MuggleCast 269 Transcript
Show Intro
[“Hedwig’s Theme” plays]
Andrew: Because all was well, this is MuggleCast Episode 269 for August 27th, 2013.
[Show music begins]
Andrew: The final episode of MuggleCast is brought to you by Audible.com. Audible is the leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast.
[Show music continues]
Andrew: MuggleCast, MuggleCast, muggly casty MuggleCast.
Ben: Tell us something please.
Eric: Whether it be a theory or the latest news.
Micah: New ride in the Harry Potter park.
Mikey: Or fanfic or Jo’s latest muse.
Andrew: Our heads can do with filling, with some interesting stuff.
Ben: Before you we turned to Muggles.
Eric: They didn’t understand us and went in a huff.
Micah: So, this is just to let you know.
Mikey: That we thank you for being around.
Andrew: Welcome to MuggleCast Episode 269, the final episode. Unless something big happens in the Harry Potter fandom.
Eric: Yes.
Andrew: This has been a long time coming. Let’s first introduce everybody who’s here. We have Eric, Micah, Ben, Kevin, and Mikey B. Hello, boys. It’s a boys episode.
Ben: All boys here.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Okay.
Andrew: But we also have messages from two ladies, Laura Thompson and Jamie Lawrence, coming up later in the show.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: So, you get to look forward to those.
Micah: Well, first though I think we should credit Anna for that poem.
Andrew: Yes, yes. We just plagiarized it.
Micah: Very well done.
Andrew: Thank you to Anna.
Ben: Yeah, from Karachi, Pakistan. If that’s how you pronounce it correctly.
Andrew: So, we…
Ben: Guys, so we made it to Pakistan, guys.
Andrew: [laughs] We finally made it.
Eric: It’s time to quit.
Micah: That’s why we’re ending the show.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Because we made it that far.
Andrew: Well, it’s pretty crazy to think we have finally reached our final episode. Our first episode was in August 2005. So yeah, eight years later, we’re here with 269 episodes in the can. And Ben…
Ben: I’m just glad we all made it, you know? That there weren’t any major drug overdoses…
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Or just the bad things that happen to groups, you know?
Eric: This is true.
Andrew: Well, a lot… yeah.
Mikey: Where are they now, you know?
Ben: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Those documentaries like, “Well, Ben Schoen…”
Andrew: In ten years from now, I want MuggleNet’s Keith Hawk to do a special MuggleCast episode called, “Where are they now?” and it catches up on all ten MuggleCast co-hosts.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Eric: I think he’d probably be willing to do that if we asked him.
Micah: He’s just really excited that you just mentioned him on the final episode of MuggleCast.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I saw him the other day…
Ben: If I still have hair then, I’ll be down.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: Or if I can afford hair plugs. Not that I’m losing my hair, it’s just thinning lightly.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Is there something you want to tell us, Ben?
Kevin: You’re just really self confident? [laughs]
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: I’m just paranoid.
Andrew: So, the first episode back in 2005 was Kevin, Ben, and I. And I remember at the time – I think we’ve told this story before – there was… people were interested in doing the idea of a Harry Potter podcast on MuggleNet, but it didn’t really take off until we were a few episodes in, and people really liked it. And I was actually thinking earlier today, why did people like it so much? And I’ve always been asked that question a lot over the years. And the answer, for a lot of people, is that we’ve been people’s Harry Potter friends, so to speak. They listen to us, they hear a friendly discussion about the latest Harry Potter news, theories, and whatnot, and they enjoy… have a couple… they have a few laughs for 90 minutes a week. It was a… it’s been a great show.
Ben: Yeah, that and I think there’s a certain amount of… if you’re really into something like Harry Potter and you want to have a nuance discussion on such a matter, or listen to a nuance discussion, I think that we really filled that void. Because have you ever tried to talk to somebody who hasn’t read the books or something and been all enthusiastic and then they’ve given you that, “Hey, you’re a weirdo,” look?
[Eric laughs]
Ben: So, it’s kind of like that. We help make people feel normal.
Mikey: That’s never happened to me, Ben. Never ever.
Ben: You never had that happen?
Mikey: No, I’m lying completely. It happens all the time.
Ben: Yeah.
[Mikey laughs]
Ben: You’re like, “Hey, I flew to Florida for a Harry Potter conference.”
Andrew: [laughs] Right.
Ben: People kind of give you that…
Mikey: I met my wife at a Harry Potter conference. So…
Eric: There you go.
Ben: That’s true.
Andrew: That’s the biggest one of them all.
Eric: [laughs] But I think also we hit it… or you guys started the podcast at the right time. Book 6 had just come out. We didn’t know how long there would be until Book 7. As it turns out there was two years, but in that two years were the first hundred episodes of MuggleCast. And now look at us, we’re at 269. But I think all of that was…
Micah: We slacked.
Eric: …speculation and the excitement that was just coming from being in that particular time and place for the Harry Potter series when we didn’t know how it would end.
Andrew: And Harry Potter was really a perfect podcast discussion. I mean, I’ve done podcasts about Twilight and The Hunger Games since then, but Harry Potter there’s so much to talk about in depth in the books. And of course, that’s all thanks to JK Rowling for creating such detailed stories. I mean, thanks to her, and only her, we were able to actually create 269 episodes talking about Harry Potter, which, to any outside fan… this is the second thing I most hear about MuggleCast, is, “What do you guys talk about?”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: Yeah, that’s what everyone is saying to me. “What? You’re still recording?”
Andrew: Yeah. From outsiders, right? It’s just…
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s funny. But if they read the books, [laughs] they probably would have…
Ben: They just don’t get it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: Yeah.
Ben: They just don’t get it.
Micah: I think…
Mikey: My people.
Andrew: Micah?
Micah: I think you guys filled a void too, right at the beginning there. People had just read Half-Blood Prince and they were wondering what’s next, and the podcast was really a perfect form for that.
Andrew: Yeah, because not only do you get the analysis that you would find on forums, but you also can hear the passion coming out of our voices as we were discussing it. And it was also just more fun than reading a forum or reading comments. It’s much more interactive.
Ben: Yeah, I have to say that going into that first episode, in my mind… I don’t know about Andrew or Kevin, but I didn’t have any idea whether this was going to be a one month project or if it was going to flop.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: You know what I mean? I didn’t expect us to all of a sudden be getting the download amounts that we were getting. We didn’t… we started this because we wanted to talk about Harry Potter and we had the platform through MuggleNet, and to me if you would have told me back then that eight years from now we would be doing the final episode I’d be like, “Wow! Eight years. That’s a long time for something like this, I think.”
Andrew: Kevin, were you nervous about doing the first episode? Did you have any reservations?
Kevin: Well, I think to Ben’s point I sort of felt the same way where I wasn’t sure where it was going to go. I was definitely nervous. I remember distinctly being very, very apprehensive about recording my voice.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Hmm.
Kevin: But actually… the actual act of purposely recording yourself is a bit nerve-wracking, I guess.
Andrew: Yeah. And especially because we just didn’t know what to expect, how people would react to the show. So, it got a lot easier with each passing episode.
Ben: Yeah, and for me it’s not so much recording my own voice as it is listening to my own voice.
Kevin: Yes.
Ben: I don’t think that I listened to the show past the fifteenth episode or so because I just… “Do I really sound like that?”
Kevin: I think it’s normal…
Micah: You mean…
Kevin: …for most people to hate the sound of their own voice.
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah.
Ben: That’s not true. You’ve been around…
[Kevin and Micah laugh]
Ben: Most people…
Kevin: This is where you insert a saying, right?
[Ben and Kevin laugh]
Eric: I think it’s fair to say, though…
Kevin: He loves hearing his own voice.
Eric: I think it is fair to say one of the things that doing a show like this helped us develop is our voice, how to speak, too. It’s not just that we can speak, but to speak succinctly and effectively.
Andrew: Oh, definitely.
Eric: It’s something I still work on.
Ben: Says the spielerman.
Eric: Yes.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: It’s true. But it gave a lot of confidence, I think, to a lot of us, I think I can say too, because we were able to communicate our ideas effectively and get such good feedback from people so early on.
Andrew: Yeah. MuggleCast definitely helped me develop speaking skills, not just on podcasts but also in general with other people. I mean, sometimes I catch myself. I feel like I’m hosting a podcast sometimes when I’m in bars or something…
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: …and the other person I’m talking to is really boring so I have to carry the conversation.
Eric: There you go.
Andrew: I almost can’t help but want to throw it over to Micah for the news because I’m just in that zone.
[Everyone laughs]
Kevin: Are you saying that this is a…
Mikey: Is that a hint?
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: [laughs] No, I’m saying I feel like…
Eric: That was the perfect transition, Andrew.
Andrew: I was… oh, with the news. Yes. [laughs]
Eric: Hey, you have been doing this for a long time! [laughs]
Andrew: Yes.
Mikey: He didn’t even know he was throwing that transition over to Micah.
Andrew: No. I’m just so good now.
Micah: It was so seamless, yeah.
News: 15th Anniversary Harry Potter US Paperback Covers to Be Released on August 27th
Andrew: Micah, do you want to do the news? Normally you don’t but I feel like for old time’s sake, you should.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Yeah, this is… you’re putting me on the spot though because there’s zero preparation in this right now. [laughs] But yeah, let’s start off with some news. New Harry Potter covers…
Andrew: What?!
Micah: …are going to be released tomorrow.
Andrew: August 26th.
Micah: August 26th.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: And…
Ben: We’re ending the day before the covers?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Come on.
Andrew: Well, no. This episode, I think, is coming out tomorrow. So…
Mikey: But see, we can now have a whole conversation about what the covers mean.
Ben: Yeah.
Mikey: So, is this the last episode or are we going to have a cover episode?
Andrew: We’ve actually…
Eric: They’ve already been released. Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: How about we speculate about what’s going to be on them?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Wait, the covers are already out. We’ve been talking about them for ten episodes.
Mikey: I know, but we don’t have…
Ben: Oh.
Mikey: …them in our hands.
Ben: Yeah, that’s what I meant. Mikey’s right.
Eric: Yeah. Guys, I think it’s really important or special that we happen to end – at least recording – the night before these new books come out.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I wanted to say this a little later on, but since we’re in the realm of reminiscing and that sort of thing, the seven Harry Potter books that I’m sure we all have copies of – and copies and copies of, by this point – are being replaced, at least by Scholastic, with these new covers that are for the next generation of fans. And so, I can’t help but ask the question, well, what will come out… these were our books, the ones that we know from Mary GrandPré. Now, what kind of crazy things will fans come up with, including podcasts, for the next set of books? This is going on…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: …to the next generation.
Micah: Well, it’s not a different book. It’s just a new cover.
Mikey: Well, no, no, no! You know it’s the…
[Ben laughs]
Eric: I think it is…
Mikey: …Harry Potter special edition. George Lucas went back and added a bunch of special effects. [laughs]
Kevin: Besides, though…
Eric: You know what I mean, though. Growing up, there was no other book to choose from and…
Ben: Yeah, but I think that the difference, Eric, would be in this case… I mean, with MuggleCast, we started it off when Harry Potter was at its peak in terms of… because of the speculation that was happening. I mean, I don’t think they’re… I mean, I think most people, most kids today, already know that Harry won, if someone sees them reading Harry Potter or whatever. I mean, I’d be interested to know if everybody knows that Harry won.
Mikey: Snape kills Dumbledore.
Andrew: Eric’s point is also that the new covers – and this is the whole purpose of Scholastic re-releasing these – it’s to introduce the Harry Potter books to a new generation of readers because these books are suddenly going to be standing out because they’re brand new versions of the book. They’re going to be right at the front of the store and just reaching out to new generations of readers, maybe who are now 13 or 14. Of course, when the first book was published, they were just being born. They were a year old or maybe not even born yet.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Andrew: So, yeah. These will appeal to a new generation of people. Will people make new podcasts and stuff? They better not!
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Stay off my lawn, kids!
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: Stay away!
Eric: Is this a challenge? Is this a hidden listener challenge here? Andrew, are you saying we’d come back and do more episodes if…
Andrew: [laughs] No.
Eric: …we had a new rival? [laughs]
Kevin: Why don’t we just re-release all the episodes with a different…
Micah: There you go.
Eric: Oh!
Kevin: …album art?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I like that idea. Actually, Mikey is the only married one here. I understand he’s going to start the next generation of MuggleCast podcasters.
Mikey: Not anytime soon.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: We’ll avoid that as long as I can.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay!
Eric: Sorry to hear that, Mikey. [laughs]
Andrew: Well…
Eric: You know, children can be a rewarding experience.
Andrew: [laughs] Well, actually…
Kevin: Are you speaking from experience, Eric?
Eric: No, I’m not.
[Kevin and Mikey laugh]
Eric: Yeah, my seven children across the world that…
Andrew: We’re going to continue with today’s final episode of MuggleCast in just a moment. We’re having a lot of fun today and there’s still a lot more fun to be had. But first, it is time to remind you that today’s episode is brought to you by Audible.com, our longtime sponsor. Audible is the Internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 150,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including audio versions of many New York Times Bestsellers. For listeners of MuggleCast, Audible is offering you a free audiobook to give you a chance to try out their great service. I think everybody knows what I’m going to recommend. This is such an easy bet! If you were a betting man, you would bet I am going to recommend The Cuckoo’s Calling by JK Rowling. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend it. This is coming from somebody who did not enjoy The Casual Vacancy, but of course, I was still going to give Rowling’s other books a try because I… we all know she’s a great writer. The Casual Vacancy just wasn’t for me, but The Cuckoo’s Calling was. Man, it was good. We’re going to talk about The Cuckoo’s Calling a little later on in the show, so I’ll save my thoughts for then. But for now, I do recommend this: Go to AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast. You can get The Cuckoo’s Calling for absolutely free. We thank Audible for their support of the show. One last time, AudiblePodcast.com/MuggleCast for your free audiobook.
