Explore every episode of the podcast The Swiftie and The Scholar
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empathy from Experience in Patient Zero | 05 nov. 2026 | 01:52:14 | |
We get into A LOT in this episode. Love bombing, toxic relationships, the connections Angela found to other songs that make it clear to her who inspired this song, and car salesmen. Hope you enjoy! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Weasel/Patient Zero – Marvel Universe Patient Zero – The Outer Limits (2001) Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall (The Poldark Saga, 1) – Winston Graham: Canterbury Tales Prologue – Geoffrey Chaucer The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Illusion of Liberation in Babylon | 29 oct. 2026 | 01:54:02 | |
Buckle up, y’all. We’ve got a beefy one for you today! We’re tackling Babylon from Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. I think we all knew this one would give Uncle Jerry plenty to think about and chew on and teach from, and he did not disappoint. Maybe grab your breakfast or dinner and a nice beverage and get comfy, because this is our longest episode yet. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson Angela’s Reaction Video – The Encore Professing Literature: An Institutional History – Gerald Graff What Does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin" Mean? Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak Miniver Cheevy – Edwin Arlington Robinson The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Art Becomes Memory in Tim McGraw | 22 oct. 2026 | 01:30:24 | |
In this episode, we are taking it back to the very beginning with Tim McGraw from Taylor Swift’s debut album. Uncle Jerry finds plenty to discuss and is charmed by hearing both young Taylor’s early poetics and her country twang. Works Cited: Frame story or frame structure The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| BONUS: Interview with Sarah Anderson, Author of Fallow | 20 oct. 2026 | 00:53:41 | |
Today I have something a bit different for you! I sat down with Sarah Anderson, author of Fallow, to discuss getting published, her love of short stories, how she wrote the main character of the book, and so much more. All of the books we discussed are linked below. Fallow – Sarah Anderson: Take Me to Kirkland – Sarah Anderson: https://joylandpublishing.com/fiction/take-me-to-kirkland/ The Best American Short Stories 2025 – Celeste Ng, Nicole A. Lamy: Marlena – Julie Buntin: Famous Men – Julie Buntin: Health Trackers Are Everywhere. Do Babies Need Them Too? – The Daily: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QNrdUSF28Vsxla5a0exzK?si=TPgMlCapQwy4AJuqP1ptoQ Temporary – Hilary Leichter: The Quick and the Dead – Joy Williams: The Visiting Privilege – Joy Williams: All Fours – Miranda July The First Bad Man – Miranda July Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe East of Eden – John Steinbeck The Maltese Version – Katy Simpson Smith Follow me around the internet: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@angelawyattmcdow Instagram https://www.instagram.com/angelawyattmcdow TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@angelawyattmcdow The Swiftie and The Scholar YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLE2ovIvwERY4lB0nNev5A The Swiftie and The Scholar Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheSwiftieandTheScholar The Swiftie and The Scholar Instagram https://www.instagram.com/swiftieandscholarpod/ | |||
| Folklore as a Unified Literary Work | Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 2 | 15 oct. 2026 | 01:45:49 | |
We did it! One album down, lots to go. Uncle Jerry takes us through alllllll the unifying themes, devices, questions, and more (13 to be exact) of the folklore album as a whole. Thanks for coming on this journey with us! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved, when I think – Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Aurora Leigh: A Norton Critical Edition – Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Morphology of the Folktale – V. Propp *The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales – Bruno Bettelheim *Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion – Jack Zipes *Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale – Jack Zipes *The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales – Jack Zipes *The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: A Norton Critical Edition – Jack Zipes *Literary Theory: An Introduction – Terry Eagleton *Retelling / Rereading: The Fate of Storytelling in Modern Times – Karl Kroeber *Linguistic Criticism – Roger Fowler *From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers – Marina Warner *No Go, the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling, and Making Mock – Marina Warner [anyone lived in a pretty how town] – e.e. cummings Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird – Wallace Stevens A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce *Slaughter-House Five – Kurt Vonnegut *The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain Hilary Duff is trying to listen to the healthy part of her brain – Los Angeles Times The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 1 | 08 oct. 2026 | 01:09:08 | |
