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PODCAST

AP Taylor Swift

AP Taylor Swift Podcast

Welcome to AP Taylor Swift Podcast, the show for Swifties who love to overanalyze lyrics! Join hosts Maansi Dommeti, Jenn Holcomb, and Jodi Innerfield as they delve into Taylor Swift’s music to uncover the literary devices, themes, and inspirations that make her songs resonate with millions of fans. From Shakespeare to feminist theory, we explore the academic side of Taylor’s songwriting, no English degree required, just curiosity. New episodes weekly. Subscribe for updates:

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All Episodes

47:55

E28: Deep Dive - Shake It Off

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/03/20

That’s What People Say (ooh ooh). In this deep dive episode, we get into the groove of Taylor Swift's “Shake It Off” from her album 1989 (Taylor’s Version). We start by discussing how the song acts as a strategic move by Swift to rebrand herself as a pop artist and connect with a larger audience. We look at how Taylor addresses the haters and criticisms she’s received over the years through her lyrics. And we make the case that this is not a simple song–it’s a therapeutic anthem of resilience,

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58:09

E27: Show and Tell - Poetic Repetition

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/03/13

You go talk to your friends, talk to my friends, talk to me. Let’s get ready for "The Tortured Poets Department" and explore the concept of poetic repetition in Taylor Swift's songs. From understanding epizeuxis and anaphora to seeing how Taylor uses these devices in “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”’ “Shake It Off” and “This Love,” we discuss how repetition can seem deceptively simple while still communicating a clear message. Understanding the purpose of any text can help enrich your

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47:19

E26: Deep Dive - Haunted

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/03/06

"It’s coming over you like it was all a big mistake." In this week’s episode, we dive into the Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) classic “Haunted.” We discuss how Taylor Swift’s song captures the haunting and fragile nature of relationships, the devastation of loss, and the immediate aftermath of a breakup. In true form, we also tie the idea of a haunting break up back to our careers, and what it can feel like when you are constantly wondering “what if” about your past decisions. Whether you want some

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56:57

E25: Show and Tell - "Pride and Prejudice"

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/02/28

All they keep asking me, is if I’m gonna be your bride. We’re a literary-focused Taylor Swift podcast, so it was only a matter of time before we brought Jane Austen into the mix. In this episode, we explore three songs in relation to Pride and Prejudice. Jenn focuses on the sisterly relationship between Elizabeth and Jane with “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” Maansi zooms into the moment Darcy confesses his love to Elizabeth, only to be brutally rebuffed, with the song “Haunted.” And Jodi explores

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51:45

E24: Deep Dive - right where you left me

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/02/21

Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen? In this week’s deep dive episode, we discuss the evermore bonus track, “right where you left me.” We explore themes of feeling stuck, the haunting presence of the narrator, the plea for help, and how we see attitudes in the song mirrored in society. This beautiful and ultimately sad song also inspired a wide range of references from Elle Woods to Charles Dickens to Foucault. This song definitely has some layers, so join us as we unpack their meaning

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01:15:27

E23: Show and Tell - Mad Women

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/02/14

There’s nothing like a mad woman, what a shame she went mad. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with some songs about women scorned? In this episode, we bring to you three songs that represent mad women. Maansi kicks off the discussion with the scornful, vengeful mad woman in “Better Than Revenge,” Jodi walks us through the woman who’s driven to insanity in “mad woman,” and Jenn wraps up the discussion with an example of the mad woman who is stuck in bonus track “right where you left

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34:42

E22: Deep Dive - The Outside

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/02/07

We’ve all been in a lot of lonely places. In this week’s deep dive, your hosts take you back to one of the original sad songs from Taylor’s debut album, “The Outside.” Perhaps more of a deep cut, this song cuts straight to the heart of what it feels like to be left out. Join us to discover what this song meant to us in our high school years vs today. We’ll explore how Taylor’s writing and musical styles may have changed, but she’s always known how to capture some of the most universal experiences,

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01:03:10

Bonus - Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/02/06

And so I enter into evidence…In this very special BONUS episode, your Unofficial Professors of Taylor Swift go deep into the artifacts that Taylor has released for her upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” From the album art, the title, and the poem, to the track titles, we discuss it all! Is this album going to be more intellectual or emotional? Is Taylor on defense or offense? How wrong will all of our predictions be when the album is actually released? Well, we give you our hypotheses

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48:19

E21: Show and Tell - Musicals

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/01/31

If I was a [rich] man, I’d be the man. Curtain up! Light the lights! Today we are finally devoting an entire episode to one of our favorite topics: MUSICALS. Jenn identifies “The Outside,” from Taylor Swift, as the perfect song for the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. (Never seen it? No worries, Jenn gives a full synopsis!). Then, Jodi finds parallels between “The Man” and “If I Were a Rich Man,” from Fiddler on the Roof. And finally, we can’t talk about musicals without Hamilton! Maansi brings it