Speaking of these new covers, actually, I have breaking news just into the MuggleCast newsroom.
Ben: Oh, just in.
Andrew: JK Rowling will be speaking on Good Morning America tomorrow about the fifteenth anniversary of Sorcerer’s Stone. So…
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: I will bet 5,000 dollars she will not say absolutely anything interesting.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Wow!
Kevin: Wow!
Andrew: No, just because… what does she… what could she say that’s going to be interesting to a generic morning show host? She’s going to talk about how it’s crazy that it’s been fifteen years and that’s it.
Kevin: Or new books.
Andrew: Well, yeah. If she did that…
Kevin: That is her own…
Andrew: …that would be significant.
Kevin: Yeah.
Andrew: But…
Eric: The funny thing is, in addition to these covers… and there was this huge media campaign from Scholastic releasing what the images of these covers would be, throughout the past couple of months, actually, and they are all released now, but also it turns out that the spine of these books, of each of these books, also makes up an image?
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: Oh, that is awesome.
Eric: And also, it’s an image of Hogwarts, so that’s pretty cool. If you buy the box set, which I think has extra artwork and all that stuff, it’s all really cool, but also the back covers… I wanted to just mention here, I’ve seen the back covers, and I may actually buy these books for the back covers because I think…
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: He’s going to have them face the cover down in his house.
Eric: I’m going to face them cover down, exactly. I think the back covers are actually some truly interesting pieces of art here that I think I like better than most of the front covers.
Andrew: They’re cool because you see Harry’s back, actually, in each one, or in almost all of them.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And it’s like you’re seeing things from his perspective.
Ben: Oh!
Andrew: Yeah, and they’re also very simplistic and whatnot. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. By the way, I have to mention also, the illustrator who made all these new covers is going to be in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, signing copies of the book and doing a painting demonstration. So, if anybody is going… Ben, come on over. You can learn how to paint with me and Kazu.
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Ben: Yay.
Kevin: Finger painting?
Andrew: Finger painting, yeah.
Kevin: Yes.
Andrew: We’re going to finger paint the covers. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s his method.
[Kevin laughs]
News: Steven Moffat Hints JK Rowling May Write Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Short Story
Andrew: Yeah. So, moving on from the new covers. Do you want me to get this next one, Micah? Then you can get the other two.
Micah: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.
Andrew: I feel like you are least informed about this one.
Micah: Yeah, yeah… oh, sorry.
Andrew: Wow, eff you!
Micah: [laughs] What? I didn’t do anything!
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: But no, I was going to say that I forgot one thing, which I’m somewhat disappointed Ben didn’t jump in on, but when you threw the news over, I didn’t do the obligatory, “Thanks, Andrew.”
[Everyone laughs]
Ben, Eric, and Mikey: Oh!
Eric: I thought it was gone forever!
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: But yeah, you can take the next story.
Andrew: Okay. [in a deep voice] Thanks, Micah.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Steven Moffat has hinted that JK Rowling may write a Doctor Who 50th anniversary short story.
Ben: Oh, my gosh.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean talk about cross-fandom mind explosion. I don’t think any of us here are MuggleCast… or Doctor Who viewers, but…
Ben: Is she just diluting her brand?
Kevin: It’s funny that you mention that.
Andrew: Why?
Kevin: I’m on season three now…
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Eric: Woo!
Kevin: …of the new series.
Mikey: Do you remember how many times I tried to get you to watch Doctor Who in my apartment?
Andrew: Me?
Ben: It’s just not my thing, Doctor Who.
Mikey: Doctor Who is amazing.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m not into science fiction.
Ben: One day I realized there are more good TV shows and movies than there are time left in my life.
Andrew: [laughs] That’s true.
Ben: So you just got to pick and choose, and I just couldn’t choose Doctor Who. I wish I could be excited about this.
Eric: Okay.
Mikey: But you have to understand, when David Tennant was Doctor Who, he actually did an episode about the seventh book before the seventh book was out.
Andrew: Oh, cool.
Mikey: And he made jokes about what happened in the end, and he wouldn’t tell anyone. It was awesome.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Wow.
Mikey: So, Doctor Who and Harry Potter have crossed over before. Sorry, I am a Doctor Who fan.
Andrew: One thing to keep in mind, this is just a short story. She’s not writing an episode, but she may be writing a short story. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary, they’re having eleven children’s authors write them, and Steven Moffat suggested that she will be writing one of these. He was asked recently if it was true and he said he couldn’t confirm right now.
Mikey: He also had hinted a long time ago in an interview that he had hoped she would actually write the episode.
Andrew: Yes, they actually gave her an offer to write…
Mikey: Yup.
Andrew: …but she said no. [laughs]
Eric: Oh.
Micah: She said Robert will take care of that.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Kevin: Yes.
Eric: Kevin, by season three, do you mean you’re on Tennant now? Or did you go way…
Kevin: Yes.
Eric: Oh, okay. Cool.
Mikey: You’re new Doctor. You’re not going back to…
Kevin: New, yeah.
Mikey: …Season 1…
Kevin: But…
Mikey: …old, old Doctor Who.
Kevin: Yeah, I started with what Amazon suggested, which was…
Mikey: Season 1 of…
Kevin: …the new series, I guess.
Eric: Yeah.
Mikey: The new series, yeah. It’s good.
Eric: I’ve been told to start with Eccleston. I think I will rewatch, but…
Mikey: I like Eccleston, but honestly if you want to catch up now, you can probably just start after Tennant, even though Tennant was my favorite Doctor. You can start with Matt Smith.
Andrew: All right.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Mikey: Because… yeah. They basically… when Tennant moved on, they basically redid the whole thing so you can actually skip those previous four seasons if you want.
Eric: Fascinating.
Andrew: Guys, you know Hypable…
Ben: Doctor Who death.
Andrew: …does have a Doctor Who-Cast.
Mikey: I know.
Andrew: You can join that one if you want to talk about that. [laughs]
Mikey: I know. You want me to talk about Star Wars, too? I mean…
Andrew: [laughs] No. Micah, what else is going on?
News: Warner Bros. and Universal Orlando Announce Celebration of Harry Potter Event
Micah: Warner Bros. and Universal have announced their own Harry Potter con…
Andrew: What!
[Eric laughs]
Micah: …at the Wizarding World Orlando. I guess they finally caught on to this thing that’s been going on for the last couple of years.
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: It’s going to be on January 24th of next year and a lot of cool things going on. This is not too different. They did something similar to this in the past, didn’t they?
Andrew: Yes, it was called Harry Potter Home Entertainment Celebration.
Micah: That’s what Eric went to.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. That was a little different, but it wasn’t that much different. But it was, because of the public’s access to it. This is for the public and what’s similar is that a ton of actors… have they released the list yet…
Andrew: No.
Eric: …of who’s going to be there?
Andrew: No.
Eric: Okay. A series of members of the cast and crew will be on site and accessible through different ways, on site, at the Wizarding World theme park during this convention. For the Home Entertainment Celebration, it was more of a press event. There were several, I guess, local fans who were able to kind of stand behind in a separate area of the red carpet, but they did a red carpet thing to celebrate all the films being out on home video, on DVD.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: But this was very reminiscent of that, you’re right, just because it’s the idea of having a VIP event in the park like only Universal can really pull off and schedule because it’s their park.
Andrew: Right, and… yeah, exactly. They have things here. They’re going to have Q&A sessions, a Harry Potter film tribute, which I don’t know what that is, a wand master class with Paul Harris, one of the wand guys from the movies who, I guess, taught the actors how to move their wands…
Ben: Are you going to that class, Andrew?
Andrew: Yeah, I love wands. Mhm. Early park admission, breakfast at the Three Broomsticks, a private evening event. And I suspect, if I…
Ben: What does that mean? Private evening event.
Andrew: It’s like the ones that’s been at the other Harry Potter cons. The…
Micah: Do you bring your wand to that?
Andrew: [laughs] Yes.
Ben: So, it’s roped off like a VIP?
Andrew: [laughs] I don’t know. In fact…
Eric: The park has its normal business hours of operation and then I’m certain that this would be after those hours. They would close the park…
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Hmm.
Eric: …to those outside guests and then just the ones who are going to this could attend.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: How many people are they… is it as many people…
Andrew: Allowing?
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: It says… no, it’s limited. There’s a certain amount of tickets for the reserved areas for the Q&As and whatnot. I mean, this is a cool idea. Like we said, they already did one of these before. A lot of people are comparing this to – Mikey is going to know this – a Star Wars Celebration it’s called?
Mikey: Yup. The different Star Wars Celebrations?
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Oh, Mikey gets to talk about Star Wars. Tell us more.
[Andrew, Eric, and Mikey laugh]
Mikey: Who would have guessed, right?
Eric: What’s the Star Wars Celebration? What is that?
Mikey: Well, the original celebrations actually came out with the release of the new films – one, two, and three.
Eric: Okay. Yeah.
Mikey: And so they’ve kept it ongoing with anniversaries of the films. Basically, the Star Wars Celebrations are kind of like Comic Con but all Star Wars based.
Eric: Hmm.
Mikey: So, there’s always panels with actors and everything. You could… like at Comic Con, you can buy your signature from the actor of your choice and stuff like that.
Ben: Oh, okay. So, these are the things that have been keeping that Mark Hamill guy – is that his name – employed, right?
Mikey: Except he’s the Joker in all the Batman cartoons.
Eric: He does a ton of voice-over work.
Mikey: Yeah.
Ben: Wait…
Eric: Is that Disney or Universal that does this Disney… the Star Wars things?
Andrew: Well, Disney…
Mikey: It’s Lucasfilm. It was actually Lucasfilm for the longest time, and they also… what was really cool about Lucasfilm doing these celebration things, it’s kind of what I think I hope Warner Bros. is going to do with Harry Potter and Universal is going to do. It’s going to encourage fan productions. One of the great things about the celebrations is that they even did Star Wars fan film festivals.
Eric: Hmm.
Mikey: And Lucasfilm gave away awards for the different fan films and different things like that. And I hope that they’ll kind of push Harry Potter to do stuff like this, too, because it’s a great fandom to be in.
Andrew: The timing of this is also set for the fact that it’s going to be a slow time, it’s the winter months. So, they’ll pull some extra traffic in during this typically slow period for the park. Not to mention, a lot of people know that the Diagon Alley expansion is going to be happening in the following summer, so a lot of people may be like, “Well, we’re just going to wait for that to open before we go.” I suspect that… if I were a betting man, they will probably announce…
Mikey: There it is. There it is.
Andrew: They will announce something at this Harry Potter Celebration. So when you go there, they’ll preview some rides or the new rides or something like that.
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: By the way…
Micah: I would be surprised… oh, I was just going to say, if you start getting invites, MuggleNet starts getting invites, I would think that that would be a tell-tale sign that they’re going to reveal something…
Andrew: Yeah.
Micah: …about the park.
Andrew: Breaking news for this story as well. I have been signed on to attend… I will be talking about my Tower of Falling Dumbledore ride concept and petitioning for that to be created there.
Eric: Wow. Okay.
Andrew: Yeah. Mhm. It will be a half hour Q&A. You can ask me anything and everything about it. Tickets are now on sale.
Micah: How does that work? Do you ride Dumbledore as he falls down?
Andrew: Well, no. Picture the Tower of Terror at Disney World.
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: Tower of Terror at Disney World, right?
Micah: Okay.
Andrew: So, you get strapped on to Dumbledore’s back and you kind of go up the tower…
[Mikey laughs]
Eric: Does this answer your question, or is it just raising more questions than it’s answering?
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Why did he have to fall from the tower? I don’t understand that.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: He didn’t have to… that didn’t kill him. He was already dead, right?
Mikey: “Severus. Please.”
Andrew: He was going to die anyway. [laughs] To quote the previous MuggleCast episode.
Eric: I just won bingo! [laughs] We referenced all the little things from our past.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Enough for me to win the card.
Andrew: What else is going on in the news? What other big story, Micah? What could it be?
News: Pottermore Announces New Design and Features
Micah: Pottermore. [laughs] The last time we’ll ever talk about it on this podcast.
Andrew: [laughs] You think? Could this be the last time?
[Eric laughs]
Micah: I highly doubt that. I highly doubt it. But they did some big changes. They overhauled the homepage with a brand new design, and they implemented this new Story Navigator feature, which really changes the way that users interface and use the website, and I actually like it to be honest with you. I checked it out not too long ago.
Andrew: Well, yeah, the big deal about this is that you no longer have to go through every single Moment. You can just skip around and be wherever you want to be. So, when new chapters come out… let’s say you just joined Pottermore today. You can go straight in and jump straight to the Sorting Hat. You don’t have to do all that crap beforehand.
Eric: Right.
Andrew: And that’s what a lot of people were asking for. They didn’t want to go through all this stuff to get to the Sorting Hat. Just sort me so I can leave! [laughs]
Eric: Yeah. Well, that stuff happens in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, I think, getting your wand and getting sorted and all that stuff. It was stressful to go through and not be able to get sorted right away.
