The Swiftie and The Scholar
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Empathy from Experience in Patient Zero
We get into A LOT in this episode. Love bombing, toxic relationships, the connections Angela found to other songs that make it clear to her who inspired this song, and car salesmen. Hope you enjoy!
*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:
Weasel/Patient Zero – Marvel Universe
Patient Zero – The Outer Limits (2001)
Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall (The Poldark Saga, 1) – Winston Graham:
Canterbury Tales Prologue – Geoffrey Chaucer
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The Illusion of Liberation in Babylon
Buckle up, y’all. We’ve got a beefy one for you today! We’re tackling Babylon from Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. I think we all knew this one would give Uncle Jerry plenty to think about and chew on and teach from, and he did not disappoint. Maybe grab your breakfast or dinner and a nice beverage and get comfy, because this is our longest episode yet.
*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 Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson
Angela’s Reaction Video – The Encore
Professing Literature: An Institutional History – Gerald Graff
What Does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin" Mean?
Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Miniver Cheevy – Edwin Arlington Robinson
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Art Becomes Memory in Tim McGraw
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:
Frame story or frame structure
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BONUS: Interview with Sarah Anderson, Author of Fallow
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
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
*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
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
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
*Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare
*Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
*Astrophil and Stella – Sir Philip Sidney
Anecdote of the Jar – Wallace Stevens
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The Despair and Persistence of This is Me Trying
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:
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The Secretive Destruction of Illicit Affairs
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:
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
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:
You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman
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
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.
*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
Pope Innocent III and Handfasting
2 Kings 14:21 – 16 as the age of ascension
*The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
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The Lives We Didn’t Live in The 1
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
*The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
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The Devastating Paradox of Hoax
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
*Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Jonah 3 – Jonah Goes to Nineveh
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The Tragedy of Miscommunication in Exile
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
*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:
Just Give Me a Reason – Pink ft. Nate Ruess
The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri
Gilgamesh, Nature, and Civilization
Poems From Exile: Ex Ponto, Book I – Ovid
*Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
*A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
Polyphony in Contemporary Literature
Ballad meter or common measure
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Finding Life’s Meaning in Epiphany
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.
*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 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
*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
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
Sonnet 12 – William Shakespeare
Sonnet 60 – William Shakespeare
Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare
My Boyfriend’s Back – The Angels
Cold Cold Heart – Hank Williams
To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell
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Finding Agency in Dear John
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:
*A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
A Dear John Letter – Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky
Dear John Letter – Whitney Houston
The Scholar-Gipsy – Matthew Arnold
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The Peak of Innocence in Seven
This week is the one year podcast anniversary, and Angela saved this song especially for this episode. But before we tackle seven from folklore, Angela and Uncle Jerry reflect on the past year and Angela surprises him with a little quiz to see just how much he’s learned about Taylor Swift and swiftie culture.
Thanks for being here 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:
To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell
American Primitive – Mary Oliver*
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Superficial Celebrity Criticism in Shake It Off
We’re taking it back to 1989 with the only Taylor Swift song Uncle Jerry knew before we started this project. Angela expected this to be a quick, simple episode, but Uncle Jerry found a lot of deeper meaning in the glitter gel pen poem.
Works Cited:
A Handbook to Literature – William Harmon & Hugh Holman – Aff Link
Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti
Why We Oppose Pockets for Women – Alice Duer Miller
Stars – Richard Dyer – Aff Link
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The Mosaic of Love in State of Grace
Today we return to Angela’s beloved Red era with State of Grace! Uncle Jerry surprises her with his excitement about the poem, and they go through all the ideas of love Taylor presents throughout the opening track.
And there’s gravy all over the plate!
Works Cited:
Kinetic or kinesthetic imagery
A Midsummer Night's Dream – William Shakespeare – Aff Link
A to Z Horoscope Maker and Interpreter – Llewellyn George – Aff Link
The Literate Mode of Cicero's Legal Rhetoric – Dr. Richard Leo Enos Ph.D. – Aff Link
Manos: The Hands of Fate – (1966)
Hesiod – Richard Lattimore – Aff Link
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun – William Shakespeare
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The Coming of Age Narrative in You’re On Your Own, Kid
Angela finally introduces Uncle Jerry to a pivotal track 5 from Taylor Swift’s discography—You’re On Your Own, Kid. They discuss the real life events that could have inspired the song and Uncle Jerry talks about other pieces of pop culture that tell a similar story.
