Harry Potter After 2020

How does it feel to read Harry Potter after 2020? The words on the page don’t change. But times change. We, the readers, change. And that changes the story. Join podcast hosts Lorrie Kim and JC on a re-read of the series, chapter by chapter. As we delve into the story, we’ll remember what the books meant to us when they were first published and analyze what we see differently now. Find more episodes, transcripts, and more at hpafter2020.com.

5.33: Fight and Flight 03/18/2026

5.33: Fight and Flight I see it from people who accepted these books when they were children and didn't have the critical faculties to see, 'Okay, this is a woman of a certain race and background writing these limitations that are her own personal prejudices.' But it's not too late to go back and reread and build up those defenses. That's just what any rereading does. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/40226050

5.32: Out of the Fire 03/11/2026

5.32: Out of the Fire JC: Madam Pomfrey says, "I would resign in protest, but I can't abandon the students." I hear teachers say that all the time. "I hate that the government wants me to put up the Ten Commandments or whatever. I hate that I can't call kids by their chosen name. I hate that I can't ask them how they're feeling or express concern over their mental health. I would quit in protest, but then who is going to take care of these kids? They still need someone." For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/40188155

5.31: O.W.L.s 03/04/2026

5.31: O.W.L.s JC: ICE comes in the middle of the night to take Hagrid, basically. LK: Where are they taking him? What are they charging him with? Harry demonstrates something that is painfully real and current: he's so upset by all of this that he gets three hours of extremely poor-quality sleep the night before his History of Magic exam, so that exam is doomed. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/40172930

5.30: Grawp 02/25/2026

5.30: Grawp The bullying that Grawp was suffering (that Hagrid had to save him from) is a result of colonization and displacement because giants were not meant to be in such close quarters. They've been attacking and killing each other because they weren't meant to be crammed into wherever they've escaped to, but there's nowhere else for a giant to go. This is about land rights and displacement. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/40148860

5.29: Career Advice 02/18/2026

5.29: Career Advice Even if Harry can't understand it right now, he is getting some of his father back by seeing that there were real living people -- full-fledged people -- who knew the whole James and demonstrate that they knew all of him and they loved him, and that complexity is restoring some of Harry's feelings. You can't really blame Voldemort for being dead of jealousy that Harry gets this. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/40016225

5.28: Snape's Worst Memory 02/11/2026

5.28: Snape's Worst Memory Snape's worst memory is that he regrets betraying Lily by referring to her hunted status and reinforcing it. That supports the notion that Hermione did a sort of favor for Marietta by preventing her from having the same guilt on her conscience. If Marietta later had to think about her murdered friend Cho and exactly what it was that led Cho to be found and punished, this stopping people from going there is a form of protectiveness without affection. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39875895

5.27: The Centaur and the Sneak 02/04/2026

5.27: The Centaur and the Sneak Marietta catches a sight of herself as framed in Umbridge's agenda, and seeing what she really is in that agenda? That's this moment of recognition that shuts her up. Marietta has now just seen a different part of herself written on her face. I have wondered if people who thought on previous rereads that Hermione went too far see what is going on with ICE and current events and if that has changed their perspective on this. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39866040

5.26: Seen and Unforeseen 01/28/2026

5.26: Seen and Unforeseen Somebody is being a grown-up, and he is taking on a dangerous duty so the kids don't have to fend for themselves. "It's not your job to find out what the Dark Lord is..." "That's your job, isn't it?" "Yes, it is." This is what it looks like when Snape stops hiding his agenda and tells something, the rare thing that is true about himself from every perspective. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39892000

5.25: The Beetle at Bay 01/21/2026

5.25: The Beetle at Bay This is her chance to explore this unexplored concept of writing journalism as a member of the Fourth Estate, trying to hold people accountable; she's never done that, and when Hermione reminds her outright, “I can blackmail you,” then she gives Rita the assignment. “Harry, are you ready to tell the public the truth?” She has just become Rita's editor. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39611645