Well, guys, we’ve really stressed Uncle Jerry out with this one. He went so deep on the folklore album as a whole that this episode focuses mostly on the prologue and how it sets up this new style of storytelling, different from all her previous albums. Hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you back here next week for Part 2! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: *Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein *Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare *Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Astrophil and Stella – Sir Philip Sidney Anecdote of the Jar – Wallace Stevens The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Despair and Persistence of This is Me Trying | 01 oct. 2026 | 01:09:24 | |
We’ve made it to the end of the folklore road! Join Uncle Jerry and Angela as they discuss this is me trying, where the duo finds some Typical Taylor, ambiguity, paradox, multiple meanings, and so much more. Come back for the next two weeks as we wrap-up discussion of the album as a whole. Works Cited: The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Secretive Destruction of Illicit Affairs | 24 sept. 2026 | 01:14:25 | |
Today we’re covering our penultimate folklore poem with Illicit Affairs. Uncle Jerry finds this song fits perfectly within the category of folklore, and shows us just how Taylor Swift’s use of language showcases the lack of love in this song. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost *The Pleasure of the Text – Roland Barthes Sonnet 138 – William Shakespeare The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Paradox and Parallelism of Peace | 17 sept. 2026 | 00:57:52 | |
Did we finally find Uncle Jerry’s least favorite folklore poem? And maybe Angela’s too? In this episode, we dissect Peace from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, and Uncle Jerry finds many paradoxes and double meanings, while struggling to find a window to crawl through into the narrative. Works Cited: You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman Two Sleepy People – Fats Waller Stuck in the Middle With You – Stealers Wheel You Are My Sunshine – Jimmie Davis Standing In The Rain – John Paul Young Standing In The Rain – Al Green Standing In The Rain – Electric Light Orchestra The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Time’s Mystic Meandering in Invisible String | 10 sept. 2026 | 01:51:10 | |
Buckle up, folks. This is a long one! Invisible String is up next in our folklore canon, and Uncle Jerry showed up PREPARED. He and Angela chat through folktales about the red thread, handfasting ceremonies, and more before diving into the poem. They then get into a long and philosophical conversation about fate and predestination and Forrest Gump. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: All in green went my love riding – e.e. Cummings Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman Pope Innocent III and Handfasting 2 Kings 14:21 – 16 as the age of ascension *The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Lives We Didn’t Live in The 1 | 03 sept. 2026 | 01:21:57 | |
We have the opening track of folklore for you today! Uncle Jerry and Angela discuss the relatable way Taylor Swift writes about the ruminations about the different lives we never got to live during this discussion of The 1. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Windhover – Gerard Manley Hopkins Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory *The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Devastating Paradox of Hoax | 27 août 2026 | 01:18:43 | |
In this episode, we are covering Hoax, the closing track from 2020’s folklore. Uncle Jerry starts out a bit iffy on his feelings about the poem, but talking through it with Angela helps him find extra meaning. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Faithless Love – Linda Ronstadt i sing of Olaf glad and big – e.e. cummings *Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck Jonah 3 – Jonah Goes to Nineveh The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Tragedy of Miscommunication in Exile | 20 août 2026 | 01:18:42 | |