Works Cited:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – Aff link
The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri – Aff link
Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare
Keep a-Goin’ – Frank L. Stanton
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The Chronicles of Conflict in The Great War
In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Great War from 2022’s Midnights. Uncle Jerry wrestles with the idea of using a horrific event as a metaphor, and he teaches all about the many floral symbols used throughout the poem.
Works Cited:
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady – Edith Holden – Aff Link
The Great War and Modern Memory – Paul Fussell – Aff Link
The Strange Destiny of Rupert Brooke Hardcover – John Lehmann
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: The Memoirs of George Sherston – Siegfried Sassoon – Aff Link
Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves – Aff Link
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
War Poems – Wilfred Owen – Aff Link
Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen
Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology – Tim Kendall – Aff Link
In Flanders Fields – John McCrae
The History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion – Buck Private McCollum – Aff Link
Crimson & Clover – Tommy James and the Shondells
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The Parachute of Childhood in I Knew It, I Knew You
Man, it’s been a while! Today we’re covering the newly released I Knew It, I Knew You from Toy Story 5 and current #1 on the Billboard 100 chart.
Uncle Jerry takes us through the poem, talking all about childhood and friendship and how both this song and the movie franchise showcase the magic of being a kid.
We bring in a special guest–an expert–at the end to grade the song.
Works Cited:
Runnin’ Wild – Some Like It Hot
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
I Knew It, I Knew You Visualizer
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The Light of Stardom in Clara Bow
We are taking it back to the 1920s (and then the 1970s) today with Clara Bow from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry talks all about the early film industry, Stevie Nicks, the violence of beauty and fame for women, and so much more.
Works Cited:
World’s Columbian Exposition (1893)
Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
A Cool Million – Nathanael West – Aff Link
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
To an Athlete Dying Young – A. E. Housman
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link
Fame is a fickle food (1659) – Emily Dickinson
Fame is a bee. (1788) – Emily Dickinson
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The Nature of Fame in Mirrorball
We’re back in our folklore era with mirrorball today! Uncle Jerry had some extra time with this one and doesn’t even know where to start the discussion. We get into the uses of mirrors in folklore, how this was made during the pandemic, and discuss the many facets of celebrity. Make sure you come back next week for another song discussing the nature of fame.
Works Cited:
The Philosophy of Reflection: Mirrors as Symbols Across Cultures
Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll – Aff Link
'Spirit mirror' used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire
Albertus Magnus and the Magic Mirror
The House of Fame – Geoffrey Chaucer
The Temple of Fame – Alexander Pope
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The Inquisitive Human Nature in How Did It End?
FIXED AUDIO!
Call all your friends and cousins, we’re finally covering How Did It End? from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry finds tons of beautiful poetics and dark humor in this one, and Angela discusses its connections to both The Prophecy and But Daddy I Love Him. If you want to vote for a specific song for June, join us on Patreon to play along!
Works Cited:
Autofiction as a Doorway Into Truth
Come One, Come All – All Time Low
"Now give three cheers" – HMS Pinafore
The Telephone Hour – Bye Bye Birdie
To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad – Edgar Allan Poe
Ode to a Nightingale – John Keats
A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner
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The Christian Tendrils of But Daddy I Love Him
Buckle up for a long one! We are flooring it through the fences today with But Daddy I Love Him from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. We discuss common movie tropes, conservative small towns, and the lyrics Angela wants to have tattooed from this song.