Ben: But see, it was supposed to be rewarding when you finally got sorted because…
Eric: That’s true.
Ben: …you worked through all of that. You know what this reminds me of? The special features on the first DVD.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Do you remember how God awful those were?
Andrew: Yeah.
Kevin: That was awful.
Ben: You had to… it was like freakin’ reading Chinese for me. I didn’t…
Eric: True story, Ben. Last month, I had to look up… and God bless Google Cache for looking at older websites. I had to look up how to break into the special features of my Sorcerer’s Stone DVD because I couldn’t win the tap-the-bricks mini scene there.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: So, I found it…
Andrew: Yeah, that was a pain.
Eric: …I got them, but it took a while.
Andrew: So, Pottermore is trying to change. They’re doing these changes. I think that was the biggest stuff that they’re revealing over the next few months. We’ll see if they announce anything else.
Micah: Yeah. They wrapped…
Andrew: Yeah?
Micah: …Prisoner of Azkaban though, didn’t they?
Andrew: Right.
Micah: It’s now done.
Andrew: Right. I want to talk about this theory briefly. Micah and Eric, please stop me if I’ve talked about this already, my theory about the Harry Potter encyclopedia not happening until Pottermore is finished.
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: Have I talked about that?
Eric: No.
Andrew: Oh, really? Well, just briefly, I think we are not going to see a Harry Potter encyclopedia by JK Rowling until Pottermore has released all of its chapters, because Sony seems to have a stronghold over JK Rowling and talking about anything with the encyclopedia. You guys may remember when she revamped her website last year, she inadvertently announced that she was working on the encyclopedia.
Eric: Oh. [laughs]
Andrew: And then we all caught wind of it, we all wrote about it on our websites, and then a couple of days later, they updated the blurb and she took out all mentions of an encyclopedia and said, “I’m just really enjoying working on Pottermore right now, ha ha ha!”
[Eric laughs]
Ben: This is shady.
Andrew: It was. Here, I’ll give you… these are the exact quotes. I dug these up the other day. She had said, this was what was originally on the site:
“For a long time I have been promising an encyclopedia of Harry’s world, and I have started work on this now – some of it forms the new content in Pottermore. It is likely to be a time-consuming job, but when finished I shall donate all royalties to charity.”
So that’s a clear statement, Harry Potter encyclopedia book, because she’s going to be donating the royalties to charity. There’s no royalties involved with Pottermore. So, I guess… no, it’s probably not. And then it changed to this a few days later:
“I have been enjoying sharing information about Harry’s world on Pottermore for free, and don’t have any firm plans to publish it in book form.”
That was it.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Yeah, somebody screwed up.
Eric: Wow.
Micah: Fire that web producer.
Andrew: Well…
Eric: Somebody said, “Take that back, Jo!”
Andrew: Well, yeah, I think Pottermore saw this and said, “Wait a second, don’t take the attention off of Pottermore. It’s all about us right now.” So, I suspect we’re not going to see it until Deathly Hallows is out on Pottermore.
Eric: I will say, too, we give a lot of… some flack sometimes for talking about Pottermore, but you know what? I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the special new environments that are happening at Pottermore at PlayStation Home for PlayStation 3.
Andrew: Nobody cares about that.
Eric: No, I’m serious! I really do care about it.
Micah: Are you getting paid by PlayStation?
Andrew: [laughs] I know. You’ve talked about it so much.
Eric: No, no, no! It’s Pottermore. I did this review for it. This was ages ago when there were only three areas. There are now like ten areas you can go to.
Andrew: Cool.
Eric: You can go to class, you can go to Hogwarts, you can ride the train. I’m telling you guys, Pottermore itself is updating faster than I can keep an eye on it…
Andrew: All right.
Eric: …and also Pottermore PlayStation Home. So I just have to say, I am really excited to go try that whenever I can, and…
Andrew: And, once again, Pottermore PlayStation Home. That’s Pottermore, P-O-T-T… who’s read The Cuckoo’s Calling?
Micah: Well, just before you go, I know we’ve done our fair share of analyzing Pottermore, over… really since it’s been released, but there is some really cool information on Lupin towards the end of Prisoner of Azkaban.
Andrew: Yes.
Micah: So, I would encourage people to go and read it. It’s probably the most in-depth information that we’ve gotten from JK Rowling in Pottermore, just in terms of how long the entry is. So we do make fun of it and have our jabs at it from time to time, but I do think it’s still a great resource because, Andrew, you pointed out, this may be the only place we get this information for the next couple of years.
Andrew: Yeah, and actually that information about Lupin, there’s a bunch of stuff on his relationship with Tonks as well that is all new, and I purposefully wrote up an article on Hypable just about that new info because I knew people are so… people love Lupin so much, and the article was really popular. So if you don’t want to log into Pottermore, you can just go to Hypable and read it.
Eric: Well, there you go.
Ben: Oh, that’s the fifth Hypable plug…
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: No, it’s not!
Ben: …and we’re not even past page one.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Come on.
Eric: Well, while we’re plugging things and while we’re on the subject…
Micah: Can you learn about The Cuckoo’s Calling on Hypable, too?
Andrew: Yeah, we cover everything.
Micah: Oh.
Eric: …the Remus backstory was analyzed by another one of the Harry Potter podcasts out there called Alohomora! They did a special episode last week where they looked through the Remus stuff as well. I wasn’t on that episode, so it’s okay for me to plug it.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, so…
Micah: No, if you were on it, then I would understand you plugging it.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, I’m on that podcast now full time, so besides that episode. So, I can plug it then.
The Cuckoo’s Calling Discussion
Andrew: Let’s talk about The Cuckoo’s Calling. This is JK Rowling’s second book after the Harry Potter books. We all know about it already. Who’s finished reading it?
[Prolonged silence]
Andrew: Just me?
Kevin: I haven’t even started it.
Ben: I’ve just had it saved, you know?
Andrew: Well, okay, I’ve actually finished reading it, and one wise alec by the way, I read somewhere, commented… was jabbing at me because they were like, oh, Andrew finally finished an adult JK Rowling Potter… or adult JK Rowling book?
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Andrew: Yeah, I did.
Ben: Implying that you only read children’s books.
Andrew: Well, no, because I stopped reading Casual Vacancy because I didn’t like it.
Ben: Oh.
Andrew: I think that had something to do with that.
Ben: Was it too complex for you?
Andrew: No, actually, Ben, but I enjoyed The Cuckoo’s Calling very much. It had pictures, which made it easy for me to get through.
Ben: Yeah.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: Pictures? I haven’t seen any pictures.
Eric: Well, they don’t have a picture version.
Ben: Andrew only watches TV shows and stuff that have a little bouncing ball on the words across the bottom.
[Micah laughs]
Andrew: Right. Karaoke videos.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: No, but The Cuckoo’s Calling, it’s much more to JK Rowling’s writing abilities. Being a… her writing a mystery, much better, I thought, than The Casual Vacancy because it just plays into her strengths more as an author. I enjoyed the entire book. It was a really great twist at the end. However, it was a bit of an info dump, I guess you could say. It just… everything kind of unraveled at once, and it’s just pages and pages of explanation. [laughs]
Eric: Okay.
Andrew: It could have been spread out a little bit more.
Micah: It’s interesting that you say that because I’m about maybe 300 pages into the book and I just feel like more needs to happen faster. It’s just… they take so much time building up this detective sort of interviewing each of the people that are… not really considered suspects because the investigation is closed, but…
Ben: Well, Micah, you’ve got to appreciate the buildup so that you can appreciate the climax.
[Micah laughs]
Ben: And then the dénouement, the resolution, et cetera.
Micah: That’s a great point, Ben.
Andrew: Well, you…
Eric: Well, I’m about a hundred pages in and I…
Andrew: Oh, that’s nothing.
Eric: No, he’s only started…
Mikey: I’m only 40 pages in. I only started it this week.
Eric: What was that, Micah? Mikey?
Mikey: I only started it this week, but I… the first bit of it because I read it a long time ago on the free part for iBooks, but what I liked about it was that first chapter was all about…
Ben: Hey…
Mikey: It reminded me of Sunset Boulevard.
Eric: Yeah. [laughs]
Mikey: Sunset Boulevard, the movie. It starts with the murder.
Ben: Hey! Whoa!
Andrew: What?
Ben: I’m still on the title page. I haven’t even…
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: He’s looking at the picture, still.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Oh, that girl is pretty.
Eric: I do fully intend to finish reading it, unlike Casual Vacancy.
Ben: I do, too.
Eric: I really do want to finish reading it. I’m glad you finished, that’s really cool.
Andrew: Yeah, I did it all by myself.
Eric: Well, it gives me hope, is all I’m saying.
Andrew: It was just… I thought… going against what Micah said, I thought it actually moved at a great pace and I found it interesting to hear from all these different characters as Strike – that’s the lead character – is interviewing them. And him and his assistant, Robin, I think they have a very fun chemistry to read. By the way, JK Rowling has said she already finished writing book number two. So…
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: Yay!
Eric: The Cormoran Strike series.
Micah: But…
Ben: Honestly, I can’t wait to read it because… actually, I want to re-read the Harry Potter series because I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve re-read the books and it’s kind of like there’s a movie that you’ve watched a ton of times and then you wait a few years and watch it again, you’re like, “Oh, yeah! That’s why this movie was so awesome!”
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I doubt when they win the Quidditch Cup in Prisoner of Azkaban I’ll be jumping on my bed like I was 13…
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: …but I want to recapture the magic.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Well, it’s funny that we’re talking about that, not just because the new books are coming out, but also regarding The Cuckoo’s Calling and Harry Potter, I know this from Chris Rankin on Twitter, the actor who played Percy Weasley in the films, he says that the location, the geographical location in London, for Cormoran Strike, the detective, his office is actually David Heyman’s office, Heyday Films’ headquarters where a lot of those actors went to audition for their parts in Harry Potter.
Micah: Wait, so he’s saying that David Heyman sleeps in his office?
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Eric: No, no, no, no, no, no. The sleeping in their office thing is probably purely – or possibly, doubtfully – a Cormoran Strike-only thing, but that is the office location for Heyday Films. So, it’s a little nod by JK Rowling back to either Harry Potter or David Heyman.
Andrew: Okay…
Micah: Strike reminds me a lot of Mad-Eye Moody.
Andrew: He does! Yeah, you’re right, actually. And there was something about him that is very similar to Mad-Eye. Very similar. A couple of things.
Eric: His leg.
Andrew: Oh! Now, why would you spoil that?
Eric: Oh, oh, oh. You can edit it out.
Andrew: No, it’s all right. It’s too late. I want everybody to…
Micah: You can’t edit it out of Mikey and Ben’s ears.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Kevin: What about me? [laughs]
Eric: I don’t think it’s the big reveal.
Micah: And Kevin’s.
Ben: Kevin’s.
Eric: Kevin, you’re the one who read Deathly Hallows before it came out, [laughs] so I don’t feel too bad.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
MuggleCast 269 Transcript (continued)
Listener Rebuttal: Film Actors Doing Theatre Work
Andrew: Okay, we have a Listener Rebuttal here. Who wants to read it?
Ben: Rebuttal? I want to read it.
Eric: Oh, I miss these segments. Listener Rebuttals, do you guys remember these?
Ben: Sweet…
Andrew: Yeah, I miss them.
Ben: …sweet, sweet Caroline says:
“Hey, MuggleCasters!
First of all, I have been a listener of the show for six years, and thank you so much for an amazing podcast! I have really enjoyed listening to MuggleCast over the years, and although I am sad to see my favorite podcast go, I wish you all luck in the future.
Second, I was just listening to Episode 268, and you guys were discussing Rupert Grint and wondering if it was common for movie actors to do theatre after being famous. It is not uncommon for some famous actors to spend some time in the theatre after they’re famous; it’s not just a ‘Harry Potter’ actor thing. A few recent examples are Emilia Clarke, Jane Lynch, Jeff Goldblum, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Hanks. Just thought you might like to know.
Thanks!
Caroline, 19, Clemson, South Carolina”
Micah: It’s difficult…
Ben: Wow, I wish I had been on this episode because…
Mikey: I know.
Ben: …I could have told you guys off.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: You know what I really like about that rebuttal is it’s not really a rebuttal, it’s a statement that Andrew was wrong. I mean, that’s what happened.
Andrew: No, there was nothing wrong that we did. All… [laughs] we were wondering if it was common for movie actors to do theatre.
Ben: No, you’re just feeding people misinformation, dude.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: I know. You’re like, “It’s only a Harry Potter thing,” is what I got from that.
Eric: I will step in for Andrew because I think it was pretty much me who said it, too, anyway, that we were relying on the intellect of our listeners to give us more information than we had presently at the time of recording, and that is exactly what has just happened. Thank you, Caroline.
Mikey: Eric, you have Google in front of you.
Listener Rebuttal: Episode 219
Andrew: And here is a major throwback. This is from Thea. She says:
“Hello, I was just listening to Episode 219. I realized that a female host could have added so much insight into the show! Oh well, this episode was made in 2010.”
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: Full disclosure, Eric Scull added that in. I don’t know why.
Eric: Oh, I added that… oh, it was because it was a rebuttal as well, but it was kind of…
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, but it was from 2010!
Eric: I’m just trying to group them together. Leave no email unread is my policy.
