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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:

Art Becomes Memory in Tim McGraw Oct 22, 2026

Show notes

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:

Free indirect discourse

Rasselas – Samuel Johnson

Frame story or frame structure

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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BONUS: Interview with Sarah Anderson, Author of Fallow Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

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

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Folklore as a Unified Literary Work | Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 2 Oct 15, 2026

Show notes

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

*Witches, Ogres, and the Devil's Daughter: Encounters with Evil in Fairy Tales – Mario Jacoby, Verena Kast, Ingrid Riedel

*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

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Ulysses – James Joyce

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

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Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 1 Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

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

Folklore (Taylor Swift album)

*Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare

*Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

*Astrophil and Stella – Sir Philip Sidney

The Odyssey – Homer

Folklore prologue

Daddy – Sylvia Plath

Anecdote of the Jar – Wallace Stevens

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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.

*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:

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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*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

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

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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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.

*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

Contrafactuality

Sight rhyme or eye rhyme

*The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Trochaic Hexameter

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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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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