AP Taylor Swift

"I know that I'm a handful, baby, I know I never think before I jump" This week on AP Taylor Swift, we ask whether cliches are lazy writing or useful shorthand in Taylor Swift's songwriting. Jodi covers "ME!" (Lover, 2019), Jenn brings the love triangle in "Betty" (folklore, 2020), and Maansi digs into "Wood" (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025) in a literary analysis of linguistic cliches, narrative cliches, and camp.

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Find us at aptaylorswift.com for more

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[01:32] All About narrative and linguistic cliches

[09:01] "ME!" (Lover)

[26:24] "Betty" (folklore)

[37:09] "Wood" (The Life of a Showgirl)

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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 think I've seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending" This week we're going line-by-line through "Exile" (evermore, 2020), Taylor Swift's duet with Justin Vernon. We start with what exile actually means, exploring its meaning from the Ramayana to Napoleon, then work through both speaker's perspectives, two unreliable narrators, and a bridge full of signs nobody read. Plus a little post-colonial feminist theory on what it means to be someone's "homeland."

Visit APTaylorSwift.com for more!

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[03:56] What exile actually means

[07:38] Holding all this love out here in the hall

[14:26] You're not my homeland anymore

[20:39] Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me

[26:25] I'm not your problem anymore

[36:07] I gave so many signs

[54:27] Our purposes: a duet about two people who can't communicate

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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.

“You’ll be alright, no one can hurt you now.” It’s spooky season! So this week, we’re exploring how horror shows up in Taylor Swift's songwriting, even when the songs are not explicitly horror songs. Jodi, Maansi, and Jenn break down the genre's core ingredients, then each bring in a Taylor Swift song to test that lens and show how fear, suspense, foreshadowing, and eerie atmosphere can reshape the way the lyrics feel. If you enjoy hearing literary concepts applied to pop music, this one maps horror, thriller, mystery, and gothic tension onto Taylor Swift in a fun and engaging way.

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Mentioned in this episode:

Books from this season: https://bookshop.org/lists/season-4-books

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] The five elements of horror: fear, setting, suspense, foreshadowing, mystery

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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’d be a fearless leader, I’d be an alpha type." This week we're going line-by-line through Taylor Swift's "The Man" (Lover, 2019), written by Taylor Swift and Joel Little, in a literary analysis deep dive on masculinity and the gender double standard. We pick apart the conditional mood, the alpha wolf myth, the "they" who write the narrative, and how a woman's personal life gets tangled up with her professional reputation. Then we compare the music video with the Eras Tour staging and share our purposes for the song.

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Welcome to "The Man" (Lover, 2019), and the title: She's the Man and Beyoncé's "If I Were a Boy"

[05:14] I would be complex, I would be cool: the conditional mood, "conquest," and who the "they" are

[12:25] I'd be a fearless leader, I'd be an alpha type: personal life vs. professional reputation, and the alpha wolf myth

[21:38] When everyone believes you, what's that like? and the chorus, I'm so sick of running as fast as I can

[33:38] What I was wearing, if I was rude: verse two and the hustle double standard

[42:40] I'd be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez: Leonardo DiCaprio and "let the players play"

[47:48] It's okay if you're mad: the bridge

[55:58] The satirical music video vs. the Eras Tour performance

[1:05:28] Our purposes: permission to be mad, the personal-professional blur, and the "they"

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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. In this Show and Tell episode, Jenn, Jodi, and Maansi unpack masculinity as a cultural construct, from powdered wigs and heels in 18th century France to Travis Kelce happily playing the less famous partner on New Heights.

Jenn kicks things off with Better Man, flipping every one of the ex's flaws to sketch the man Taylor actually wants (grateful, consistent, kind, and secure enough not to talk down to anyone). Jodi brings The Man and gets real about the double standards that turn a woman's "edge" into a man's ambition, plus why leaning in never quite worked. Maansi closes with Father Figure, tracing every Jaguar, chateau, and glass of brown liquor back to the patriarch. (And yes, she researched the history of dick measuring contests. For science.)

Along the way, the hosts map R.W. Connell's hegemonic masculinity, Aragorn versus Commodus, the Byronic hero, Hemingway's code hero, and the colonial baggage packed into a single word like "conquest." Pour yourself a whiskey (or don't, it tastes like fire) and press play.

Browse every book we've mentioned at our Bookshop.org storefront.

Find us at @APTaylorSwift everywhere. 

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

First 50 people to grab a Substack After School annual plan get 40% off: https://aptaylorswift.substack.com/wishlistmemberdiscount

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Intro music by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

AP Taylor Swift is an independent podcast and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Taylor Swift, her management, or her record labels.