Continuing along our folklore journey, this episode covers exile, the collaboration between Taylor Swift and Bon Iver. Uncle Jerry teaches us about different types of exile and how they appear across literature and folk tales. We then dig into the poem and Uncle Jerry admits to Angela that he almost cheated and listened to the song because he was so ready to hear how they spoke over each other. Also, ICYMI, we will be finishing the entire folklore album. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we tackle the remaining tracks and then do a comprehensive overview. Song discussion starts at 19:12 *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Just Give Me a Reason – Pink ft. Nate Ruess The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri Gilgamesh, Nature, and Civilization Poems From Exile: Ex Ponto, Book I – Ovid *Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky *A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce Polyphony in Contemporary Literature Ballad meter or common measure The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Finding Life’s Meaning in Epiphany | 13 août 2026 | 01:03:18 | |
We are tackling one of the most underrated tracks from Taylor Swift’s folklore album, epiphany. The poem compares past war tragedies to 2020’s pandemic, and Uncle Jerry uses the poem to teach us about Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner – Randall Jarrell The Angels at Hamburg – Randall Jarrell Rhapsody on a Windy Night – T. S. Eliot The Song of Hiawatha – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory *Death in the Afternoon – Ernest Hemingway *Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent – John Milton The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Imagined Futures in Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus | 06 août 2026 | 01:23:30 | |
We are back in our Tortured Poets Era with Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. This song was much-requested and was voted on by our Patreon subscribers. Angela and Uncle Jerry talk through the poem and Uncle Jerry concedes that sometimes we try to find too much meaning in certain images. Works Cited: Sadie and Maud – Gwendolyn Brooks maggie and milly and molly and may – e.e. cummings Sonnet 12 – William Shakespeare Sonnet 60 – William Shakespeare Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare My Boyfriend’s Back – The Angels Cold Cold Heart – Hank Williams To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Finding Agency in Dear John | 30 juil. 2026 | 01:25:26 | |
We’re back in our Speak Now era with Dear John. Angela explains the lore behind this quintessential track 5 from Taylor Swift, and Uncle Jerry talks himself into being a fan of this poem. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: *A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway A Dear John Letter – Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky Dear John Letter – Whitney Houston The Scholar-Gipsy – Matthew Arnold The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Peak of Innocence in Seven | 23 juil. 2026 | 01:28:50 | |
This week is the one year podcast anniversary, and Angela saved this song especially for this episode. But before we tackle seven from folklore, Angela and Uncle Jerry reflect on the past year and Angela surprises him with a little quiz to see just how much he’s learned about Taylor Swift and swiftie culture. Thanks for being here with us! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell American Primitive – Mary Oliver* The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Superficial Celebrity Criticism in Shake It Off | 16 juil. 2026 | 01:37:26 | |
We’re taking it back to 1989 with the only Taylor Swift song Uncle Jerry knew before we started this project. Angela expected this to be a quick, simple episode, but Uncle Jerry found a lot of deeper meaning in the glitter gel pen poem. Works Cited: A Handbook to Literature – William Harmon & Hugh Holman – Aff Link Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti Why We Oppose Pockets for Women – Alice Duer Miller Stars – Richard Dyer – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Mosaic of Love in State of Grace | 09 juil. 2026 | 01:09:11 | |
Today we return to Angela’s beloved Red era with State of Grace! Uncle Jerry surprises her with his excitement about the poem, and they go through all the ideas of love Taylor presents throughout the opening track. And there’s gravy all over the plate! Works Cited: Kinetic or kinesthetic imagery A Midsummer Night's Dream – William Shakespeare – Aff Link A to Z Horoscope Maker and Interpreter – Llewellyn George – Aff Link The Literate Mode of Cicero's Legal Rhetoric – Dr. Richard Leo Enos Ph.D. – Aff Link Manos: The Hands of Fate – (1966) Hesiod – Richard Lattimore – Aff Link Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun – William Shakespeare The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Coming of Age Narrative in You’re On Your Own, Kid | 02 juil. 2026 | 01:08:44 | |