Micah: Well, what was… since you put it in here, what was Episode 219?
Eric: I looked it up, actually. I put that in there, too. It was “A Progressive Castle.” I don’t know what it was actually talking about, but apparently it was an all guys…
Micah: There weren’t show notes?
Eric: Yeah, I have to…
Kevin: You didn’t listen to the whole episode?
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: I would have to look… it was called “A Progressive Castle.”
Andrew: Well, judging by that title, we probably talked about gay rights at Hogwarts or something.
Eric: It was… let me look at it. I’ll tell you in a moment here.
Ben: Oh, and we probably totally missed women’s rights at Hogwarts, didn’t we?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Probably something like that.
Ben: Yeah. Whoops.
Andrew: It was from January 23rd…
Ben: Sorry.
Andrew: …2011. We spoke about Chapters 21 through 23 of Goblet of Fire, so…
Eric: Oh. That doesn’t sound so mind blowing, but yeah.
Anti-Jokes
Andrew: On the last episode of MuggleCast, Jamie was actually on, Episode 268, and he introduced us to anti-jokes.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And it kind of bombed.
[Andrew, Eric, and Mikey laugh]
Eric: It was supposed to.
Micah: But that’s the point, though.
Eric: That’s the point of anti-jokes.
Andrew: But then why even do it if it’s going to bomb? Anyway, Allie… several of our listeners sent in anti-joke suggestions after we requested them.
Eric: Per Jamie’s request. Yeah.
Andrew: Allie sent in this one:
“Why did the plane crash? Because its pilot was a loaf of bread.”
[Prolonged silence]
Andrew: See?
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: See, aren’t these dumb?
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: These are the worst jokes ever. Allie says…
Mikey: No…
Andrew: Allie says:
“For some reason, that one gets me every time.”
Eric: Let’s just listen…
Ben: Once they marinate a bit, then I think they’re funny.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: But initially, it’s just like, “What?”
Mikey: Can we analyze this one, please?
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: Analyze this. So if a plane crashed, it’s because the pilot was a loaf of bread. Bread doesn’t have arms!
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: That explains why it crashed.
Andrew: I can see why you appreciate it, Mikey.
Mikey: [laughs] Bread doesn’t have arms.
Andrew: This next one is from Daniel. Now, he prefaces this by at least admitting that it’s terrible. The joke is:
“Two oranges are rolling down a hill. One says to the other, ‘Where do you live?’ The other replies, ‘I’m not telling you, you might steal my washing.'”
[Prolonged silence]
Andrew: Okay? See, these are the worst things on the planet. This is worse than any podcast we’ve ever done ever.
[Eric laughs]
Ben: I like this next one, though. This is a good one.
Andrew: Go ahead.
Ben: [continues]
“Anti-joke: What’s orange and tastes like an orange? An orange.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: Oh! That is clever!
Micah: What’s with Anna and Daniel both using oranges? Are they common in anti-jokes?
Eric: I think oranges are the center of the time-space continuum, and anti-jokes in particular have to revolve around them in order to be anti-jokes.
Mikey: It’s the citric acid.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Mikey: It’s the compound in citric acid that causes the anti-joke.
Eric: There you go.
Ben: Eric, you are an anti-joke. I’m just kidding.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: Wow!
Mikey: Eric, I like anti-jokes.
[Ben laughs]
Eric: I like you, too.
Special Messages from Jamie and Laura
Andrew: Like I mentioned earlier, we have messages from Laura and Jamie. They couldn’t make it today. They really both wanted to, but they just couldn’t because of our recording time. So…
Micah: That’s not acceptable.
Andrew: Let’s listen to… [laughs] you’re right, forget about this!
Micah: It’s the last episode. You know what? Man up!
Ben: This is awesome, though. We get to heckle them without them being here. So…
Micah: That’s true.
Andrew: Well, yeah, so here we go.
Jamie: Hello, everyone! I’m sorry I can’t be there on this final regular episode of MuggleCast. The way I’m recording this feels to me like one of those films where they put a videotape on, and there’s a person in slippers and a dressing gown, sitting by the fire, and he says, “If you’re seeing this then I’m already dead.” But no, I’m sorry I can’t be there. It’s because I’m going on holiday tomorrow for a week and they’re recording it brilliantly right when I’m away, so sorry. I hope everyone enjoys the final episode. It feels like a very long time, a lifetime – in a good way – since we’ve started recording the show. Some incredible things have happened. We’ve met some incredible people, we’ve done some really enjoyable things, and we’ve had a laugh and really enjoyed all the things we’ve talked about. There’s been some incredible analysis and jokes – those would be my favorite part of it, probably – and I’d just like to say thanks very much for everyone who has tuned in over the years, especially the regular listeners who have been with us right from the very beginning or from an early stage. Without you, we wouldn’t have got to this episode now. I’m not sure which one this is. Is this 267? 268? But there’s no way we’d be even close to this if it wasn’t for you, so thank you very much. This is not going to be the end. Is there ever going to be a proper end? I don’t think so. This is just the end, obviously, of the regular ones, so I’m hoping to come back when we do a new one soon for a special announcement or some new book came out or JK Rowling has been unmasked as Edward Snowden or something like this, some incredible story. So, I hope to catch everyone soon and enjoy this final episode. Take care. Buh-bye.
Laura: Hey, guys. It’s Laura. I just wanted to record a little something to offer my final thoughts for our last episode of MuggleCast. First of all, please excuse me for sounding like a total frog. I’m recovering from a really nasty chest cold right now. So anyway, even though it breaks my heart not to be able to record the final show with everyone today, I’m so looking forward to hearing the episode when it comes out. I figured a big portion of tonight’s show would be looking back at our favorite moments since the show started all that time ago, and I’d like to share with you a couple of mine. The live show in Las Vegas in 2006 was my first live show, and I feel far enough removed from that day to admit that I was sweating bullets when I realized how many people were going to be in that room watching us. I was literally shaking when I took my seat at the table, but then the audience cheered so loud when I suggested that Snape was in love with Lily that I forgot about my fears and was able to let loose a bit and actually enjoy that moment. Up until that point, our listener base was just a number on the screen to me, and intellectually I knew there were a ton of you, but it wasn’t until I was lucky enough to interact with the incredibly kindhearted and enthusiastic people in the audience that day that I realized just what an effect this show had on both the audience and ourselves. My other favorite memory is of going to London for the Deathly Hallows release in 2007. Aside from the obvious reason of getting my hands on the book and having the opportunity to travel, I love looking back on this trip because there was such a camaraderie amongst all of us staying in that tiny little hotel room, propped up on our pillows, reading at lightning speed to try and beat each other to the end. I knew I had good friends in my fellow co-hosts, but there was something so incredibly familiar and comfortable about that atmosphere that really made it feel like home, and I know it’s because of the people I was sharing the experience with. Andrew, Jamie, Eric, and Kevin were also nice enough to only laugh at me a little bit for crying when Hedwig died, which I thought was pretty diplomatic. Overall, though, there are so many reasons why MuggleCast has been an amazing part of all our lives. I started doing this show when I was sixteen, and that’s an age where you’re so desperately trying to figure out who you are and where you’re going. It’s safe to say that my experience on the show led me to discover interests I may not have ever known I had, and I think it’s what ultimately started me down the path towards becoming a teacher. It’s definitely a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to the show, but the show and its success and longevity are a testament to the amazing things all of the hosts are doing and will continue to do as we grow older. And that’s true of the listeners, too. Being passionate enough to produce a show means nothing unless there are people passionate enough to listen, and to all of our listeners, I can’t thank you enough for giving myself and everyone else on this show a voice. You guys are all awesome and will always, always have a special place in my heart. Take care.
Andrew: Thank you, Laura and Jamie, for both of those messages. It was nice to hear from them one last time. Of course they’ll be invited on for future episodes if we do that for whatever reason.
Eric: We have a question about that actually, Andrew.
Andrew: Oh! Okay, here…
Eric: Perfect transition.
Listener Rebuttal/What If?
Eric: Right here on this listener rebuttal, and this is actually… the reason it came after the other listener rebuttals is because it turns into a “What If?” segment.
Andrew: Okay, so this comes from Becky from Australia. She writes:
“Thank you for eight awesome years of podcasting! I’ve been listening since April 2006, when I was 14, and I’m very sad that the show is ending. I love all of you, except Andrew.”
Wow! Okay.
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: [continues]
“I have a couple of questions…”
Why would this be included?
“I have a couple of questions for you, and an idea for a segment.
Last month you were discussing the similarities discovered by linguistic computers between ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling,’ ‘The Casual Vacancy,’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,’ which confirmed that JK Rowling is Robert Galbraith. Do you think that if the entire ‘Harry Potter’ series was examined by these linguistic computers, they would find the significant parallels between Books 1 and 7, 2 and 6, and 3 and 5?
My other question is, what is your plan for future discussions about ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ and its sequels? Have you been covering this on Hype…”
Oh, she’s referring to the podcast on Hypable.com, boys.
“…or will you release special episodes of MuggleCast to discuss the future books and other ‘Cuckoo’ news…”
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Micah: Wait, you have another website?
Eric: Oh, the…
Andrew: No, it’s okay. It’s okay. I don’t need this listener to hate me anymore.
Eric: No, no, no, no. Andrew, you’ve been bluffed. Or you’ve been hoodwinked here.
Andrew: Oh!
Eric: Becky actually said… and this may have been Kevin, who was trying to get out of reading this. Think I should just slam you, Kevin, [laughs] but whatever. It originally said: “I love all of you, especially Andrew.”
Andrew: Ah!
Ben: Yeah, I actually changed that to “except.”
Eric: Oh, it was Ben. Okay.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: I messed up.
Kevin: So, you blame me…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Well, you know, you didn’t want to read it! I don’t know.
Andrew: [laughs] Okay, so to answer her questions – that’s a good question. Using the linguistics experts to see if there are similarities, I would guess no. Linguistic experts wouldn’t be able to see similarities between 1 and 7, 2 and 6, 3 and 5, because that’s more about the words.
Mikey: Well, they would see it between all the books…
Ben: Yeah.
Mikey: …because it’s the same style.
Eric: The plots are similar.
Ben: Because they’re linguistic experts. It’s not about the plot, it’s about the way in which she uses her linguistics…
Andrew: Right, but they would all be the same across all seven books, I think.
Ben: And The Cuckoo’s Calling…
Mikey: Yeah.
Ben: …and…
Mikey: The Casual Vacancy.
Ben: The Casual Vacancy, yeah.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: It’s like a forensics thing.
Micah: Isn’t that what John Granger does?
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: Doesn’t he analyze that kind of stuff?
Eric: Yeah, it’s a literary structure called ring theory – it’s one of the options – and he’s got a lot of evidence stating that JK Rowling has subscribed to this in the past. It’s about tying books or series with multiple installments together using a sort of internal referencing system. It kind of ends up being built into our culture, the way certain things relate to each other, like the beginning and the end tie in to each other and all that other stuff. So, it’s kind of exciting. But I think if a linguistic computer were to analyze it, they would find… it’s kind of two different functions. One wants to determine if these two supposedly separate authors were the same based on how they set up their sentences basically, I guess it would be. And then plots, even though they are similar and may have similar things that happen in them, like a rising action and falling action, I think those are… the words that JK Rowling used to describe each of those was different enough for us that I don’t think a computer would pick it up.
Andrew: And then about the question, what are we going to do about covering Cuckoo’s Calling? You know, we’ll play that by ear on MuggleCast. And I know everybody is hating on me for plugging Hypable, but yeah, we do cover it on Hypable. Sorry. Make your own Cuckoo’s Calling site.
Eric: Look, it’s okay, Andrew. Becky loves you! Remember…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: …this is an “especially Andrew” not an “except Andrew.”
Andrew: I’m waiting for somebody to make StrikeNet.
Eric: StrikeNet?
Andrew: Yeah. That’s a cool name, right?
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: So, we will play all future Harry Potter and Cuckoo’s Calling and other JK Rowling book news by ear. Time will tell. Thank you, Becky, for your email.
Micah: She does have a “What If?” there at the end.
Andrew: Oh, okay. What if…
Micah: It says…
Andrew: Go ahead.
Micah: [continues]
“Finally, the segment. I’d like to hear each of your answers to the following question: If you could live in just one ‘Harry Potter’ book (as in, live through Harry’s year at Hogwarts in that book, but not necessarily be Harry), which book would you choose, and why? And would you like to be Harry, or another character, or just yourself?”
Andrew: Book 1, because everything is just pleasant.
Kevin: [laughs] I was just going to say that.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Kevin: That’s exactly the reason. Because you wouldn’t want the school blowing up around you while you were going to school.
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: And not to mention, being prepared to die. I’m not ready to die.
Eric: So, you guys would choose just an uninterrupted swell year at Hogwarts?
Kevin: Basically.
Eric: In its prime. Yeah, I think that’s probably the right way to go. The safe way to go.
Ben: I would do Year 3.
Micah: Yeah, I agree.
Ben: That would be the year.
Eric: But who would you be? That’s the second part of the…
Ben: Filch.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: I don’t think Filch ever had an easy year.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: No, he didn’t. Poor Filch. No, I would be… I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Harry? It’s like…
Andrew: Especially with the Time-Turner.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Ben: And then he had never had a legitimate father figure, and Remus and Sirius are both introduced.
Andrew: Mhm.
