I absolutely love this podcast! It is so funny and makes me laugh out loud! Most of the reviews say like āOh Mike talks about politics to muchā¦ā and yes he does talk about politics a lot but itās great to hear his point of view of the meaning behind some of the topics and itās one of the things that makes it fun! He goes on a lot of random tangents and itās just a really good podcast idea in general! You should really listen to it!
Nice try on reviewing the Harry Potter series as you are reading it. I started with the Goblet of Fire first podcast. Do some research, and get some facts right. There was some information missing in your review. Voldemort, is pronounced with a silent T. Frank was still taking care of the garden for the next two owners of the house (that didnāt stay long).
Humbugs are a traditional hard-boiled sweet available in the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. They are usually flavoured with peppermint[1] and striped in two different colours (often black and white). In Australia, the black-and-white-striped humbugs may be aniseed flavoured. Humbugs may be cylinders with rounded ends wrapped in a twist of cellophane, or more traditionally tetrahedral, loose in a bag.[1] Records of humbugs exist from as early as the 1820s, and they are referred to in the 1863 book Sylvia's Lovers as being a food from the North.[2] The etymology is unknown.
I love this podcast so much. I had just went through all the books again as an adult and when I finished them I was so sad because I just didnāt want it to be over . . . And then I found Potterless. It is an amazing ride so far. It certainly fills the void left by finishing the books :)
Found out about this podcast through Fanatical Fics and Where to Find Them (go check them out!), and absolutely LOVE IT. Mikeās witty takes on everything make me laugh and appreciate the series in a new light. As a super Harry Potter nerd, Iām trying to find plot holes myself, and I often find myself screaming in agreement or opposition at Mike. LOVE this podcast, definitely recommend.
Be warned! As a first time reader of HP myself I like this concept for a podcast but if youāre reading and following along, there will be hugeeee spoilers almost every episode so that kinda suckssss
Pros: -funny at times -hot takes are interesting -āWhy didnāt the riddles just move???!!!!ā -quidditch rants Cons: -I have to fast forward every time he tries to talk about the political climate -Some of his guests are kind of annoying. I would rate this 5 stars if the multitude folks werenāt guests, they are pretty meh. The guests on 64 and 65 were so annoying i had to skip those episodes entirely-yes wizards are racist but the whole agenda is too much here. Iām here for comedic relief on this comedy podcast and Iām plan to finish the series, but my god it might get hard. Hot take: maybe DONT talk about US politics during your comedy show. Iām honestly a little afraid to get into the episodes made in 2020.
I was looking for a new book podcast and I stumbled upon the newest Olympian, which mentioned this one in one of the reviews, so I just HAD to check it out and oh my Hyppogriff I LOVE this
I'm relistening to the episodes covering the books and I just realized that I never left a review! This podcast hits the right balance between good naturedness and snarky.
Mike is absolutely entitled to his opinions as am I. I listened to all 7 books reading of this podcast before coming to review it. It started off well ngl. Somewhere along the middle Mike lost the plot completely. I saw that Mike was open about some things and completely close-minded about others. Like how Mike took offense to some words just because interpretation of them in one context is sexual without realizing that the same words can be used in many many other contexts without being sexual. Mike ranted about that for no good reason for many many many episodes because Mike couldn't accept that other cultures can't have different ways of saying things? This coming from a guy who in one episode said he is a proponent of diversity. Well, ok then. Mike kept getting many things wrong even though they were explained 10 pages before. Reading the books carefully is the one thing Mike had to do and he fails spectacularly.
This podcast should be called "A woke Americans interpretation of Harry Potter" because that is exactly what it is. He throws around words like diversity while he pokes fun of another culture. Can anything be more woke American? I guess not. Do not listen to this podcast if you do not believe in magic. Mike doesn't and it'll irritate you to the point that you'll write a long review like this one.
I only made it a few episodes in because the host tries to have a lot of ācuteā hot takes on the series while simultaneously misreporting important details from the books he supposedly just read. He also takes digs at the movies while also admitting he has only seen 4.5 of them and itās been a while since heās watched them.
Lastly, the friends he has on as āHarry Potter expertsā get tons of basic facts wrong and seem to be in the same boat of not having read the books or watched the movies for a while.
I just donāt get why youād make a podcast about something while putting such little effort into engaging with the topic of your podcast.
Iāve been listening through every episode and I absolutely love this podcast. The stand out episode was 127 where Mike interviews/has a conversation with Gordon Cox. Truly informative and a joy to listen to.
I love this show so much. Your speaking style and analytical senses are always so on point and it makes me smile every time I listen to it.
Thank you for this wonderful show.
You are very entertaining! Was listening to your deep dive on the projector. Wouldnāt it be cool if they had a magic projector hooked to a pensive so you could share a memory with the class?
if youāre a republican or donāt like politics, donāt listen to this podcast lol, itās pretty much half Harry Potter and half woke political takes
I just love his take on listening to the stories, and thereās a lot of nostalgia of remembering being excited about some of the stuff he gets excited about. And the way he pokes fun of the books is very funny!
