Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Prof. Julian Wamble
64 episodes
6 days ago
Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.
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Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.
The Ends, the Means, and the Man: The Ethics of Severus Snape
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
1 hour 15 minutes
2 weeks ago
The Ends, the Means, and the Man: The Ethics of Severus Snape
In this final chapter of The Severus Snape Trilogy, Professor Julian Wamble takes listeners back into the moral heart of the Harry Potter universe to ask: was Severus Snape a hero, a villain, or something in between? What does true redemption require—and can it exist without accountability?
Drawing on hundreds of listener responses, Julian unpacks how perspective shapes our sense of good and evil, and why the Wizarding World so often confuses effectiveness with goodness. From the tension between ends and means to the uneasy divide between creator and creation, this episode challenges our need for clean-cut heroes and clear-eyed villains.
As Julian reminds us, the story of Snape—and the stories we tell about him—reveal that morality isn’t fixed, it’s interpreted. And in both magic and the modern world, the truth lives in the gray between.
Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast
Instead of seeing criticism as an indication of not liking something, Professor Julian Wamble invites listeners of Critical Magic Theory to explore the things about the characters, plot points, and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter broadly that have always given them pause or made them smile without knowing why. It is in this navigation of the positive and the negative aspects of a world that we find true magic.
