AP Taylor Swift

"A mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." This week we're deep diving "Cold As You" from Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album (2006) — and it's a heavy one. What reads on the surface as a teen heartbreak song turns out to be a meditation on indifference, power imbalance, and the particular kind of scar that forms not from cruelty, but from being simply not cared about. 

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

 Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Mentioned in this episode:

"Cold As You," Taylor Swift (2006)

"Exile" (feat. Bon Iver), folklore (2020)

"Teardrops on My Guitar," Taylor Swift (2006)

"Honey," The Life of a Showgirl (2025)

"Look What You Made Me Do," reputation (2017)

Kelly Clarkson, "Walk Away" (2004)

Banksy, Girl with Balloon

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling

Episode Highlights:
[02:07] "When you take, you take the very best of me" 

[11:06] "What a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day" 

[16:42] "You put up walls and paint them all a shade of gray" 

[29:00] Bridge: "You never did give a damn thing, honey, but I cried, cried for you"

[35:43] "Every smile you fake is so condescending — counting all the scars you've made"

[41:59] Purpose: what this song is really about 

 

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

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This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"How's your heart after breaking mine?" This is a preview of our paid After School episode,  a continuation of our "Fearless" album deep dive. 

We go through every Platinum Edition bonus track and Fearless (Taylor's Version) vault track and ask the only question that matters: why didn't these make the original 13? We argue "Mr. Perfectly Fine" was too pointed for a 19-year-old still being marketed as "sweet, neat, and age-appropriate," that "Superstar" was the PR-safe version of the same heartbreak, and that the "Forever & Always" piano version is the stages of grief in song form. 

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe.

After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Luna Halo’s original “Untouchable” (2007)

Valentine’s Day (2010)

Hacks (HBO Max)

American Fantasy by Emma Straub

Ep 98: Unreliable Narrators (Mr. Perfectly Fine)

Extra Credit essay on Forever Winter and the stages of grief

 

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift

Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift

YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift

Link Tree → linktr.ee/aptaylorswift

Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts

Libro.fm → tinyurl.com/aptslibro

Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com

Affiliate Codes:

Krowned Krystals - krownedkrystals.com use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding." This week, we're doing a Show & Tell episode on one of Taylor's most recurring literary devices: scars. From the ice-cold wounds of “Cold As You” from her debut album to the wistful “cardigan” of folklore and the Kingpin-Taylor energy of “CANCELLED!” from The Life of a Showgirl, we trace how Taylor's use of scars has evolved from pure pain to reclaimed power. We talk Odysseus, Harry Potter, Death Eaters (yes, really), shattering glass ceilings, and what it means to turn a mark of suffering into a VIP passport. Join us as we explore what scars say about heroes, villains, and the very specific experience of being a woman in your 30s who has finally decided the wounds were worth it.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Songs Discussed in This Episode:

Cold As You — Taylor Swift (Taylor Swift, 2006) — written by Taylor Swift & Liz Rose

Cardigan — Taylor Swift (folklore, 2020) — written by Taylor Swift & Aaron Dessner

CANCELLED! — Taylor Swift (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025) — written by Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift

Referenced in This Episode:

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling

The Odyssey, Homer

The Mufasa (2024 film)

Episode Highlights:

[00:03] Intro: Welcome to the Show & Tell on Scars — not the Lion King villain (but kind of)

[07:17] Cold As You (debut, 2006): Ice burns, emotional wounds, and counting scars vs. counting stars

[14:20] Cardigan (folklore, 2020): "You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding"

[25:00] CANCELLED! (The Life of a Showgirl, 2025): Matching scars as passport to the underworld

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift

Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift

YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift

Link Tree → linktr.ee/aptaylorswift

Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts

Libro.fm → tinyurl.com/aptslibro

Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com

Affiliate Codes:

Krowned Krystals — krownedkrystals.com, use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm — Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here: tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

"It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me.” This week, we (finally) go line-by-line through what might be Taylor Swift's most psychologically dense song: “Anti-Hero” from Midnights (2022). From the Hamlet-coded antihero definition, to the “Beauty and the Beast” reference lurking in "tale as old as time," to ghosts and Freud, this song keeps delivering new angles. We each came to the song with our own anxieties, and we leave with three potentially different purposes of this high-anxiety, deeply revealing song.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content: aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe. 

