The Snakes are back post-hiatus with a surprise episode: a deep dive into folklore. In a year of surprises, The Evolution of a snake is taking a turn with the content and discussing 'current' events as well. After the shock of the surprise drop eased, Zack and Madeline jump into the album to discuss the production, writing, visuals, and promo of folklore. Track by track. Comparisons are drawn to the Lover era and...well... they're not flattering. The betty discourse is mentioned, the trilogy of songs is dismissed, Haylor continues to thrive, tour plans are discussed, Connor Kennedy is still on our minds in 2020, and a new chapter of Taylor Swiftology is unleashed on the masses. Send your feedback on this episode to @tswiftpodcast on twitter. @hoaxlakes and @tsfolklore for the hosts. 

It's been a while....there's a pandemic but we're still thinking about the end of 2012. That's how monumental it was. We discuss the tumultuous highs and lows of one of the most prolific album cycles that Taylor Swift has barged through. We discuss the release strategy for Red, review all of the singles, and dive into a track-by-track review of what is widely thought of as her most experimental album. There's a lot of drama, too. Old flames flicker with John Mayer, Joe Jonas, and Taylor Lautner. We get a fresh and impending heartache in Harry Styles, and discuss one of Taylor's first intense public backlashes. We talk music videos, property purchases through shell companies, rocky live performances, and the sheer artistry behind some of the best writing in her career. Some of the juiciest easter eggs hatch in this short span of time. We rehash the fandom discourse of Taylor Swift becoming a pop artist, and revisit some foundational image changes, as well as the 'good girl' pathology that endured until very recently. Follow us on twitter for more updates, and let us know your thoughts @tswiftpodcast. 

After a long hiatus (that included an ENGAGEMENT!!) Madeline and Zack are back to discuss the game changing year of 2012. First off - we plug our Patreon! We need your support to continue creating high quality content. Taylor slowly but surely drops prehistoric easter eggs that she'll be releasing an album. The bangs that were cut at the end of 2011, seem to give her some power.....the power to become obsessed with the Kennedy's. Her hyper-fixation tendencies really jumped out this year. On today's agenda:  her whirlwind romance with Conor Kennedy, her almost role in Les Miserables and acting chops in general, the Grammy serve of the century, a brief interlude with Zac Efron, some nasty words from the internet's garbage can John Mayer, and the show stopping Red live chat. Oh.....and a sweet ditty called We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Heard of it? We also discuss our upcoming plans to release two episodes a month, and to diversify our content. https://www.patreon.com/theevolutionofasnake

Zack and Madeline deep dive into the second half of 2011 - which upon reflection, is a year of immense growth, evolution, and development. The Speak Now Tour continues and the arm lyrics and interviews that she gives on tour reveal a surprising amount of information if you know where to connect the dots. The earliest and purest form of the Easter Eggs reveal themselves as arm lyrics. Connecting the dots she draws leads us to the conclusion that perhaps her and Joe Jonas tried it again, or at least reconciled in this year. Taylor Lautner makes several unnecessary appearances and Miss Swift's bizarre obsession with the Kennedy's begins.  We take a look at a few in depth profiles that are more revealing than they appear, and discuss Taylor's complicity in a goody-two-shoes imagery.  T-Party is discussed publicly as a concept, and we analyze how that has changed - for worse - in recent years. Two final and superior singles with lacklustre videos wrap up the Speak Now era - Sparks Fly and Ours. Wonderstruck is dropped and we have to stan. Taylor gets her most iconic cat Meredith, and shockingly - in an earth shattering moment, cuts her hair and drops Safe and Sound in the same month. She turns 22 and never aged again. 

Zack and Madeline address an issue of housekeeping first and foremost. LEAVE US ALONE! Moving on, we discuss Taylor's incessant need to be everywhere during 2011 - and her slight obsession with the many boys of the hit television show Glee. There are some odd moments in the beginning of the year: Taylor performs on the high seas and attends the Montblan cocktail party with the one and only Emma Stone. We discuss some confusing single choices of songs that are pushed to radio concurrently, and we reiterate the fact that we are charting higher than Bob Lesfetz. We talk her Vanity Fair party serve of an appearance, that one famous gif that reigns supreme, and the gold cavalli dress that shook us all. We also discuss the Speak Now Tour in its entirety. We get into Madeline vs Swiftsecrets and the ridiculous quotes that stormed our dashboards way back in 2011. Please dear listeners, promise us, that you will never forget the essence of your spark. 

