Episodes
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We're back to discuss the second half of TTPD — a track-by-track, our general takes, an a redone album (listen to Hannah and Madeline's Version here). Are you an anthology truther??? PLEASE send your thoughts.
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31 SONGS??? We are wealthy. Today we're diving into our overall thoughts on the album — where it fits into Taylor's larger body of work, the side effects of her prolific output over the past few years, living inside of an imperial phase, musical and lyrical redundancies, Taylor's partnerships with Jack and Aaron — and doing a track-by-track vibe check of the (first) album. Come for the hot takes, stay for the alien abduction commentary. We'll be back soon to discuss The Anthology, because there is simply TOO MUCH GROUND TO COVER.
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Episodes manquant?
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What a week! We’re talking Grammys, TS11 announcement, and the Super Bowl. Complicated feelings about conspiracy theories and Taylor’s public image and capitalism abound. Come for the discourse, stay for our imagined versions of every track on TTPD.
Sidebars this week: Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the self-fulfilling monster on the hill prophecy, Fox News plugging Taylor Swift as a psyop for the Pentagon and Joe Biden, whether the Super Bowl is rigged, wake up sheeple but also stay asleep sheeple, and no longer trusting Taylor’s use of punctuation.
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HELLO LISTENERS and welcome back! We’re whetting your appetites with a petite overview of the happenings in Taylorland — the You’re Losing Me drop, the Eras tour film, and, of course, the couple bringing us close to monoculture. Tune in to hear our thoughts on PR and girlhood and the NFL and himbos.
Sidebars this week: raisins, Rachel Antonoff, whether is Taylor a picky eater, the chai cookies, Gettin Bi from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Lance from The Other Two, this Taffy Brodesser-Akner piece, and closed captioning for movies.
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SUMMER OF TAYLOR. Recorded on the eve of Speak Now TV, we have a little recap of our tour experience. And soon we’ll be back with our full album (and music video) review — what a time to be alive! We are rich in content!!!
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Breaking breakup news!!! The #toe split — let’s get into it.
Sidebars this week: Emily Henry, Lesley Gore, the Kravitz family, a new music video being filmed in Liverpool (??), the Barbie movie, Taylor as Christ, this TikTok, the locked Gaylor subreddit, Taylor’s selective public allyship and (infuriating, disappointing) silence on anti-trans legislation, Tree and the publicist machine, boygenius, this outfit, Taylor’s wardrobe, Jon Caramanica, and the Eras Tour setlist.
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Just a little update epi! We eat some Goldfish and talk Spotify stats, tour, Amsterdam (the film, not the city), Taylor’s directorial turn, rerecording predictions, (among other things). Until our Midnights deep dive — thanks for spending your year with us! We love you! To 2023!
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The first of many Midnights deep dives! We’re talking this week about our complicated feelings about this album: its public reception, the necessary role of criticism in ingesting culture, what it means to engage with an artist’s internality, how to carry both our expectations and our appreciation, and the many, many, many layers of being a Taylor Swift fan. The vibe is rigorous classroom discussion, so grab your pencils and check the syllabus and settle into a comfy chair to chew on this album with us.
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GOOD MORNING AND HAPPY MIDNIGHTS DAY TO ONE AND ALL! A mini-ep from immediately before and immediately after listening to the album. WE ARE EXCITED !!!
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We’re back, babies. It’s the Midnights era and we’re GETTING INTO IT. Let’s talk theories, Easter eggs, inspirations, expectations, explanations, reputations. 39 days left… which is 13 times 3… INTERESTING TIMING.
Sidebars this week: talking about Taylor Swift in class, therapy, and first dates, Las Culturistas, Peloton instructors, Joni Mitchell references, Tik Tok lesbians, journalism politics, cages, burning this house to the ground, Harry Styles and the celebrity-coming-out pipeline, the Lorde effect, and tour predictions,
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Things have been uneventful on the Taylor front recently, so we’re recapping the bits and pieces of news for you today — Harry Styles’ leaked song (as promised, the song backed by an exceptional photo compilation), Karlie’s TikTok presence, Joe Alwyn’s press tour, Where the Crawdads Sing, Taylor’s return to acting, and Drake’s Instagram — all punctuated by the sound of the freeway and occasional Google Maps directions for an immersive audio experience.
Sidebars this week: our road trip to Martha Stewart’s garage sale, whether Karlie begged Taylor for mercy in a Starbucks, the mystery lyric in “I Think He Knows,” the Sally Rooney oeuvre, the very dark shit surrounding Delia Owens and her family, and our exhausted inability to speculate on when we will get new music.
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Today we are transitioning from Taylor-as-poet to Taylor’s literal poetry, circa 1999 and 2017. We’re reading Taylor’s three published poems — A Monster In My Closet!, Why She Disappeared, and If You’re Anything Like Me — and talking about why they feel like a new kind of peek into her psyche and her Enneagram type, Taylor’s deep need for being understood (even when There Will Be No Further Explanation There Will Just Be Reputation), and as usual, our plea for Taylor to get a therapist.
Sidebars this week: Taylor’s connection to Al Gore, the Cadbury commercial where kids wiggle their eyebrows, Madeline’s career as a public speaking tutor, the sentient Empire State Building, is Martha Stewart deuxmoi, and Colton Underwood’s connection to Scooter Braun.
