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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 Despair and Persistence of This is Me Trying Oct 01, 2026

Show notes

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:

Heroic couplets

Starship Troopers (1997)

The Odyssey – Homer

Why I Write – Joan Didion

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The Secretive Destruction of Illicit Affairs Sep 24, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Works Cited:

Imperative verb

The Book of Jonah

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

*The Pleasure of the Text – Roland Barthes

Sonnet 138 – William Shakespeare

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The Paradox and Parallelism of Peace Sep 17, 2026

Show notes

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:

I Would Die 4 U – Prince

You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman

Easy Silence – The Chicks

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

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Time’s Mystic Meandering in Invisible String Sep 10, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Works Cited:

All in green went my love riding – e.e. Cummings

Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman

Red thread of fate

Pope Innocent III and Handfasting

2 Kings 14:21 – 16 as the age of ascension

*The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Goddesses of Fate

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

Forrest Gump – Winston Groom

Forrest Gump (1994)

Design – Robert Frost

Hap – Thomas Hardy

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The Lives We Didn’t Live in The 1 Sep 03, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Works Cited:

The Windhover – Gerard Manley Hopkins

Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

Contrafactuality

Sight rhyme or eye rhyme

*The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Trochaic Hexameter

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The Devastating Paradox of Hoax Aug 27, 2026

Show notes

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

To a Mouse – Robert Burns

*Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

To a Louse – Robert Burns

Jonah 3 – Jonah Goes to Nineveh

The Lord’s Prayer

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The Tragedy of Miscommunication in Exile Aug 20, 2026

Show notes

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

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Works Cited:

Just Give Me a Reason – Pink ft. Nate Ruess

The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri

Gilgamesh, Nature, and Civilization

Paradise Lost – John Milton

The Odyssey – Homer

Poems From Exile: Ex Ponto, Book I – Ovid

*Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

*Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

*Ulysses – James Joyce

*Dubliners – James Joyce

*A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

Polyphony in Contemporary Literature

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic trimeter

Ballad meter or common measure

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Finding Life’s Meaning in Epiphany Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

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.

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Works Cited:

Siegfried Sassoon

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

*The Things They Carried: The Classic Work of American Literature on War, Memory, and Storytelling –Tim O'Brien

*Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent – John Milton

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Imagined Futures in Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus Aug 06, 2026

Show notes

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

[in Just-] – e.e. cummings

Brylcreem commercial

Sonnet 12 – William Shakespeare

Sonnet 60 – William Shakespeare

Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare

My Boyfriend’s Back – The Angels

Cold Cold Heart – Hank Williams

Ellipse in Linguistics

To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell

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Finding Agency in Dear John Jul 30, 2026

Show notes

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:

Dear John Letter

Agnes von Kurowsky

*A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

A Dear John Letter – Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky

Dear John Letter – Whitney Houston

Epistolary frame

Poetic Inversion

The Scholar-Gipsy – Matthew Arnold

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