We’re back for another action-packed episode of Patterns in Potter.  This time, we take on the latest contender in the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows.  We begin with an analysis of the prologue, of both The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, and William Penn’s More Fruits of Solitude.  From there, we discuss the apparent connection to Chapters 2 and 3, and how they relate to what might be the theme of the book: trust, faith or death.  We haven’t quite decided yet.  Have any thoughts?  We’d love to hear from you.

You can leave comments or call our voicemail at 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

Make sure to check out our channel on the new Odeo.  Subscribe, rate, review, it’s all good, check it out.

In the news:

•  Harry Potter makes it to Entertainment Weekly’s “1000 New Classics”. Greg has big time issues with this.
• Thirty new international release dates for the Half Blood Prince movie.  My guess is that the movie will be released internationally before we see the teaser trailer.
• You can now buy the Deluxe Edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for $13.00!!!  Wow. Good deal.
• JK Rowling gets an Edinburgh Award. Greg imitates Sean Connery.

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This week, we discuss J.K. Rowling’s commencement address to Harvard University’s graduating class of 2008 (with audio snippets!) and conclude our Patterns in Potter discussion for the theme of Book 6.

JK Rowling’s Speech at the Harvard Commencement

We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

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This week, we finish up our Patterns in Potter discussion for Book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  This time, we focus on Harry’s visions (courtesy of Lord Voldemort) and his driving urge to understand the truth of these visions, and what knowledge they can bring in aiding in the fight against evil.  It’s quite an interesting discussion, and we end up talking about Gödel’s Theorem, for those of you who know what that is (for those of you who don’t, that’s why there is Wikipedia), and discuss rationalism, existenialism and religion.

Send us your thoughts, we look forward to hearing from you! You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

In the news:

• Vote for the Beedle The Bard winner.
• JK Rowling received Auther Of The Year Award. Again.
• Emma Watson made Maxim’s Hot 100 List.  Penny came in right before her though.
• No Moaning Myrtle in Half Blood Prince. The actress who plays her is busy checking out nursing homes (oh snap, that was mean.  I know.  I apologize to Shirley Henderson, but come on- she is old.)
• JK Rowling to write a “Story Card” with other notable authors.

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In the week’s episode, we continue our discussion of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the central theme of truth and knowledge, specifically how the book presents the theme in context of Hogwarts, education, careers and experiential vs. learned/taught knowledge. It’s even more exciting that I can describe.

We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com. Download a free audiobook of your choice today at http://audiblepodcast.com/hp.

And, the news:

• Radcliffe, Leung nominated for Best Kiss. BORING.
• Lavender Brown interviewed. Not the real Lavender Brown, mind you.
• Aerial footage of the Potter movie set at Leavesden Studios. This is very cool.
• J.K. Rowling won a trial. Not the trial we’re all interested in, but a trial nonetheless.

Also, check out Pensieve Memories, a new Harry Potter forum.

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In what will go down in history as being HPProgs’ finest hour *or* our worst episode yet, we bring to you Episode #77. We decided to go a slightly different route for part of this episode and after our very short news discussion we re-enacted part of the J.K. Rowling vs. Steve Vander Ark/RDR Books trial. All we can say is that those of you who called Greg’s accent rubbish are going to wish you had saved your insults. On a side note, when I was editing the episode I realized that we botched the name of SVA’s lawyer. It is David Hammer, not Barry. Apologies to Mr. Hammer.

Speaking of accents, we played a voicemail from Potter’s Number One Fan in which he picked up Greg’s gauntlet and gave us a multi-character Harry Potter narration. Excellent job, in my opinion.

We finished off the episode with the introduction to Patterns In Potter for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. You’ll have to trust that we are telling the truth when we say that Book 5 has a good theme.

As promised the links to the court transcripts are here. Thanks to Cris for the tip:

• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
  

It is a new month so please vote for us on Podcast Alley and as always rate and review us on iTunes and Odeo.

Finally, HPProgs has a Twitter account so please join in the fun and start following us so you can get all of our updates!

