Critical Magic Theory: An Analytical Harry Potter Podcast

In this Prof Responds episode, Professor Wamble reflects on listener responses to the “Best & Worst Teachers at Hogwarts” discussion and steps back to ask a larger question: What does it mean to teach in the shadow of war?
 
Drawing on Hogwarts faculty, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Dumbledore’s leadership, this episode explores how education changes under sustained threat, how silence functions as pedagogy, and why students, especially marginalized ones, so often bear the cost of adult indecision. The conversation connects the magical world to the present political moment, examining the dangers of ignoring reality, the limits of preparing students without transparency, and the ethical responsibility educators carry when the world outside the classroom is already on fire.
 
This episode is invites us to reckon with power, authority, and the consequences of what schools choose to teach and what they refuse to name.

In this two-year anniversary episode of Critical Magic Theory, Prof. takes a step back from individual character deep dives to ask a bigger question about pedagogy, power, and responsibility in the wizarding world—and beyond.

Drawing on listener survey data, this episode explores why some teachers are remembered as effective despite being deeply troubling, while others are overwhelmingly rejected. The conversation then shifts away from the most dramatic figures to examine the quieter labor that keeps Hogwarts running: teachers like Flitwick, Sprout, Binns, Charity Burbage, Madam Hooch, and especially Madam Pomfrey. Through them, we see what Hogwarts values, what it neglects, and how unresolved trauma and institutional ambiguity shape classrooms in harmful ways.

As the show enters its third year, this episode invites listeners to reflect not just on Hogwarts, but on their own role in shaping how knowledge, care, and critical thinking are passed on.

In this Prof Responds episode of Critical Magic Theory, Professor Julian Wamble revisits the Dumbledore family to examine how secrecy, sacrifice, and institutional failure shape Ariana Dumbledore’s life, and the lives of those around her.Drawing on listener reflections, the episode explores how the Wizarding World’s commitment to secrecy creates harm rather than protection, forcing families to absorb the cost of systemic failure.

From Kendra Dumbledore’s quiet labor and Percival Dumbledore’s punishment to the rumors surrounding Ariana’s absence from Hogwarts, this reflection asks how trauma is misread, victims are silenced, and care becomes indistinguishable from containment.

Ultimately, this episode challenges us to rethink what protection actually looks like—both in the Wizarding World and in our own, and why societies so often ask victims to pay the price for keeping systems intact.

In the first episode of Critical Magic Theory in 2026, Professor Julian Wamble steps away from the six-part Albus Dumbledore arc for a rant/rave on Ariana and Aberforth Dumbledore—two characters whose stories expose the wizarding world’s obsession with secrecy. Prof revisits Ariana’s childhood attack by Muggle boys and argues it reveals how ignorance fuels entitlement and violence, while the Ministry of Magic prioritizes concealment over care, pushing families toward isolation instead of healing.

The episode then turns to Aberforth: the sibling who stayed, the caretaker who absorbed the fallout, and a cautionary tale of what happens when grief and resentment fester in silence—yet who still chooses to protect Harry and resist Voldemort’s world. Finally, the episode complicates what it means to be a “good” half-blood, showing how the Dumbledores don’t fit neat categories of supremacy or bridge-building when their relationship to Muggles is shaped by trauma, passing, and retreat.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL (WHO CELEBRATE)!! AND TO ALL.... AN INVISIBILITY CLOAK!! 

USE IT WELL!

In this episode of Critical Magic Theory, Prof. looks at the various Christmas moments throughout the series and analyzes them.