The Swiftie and The Scholar
A weekly podcast exploring the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. Hosted by Angela McDow, the Swiftie, and Dr. Jerry Coats, the Scholar, we read between the lines AND the liner notes. Join us each week for lyrical deep dive through Taylor Swift's eras.
Episodes
We’re back and we’re kicking 2026 off with the three remaining tracks from Taylor’s submission to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Spoiler alert: she was inducted! We’ll talk more about that in the final of these three episodes, but today we are focused on Anti-Hero. Uncle Jerry wonders about Taylor’s psychological status when writing this song and Angela has an A-ha! moment about how the music cues us to maybe feel differently than t...
Happy New Year! With New Year’s Day on our episode release day, it only felt right to cover this masterpiece from Reputation. Uncle Jerry unknowingly connects this song with many others, blowing Angela’s mind once again.
We’re taking a short break after this episode, but we’ll see you back here in a few weeks with more poetry!
Works Cited:
Merry Christmas! Sorry for the sad song choice, but it just felt right. We’re trudging down the road not taken with evermore’s ‘tis the damn season. Uncle Jerry isn’t so sure about this one at first, but he comes around by the end.
Works Cited:
This is one of our most requested episodes, and here it is, just in time for the holidays! Uncle Jerry picked up on something that Angela had never noticed in the poem, and they get into a bit of the Tay-lore about what inspired The Tortured Poets Department.
Works Cited:
Just Kids – Patti Smith – Aff Link
After all the talk about Romanticism in the last episode, we’re taking it to the New Romantics this week. Uncle Jerry teaches us all about the sociocultural movement of the late 1970s and 1980s called New Romanticism, featuring The Blitz Kids, the London club scene, and all the fun and freedom of the era.
Works Cited:
We are letting Taylor Swift take us to the lakes today! These are the lyrics Angela used to convince Uncle Jerry to do this podcast, and his analysis does not disappoint. Come with us to learn all about Romanticism, The Lakes Poets, and how Taylor expertly weaves those two into this poem.
Works Cited:
Lyrical Ballads – William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Aff ...
We are finally covering a song from Speak Now! I’m so sorry to all the Speak Now stans that it took this long, but we got here. Uncle Jerry takes us through Taylor’s word choice throughout Enchanted, and how it reveals the specific fairy tale inspiration behind the song. Angela explains the lore of this being Taylor’s only completely self-written album and the moment that inspired the song.
Works Cited:
In this episode, we dig into one of most requested songs of late, The Black Dog. Taylor Swift mentioned in an interview that no one really understood this song, so we got Uncle Jerry on the case. Tune in to hear his take!
Works Cited:
Roland Barthes – The Death of The Author
She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Aff Link
Well friends, I think we did it. Stay all the way to the end for a big surprise out of Uncle Jerry.
In this episode, we're covering one of Angela's favorite TTPD tracks, Peter. Uncle Jerry finds layer after layer in the poem, and decides that this is a beautiful, melancholic reflection on the loss of innocence and youth, told through the lens of Peter Pan.
Works Cited:
We’re taking it back to high school this week and exploring the country phenomenon that is Love Story. This is our first track from Fearless (2008), and Uncle Jerry explores all of the themes and tropes that are missing from the poem when compared to her current work, like complex metaphors and twisted idioms.
Works Cited:
Step into our office and leave it with us. We protect the family! Join us as we walk through Father Figure from The Life of a Showgirl. Uncle Jerry gives his theories on the inspiration for the song, including many different movies, and Angela works out where she thinks the narrator changes mid-track.
Pour yourself some brown liquor and you won’t be sleeping with the fishes.
Works Cited:
We have officially entered our Showgirl era, and we’re kicking it off with The Fate of Ophelia. Uncle Jerry teaches us all about Ophelia’s role in Hamlet, one of the Ophelia paintings Taylor may have drawn inspiration from, and a couple of feminist critics’ takes on Ophelia.
We then get into the song, Angela weaves in a few nuggets of Tay-lore, and they round it out by discussing the feminist issues with the track, watching th...
We are wiping the incense dust off the shelf and picking ourselves up off the floor with Maroon this week. This Midnights track from 2022 is full of imagery, senses, colors, and so much more. Uncle Jerry also surprises us all with an interpretation from left field, which allows Angela the space to explain a specific sect of swifties.
Enjoy!
Works Cited:
We’re coming down from our Showgirl high, and taking it back to 1989 this week. Uncle Jerry takes us through Clean, and breaks down the metaphors and themes found in the poem, including addiction, healing, personal growth, and personal agency.
He also asks Angela who this song was inspired by, and admits that he’s now wondering about that in all of these songs. :)
There are links below to (most of!) the recommended literatur...
The Swiftie and The Scholar took a field trip to the movie theater this weekend to hang out with Taylor and the Swifties! This was Uncle Jerry's first in-person swiftie experience, and he gives us his thoughts, along with his first impressions of a few of the new tracks.
Angela gives her first impressions on the album and discusses which songs the podcast will cover first.
Follow Us:
In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela get caught up on the latest Swiftie news, including the engagement and The Release Party of a Showgirl, and then they get into answering your questions from Instagram and TikTok. We cover poetry curriculum, how to get into scholarly pursuits, how Angela convinced Uncle Jerry to do the podcast, and how we select which songs we cover.
There are links below to (most of!) the recommended liter...
Come walk through the door with us, cause the air is getting cooooold. Our 10th episode is here, and we were hoping you had 10 minutes to spare for this one.
We are digging deep into the All Too Well universe, and Uncle Jerry compares both the original version and the 10 minute version, what he thinks about the lyrics that were redacted for the edited version, and Taylor Swift’s masterful use of metaphor and other literary devi...
Dom Perignon, did you bring it?
Today we’re toasting to Champagne Problems from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, evermore. Uncle Jerry discusses the different meter used throughout the lyrics, and also wonders if there’s a deeper meaning with society’s expectations and the narrator’s autonomy throughout the story.
Angela brings up the Swiftie discussion about which word they’ll never say again, and they also tell the story of Uncle Jerry ...
Today we’re putting the money in the bag and stealing the keys, and discussing Taylor Swift’s Getaway Car from 2017. This cult Swiftie fave is our first track from Reputation, and Angela chose it because she knew Uncle Jerry would love the Dickens reference in the first line.
Watch as the duo dissects each line, and Uncle Jerry picks up on the self-reflection Taylor wrote into the song.
Works Cited:
Let's talk through So Long, London!
In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Uncle Jerry and Angela dissect the poetic lyrics of the fifth track from Taylor Swift's 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department.
They find tons of literary devices and references, and Uncle Jerry even makes another correct prediction on the song's intro.
Stay until the end to hear Uncle Jerry's grade for the song as a whole.
Works Cit...
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