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.
In Chapter 33, “The Prince’s Tale,” of Deathly Hallows we see a previous conversation that Dumbledore and Snape had at the end of the Yule Ball. They are talking about the Dark Mark and discussing whether Snape will flee if summoned by Voldemort, as Karkaroff plans… Read More🎙️ CS6: Howlers, Mandrakes, and Muggleborns• Podcast Episode
In Chapter 6 of Chamber of Secrets, titled “Gilderoy Lockhart,” we are introduced to two new magical items. Ron has the unfortunate privilege of allowing us to witness a Howler’s ability to deafeningly put someone in their place. And in the first Herbology class of the term we learn… Read More🎙️ OP16: Conversations• Podcast Episode
We’ve been exploring chapters from the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix. In several of these podcasts, I’ve marveled at the way Rowling can really bring us into the magical places in her books. The creaky, dusty old house in Grimmauld Place is… Read More🎙️ She Never Had Your Mother's Courage• Podcast Episode
There is a moment, during one of Harry’s sessions with Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince, when Harry seems almost indignant on behalf of young Voldemort, whose mother left him at a Muggle orphanage, where she named him and then promptly died, apparently unwilling to use magic to save… Read More🎙️ CS5: Or Worse, Expelled• Podcast Episode
There’s that well known line of Hermione’s…”we could have been killed—or worse, expelled.” That’s from chapter 9, “The Midnight Duel,” in Sorcerer’s Stone. In Chapter 5, “The Whomping Willow,” of Chamber of Secrets Harry and Ron think they are going to be expelled when they got caught having… Read More🎙️ OP15: Secrets in the Years• Podcast Episode
In this chapter, things really start heading downhill. Umbridge is appointed to be Hogwarts High Inquisitor — a name reminiscent of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. She begins harassing and demeaning the rest of the teaching staff immediately. These scenes where she stalks the classrooms of various… Read More🎙️ The Number of Students at Hogwarts• Podcast Episode
There are about 320 students at Hogwarts. How do we know? In order to unravel this mystery, we need to step out of the stories themselves. We need to understand the way that Rowling thinks about the books. Rowling is very, very visual. She writes the kind of visual language… Read More🎙️ Unicorns• Podcast Episode
“They prefer the woman’s touch, unicorns,“ says professor Grubbly-Plank in chapter 24 of Goblet of Fire. Rowling uses existing myths in her wizarding world often. The unicorn is a great example of that. Unicorns have been noted as mythical creatures in both Eastern and Western mythology since antiquity. Read More🎙️ OP14: Visualizing Hogwarts• Podcast Episode
Welcome to chapter fourteen. The sun is shining! As we’ve been noting the relationship between the weather and Harry’s experiences and mood, that means today should be a great day. And sure enough, Harry’s Saturday starts out spectacularly well. He wakes up to the sun… Read More🎙️ Book Facts vs. Movie Facts• Podcast Episode
Has this ever happened to you? Recently, I was playing a Harry Potter Trivia game with my friends. The question was: How was the Diadem of Ravenclaw Horcrux destroyed? I definitely know this answer, my favorite book is Deathly Hallows, and I’m a Ravenclaw, this question hits my sweet spot… Read More🎙️ He Did Not Look Back• Podcast Episode
Chapter 34 of Deathly Hallows is one of the most poignant, if not the most poignant chapter in the Harry Potter series. Harry realizes that he must die in order to kill the part of Voldemort that resides in him, so he leaves the castle to confront Voldemort… Read More🎙️ OP13: Unsettled School Days• Podcast Episode
The thirteenth chapter of Order of the Phoenix is called “Detention with Dolores,” and I think it’s fair to say that those detention scenes dominate our reading. I don’t know if there’s a more disturbing passage in any of the Potter books than the last half of this… Read More🎙️ The Weasleys and Ottery St Catchpole• Podcast Episode
Did you ever stop to think about the strange relationship between the Weasleys and the town of Ottery St. Catchpole? Some of the folks in town must know about that odd house out there in the middle of the fields. It’s only about a… Read More🎙️ CS4: Privet Drive vs. The Burrow• Podcast Episode
In Chamber of Secrets Harry goes from living in one extreme to being brought to the opposite extreme. The first sentences of Chapter 4, At Flourish and Blotts, describes it perfectly: ‘Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from everything on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything… Read More🎙️ OP12: Is It Monday Again?• Podcast Episode
Chapter twelve of Order of the Phoenix starts with Harry and Ron racing downstairs for the Great Hall on the first day of classes. It’s the start of the 1995-1996 school year and, as I mentioned in previous podcasts, Harry is already feeling separated and alone. To add to… Read More🎙️ The Prime Minister• Podcast Episode
We never learn the name of the Muggle Prime Minister who meets with Fudge and Scrimgeour in Chapter 1 of Half-Blood Prince, but we do know that that meeting occurred in 1996. In real life at least, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was John… Read More🎙️ Love... and Harry Potter will Bring us Together• Podcast Episode
Nick: Hey, everyone, welcome to your Harry Potter Lexicon Minute, I’m Nick Moline, The Harry Potter Lexicon’s resident tech wizard, Barbara: and I’m Barbara Moline, one of the Editors on the Harry Potter Lexicon, and Nick’s Wife, and this is the story of… Read More🎙️ OP11: Of Loss and Beginning• Podcast Episode
The theme of separation is in full swing in this chapter. Harry himself notes that things are not as rosy and cheerful as he’d hoped upon returning to Hogwarts. He thinks: Between the absence of Hagrid and the presence of those dragonish horses, he had… Read More🎙️ How My Potter Adventure Began• Podcast Episode
Hey, everyone, welcome to your Harry Potter Lexicon Minute. I’m Nick Moline, The Harry Potter Lexicon’s resident tech wizard, and this is the story of how my adventure in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world began. It was somewhere around late 2000 or early 2001 that I first… Read More🎙️ Tina and the Elder Wand• Podcast Episode
A highly relevant question to ask, as we all try to predict the future of the Fantastic Beasts series, is who is the current master of the Elder Wand? We know that when the series began, Grindelwald was its master and… Read More