Works Cited:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke – Aff Link
East of Eden – John Steinbeck – Aff Link
the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls – e.e. cummings
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The Sentimentalism of Marjorie
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
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Dr. Uncle Jerry University: Poetry 101
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:
Is There a Text in This Class? – Stanley Fish – Aff Link
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)
Life Studies – Robert Lowell – Aff Link
The Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath – Aff Link
My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke
Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture Paperback – Dana Gioia – Aff Link
A Bit Much – Lyndsay Rush – Aff Link
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Fate vs. Free Will in The Prophecy
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
The Secrets of the Belline Oracle – Sylvie Steinbach – Aff Link
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
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
Taylor Swift’s Tarot Card Revelation Proves None of Travis Kelce Romance Was Accidental
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Cardigan – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 3
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:
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
Love Stinks – The J. Geils Band
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Betty – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 2
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:
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
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August – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 1
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:
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
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The Feminist Critique of Mad Woman
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
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
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
Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare
The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link
The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link
Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link
L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire
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The Depth Without Darkness in Opalite
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:
Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link
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The Exploration of Depression in Evermore
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:
The Burning of Lord Byron’s Memoirs
Emily Dickinson – burned letters
The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link
Sonnet 29 – William Shakespeare
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The Exploration of Truth in Cassandra
In this episode, we are learning all about Cassandra from Greek Mythology, and Cassandra, the Taylor Swift song. Uncle Jerry teaches us Cassandra’s story, we dive into all the rich metaphors, and Angela spills the beans about Taylor’s Kim and Kanye feud. There’s also an existential moment where Angela can’t deal with the question of one universal truth versus many personal truths.
Works Cited:
Taylor Swift and Kanye West Feud
The Greek Myths Box Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link
The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad – Aff Link
Concrete PoetryThe Cassandra Complex
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The Tangled Ambiguity of Ivy
Affairs and graves and Emily Dickinson, oh my! Today, we are slowly meandering through Taylor Swift’s 202 poem, ivy. This track from evermore is full of ambiguous symbols, double meanings, and beautiful poetic elements. Uncle Jerry walks us through his many interpretations, and Angela’s brain short circuits through it all.
The Ways We Touch – Miller Williams – Aff link
Down Where The Spirit Meets the Bone – Lucinda Williams
Because I could not stop for Death – Emily Dickinson
Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link
Emily Dickinson – Cynthia Griffin Wolff – Aff Link
Instagram reel from @davidkristianp
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The Cultural Critique of The Last Great American Dynasty
We’re off to Rhode Island by way of St. Louis in this episode! We’re breaking down Taylor Swift’s ‘the last great american dynasty’, a track from 2020’s folklore and the final song she submitted for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Uncle Jerry explains how his opinion on this poem changed from his first few readings, and Angela talks through her thoughts on the five submitted songs as a whole and why she thinks Taylor chose them.
Works Cited:
A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner
Rebekah Harkness’ Starfish Brooch
The Outrageous Life of Rebekah Harkness, Taylor Swift’s High-Society Muse – Elise Taylor
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald – Aff Link
The 100 Best Songs of 2020 – Pitchfork
the last great american dynasty lyric video
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The Satire of Blank Space
In this episode, we are covering the fourth song that Taylor Swift submitted to be considered for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame—Blank Space. This 1989 track was one of her first pop hits, and Uncle Jerry finds the humorous and feminist lenses the poem was written through to be interesting to dissect. We’ll wrap the conversation up and talk about the songs as a whole collection next week.
Works Cited:
The Twelve Caesars – Suetonius – Aff Link
The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link
Jane Eyre: Deluxe Painted Edition – Charlotte Bronte – Aff Link
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The Self-Deprecation of Anti-Hero
We’re back and we’re kicking 2026 off with the three remaining tracks from Taylor’s submission to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Spoiler alert: she was inducted! We’ll talk more about that in the final of these three episodes, but today we are focused on Anti-Hero. Uncle Jerry wonders about Taylor’s psychological status when writing this song and Angela has an A-ha! moment about how the music cues us to maybe feel differently than the lyrics alone would make us feel.
Works Cited:
Charles Barkley Nike Commercial
Taylor talking about Anti-Hero
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The Resolutions of Love in New Year’s Day
Happy New Year! With New Year’s Day on our episode release day, it only felt right to cover this masterpiece from Reputation. Uncle Jerry unknowingly connects this song with many others, blowing Angela’s mind once again.
We’re taking a short break after this episode, but we’ll see you back here in a few weeks with more poetry!