We look forward to hearing from you. You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

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This week, we continue our Patterns in Potter series, beginning our examination of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In this episode, we discuss the main theme for Book 4, pride, and how Harry’s experiences in the beginning of Book 4 relate to this theme. Pride, both personal and external, comes before a fall, and there’s no bigger fall for the wizarding world than what happens at the end of Book 4. So, humble yourself, pull up a chair, and listen in.

As always we look forward to hearing from you.  You can leave comments here on the blog or send in your voicemails to 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK.  Please make sure to keep the message as close to one minute as possible and try to speak loudly and clearly.

As always, feel free to rate and review us on iTunes and vote for us on Podcast Alley (new month next week!!)- remember, WE ARE THE NUMBER 3 HARRY POTTER PODCAST!!!

In the news:

• JK Rowling will be in New York next month to appear as a witness in the lawsuit against RDR Publishers.
• Reacting to some of Steve Vander Ark’s comments concerning the RDR/JKR lawsuit, The Leaky Cauldron has decided to sever ties with Vander Ark. In a related announcement, HPProgs is offering an open invitation to Steve Vander Ark to talk to us (we are shameless, we know).
• JK Rowling has gone into more detail about the depression she suffered in her younger years.
• Nickelodeon Magazine is offering a chance for one lucky kid (ours, sorry everyone) to win a trip to the LA Premiere of HBP.

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In this week’s episode, we finished our discussion on the theme of emotion in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We talked about the Dementors and their effect on the soul, as well as their antidote: the Patronus, and the necessary requirements to conjure one.  This was actually an off the cuff, un-planned discussion and we really like what we came up with (not to toot our own horns). 

We had some voicemails and we urge you to keep sending them, as well as your comments, in!We also discussed the news about the Deathly Hallows Movie being split into two.  

Finally, Greg made an exciting work-related (yet not completely HPProgs unrelated) announcement (hint, check out http://beta.odeo.com/) that we look forward to sharing with all of you!

If you want to send in voicemails you can call 206-337-0357 in the US or 07092899490 in the UK. As always, we look forward to hearing your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. Be in touch!

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Firstly, we apologize for the lateness of this episode. If you have been paying attention to the goings on at this blog, you’ll know that I have been ready to be committed to St. Mungos Psych ward because of all the problems editing this episode. It has taken 3 days and it is finally ready to go. Thanks for your patience.

In this week’s episode, we interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Rudski from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. Dr. Rudski just completed a study that is being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology examining signs of addiction to the Harry Potter series and the fandom that surrounds it. Dr. Rudski was very interesting to talk to and he has some great insights into the Harry Potter fandom and the emotional connections that have come with the series and the fandom. Thanks to Dr. Rudski for taking the time to speak with us. Once again, we apologize for the audio quality of this interview.

The rest of the episode was dedicated to various voicemails we have received over the past week or so. Some of the voicemails were Patterns in Potter related, some were general Potter observations, and some were either guilt inducers or ego strokers for Greg. Enjoy them!

We promised to link to our listener, Katrina’s new podcast, “Kat Got Your Tongue”. Check it out and enjoy!!

As always, we look forward to hearing from everyone. Please be in touch with your comments, thoughts, and suggestions!Please vote for us on Podcast Alley and rate and review us on iTunes.In the news:

• The Wyrd Sisters Band not happy with WB.
• Daniel Radcliffe bought a nice place in NYC.
• JKR is REALLY rich. In other news, the sky is blue.
• Jim Dale is coming to Portus!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Really interesting new interview with JKR. She discusses religion and HP, her history of depression and Dumbledore’s sexuality.
• Filming for Half Blood Prince took place at Millenium Bridge in London this week.
• David Yates took home and Empire Award. Stated that he is “tempted” to direct Deathly Hallows movie.
• JK Rowling still suing over paparazzi photos of her son.

LATE BREAKING: Since we recorded it was announced that Deathly Hallows will be split into two movies, to be directed by David Yates!!You can listen to the episode with the player below, or download it directly as an mp3.

