Join us this week as we take a little tour of New York City through Taylor Swift’s songs. Taylor’s love for this city is well known and she references many locations in The Big Apple in her lyrics. Also included, a wonderful excerpt from Dorothy Parker about the city too. 

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

All the NYC Spots Taylor Swift Mentions in Her Songs (thrillist.com)

Dorothy Parker on New York: Autumn is the Springtime of Big Cities (polyarchive.com)

Places / Songs

Chelsea Hotel / Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Central Park Lake / Taylor Swift - The Bolter (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Cornelia Street / Taylor Swift - Cornelia Street (Live From Paris) Lyrics (YouTube)

Lovers of Today / Taylor Swift - Delicate (Lyrics) (YouTube)

Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer (Lyrics) (YouTube)

The High Line / Taylor Swift - cardigan (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Olive Garden / Taylor Swift - no body, no crime (Official Lyric Video) ft. HAIM (YouTube)

Coney Island / Taylor Swift - coney island (Lyric Video) ft. The National (YouTube)

Bus Stop Cafe / Taylor Swift - the 1 (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Housing Works Bookstore / Taylor Swift - All Too Well: The Short Film (YouTube)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s Swiftory journey, Alicia is joined by Alicia King Anderson Ph.D., our resident expert in all things mythology. The Mad Cassandra is our focus this week – the woman who was always correct in her prophecy but never believed. Dr. Alicia leads Swiftory Alicia through Cassandra’s story and then the script is flipped, as Swiftory Alicia reveals the song “Cassandra” from Taylor Swift from The Tortured Poets Department. This one contains multitudes connecting this ever-persistent theme through the centuries.

Find more of Alicia K. Anderson, Ph.D. in these links:

 ⁠⁠Alicia's Patreon⁠⁠

Her upcoming class on ⁠⁠"The Dark Feminine for Dark Times"⁠⁠⁠⁠Fairy Tale Retellings⁠⁠ now available for pre-order!

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].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this little bit of a teaser episode for next week, Alicia is joined by her Trashy Divorces and Trashy Royals co-host Stacie, to break down “The Prophecy,” the track 26 bombshell from TTPD: The Anthology. With a little look ahead to our special guest next week breaking down the mythology of Cassandra, this is a bit of pre-requisite listening.

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

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

Taylor Swift - The Prophecy (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

Behind the Meaning of Taylor Swift's Plea to a Higher Power, "The Prophecy" (americansongwriter.com)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this kickoff to summer, Alicia and Melissa celebrate Taylor owning her Masters (finally)! But there is so much more. Play along with our quiz this week – Swift or Shakespeare?

Alicia brings thirty one lines that are packed with literary power for a quick with zero stakes whatsoever. It’s the playing along that is the fun!

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].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alicia and Melissa were thrilled to have a chance to speak with Kevin Evers, Senior Editor at Harvard Business Review and author of There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift. Kevin really brought the goods to Swiftory this week speaking about what makes Swift the savviest decision maker and disruptor of our time.

This conversation was truly a delight, exploring a variety of topics including Swift’s consistent ability to reinvent herself, devotion to the craft, and commitment to the fan experience. We fan out a bit too with theories and the Eras Tour experiences as well.

Swiftorians – we LOVED this work: it was a whole new way to get to know Taylor Swift.

Find the book here:

There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift (Amazon.com)

There's Nothing Like This: The Strategic Genius of Taylor Swift (Bookshop.org)

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].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our BIG finale of All Songs Anne Boleyn week, there could be no other song to send this Queen of England into her afterlife. Our featured song this week is “My Tears Ricochet” from Taylor Swift’s 2020 Folklore album. Alicia breaks down this haunting, ghostly classic from Taylor’s point of view in the first half, and then switches the focus to Anne Boleyn for the second half. Truly Shakespearean in its themes and imagery, My Tears Ricochet could describe no other than this murdered queen.

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

⁠Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift⁠ (Amazon.com)

⁠Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs⁠, by Annie Zaleski (Amazon.com)

Taylor Swift by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets⁠, by Rachel Feder and Tiffany Tatreau (Amazon)

Lyric Version: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWbDJFtHl3w⁠

Long Pond Studio Session: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idjs-hw7Spg⁠

My Tears Ricochet Long Pond Session Interview: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xIm5mALut8⁠

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this continuing arc of Anne Boleyn’s Swiftory Playlist, Alicia continues with songs three and four of Anne’s traumatic 1536, "False God" and "If This Was a Movie". These choices, from Lover and Speak Now respectively, provide an insight into Anne’s thoughts and feeling through this very difficult year, taking her up to the final days of her life.

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 Stories Behind the Songs⁠, by Annie Zaleski (Amazon.com)

Who is Taylor Praying to? Complete "False God" Analysis (swiftlysungstories.com)

False God Lyrics: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t63MeBe2xYU⁠

False God Live SNL: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjD3LoXp-Pw⁠

False God Live From Paris: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLZuAXAGEH4⁠

If This Was a Movie Video: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh6a6vDOFzE⁠

If This Was a Movie Lyric Version: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cf2J4BPEeM

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second installment of the Taylor Swift Playlist of Anne Boleyn, it's time to pull out the anti-Anne song Paper Rings from the Lover album. Alicia feels that Anne gets handed a terrible reputation through history as a scheming homewrecker, but the real story is quite a bit different. This episode takes us from Shrovetide 1522 all the way through the reluctant and rocky courtship of the Henry VIII and this lady of the court, right up to their marriage in 1532.

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 Stories Behind the Songs⁠, by Annie Zaleski (Amazon.com)

Lyric Video: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3NKbMScco⁠

Live from The Eras Tour: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTYVM-Y1pyM

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Alicia begins her Anne Boleyn/Taylor Swift playlist with The Archer, from the Lover album. This song is packed full of literature references along with self-sabotage, revenge and so much more! You will likely not ever think of Henry the VIII or Anne in quite the same way!

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 by the Book: The Literature Behind the Lyrics, from Fairy Tales to Tortured Poets⁠, by Rachel Feder and Tiffany Tatreau (Amazon)

⁠Taylor Swift: The Stories Behind the Songs⁠, by Annie Zaleski (Amazon.com)

⁠Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift⁠ (Amazon.com)

The archer Live From Paris: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_2WyBcFbFY⁠

The Archer Lyrics: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpKc3C9V3w

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Alicia takes us through her imagined Taylor Swift musical journey of Mary, Queen of Scots! Mary has been the focus of one of her other podcasts, Trashy Royals, recently, and there is so much more to say about Mary, a glamazon queen with a terrible picker. Talk about being born at the wrong time. Mary’s story is a ride through her three ultimate Taylor songs, according to Alicia.

Mary’s song’s include Anti-Hero, Cruel Summer, and Evermore, with the Taylor history included. It's time to go deep into this Tudor soundtrack, filled with a flawed character you root for, bad romances, and a complicated relationship with so many folks, including Mary's cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

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 Stories Behind the Songs, by Annie Zaleski (Amazon.com)

Rolling Stone: Taylor Swift (Amazon.com)

Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero (Official Music Video) (YouTube)

Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero (Official Lyric Video) (YouTube)

[Enhanced 4K] "Cruel Summer" - Taylor Swift | THE ERAS TOUR 2023 | EAS Channel (YouTube)

Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer (Lyrics) (YouTube)

Taylor Swift - evermore (Official Lyric Video) ft. Bon Iver (YouTube)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices