I gave up on this podcast as I got halfway through the second book. While the concept is fun and refreshing, the host and his buddies are so, so tiring. Mike's personality is the worst guy in the friend group. He's the guy at the office that makes you want to eat lunch at your desk so you can avoid him in the break room. I should have checked out when I realized that he (a) uses Twitter and (b) does improv. That's the type of person he is. Literally the worst.
He thinks he's intelligent because he's a mechanical engineer, which he will tell you ad nauseum (along with the fact that he studied Latin, has a girlfriend, does improv, likes basketball, and uses Twitter). I guess we can't fault a mere mechanical engineer, the lowliest of engineers, for not understanding how nuclear reactors work (this is in reference to him saying that "splitting an atom always has bad consequences"). Mike is more frat boy than scholar, and while he is always checking his white privilege, he does so without a single critical thought in his little head, bless him. He very much reminds me of the whitest boys at law school, who wear suits to class for no reason, and think they're smarter than everyone else until they realize they're the only guy in the room who doesn't have a scholarship.
Mike's deepest flaw perhaps is that he is obviously not someone who enjoys to read fantasy novels. He hates world building, character development, descriptions, archetypes, plot devices, and basically everything having to do with books. This is a guy who really should have just stuck to the movies - he appears incapable of any depth of literary analysis. The only interesting insight he brings to the table is not a feasible sport. The rest of the time he is complaining about word choice (i.e., groping, ejaculated), and basically blaming JK Rowling for all the fantasy archetypes she literally did not invent (i.e., goblins being modeled off Jewish stereotypes). His knowledge of mythology and other fantasy archetypes really shines through. Despite having studied Latin, his concept of the cultural hearthstone of the western world is profoundly limited.
Mike's conceit is typical of a Gryiffindor, but I'd venture that he's probably a Slytherin. He definitely has a higher opinion of himself than I can support. He's also not very nice, so I don't see why he thinks he'd be a Hufflepuff - probably all the "hot takes" on things like "slavery is bad" and "Johnny Depp should be fired" have him convinced this makes him some kind of righteous soul. But I felt like he was an a**hole about JK Rowling pretty regularly. At least we can all agree that he's not a Ravenclaw, because, like I said - he is NOT a reader.
In sum, this podcast is basically a book report by a guy who thinks he's smart, but is really no better than the average frat boy. I checked out when his co-host from his basketball podcast was his guest - I just cannot waste my brain cells and limited free time on listening to two frat boys.
I would, however, like to compliment the majority of Mike's guests who are sincerely well-versed in the mythology of Harry Potter, its cultural roots and implications, and do well trying to explain to Mike why he's always saying something stupid. The guests that haven't read the books in 10 years could have been skipped.
