Taylor Swift: Symbolic Self-Portraiture, Archetypes, and Tragedy in Lyricism

Be There in Five

Kate Kennedy

Personal Journals, Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Entertainment News, News, Society & Culture

4.8 • 7.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2025

⏱️ 140 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, join Kate as she returns to form (2+ hour early BTI5-style rambling) by going through an old PowerPoint she found on her computer about Taylor Swift’s evolution from diary-style songwriter to mythological storyteller through increasingly complex literary references. From "Love Story" fairytale princess to The Albatross and Cassandra the cursed prophet, how has Taylor deliberately written herself into literary archetypes as both artistic strategy and psychological self-defense? TLDR; a chaotic TS deep dive with a (hopefully) entertaining payoff about why our "crazy" fan behavior might actually be anthropologically normal.Topics covered:* The difference between symbolic self-portraiture and literal autobiography* Greek gods vs. monotheistic religious figures (and why it matters for fandom behavior)* Guillermo del Toro's quote about Taylor's "deep interest in fable and myth"* Why "Mastermind" is more about childhood loneliness than strategic planning* "The Albatross" and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner* Why treating artists like gods can be dehumanizing in the name of protection* Finding self-acceptance and/or collective empowerment at pop concerts* A bathroom floor monologue about fairytales and personal authority* And so much more!Enjoy!TRACK FIVE CHICAGO is on Saturday, July 19. Get your tix here!Order Kate's NYT Bestselling book, One in a Millennial here!Text or leave a voicemail for Kate at 775-HEY-BETH!To pick up my amika favorites, go to loveamika.com/bethereinfive. And for the rest of July, amika is giving Be There in Five listeners a one-time use code for 20% off your first order. Yes, that is TWENTY PERCENT OFF from now through July 31. Just go to my page at loveamika.com/bethereinfive and use code BETHEREINFIVE at checkout. Thanks to amika for supporting the show!Get ready for Cozy Days! Don’t miss your chance to score Cozy Earth’s biggest discount of the year. From July 11–13, head to cozyearth.com (https://www.google.com/url?q=http://cozyearth.com&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1752873187343964&usg=AOvVaw0vFzyFz6dFN7b8EYKumuFC) and use code BETHEREINFIVE to get 45% off best-selling, temperature-regulating sheets, apparel, and more. Don’t forget, this deal ends on July 13!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there. It's Katie Nolan, host to casuals, the sports podcast where we don't care how much
0:04.6	you know about sports. We're just happy that you're here. Every week, I hang out with some of my
0:08.4	good friends to discuss the biggest stories across sports and entertainment, but in a way that's
0:12.4	like fun and not boring. Want to know Sue Bird's favorite Diana Tarasi story? Or how heavy the Larry
0:18.4	O'Brien trophy is? Or even what baseball team is right for you
0:21.7	based on your moon sign. We got you. Listen to casuals every Tuesday and Thursday on the
0:26.2	SiriusXM app or wherever you get your podcasts. Bye. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Be There in Five podcast. I'm Kate Kennedy, your host.
0:43.4	I know what I was thinking about the other day. I used to excessively introduce myself and remind people what the hell this was back in the day because quite frankly I still had trouble explaining one of this.
0:53.3	I feel like I should. I'm probably overdue. I'm Kate, a person who has a podcast, and I'm also a bestselling author,
1:00.7	cringy millennial, proud fan girl of many things. Uh, mom. And yeah, my podcast, Be There in Five
1:07.4	is a place where really I spiral about pop culture or nostalgia, that millennials
1:12.8	like Geist, internet trends. Sometimes it's a more serious feminist lens in terms of what,
1:18.2	as millennial women, we were sold about womanhood, about empowerment, about identity, and unpacking
1:22.7	kind of our misunderstood existence. Sometimes it's about a whole lot of nothing, you know?
1:44.1	We have, we have, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we've, we're on like the six minute of this intro. It took me forever. And I eventually just used something that I was talking
1:49.4	about how even if I'm just talking about something seemingly trivial, like 2000s hot girl bath
1:53.3	and bodywork sense. The whole point of be there in five is I'm trying to make sense of the
1:57.9	pop culture that raised us and continues to shape us as millennial women. And after that, I just like heard myself say, so come spiral with me, wherever you get
2:04.9	your podcast. And I was like, that's really what this is. Katie and I were kind of talking about this
2:09.0	last week, how much we love going down rabbit holes. And I started my career in market research.
2:13.7	I love researching. I love data collection. But in like a fun and cool and hot way and not,
2:18.6	you know what I mean? Not like an Excel way. And my favorite thing in the world is what I used to
	...

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