The Harry Potter Lexicon website has been in existence for almost two decades. Over that time, J.K Rowling thrilled us with her magical creation — in novels, interviews, on her websites, on Twitter, and more.
And here at the Lexicon, a small group of dedicated fans have worked very hard over all those years to catalogue all the magical details she revealed. The Lexicon website has always been seen as the gold standard for careful research and faithfulness to Rowling’s created world, all because of these amazing fans.
Now we editors of the Lexicon would like share some of what we’re so passionate about in a new way. So we’ve creating this podcast as a way for you to hear from us. It’s called the Harry Potter Minute, and in it you’ll hear the voices of our editors sharing a few of the many little things which delight us about the Wizarding World. We are fans from all over the globe who love to spend our time keeping track of the interesting details and obscure references which make Rowling’s work so rich and wonderful.
In each podcast, around four or five minutes in length, we’ll talk about anything from cool trivia and interesting canon passages to the latest Wizarding World news. We might share something that’s stuck in our heads as we researched the books or maybe recall some event from the history of Harry Potter fandom.
The podcasts will come out once or twice a week. We hope you’ll join us! And we’d love to hear from you as well. Feel free to use the comment section on the blogpost for each podcast to post your thoughts.
Summer is over and it is time to return to Hogwarts. Harry has lessons with Professor Dumbledore to look forward to. He becomes surprisingly talented in Potions class and works hard as the new Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. But what is his… Read More🎙️ Order of the Phoenix 1-9 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Everything turns a bit darker in Book Five. Lord Voldemort has returned. Dementors show up in unexpected places. And Harry is unhappy, even when he has re-joined his friends before the end of the summer. Ready to find out why? Let’s go! Podcasts:… Read More🎙️ Goblet of Fire 1-10 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
We now start Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a book with several exciting events for Harry and his friends to experience. We go back to the Weasleys and attend an international event where a disaster takes place. What more can happen? If you’re ready… Read More🎙️ The History of the History of the Wizarding World• Podcast Episode
In the early 2000s, Harry Potter fans debated the possible range of dates for the saga. Small clues like the reference to a PlayStation in book four were discussed in detail. — Since the PlayStation wasn’t available until December 1994 in Japan and September 1995 in Europe, some… Read More🎙️ Prisoner of Azkaban 1-5 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Welcome to the third book in the series, The Prisoner of Azkaban! Many fans consider this to be their favorite Harry Potter novel. Harry is another year older, another face-off with Voldemort under his belt. What could be in store for him and his friends this year? Let’s… Read More🎙️ Chamber of Secrets 6-12 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Welcome to the fifth installment of our celebration series! We’ve been warned not to return to Hogwarts, met some new allies and foes, and accidentally broken one of the most fundamental rules of wizarding society. What a way to start the school year! Ready to… Read More🎙️ Chamber of Secrets 1-5 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Now we’re into the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Plenty of connections can be made between this book and book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, book two was originally going to be called Half-Blood Prince! Here’s what Rowling had to say about… Read More🎙️ Why Harry Potter Needs Quidditch• Podcast Episode
Quidditch is the wizard sport that everyone – well, almost everyone – in the Wizarding World is mad about. It features high levels of danger and unpredictability. The strange rules and seemingly unfair scoring system of Quidditch are more than a bit illogical. But what outweighs these objections are… Read More🎙️ Philosopher's Stone 6-17 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Ready to have some fun exploring? Here we go! Podcasts: Trunks by Selena Gallagher Platform Nine and 3/4 by Steve VanderArk How Many Students Are There at Hogwarts? by Steve VanderArk Whatever Happened to Sally-Ann? by Steve VanderArk The Significance of Hallowe’en by Rosie Payne… Read More🎙️ Thoughts about Trunks• Podcast Episode
When Harry finally gets his Hogwarts letter from Hagrid, it contains a list of required school supplies, but makes no mention of how he’s expected to pack it all. Nevertheless, on the 1st September, it’s all safely packed in a ‘huge, heavy trunk.’ This is fortuitous as it appears that… Read More🎙️ Philosopher's Stone 1-5 Canon Celebration• Podcast Episode
Welcome to the first of twenty-six blog posts in our Canon Celebration! This time around we’re exploring the first five chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Why am I not saying “Sorcerer’s Stone”? Because that’s not the original name of the book, as you probably know. That’s the… Read More🎙️ Announcing the Twentieth Anniversary Canon Celebration!• Podcast Episode
Twenty-one years ago, I created a small website to collect and organize information about the Harry Potter novels. I was part of an online discussion group called Harry Potter for Grown Ups, which is just what it sounds like, and we all needed a quick way to… Read More🎙️ Encore Presentation: Wizarding Currency• Podcast Episode
This is an encore presentation of an episode from February 2018. You may notice on the homepage of the Lexicon that it always shows the current exchange rate between a galleon and a range of different worldwide currencies. But did you ever wonder how J.K. Rowling came up… Read More🎙️ Encore Presentation: OP2 - Kneazles• Podcast Episode
This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018. Mister Tibbles? Mrs Norris? Why do the animals owned by Squibs seem to have similar names? And particularly human-sounding names at that? In chapter two of Order of the Phoenix, we meet Mrs Figg… Read More🎙️ Encore Presentation: OP1 - Drought• Podcast Episode
This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018. Today we’re spending a little bit of time with chapter one of Order of the Phoenix. From the very beginning, we’re introduced to the theme of drought. Rowling writes: Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their… Read More🎙️ Encore Episode: Barebone Names• Podcast Episode
This is an encore episode from February 10, 2018. Chastity, Credence, and Modesty may have seemed like strange names to viewers of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but they are rooted in the Barebone family’s Puritan past. Not only is the Barebones’s… Read More🎙️ Encore Episode: Why Ottery St Mary?• Podcast Episode
This is an encore presentation of an episode from February of 2018. Why do we assume that Ottery St Mary, an actual town in south Devon, is the same village as the one called Ottery St Catchpole in the books? There are a couple of good reasons… Read More🎙️ Encore Episode: Bane was Right All Along• Podcast Episode
This is an encore broadcast of an episode if the Harry Potter Lexicon Minute from November 2018. Today I’d like to talk to you about how, in the end, Bane didn’t need to get mad. When Bane gets mad at Firenze for saving Harry, he says “…we… Read More🎙️ The Photograph and the Boggart• Podcast Episode
In chapter nine of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling does a lot of really poignant foreshadowing for the coming war against Voldemort. In re-reading it, I found new meaning in Harry’s confused anger after Moody shows him the photograph of the original members of the Order. This interaction is… Read More🎙️ Encore Episode: Whatever Happened to Sally-Anne?• Podcast Episode
This is an encore podcast episode originally aired in January of 2018. Did you know that one of Harry’s classmates apparently vanished between first and fifth year? I don’t mean “vanished” in the same way that Montague disappeared into a Vanishing Cabinet only to reappear a few weeks later. I… Read More