Grab a butterbear and your antidode – just in case someone tries to slip you Veritaserum! Join as Karoline, Sophia and our guests Charles and Grace get lost in the ethics and moral dilemmas of truth potions.
In this episode:
- Harry’s about to give his class some realllllllly interesting gossip
- What even is truth??
- Swapping Grandma stories
- Anything can be true if you just believe hard enough
- Is truth serum torture and do Wizards care about International Muggle law?
- “Very strict Ministry guidelines”—sure, Snape sure
- Summary of veritaserum in trials: wizards don’t care about truth
- The world’s fastest trials
For more from our guest Charles:
- @AtMinorityOfOne75 on Twitter
- charlesboyd on Substack
- charles.boyd.517701 on Facebook
For more from our guest Grace:
- gracevictoriaarts on Instagram
- Voldemort: The Definitive Study of Tom Riddle-the Man Who Would Become “He Who Must Not Be Named” by Grace Candido-Beecher (available April 28th in all* bookstores)
- voldemortbook on Instagram
- voldemortbook on Tumblr
Pub’s Jukebox: Eff the Ministry by Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills
Now, where were you kind, generous, amazing, wonderful people when I was getting dog-piled on episode 82? 😂😂😂 Jk
A note to Karoline: for the record, I think “Hogwarts should have a mandatory ethics class” is the smartest thing anyone’s ever said on this podcast.
They did put a nice bow on our discussion. I particularly like the distinction that Snape repented being a Death Eater, but didn’t repent being a jerk.
EVERYONE should have a mandatory ethics class. And as a severely scarring incident in my ethics class demonstrated, in junior year at business school, those ethics classes should be imposed sooner rather than later, and well before one’s third year of college.
Buahahahahahaha you just made me laugh so hard. Are you actually serious?
Oh yes, I’m completely serious. It was the most appalling moment of my entire education.
New soon-to-be host DJ here…
I’m actually a bit surprised the Ministry doesn’t use Vertiaserum more often. I can understand not using it on a daily basis, or for civil/minor charges like underage magic. But for criminal trials for the most dangerous terrorist group the world has ever seen? Seems like the sort of thing Barty Crouch Sr. would’ve authorized given he authorized the Unforgiveables. Honestly, if I were Minister of Magic, I would’ve authorized its use for Barty Jr. and maybe the Lestrange trial, though I suppose that proved unnecessary in the long run.
It makes me wonder if the issue is:
Or
From memory, that’s one of those things that the author clarified later (read: didn’t think through the implications when it was introduced), introducing various means of subverting veritaserum (occlumancy, taking an antidote beforehand, etc).
You might argue this is a terrible plot-hole/world-building flaw, but in some ways it adds a realistic “messiness” to the world. Growing up, we tend to see the world in more black-and-white terms, and have strong opinions about “how things should be! (TM)”, but as we learn more, we usually realise things are not that simple.
For example, trying to determine what “counts” as lying. I can make a false statement without lying (if I’m mistaken, for example). There’s an element of “intent to deceive”, that can also apply to fae-like “carefully-worded truth that gives a false impression”.
I can’t remember if we’re ever told much about how veritaserum actually works. Does it force the taker to tell the actual truth, or what they believe is the truth? Are they forced to speak, or simply unable to lie when they do so?
Agreed!
Most of these were addressed in the episode, it seems the conclusions were (1) what they believe to be truth; (2) simply unable to lie.
There’s another possible explanation: cost. The ingredients may not be too difficult to procure, just expensive as hell (because they’re rare, or dangerous, or whatever). Then you have to pay for a (very skilled) potioneer to brew it, and you’d either have to contract that out and pay their markups, or you’d have to offer enough of a salary to compete with what they could make in private practice. I can see the whole thing being expensive enough that the Ministry is just like “Nah, not worth it!”
Sure, but that still doesn’t explain why Hogwarts is able to procure the ingredients.