5.24: Occlumency 01/14/2026

5.24: Occlumency LK: We know, from him having put three memories in the Pensieve, that Snape has his own important things at risk here. JC: My first read with it was that there were things that he didn't want Harry to know, but now I'm like, ‘Oh, there’s things he doesn't want the Dark Lord to know.’ He's not worried about Harry knowing. LK: If Voldemort sees things, he doesn't have the emotional intelligence to put them together a certain way; if Harry sees those things, Harry does. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39570325

5.23: Christmas on the Closed Ward 01/07/2026

5.23: Christmas on the Closed Ward LK: We run into Neville and his grandmother Augusta visiting Neville's parents in the long-term care ward. JC: Hermione has the sudden horror that Kreacher has a picture of her in his little den. LK: This is the human cost of family separation. The people who knowingly do this and enjoy the results have lives and emotional connections, too. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39544470

8.5: Seeing Tom Felton in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 01/03/2026

8.5: Seeing Tom Felton in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child JC: We were in a theater full of people who were there because they wanted to see Tom Felton, and like you said, they queued for tickets, they paid a lot of money, they clearly are fans. I heard people crying around us, people were laughing... Everybody in that theater was thrilled; people leapt to their feet at the end to clap. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39599185

5.22: St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries 12/31/2025

5.22: St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries JC: What I would like Sirius to have said is, “You've told Dumbledore, and Dumbledore's on it. You need to sit tight, and let's see what Dumbledore comes up with. I know this sucks, and thank you for telling me. Can I hug you?” Anything like that is what would have made a difference. There are things that happened to Harry later that I think he ended up making choices because he thought nobody was on his side. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39484545

5.21: The Eye of the Snake 12/24/2025

5.21: The Eye of the Snake LK: The hope with Voldemort is that there is part of his own mind that he doesn't understand, and there's hope of being able to get to him that way. The problem with Umbridge is that she doesn't have that kind of empty spot. JC: Yeah. She's choosing it, she knows what she's doing, and she's unreachable in the same way that we talked about before and that others have talked about: the author is unreachable. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39175045

5.20: Hagrid's Tale 12/17/2025

5.20: Hagrid's Tale Dumbledore sent Hagrid and Madame Maxime off to approach them, but he had to tell them what to do. It makes me think about stories of people whose parents were immigrants who then had lost this piece of their parents' culture and have a hard time reconnecting to it again. They were having to rely on what Dumbledore had told them about what giant culture was like, even though they're both half-giant. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39137115

5.19: The Lion and the Serpent 12/10/2025

5.19: The Lion and the Serpent Harry feels so empowered by knowing that he's doing something to make a difference in the background. That's really cool and also just very relatable, because I know that I've had feelings like that in the last few years. 'These are the things that are happening, but here's what I'm doing through my work to make it a little bit better.' For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/39120145

5.18: Dumbledore's Army 12/03/2025

5.18: Dumbledore's Army The hurt that he's accruing by being isolated and ignored by Dumbledore -- that hurt of not having his needs heard and met -- are doing more to turn him into somebody who can understand Voldemort's feelings and how Voldemort became who he is, starting from being an orphan who had nobody to hear him when he cried out for help and nobody to connect with. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38946840

5.17: Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four 11/26/2025

5.17: Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four This is part of the instruction manual. Support your own confidence by doing something and carry that within you. People believing Harry and letting him know that they have a high opinion of him has taken such a burden off of him. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38889230

5.16: In the Hog's Head 11/19/2025

5.16: In the Hog's Head Ernie -- bless Ernie -- points out the thing that has to be said: "We are prefects." He is verbalizing the risk that they have all agreed to take if they go on this path, and that is, in fact, what they're all deciding, and he himself has made the argument for why they should: that this is even more important than O.W.L.s. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38781495

5.15: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor 11/12/2025

5.15: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor JC: I went into reading this chapter thinking when I read it before, this seemed so incredibly super dark and hard to imagine. It did not feel that way this time; it was even funny to me in ways that it would not have been funny before. I'm starting to wonder if the rest of this book is going to feel that way to me. I remember this book being so dark, and now I'm like, 'It doesn't feel quite as dark.' For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38889255

