What a month to be a Swiftie! Alicia checks in with all the Taylor joy in December, including the Colbert appearance, the docuseries, and final film. And maybe a little clowning?

Dr. Alicia King Anderson joins Alicia this week as we continue our 12 Days of a Showgirl tour! It is time for the spotlight to shine on track one “The Fate of Ophelia’. There is so much layered into this one – from the real characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the twists of changing the course of fate, this bop really delivers.

Get to know Dr. Alicia King Anderson!

As always, we want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory stories at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 404-594-3658. We may use your Swiftories on a future episode!

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected].

Sources

Taylor Swift - The Fate of Ophelia (Official Music Video) (YouTube)

Taylor Swift - The Fate of Ophelia (Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Our December journey begins! This month we will be breaking down each track of Taylor Swift's twelfth album, The Life of a Showgirl. Today, we start with track seven "Actually Romantic" which does promote a certain attitude, but becomes even more interesting when we view the song as an evolution through Swift's work on the theme of perception, feedback, and criticism.

Please join the fun this month with your thoughts on the game (introduced in the episode) we are playing with TS12. Send your themes and thoughts to [email protected] or leave a message at 404-594-3658.

Sending a quick test to the internet world!

Alicia brings a little news from Swiftory HQ in this quick update of an episode!

We want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory thoughts and stories at [email protected].

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected].

Alicia brings a little news from Swiftory HQ in this quick update of an episode!

We want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory thoughts and stories at [email protected].

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected].

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alicia's taking over *all* the podcasts this week, with the stories and spiderwebs of screen goddess Elizabeth Taylor. In this week's musically-themed episode, Alicia breaks down some of the lyrics in Taylor Swift's new track, Elizabeth Taylor, from her album The Life of a Showgirl. From Portofino to the very best table at Musso & Frank's, certain themes resonate across these two titanic figures in American pop culture - and leave our podcasts absolutely covered in spiderwebs.

As always, we want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory stories at [email protected], or leave us a voicemail at 404-594-3658. We may use your Swiftories on a future episode!

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to [email protected].

Alicia has now had a week to process album The Life of a Showgirl, and wow – there is a lot happening in 42 minutes of twelve straight bops. Taylor has done something incredible in this release, and this episode provides the foundation of how we are going to unfold the magic of TS 12 on Swiftory. It is a little bit Big Magic from Elizabeth Gilbert, and a little bit the Folklore track “Mirrorball” as we set up the themes of TLOAS and the evolution of Taylor Swift.

As always, we want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory stories at

Sources and Related Links:

Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

⁠All 274 of Taylor Swift’s Songs, Ranked⁠, by Rob Sheffield. Rolling Stone, April 2024.

Mirrorball Lyric Version

⁠⁠Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs⁠⁠, by Annie Zaleski

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠⁠.

Welcome to the finale of the love affair of Queen Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, today’s Trashy Royals crossover.

When Elizabeth assumed the throne in 1558, she made it clear to the members of her court that they shouldn’t plan to have their wives or female companions around the place. She intended to be singular as she consolidated power, but perhaps she had another motive as well; by banishing the wives, Robert Dudley, newly appointed Master of the Horse to Her Majesty the Queen, was not required to send for his wife, Amy Robsart, to join him in London.

Elizabeth and Robert were not overly discreet in their enjoyment of one another’s company, while the young queen’s advisors, especially William Cecil, her Secretary of State, grew more and more insistent that Elizabeth find a suitable strategic marriage to enter into with some titled European. This, of course, was not to be. Her relationship with Robert became such a scandal that Cecil himself decided it would cause her government to fall, and everything carried on very precariously until the morning of September 8, 1560, when Amy Robsart was discovered dead at the bottom of a flight of stairs at her home at Cumnor Place. The scandal banished Robert from court for more than a year, and while he and Elizabeth remained close for the rest of his life, the intense romance that characterized the beginnings of her reign was over.

As always, we want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠.

While Queen Elizabeth I of England famously never married, her close relationship with Robert Dudley began when the two were small children together in the court of Henry VIII. Elizabeth was a princess who was downgraded to a lady after her mother, Anne Boleyn’s, death. Robert was the grandson of an advisor to King Henry VII who was executed for treason upon the ascension of Henry VIII, forcing the Dudley family to struggle mightily to rehabilitate its noble image at court.

All of which is to say that these two could really relate to each other, tossed about as they were by their families’ fortunes and the whims of a King both had reasons to love and hate. But when Mary I seized the throne in 1553, everything changed for both of them. Robert’s father had engineered the ascension of Lady Jane Grey, his daughter in law, to the throne over Henry VIII’s eldest daughter, Mary, and after The Nine Days’ Queen was deposed, the male Dudleys were imprisoned in the Tower of London, condemned to death.

Catholic Mary also imprisoned her protestant half-sister Elizabeth, fearing a credible challenge to her reign. Alicia imagines – with the help of some Taylor Swift lyrics – what the months Elizabeth and Robert spent together in The Tower must have been like, doomed as they both believed themselves to be, confidants since they were toddlers.

As always, we want your Midnights! Share your Swiftory

To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to ⁠[email protected]⁠.