Ben: So, that was a good time for Harry.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I think Andrew would want to live in Book 4 and be the egg that Harry takes to the bath with him.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That is a great idea. I’m changing my answer.
[Ben laughs]
Eric: Mikey?
Mikey: I’ve been thinking about this right now. Probably Year 5. I know we had Umbridge, but I’d want to be one of the twins.
Andrew: And Micah, did you…
Ben: Which one?
Andrew: [laughs] Which one.
Ben: Is Fred dead or George?
Andrew: Fred!
Eric: Fred dies.
Ben: Okay.
Andrew: Fred, dead! It rhymes!
Ben: That’s what I thought. That’s what I thought.
[Mikey laughs]
Eric: If it was Year 5 though, and presuming you could just disappear for a year, come back, and the year would end. You could be either one.
Andrew: And…
Mikey: Yeah, it would be Year 5 just because of the rebellion, you know? The rebellion… [unintelligible]
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: And Micah?
Micah: I agree with Ben. I think probably Year 3.
Andrew: Oh. I thought you were going to say the egg with Harry in the tub.
Micah: No, that’s all you, buddy.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Ben’s Top Ten Reasons Why a MuggleCast Reunion Might Happen
Andrew: So, Ben, you have created a Top Ten list in honor of the final episode?
Ben: Yes I have, as a matter of fact. I’m very… I was so excited to do this final episode. Not because it’s over, which is actually kind of what the list is about.
Andrew: Oh, okay.
Ben: The Top Ten Reasons a MuggleCast Reunion Might – might – Happen.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Eric: Woo!
Ben: Number ten: Spielerman Eric Scull simply can’t stop spieling…
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Ben: …and proceeds to write a series of exhaustive emails until Andrew can’t take it anymore and pleads with all of the co-hosts to come back, just to get Eric off his back.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: What do you guys think of that one?
[Mikey laughs]
Micah: That’s most likely so far.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: It might happen. Why is it number ten?
Mikey: I know, why is it number ten there?
Eric: There better be nine better ones.
Ben: Number nine: JK Rowling finally learns who Micah Tannenbaum is…
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Ben: …and is so upset that she ever pissed him off that she writes him a letter personally.
[Andrew, Kevin, and Mikey laugh]
Ben: Number eight: Pottergate! JK Rowling sex tape leaks.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: Number seven: Investigative reporting from National Security Agency journalist Glenn Greenwald reveals that there actually is a real wizarding world, and the reason JK Rowling made so much money off of the franchise is because she took a payoff from the Death Eaters to spin the tale to the Muggles that the Order and Harry and company actually won.
Eric: Wow.
Andrew: Interesting.
Ben: Number six: Mikey Bouchereau is crowned the World’s Smartest Man by Stephen Hawking.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Ben: Number five: The same reason that every rock band from the mid-70s was back together for a reunion by the mid-90s – we all go broke and we need the camaraderie.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Number four: A sinkhole swallows the entire Wizarding World theme park in Orlando.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: Number three: A one-on-one with Laura Mallory.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: She comes back from the dead and rallies around the Tea Party and goes on a witch hunt and she’s finally willing to sit down and go toe-to-toe with the MuggleCasters.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: Number two is Pottergate: Part Two. JK Rowling finally realizes she got ripped off with Pottermore and files suit against all of the people who thought that was a good idea.
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: And number one: Because we feel like it and no theory is safe!
Andrew: Aww, that was beautiful, Ben.
Eric: Aww.
Mikey: Aww.
Andrew: Good job, good job.
[Someone applauds]
Micah: Nice job.
Andrew: I was impressed by that, actually. [laughs]
Mikey: I was, too.
Andrew: There was a lot to that.
Kevin: That Ben was legitimately funny?
[Andrew, Kevin, and Mikey laugh]
Eric: It was complicated. Things I didn’t even think about.
Andrew: Yeah, that was well thought-out. Those were things I would not have expected.
Ben: Thank you, guys.
Andrew: I liked Pottergate Number One, the JK Rowling sex tape. [laughs]
Ben: Hey, wouldn’t we come back for that?
Andrew: Yeah, but when you said that, I was thinking, “What would we even talk about?”
Eric: That would be like watching your mom, guys. Come on.
Andrew: Yeah, I would never watch that.
Eric: I would actually never watch it. No.
Andrew: I don’t want to ask Ben if he would watch it or not.
[Eric and Mikey laugh]
Eric: Let’s not pay any more attention…
Ben: Yeah, I’m not even going to comment. No comment.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Your silence is comment enough.
Muggle Mail: Thank You, MuggleCast
Andrew: Okay, let’s get to some emails and then we have some tweets. You know, of course, MuggleCast has always been about the listeners, and the listeners have been the ones who have always supported us through the years – [coughs] not JK Rowling…
[Ben laughs]
Andrew: …so let’s hear from them. Let’s turn the mike around. [laughs] This first one is from Samantha. She writes:
“Hi MuggleCast…”
[laughs] By the way, JK Rowling is never coming on the show, now that we’ve speculated about a JK Rowling sex tape.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Ben: Yeah.
Micah: Especially if it involves one of the MuggleCast hosts as well.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Eric: Well, hang on, didn’t you promise, Micah, that there would be JK Rowling in some form on this episode?
Micah: Yeah, I did. The show is not over yet.
Andrew: Yeah, it’s still coming. It’s still coming.
Eric: You better prepare that. You better prepare that.
Andrew: This is the part of the show where we get emails from listeners, saying, “You guys need more women.”
Micah: We’re going to reveal the audio from the sex… never mind.
Andrew: No, stop it! This is pleasant! Okay, so this first email is from Samantha:
“Hi MuggleCasters,
I know you must be getting so many of these. I discovered you guys when I was sixteen and desperately waiting for ‘Deathly Hallows’ to come out. I didn’t have any friends who were into ‘Harry Potter’ [books] in high school, so MuggleNet was my refuge in those frenzied months leading up to the release. One day I gave you guys a listen and we’ve been best friends ever since. You were all there for me when I didn’t have anyone else. I celebrated Book 7 and everything that had passed and would come, with you all.
You don’t know this, but you have been with me on the darkest and most important days of my life. You were in my ears on my first day of college and when my boyfriend broke up with me. You were there every morning that I woke up when I studied abroad, and every night when I couldn’t sleep my senior year in my very own apartment. You wrote my huge final paper with me on the quad and kept me calm before commencement. You were there on the morning of my first commute to my first big girl job a few months ago.
I hope you truly know how amazing each and every one of you are and how important this has been to so many people.
I wish you all well on the many amazing endeavors that are sure to come your ways, and I eagerly look forward to the special edition of MuggleCast that will happen when Jo tweets something relevant.”
Eric: Reason eleven! Reason eleven, Ben! Jo tweets!
Andrew: [laughs]
“So, to Andrew, Ben, Jamie, Laura, Micah, Eric, Kevin, Mikey, Matt, Richard, Jerry, Andy, Elysa, and Selina…”
Phew, what an exhaustive list.
“…(shame on me if I forgot any one of you from over the years) thank you. Thank you.
All my love,
Samantha.”
That was a very nice email. Thank you, Samantha.
Ben: Wow, this reminds me of… I mentioned the rock band in the Top Ten list there and what made me think of that was the Eagles. There’s a new Eagles documentary on Showtime, and I was reading some of the reviews about it and people were debating the merits of the Eagles. And what they said, one of the things they said about the Eagles, was that you could do things while… you did things to the Eagles, like you partied with your friends or you did whatever. And what Samantha just said here about “you were in my ears on my first day of college and when my boyfriend broke up with me,” that’s some pretty powerful stuff.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Mikey: So for reunion, does that mean we’re actually going on tour again?
Andrew: [laughs] I would love to go on tour.
Ben: As long as you get the merch, Mikey.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Next email from Rosemarie:
“I was a very late ‘Potter’ adopter and I found MuggleCast after ‘Deathly Hallows’ was published. In spite of my late start, I have enjoyed your podcasts so much! I am viewed as ‘cool’ by my son’s girlfriend because of my love for all things ‘Potter.’ You ‘kids’ have produced excellent work and I look forward to those surprise MuggleCasts that may happen in the future.
Take care and all the best.”
Thank you again, Rosemarie. Very nice email. Yeah, we’ve had people of all ages listening to MuggleCast over the years. That’s something that I think surprised us at first – we didn’t know who exactly would be listening. We imagined it was people around our own ages at the time – that was like seventeen years old – and people have really grown up with the show.
Eric: Yeah, immediately we heard back from teachers who were using it in the classroom. Remember Mr. Nelson?
Andrew: Yeah, Mr. Nelson was cool too.
Ben: Yeah!
Eric: Yeah. We heard from his… he used our podcast to help teach his class. So, that was ages ago now. I hope he’s still teaching. Mr. Nelson, if you’re listening – because we do hear from our other listeners who have heard from us since day one.
Ben: This is all making me sad.
Eric: Write in, let me… well, okay then, I’ll just power through. I’ll take this one. This is from Gabriela:
“Hi MuggleCast…”
I wrote it in yellow in the doc and people think it’s hard to read, so I’m going to read it to prove them wrong, ha-ha. This is Gabriela:
“Hi MuggleCasters, I write to you to simply say thank you. When I found out about you in October 2005 I was a slightly lost, confused, nerdy, misfit thirteen-year-old girl and my life was starting to change dramatically. My mom had just died and I had to live with my older sister. Now, eight years later, she’s getting married and I pretty much have to finally step up as an adult and live on my own.
It’s funny how I found you at the beginning of a very different and strange stage of my life and I have to let you go at the beginning of another one. Nothing says to me ‘grow up’ as having to let you go. What I’m trying to say is that you got me through very difficult times and I’ll miss listening to you guys, but eventually we all have to move on. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready to let you go, which is why I’ll probably still listen to old episodes from time to time, but I hope with all my heart you’ll succeed in wherever life takes you. If everything you’ve accomplished in these eight years is any indicator, I know that each and every one of you will. Even though I’ve never have and probably never will meet you, I still feel proud of how far you’ve come.
So one last time, I solemnly thank you, and in the words of the Marauders: Mischief managed! [LMFAO.]”
I don’t know if… oh.
“Mischief managed!”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: [continues]
“Greetings from Guatemala,
Gaby S.”
Andrew: Thank you, Gaby.
Ben: [laughs] I’m going to miss recording podcasts where you can mess with the show notes when somebody is reading an email. That’s what I’m going to miss.
Mikey: That’s what I was laughing at. Ben, you’re just putting all sorts of things in there.
Andrew: Thank you, Gaby. That was very nice. Next…
Ben: No, but seriously, thank you, Gaby. [laughs]
Andrew: Next email…
Ben: Can I read it? I want to read it.
Andrew: Yes. Go ahead.
Eric: We should go around. You could get some more speaking time for these guys.
Micah: I’ll do the…
Ben: “For these guys”? “These guys,” Eric? Gwendolynn Scott…
Eric: Yeah. Mikey and Ben.
Ben: …says:
“Dear MuggleCast,
I’ve been a listener of MuggleCast since the very first episode when I was a sophomore in high school. I’ve never written in before, but I figured now would be the perfect time to since I owe you guys a big thank you. During my time in high school, I was bullied severely by other students and often sought comfort with my iPod listening to MuggleCast while in my school’s graphics arts classroom. Listening to you guys talk about my favorite fandom really helped me get through those tough four years, and I continued listening to you all throughout college. I’ve graduated college and now work as a real graphic designer and I still listen to you when you put out new episodes. (Also a huge Hype After Dark fan!)”
What’s that show, Andrew?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: [continues]
“I just needed to tell you how much MuggleCast really means to me and how much I’ve enjoyed listening over the years. You guys are the absolute best.
Love,
Gwendolynn”
Andrew: I see a common theme in these emails about how people have changed over the years. I like it.
Ben: Yeah.
Micah: It’s really impressive, inspiring, to…
Andrew: Yeah. And I mean, I have to say… I may have talked about this before, but when I was in middle school I was bullied a good amount, and that was one of the reasons I kind of became more of a recluse and started getting more involved…
Ben: A wreck? [laughs]
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah, I became a wreck.
Ben: A wreck.
Andrew: And…
Eric: I was bullied, too. It’s never kind. It’s never… well, clearly. But…
Ben: Who hasn’t been bullied?
Andrew: No, no, but…
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ben: I think everyone has been bullied.
Eric: Yeah. But something like this, it’s good to know… because making this show gave me confidence. So, it’s good to know that listening to the show could give others confidence.
Andrew: Micah, next email.
Ben: Yeah.
Micah: Next email is from Kayla, and she says:
“Hey, MuggleCast! My name is Kayla, I’m 18 and from Winnipeg (thats in Canada for all you StarKid fans out there). I’ve been listening to your podcast since about 2008 and you are most definitely my favorite podcast out there!
I just wanted to say thank you for everything you guys have done. You made my life so much better throughout my junior high and high school years. I’m so sad that you are ending, and I’m just crossing my fingers that Jo will write about the ‘Harry Potter’ world so you’ll have no choice but to come back! I’m going to have to get myself into the ‘Game of Thrones’ fandom so I can hear Micah, Eric, and Selina on Game of Owns, and Andrew, I’ll be most definitely checking out Hype! You guys should all just make a podcast together. Seriously, it can be about anything and I’ll listen.