Works Cited:
Nine Princes in Amber – Roger Zelazny – Aff Link
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens – Aff Link
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway – Aff Link
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John Donne
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The Intertextuality of ‘Tis the Damn Season
Merry Christmas! Sorry for the sad song choice, but it just felt right. We’re trudging down the road not taken with evermore’s ‘tis the damn season. Uncle Jerry isn’t so sure about this one at first, but he comes around by the end.
Works Cited:
Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger – Aff Link
The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link
You Can’t Go Home Again – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link
Tis The Damn Season – Lyric Video
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The Double Entendre of LOML
This is one of our most requested episodes, and here it is, just in time for the holidays! Uncle Jerry picked up on something that Angela had never noticed in the poem, and they get into a bit of the Tay-lore about what inspired The Tortured Poets Department.
Works Cited:
Just Kids – Patti Smith – Aff Link
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do – Neil Sedaka
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The 80s Club Vibes of New Romantics
After all the talk about Romanticism in the last episode, we’re taking it to the New Romantics this week. Uncle Jerry teaches us all about the sociocultural movement of the late 1970s and 1980s called New Romanticism, featuring The Blitz Kids, the London club scene, and all the fun and freedom of the era.
Works Cited:
Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics – Dylan Jones – Aff Link
Best of New Romantics – Spotify Playlist
Heartbreak Is the National Anthem – Rob Sheffield – Aff Link
Taylor Swift’s Manuscripts – Natali Barbani
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The Romanticism of The Lakes
We are letting Taylor Swift take us to the lakes today! These are the lyrics Angela used to convince Uncle Jerry to do this podcast, and his analysis does not disappoint. Come with us to learn all about Romanticism, The Lakes Poets, and how Taylor expertly weaves those two into this poem.
Works Cited:
Lyrical Ballads – William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Aff Link
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen – Aff Link
The Last of the Mohicans – 1992
Tales from Shakespeare – Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
The Lake Isle of Innisfree – William Butler Yeats
Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved, when I think – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Full Book Aff Link
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – Christopher Marlowe
Aurora Leigh – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley – Aff Link
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – William Wordsworth
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The Fairytale Diction of Enchanted
We are finally covering a song from Speak Now! I’m so sorry to all the Speak Now stans that it took this long, but we got here. Uncle Jerry takes us through Taylor’s word choice throughout Enchanted, and how it reveals the specific fairy tale inspiration behind the song. Angela explains the lore of this being Taylor’s only completely self-written album and the moment that inspired the song.
Works Cited:
Smiling Faces Sometimes – The Undisputed Truth
We Wear the Mask – Paul Laurence Dunbar
Some Enchanted Evening – South Pacific
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The Gothic Tradition of The Black Dog
In this episode, we dig into one of most requested songs of late, The Black Dog. Taylor Swift mentioned in an interview that no one really understood this song, so we got Uncle Jerry on the case. Tune in to hear his take!
Works Cited:
Roland Barthes – The Death of The Author
She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron
The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Aff Link
The Malleus Maleficarum – Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger – Aff Link
For The Love of London Pubs – Doug Harper, Vic Norman, Andie Lafrentz – Aff Link
The Pub: A Cultural Institution – Pete Brown – Aff Link
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck – Aff Link
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The Loss of Youth and Innocence in Peter
Well friends, I think we did it. Stay all the way to the end for a big surprise out of Uncle Jerry.
In this episode, we're covering one of Angela's favorite TTPD tracks, Peter. Uncle Jerry finds layer after layer in the poem, and decides that this is a beautiful, melancholic reflection on the loss of innocence and youth, told through the lens of Peter Pan.
Works Cited:
Peter Pan - the Original 1911 Classic – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link
Illustrated Peter Pan: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link
I'm sorry for the Dead—Today – Emily Dickinson
This Is Just To Say – William Carlos Williams
In Just – Spring – e.e. cummings
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
Love's Labor's Lost – William Shakespeare
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The Traditional Tropes of Love Story
We’re taking it back to high school this week and exploring the country phenomenon that is Love Story. This is our first track from Fearless (2008), and Uncle Jerry explores all of the themes and tropes that are missing from the poem when compared to her current work, like complex metaphors and twisted idioms.
Works Cited:
Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare – Affiliate Link
Let Us Live and Love (5) – Catullus
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne – Aff Link
Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak – Aff Link
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