Swish and Flick: A Harry Potter Podcast

I love this podcast and have listened since 2019/2020. Lately though, it feels like there has been a deliberate slow down of actual podcast content in an attempt to not finish Deathly Hallows. Since June 1 there have been 12 episodes released at the time of this review(August 19). Those 12 episodes break down as follows; 6 “bonus” episodes, 2 more non-labeled “bonus” episodes about Epic Universe, an old Felix Files, an episode talking about Wizardly Weekend of Kent, and TWO actual chapter episodes. As someone who checks my podcast feed every Sunday waiting for the newest episode to drop it’s been really disheartening having been let down repeatedly. A “bonus” episode shouldn’t take the place of a true episode in my opinion. A bonus episode should be released on a non-regular release day in addition to a regular episode. At some point, I’ll stop checking for new episodes because there simply aren’t any. I just want to get back to the regularly scheduled episodes and keep dissecting the text like they used to.

I started my first ever read of the Harry Potter books 3 or 4 years ago and after becoming thoroughly obsessed I found your podcast! It was so nice to relive the series with my new friends because that what it feels likes listening to y’all!! I used to love crime podcasts, but once I got pregnant and had my baby I couldn’t listen to them anymore and your podcast is now my go to. Thanks for keeping the magic alive and for being a comfort when I needed it! ❤️ I recommend this podcast to all my fellow potter heads!

First of all, I’m writing this review at 5am and I’m a little tired so sorry if this seems like it’s written weird or something. I love this podcast!! Tiffany, Megan, Katie, and Sarah’s (ik she technically left but still) insights are so thoughtful, yet still totally funny! There are SO MANY episodes, so if you were to start now, you would be set for a long time. I was sitting listening to an episode and they (the hosts) were saying something about the bingo sheets, and I just thought ‘any podcast with enough inside jokes to have bingo sheets full of them is a podcast worth listening to’ which is why I decided to write this review! I love how much I feel like I’m friends with the hosts, and their family. I’m probably one of your younger listeners (I’m not comfortable with saying my exact age, but I’m younger than 16) and I don’t really use social media. Even so, without even really having a clear picture of the swish cast in my head, I feel like I know their whole family so well! This podcast is definitely an essential podcast, up there with Mike Schubert’s “Potterless”, and Sequoia Simone & Kim’s “Fanatical Fics”, and any Harry Potter lover should definitely listen to this podcast! PS: As a fellow Slytherin, I side with Megan on the Mrs Noris Debacle

EDIT: 21.09.24 The sound quality has been so much better in recent episodes, so ignore that complaint in my review!! Oh look at that, I guess the title worked 👀. Anyways, hello, thank you for putting off a minute or two to read this! These women are absolutely inspirational. If you are looking for a deep-dive into one of the worlds most famous series this is for you. Maybe you’ll even learn more lore about the wizarding world (I know I did 🤷). It’s almost unbearable to wait a week for their next episode, especially since the newer episodes are shorter. The only criticism I can think of are the sounds. Lately some of the hosts either yell, mumble or just blurt out some obnoxious noise. The sound quality itself can be a bit rocky, for example: Tiff will be very loud (when she’s speaking normally), but then Megan and Katie sound a little more distant (when they’re at the same volume level irl). I understand that this is probably because you’re most likely recording digitally together since I don’t think yall live in the same state. But enough of there critical feedback, it’s not enough to bring my rating down or make me think any less of them :] My personal experience with these wonderful ladies: I am a proud Slytherin with a Bloodhound patronus (I’m sorry if I wrote that wrong, never been able to spell it correctly)! I believe my wand has a Phoenix core but that’s really all I remember and I don’t feel like going to pottermore to check. I found this podcast one boring afternoon mainly because I was bored and newly introduced to the series. I was on my third re-listen of Harry Potter and decided to search “Harry Potter” on the Podcast app, and oh my, am I glad I did! Just maybe a month or two after I started listening I hit a rough patch. My closest friends changed schools, I felt insecure and family issues were starting up again. Tiffany, Megan, Katie and Sarah got me through high and lows (I cried when Sarah announced her departure). Your supportive attitudes and playful banter were enough to guide me through how to accept myself and others. I especially love it when y’all get in your slaphappy moods, it has never failed to make my day brighter. Whether I’m on the bus, walking my dog or just need to tune out from reality, it manages to put a smile on my face. Speaking of smiling—which is something I do when I think back to this—I used to get your voices mixed up when I first started listening. And not like if Tiffany said something I thought it was Katie, oh no, I TOTALLY mixed y’all up. I thought that Sarah and Tiffany were married, Katie and Megan were sisters in my mind and that Katie was dating Tiffany’s brother. WHOOPS. Anyways, sorry for the lengthy review, but I mean you were the one who stayed for the personal stuff. “Don’t let the muggles get ya down!” —Ronald Weasley

I’m a long time listener have enjoyed the it for the most part, but for the last year or so, the pod has gone downhill. They desperately need an outside editor or producer who’s willing to cut out the unrelated tangents and to help them stay on track. The hosts don’t seem to really care about the books and everything is made into a joke. Book 7 could have some really interesting topics but because they get hung up on doing accents or they’ll make jokes and start laughing hysterically; a lot of potential material isn’t talked about. the episode at Malfoy manner is intense and it seems like they can’t handle talking about serious situations so they deflect. Discord is really a good tool/resource to connect, but so often they refer to what’s going on in the discord chat that a regular audience member can’t understand because there’s no context. That kind of thing really should be cut out and it would really help with having such long episodes. Anymore because of all of the side conversations and goofing off, they only talk about 20 minutes worth of the book and the chapters are being split. If they would focus and cut out a lot of the unnecessary conversations and leave that for the Patreon only, the podcast would be much more enjoyable to listen to for the average listener and could be a little bit longer since they’ll be talking about source material. I’ll listen to the end of the book but I’m also dreading how unserious they’ll take the last few chapters. For as many kids that listen to them, I’m surprised they promote ads for cannabis. Very disappointing.

Enjoyed the deep dives into the lore for sure, but the differences in volume between the hosts, the constant laughter, and the talking over one another was hard to listen to for me! I can totally understand some may enjoy just feeling like they are the in room with the hosts chatting, but I prefer a bit more structure.