5.14: Percy and Padfoot 11/05/2025

5.14: Percy and Padfoot Harry's thinking he had known Percy for four years, had stayed in his house during the summers, yet now, Percy thought him 'unbalanced and possibly violent'? That was a feeling that was really powerful in the fandom during the first disbelief of TERFpocalypse. That vertigo when you realize that somebody has made you into a monster in their head, even though they had human connection with you that went back quite a way. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38765905

5.13: Detention with Dolores 10/29/2025

5.13: Detention with Dolores LK: Your friends and allies are the ones who will hear you, so you have to be mindful of how you direct the anger that you're constantly being provoked to feel. I remember, in 2016, I had to be schooled. I had to be taught, "Do not make small hands jokes. The only people who are going to hear you are your trans-masc friends." That's true. Shoot, sorry. JC: Similarly, when people mock his weight or other things about his appearance, it's the same thing. Who hears those jokes? For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38752250

5.12: Professor Umbridge 10/22/2025

5.12: Professor Umbridge They're all sitting there and it's just like *groans* and everyone's falling asleep… It's intended to be that the room is quiet. The appearance of learning is there, but no learning is actually happening. This is exactly what Umbridge wants. Then Hermione's hand goes up and stays up, and then slowly, everyone starts to notice, and it's this building and building and building. It's so good. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38602580

5.11: The Sorting Hat's New Song 10/15/2025

5.11: The Sorting Hat's New Song I would love to go through some of what Umbridge is saying here. First of all, the jargon that she's using…the words that she used to me as an educator were like red flags. The emphasis is not on creating thinking human beings that can reason and question things. No, we want them to have a very specific set of skills that they can apply, then, to whatever we tell them to. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38521780

5.10: Luna Lovegood 10/08/2025

5.10: Luna Lovegood Luna's final words to him are such a masterful end to this chapter, because she's smiling faintly when she says it; she knows. She is in charge of this moment. It's not one of her thoughtless things where she doesn't realize the effect she has on people, and I think she's chosen these words on purpose to be unsettling. "Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am." For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38436200

5.9: The Woes of Mrs. Weasley 10/01/2025

5.9: The Woes of Mrs. Weasley She is a resistance fighter who's already lost family and now has children; the more people you love in life, the more they have on you. This is just a fact. Snape is the opposite, of course; he deliberately prevents himself from having attachments so that he doesn't have that liability. But Molly… she went all in on giving birth to resistance fighters, so yeah, this is the price she pays. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38198300

5.8: The Hearing 09/24/2025

5.8: The Hearing This way that Harry is being set up here -- drawing more blame to himself in proportion to how well he could defend himself from attack -- the only way for Harry to be virtuous in Fudge's eyes is to let himself get killed? There's no winning. There's no way to be a good victim that gets approval. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38198460

5.7: The Ministry of Magic 09/17/2025

5.7: The Ministry of Magic Harry, looking at the layers and layers as he goes down, he's learning how to operate in this world that's built on secrets and hidden agendas and subversive speech, whether it's subversive because it's wizards trying to hide, escaping detection by Muggles, or whether it's members of the Order pretending in public not to know each other for their own safety. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38138965

5.6: The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black 09/10/2025

5.6: The Ancient and Most Noble House of Black When Sirius looks around at how they're refitting the house for the Order, he says, "If my parents could see the use it was being put to now…" I thought, 'Oh, that's actually honest and hopeful,' because one of the words that came to my mind was 'reparations.' For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/38043320

5.5: The Order of the Phoenix 09/03/2025

5.5: The Order of the Phoenix Everybody thought more highly of Harry's achievement than Harry did. He didn't realize what an advantage he's just given everybody and what a giant defeat he handed Voldemort, because as Harry has been rightly complaining, nobody's saying "Good job, Harry." And it's good for all these adults to realize, "Wait, Harry, you don't know what you did?" "No. If anybody would talk to me, maybe I would have some idea." For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit . /episode/index/show/11a7f4ac-40ef-499a-93b4-537ae4aade2e/id/37958255

Harry Potter After 2020

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