The Weird, Wacky World of Harry Potter Podcasts
You've Read the Books, You've Seen the Movies, Now There Are Harry Potter Podcasts!
If nothing else the Internet is one of those places where pop-culture phenomena come together and collide in new and interesting ways. In the world of Harry Potter online fandom this means a flurry of podcasts have sprung up to report Harry Potter news, debate Harry Potter theories and celebrate beloved (or despised) Harry Potter characters.
Here's a brief guide to some of the more noteworthy Harry Potter podcasts out there:
Pottercast comes to us from the staff of major Harry Potter fan-site, The Leaky Cauldron. One of the oldest and most professional of the Harry Potter podcasts, one of the greatest things about it is that they get their transcripts up fast - so those of you who haven't caught up with the world of podcasting can still get all our Harry Potter news. Pottercast includes speculation and theories about the direction of the series, book and movie news, as well as interviews with those who have a particular expertise as related to the world of Harry Potter.
Mugglecast is the Harry Potter podcast that comes from the team at Mugglenet. Currently they have over 50 episodes online. This podcast focuses mainly on theories about what will happen next in the world of Harry Potter, while also examining often overlooked, but potentially important details of the books.
Mugglecast, like other Harry Potter related podcasts discusses options written and called in from fans. While more accessible than some other podcasts (see below) new listeners may feel a bit behind until they listen to a few episodes and get a thorough handle on the podcast's staff and personalities.
Snapecast is my personal favorite Harry Potter-related podcast, which, if you've read my other Harry Potter articles, you could probably guess. It's a newer podcast, and they're still finding their feet in terms of production values and the best length for segments. That said, the variety of content they offer is delightful and their shorter segments are often very, very funny. Snapecast is intended for adults (although I'm sure lots of teens are listening) as some segments contain discussions of NC-17 fanfiction.
These segments are clearly announced with warnings at the beginning though, so you can avoid that content if you wish. One of the greatest assets Snapecast has is a fellow on staff who does amazing imitations of, well, everyone. His voicing of Snape for a list of Slytherin pick-up lines just about killed me. Don't listen to this one at work - even with headphones, you'll be laughing out loud (or blushing furiously). This is, of course, for the truly dedicated Harry Potter nerd.
A quick Google will reveal many other Harry Potter podcasts - largely these are either new endeavors or endeavors that ran their course and then fizzled (for example, Harry Podder, which only released episodes in 2005). Certainly though, room remains in the phenomena, especially for more narrowly focused Harry Potter podcasts. If you can't find the one you're looking for, perhaps you should be the host of a new one.
Published by Racheline Maltese
Racheline is an actor, writer and director with a journalism BA from GWU; she studied at the Atlantic Theater Company and NIDA. She lives in NYC with her partner and is the author of The Book of Harry Potte... View profile
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- Pottercast: www.pottercast.com Mugglecast: www.mugglecast.com Snapecast: www.snapecast.com
- There are lots of Harry Potter podcasts out there.
- The production values on Harry Potter podcasts varies wildly.
- You can't even imagine some of the thigns that get discussed on the Harry Potter podcasts.
10 Comments
Post a Commentinteresting...had no idea abt them
I'm not a big fan of podcasts, but a while back Snapecast did catch my attention as a Snape fan and I've loved it ever since.
I'm thai. I like HP...^ I want to friend is like Harry Potter
........lilith-44@thaimail.com.............
I was surprised that The Secrets of Harry Potter wasn't mentioned. It's really quite different from the others and, OK, it clearly takes a Christian perspective, but it's up front about it and most of the show is about all kinds of symbolisim and mythology that help understand the stories.
As said there are many more such as iMuggle a fan podcast of Mugglecast, Leaky Fan Cast, a fan podcast of the leaky cauldron (Yah Snidgets), EnchantedCast (it basically rox!), The Secret Owls (Cast) it's two filkers they sing they talk they do it all, The Leaky Mug those are the combined cast of Pottercast and mugglecast, and hmm one more to add REDcast a cast about the trio them in movies them in the books, it's cool.
PS. Gwen I personally love Pottercast and Leak Fan Cast and that was a rather rude comment about them just because you disagree or don't care for that podcast doesn't mean you have tobe mean.
I agree Snapecast is wonderful, as I am a snape fan. For the enitre though Mugglecast is fantastic, more for younger generation, while Pottercast is for the older generation. I must say I listen to all three.
I love PotterCast and MuggleCast. I also recently started listening to the Secrets of Harry Potter which discusses the symbolism and mythology behind the novels.
PotterCast and MuggleCast are definitely my favourites by far. I've listened to a few select others but I think they are slightly too narrow in content while in these two, you get a bit of everything; apart, perhaps, from some of the more obsene sides of Potter out there. There is a reason PC and MC are so successful and have so many devoted listeners and this is just a testament to the quality and endless hard work put into both shows.
This doesn't even cover a quarter of HP Podcasts out there. Seems like the author was picking favorites, rather than being informative. I personally listen to Harmony Podcast at HarmonyPodcast.com. But there's also Spell Cast. Both mentioned podcasts aren't wanky, and are respectful to all groups - as opposed to, ahem, Pottercast and Leakycast.
There are many more such as HP Detective and enchanted cast