Actually Romantic
13: A Taylor Swift Fan Podcast
Ana Szabo, Nick Adams, Amy Nichols and Lacey Gee
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Is Actually Romantic one of the most savage songs on Life of a Showgirl? In this episode of 13: A Taylor Swift Fan Podcast, we break down every lyric, reference, and rumored feud packed into this diss track.
We dive into the very intentional lines, the toy chihuahua comparison, and the ultimate diss moment when Taylor sings, “No man has ever loved me like you do.”
We unpack the theories connecting the song to Charli XCX, the long history of rumored tension surrounding the Reputation Stadium Tour, “Sympathy Is a Knife,” Matty Healy connections, and the subtle ways Taylor may be flipping criticism into power.
Plus, we talk about why this song feels so different from Taylor’s past feud songs like Blank Space, Look What You Made Me Do, Karma, and I Forgot That You Existed, and why it’s considered ‘rage bait’ in the best possible way.
We also discuss:
- Taylor’s own explanation of the song
- The Weezer-style influence
- The misogynist reason why ‘Taylor Swift went too far’, and the male celebrity feuds that are acceptable
- How ‘Actually Romantic’ turns hate into obsession… and obsession into comedy
If you love Taylor’s witty songwriting, layered easter eggs, and unapologetic confidence, this episode is for you.
What do you think of this song? What did we miss? What else would you like to hear from us? All the ways to reach us are in the description of this podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Yay Media Group |
| 0:02.0 | 13 has been my lucky member for a while, like it's always a sign of good things to come for me. |
| 0:09.7 | This is 13, a Taylor Swift fan podcast, breaking down every song, every Easter egg, every era, and every theory. |
| 0:19.7 | Hosted by the biggest Swifties, Nick Adams, Anna Zabo, Amy Nichols, and Lacey G. |
| 0:28.5 | Welcome to 13, a Taylor Swift fan podcast. I'm Nick Adams. |
| 0:32.3 | I'm Anna. And I'm Lacey G. And today we are breaking down track number seven on the Life of a Showgirl album, |
| 0:39.0 | and that is going to be actually romantic, written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shelbach. |
| 0:46.1 | What a song. |
| 0:47.1 | I absolutely love the cheekiness of this song. |
| 0:51.6 | I love the dissing of this song. |
| 0:58.0 | I like a playful take on a feud kind of thing. And I was going through and I was thinking like, okay, what kind of songs are kind of |
| 1:03.1 | feud-based Taylor Swift songs where she's being funny about it, where she's like snarky? And so we got |
| 1:08.4 | like blank space. Look what you made me do. I forgot that you existed. |
| 1:11.8 | I bet you existed karma. |
| 1:13.5 | Thank you, Amy. |
| 1:14.3 | I bet you think about me is a great one. Yeah. Mr. Perfectly Fine. And I think the smallest man who ever lives kind of falls into that category too. I would say so. But I just love how she's taking a feud or a distract kind of, |
| 1:28.0 | and she's just being so snarky |
| 1:29.5 | about it and funny and just thinking like, eh, you know, this affects you a lot more than it affects |
| 1:34.7 | me. |
| 1:34.9 | Yeah, I do love the sentiment of, wow, like, I am truly living rent-free in your mind. |
| 1:41.4 | And I got to say, like, this song altered my brain chemistry in some |
| 1:46.3 | sort of way. I have, like, obviously not Taylor Swift level, but being on the radio, I do have a |
... |
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