Madeine and Zack pick up where they left off in 2010: Part 1 with the Mine video. It drops and we are completely and utterly shaken by the talent, the emotion, the power. Toby Hemingway is discussed as the elusive enigma that he is, and Taylor embarrassingly performs Innocent at the VMAs. We get four pre-releases from Speak Now that mislead us towards the greatness that is impending, and Taylor attends a taping of SNL where she meets someone who will change her life forever. Speak Now is released to critical and commercial acclaim, and we go through each song like the true Taylor Swift Sluts that we are. If This Was A Movie finally gets her chance to shine. John Mayer is very embarrassed. We get some incredible performances from the Thanksgiving special and Taylor spends the holiday with a family she grows close to. She is spotted arm in arm with a gentleman drinking maple lattes. Surely that is of some significance to you, Swifties. Back to December is made a single and we get some mixed performances. The year ends excruciatingly, with a guest mysteriously absent from Taylor’s 21st birthday bash. Buckle up y’all. 

Zack and Madeline dive into the year that catapulted Taylor from twangy teenager to adult pop star. 2010 was a professionally incredible year for Taylor that was unfortunately full of personal heartbreak . We get into the John Mayer saga, the emergence of Katy Perry & Taylor's friendship, as well as Taylor's longstanding beef with distinct nobody: Bob Lesfetz! Her disastrous acting career continues with Valentine's Day, and Zack and Madeline disagree about the merits of Today Was A Fairytale. The never-ending Fearless tour finally wraps up with a stadium show and Taylor wraps up living with her parents and moves into her now iconic Nashville apartment. We are served a legendary live chat with tea Miss Swift would never give us all at once in 2019. Speak Now is announced, Mine leaks and the experience of a leak scars Taylor for all of eternity. George W. Bush attends the premiere of Mine in Maine. 

Zack and Madeline pick up from where they left off in the first part of 2009. The impact of the VMAs shake the world so hard that President Obama chimes in and calls Kanye West a jackass. They discuss the media circus that unfolds as a result, and the classiness and godliness of Beyonce Knowles. A radio interview from this year is unearthed - an uncomfortable encounter Taylor had with a radio host who refused to stop badgering her, we hear the voice of the elusive (and now fired!) publicist Paula.  The Platinum Edition of Fearless comes out, and The Other Side of The Door came in and spanked Madeline. The year ends rockily with Taylor's questionable SNL appearance, a horrific rendition of Forever and Always at the CMAS and a social justice (?) mishap at Katy Perry's birthday party. Yup, you read that right. Tune in to hear the drama. 

Zack and Madeline deep dive into the jam packed, legendary, very busy year of 2009 - where Taylor continues to conquer the world with Fearless, has her first questionable encounters with Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato and plugs You’re Not Sorry like it’s her next #1 single. We take a trip down memory lane to her first Rolling Stone profile, the iconic Fearless Tour, her dramatic wins at various award shows, the beginning of Taylor Squared, her continued beef with Joe Jonas, her first (terrible) Grammy performance, her short-lived friendship with Katy Perry and two music videos: You Belong With Me and Fifteen. The beginnings of her acting career are also discussed - Taylor Swift on CSI, anyone? 

Zack and Madeline dissect the year that skyrocketed Taylor Swift from a successful country artist, to a crossover pop star. 2008 was a formative year for TSwizzle creatively and personally - she continued her iconic work with Liz Rose, wrote much of Fearless by herself, and fell in and out of love with the famously intelligent Joe Jonas. This episode deep dives into the creative process behind Fearless and its astonishing commercial success, and follows some of the drama you may not have heard of - Emily Poe getting fired, anyone? 

Zack and Madeline discuss the beginning of Taylor Swift's career from the years 2006 to 2007. Covering her first music video, award show win, and album release period - the first episode of The Evolution of a Snake delves into some swiftie drama, Taylor Swift's legendary heart tattoo, the injustice done to "I'd Lie", the origins of some of the most legendary memes, a promotional moment for "Cold as You" and a word on Taylor's sketchy country accent. There is a track by track analysis of the debut with some hot takes (A Place in This World is garbage), a sponsorship from Drew Hardwick, a discussion of Taylor's brief interest in headset microphones, and a review of her first three singles and music videos, "Tim McGraw", "Teardrops On My Guitar" and "Our Song." 

MADELINE'S NEW SUBSTACK, THE LIZARD REVIEW: https://thelizardreview.substack.com/ OUR PATREON (DISCORD ACCESS): https://www.patreon.com/swiftologist The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now, she's (almost) dead. In the lead-up to 2017's legendary 'reputation', Ms. Swift is struggling with the fallout from the most apocalyptic year of her career. Marred in scandal and reassessing the fundamental elements of her life as a public figure and a private person, what seems like a year of hibernation was, in hindsight, actually quite active. The Snakes delve into the weeds of this year: from Katy Perry's overdue response to Bad Blood to the emergence of Joe Alwyn, and the pivotal sexual assault trial initiated by former DJ David Mueller.