Anyway, thank you for all your hard work and dedication over the years. I plan on listening from Episode 1 now that you guys are ending. I don’t have time to say something about everybody who has been on MuggleCast, but Andrew, thank you for being an amazing, hilarious host. You make me laugh so much. Micah, I love your voice and the news wouldn’t be the same without you, even though you were recently fired.”
Andrew: [laughs] By his own doing, by the way.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: Oh yeah, I remember that. Anyway…
Eric: He’s like…
Micah: I was fired on another podcast.
“Eric, I love how you can talk and talk, and you are my favorite Hufflepuff!”
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: [continues]
“Ben, I wish you could have been on the show all the time recently because you are just the best. And Selina, I think you are so sweet and it’s nice to have that girl power on the show!
I hope you guys are all super successful in your future endeavors! Thank you for everything!
Kayla”
Ben: No, thank you, Kayla, for acknowledging that I’m the best.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: And she P.S.’s:
“I just wanted to say that tea towels (from Jamie’s British joke) are also a very Canadian thing as well. Oh, and you should sell the MuggleCast shirts again. I would buy one in a heartbeat!”
Andrew: And Warner Bros. will sue us in a heartbeat.
Ben: Ka-ching!
Eric: I was like, nowhere to go but jail.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Maybe we’ll record a podcast from jail. [laughs]
Ben: Actually, maybe we’ll have to sell underground. Right, Andrew?
Andrew: Yeah, just like last time.
Ben: M-U-G-G-L-E-C-A-S and a T.
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Hmm.
Andrew: Mikey…
Ben: That’s Andrew’s wizard rap single.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Google it.
Andrew: Right.
Ben: Google it.
Andrew: And the second one… okay, yeah. Well, I was just going to say the ‘N Sync reunion the other day timed nicely with my… considering my wizard rock “Bye Bye Bye” single.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Don’t let it be July.
Eric: [sings] “Don’t let it be July.”
Andrew: Mikey, would you like to read the next email?
Mikey: Sure. Why not?
Andrew: From Morgan.
Mikey: From Morgan.
“This is the first time I’m writing. My first episode was the one where Jamie proposed to Andrew (Episode 56).”
Andrew: Wow. When did that happen?
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: I thought he proposed to me, actually.
Mikey: When did that not happen? When did that not happen?
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: If it happened, I would have said yes back then.
Mikey: [continues]
“I just wanted to say thank you for being a building block that made me who I am today. This might have to be a Soup for the MuggleCast Soul because it might get heavy.
When I first started listening back in sophomore year, I was seeing my first serious girlfriend. When I met her, she was being bother…”
Bother?
Andrew: Bothered.
Eric: Bothered.
Mikey: Okay. Yeah.
“…bothered by her old boyfriend. The full four years I was with her, we had to go to court to get this guy to leave her alone.
I met her the same time I started listening to MuggleCast, so MuggleCast helped me in a very dark time. When she needed a rock, I was there, but when I needed a rock, you were there for me.
A little time after, I started listening to other podcasts around the net. I found filmmaker Kevin Smith’s podcast Smodcast, Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist, and Smart Mouths! I even started adding more of Hypable’s own podcasts like WhoHype, Onceable, and Hype! I stopped listening to music on my way to work, and instead I listen to podcasts! I started coming out of my shell, waging my nerd flag high, showing off everything I know about ‘Potter’ and more!
Podcasts became my safe haven in times of trouble. All my spare time was podcasts! High school, growing up, and the events that happened last year in my hometown of Aurora, Colorado. I even got brave enough to start my own podcast last year, Walflwrz, which had hints of both MuggleCast and Smart Mouths.
MuggleCast will always be part of my DNA. I became a better man because I decided to fall into the fandoms I love and show people that it’s not a bad thing to love TV shows, movies, comics, and where it all started, books!
Thank you so much for being the friend I needed, the family that showed me how to live, and the inspiration to become who I am.”
Thank you, Morgan. Sorry. I’m getting all teary-eyed reading these fan things.
Andrew: Aww!
Eric: Oh, gosh.
Mikey: I can’t do it.
Andrew: Thank you, Morgan. That was very nice as well. Next email, as we continue the MuggleCast therapy session.
Ben: This is from Carver Oblander:
“Dear MuggleCast,
As your final episode will be recorded today, I just wanted to share some final thoughts on your incredible run. I started listening to MuggleCast around Episode 83, when the US cover of ‘Deathly Hallows’ was released. I was in high school at the time and am now a college graduate. I’m proud to say I never missed an episode during that time. You’ve kept me company on bus rides, car rides, plane rides, and even kick scooter rides. I’ve loved the range of entertaining hosts over the years, and your coverage of ‘Harry Potter’ news is always insightful, amusing, and interesting. Your podcast has been like having on-demand Potter-obsessed friends that I can keep in my pocket.
Thanks for years of awesomeness. I will be wearing my MuggleCast shirt today!
Carver Oblander
Portland, Oregon”
Thank you, Carver. Oh, by the way, he just finished The Cuckoo’s Calling. It was fantastic. He’s looking forward to the movie and sequels.
Eric: Woo!
Andrew: Same. Oh yeah, there’s going to be a movie, too. That’ll be good.
Eric: Oh, cool.
Andrew: Kevin, do you want to read the email or shall I?
[Prolonged silence]
Andrew: Kevin?
[Prolonged silence]
Andrew: Kevin has left. Goodbye, Kevin. This next email is from Mike. [laughs]
“Hey MuggleCasters,
I’ve listened since day 1 way back when Book 6 was released, and I don’t usually write into the shows I listen to, but I have to thank you for the last eight years of podcasting. Listening to this podcast helped continue my love of all things ‘Potter’ and allowed me to continue the discussion of the series long after my friends wanted to talk about it.
I’ve listened to your show all over the world when I was studying abroad in college and needed something familiar to remind me of home. When I needed a distraction while studying in high school and college, my go-to was always MuggleCast. Or even when I was just walking around campus going from class to class, I would pop in some MuggleCast…”
[laughs] Like a cassette tape.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: [continues]
“…just to pass the time.
MuggleCast has led me to countless other podcasts, and I now generally choose podcasts over music while at work or at the gym, and I want to thank you for introducing me to this form of media. Although MuggleCast is now ending and I’ll continue listening to your other shows, this podcast will always have a special meaning to me and I hope for the day that Jo comes out with more ‘Potter’ so I can listen along [with] you guys…”
So everybody is very interested, I see, in our future endeavors, so that’s good to hear. And you know, everybody start hitting up JK Rowling on Twitter now and maybe she will write new Harry Potter material. [laughs]
MuggleCast 269 Transcript (continued)
Listener Tweets: Favorite MuggleCast Moments
Andrew: Okay, so now it is time to get into some tweets. And now, this isn’t more of what we just read. We asked people on Twitter, what are your favorite moments from the show? And of course, we got a lot of responses. This first one is from Lucien, a loyal listener who has always been there. I’ve seen him on Twitter all the time. He says:
“The emails responding to Andrew’s accidental F-bomb!”
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: I have to say, guys, not to toot my own horn but everybody really liked that moment. Kevin, please read some tweets.
Kevin: Ah, I guess. Where are we looking?
Eric: Marquee Mark.
Kevin: Marquee Mark.
Eric: Oh, this is spelled funny. [laughs]
Kevin: [laughs] Yes, because it’s a marquee as in…
Andrew: Maybe he is in the theatre business. Go ahead.
Kevin: [continues]
“What’s Buggin’ [Mikey]…”
[laughs] Micah.
Eric: [laughs] Can you say his name after this?
Kevin: Micah.
“…Make the Connection…”
Micah: Yes?
Kevin: I wasn’t actually saying your name, Micah. That is, I wasn’t asking for you to respond. [laughs]
“…Andrew’s wizard rock career…”
[Andrew laughs]
Kevin: [continues]
“…twelve hour marathon, Matt’s episodes, Tootsie Roll spiel.”
Eric: Oh.
Mikey: Ooh, the twelve hour marathon was fun.
Andrew: I have to say, the Tootsie Roll spiel was one of the worst moments in my recollection.
[Everyone laughs]
Eric: Okay, but why?
Andrew: I don’t really remember what went on, but it’s bringing back light memories and I just remember not liking it.
Eric: I thought it was a good one. You asked me to – off the top of my head – come up with an advertisement. No, you put me on the spot. We were advertising MuggleCast t-shirt sales and…
Andrew: Oh.
Eric: …I was just staring at a piggy bank of Tootsie Rolls, container piggy bank thing, and I told people that… the long and the short of it was, when you buy Tootsie Rolls you don’t know where the money is going, but when you buy MuggleCast t-shirts you know it’s going to us.
Andrew: Yeah, I’m sorry I put you on the spot. [laughs]
Eric: [laughs] It’s okay, it made this list. I’m so happy. Thank you, Marquee Mark.
Andrew: Kevin, you want to read a couple more?
Kevin: Sure.
Andrew: Just a couple more.
Kevin: So, this is Olivia Stewart:
“So many great episodes, but Episode 233 was a favorite of mine with Andrew’s wizard rock single, ‘Bye Bye Bye.'”
Andrew: [sings] “Don’t let it be July.”
Micah: Well, it’s not.
Andrew: The name on this next one is odd.
[Everyone laughs]
Kevin: Yes.
Eric: You could just use the username.
Micah: It’s an April Fools joke. In August.
Andrew: Her name is Betsy. [laughs]
Kevin: Yes. Betsy McGee.
[Everyone laughs]
Kevin: [continues]
“The April Fools joke of 2008. I sat in my bed panicked and my gullible self nearly cried.”
Andrew: What was that? Did we say we were going to end the show, I guess?
Micah: Warner Bros. shutting us down? I don’t know.
Eric: Wasn’t that the one where Emerson and Melissa got married?
Andrew: I don’t think that would leave her in her bed panicked. [laughs]
Eric: [laughs] Maybe she was.
Micah: Speak for yourself. [laughs]
Andrew: This next one is from Errrrrrriiiiiiika:
“Meeting you guys for the first time at the New York City live podcast in August 2006.”
Lisa says:
“My favorite was Episode 100! You could just hear and feel the excitement everyone had.”
Yeah, I agree. That was cool. That was our Deathly Hallows episode.
Eric: Plus we got introduced by Hagrid.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, that was neat. Micah, go ahead. You read a couple.
Micah: Oh, I was looking up what happened in April of 2008.
Eric: Oh, keep at it. Keep at it.
Micah: But Brittany says:
“My favorite is still Andrew’s ‘yeah, yeah’ from that one live show…”
Ben: “Yeah! Yeah!”
Micah: Which I referenced earlier. It sounded a little bit like that.
“…but the episode or event is slipping my mind at the moment!”
That was our New York live show, right? Our first ever? Goblet of Fire?
Andrew: That was the first live podcast. I was sixteen or seventeen. I was nervous, okay? That was my nervous reaction.
Micah: Yup.
Andrew: So, whatever. But I’m glad that was your favorite moment.
Micah: You’ve overcome it. You’ve overcome it.
Andrew: Of course. Yeah, yeah, I have.
Eric: That was Episode 15, [laughs] by the way.
Micah: Natalie Holley…
Kevin: Was it really 15?
Eric: 15 for November 12th, 2005.
Kevin: Wow.
Micah: You’re like a book.
Eric: I have a book open.
Micah: Oh, okay. Natalie Holley says:
“Episode 117 about Dumbledore being gay. I was ten when it got released. It’s probably the reason I’m not homophobic. No joke.”
Andrew: Aww.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Micah: She also went on to say:
“Also, the latter part of the twelve hour live show when everyone got delirious.”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: I think I only came in at seven or eight hours, and everyone was gone. [laughs]
Andrew: So many people have asked us to do another twelve hour live show. I can’t even imagine doing that. I can’t…
Micah: That would be crazy.
Mikey: Oh, man.
Ben: What? Are you saying you don’t have the stamina, Andrew?
Andrew: No, I’ve got the stamina. I just don’t understand why we even did it in the first place. What was that for?
Ben: Why don’t we do it again? Why don’t we do a fundraiser for Haiti?
[Andrew laughs]
Ben: No, seriously. I’m sure they still need money. Let’s do it. Let’s make Haiti a thing again.
Andrew: [laughs] We can do a fundraiser around a twelve hour live show, but I don’t think we did a fundraiser around our first twelve hour live one.
Eric: I think it was just getting on, and the thing of it was that instantly we had six or seven episodes. [laughs] Episodes 111 to 117 – or 116 – were all this live podcast.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: It was a great way to increase… it was 108 to 113, there were six parts. Yeah.
Andrew: I seem to remember… I think it was Jamie’s idea.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: It probably was, and I remember we ordered pizza and we were fighting to see whose pizza would get there first.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: That’s all I remember. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, those were good. I have to listen to some of those again.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Mikey: I want to listen to those now. That’s what I remember, is waiting for my pizza, and I remember I lost because your pizza got there first. And someone did artwork about it.
Andrew: Did we… really? Oh, I’ve got to see that.
Mikey: I need to look through my email. I remember that because I remember I got no… there was a picture of me waiting for… and I had an empty pizza box in the artwork that came out of that one.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: Because I lost and I didn’t get pizza.
Eric: Could it have been Kelly? Because she did some of our memorable artwork, like of us at the holidays.
Mikey: Let’s see if I can find it through the email.
Andrew: Let’s continue here.
Eric: Oh yeah, of course.
Andrew: Next one is from Lia:
“It has to be when Micah read my tweet for ‘Chamber of Secrets’ Chapter by Chapter!”