I'm on the 3rd book of Harry Potter and when I wasn't reading it (I started from the 3rd bc I listened to the 1st and 2nd on here š) and I'm enjoying it. I fall asleep to this podcast it's just to good. It's good to just listen to the books! The newer episodes are not what I listen to but even though what I listen to is "old" I LOVE IT thanks Mike you even made me wanna read hp and I'm obsessed. -from a fellow "Potter head"
I was very interested in listening to this podcast because the idea is great. It was enjoyable for a while except you could turn it into a drinking game every time Mike(host) says something is āthe worst.ā There were occasional political or social comments that didnāt fit the discussion but over time it got more common to where it made me turn it off. Mike and most of his guests find too many things offensive like word choices, not enough ādiversityā or how characters were described. They can be very petty about complaining about a character, a fictional cultural norm yet ignore character or story development. Instead of reading the books as they are, they are insist on implementing their moral standards on a fictional world. If I had known or it was more obvious in the first episodes, I would have stopped earlier.
I love listening to this podcast while I clean or am just trying to pass time. Mike is hilarious and I love Potterless. Him and his guests make the podcast funny, more interesting, and make some points that I didnāt even think of. The podcast is amazing.
I LITERALLY HAVE NOT HEARD A SINGLE EPISODE BECAUSE I CANāT LISTEN TO EXPLICIT THINGS lol. But really, I would recommend probably because TNO is really good. Canāt give 5 stars because I havenāt heard it but Iām giving you the benefit of the doubt. You are amazing!
PS I havenāt read Harry Potter in like 2 years because I discovered twitter⦠yeah. No TERFs allowed within a 10 foot radius of me! Sorry JKR!
TERFy JK bad. Potterless good! I love that we still get occasional episodes, but even more I love and appreciate that Mike has deliberately used his Potter-based platform to denounce JKās ignorant statements, and that he seems always open to learning for himself. Well done, fellow human!!!!
I really wish I could recommend this podcast, but I had to unsubscribe.
I love Harry Potter. It provides simple entertainment and allows me to escape the divided, stressful, and chaotic life around, but not this podcast.
The hosts talk with incredibly filthy language and somehow work to make nearly every detail some sort of āadultā innuendo.
Additionally, they also seem to want everything to have a political undertone and commentary on our culture. Harry Potter is entertainment, a way for me to escape, if only for a few minutes, the divisive political climate. And yet the hosts constantly yank it back in to a simple work of fiction.
I will read Harry Potter, itās simple, fun, and a pleasure to read. But this podcast is the exact opposite. Itās divisive, dirty, and chaotic.
It is wonderful and making me want to go through the Harry Potter books with a fine tooth comb. I came over from the SuperCarlinBrothers Ludo Bagman quiz. It took me about 2 weeks to binge all the way through the look back. Would definitely recommend to anyone who is a huge Harry Potter fan. The random rants are soo fun.
It was such an amazing drive down memory lanes of re-living my first read through this series (I have read them 10+ times now). I wish I could delete my knowledge and relive it the first time as an adult. Iām sure it would go a lot like Mike, and a lot of choice words and exclamations. I ALWAYS recommend this to all of my Potter Friends. My house: Ravenclaw š
I just listened to the book episodes and am now on the movie episodes. Overall, Potterless is an enjoyable podcast providing me with entertainment during the drudgery of getting ready for work, my daily commute, chores and the like. I stumbled upon it through the Swish and Flick podcast. Mike Schubert was a guest on one of their episodes. Once I caught up, I was in dire need of more Potter content so I decided to give it a try. I like the premise but it can e frustrating at times. There are many instances of details/facts from the books Mike Schubert gets wrong (likely due to the fact itās his first read and he listens to the audio book at times, so I donāt think reading comprehension is the best) and editing Mike doesnāt really catch a majority of these errors. However, thatās not the real frustrating part, itās more that the guests do not catch these errors because the guests arenāt as versed on the series. Now, I do like the guests for the most part. I just expected that the guests would have been more knowledgeable, and not just people who read the series as children. There are some guests who clearly have read the books more than once and also as adults, so those episodes are more enjoyable in my mind. Itās my fault for assuming all of the guests would be well versed in the books. Maybe a disclaimer in the first episode that the guests may have only read the books as children would be helpful to dilute the expectation. Other than that I have enjoyed listening to the podcast and binging it like one of my Netflix shows :)
Honestly, I do not know why I listened to every episode of this podcast.
Mike can be funny and entertaining, but he does veer into obnoxiousness from time to time.
A good 2/3 of the guests havenāt read the books in a very long time and donāt have a good grasp on whatās going on most of the time. I think this is the worst flaw over all.
Mike just had terrible reading comprehension. Half the time he misses very obvious things (like the veil being a literal door to death and the room itās in being the death room).
