Accio Politics

We did it. We did it, Joe!

We're done with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so you know what that means: one whole episode devoted to the entire novel. Your hosts Adri and Helene zoomed out from our chapter to chapter format to bring you all the piping hot takes that can only be given after we read the books as adults through a different lens. We talked about how our ideas of what the book was about were transformed by reading it through the lens of politics, which characters surprised us the most, memorable answers to our questions of the week, and much more!

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This week's Patron-exclusive is a character study on Luna Lovegood, including why she's such a good foil for Hermione Granger.

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We've come to the end... The end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, that is! Hosts Helene and Adri talk about the final chapter of book 5 in the Harry Potter series through the lens of Grief and the Price of War. Helene delves deeply into the stages of grief, as Harry is personifying them in this chapter (so very well, may we add), while Adri likens Harry's return from the Ministry to a soldier returning from war and struggling to adapt to civilian life. Want more content? Patrons get access to exclusive content EVERY EPISODE. Get access for as little as $2/month by heading over to www.patreon.com/acciopolitics This week's Patron-only segment is the latest installment in the Girl Who Lived series! In this episode, we'll be talking about what it would have been like to have Fred and George Weasley been written as girls. We wonder how their pranks may or may not have been different or if their entire demeanor was less peacocky and more... stealthy? We all know how women like their secrets (this is sarcasm!).

Helene and special guest Kat from the Alohomora! podcast talk about chapter 37 of Order of the Phoenix: "The Lost Prophecy." Join us as we discuss the politics of premeditation and strategy, along with Dumbledore and Harry's complicated relationship and the potential motivations behind Dumbledore's actions throughout the series. We also take a look at the stages of grief and the different ways Harry's grief for Sirius' manifests itself.

Want more bonus content? Patrons of this show get access to a bonus segment every episode. Become a patron for as little as $2/month at www.Patreon.com/acciopolitics

In this week's Patreon-only segment Helene and Kat dive deeper into the concept of grief in relation to Harry, as well as how the grief (or lack thereof) in our own lives may have affected how we viewed him as a character and the book as a whole.

Helene and Adri talk about how things are not looking up for Matt Gaetz, as well as chapter 36 of OotP. In discussing this chapter, we talk about the politics of pain and retributive justice as the ministry becomes a bit more crowded than anticipated. We also cover how Voldemort and Dumbledore come face to face in the Ministry of Magic while Harry comes to terms with Sirius' death.

Want more bonus content? Patrons of this show get access to a bonus segment every episode. Become a patron for as little as $2/month at www.Patreon.com/acciopolitics

For this episode, we're doing continuation of our series on Mothers in the Wizarding World: Narcisa and Petunia edition. To quote Helene these characters are "Awful people who would literally do anything to keep their sons safe."

Well, we're finally here. We're at that chapter in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Sirius is hit by a curse and disappears into the Veil at the Department of Mysteries. Someone give Adri all the tissues, please and thank you. When we read this chapter, we had very different takes on what the politics of the chapter were. Helene talks about how this chapter is about the politics of loss of innocence, while Adri talks about the politics of an ambush. We also discuss our listener's responses to last week's episode's question: What room would you like to go into in the Department of Mysteries? Support our independent podcast by becoming a Patron for as little as $2/month: www.patreon.com/acciopolitics. Patrons get access to bonus content on every episode. This week, we continue our conversation about mothers in the wizarding world. This week, we talk about the iconic Professor Minerva McGonagall and how maternal figures don't necessarily have to have children of their own.

Helene is back and talking to Adri about chapter 34 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, "The Department of Mysteries." We talk about the politics of classified information and leadership as the golden and silver trio sneak into the Department of Mysteries.

Patrons get access to exclusive content on a weekly basis. This week for Patrons only, we're talking about the mother of all mothers: Molly Weasley. Get access to this and other exclusive segments for as little as $2/month at www.Patreon.com/acciopolitics

In this episode, guest host Aureo Potts (@09aureo) joins Adri to talk about chapter 33 of OotP where Hermione leads Harry and Umbridge to the Forbidden Forest in a hair-brained scheme to get Umbridge off their back. While upon first encountering this chapter, we may not have thought about the implications of Centaurs having been given parcels of land to live on, this time, it hit us like a freight train. We talk about systemic racism and oppression, as well as the more specific problem of the displacement of indigenous people.

Patrons get access to a bonus segment for every episode. You can support our podcast for as little as $2/month by becoming a Patron at: www.patreon.com/acciopolitics.

Today's segment: we gender-flip the character of Newt Scamander and talk about female explorers, neurodiverse characters, and what a female Newt would bring to the fandom.

Special guest Rex Hadden joins Adri for a conversation on how chapter 32 is driven by the politics of sabotage and surveillance. Umbridge tries to sabotage Harry's attempts at contacting the outside world while Hermione's actions can be seen as sabotage since she is trying to distract Umbridge from the truth. While this is happening, the methods through which Umbridge relies on to sabotage the leaders of Dumbledore's Army are rooted in the politics of surveillance. The Ministry of Magic, after all, has instituted methods to surveil underage wizards with the trace and Umbridge has all fireplaces at Hogwarts but her own monitored for activity by the Ministry of Magic.

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Patrons get access to bonus content for every episode. Today's bonus content: Wizarding World Schools Part II.

Content Warning: Police Brutality

We're talking about police brutality in this episode, which includes a brief history of how police came to be in America, how Umbridge and the Aurors' treatment of Hagrid ties into our understanding of police brutality and excessive use of force, and how we can also see that dynamic at Hogwarts.

Support our show for as little as $2/momth by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/acciopolitics.

Today's Bonus Patron Segment: We talk about the origins of Wizarding Schools, their cultural context, and the problematic aspects of devising school histories within cultures that are not the author's own.

Before today's episode, we thought that chapter 30, "Grawp" was a bit of a throwaway chapter. Not anymore. As we delve into this chapter through the lens of politics, specifically the politics of the colonial mindset and forced displacement, we notice that there are many nuances within the chapter that are illustrative of how the wizarding world operates in relation to other magical creatures.

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Today's exclusive bonus content for Patrons: a discussion of the role of blood in the series.