR ANOTHER EPISODE! Turn on all your lights and settle in with a companion species for a spooky episode from the podcast boneyard about the second-last (or is it?!) of the Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One.http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Witch-Please-20160627-E14-GhostOfPodcastPast.mp3Download this episode from beyond the grave  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

With Marcelle a million miles* away, we’re presenting to you a live event organized by Edmonton Potterwatch. “Project Firenze: Minority Representation in Fantasy Literature” was the organization’s first-ever live panel on that topic, focusing this time on the Magic in North America stories and the representation/appropriation of Indigenous cultures. We were joined by Lucinda Rasmussen and Roxanne Harde from the University of Alberta, and moderators Emily Hoven and Nina Legesse, to talk about YA, North American history, and the empowerment of owls in Rowling’s work.(Please pardon the sound quality: it was a live venue and we had one mic to share amongst six speakers of wildly varying volumes!)http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/WitchPlease-20160613-EXiProjectFirenze.mp3Download this soft-spoken episode Further Reading:Killer of Enemies, by Joseph BruchacLightfinder, by Aaron PaquetteSummerland, by Michael ChabonThe Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by She

Well, this is it, witches. Buckle in for an extra long episode, because this is the LAST (third) part of our discussion of the LAST (seventh) book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and we have a lot of ground to cover and old friends to mourn.But don’t you worry. Even though we make about a hundred jokes about it, we’ll be back with more moviesodes and minisodes before the summer is through!{TW for sexual assault, rape culture}http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WitchPlease-20160530-E13CHallowsandGoodbyes.mp3Download this false finale episode   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Image Credit: Eric/Kimber on FlickrHowdy witches!Marcelle edited tonight’s episode in a flurry of packing so please forgive the dearth of whimsical sound effects! We hope that even without an obscene number of honks and hoots you’ll enjoy this second instalment of our discussion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But, to be honest, we’re so internet famous now that we might just start making weird avant-garde artsy episodes to fuck with you. Probably not. But we could!{TW: episode contains use of the song “Taps” and references to death}http://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Witch-Please-Episode-13B_DeathlyFamous.mp3Download this infamous episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Howdy, witches!While Hannah was off feministing her heart out in Ontario, Marcelle and Trevor and Neale recorded a live episode at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo! A word of warning: the sound quality is lousy but there are some cute hippogriff baby coos AND the attendees were RADIANT! Also there’s a slide show to accompany our panel below if you like visuals.Download this wild slideshowhttp://ohwitchplease.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/WitchPlease-20160502-EN_PoliticallyJoyfulCalgary.mp3Download this wild episode  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.