Jenn said:
“The live show at Leaky right after ‘Deathly Hallows: Part 2.’ Listened to it right after I saw the movie myself.”
Ben, you want to read a couple?
Ben: Oh, sure. Yeah. Mike Hunt says:
“Definitely the Episode 133 intro! Funniest moment in MuggleCast EVER.”
What happened in that intro?
Andrew: Was that the F-word one? It’s probably… it must have been the F-word one. [laughs]
Eric: 133 was called “Laura is Fired.” Did we fire Laura? Is that… I don’t even remember that. Hmm.
Ben: Trinica says:
“Jamie singing along to Cascada’s ‘Everytime We Touch.'”
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: I remember we were at Lumos in 2006, and Jamie… we had this big suite and… Lumos is a Harry Potter conference. It was in Vegas, and a lot of people on this show were there. And anyway, so Jamie was in his room with headphones in, jumping up and down on the bed screaming “Everytime We Touch” and the maid walked in on him.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Ben: And then he was really embarrassed, but it was hilarious.
Andrew: We have to dig them up. We have old pictures of Jamie jumping on the bed, and it was taken with a good camera so he’s just mid-air, his hair is flying everywhere. I still remember his face: he has this really stern look on his face, iPod in his ears…
[Eric laughs]
Ben: Didn’t we get a recording of it? I swear we did.
Andrew: Yeah, we had a recording.
Eric: Somebody recorded it.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Because it was at the end of one of the MuggleCasts. [laughs]
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. It’s on a show, it’s on one of the episodes.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: Yeah. Lumos, that was my first time flying.
Eric: Oh, wow.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: I was there. I was there.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: You kept snapping pictures out the window. I was going to smack you.
Mikey: That’s when I met you guys.
Andrew: Yeah, that was crazy.
Ben: That’s when you were the Apple guy.
Mikey: Yup.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Ben: You were an Apple guy then and now you’re an Apple-certified pro.
[Andrew laughs]
Mikey: Trainer.
Eric: Evolution.
Andrew: Next…
Kevin: You’re a certified trainer?
Mikey: Yeah. I travel the state teaching.
Andrew: Next email is from Ashley. The live show in St. Louis in 2007 was her favorite.
“It was a magical time being surrounded by fellow ‘Potter’ fans.”
Ben: I remember that show.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: It was at a library.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Kerri-Ann said:
“Can’t believe it’s come to an end. Chapter by Chapter was the best thing ever!”
Ben: And there was some debate over that, actually, when we started doing Chapter by Chapter. Because that one guy who talks a lot…
[Eric laughs]
Ben: …he used to make Chapter by Chapter a lot longer than it needed to be. We’d be through the first page of one of the chapters and we’d be like forty-five minutes in, and we’d be like, “Eric, this isn’t Character by Character.”
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: Oh, I thought you were speaking hypothetically, Ben. [laughs]
Ben: Huh?
Eric: With names omitted or redacted, to…
Andrew: He tried and then he couldn’t resist.
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Ben: Well, speaking of which, the next tweet is Mohammad Saleem. It says:
“The beginning episodes with Eric’s excessive talking.”
[Kevin, Micah, and Mikey laugh]
Eric: See, the beginning episodes. Okay? I’m reformed now. Enough said.
Micah: Wow.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah. Next email is from Nick. Eric, his favorite moment was:
“Eric asking Laura if she got her pants back that he sent to her. Episode 97, I believe.”
Eric: Wait, that reminds me. Micah, do you remember after London – or not London, Chicago 2012 LeakyCon – I told you that I had one of your shirts?
Micah: Yeah. Have you not sent it back?
Eric: Well, no, you told me to throw it away, but I have it…
Micah: Oh, did I?
Eric: …because you kept saying you were going to come visit again. So, I actually still have your shirt.
[Kevin and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Oh…
Kevin: He smells it periodically.
Ben: You sent your boxers a long time ago.
Eric: I’m not even lying. I have your shirt.
Micah: [laughs] Well, thanks.
Eric: It’s protected so…
Andrew: Micah, that reminds me, did you get your thong back [laughs] that I sent?
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: Damn it! I wanted to do that without laughing. Next… but seriously, let me know if you got your thong back. Next email is from Pablo:
“The entire 162nd episode. My personal favorite, the very best discussion you guys had. High praise indeed.”
So thank you, everybody, for sending those in via Twitter: Twitter.com/MuggleCast. Even though we’re ending the show, you’ll still be able to stay updated on the latest Harry Potter news and future shows if/when we do them down the line through those as well as the MuggleCast website.
Micah: Just so people know, Episode 162 was a political discussion.
Andrew: Hmm.
Micah: Comparisons between the politics of the real world and the wizarding world. Racism, ethnic cleansing, Nazism, evils, corruption, biased media, education reform. So that was a pretty serious episode, I guess. [laughs]
Eric: Yeah, it was an episode that featured Andrew, Micah, Matt, and Elysa.
Micah: And…
Andrew: [laughs] Look at all this context!
Micah: Wow, we’ve never had that much context…
Andrew: On anything!
Micah: …on any episode we’ve ever done. [laughs]
Andrew: On anything ever! [laughs]
Eric: Well, that’s because, guys, I came up with… actually this is an overdue… can I tell a story real quick? Ben, I promise I’ll make it quick.
Final Tally of Host Appearances
Eric: There was a project I had in mind. This was over a year ago when we were prepping for Ascendio, the Harry Potter conference, and I wanted to figure out just how many episodes each of us – each of the hosts – had been on for the entire history of MuggleCast. And I sourced it… basically I wrote out on Twitter for volunteers, and I broke each of the episodes… by then there were like 250, so I found 25 volunteers to go and look up who had been in each episode as well as when it aired and what the title of the episode was and all this other stuff. So I collected this data – I literally just sourced all of this data all of the sudden about it – and I have totals. I have episode totals for each of us including tonight’s performance if you should like to hear them.
Andrew: Okay.
Ben: Hit it.
Eric: So who do you think has been on the most episodes, by the way? Let’s just…
Micah: Andrew.
[Eric laughs]
Mikey: I was going to say Micah.
Eric: Well, those are the top two, believe that or not. Andrew… I feel like we should have really exciting music, but out of the 269 episodes of MuggleCast you have appeared on 255.
Andrew: Me? Andy?
Eric: Andrew.
Ben: Wow, that’s less than five percent.
[Andrew and Mikey laugh]
Ben: That’s just a slightly over five percent drop rate there, Andrew.
Andrew: Well, it is an honor and a privilege to accept this award. I’ve always wanted a MuggleCasty, and this is my moment. Thank you.
Eric: You’ve been on the most episodes. You are our fearless leader, Andrew.
Andrew: I would like to thank Voldemort and Grindelwald and…
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: …SpongeBob. Thank you.
[Mikey laughs]
Eric: So, that means you only missed 14 episodes. That means you were only not on 14 episodes. Odds are you edited the ones that you weren’t even on.
Andrew: Sometimes, yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: That occasionally happened.
Eric: So, there’s that. Second place comes Micah with… well it’s not really placing, but yes, Micah with 208 episodes. I’m in third, I got 181 MuggleCasts in. Laura comes next with 132. Ben with 98. Jamie with 83. Matt Britton with 70. Kevin Steck with 54. Mikey Bouchereau with 33. Elysa with 12. Selina with 9. Nick Myers – everybody remembers Nick, polite Nick – 8. And Richard Reid got 5 episodes.
Ben: I was on 98?
Andrew: Yeah, that shocks me! [laughs]
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: 98 episodes of MuggleCast.
Ben: I was on the first… those first two years when we had a ton of episodes, I was on most of those.
Andrew: Yeah.
Ben: And then I kind of petered out.
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t know. I want a recount. I’m not sure about that.
Eric: [laughs] I have it broken down by…
Andrew: I’m kidding.
Eric: …100 episodes. I got the whole list.
Kevin: [laughs] He has a pivot table.
Eric: It would take too much time to recount. But I thought that that would be just an interesting thing to look back on.
Andrew: That is.
Ben: Eric, you should have them go back and source how much audio of each episode was people… was you talking.
[Everyone laughs]
Ben: It’d be hilarious because you’re only on 208 episodes but you did like 85 percent of the total talking.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Ben: I’m just kidding. I love you, Eric.
Eric: I’ll be quiet for the rest of the episode. It’s my solemn vow.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Okay, cool. That was interesting.
Micah: And, Andrew, by the way, the April Fools was we said that we were changing the format of MuggleCast and we were branching out into…
Andrew: Oh.
Micah: …discussing other…
Andrew: Twilight?
Micah: …fantasy-based novels. Yeah, you were actually not on that episode. You were in Portland at the time, visiting the set.
Andrew: Oh, it all added up.
[Eric and Kevin laugh]
Micah: So, we were able to spin that joke.
Andrew: That’s funny. That’s funny.
Eric: How ever did you find that info, Micah?
Micah: I found it by going to…
Kevin: You read your…
Micah: …MuggleCast.com and checking out the transcript.
Andrew: Well, and you guys also actually prepared for an episode for the first time in like 100 episodes.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Andrew: I’m just kidding.
Ben: I even had a Top Ten list.
Andrew: [laughs] Yeah.
Eric: Yeah, that blew me away. I’m just stunned after that. But I will say, guys… and I’m talking again, of course, but it’s important to note…
[Andrew laughs]
Eric: …that the MuggleCast website is not going away.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: In case anybody thought that. The episodes are still going to be there for download and our MuggleCast email address, nobody is planning on canceling that. So, it’s just… we’ll talk more about that later.
Birthday Wish
Andrew: Here is a birthday wish before we do the wrap-up and also a surprise from Micah. This is from Harshita:
“Hey MuggleCasters, thank you so much for being amazing. I know it’s early, but I just wanted to ask whether you could wish me a happy birthday! As my birthday is on the 9th of October and I am turning 13, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you so much.”
So happy birthday, Harshita.
Micah: Happy birthday.
Andrew: I’m hoping that I’m pronouncing that right. Harshita.
Eric: Happy birthday.
Micah: And Ben, happy birthday to you because I know you just celebrated a birthday.
Andrew: That’s true.
Ben: I did. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Eric: Well, Micah, you just celebrated a birthday too, didn’t you?
Micah: Yeah, about a week ago. Ben and I, we’re very close, birthday-wise.
Andrew: Oh. Got excited for a second.
Ben: When is your birthday?
Micah: The 17th.
Ben: Okay. That’s the same day… wait, my brother’s birthday is the 18th.
Eric: Well, depending, because Micah is on the East Coast and you are in Central time, right? It could be [they were] born in the same moment.
Ben: That’s true. Very true.
Andrew: [laughs] So, we’ll never know. Do the math on that one.
Ben: Yeah.
Andrew: Put that into a spreadsheet.
Eric: I’ll have to get more volunteers.
Thank You to Special Project Volunteers and Transcribers
Eric: By the way, I wanted to thank those volunteers here…
Andrew: Go ahead.
Eric: …who contributed to that project. I’ll read it really quick: Kelsey, Cate, Charlee, Savanna, Janaki, Kellen, Matthew, Ambra, Tiffanie, Stephanie, Amanda, Mauricio, Jeanna, Johnathon, Naybeth, Kellen, Kelly, Samantha, Kelsey, Kailey, AJ, BK, Kristy, Luke, Yvette, Kyle, Cristina, Jessica, Tracey, and Thomas.
Micah: Wow.
Eric: And especially Tracey because she did multiples. But that was everybody who helped compile the numbers.
Micah: I might have to take a minute here as well because this is the final episode and we mentioned the transcripts earlier and I think that it’s only appropriate to thank all of them for having transcribed the show over the last eight years.
Andrew: Yes. Thank you.
Micah: So…
Andrew: Thank you, transcribers. We really appreciate your help. When we started that, I don’t know if we ever imagined it would turn into a full-fledged… every single episode has been transcribed thanks to the transcribers. And I’m going to do them a favor right now and stop talking. Goodbye.
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Well, actually I wanted to say their names because I think that it’s…
Andrew: Okay.
Micah: …a nice way to thank them. Tracey, obviously. Eric mentioned her already. Arialle, Elise, Eric, Lakshmi, Laura B, Laura S, Mariam, Olivia, Shana, Aldrin, Alexandra, Conrad, Desta, Dilara, Elly, Emily C, Emily M, Heather, Jean, Kristin, Kristina, Leah, Marissa, Maritza, Niki, PJ, Rachel P, Rachel R, Shannon, Shelby, Shoaib – I don’t know, I’m probably messing that one up, I apologize – Tara, Tim, Victoria, and that’s it. So, thank you.
Andrew: Thank you, everybody.
Micah: And to everybody else, including myself, who has transcribed… I’m just kidding.
Andrew: Thank you, Micah.
Micah: That’s how I started.
Ben: Thank you, Micah.
Andrew: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Final Thoughts from Hosts
Andrew: All right. Well, let’s do our final messages now. That sounds so dramatic.
Ben: Jerry Springer.
[Eric laughs]
Andrew: And then we’ll have Micah’s little surprise type thing.
Micah: It’s a good way to end the show I think, right? On that note?
Andrew: Absolutely. I would just like to say thank you to everybody over the past eight years. This show has been a huge springboard for me in multiple ways.
Ben: Me, me, me. Sorry.