Angela finally introduces Uncle Jerry to a pivotal track 5 from Taylor Swift’s discography—You’re On Your Own, Kid. They discuss the real life events that could have inspired the song and Uncle Jerry talks about other pieces of pop culture that tell a similar story. Works Cited: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – Aff link The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri – Aff link Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare Keep a-Goin’ – Frank L. Stanton The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Chronicles of Conflict in The Great War | 25 juin 2026 | 01:08:44 | |
In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Great War from 2022’s Midnights. Uncle Jerry wrestles with the idea of using a horrific event as a metaphor, and he teaches all about the many floral symbols used throughout the poem. Works Cited: The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady – Edith Holden – Aff Link The Great War and Modern Memory – Paul Fussell – Aff Link The Strange Destiny of Rupert Brooke Hardcover – John Lehmann Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: The Memoirs of George Sherston – Siegfried Sassoon – Aff Link Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves – Aff Link All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) War Poems – Wilfred Owen – Aff Link Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology – Tim Kendall – Aff Link In Flanders Fields – John McCrae The History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion – Buck Private McCollum – Aff Link Crimson & Clover – Tommy James and the Shondells The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Parachute of Childhood in I Knew It, I Knew You | 18 juin 2026 | 01:13:40 | |
Man, it’s been a while! Today we’re covering the newly released I Knew It, I Knew You from Toy Story 5 and current #1 on the Billboard 100 chart. Uncle Jerry takes us through the poem, talking all about childhood and friendship and how both this song and the movie franchise showcase the magic of being a kid. We bring in a special guest–an expert–at the end to grade the song. Works Cited: Runnin’ Wild – Some Like It Hot Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman I Knew It, I Knew You Visualizer The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Light of Stardom in Clara Bow | 04 juin 2026 | 01:27:24 | |
We are taking it back to the 1920s (and then the 1970s) today with Clara Bow from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry talks all about the early film industry, Stevie Nicks, the violence of beauty and fame for women, and so much more. Works Cited: World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller A Cool Million – Nathanael West – Aff Link The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe To an Athlete Dying Young – A. E. Housman The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link Fame is a fickle food (1659) – Emily Dickinson Fame is a bee. (1788) – Emily Dickinson The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Nature of Fame in Mirrorball | 28 mai 2026 | 01:12:34 | |
We’re back in our folklore era with mirrorball today! Uncle Jerry had some extra time with this one and doesn’t even know where to start the discussion. We get into the uses of mirrors in folklore, how this was made during the pandemic, and discuss the many facets of celebrity. Make sure you come back next week for another song discussing the nature of fame. Works Cited: The Philosophy of Reflection: Mirrors as Symbols Across Cultures Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll – Aff Link 'Spirit mirror' used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire Albertus Magnus and the Magic Mirror The House of Fame – Geoffrey Chaucer The Temple of Fame – Alexander Pope The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Inquisitive Human Nature in How Did It End? | 21 mai 2026 | 00:52:40 | |
FIXED AUDIO! Call all your friends and cousins, we’re finally covering How Did It End? from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry finds tons of beautiful poetics and dark humor in this one, and Angela discusses its connections to both The Prophecy and But Daddy I Love Him. If you want to vote for a specific song for June, join us on Patreon to play along! Works Cited: Autofiction as a Doorway Into Truth Come One, Come All – All Time Low "Now give three cheers" – HMS Pinafore The Telephone Hour – Bye Bye Birdie To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad – Edgar Allan Poe Ode to a Nightingale – John Keats A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Christian Tendrils of But Daddy I Love Him | 14 mai 2026 | 01:21:22 | |
Buckle up for a long one! We are flooring it through the fences today with But Daddy I Love Him from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. We discuss common movie tropes, conservative small towns, and the lyrics Angela wants to have tattooed from this song. Works Cited: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke – Aff Link East of Eden – John Steinbeck – Aff Link the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls – e.e. cummings The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Sentimentalism of Marjorie | 07 mai 2026 | 01:01:44 | |
