Material Girls

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 Sentimentalism is all about— and how we might read Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows as a novel written in that literary tradition.If you like thinking about character development, intersectional feminism and the power (or lack thereof) of the written word, then this episode is for you! We also get a little meta and think through how books become sentimental for a reader. For example, how a series about friendship and the fight between good and evil inspires two lady scholars to make an entire podcast about it for a dedicated listenership of people 25 years after it was first published. Just as an example!!If you're a longtime listener of the show, please consider becoming a Patron this time of year! We're hoping to reach 1000 patrons by January 1st and we're really close. For just $2 USD/month you can help us pay our producer, our apprentice, ourselves, our website costs, etc. It is truly what makes producing this show possible. If you find yourself with a spare $24 this year, we'd be really grateful for your financial support. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, please leave us a review instead! Reviews help more listeners find us and that's a huge help! We have aa lot planned for the New Year (including merch now available on our website ohwitchplease.ca), so be sure to follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected.Special thanks to our Witch, Please team: Gaby Iori, Erik Magnus, Zoe Mix, and Hannah Rehak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, Ella and Alexis bring on guests to chat about pet ownership and the power of furry friends! We were lucky enough to be guests on Comfort Creatures back in August and we had such a good time. Of course, that means we talked for far too long and so the episode was broken up into two episodes.This is Part One. After the episode if you want to hear Part Two, head over to their show feed wherever you catch your podcasts and check it out.We’ll be back in two weeks for another episode about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.To support the show, you can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for extra perks and bonus content including episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected.Special thanks to our Witch, Please team: Gaby Iori, Erik Magnus, Zoe Mix, and Hannah Rehak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Cecily Devereux's Growing a Race: Nellie McClung and the Fiction of Eugenic Feminism. Tune in OR skip this one if that would be better for you! Take care of yourself first! We'll be back in two weeks with another episode about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.To support the show, you can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for extra perks and bonus content including episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected.Special thanks to our Witch, Please team: Gaby Iori, Erik Magnus, Zoe Mix, and Hannah Rehak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 zombies, Jesus, and Harry Potter.To support the show, you can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for extra perks and bonus content including episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected.Special thanks this week to AJ Jaramaz (who edited this episode) along with our Witch, Please team: Gaby Iori, Erik Magnus, Zoe Mix, and Hannah Rehak. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 familiar such that we forget information is being mediated at all. We talk about Potterwatch radio, Dumbledore's deluminator, horcruxes, patronuses and more while taking a very close look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.To support the show, you can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for extra perks and bonus content including episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 and recovered academic). In this bonus episode, you'll find that conversation as well as a sneak peek of the audiobook version of A Sentimental Education (which is now available on Kobo). If you'd like to learn more about Hannah's writing, you can check out her website hannahmcgregor.com or head over to your local bookseller to scoop a copy of A Sentimental Education! You can always order it online as well anywhere you find books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, comics, and social commentary sprinkled throughout the internet. You may recognize Maia from Instagram, Tumblr, or from the loud and constant conservative backlash around eir memoir since its publication in 2019. As you'll hear in this bonus interview, Maia is a gift to the fan communities e occupies — and e is a fan of our show (which is just a really nice thing we get to talk about a bit). To get to know Maia better, check out eir book reviews on Goodreads and Storygraph. Or take a look at eir work on Patreon and Tumblr. Happy listening and a very happy belated Banned Books Week! What a way for us to celebrate! We're honored!If you want more Patreon exclusive content, become a supporter here for as little as $21.60/year: patreon.com/ohwitchplease Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. She join us for this episode to talk about mothers in the Harry Potter series! We discuss how motherhood has been constructed over the last few centuries and what we can learn from the characterization of Petunia Dursley, Molly Weasley, and Lily Potter. We also think through subversive modes of motherhood and representations of care throughout the book, looking at Hagrid in particular.To support the show, you can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for extra perks and bonus content including episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Twitter @ShiraLurie.Help us kick off Season 7 by joining our Patreon! You can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for more perks and bonus content include episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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, you know us, we hate letting boring old white guys go unchecked, so we also review works by Alise M. Wisniewski and Na’amen Gobert Tilahun who unpack the function of “chosen one” narratives in popular culture. Tune in for a conversation about Harry's journey as a "chosen one" and the ways the book adheres to and subverts our expectations of this western literary tradition. Start this season off right and join our Patreon! You can become a Patreon Supporter at any tier for more perks and bonus content include episodes, interviews, bloopers, comics, merch and more. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.