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The kids are podcastic

Filed under: Looked Into Tagged: fiction, Harry Potter, podcasts

If you're even a low-lying fan of J.K. Rowling and you aren't dowloading MuggleCast, giggle away, but do it. I'm only on my second episode—that would be episode 20—but my hope for the next generation of literary and film critics is assured. These kids (teenagers and a twentysomething or two) are ardent, insightful, polite—WNYC-guest interruptniks could learn a lot from them—articulate, culturally savvy, and hilarious. Which has more practical value, intellectual skill or loyalty? Is it character development or marketing when Emma Watson gets progressively more tarted up in each movie installment, and how does that affect Rowling's young female fans, long inspired by the idea of Hermione as being above superficial matters like unfrizzy hair? In an institution in which factionalism has been encouraged, do warring subsets necessarily unite after a crisis? The discourse is miles above the level of your average kiddie fansite, and it's very well produced (how is that possible? I bet they do it themselves). One of the hosts, 16-year-old homeschooler Laura, mentions at the end of the current podcast that she doesn't own an iPod. She deserves one, and all of them deserve to be well rewarded for creating such an organized and entertaining outlet for the pure passionate excess of young fandom.

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Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.

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