After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics! Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

Beauty and the Beast (Disney)

Dexter (Showtime)

Younger (Paramount+)

30 Rock, "Seinfeldvision" — the "sexy baby" episode

"Blank Space," 1989 (2014)

The Miss Americana Documentary (Netflix)

Lena Dunham's Substack

🔎 In this episode:

Episode Highlights: 

[01:34] “Antihero” defined

[05:45] “I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser”

[11:06] "All of the people I've ghosted stand there in the room" 

[19:06] "Tale as old as time"

[28:00] “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me”

[38:00] "Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby and I'm a monster on the hill"

[45:00] “Pierced through the heart but never killed” 

[55:06] The bridge!

[1:03:00] Purpose of the song “Anti-Hero”

 

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift

Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift

YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift

Link Tree → linktr.ee/aptaylorswift

Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts

Libro.fm → tinyurl.com/aptslibro

Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com

Affiliate Codes:

Krowned Krystals - krownedkrystals.com use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm - Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here tinyurl.com/aptslibro

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z.

“Seems the only one who doesn’t see your beauty is the face in the mirror looking back at you.”This week, we’re doing a Show and Tell on one of literature’s most enduring symbols: the mirror. From Narcissus to Dorian Gray, Snow White’s magic mirror to Alice Through the Looking Glass, mirrors have long served as devices of identity, vanity, the supernatural, and the soul, and Taylor Swift is no stranger to the motif. We trace mirrors across three songs: Tied Together with a Smile (Taylor Swift, 2006), Begin Again (Red, 2012), and Anti-Hero (Midnights, 2022). Along the way, we explore distorted self-perception and the inner child, the mirror as a post-breakup identity reset, why Taylor would rather stare directly at the sun than face her own reflection, and what social media has to do with all of it. Plus: Dorian Gray, Narcissus, vampires without souls, the Bloody Mary game, and an accidental Justin Timberlake shout-out.

Subscribe for free to get episode updates or upgrade to paid to get our After School premium content:

aptaylorswift.substack.com/subscribe

After School subscribers get monthly bonus episodes, exclusive content, and early access to help shape future topics!

 

Stay up to date at aptaylorswift.com

 

Mentioned in this episode:
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Alice Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

Reflection — Mahesh Dattani (Indian play)

Reflection — Mulan (1998 film)

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)

Greek Mythology: Narcissus

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Mirror of Erised), J.K. Rowling

Tied Together with a Smile — Taylor Swift (2006)

Begin Again — Taylor Swift, Red (2012)

Anti-Hero — Taylor Swift, Midnights (2022)

 

Episode Highlights:

[01:13] Mirrors in literature and the arts: identity, vanity, and the soul

[09:00] Song 1: Tied Together with a Smile — the fractured self and distorted physical perception

[23:52] Song 2: Begin Again — “Took a deep breath in the mirror”

[34:11] Song 3: Anti-Hero — “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror”

 

Follow AP Taylor Swift podcast on social!

TikTok → tiktok.com/@APTaylorSwift

Instagram → instagram.com/APTaylorSwift

YouTube → youtube.com/@APTaylorSwift

Link Tree → linktr.ee/aptaylorswift

Bookshop.org → bookshop.org/shop/apts

Libro.fm → tinyurl.com/aptslibro

 

Contact us at aptaylorswift@gmail.com

 

Affiliate Codes:
Krowned Krystals — krownedkrystals.com — use code APTS at checkout for 10% off!

Libro.fm — Looking for an audiobook? Check out our Libro.fm playlist and use code APTS30 for 30% off books found here: tinyurl.com/aptslibro

 

This podcast is neither related to nor endorsed by Taylor Swift, her companies, or record labels. All opinions are our own. Intro music produced by Scott Zadig aka Scotty Z