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54:53

E20: Deep Dive - Mastermind

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/01/24

None of it was accidental. This week we’re going deep into Midnights favorite “Mastermind.” After looking at this Taylor Swift song from the perspective of satire in our previous episode, we take another look to examine what Taylor is actually “mastermind”-ing. Is it a relationship? Or is it a nod to her many (many) easter eggs she leaves her fans? Maansi explores how Taylor weaves strategic language into the lyrics to reclaim the idea that she’s “calculating.” Jodi finds connections to The Odyssey,

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47:55

E19: Show and Tell - Satire

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/01/17

I’m dying to see how this one ends. We talk about satire - what it is, how it’s different from parody or hyperbole, how Taylor uses it and why. Jodi starts with the quintessential satirical example from Taylor’s catalog - “Blank Space,” Jenn argues that Reputation is actually a satirical album, and Maansi makes a case for satire in “Mastermind.” Find out what witch hunts and chess have to do with it all. We acknowledge that satire is an intellectual form of comedy, which requires us to examine what

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39:59

E18: Deep Dive - Death By a Thousand Cuts

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/01/10

My, my, my, my. We get deep into our feelings on this deep dive today with “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” from Lover. With a title referencing an imperial form of torture, what is this Taylor Swift song really about? As always, our hosts look at the lyrics from very different perspectives based on our own personal experiences, from moving out of a childhood home (“chandelier still flickering here”) to a breakup (“You said it was a great love”) to Spiderman (“I see you everywhere”). We talk about

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55:10

E17: Show and Tell - The Great Gatsby

AP Taylor Swift ·

2024/01/03

Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year. Taylor Swift loves to make direct and indirect references to the classic American novel, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So we decided to dive into those connections and see what all the fuss is about. In this week’s episode, we each picked a song that we wanted to relate to The Great Gatsby. Join us as Maansi brings the party with “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” Jenn explores Gatsby’s motivations with “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” and Jodi

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27:37

Re-Release: Deep Dive - Enchanted

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/12/27

Enchanted to (re)meet you. Revisit one of our favorite early episodes with us! As a holiday treat, we are giving our Deep Dive into “Enchanted” its own time to shine. In our first deep dive episode, we did a deep reading of Taylor Swift’s song “Enchanted” from Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). We’re wonderstruck as we learn how to analyze a text using the rhetorical triangle to better understand who is speaking, who they are speaking to, and the purpose of the text. We find connections to “Pride and

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46:44

E16: Deep Dive - tis the damn season

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/12/20

Messy as the mud on your truck tires. We couldn’t let a holiday season go by without THE song about THE damn season, could we? Continuing the conversation from our Show and Tell episode on holidays, this week we deep dive “tis the damn season,” from evermore (2020). We start by diving into Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” to get a better understanding of the song. Then our hosts spend a lot of time trying to figure out who the characters are, what their relationship is to one another, and what

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57:29

E15: Show and Tell - Holidays

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/12/13

Soon they’ll have the nerve to deck the halls. On this week’s episode we attempted to lean right into the festivities of the season with a Holidays themed episode. But…did we actually pick holiday songs? We start by defining what the “holiday season” even means in an attempt to answer the question. Jodi discusses “New Year’s Day,” with the thesis that it’s a song about the everyday, not necessarily the holidays. Jenn brings on the holiday melancholy with “champagne problems,” sparking a hot

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46:48

E14: Deep Dive - Getaway Car

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/12/06

“It was the best of times, the worst of crimes.” In this episode, we do a deep dive into “Getaway Car” to explore why this particular metaphor is so powerful. We first explore the historical context by discussing the true story of Bonnie and Clyde, and then we dive into the lyrics to discuss the themes of agency, deception, and the shifting dynamics of relationships. Come along for the ride as we figure out what Don Draper has to do with this song, the layered meaning of “poisoning the well,” and

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44:52

E13: Show and Tell - Metaphors

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/11/29

"Some things you just can’t speak about." Taylor Swift’s superpower is being able to convey very specific emotions to millions who may or may not have ever experienced those emotions before. The way she uses metaphors is one of the ways she makes these songs universally relatable. But not only does she use metaphors in her lyrics, sometimes the songs are metaphors. In this show & tell episode, we each bring a song in which the whole song seems to be a metaphor for something else. Tune in to hear

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30:09

E12: Deep Dive - the last great american dynasty

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/11/22

"I had a marvelous time..." Take a step back in time with us as we deep dive into “The Last Great American Dynasty,” from folklore. Our hosts expand on what we learned in our Marxist Criticism episode to take an even closer look at Rebekah Harkness, who she was, and why Taylor Swift wrote a song about her. What do Taylor and Rebekah Harkness have in common, besides owning the same home?Is Rebekah Harkness really “middle class”? How does Taylor build empathy for someone called “mad” and “shameless”

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54:38

E11: Show and Tell - Marxist Theory

AP Taylor Swift ·

2023/11/15

What does a 19th century philosopher and economist have to do with Taylor Swift? In this week’s episode we put on our Marxist Theory glasses to consider how the ideas of ownership, value, and class differences help us understand Taylor’s music in a whole new way. Maansi teaches us what it means to belong to someone in “Mine.” Jenn digs into the political metaphors in “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince.” And Jodi teaches us about social class differences with the incredible true story behind

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131 results

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