In this episode, we are tackling marjorie, a track from Taylor Swift’s evermore album from 2020. Uncle Jerry teaches us about sentimentalism in literature, and Angela blows his mind by telling him the real life Marjorie’s backstory. Works Cited: Sentimental Novels in Early American Fiction The Man of Feeling – Henry Mackenzie – Aff Link Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded – Samuel Richardson – Aff Link Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen – Aff Link A Treatise of Human Nature Paperback – David Hume – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Dr. Uncle Jerry University: Poetry 101 | 30 avr. 2026 | 01:16:22 | |
We’re doing something a bit different today! Some conversations have popped up in various comment sections about why Uncle Jerry prefers specific types of poetry, and which lenses we use to dissect those poems, whether we’re talking about Charles Dickens, Emily Dickenson, or Taylor Swift. So Uncle Jerry put together a lecture explaining how and why he views certain poetic styles the way he does, and explains the different criticism styles and theories we use to understand a poem’s meaning and impact. Hope you enjoy! Please leave any questions in the comments that he can answer either here or in a later episode. Works Cited: Is There a Text in This Class? – Stanley Fish – Aff Link Stephen Greenblatt and New Historicism Sketches by Boz – Charles Dickens – Aff Link Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare – Aff Link Ballad Meter (or Common Measure) Life Studies – Robert Lowell – Aff Link The Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath – Aff Link My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture Paperback – Dana Gioia – Aff Link A Bit Much – Lyndsay Rush – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Fate vs. Free Will in The Prophecy | 23 avr. 2026 | 01:21:14 | |
We are getting witchy today as we dive deep into The Prophecy from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry teaches us about some specific references to tarot and the occult in literature, and how that shaped a few of his interests. Angela tells the story of a tarot reading that Taylor received from a friend, and how she thinks it inspired this song.
Works Cited: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats – William Butler Yeats – Aff Link The Secrets of the Belline Oracle – Sylvie Steinbach – Aff Link Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards – The Morgan Library Visconti Sforza Tarot Cards Cards – Stuart R. Kaplan – Aff Link Miniature Rider-Waite® Tarot – Pamela C. Smith – Aff Link Rider Waite Gold Foil Tarot Deck – Aff Link Tarot Revelations – Joseph Campbell, Richard Roberts – Aff Link A to z Horoscope Maker and Delineator – Llewellyn George – Aff Link A Treatise on the Astrolabe – Geoffrey Chaucer – Aff Link Antithesis – Rhetorical Device Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories – Isaac Bashevis Singer – Aff Link The Miller’s Tale – Geoffrey Chaucer Morphology of the Folktale – V. Propp – Aff Link Taylor Swift’s Tarot Card Revelation Proves None of Travis Kelce Romance Was Accidental The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Cardigan – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 3 | 16 avr. 2026 | 01:19:01 | |
We’ve made it to the third and final episode of our beloved Folklore Love Triangle! We hope you’ve enjoyed this little series as much as we have. This episode dives into all the poetry and themes of cardigan, and then Uncle Jerry wraps up all the themes and questions and answers found in these three songs. Works Cited: The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Aff Link Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore The Blind Man and The Elephant Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives Love Stinks – The J. Geils Band The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| Betty – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 2 | 09 avr. 2026 | 01:07:41 | |
We’re back for the second installment of the folklore love triangle! Uncle Jerry really changed his tune on these lyrics, both as a poem and as a song, while Angela notices some “teenage diction” that she’s never picked up on before. Come back next week to wrap this all up with us! Works Cited: The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Aff Link Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore The Blind Man and The Elephant Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson – Aff Link Spoon River Anthology – Edgar Lee Masters – Aff Link The Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| August – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 1 | 02 avr. 2026 | 01:08:44 | |
