Material Girls

We're on a break! Please enjoy this episode of #WitchPleaseTellMe, a monthly Patreon perk we're sharing with you in between seasons! We'll be back in two weeks with our first episode of Season 8, "The Appendix Season." Until then, please enjoy a rambling, fun and chaotic episode featuring the entire Witch, Please Team (Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, Zoe and Gaby). You'l hear all about our plan for Seaso...

In this episode, we wrap up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and thus Season Seven of Witch, Please . We talk about Hermione and Ron's sex life in Granger Danger and the history of white wedding dresses in Lewk Book. And, of course, we round out the episode with Marcelle's Devastating Fun Facts TM. This may be the end of Season Seven. but don't fret. We're going to be back in a few weeks for o...

We'll be back in two weeks for our final Season 7 Wrap-Up Episode, but this week we're sharing a bonus interview from Patreon. We were so honored to have been joined by Kiana and Vicky in December for a conversation about Women for Iran (formerly Women for Liberty of Iran) an organization comprised of Iranian women supporting the people of Iran from the UK. In this conversation, Kiana and Vicky an...

We're finally here, Witches — at our long-awaited House Elves episode. We've been talking about Dobby, Kreacher, Winky and the general house elf population for so many seasons and we finally have a perfect guest joining us for discussion. Jessica Marie Johnson (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Johns Hopkins University and a Fellow at the Hutchins Center for Africa...

In the wise words of Lizzo, it's about damn time! Our latest episode is all about Sentimentality, an 18th century philosophical intervention that emerged in opposition to rationality. Hannah (whose recent book, A Sentimental Education, is all about this topic) guides the episode. We revisit our discussions on Orientalism, Animal Studies and Print Culture, before jumping into an overview of what Se...

We’re taking a little break to gear up for the holiday season. So instead of enjoying a regular episode, please enjoy this episode of Comfort Creatures, a podcast hosted by Ella McLeod and Alexis B. Preston. Comfort Creatures is a show from Maximum Fun — the folks who brought you classic podcasts like My Brother, My Brother and Me, Still Buffering , The Adventure Zone and many others. In this show...

In this episode, we do a deep dive into eugenics, a nineteenth-century pseudosciences that justified a lot of racist, ableist, and generally violent oppressive behaviours. We review our conversations about class, critical race theory, disability, neurodivergence, and trauma from our episodes with K. Alex, Jess Battis, Tea Garbeza, Lucia Lorenzi, and Addie Merians, before taking a close look at Cec...

Matt Potts is back to talk about resurrection! We first revisit theory Matt introduced to us last season on our episode about "the soul" and then consider the nature of Harry's death in the Deathly Hallows. What can we make of Harry's sacrifice? The scene in King's Cross? The conviction of the series and... (Matt said it first...!) the conviction of the New Testament! Tune in for an episode about...

We're back with a new episode on New Media! To begin, we revisit Print Culture, Critical Archival Studies and the work of Canadian theorist Marshall McLuhan before jumping into a conversation about the phonograph! Well, kind of... We take a look at Lisa Gitelman’s book Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture, to better understand how new technologies are normalized and made fam...

Hey Witches! We'll be back on Tuesday with our regularly scheduled episodes, but we thought we'd give you the promised sneak peek at Hannah's new book A Sentimental Education. On September 22, Hannah launched her book at  Iron Dog Books through a conversation with  Minelle Mahtani  (Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Justice at UBC) and  Lucia Lorenzi  (artist...

Maia Kobabe (e/em/eir) has been censored enough! We're putting this exclusive bonus interview out to the public because it was just so dang fun to record and Maia is a true gem who deserves as big an audience as we can give em. We'll be back with regular episodes in two weeks (October 18th). If you don't already know Maia, e is the author of Gender Queer and the brilliant mind behind other zines,...

We continue our journey through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with another special guest, Erin Wunker! Erin is a settler scholar and an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Dalhousie University in Halifax Nova Scotia. She is the author of Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life and the forthcoming Routledge Introduction to 20th and 21st Century Canadian Poetry...