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In this week’s episode we started our discussion on the prevailing theme in Prisoner of Azkaban: Emotions. Between the Aunt Marge debacle, the werewolf in his midst, the various animals and animaguses (I never learned how to pluralize that) in the book, and time travel, Harry was forced to learn the importance of keeping his emotions in check.

We plan on interviewing Dr. Jeffrey Rudski this week to talk about Harry Potter Addiction and we hope to have that on the next episode.

We got some great listener comments from Rosie and Victoria. We now have a number for you to call in the US if you want to send us voicemails. You can call 206-337-0357and in the UK, please call 07092 899490. As always, please leave your comments as close to one minute as possible.

It is a new month so don’t forget to vote for us on Podcast Alley(the link makes it *really* easy for you)!

Finally, if you downloaded this episode before Monday morning March 3- 9am EST, you downloaded the unedited version which we put up on iTunes by mistake. There aren’t any good bloopers in it or anything, just a bunch of ums, you knows and throat clears. Also, the mp3 comments are not inserted. So go ahead and re-download the episode. We apologize for the inconvenience.

In the news:

• Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson made EW’s 30 under 30 list. In a related story, we made EW’s Over 30 and Overweight list.
• It turns out that JK Rowling doesn’t *really* use Myspace. Shoot, now I have to figure out who I have been trying to get to read my fanfiction.
• Update on JKR/WB lawsuit against SVA/RDR. ROFL. Not really but I wanted to feel part of the whole *initials* thing.

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In this week’s episode we continued our discussion on the theme of identity in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. We did a brilliant (in Greg’s opinion) deconstruction of some of the characters in the book: specifically the individuals who were attacked by the basilisk and the so to speak cosmic justice of why they were attacked and the karma involved in that. It was a really interesting discussion and we can’t wait to get your thoughts on it.We also had some AMAZING listener comments from Michelle and Michal. They were both very well thought out and very well presented. Here are some links we promised you during the show:

• Potter’s Army Podcast
• Real life invisibility cloak
• HPProgs listener forums
• UK call-in number

We really want to hear from you so please be in touch!! In the news:

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix nominated for a boatload of Saturn Awards.
• A scene that wasn’t in the book will be added to the Half Blood Prince Movie.
• It is looking like David Yates might direct Deathly Hallows.
• Dan Radcliffe won an award for taking it all off.
• Harry Potter, addictive? You tell me.

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Yes, I totally stole the title of this post from Travis, sorry but it works.

So here is a few tidbits of info for y’all:

–In case you haven’t noticed, the Thursday update thing has not been happening lately. We have found that it is much easier to record some time over the weekend- usually Saturday night or Sunday so for now I *think* that we are making a bit of a change to the HPProgs release schedule. For those of you who listen to other HP podcasts on that release schedule, I do to, but we appreciate your flexibility here.

–Andy, a long time HPProgs listener from Scotland has come up with a great way for the UK listeners to get us MP3 comments for the Patterns In Potter Series: You just have to dial this UK number 07092 899490 it will record your message & email to us as an mp3 file. So if you don’t have recording equipment, this is an easier solution for you.

To call the number from outside the UK the number is :+44 7092 899490. Thanks Andy, we really appreciate this.

–I feel horrible that we haven’t mentioned the HPProgs listener forums in the longest time. Yamil started these forums and Rachael has been doing a bang up job keeping it going with him. The episode discussions usually take place here on the website, but there is a lot of great discussion and introductions happening over at the forums. Make sure to check them out, and once again, thanks Yamil and Rachael!!

–Finally, the February Portus Preview Podcast is up. I haven’t had time to listen to it yet, but you better believe I will be doing so soon especially since I am getting BIG TIME excited about Portus. I will probably write more about the Portus Preview after I’ve listened to it, but I do know that they had Valentine’s Day shoutouts- which I am sure are quite entertaining!

OK, see you next time for Part two of the Chamber of Secrets Discussion in our Patterns in Potter series. You can still send us mp3 comments to harrypotterprogs at yahoo dot com (please keep them to as close to one minute as possible).

