Harry Potter Saved My Life

S2E1: A no-spoilers episode to kick off season 2. I give you a review of the latest Fantastic Beasts film that contains absolutely no major plot giveaways – beyond what your local cinema might have in their description blurb.

I talk about what’s good and not so good about The Crimes of Grindelwald so you can decide for yourself. I talk about where I disagree with the criticisms levelled at this movie – and where I think the naysayers are right.

In particular:

*The issue of exposition in a prequel and where the film fell down

*Where I thought there was real emotional depth

*How Leta Lestrange was portrayed

*Johnny Depp as Grindelwald – total dud or just right

*The problem of Dumbledore being played anew by a third actor

*What we all need to remember about exposition in the Harry Potter films

*My favourite special effects

Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss the full spoiler-filled review coming later this week.

Contact me: info {at} theshiftinside.com

Check out The Eating Coach podcast - just search that title wherever you get your podcasts or go to www.theshiftinside.com/blog

Season 2 of this podcast is just around the corner! Be sure to subscribe so you get the next episode the moment it is released.

I include an excerpt about Jacob Kowalski (the thoroughly befuddled muggle from Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them) which was featured in episode 14 of my other podcast, The Eating Coach.

Here is the full episode that extract comes from, plus all the video clips for each Hollywood Rebel:

http://www.theshiftinside.com/films/

Wouldn’t we all just love a Time Turner? How fabulous would it be to go back in time and wipe out that awful interview, the person you wish you had never met, or the job you would avoid like the plague if you had your time over again.

However, I believe that the REAL fantasy pull of the Time Turner is two-fold: to help us turn away from the inevitable forward march of time and to avoid having to feel regret.

Sorry, ain’t gonna happen. In this episode, I discuss how JK Rowling’s very interesting limitations on this invention gives us a clue to why we are better off without them (and Harry and co. helpfully smashed the lot in the department of mysteries at the end of book 5 anyway) and how we can neutralise regret instead.

Olivia from The Super Serious Social Justice Podcast drops in to give her a few of her favourite bits of all things Potter. 

RESOURCES:

To contact me or record your audio to be on the show:

http://www.theshiftinside.com/harry/

https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/time-turner

http://www.theshiftinside.com/podcast-me-too-release-your-trauma-and-put-food-out-of-a-job-it-was-never-meant-to-do/

Super Serious Social Justice Podcast: 

https://www.sssjcast.com/

The Eating Coach podcast:

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

In the USA
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

SFX By www.zapsplat.com

So many of our fears have a very powerful misunderstanding at their core. Find out why so many of us are servants to our fears, instead of brave adventurers who dismantle them at every opportunity. Harry chooses to face Voldemort in the forest – and we too can stand up to our fears…with equally powerful results.

New section: Who’s Your Favourite…?

Thanks to Marina Darlow from www.vision-framework.com who hosts the Better at Business podcast at http://betterat.biz/ for being the first listener to tell us her favourite character and why, and also what spell she wishes she could use, and why.

To get on the show with YOUR answers, simply go to http://www.theshiftinside.com/harry/ and record your answers there! If you have a podcast tell what it is and what it’s about!

RESOURCES

Episode on Cavebrain:

http://www.theshiftinside.com/audio-why-cant-i-stop-stress-eating-ask-your-cavebrain/

The Eating Coach podcast:

If you have an Apple device, go to

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

In the USA

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

‘Rejection Proof’ is by Jia Jing

Today I look at the significance of omnioculars in the Muggle world. If you have forgotten, they appear at the start of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire when our hero is watching the Quidditch World Cup:

"You can replay action ... slow everything down ... and they flash up a play-by-play breakdown if you need it. Bargain - ten Galleons each."

Find out what they mean to us in our life, and how they can help us be happier and more empowered.

