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Music

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.

Latest Episodes:

The Sentimentalism of Marjorie May 07, 2026

Show notes

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

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Dr. Uncle Jerry University: Poetry 101 Apr 30, 2026

Show notes

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:

Marxist Literary Criticism

Post-Colonial Criticism

Reader-response theory

Key Theories of Wolfgang Iser

Is There a Text in This Class? – Stanley Fish – Aff Link

Psychological Criticism

Feminist Theory

Felicia Dorothea Hemans

On the Intentional Fallacy

Hyperion – John Keats

Affective Fallacy

Critical Race Theory

New Historicism

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)

Concrete Poetry

Life Studies – Robert Lowell – Aff Link

The Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath – Aff Link

My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke

The Real Slim Shady – Eminem

Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture Paperback – Dana Gioia – Aff Link

A Bit Much – Lyndsay Rush – Aff Link

Lyndsay Rush – Instagram

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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Fate vs. Free Will in The Prophecy Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

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

Rosicrucian Fellowship

The Secrets of the Belline Oracle – Sylvie Steinbach – Aff Link

Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck

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

The Original Rider Waite: The Pictorial Key To The Tarot: An Illustrated Guide – A.E. Waite – 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

Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index

Taylor Swift’s Tarot Card Revelation Proves None of Travis Kelce Romance Was Accidental

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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Cardigan – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 3 Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

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:

Rashomon Effect

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

The Longest Time – Billy Joel

Love Stinks – The J. Geils Band

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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Betty – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 2 Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

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:

Rashomon Effect

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

Book of Genesis

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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August – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 1 Apr 02, 2026

Show notes

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:

Rashomon Effect

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

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The Feminist Critique of Mad Woman Mar 26, 2026

Show notes

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

Dramatic Monologue

Orion and Scorpius

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

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The Psychological Burden of The Albatross Mar 19, 2026

Show notes

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

Antigone – Sophocles

Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare

The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link

The Bad Seed (1956)

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link

Richard Traverner

Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link

L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire

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The Depth Without Darkness in Opalite Mar 12, 2026

Show notes

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:

How to Write a Dizain

Pluperfect tense

Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link

About Time (2013)

Brooklyn (2015)

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The Exploration of Depression in Evermore Mar 05, 2026

Show notes

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:

Apostrophe literary device

Gerard Manley Hopkins

William Somerset Maugham

The Burning of Lord Byron’s Memoirs

Emily Dickinson – burned letters

Jane Austen – burned letters

Charles Dickens Bonfire

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link

The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe

Sonnet 29 – William Shakespeare

Evermore lyric video

Evermore x Peter Mashup

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