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.
At the beginning of Chapter 12 of Chamber of Secrets, entitled “The Polyjuice Potion,” Harry is taken to Dumbledore’s office. While he is waiting for the headmaster he has interactions with the Sorting Hat and Fawkes the Phoenix. I’d like to talk about how these… Read More🎙️ OP23: Tears and Robes• Podcast Episode
Let me just start out by saying that I cry easily. Just ask my wife. I cry at sappy commercials with fathers sending their daughters off into the world while remembering every father-daughter dance and scraped knee. So you’d think that reading the Harry Potter books, especially the first time… Read More🎙️ The Significance of Halloween• Podcast Episode
Halloween has always had a significance in the Harry Potter series. To start with, it’s the date of James’ and Lily’s deaths and Voldemort’s downfall in 1981. Then, in Philosopher’s Stone Quirrell tries to take the Stone for the first time by letting the troll in;… Read More🎙️ CS11: Loyalty• Podcast Episode
There is a lot that happens in Chapter 11 of Chamber of Secrets, entitled The Dueling Club. The final ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion are acquired. The dueling club meeting takes place, which leads to Harry finding out he is a Parselmouth. And Harry discovers… Read More🎙️ OP22: In Essence Divided• Podcast Episode
In chapter 22, we are introduced to St Mungo’s hospital. But we are also introduced to two other new ideas, one of which remained a mystery to fans even after the last book was published. One of these new ideas is the fact that the portraits of previous headmasters… Read More🎙️ Percivals in Canon• Podcast Episode
Percival is a suspiciously common name in the Harry Potter universe, and I’m inclined to read way into that. Probably the most well-known of these is Percy Weasley, who is not actually a confirmed “Percival.” As the Lexicon’s entry for Percy notes, “In Arthurian legend, Percival was a chivalrous knight… Read More🎙️ CS10: Harry, Draco, and Quidditch• Podcast Episode
First off, I need to use the Sonorus charm to give a shout out to my friend, Kim. She was the one who shared this insight with my reread group and me. She provided the foundation and I built upon it a little bit. But, I did want to… Read More🎙️ OP21: Prefects, Mistletoe, and Hogwarts• Podcast Episode
While I read these chapters, I always look for something interesting to record a podcast about. When I read chapter 21, no one thing stood out as the topic to discuss, but a couple of tidbits did catch my eye. I’ll run through them for you. First, I hadn’t… Read More🎙️ The Harry Potter Card Game• Podcast Episode
There are a number of new Harry Potter games coming out. They’re all mobile games, but my favorite Harry Potter game came out quite a few years before there was such a thing as a smartphone to play it on. Way back in 2001, Wizards of the Coast released a… Read More🎙️ CS9: Filch• Podcast Episode
What little we do know about Argus Filch, we learn perhaps the most personal detail about this man in Chapter 8 of Chamber of Secrets, entitled “The Deathday Party.” Harry just couldn’t squash his curiosity and opened Mr Filch’s mail and found his Kwikspell courses, alerting us to… Read More🎙️ OP20: About The Cloak• Podcast Episode
I love this chapter. Rowling is on top of her game here. I talked about her skill at writing conversations in a previous episode, and she’s at it again in this chapter. The nuances of the conversations, first between the Trio and Hagrid and then between Hagrid and Umbridge, are… Read More🎙️ How Would The Other Houses Do It?• Podcast Episode
There is a game that I like to play that was inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest. The pin went something like this: There is a locked door Gryffindor: Knocks it down Slytherin: Picks the lock Ravenclaw: Finds the key Hufflepuff: Knocks I liked the idea of using… Read More🎙️ CS8: Ghosts• Podcast Episode
In Chapter 8 of Chamber of Secrets, titled “The Deathday Party,” we get an up close look at the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, Sir Nicholas de Mimsey Porpington, aka Nearly Headless Nick. When Harry comes across him in the halls after Quidditch practice, Nick is reading a transparent… Read More🎙️ OP19: And So It Begins• Podcast Episode
Chapter nineteen starts on a high note: Harry felt as though he were carrying some kind of talisman inside his chest over the following two weeks, a glowing secret that supported him through Umbridge’s classes and even made it possible for him to smile… Read More🎙️ Hermione is a Virgo: Astrology and Other Stereotypes• Podcast Episode
Hermione Granger’s birthday is September 19th. Happy Birthday, Hermione! Hermione is a Virgo, like me, but I think she would deem astrology a “very woolly” subject. When Firenze begins teaching Divination, he calls astrology “human nonsense.” Parvati attempts to explain what Professor Trelawney has taught the… Read More🎙️ CS7: Mudbloods and Murmurs• Podcast Episode
There are several standout moments for me in Chapter 7 of Chamber of Secrets, titled “Mudbloods and Murmurs.” First off, Harry is so kind to Colin Creevey. Colin is in this new world, and he is in the same house as the newest celebrity in recent wizarding history. Read More🎙️ OP18: Hats, Cloaks, and Curfews• Podcast Episode
I thoroughly enjoyed chapter 18 of Order of the Phoenix, so much so that I had trouble picking out one thing to talk about in this podcast. The text is just so rich with wonderful conversations and characterizations — just read through that marvelous scene with Peeves throwing… Read More🎙️ Wizard Plumbing• Podcast Episode
So, if you’re like me, and I assume you are, you’ve got some questions about wizard plumbing. We know Hogwarts has bathrooms, and that those bathrooms have toilets, and that the halls of Hogwarts are lined with pipes. This is all spelled out for us in Chamber of Secrets,… Read More🎙️ Myrtle, Hagrid, and CS• Podcast Episode
Did Moaning Myrtle ever find out that it was Hagrid that was accused of being responsible for her murder? I know she was intent on haunting Olive Hornby for a while after her death. But, it was 50 years before Hagrid’s name was cleared. Did Myrtle ever wonder how… Read More🎙️ OP17: Wait, what?• Podcast Episode
So as you know, I’ve been reading through Order of the Phoenix for the, I don’t know, maybe fortieth time, and that doesn’t include the dozen times I’ve listened to the audio version. The sentences feel wonderfully familiar and honestly, it’s like spending time with a dear friend. I guess… Read More