Minority of One Charles Boyd

In the conclusion to my "death penalty in fantasy literature" trilogy, I analyze how capital punishment is dealt with in the Harry Potter series, as well as the wizarding world more broadly. After briefly discussing how both capital punishment and segregation laws are used as examples of wizarding America's backwardness in the Fantastic Beasts films, I turn to the book series. Find out why I think the Dementor's Kiss is probably meant to parallel capital punishment and why I think Sirius and Buckbeak are both used to illustrate the perils of State executions. Learn why I think the Harry Potter series leans anti-death penalty but is less firm in its stance than Lord of the Rings. Learn why the Dursleys are probably right-wing. And find out my take on how the climax of the series tries to split the difference of killing off Voldemort without endorsing capital punishment.

In Part 2 of my trilogy of podcast episodes examining how 3 fantasy series address capital punishment, I analyze Lord of the Rings. I make the case that, in stark contrast to Narnia, LOTR takes a very strong anti-death penalty stance that comes up multiple times in each book of the trilogy. I examine a J.R.R. Tolkien quote that has sometimes been construed as pro-death penalty and give my take on why this is a misinterpretation. I discuss how Tolkien's view of the "just deserts" theory of punishment, expressed through Gandalf, was the opposite of C.S. Lewis's view. I discuss how heroic characters in LOTR continually pass up opportunities to kill villains except on the field of battle, long after many Narnian heroes would have resorted to hanging. And I make the case for which American politicians various LOTR characters parallel on criminal justice: why Gandalf is like Bernie Sanders, why Galadriel is a bit of an elven Elizabeth Warren, why Aragorn might be called the Gavin Newsom of Gondor, and why Treebeard was the first ever prison abolitionist.

This is the 1st part in a trilogy of podcast episodes in which I look at how the issue of capital punishment is addressed in 3 fantasy series: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. In this episode, I focus on Narnia. I'll be making the case that of the three series, Chronicles of Narnia takes the most positive view of capital punishment, leaning pro-death penalty. Learn what C.S. Lewis wrote about capital punishment outside of his fiction. And get my thoughts on why I think the Narnia series leans toward endorsing the death penalty as an appropriate punishment for the State to impose.

This episode critiques obscenity laws, argues for their full abolition, and makes the case that premise behind them conflicts with one of the basic purposes of free speech. You'll get to hear the thoughts of both the late SCOTUS Judge Hugo Black and Grandpa Munster about obscenity laws, as well as getting to hear me do my best Jerry Nadler impression.

In this episode, I discuss what ranked choice voting is, how Democrats' failure to push it helped lead to them losing in 2000 and 2016 and the demise of Roe v. Wade, why we need to demand they do better on this issue, and what Rosario Dawson and I have in common.

This episode marks the final part of my trilogy on the history, current status, and possible future of racial profiling. I'll be examining what Obama did and didn't do to tackle the problem; the way in which racial profiling helped cause the Philando Castile murder; the dumbest thing CNN's Jonah Goldberg ever said about racial profiling back when he worked for National Review; discussions of the issue of racial profiling in the 2016 and 2020 Elections; how Donald Trump's presidency was a gift to racial profiling practitioners and proponents; recent developments on racial profiling at the local, state, and federal level; the unsuccessful attempts to pass a federal ban on racial profiling through a broader police reform bill; the way in which Biden's presidency represents noteworthy but limited progress on racial profiling; some of the best possible solutions for finally curbing racial profiling.