"I took your matches before fire could catch me" This week we're going line-by-line through Taylor Swift's "Dear John" (Speak Now, 2010). We go through the WWII-era history behind the title, the epistolary letter form, and how a breakup letter becomes an act of reclaiming her own story. And surprisingly, we walk away realizing (spoiler alert) maybe this song isn’t as sad as we thought!

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episode

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[01:19] Why "Dear John" is such a track five 

[01:42] What a Dear John letter actually is — the WWII-era origin of the phrase 

[05:55] "Long were the nights" 

[10:39] "You paint me a blue sky and go back and turn it to rain" 

[17:48] "don't you think I was too young to be messed with" 

[36:33] "I took your matches before fire could catch me" 

[45:53] The turn from "I should have known" to "you should have known" 

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Contact us at [email protected]

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 wanna be your end game. Roll the dice, pick your teams, and pull up a chair, because this week is all about games (decidedly not sports). Taylor reaches for game metaphors constantly, and once you start looking, you find chess boards, poker hands, and team rosters all over her catalog.

Jenn kicks things off with the big thinkers of play, from Johan Huizinga’s magic circle to Roger Caillois’s four types of play to game theory, the field that treats every board game as a tiny model of human decision making. Then Jodi takes us inside the chess game of “Dear John,” where somebody else keeps changing the rules. Jenn lays her cards on the table with “Foolish One” and explains why showing your hand first is a classic game theory mistake (hello, sucker’s payoff). Maansi closes with “End Game,” tracing “end game,” “first string,” and “A-Team” back to chess, medieval archery, and the US Army, and landing on a very different kind of game where both players finally sit on the same side of the board.

Along the way we detour through Jumanji, Lord of the Flies, Alice in Wonderland, The Queen’s Gambit, a Garry Kasparov masterclass, and the ancient Indian roots of chess. Grab your game pieces and play along!

Browse all our picks at bookshop.org/shop/apts

Rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen, and tell us your favorite game reference in the comments!

We barely scratched the surface on games (we didn’t even get to video games). Find more extra credit on our Substack at aptaylorswift.substack.com, and join After School, our paid tier, for bonus content from all three of us.

Intro music by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

AP Taylor Swift is an independent podcast and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Taylor Swift, her team, or her record labels.

"They say the road gets hard, and you get lost when you're led by blind faith." This week we're going line-by-line through "False God" (Lover, 2019). We trace the blind faith, the confession and forgiveness, and the New York City vs. West Village metaphor to figure out who's the deity and who's the devotee in this relationship.

Check out more at aptaylorswift.com 

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

[00:15] What is a “false god”?

[08:29] "Like I'm not your favorite town... I'm New York City" 

[15:38] "You get lost when you're led by blind faith" 

[25:46] "Even if it's a false god, we'd still worship this love"

[40:09] "Heaven's a thing... hell is when I fight with you" 

[46:18] "You're the West Village"

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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.

And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven" This week we're looking at Taylor Swift's lyrics through the lens of God as a literary symbol — the ultimate judge, the absent silent one, and the lover. Maansi brings in "Soon You'll Get Better" (Lover, 2019), Jodi covers "False God" (Lover, 2019), and Jenn digs into "Would've, Could've, Should've" (Midnights, 2022).

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode Highlights:

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

Contact us at [email protected]

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 was there when you said, forever and always." In this deep dive, we crack open why "Forever and Always" is a bait and switch song, tracing how Taylor takes a romantic idiom and flips it into a play by play of a relationship falling apart in real time. We trace the whole arc: the extraordinary to ordinary swap in that first "I believe it was a Tuesday" line, the low-key violence hiding inside a single word ("caught"), and the moment a few lines in when she stops calling it a relationship and starts calling it "this thing." By the bridge, even the chorus gets rewritten. So what actually happened between them? All three of us landed somewhere different, and that's kind of the whole point of a deep dive.

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Two ways to get more of AP Taylor Swift:

Substack: free subscribers get episode updates. Paid subscribers get After School: bonus episodes, our full written archive, and a vote in what we cover next. Subscribe: http://aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

Apple Podcasts: paid subscribers get ad-free episodes, early episode access, and bonus episodes

Episode Highlights:

[02:16] What "forever and always" actually means, and why the title uses it ironically

[08:54] "Caught" versus "hold": the violence and the comfort hiding in her word choice

[25:30] The chorus hits: "I stare at the phone"

[41:14] The universal ache of not knowing what you did wrong

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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.