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The Swiftie and The Scholar: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Angela McDow | Dr. Jerry Coats
A weekly podcast exploring the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. Hosted by Angela McDow, the Swiftie, and Dr. Jerry Coats, the Scholar, we read between the lines AND the liner notes. Join us each week for lyrical deep dive through Taylor Swift's eras.
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- Today1h 26m
All Our Sacred Memories in Holy Ground
We’re back in our Red era this week with Holy Ground from 2012. Uncle Jerry found much more in this song than he was expecting, and we might have even gotten a new catch phrase out of it. *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:Holy Ground – The Clancy BrothersOn Holy Ground – Barbra StreisandExodus 3:5Pluperfect tenseIn medias resCaesuraEmjambment*The Great Gatsby – F. Scott FitzgeraldApostropheAnna Karaenina – Leo TolstoyThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- 1 weeks ago1h 52m
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:In Past Tense – Tara BoydPatient Zero – HammerfallWeasel/Patient Zero – Marvel UniversePatient Zero – The Outer Limits (2001)Dramatic MonologueRoss Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall (The Poldark Saga, 1) – Winston Graham:*Amazon*Bookshop.orgLogos, Pathos, EthosMetonymyIsaiah 6:6-8Hemingway’s Iceberg TheoryApophasis*Rebecca – Daphne du MaurierCanterbury Tales Prologue – Geoffrey ChaucerThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- 2 weeks ago1h 54m
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*Amazon*Bookshop.orgAngela’s Reaction Video – The Encore Professing Literature: An Institutional History – Gerald Graff*Amazon*Bookshop.orgAncient BabylonWhat Does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin" Mean?Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe ShelleyBabylon (2022)Hemingway’s Iceberg TheoryWild Things (1998)Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak *Amazon*Bookshop.orgWild Thing – The TroggsThe Libertine (2004)OnomatopoeiaMetonymyLogos, Pathos, EthosDramatic IronyMiniver Cheevy – Edwin Arlington RobinsonThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- 3 weeks ago1h 30m
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:Tug McGrawIn medias resFree indirect discourseAlliterationMetonymySignpostingRasselas – Samuel JohnsonPalimpsestEnjambmentFrame story or frame structureLeitmotifThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- 3 weeks ago53 min
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:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmTake Me to Kirkland – Sarah Anderson: https://joylandpublishing.com/fiction/take-me-to-kirkland/The Best American Short Stories 2025 – Celeste Ng, Nicole A. Lamy:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmMarlena – Julie Buntin:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmFamous Men – Julie Buntin:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmHealth Trackers Are Everywhere. Do Babies Need Them Too? – The Daily:https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QNrdUSF28Vsxla5a0exzK?si=TPgMlCapQwy4AJuqP1ptoQ Temporary – Hilary Leichter:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmThe Quick and the Dead – Joy Williams:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmThe Visiting Privilege – Joy Williams:*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmAll Fours – Miranda July*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmThe First Bad Man – Miranda July*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmMargo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmEast of Eden – John Steinbeck*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmThe Maltese Version – Katy Simpson Smith*Amazon*Bookshop.org*Libro.fmFollow me around the internet:YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@angelawyattmcdowInstagramhttps://www.instagram.com/angelawyattmcdowTikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@angelawyattmcdowThe Swiftie and The Scholar YouTube Channelhttps://www.youtube.com/@UCyLE2ovIvwERY4lB0nNev5A The Swiftie and The Scholar Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/cw/TheSwiftieandTheScholarThe Swiftie and The Scholar Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/swiftieandscholarpod/
- 4 weeks ago1h 45m
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*Witches, Ogres, and the Devil's Daughter: Encounters with Evil in Fairy Tales – Mario Jacoby, Verena Kast, Ingrid Riedel*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. cummingsThirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird – Wallace StevensMaslow’s Hierarchy of NeedsLore & LyricsUlysses – James JoyceA 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 TwainHilary Duff is trying to listen to the healthy part of her brain – Los Angeles TimesThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- Oct 8, 20261h 9m
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 Folklore (Taylor Swift album)*Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare*Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning*Astrophil and Stella – Sir Philip Sidney SemioticsThe Odyssey – HomerBeowulfDryadsHulderFolklore prologueDaddy – Sylvia PlathAnecdote of the Jar – Wallace StevensThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeRedditTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
- Oct 1, 20261h 9m
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:CoupletsHeroic coupletsAnaphoraStarship Troopers (1997)EnjambmentEllipsisIn medias resThe Odyssey – HomerCaesuraWhy I Write – Joan DidionSimileThe Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:PatreonYouTubeTikTokInstagramThreadsAngela’s InstagramUncle Jerry’s InstagramAngela’s YouTube Channel
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About The Swiftie and The Scholar
A weekly podcast exploring the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. Hosted by Angela McDow, the Swiftie, and Dr. Jerry Coats, the Scholar, we read between the lines AND the liner notes. Join us each week for lyrical deep dive through Taylor Swift's eras.
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