Welcome to the first public monthly episode of Taylor Talk; in which The Snakes report back on the latest and greatest news from the Taylor Nation. In today's dispatch, Zack and Madeline discuss the announcement of 1989 (Taylor's Version) and speculate on the production credits and the content of the fabled 'amazing' vault tracks. Karlie Kloss, a noted crook who was caught, pops up on this hallowed occasion, and a girlie called Chelsea recreates the ENTIRE Eras Tour in her living room with the help of her long-suffering family. There's much more where this came from on the Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/swiftologist

In this episode, we present the Snake Nation with a full-length preview of what lives behind the paywall. In our monthly voice mail segment, we answer your most pressing questions about happenings in the Taylor Nation and the world of pop culture. We record this segment once a month & our patrons enjoy this, our more focused 'Taylor Talk,' and listener requested deep-dives that we call 'Besties Episodes' on patreon.com/swiftologist every single month. With video accompaniments too if that's your thing. PLUS! Access to our very lively, highly active discord full of reasonable, snarky snakes. Come join us!

In this episode, The Snakes delve into the dark and stormy waters of Speak Now (Taylor's Version). Each re-recording is dutifully compared against the stolen counterpart and assessed on a scale from I Knew You Were Trouble to Tell Me Why. There's an elephant in the room of course, which prompts some debate: the lyric change in Better Than Revenge. Was it blasphemous, or no big deal? Opinions may vary, and in this episode, they certainly do. The episode is concluded with an analysis of the Vault Tracks & a scathing critique of the baseless, bland, and boring 'reviews' of this project and a commentary on the media's response to the re-recordings at large. Don't forget to visit patreon.com/swiftologist for a full video episode.

In this episode, The Snakes revisit the first night of The Eras Tour in Chicago. It was happy, free, confused, lonely, miserable, and magical. All at the same damn time. There's an in depth dissection of the extremely lengthy and involved setlist, a frank analysis of our fellow swifties around us, and an overall vibe check on what it's like to sit on the floor for the biggest tour of all time. This episode is not sponsored by our house down boots, which tore up our feet in ways you can't even begin to imagine. Come join us on the Discord for more content from our in-person reunion after 7 years!

The shot heard around the world. A highly demanded recap of the final half of Taylor Swift's most disastrous year. We begin our story in the Getaway Car, and quickly head off to the UK where the Cobra engages in some truly deranged behavior, before a whirlwind summer of romance, drama, and truly great outfits. Hiddleswift is at its peak when the walls come crashing down: Kim Kardashian's illegal, doctored recording of Taylor Swift's conversation with Kanye West, leads to the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty and #SnakeGate. The aftershock of a public flogging reverberate throughout the year, as the Cobra wavers in her commitment to remaining unbothered. Throughout, The Snakes take a critical view of the cancelation, while painting the picture of what it was like to live through it as a fan in real-time.

Well snakes, here we are. Another emergency episode. To discuss the shot heard around the world: the demise of Toe. In this episode, The Snakes detangle the various clues & cryptic easter eggs that have been dropped over the years about the nature of Taylor Swift & Joe Alwyn's 6 year relationship. Following a playlist created to chart Taylor's inner journey, your favourite armchair analysts speculate and hypothesise about what triggered the fallout, how the relationship started, and where each of them are headed next. Make sure to check out the Patreon for more unfiltered discussion on this subject! PLAYLIST: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0hfL9l41XYaFV91RwzTMGo?si=f8c838438de242ea

In this episode of Evolution of a Snake, Taylor Swift's Stadium Show, The Eras Tour Tour is thoroughly dissected, appreciated, and critiqued. Zack & Madeline try their best to decipher the mental machinations of the HSIC (Head Snake In Charge) to discover why she chose certain songs and not others. It's a tremendous tour de force that really turns the idea of a 'touring artist' on its head: just how big can a show be? How much stamina, prowess, and power can one pop star have? The Snakes delve into all this and more.

Buckle in, snakes. Madeline and Zack are doing a free-dive into one of the most unhinged places on the internet: Ashley Leechin's TikTok. You may know her for allegedly resembling Taylor Swift. Or, perhaps you know her for getting disinvited to the Grammys. Madeline is the bone collector, and she has unearthed the most incredible bones on this subject. It goes so much further, deeper, and weirder than you think. On this special episode of the Evolution of a Snake, we reprise Madeline's citizen journalism skills (made famous in noon roast on a Sunday) for yet another unhinged recap of internet mess. Girl, we are living. Head to 'Swiftologist' on YouTube for a FULL video episode.