Episodi

  • Empathy from Experience in Patient Zero

    Empathy from Experience in Patient Zero
    Nov 5 2026

    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 Boyd

    Patient Zero – Hammerfall

    Weasel/Patient Zero – Marvel Universe

    Patient Zero – The Outer Limits (2001)

    Dramatic Monologue

    Ross Poldark: A Novel of Cornwall (The Poldark Saga, 1) – Winston Graham:

    *Amazon

    *Bookshop.org

    Logos, Pathos, Ethos

    Metonymy

    Isaiah 6:6-8

    Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

    Apophasis

    *Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier

    Canterbury Tales Prologue – Geoffrey Chaucer

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 52 min
  • The Illusion of Liberation in Babylon

    The Illusion of Liberation in Babylon
    Oct 29 2026

    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.org

    Angela’s Reaction Video – The Encore

    Professing Literature: An Institutional History – Gerald Graff

    *Amazon

    *Bookshop.org

    Ancient Babylon

    What Does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin" Mean?

    Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley

    Babylon (2022)

    Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

    Wild Things (1998)

    Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak

    *Amazon

    *Bookshop.org

    Wild Thing – The Troggs

    The Libertine (2004)

    Onomatopoeia

    Metonymy

    Logos, Pathos, Ethos

    Dramatic Irony

    Miniver Cheevy – Edwin Arlington Robinson

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 54 min
  • Art Becomes Memory in Tim McGraw

    Art Becomes Memory in Tim McGraw
    Oct 22 2026

    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 McGraw

    In medias res

    Free indirect discourse

    Alliteration

    Metonymy

    Signposting

    Rasselas – Samuel Johnson

    Palimpsest

    Enjambment

    Frame story or frame structure

    Leitmotif

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 30 min
  • BONUS: Interview with Sarah Anderson, Author of Fallow

    BONUS: Interview with Sarah Anderson, Author of Fallow
    Oct 20 2026
    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/
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    54 min
  • Folklore as a Unified Literary Work | Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 2

    Folklore as a Unified Literary Work | Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 2
    Oct 15 2026
    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
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    1 ora e 46 min
  • Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 1

    Wrapping Up Folklore: Part 1
    Oct 8 2026

    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

    Semiotics

    The Odyssey – Homer

    Beowulf

    Dryads

    Hulder

    Folklore prologue

    Daddy – Sylvia Plath

    Anecdote of the Jar – Wallace Stevens

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 9 min
  • The Despair and Persistence of This is Me Trying

    The Despair and Persistence of This is Me Trying
    Oct 1 2026

    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:

    Couplets

    Heroic couplets

    Anaphora

    Starship Troopers (1997)

    Enjambment

    Ellipsis

    In medias res

    The Odyssey – Homer

    Caesura

    Why I Write – Joan Didion

    Simile

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 9 min
  • The Secretive Destruction of Illicit Affairs

    The Secretive Destruction of Illicit Affairs
    Sep 24 2026

    Today we’re covering our penultimate folklore poem with Illicit Affairs. Uncle Jerry finds this song fits perfectly within the category of folklore, and shows us just how Taylor Swift’s use of language showcases the lack of love in this song.


    *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:

    Interlocutor

    Imperative verb

    Dramatic irony

    The Book of Jonah

    Synecdoche

    The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

    Aphorism

    Assonance

    Alliteration

    *The Pleasure of the Text – Roland Barthes

    Anaphora

    Synesthesia

    Sonnet 138 – William Shakespeare

    The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix


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    1 ora e 14 min