Andrew: I won’t say them because otherwise it would be a plug. So thank you, everybody, so much for the support. We could never have imagined this show would have been this popular and as successful as it has been. And it really taught me and the rest of the hosts so much about how to podcast and [laughs] even just basically socialize. [laughs] So, it has been fantastic, and I know a lot of people are interested in seeing what we do next, so I will also use this as a plug. I will continue to be churning away over at Hypable and on my podcast, Hype, over there. It’s basically an expanded MuggleCast with multiple fandoms. So thank you, thank you, thank you, everybody. That’s really all I could say.
Eric: Yeah, just to echo that, I think really just the people that we’ve met throughout the years have been some of the nicest people, and the fact that they listen to us and then come say hi at a public event, either it’s a book event or just somewhere out in the world at the cons and everything, it was lovely to meet you all. To everybody who I haven’t met, I hope to meet you someday because I’ll shake your hand and I’ll say thank you for listening.
Andrew: Who’s next? [fake sobs]
Ben: Oh, man. Yeah, I don’t know really where to start. Like I said earlier on in the show, I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into here with all of this, and yeah, I’m just immensely grateful for everyone that’s ever come out to a book signing or anything like that. Yeah, or to the live shows, or anybody who bought my book, that was… that had almost everything predicted, like Harry being a Horcrux. I called it. Yeah…
Andrew: No wonder it was a New York Times Bestseller.
Ben: Yeah, so… but more importantly, yeah, just I guess the confidence that once you got into the flow of podcasting and interacting with people and everything, it really did provide a lot of confidence, and I think everybody has their insecurities and stuff, and so it was good to do something that you know that people enjoy and that you’re getting positive feedback on. As well as constructive criticism; that’s equally important. And that’s… yeah, that’s been an invaluable experience, and I hope that I can continue to have that in other areas of my life, even though MuggleCast won’t be continuing. In short, I love you all.
Andrew: Kevin?
Kevin: Yeah, I don’t know that I can add anything that hasn’t been said already. The opportunities that we all were able to experience as a result of this have been fantastic. We met some amazing people and had… as it was said before, we gained a level of confidence that we never had before. So yeah, I would like to thank everyone, and yeah.
Andrew: Mikey?
Mikey: I want to thank all of you guys, too.
Andrew: Aww.
Mikey: I started out as a listener. I remember meeting you guys at Lumos, and I remember when you guys got pulled from the iTunes store, and…
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey: I was a listener, and then I came on the show and you guys were my friends. It was awesome.
Andrew: Yeah.
Mikey: I want to thank all of you guys and all of the fans. Seriously, it’s been all the memories. Who would have gone on a tour talking about Harry Potter? That’s really cool, and just meeting people and talking to people across the country about things that we love. Like I said earlier when I was reading one of the emails, I really am sad about this. I haven’t been on in a long time, and Andrew has asked me and I’ve just been busy and stuff. It’s just… you guys have been like family to me over eight years, and listeners have sent emails and stuff. It’s just been awesome, so I want to thank everyone, you guys and listeners and…
Eric: I feel the same, Mikey.
Mikey: I know.
Ben: Yeah.
Eric: I’m thinking, there’s nobody… no other group I’d rather talk about Harry Potter with.
Ben: See, and I just wanted to add that I feel like it goes so much beyond Harry Potter because it’s affected all of our lives in so many ways. Like Mikey said, you met your wife at a Harry Potter conference. I mean, it’s become our lives in a lot of ways. It’s led to a lot of things; it’s been a catalyst.
Andrew: Numerous people associated with this show and MuggleNet and all the Harry Potter sites have entered relationships with people that they would not have met if it weren’t for MuggleCast, MuggleNet…
Eric: Yeah.
Andrew: …and these other Harry Potter sites as well.
Eric: Complete opposite sides of the globe, too.
Andrew: Yeah. But actually, extra shoutout to you, Mikey, because without you, I probably wouldn’t have moved out to California at the time that I did, because you put a great plan in my head that I loved from the minute you gave it to me.
[Mikey laughs]
Andrew: So, I owe you a thank you for that. I’m serious, too!
Micah: There you go.
Mikey: Yeah. Now I’m not even in California.
Andrew: I know!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: You misled me!
Mikey: Now, I will be back for Christmas. I will be back for Christmas. We’ve got to meet up again.
Eric: Andrew, come here. Come here, come here. See ya!
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Eric: Oh, you made it. All right.
Micah: I mean, I just really echo a lot of what’s already been said. I think that just the… all you guys, as Mikey said already. The fact that we’re all friends and we wouldn’t know each other if not for this entire experience. And the listeners have been great. To me, it’s always kind of blown my mind that somebody can be walking down a street in Japan or France or South Africa and listening to what we have to say and feeling the need to respond, and just kind of create that dialogue. It’s just amazing to me. And a lot of what we read here today definitely was meaningful, it was impactful to see that we’ve been able to just kind of be a resource, or just kind of a refuge in a lot of cases, for people to go and just kind of escape. If only for a little bit.
Andrew: Absolutely.
Eric: Without a doubt.
JK Rowling’s Letter to the MuggleCasters
Andrew: And Micah, I saved you for last since you have the extra bonus MuggleCast feature. [laughs] I don’t know how to describe it without calling it what it is.
Micah: Yeah.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: So, let me… well, let’s just start this way. And it’s good that the date is written the way that it is because otherwise I probably would screw it up, because it’s not written by somebody in this country.
[Eric laughs]
Micah: [continues]
“October 10th, 2008
Dear MuggleCasters,
First of all, I must apologize very much indeed for the ridiculously long wait for a response to your wonderful letter. My excuse, such as it is, is that my post bag has swollen to almost unmanageable proportions since I finished the seventh ‘Harry Potter’ book. This caught me off guard and I have been struggling to catch up with my ever expanding backlog for the best part of a year. I loved hearing from you directly at long last. What can I say to you in return except that you will never know how much I value – no, treasure – my articulate, opinionated, funny, loyal, perceptive, argumentative, and hugely entertaining fandom as exemplified by the MuggleCasters, as personified by you all. Finishing the series was both wonderful and traumatic for me. I had lived with these characters and known them intimately for so long that I felt a sense of true bereavement when it hit me that I could not go and visit Hogwarts anymore. For seventeen years, I lived in and loved Harry’s world, and much as some readers will doubt me when I say it, nobody felt the ending quite like I did. The one great positive for me was that ‘Deathly Hallows’ is my favorite of the series. It is the book I wanted it to be from the outset, and while I knew I could not please everybody, I did please myself. I do hope though, because I’m still an insecure writer, that I pleased people whose opinions I value, which most certainly includes you.
With lots of love,
JK Rowling”
Andrew: So…
Ben: Wait, she actually wrote you?
[Andrew and Eric laugh]
Micah: Yes. Us.
Eric: This is five years ago. You’ve been holding onto this letter five years ago?
Andrew: Yeah, so what happened was Laura, Micah, and Kevin…
Kevin: Yup.
Andrew: Was there one other person involved with that? I don’t know.
Micah: You.
Andrew: Oh.
[Everyone laughs]
Micah: But I think you know… yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah. Okay. So we wrote this letter to JK Rowling, and as she noted at the start of the letter, it took her a little while to reply. But she did. And for some reason, we’ve never really read it on the show, and then it dawned on us a few weeks ago that if we weren’t going to actually have JK Rowling on the show, why won’t we actually read the letter since we’ve never read it. At least we don’t think we have, so…
Micah: No, I don’t think we’ve ever read that.
Andrew: So that is a message from JK Rowling, acknowledging the MuggleCasters. Finally! Victory is ours!
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: That was very nice, right?
Eric and Micah: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: I mean, think of this. She’s the woman who wrote the Cormoran Strike novel, and she is writing…
Andrew: [laughs] Now I’m star struck.
Eric: …those words to us. I know, I know, I know.
Andrew: Well, of course we owe JK Rowling everything for everything in relation to this podcast and MuggleNet and all of our friendships. So thank you, Jo, for sending us that letter. And we’ll let you slide, and Micah will follow you again on Twitter.
Micah: No, that’s not going to happen.
[Everyone laughs]
Show Close
Eric: Well, guys, on this show you noticed throughout the years that we do enjoy Harry Potter and we really put ourselves out there and grew, and we’ve talked about that. Now that we are moving on, you can… we are doing other things. We’re still out there. We’re still growing and still producing things. So I wanted to take a moment and just go around the table and kind of share with our listeners one final time, one definitive time, where exactly they can find us from this moment forth, going forward.
Andrew: So, Eric and Micah can be found on Game of Owns. Three times a week!
Eric: [laughs] Yes. It’s a Game of Thrones podcast through WinterIsComing.net, and we enjoy that don’t we, Micah?
Micah: Yeah, absolutely. It’s a lot of fun.
Eric: I know Micah…
Micah: We do it with Selina…
Eric: Yeah.
Micah: …[and] Zack Luye, who is a friend of ours. And you guys all know Selina. She has been on this podcast… what was it? Nine times? Five times?
Andrew: Nine times.
Eric: Nine times.
Micah: There you go.
Eric: Didn’t quite break ten.
Andrew: And anything else for you two?
Eric: Yeah, Micah, do you want to share anything else?
Micah: No, I mean, that’s really as far as being online where you can find me.
Andrew: You can find Micah five days a week in Manhattan. Okay…
Micah: That’s right. That’s right. Also, @mjtbaum on Twitter. I feel like everybody else does it, so why shouldn’t I?
Eric: Yeah, and it’s true. It’s true. You are on Twitter there. I’m on Twitter, @spielerman.
[Micah laughs]
Eric: S-P-I-E-L-E-R-M-A-N. That’s where you all can find me. And I’m trying to start a blog actually, on my personal website which is CrownScull.com.
Andrew: Whoa! Breaking news? Is this breaking news?
Eric: Yeah, I’m going into blogging, guys. What’s up?
Kevin: Nice.
Andrew: [laughs] Going into blogging. I’m making CrownScullNet where I follow all the developments on Crown Scull.
[Eric and Mikey laugh]
Kevin: And maybe, Eric…
Ben: Why don’t you just add a category on Hypable?
[Andrew laughs]
Kevin: Eric, I may be able to help you there.
Eric: Thank you, Kevin. It’s WordPress.
Kevin: Ugh!
Andrew: Okay, so…
Eric: I would be honored, Kevin.
Andrew: …from me, I’m not going to repeat everything that I’ve already said, but… well, yes I am.
[Andrew and Micah laugh]
Andrew: Hypable.com and also Hype Podcast. That’s all I’m saying about that. You can follow me there. I hope you follow me over; we’re doing some great stuff. Hypable.com and Hype Podcast. Who else wants to plug anything?
Ben: Okay, I have a new political website that I started. It is called BlueTheNation.com. It is about Democratic politics. There is also a site that I am an owner of that is called Feminspire, which a lot of our audience is female, and it’s all about empowering women and the slogan is, “Where women make media.” So, you should visit that. And I also have a new podcast that’s going to be coming out within the next month, so you should follow me on @benschoen, that’s B-E-N-S-C-H-O-E-N on Twitter, and look for updates on that.
Andrew: We’ll put all the links in the show notes, by the way. Anybody else? Kevin? [laughs] Kevin needs help on his site, Tumblr. Please, somebody visit.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: It’s about to go out of business.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Andrew: No, Kevin, Mikey?
Mikey: Yeah, two things for me. People can follow me at MyNameIsMikey.com, my website. I post a lot of goofy stuff there. I’ll also be posting links to season two of a web series that I’m working on called Brothers Barbarian. You can actually visit BrothersBarbarian.com.
[Female voice in the background]: We’re ten minutes late!
Mikey: And I’m being yelled at, that I have to go.
[Everyone laughs]
Andrew: All right. Bye, Mikey. It was good seeing you.
Mikey: Bye, guys.
Eric: It’s actually called MyNameIsMikey.com?
Mikey: MyNameIsMikey.com, that’s my website.
Eric: Okay.
Mikey: And you can follow me on Twitter, @mikeybouchereau. All right, bye guys.
Andrew: See ya!
Mikey: Bye.
Andrew: Actually, I think the website is We’reTenMinutesLate.com.
[Everyone laughs]
Mikey Bye, guys. See ya. Bye, bye, bye, bye.
Andrew: And one other person… or no, is that it? Kevin, did you have anything?
Kevin: Well, you can follow me on Twitter, @kevinsteck, and same thing with Tumblr.
Andrew: Okay. Thank you everybody for listening. I’m Andrew Sims.
Ben: I’m Benjamin Schoen.
Kevin: I’m Kevin Steck.
[Prolonged silence]
Kevin: And we’ve lost everyone else.
[Andrew laughs]
Micah: I’m waiting for Eric.
Andrew: No, but Micah, you’ve got to look at the order. I already wrote it down in the doc.
[Show music begins]
Micah: Oh, I’m not looking at that.
[Kevin laughs]
Andrew: Oh, well, I guess you don’t get to say goodbye. Next.
Micah: I’m Micah Tannenbaum.
[Andrew and Kevin laugh]
Eric: I’m Eric Scull.
Andrew: [laughs] And Mikey was last in the list.
Eric: Mikey was late.
Kevin: Mikey is ten minutes late.
Andrew: Yeah.
Eric: Okay, then I get the end.
Andrew: Goodbye.
Ben: Mikey is in the dog house.
Andrew: [laughs] And we’ll see you next time for Episode 270, whenever that may be. Goodbye.
Ben: So long.
Micah: Goodbye.
[Show music continues]
[“End of an Era” by Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls plays]