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PODCAST

AP Taylor Swift

AP Taylor Swift Podcast

Taylor Swift is the Shakespeare of our time. And we can prove it. AP Taylor Swift is a weekly literary analysis podcast for Swifties who crave smart, funny, and approachable conversations about Taylor"s lyrics. Hosts Maansi Dommeti, Jenn Holcomb, and Jodi Innerfield are three longtime Swifties whose different lives mean they never hear a song the same way. Our Show & Tell episodes connect a theme or rhetorical device to songs across her catalog (think Ecocriticism to Hilary Duff); and our Deep

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All Episodes

74:42

Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" Meaning & Lyrics...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/06/03

"It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” This week, we (finally) go line-by-line through what might be Taylor Swift's most psychologically dense song: “Anti-Hero” from Midnights (2022). From the Hamlet-coded antihero definition, to the “Beauty and the Beast” reference lurking in "tale as old as time," to ghosts and Freud, this song keeps delivering new angles. We each came to the song with our own anxieties, and we leave with three potentially different purposes of this high-anxiety, deeply

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39:50

"I’ll Stare Directly at the Sun, But Never in the...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/05/27

“Seems the only one who doesn’t see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you.”This week, we’re doing a Show and Tell on one of literature’s most enduring symbols: the mirror. From Narcissus to Dorian Gray, Snow White’s magic mirror to Alice Through the Looking Glass, mirrors have long served as devices of identity, vanity, the supernatural, and the soul, and Taylor Swift is no stranger to the motif. We trace mirrors across three songs: Tied Together with a Smile (Taylor Swift,

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51:08

Taylor Swift's "Our Song" | Meaning & Lyrical...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/05/20

“I was ridin’ shotgun with my hair undone,” and the rest is history. This week, we do a full line-by-line deep dive into a classic, “Our Song” (Taylor Swift, 2006). Join us as we discuss the self-referential recursion (she wrote a song about their song, and that song is their song) and the sounds and silences Taylor chose to define a teenage romance. This is Taylor before anyone believed in her, holding the pen, writing herself into her debut album.For more on "Our Song" in the context of Taylor's

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15:02

After School Paid Preview: Taylor Swift's Fearless...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/05/18

“It's the first kiss, it's flawless, really something, it's fearless.” Over on our paid feed on Substack, we’'re in our Fearless era (literally), diving deep into Taylor's second album track by track for our After School paid subscribers. We go through all 13 original tracks, from the sparkly country-pop opening of "Fearless" to the quietly defiant closer "Change,” examining what each song adds to the album, what literary and emotional threads connect them, and how this era set the template Taylor

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36:44

“Laughing With My Lover”: How Taylor Swift Uses...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/05/13

“I’ll be your father figure.” This week, we’re diving deep into one of Taylor Swift’s most underrated literary tools: alliteration. From the phonetic cadence of a teenage Taylor on Debut to the silky-smooth flow of reputation’s Call It What You Want, to the hard-hitting, power-packed punch of Father Figure from The Life of a Showgirl, we trace how Taylor uses the repetition of consonant sounds to create rhythm, evoke emotion, and tell a story. Whether she’s channeling JFK-level emphasis or crafting

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62:56

What Does "Elizabeth Taylor" Really Mean? “Elizabeth...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/05/06

"What could you possibly get for the girl who has everything and nothing all at once?"What happens when you reach a level of fame so singular that there's almost no one left who can truly understand your life? That's the question at the heart of "Elizabeth Taylor" (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025), and it's why Taylor Swift had to go all the way back to Hollywood's golden age to find her patron saint. This week, we go line by line through one of the standout tracks from “The Life of a Showgirl”,

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35:59

E128: I bet you think about the bejeweled life of...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/29

“Best believe I’m still bejeweled” and diving into an incredibly rich discussion this week! In this week's show and tell episode, we’re examining the age-old literary theme of luxury in Taylor Swift's music, through the songs “Bet You Think About Me” (Red Taylor’s Version, 2021), “Bejeweled” (Midnights, 2022), and “Elizabeth Taylor” (Life of a Showgirl, 2025). Join us as we dive into how the meaning and significance of luxury changes through each of these songs that span across Taylor’s discography,

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8:47

After School Paid Preview: Part 2 of Deep Diving into...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/27

This week, we are continuing our full album deep dive series for our paid subscribers, and finishing up our analysis of Taylor Swift's self-titled debut (2006). In this preview, we dig into the second half of this album where we start to really get a sense of who Taylor Swift was and the budding talent of the Taylor Swift we know today! Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School

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71:52

E127: "Opalite" line-by-line analysis | "You had to...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/22

"You had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky is opalite." This week we’re deep diving the second single from “The Life of a Showgirl,” Opalite! We’ll explore why Taylor chose “opalite” over “opal,” what it means to create your own luck instead of waiting for it, and the song’s shift from being stuck in a cycle to finding resilience. Along the way, we debate who’s really speaking—is Mama Swift talking the whole time?—trace the song’s self-referential connections to “Daylight,” “Fearless,”

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49:17

E126: Taylor Swift, Mother Earth, and...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/15

"Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die." What's an AP class without a not-so-brief discussion about touching grass? In honor of Earth Day, we're exploring Transcendentalism — the 19th-century movement that said the divine lives in nature, not in dusty pews — and finding it everywhere in Taylor Swift's music. Jenn returns to "the lakes" (folklore, 2020) and pairs it with Ralph Waldo Emerson's foundational essay Nature to explore how Taylor's retreat from society mirrors the

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64:02

E125: "You'll Do Things Greater Than Dating the Boy...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/08

"Take a deep breath and you walk through the doors. It's the morning of your very first day." This week, we're going line by line through "Fifteen.” From the significance of 15 as an age that rarely gets its pop culture moment, to Abigail and the quiet power of female friendship, to the devastating simplicity of "and we both cried," we unpack why this deceptively simple song keeps hitting harder with every passing year. We dig into who the "I" and the "you" really are, debate whether that night ends

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45:12

E124: How does Taylor Swift play with time? |...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/04/01

“Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it.” What happens when you try to pin down something as slippery as time itself? This week’s episode gets philosophical as we explore how Taylor Swift uses time as a literary device—as narrative structure, as metaphor, as a way to measure how much we’ve changed. From flashbacks and tense shifts to nostalgia and the ache of looking back, we unpack how time shapes Taylor’s storytelling. Maansi traces the dramatic irony of “15” (Fearless, 2008), Jenn explores

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49:02

E123: “I Cry a Lot But I’m So Productive”:...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/03/25

“I cry a lot but I am so productive, it’s an art.” This week, we’re doing a deep dive on “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart” (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024, Track 13), written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoﬀ. A continuation of our Strong Women series, this episode goes line by line through one of Taylor’s most devastatingly relatable songs. We explore the rhetorical triangle of the I, the you, and the they; the “performative perkiness” of the chorus; why the poetry meter literally snaps to the

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38:07

E122: Strong Women in Taylor Swift's Music |...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/03/18

"Never be so kind, you forget to be clever; Never be so clever, you forget to be kind." We're celebrating Women's History Month the only way we know how: looking at strong women in Taylor Swift’s music. Jenn traces the wisdom and boldness Taylor inherited from her grandmother in "Marjorie" (evermore, 2020), Jodi unpacks the resilience hiding in plain sight throughout "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024), and Maansi makes the case that "Eldest Daughter" (The Life of

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51:24

"Down Bad Crying at the Gym" - A Line-By-Line...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/03/11

This week, we're going line by line through "Down Bad" from Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Jenn, Maansi, and Jodi unpack one of the album's most emotionally raw — and unexpectedly hilarious — songs, diving deep into its extended alien abduction metaphor, what it really means to be "down bad," and how Taylor uses sci-fi imagery to explore love bombing, power dynamics, and the messiest stages of heartbreak. We also discuss how this song connects to last week's Hero's Journey

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15:09

After School Paid Preview: She Knew Exactly What She...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/03/09

This week, we're giving you a taste of something brand new: our full album deep dive series, starting at the very beginning with Taylor Swift's self-titled debut (2006). In this preview, we dig into the cover art, the context, and what it meant to introduce yourself to the world as a 16-year-old girl in a genre that had never really made room for one. Want the full track-by-track breakdown — from Tim McGraw through Tied Together with a Smile — and everything we unpack about ambition, identity, and

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40:31

E120: "I'm Immortal Now, Baby Dolls": How Taylor...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/03/04

"She had a marvelous time ruining everything" This week, we're doing a Show and Tell episode on one of literature's most enduring narrative structures: the Hero's Journey. We explore three songs through the Hero's Journey lens: Maansi unpacks the cross-generational dual hero's story in "The Last Great American Dynasty" (Folklore, 2020), Jenn applies the framework to "Down Bad" (The Tortured Poets Department, 2024),and Jodi walks us through how "The Life of a Showgirl" (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025)

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43:19

E119: "Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/02/25

"Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in." This week, we're deep diving "hoax" from folklore (2020), written by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner. As a continuation of last week's Wuthering Heights episode, we go line by line through one of Taylor's most quietly devastating songs. We unpack the definition of "hoax" itself—humorous or malicious?—and find that the answer might be both. Along the way, we debate who's holding the twisted knife, trace religious undertones from the Lord's Prayer

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47:43

E118: Wuthering Heights & Taylor Swift: Love,...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/02/18

"Trust me, I can handle me a dangerous man" Can obsessive love survive across social classes, death, and generations? This week, we're diving into Emily Brontë's 1847 Gothic masterpiece, “Wuthering Heights,” to explore themes of revenge, class struggle, and the illusion of choice in a society that offered women precious few options. We connect three Taylor Swift songs to this brutal, beautiful tale of Catherine and Heathcliff's destructive passion and its ripple effects on the next generation. From

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52:34

E117: Flashback When You Met Me - Taylor Swift's...

AP Taylor Swift ·

2026/02/11

"Only bought this dress so you could take it off." This week, we're deep diving "Dress" (reputation, 2017). We go line by line through this intimate friends-to-lovers anthem, exploring the transition from public persona to private moments, the dress as both armor and vulnerability, and why this song perfectly captures the spark that ignites a shift from friendship to something more. Join us as we unpack intentionality, agency, emotional nakedness, and discover why this song is the perfect soundtrack

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