His dumbest moment, of which there are plenty, would be him unable to understand what the word āunderfedā was. He called it āun-derf-edā multiple times and looked it up. Twice. Neither of his guests corrected him either.
Simple things are often misremembered (charactersā ages) or simply forgotten, even if they happened in the chapter before.
For example, in book 3 he was excited about Ron and the Weasleyās visiting tombs with Bill in Egypt, only to then spend all of books 4-6 fussing that Bill was boring because he worked at a bank.
Itās just tedious.
I really have been enjoying Potterless! I love Harry Potter and itās really nice to have a different view of it through Mikeās eyes. He does a really good walk through/ review of the books. He has a realistic view of Harry Potter and finds plot holes in a funny way while still respectful and enjoying Harry Potter. Itās really nice to have Mikeās views and other guests who are long time lovers of Harry Potter.
Hey Mike!
I was only just introduced to Potterless 3 weeks ago and Iām already 40 episodes in!!!
I was at LeakyCon Denver and I thought you were hilarious so I checked out the podcast and I am IN LOVE. I donāt know what Iām going to do with my life when I catch up and you bet I will!
I had heard of Potterless but all I knew is that it was a Harry Potter related podcast and nothing else. Last July I went to leakycon and during that weekend I attended up going to watch cosplay karaoke. Mikeās INSANE performance of Just a Friend inspired me to look up the podcast and I ended up binging the whole thing. Now a fan for life. Will DEFINITELY be listening to the next Olympian next.
ā Morgan
I love this podcast!!
I wanted to listen to a Harry Potter podcast for a while before I found Potterless, and I was so glad I did!! Mike is very funny when he doesnāt know anything. I relistened to all the book ones when I was finished. I want to go to one of his live shows, but none of them are in my area. I kindly sent him a message on Instagram thinking he wouldnāt even read it but he did!! He had a very nice response and kindly said he would try to do one in my area!! Iām very excited to see him in person.
Pro-
Concept is great,
Spirits podcast cohosts are good
I donāt mind that he injects his political ideology in- itās his podcast.
Host seems overall nice
Con-
Some of the guy cohosts were really bad
Inability to often consider things in context (itās 90s in Britain not 2020s in the US)
Inability to empathize with characters (ie ranting about Harry being upset AFTER Sirius had just died)ā even though one of the strengths of the book is the portrayal of grief.
Overall, just not a ton of meaningful, original, insightful, intelligent commentary, like the kind you might get from someone with a literary background. (Ie confusing Minotaurs with centaurs)
I stopped after ~20 episodes. So ultimately it depends on what youāre interested in- but if you donāt want the more in depth conversation and you want something more light hearted and shallow, this could be for you
Around the time I started this podcast, a guy I was planning on marrying broke up with me. He did it over text , gave no reason and never contacted me again. I was going through a very low point and had a hard time with my mental health. Listening to Potterless was the only times I had genuine laughs and it helped me not think about the hurt. So thank you Mike for helping me get through one of the toughest heart breaks in my life. ā¤ļø
Iām listening to this podcast for the first time while rereading the books in preparation of Hogwarts Legacy! Itās so so much fun! I listen to one or two episodes a week on my way home after reading the chapters in my free time at work! Mike is so so much fun I absolutely love his takes (and his ignorance about the series lol). All the guest are wonderful and I really enjoy them especially Amanda from Sprits podcast, all except for one: Sydney. I cannot stand when the former Vine star is on an episode, she spoils so much for Mike and just candidly talks or corrects him about events that happen later in the series. Itās just always incredibly frustrating when sheās on. Other than that, I really look forward to listening to the podcast and itās really helped me keep a good pace as Iām rereading the books. Wizard On!
I listened to this podcast after listening to the newest Olympian thinking that it would be fun to hear a first timer read my favorite books. Big mistake, I donāt know why I listened to so many of these episodes, maybe I was hoping it would get better as time went by but apparently not. The ragging on so many characters was ridiculous and the complaining about Quidditch was unnecessary. I advise anyone who wants to listen to a better rounded interpretation of the books go and listen to Swish and Flick: A Harry Potter Podcast leave this one be.
Love the show, but Kelly is so annoying. She supposedly helped him start the show but is so annoying when she doesnāt remember anything that matters and you can barely hear her half the time. The rest of the show without Kelly is great.
The audience for this podcast is well versed Harry Potter readers, looking to reminisce on books they loved. You should know these things:
1. He will use the phrase āso goodā as his best analytical description, atleast 5 times per episode.
2. He has a girlfriend, is a mechanical engineer, lived in Europe briefly, plays basketball, and will remind of you of each of these every episode.
3. He is the most woke and most politically correct person in the world, and itās clear he wants you to know it.
4. His guy friends are terrible co hosts, and remember little to no important Harry Potter facts. His women co hosts are generally excellent and the only good thing about this podcast.
5. He wants you to leave thinking that he is the best combination of an athletic, entrepreneur, frat bro, podcast inventor.