“Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind”  This week, we finally try to find the actual meaning behind Taylor Swift's "willow" (evermore, 2020), starting with the witchy mythology behind the title (hello, Hecate, Greek goddess of magic and the underworld) and tracing a real power dynamic underneath it. 

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Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Intro — continuing last week's Odyssey deep dive into "willow" 

[01:59] The title: willow mythology, Hecate, and witchy vibes 

[05:26] “I'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night”

[17:07] “Lost in your current like a priceless wine”

[28:55] “Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind”

[42:49] “I come back stronger than a 90s trend”

[59:04] The purpose of the song 

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

“In silent screams and wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this. This love is good. This love is bad. This love is alive back from the dead.”

This week we’re setting sail on one of history’s greatest epics, Homer’s The Odyssey, and asking a very important question... did Taylor Swift write it? (We’re mostly joking. Mostly.) In this Show & Tell episode, we each make the case for a Taylor Swift song that illuminates a different facet of the Odyssey, from Penelope’s 20-year vigil to Odysseus weeping on a gorgeous island, to the sirens, the wine-dark sea, and a very significant scar. Along the way, the hosts dig into questions of translation and interpretation — particularly the significance of Emily Wilson’s landmark female translation of the text — discuss the role of Athena in the story of the epic, and geek out about the archery contest that shows up in both the Odyssey and two Indian epics. Plus: the upcoming Christopher Nolan adaptation, the musical Epic by Jorge Rivera, Madeline Miller’s Circe, and why All Too Well (10 Minute Version) might just be Taylor’s own Odyssey.

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"A mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." This week we're deep diving "Cold As You" from Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album (2006) — and it's a heavy one. What reads on the surface as a teen heartbreak song turns out to be a meditation on indifference, power imbalance, and the particular kind of scar that forms not from cruelty, but from being simply not cared about. 

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Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[11:06] "What a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day" 

[16:42] "You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray" 

[29:00] Bridge: "You never did give a damn thing, honey, but I cried, cried for you"

[35:43] "Every smile you fake is so condescending — counting all the scars you've made"

[41:59] Purpose: what this song is really about 

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"How's your heart after breaking mine?" This is a preview of our paid After School episode,  a continuation of our "Fearless" album deep dive. 

We go through every Platinum Edition bonus track and Fearless (Taylor's Version) vault track and ask the only question that matters: why didn't these make the original 13? We argue "Mr. Perfectly Fine" was too pointed for a 19-year-old still being marketed as "sweet, neat, and age-appropriate," that "Superstar" was the PR-safe version of the same heartbreak, and that the "Forever & Always" piano version is the stages of grief in song form. 

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Mentioned in this episode:

Luna Halo’s original “Untouchable” (2007)

Valentine’s Day (2010)

Hacks (HBO Max)

American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Ep 98: Unreliable Narrators (Mr. Perfectly Fine)

Extra Credit essay on Forever Winter and the stages of grief

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding." This week, we're doing a Show & Tell episode on one of Taylor's most recurring literary devices: scars. From the ice-cold wounds of “Cold As You” from her debut album to the wistful “cardigan” of folklore and the Kingpin-Taylor energy of “CANCELLED!” from The Life of a Showgirl, we trace how Taylor's use of scars has evolved from pure pain to reclaimed power. We talk Odysseus, Harry Potter, Death Eaters (yes, really), shattering glass ceilings, and what it means to turn a mark of suffering into a VIP passport. Join us as we explore what scars say about heroes, villains, and the very specific experience of being a woman in your 30s who has finally decided the wounds were worth it.

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Songs Discussed in This Episode:

Referenced in This Episode:

Episode Highlights:

[00:03] Intro: Welcome to the Show & Tell on Scars — not the Lion King villain (but kind of)

[07:17] Cold As You (debut, 2006): Ice burns, emotional wounds, and counting scars vs. counting stars

[14:20] Cardigan (folklore, 2020): "You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding"

[25:00] CANCELLED! (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025): Matching scars as passport to the underworld

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"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 revealing song.

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Mentioned in this episode:

🔎 In this episode:

Episode Highlights: 

[01:34] “Antihero” defined

[05:45] “I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser”

[11:06] "All of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room" 

[19:06] "Tale as old as time"

[28:00] “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me”

[38:00] "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby and I'm a monster on the hill"

[45:00] “Pierced through the heart but never killed” 

[55:06] The bridge!

[1:03:00] Purpose of the song “Anti-Hero”

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

“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, 2006), Begin Again (Red, 2012), and Anti-Hero (Midnights, 2022). Along the way, we explore distorted self-perception and the inner child, the mirror as a post-breakup identity reset, why Taylor would rather stare directly at the sun than face her own reflection, and what social media has to do with all of it. Plus: Dorian Gray, Narcissus, vampires without souls, the Bloody Mary game, and an accidental Justin Timberlake shout-out.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content:

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Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Alice Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Reflection — Mahesh Dattani (Indian play)

Reflection — Mulan (1998 film)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

Greek Mythology: Narcissus

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Mirror of Erised), J.K. Rowling

Tied Together with a Smile — Taylor Swift (2006)

Begin Again — Taylor Swift, Red (2012)

Anti-Hero — Taylor Swift, Midnights (2022)

Contact us at [email protected]

Krowned Krystals — krownedkrystals.com — use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm — Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here: tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z

“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 full debut album, become a paid subscriber at aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe — we go deep on the album in our After School series.

📩 Want more? Subscribe to our Substack for free to read our Extra Credit essays: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. For more on "Our Song" in the context of Taylor's full debut album, become a paid subscriber— we go deep on the album in our After School series and give you exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

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Mentioned in this episode: 

“Replay,” Zendaya

“Replay,” Iyaz

“Your Song,” Elton John

Inception, 2010

Mean Girls, 2004

“God is a DJ,” Pink

American Beauty, 1999

Inferno, Dante Alighieri

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

Harry Potter, JK Rowling

***

Episode Highlights

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Featured in Axios Indianapolis.

#TaylorSwift #OurSong #TaylorSwiftLyrics #LiteraryAnalysis #SwiftieTok #TaylorSwiftDeepDive

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Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

“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 would spend the next eras of her career perfecting. Along the way, we track the evolution of Taylor's fearlessness from a teenager writing on tour buses to the artist who re-recorded her masters and looked the whole industry dead in the eye.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. 

After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics! Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

This episode is exclusively for our paid subscribers. Thank you for supporting AP Taylor Swift!

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Welcome to After School — Fearless era begins 

[01:11] Fearless as a sophomore album: branding, stakes, and proving it wasn't a fluke 

[06:46] Why "Fearless" and not "Love Story": the title as identity

[09:00] The album's critical reception and Billboard dominance 

[12:14] The Kanye VMAs moment and what it meant for the era 

[29:43] Track 1 — "Fearless": dancing in the rain, connective tissue to debut

[01:35:44] Track 13 — "Change": ending on a note of inevitability 

[01:43:31] What the album is actually about: manifesting fearlessness 

[01:46:01] The lesson from Fearless: just do the thing, even badly

[01:49:27] Taylor's Version and why she started with Fearless

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Affiliate Codes:

Krowned Krystals - krownedkrystals.com use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

“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 an earworm you can hit the notes on without music, alliteration is a tool Taylor reaches for selectively and with purpose. Join Maansi, Jennifer, and Jodi as they break down soft sounds, staccato slams, and everything in between.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Contact us at [email protected]

Krowned Krystals – krownedkrystals.com — use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm – Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here: tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z