RESOURCES

Ideas for future show topics? Email me: info {at} theshiftinside.com or leave me a message at 

http://www.theshiftinside.com/harry/

Check out my other podcast The Eating Coach

If you have an Apple device and are in the UK, go to

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

In the USA:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

SFX by the ever-splendiferous Zapsplat

Today we look at our own tendancy to use events and actions of other people to confirm our pre-existing beliefs through Snape...and indeed Harry. Find out exactly how they are inverted mirror images of each other, a kind of mutually destructive, corrupted yin and yang.

And of course we take this lesson out of JK Rowling's world, and into our own. Find out what feeling is a pretty good clue that you are suffering from confirmation bias, as well as the question that can help you be more objective.

Quote of The Episode: Fred and George's U-No-Poo poster from The Half Blood Prince

Resources

The episode about Harry and Snape and The Shadow:

http://harrypottersavedmylife.com/2-harry-and-self-acceptance

The Psychology Today Article:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/automatic-you/201710/confirmation-bias-why-you-make-terrible-life-choices

Check out The Eating Coach podcast wherever you get your podcasts

What surprising lessons can Harry Potter's hideous relatives have to offer us? The hidden benefits of jealousy, that's what.

Another shot of inspiration from superfan Harriet Morris who can seemingly find not exactly a font of wisdom from Privet drive, but some backwards, unintended life advice Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never intended to give their nephew, but is writ large in neo lights whenever either of them open their (rather mealy) mouths.

RESOURCES

Episode 2 (mistakenly I called it episode one) about Harry's shadows:

http://harrypottersavedmylife.com/2-harry-and-self-acceptance

Contact me at http://www.theshiftinside.com/harry/

The Eating Coach podcast on iTunes is at 

UK - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

USA - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

The 31st October is massively significant in the Potterverse, and even more meaningful for us – if we look deep enough.

How we do it is by unearthing the strange paradoxes that occur every Halloween to Harry and his friends. His parents died on this day – but it is also the day that he, Ron and Hermione join forces as a powerful trio that will eventually work together to defeat Voldemort.

These conflicts of meaning continue throughout the whole series – listen today to decipher what they can signify for us.

QUOTE OF THE EPISODE

…actually we have two quotes. One non-JKR (sacrilege? Maybe, but it’s worth it) plus Harry buying books in Flourish and Botts.

RESOURCES

Check out my Eating Coach podcast

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-eating-coach/id1258258375

Draco Malfoy is much more than a bully gifted with magical powers. He offers us two very different sources of inspiration when it comes to empowering ourselves.

First of all, he makes us ask What is great about that person who drives me crazy? It is the ONLY question we can ask. Without Draco, Harry would not be master of The Elder Wand. We too can use bullies and other difficult people as sources of resilience.

Secondly, Draco exemplifies the loneliness of true change. Nobody is there to help him transition from eager Death Eater in waiting to the better man he is growing into. I get enormous comfort from Draco's very real struggles in the last two books.

RESOURCES

Check out The Eating Coach Podcast

How can we shed our victimhood using the metaphor of Felix Felicis? This is the continuation of last episode on Ron - so go back and re-listen to that first if you haven't already. 

Lucky potion, as introduced by professor Slughorn in Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, can be used to talk about many different challenges - but here I am going to focus in on the episode where Harry pretends to give Ron some Felix.

This potion allows Ron to change the victim story he is telling himself about. He is no better a player after Harry's 'ethical lie' than before, but this feat of the imagination is available to all of us. 

Find out:

What story the victim narrative tells

How it does half a job

How story helps us process and recover from trauma, and protect ourselves from future hurts

How shedding inappropriate shame makes the victim story redundant

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

From The Goblet of Fire, what the Quidditch World Cup merchants are selling. 

RESOURCES

Leave me a message at

http://www.theshiftinside.com/harry/

The Sebastian Junger interview where he mentiins war veterans

https://tim.blog/2016/05/22/sebastian-junger/

http://www.harrypottersavedmylife.com