Friends, it's finally here! Over the next three episodes, we are diving into our beloved Folklore Love Triangle. First up is August. Uncle Jerry begins by talking about the narrative of these three songs and how they are woven together across the album, and then we dissect the poem of August. These three episodes will all build on each other, and we’ll round out the discussion in week 3. Works Cited: The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider The Blind Man and The Elephant Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: | |||
| The Feminist Critique of Mad Woman | 26 mars 2026 | 00:56:32 | |
We are getting angry and witchy today with mad woman from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, folklore. Uncle Jerry teaches us where the word hysteria comes from, how women have been written about for centuries, and how sometimes, we make our own monsters. Listen to the song with us on Patreon! Works Cited: The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link In Medias Res: Definition and Examples To Start a Story in the Middle The Mourning Bride – William Congreve Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas Handlyng Synne – Robert Manning of Brunne Christian Caldwell, Woman Witchhunter Cassandra x mad woman x I Did Something Bad Follow Us: | |||
| The Psychological Burden of The Albatross | 19 mars 2026 | 00:59:08 | |
We have a much-requested poem for you in this episode! Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Albatross from The Tortured Poets Department, but first, Uncle Jerry lets us all know how disappointed he is with us as a class lololol. Oops! Join us as we discuss relationships in the public eye, and the journey of repudiation and redemption the song takes us on. Works Cited: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Aubrey & Maturin – Jack O’Brian Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley Wild nights - Wild nights! – Emily Dickinson Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire Follow Us: | |||
| The Depth Without Darkness in Opalite | 12 mars 2026 | 01:02:35 | |
Join us today for some lighthearted fun as we discuss Opalite from 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl. When Taylor Swift made this song a single and gave us the most perfect music video in the history of music videos, I felt like we had to cover it. Be on the lookout for more Opalite content on Patreon! Works Cited: Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link Follow Us: | |||
| The Exploration of Depression in Evermore | 05 mars 2026 | 01:07:33 | |
In this episode, we are taking a trip through the wildest winter with evermore from 2020. Uncle Jerry once again blows Angela’s mind with some folklore tropes relating to the dog days, and with some tidbits about Carl Jung’s theory on the Anima. If you’d like to see us listen to the song and enjoy the episode ad-free, you can now join us on Patreon! Works Cited: The Burning of Lord Byron’s Memoirs Emily Dickinson – burned letters The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link Sonnet 29 – William Shakespeare Follow Us: | |||
| The Exploration of Truth in Cassandra | 26 févr. 2026 | 01:17:11 | |
In this episode, we are learning all about Cassandra from Greek Mythology, and Cassandra, the Taylor Swift song. Uncle Jerry teaches us Cassandra’s story, we dive into all the rich metaphors, and Angela spills the beans about Taylor’s Kim and Kanye feud. There’s also an existential moment where Angela can’t deal with the question of one universal truth versus many personal truths. Works Cited: Taylor Swift and Kanye West Feud The Greek Myths Box Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad – Aff Link Concrete PoetryThe Cassandra Complex Follow Us: | |||
| The Tangled Ambiguity of Ivy | 19 févr. 2026 | 01:18:44 | |
Affairs and graves and Emily Dickinson, oh my! Today, we are slowly meandering through Taylor Swift’s 202 poem, ivy. This track from evermore is full of ambiguous symbols, double meanings, and beautiful poetic elements. Uncle Jerry walks us through his many interpretations, and Angela’s brain short circuits through it all. The Ways We Touch – Miller Williams – Aff link Down Where The Spirit Meets the Bone – Lucinda Williams Because I could not stop for Death – Emily Dickinson Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link Emily Dickinson – Cynthia Griffin Wolff – Aff Link Instagram reel from @davidkristianp Follow Us: | |||
| The Cultural Critique of The Last Great American Dynasty | 12 févr. 2026 | 01:07:08 | |
We’re off to Rhode Island by way of St. Louis in this episode! We’re breaking down Taylor Swift’s ‘the last great american dynasty’, a track from 2020’s folklore and the final song she submitted for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Uncle Jerry explains how his opinion on this poem changed from his first few readings, and Angela talks through her thoughts on the five submitted songs as a whole and why she thinks Taylor chose them. Works Cited: A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner Rebekah Harkness’ Starfish Brooch The Outrageous Life of Rebekah Harkness, Taylor Swift’s High-Society Muse – Elise Taylor The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald – Aff Link The 100 Best Songs of 2020 – Pitchfork the last great american dynasty lyric video Follow Us: | |||