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With the turning of the calendar, it’s time for us to reflect — and look ahead to consider what the absolute hell is going to fall in our laps from the one and only Miss Taylor. We’re staking our claims and making our predictions for what is to come this year: tour? Re-records? A fresh album? A NOVEL?? Who knows.
Also — we’re on Instagram! Follow us at @whenuthinktaylorswift and send us your wildest theories, your requests for new episodes, and/or your top ten songs. We want it all.
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BABY LET THE GAMES BEGIN — we’re in the final stretch pre-Red re-release. This week, we’re recapping what’s been happening in the Taylorverse on the eve of us finally having our grubby little paws on the ten-minute version of All Too Well (From the Vault) (Taylor’s Version). Theories swirling on Tik Tok & @deuxmoi, secret projects filmed in Taylor’s New York apartment, Taylor’s introduction for Carole King, and our most anticipated songs from Red — let’s get into it. We’ll be in person together for the re-record next week, so stay tuned for a boatload of content to match the boatload of songs coming soon.
Sidebars this week: John Mayer has a laundry detergent line now, Succession, squirrel gestation, the lost Palm Tree era, Taylor’s cheugy social media presence, and Cora Coleman from Music & Lyrics (iconic film).
As mentioned, here is Taylor’s speech and her cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow."
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We’re back and in honor of August sipping away like a bottle of wine, it’s time to reflect on Folklore. We’re doing a track-by-track analysis, theorizing on the line between fiction and reality in the Taylorverse, discussing Taylor’s ability to draw a universal feeling from a wildly niche vignette, and generally deep diving left & right. Buckle in, babies.
Sidebars this week: Facebook Marketplace finds, “you’ll never get away from the sound of the woman who loves you,” Madeline’s pre-Folklore connection to Holiday House, Taylor Swift’s real estate investments, Hannah turning into a snob about vinyl, Nicole Kidman’s accents and wigs, is Jack Antonoff weird??, Strawberry Wine by Deanna Carter, Sally Rooney and Brandy Jensen in conversation with Illicit Affairs, Jill Gutowitz predicting Taylor’s bear suit Instagram, and Taylor’s cheugiest lyrics.
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We’re sticking in the Evelyn Hugo universe for one last episode to talk about the brilliant, tortured, kindhearted Harry Cameron — and also the brilliant, tortured, kindhearted Harry Styles. We cover a lot of ground in this episode: the history of celebrity bearding, Evelyn and Harry’s relationship, Taylor and Harry’s relationship, literary and lyrical analysis, the utility of identity politics, chosen families, the snowmobile (??) accident (??), whether we’ll ever get a sit-down deep dive debrief from Taylor herself, and prioritizing platonic love. Without further ado, LET’S GET INTO IT.
Sidebars this week: the giant birdcage in Taylor’s Nashville house, Hannah mixing up Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne (SORRY), the “I want to be famous” Vine, Chely Wright, Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield, the 2016 election’s ripple effect into Taylor’s personal life, the L Word, and Karlie Kloss’s Instagram. Please let us know if you have insight on the etymology of the term bearding!!!
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The time has come for us to do a Deep Dive into The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is part one: a hefty walkthrough of this book, the way it sheds light into the machinations of celebrity (and the correlating ethical implications), a continuation of our discussion on parasocial relationships with celebrities, the through line of Taylor Swift and other pieces of culture, and what to do with the bits of truth we have. Obviously, spoilers for Evelyn Hugo abound. Sidebars this week: should we start a side hustle of doing old-timey voices?, nobody replying to our question about drinking wine in the bathtub from last episode, Joshua Basset, and Stevie Nicks.
Find the masterpost accompaniment here.
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Alternate title: Now That’s What I Call GAY Music! We’re continuing our explicitly queer-focused episodes by discussing Taylor’s implicitly queer songs, going from 1989 through Lover (to save you all from eight thousand hours of Folklore and Evermore gay content) (but don’t worry, we’ll get there). We also, obviously, have to get into the Red announcement. 30 songs! Sidebars this week: Taylor Swift’s graphic design team, fisherman’s caps, the ten-minute version of Stay Stay Stay, Dianna Agron’s Tumblr URL, Madeline getting hacked mid-recording, the Abbi Jacobsen-Carrie Brownstein-Annie Clark love triangle, and whether straight couples take baths and drink wine together.
Find this week’s playlist here and the mysterious “Pride Month 2021” version of Out of the Woods here.
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Did you listen to last week’s episode and think “ok, I’m intrigued — tell me more” because if so, it’s your lucky day! Here is more! Our gay series continues! We are getting into Taylor’s queerest moments, from early MySpace posts to the era of rainbow dresses and Stonewall performances. The energy is powerfully, palpably, publicly fruity. We also wade into the Wild West of Gaylor discourse: is discussing Taylor’s sexuality a variety of outing, or is it problematic queerbaiting, or is it okay? Sidebars this week: Jack Antonoff’s power, “ME! Out now,” did Taylor Swift go to Cubbyhole, the glass closet, Princess Diaries 2: The Royal Engagement, Billie Eilish, the coming out narrative, and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
Find this week’s visual accompaniment here and the iconic “I want her midnights” New Year’s Day performance here.
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