Why are Republicans and the right losing their minds over Taylor Swift, the gifted songwriter and globe-bestriding pop star? Why do they think her NFL-playing, Super Bowl-winning boyfriend is secretly gay—precisely because he's dating Taylor Swift? Why is this slice of Americana being portrayed as a deep-state op meant to hand the 2024 election to Joe Biden? To try to answer these, and other, similarly bewildering questions, Matt and Sam talked to writer B.D. McClay, whose Substack, Notebook, has become the essential guide to understanding Taylor Swift, her place in our culture and politics, and why she drives right-wingers (but not just right-wingers!) crazy.

Read:

B.D. McClay, "taylor derangement syndrome: on losing the normies," Notebook, Feb 3, 2024

— "cruel summer is going number one," Notebook, Oct 22, 2023

— "your future is me: let's talk about (sigh) swifties," Notebook, Oct 7, 2023

— "Taylor Swift studies takes a detour," Sept 4, 2023

— "Taylor Swift, Rockist," Notebook, Aug 4, 2023

— "Taylor Swift studies, contd," Notebook, July 3, 2023

— "(but I'm only looking at you)," Notebook, May 29, 2023

— "A Decade of Sore Winners," The Outline, Dec 31, 2019.

Clare Coffey, "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince," Notebook, Sept 25, 2023

Mark Harris, "Taylor Swift’s ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Is the First Pure Piece of Trump-Era Pop Art," Vulture, Aug 30, 2017

Edmund Smirk, "Swiftian Normality and the Freak Right," The American Mind, March, 7, 2024.

Watch:

Taylor Swift arguing with her Boomer Republican father about Tennessee U.S. Senate race (YouTube)

Taylor Swift, folklore: the long pond studio sessions (2020)

Bob Dylan, "Murder Most Foul" (2020)

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