| The Satire of Blank Space | 05 févr. 2026 | 00:51:29 | |
In this episode, we are covering the fourth song that Taylor Swift submitted to be considered for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame—Blank Space. This 1989 track was one of her first pop hits, and Uncle Jerry finds the humorous and feminist lenses the poem was written through to be interesting to dissect. We’ll wrap the conversation up and talk about the songs as a whole collection next week. Works Cited: The Twelve Caesars – Suetonius – Aff Link The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link Jane Eyre: Deluxe Painted Edition – Charlotte Bronte – Aff Link Follow Us: | |||
| The Self-Deprecation of Anti-Hero | 29 janv. 2026 | 00:54:06 | |
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 the lyrics alone would make us feel. Works Cited: Charles Barkley Nike Commercial Taylor talking about Anti-Hero Follow Us: | |||
| The Resolutions of Love in New Year’s Day | 01 janv. 2026 | 00:45:35 | |
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: Nine Princes in Amber – Roger Zelazny – Aff Link A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens – Aff Link The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway – Aff Link A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John Donne Follow Us: | |||
| The Intertextuality of ‘Tis the Damn Season | 24 déc. 2025 | 00:51:11 | |
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: Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger – Aff Link The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link You Can’t Go Home Again – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link Tis The Damn Season – Lyric Video Follow Us: | |||
| The Double Entendre of LOML | 18 déc. 2025 | 00:57:04 | |
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 Breaking Up Is Hard to Do – Neil Sedaka Follow Us: | |||
| The 80s Club Vibes of New Romantics | 11 déc. 2025 | 00:55:16 | |
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: Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics – Dylan Jones – Aff Link Best of New Romantics – Spotify Playlist Heartbreak Is the National Anthem – Rob Sheffield – Aff Link Taylor Swift’s Manuscripts – Natali Barbani Follow Us: | |||
| The Romanticism of The Lakes | 04 déc. 2025 | 00:59:59 | |
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 Link Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen – Aff Link The Last of the Mohicans – 1992 Tales from Shakespeare – Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb The Lake Isle of Innisfree – William Butler Yeats Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved, when I think – Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Full Book Aff Link The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – Christopher Marlowe Aurora Leigh – Elizabeth Barrett Browning Frankenstein – Mary Shelley – Aff Link I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – William Wordsworth Follow Us: | |||
| The Fairytale Diction of Enchanted | 27 nov. 2025 | 00:52:58 | |
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: Smiling Faces Sometimes – The Undisputed Truth We Wear the Mask – Paul Laurence Dunbar Some Enchanted Evening – South Pacific Follow Us: | |||
| The Gothic Tradition of The Black Dog | 20 nov. 2025 | 01:11:07 | |
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 The Malleus Maleficarum – Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger – Aff Link For The Love of London Pubs – Doug Harper, Vic Norman, Andie Lafrentz – Aff Link The Pub: A Cultural Institution – Pete Brown – Aff Link Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck – Aff Link Follow Us: | |||
| The Loss of Youth and Innocence in Peter | 13 nov. 2025 | 00:57:10 | |
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: Peter Pan - the Original 1911 Classic – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link Illustrated Peter Pan: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link I'm sorry for the Dead—Today – Emily Dickinson This Is Just To Say – William Carlos Williams In Just – Spring – e.e. cummings Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost Love's Labor's Lost – William Shakespeare Follow Us: | |||
| The Traditional Tropes of Love Story | 06 nov. 2025 | 00:54:57 | |
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: Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare – Affiliate Link Let Us Live and Love (5) – Catullus The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne – Aff Link Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak – Aff Link Follow Us: | |||