-Penny

In this week’s episode we started to discuss the theme of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Identity.   As usual, the theme is present from the beginning of the book at the Dursley’s  and continues to make its appearance throughout the book. We talked about Harry’s struggle with identity and how it relates to other characters like Dobby, Gilderoy Lockhart, and Colin Creevey.  We also talked about how Harry struggles to create  his own identity while trying to deal with the famous name that was thrust upon him in his infancy.

We started the episode with two excellent audio comments from Travis and Nathalie.  Both comments really set the stage for the discussion and we look forward to receiving more of these comments.  Please send in your audio comments to harrypotterprogs at yahoo dot com and remember, please keep them as close to one minute as possible.

On the announcement front, I (Penny) made an exciting announcement about Portus 2008- so make sure to listen for that. Also, this episode was monumental because I did a great job (in my humble opinion) diverting the conversation as much if not more than Greg ever does (with the exception of the news of course when Greg was in his finest tangential form).  We’ll blame it on the head cold which is also more than obvious throughout the episode.

In the news:

• Jim Dale won a Grammy Award for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:  Oh Hareeeeeee (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)!
• BAFTA Awards were last week.  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix didn’t win anything.  But we got some interesting sound bytes from Daniel Radcliffe and Jason Isaacs.
• Fleur Delacour won’t be making an appearance in the Half-Blood Prince movie.  I am only sad about this because I liked the scene in the end of HBP when Fleur and Molly hug. Oh well.
• Harry Potter producers Davids Heyman and Barron remain non-comittal about splitting the 7th book into two movies.
• JK Rowling has picked up the James Joyce Award.  She said some interesting new things.
• Actors have been cast in the roles of Fenrir Greyback and Amycus Carrow.

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We have gotten some really great feedback on the voicemail discussions as part of the Patterns In Potter Series. So, because we released episode #68 late, we want people to have time to listen to it before moving on to episode #69.

We plan on recording most probably (and in Greg and Penny terms that means that NOTHING is set in stone) on Saturday night. But we do want more voicemails. So please record your mp3 comment on your thoughts of the patters in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and e-mail it to us at harrypotterprogs at yahoo dot com. Once again, please keep your comments to as close as 1 minute in length as possible. We may not be able to get to EVERYONE’s comment, but would love to discuss as many as possible. We ask that you get the voicemails in by 8pm EST this coming Saturday evening (February 16).

We look forward to hearing from you- literally.

Penny

In this week’s episode we continued our discussion on Power as the prevaling theme in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We specifically addressed the invisibility cloak and Mirror of Erised and their roles in bringing the theme to life. We also had some great listener comments in MP3 form from: Shimon, Aaron, David & Christian, and Travis (from the Hogs Head Pubcast).

News was slow this week but we discussed a couple of interesting news items.

We are enjoying the listener participation so please send your voice comments to us in mp3 format to harrypotterprogs at yahoo dot com as soon as possible. We will be starting our discussion on the Patterns of Book 2 so we’d love to hear what ya’ll have to say. Please keep the comments to around 1 minute in length.

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In our first episode of Patterns in Potter for Book 1, we take a look at the circumstances of Harry’s childhood and how that shaped him into the young man we meet right before being plunged into the wizarding world.  The rush of power, along with a less-than-clear message on the nature of right and wrong make up Harry’s first year at Hogwarts. 

It is a new month, so please help us out by voting for us on Podcast Alley. Much appreciated.

In the news:

• JK Rowling to be the guest speaker at Harvard commencement ceremonies. If you are in Harvard, we would love to be part of your extended family at this special time.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie won a Golden Tomato Award.
• Alan Rickman does not talk about the character of Severus Snape.
• Filming for HBP has started in Gloucester.
• Ace of Cakes premeired last week with a cake that was used at the LA Premiere of OoTP. Duff Goldman, if you googled your name and are reading this- we want you to come on our show. We are in Baltimore. You rawk!!!!!!!!!!!!
• It doesn’t look like Del Toro will be directing Deathly Hallows.
• JK Rowling has received a South Bank Award. She spoke of her split from Harry being more painful than any relationship ending.
• Lord Richard Attenborough feels left out of all the Potter-hoopla.

You can listen to the podcast with the player below, or download an mp3 directly.

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