We continue our journey through Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with a special guest, Shira Lurie! Shira joins us to discuss historical memory in the Wizarding World. We're talking statues, stories, memorials and archives. If you enjoyed our episodes on Critical Archival Studies, Chosen One Narratives, Hauntology and Life Writing, then you'll love this episode! You can follow Shira Lurie on T...

In this episode, we begin Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! We cannot believe we're already at the start of Book 7, but honestly, we're so excited to finally get into it! We decided to go back to the start and revisit 'Chosen One narratives' which we discussed in Season 1, Episode 1 of the reboot. We pull on Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism and Joseph Campbell's work about "monomyth." But,...

We're still on a break and gearing up for our seventh season all about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Of course, we didn't want to leave you with nothing to listen to so please enjoy this unlocked Patreon perk: Witch, Please Tell Me! We do Q&A episodes every month for our $10+ tiers. They're goofy and meandering and very fun to record. You can submit a question to our Q&A through th...

We're in between seasons and thrilled to bring you a one-off bonus conversation with beloved podcasters Lark Malakai Gray and Jessie Blount. You may know them from Hashtag Ruthless , a podcast network that "creates hilarious chapter-by-chapter media analysis podcasts with a queer and trans focus." Lark and Jessie are the minds behind The Gayly Prophet, Esgaype from Reality, The Gay Pirate Podcast,...

In this episode, we wrap up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and thus Season Six of Witch, Please . We talk Hermione in Granger Danger and fashion in Lewk Book, and of course we round out the episode with Marcelle's Devastating Fun Facts TM. Tune in for this goofy episode that gathers some loose threads but mostly just contains chatter about moments in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince...

In this episode we discuss Life Writing. We begin with a review of the monomyth and Structuralism, followed by a deep dive into the work of Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson. Using their book Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives , we consider the Pensieve in the Harry Potter series. How can we read the memories that go into it as life writing? What do we know from the...

In this episode we dig into Marginalia! After a brief revision of our episodes on Print Culture and Fan Studies, we take a look at the it's long histoy using Heather Jackson’s book, Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books (2001). Marcelle begrudgingly leads us through the contribution of the Romantics (specifically Samuel Taylor Coleridge) and we ultimately get to take a long hard look at Harry Potte...

In this episode we are joined by Matt Potts, co-host of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Matt is a reverend and a professor at Harvard specializing in literature, literary theory and Christian theology. He joins us for an episode all about "the soul" in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. You'll hear that we can barely contain our excitement in this episode as we dig into theology for the fir...

This week we get into Security Theatre — and what a timely topic it is! We go over what we learned from Book 3, Episode 6 with Mercedes Eng who walked us through the carceral logics of the Wizarding World. And we review Book 4, Episode 2 about the nation state and the way Benedict Anderson theorized nations as “imagined communities” that are imagined as limited, sovereign, and in need of prot...

In this episode, we're talking about Masculinity Studies with our special guest, Aspen! We begin with a brief review of our episodes on Feminist Theory, Celebrity Studies, Trans Studies and Chosen One Narratives (just to name a few) before getting into a discussion about masculinity in the Wizarding World. Aspen offers us a brief historical overview of the roots of Masculinity Studies, as well as...

Hey friends! Please skip this episode if that feels right for you. We'll be back in two weeks and we want you to take care of yourselves first! In this episode, we discuss Rape Culture. We begin with a brief review of our episodes about discourse, queer theory and classism before diving into the pervasiveness of rape culture in our daily lives and in the Harry Potter series. We'll dig into what it...

In this episode, we are talking ghosts! Tune in for a conversation with our guest, Lydia, as we consider Hauntology as an analytical tool for better understanding the Harry Potter series — specifically the Half-Blood Prince. Lydia guides us through a revisitation of Jacques Derrida and an introduction to Avery Gordon (among others) who ask us to consider the meaning of absences in narratives, hist...

In this episode, we begin Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by revisiting pedagogy! If you've enjoyed our past episodes about the professors at Hogwarts then you will love this episode digging into Horace Slughorn, Severus Snape, and (if you believe it) Albus Dumbledore! Tune in for a conversation based around the article “Collectors, Nightlights, and Allies, Oh My: White Mentors in the Acade...