Pop star sensation Taylor Swift seems to reach every avenue of media possible, even leading her fans to create podcasts dedicated to her work. One particular podcast that caught my attention was, 13: A Taylor Swift Fan Podcast. This fan based media was founded by four friends, Ana Szabo, Amy Nichols, Lacey Gee, Nick Adams. They started their first deep dive of Taylor Swift on April 9, 2021 called, Meet The Swifties! Since then they have updated multiple times monthly with a total of 262 episodes.
The episode I decided to listen to is called, SwifTea: 1989 TV Announcement! This podcast was made five days after the live announcement of Taylor’s new remake of her 2014 Album, 1989.
The podcast begins with an ad from one of their sponsors, then going into their prerecorded introduction for the podcast. I really enjoyed that in the intro you hear a snippet of Taylor’s own explanation behind 13, thus explaining why their brand was named 13. It also addresses the hosts of the talk show so you know who will be talking.
The beginning of the episode draws out the exciting news of the drop of 1989 and gives a sound bite of Taylor’s announcement during her last LA show of the US Eras Leg. I really enjoyed how they were able to flow together between each point they wanted to make. From the announcement, to what they experienced, new predictions, and what to expect in the future tour.
It had three ads throughout the entire 25 minute episode, one at the beginning, another ten minutes in and the last near the end. Although I will say that I had a bit of a jumpscare during the last two ads. They randomly popped up after one of the hosts stopped talking without any transition. I didn’t enjoy how the music for the ads randomly popped up a lot louder than how the rest of the podcast is set. I think a change could be making sure the levels are all the same rather than any slightly louder. Even a smoother transition would help.
Everything that they spoke on had background and support. I can either recall seeing this from previous posts by Taylor or other Taylor fan accounts. Nick Adams brings up Taylor’s original 1989 cover problems that had her changing the album photo last minute. Thus expressing how exciting it is that she decided to put her full face with a smile as the new TV cover. The podcast showed how much love and support fans have for Taylor and her work. I found a lot of inspiration from this podcast because of the flow from topic to topic, easy conversations, and simply having fun with your work.