The Archers

The Archers

The Archers are here to discuss everything queer and related to our favorite Sagittarius, Taylor Swift. Unpack all things Gaylor with us: lyrics, queer history, astrology, symbolism, public persona, theories, interpretations, music videos, literature etc. Hosted by two fellow Archers, Katie and Madyson. Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: https://www.patreon.com/thearchers Connect with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheArchersPod read less
MusicMusic

Episodes

(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 3: Ch. 11-14 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
Jun 4 2023
(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 3: Ch. 11-14 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
CW: This episode includes a lot of talk of child neglect and abuse as well as suicide, so please take care in listening. We recorded this episode on August 19th, 2022 for our Patreon feed, where we read chapters 11-14 from the Rebekah Harkness biography by Craig Unger,  Blue Blood. We’ve recapped our notes and thoughts over on Patreon for the last year. Now, we've edited them down and we'll be releasing each Book Club episode for y'all on the main feed to join us on this rollercoaster journey of a book! **Keep in mind we learned more about all of these people in the book later on, so not everything we say here is with context from later chapters** After a brief discussion of Taylor Jenkins Reid's underwhelming follow-up to Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Malibu Rising, we go over some pretty intense chapters concerning the Harknesses and Rebekah's treatment of her children and grandchildren. We also discuss the parallels between Edith Harkness and Taylor; And Edith’s psych hospitalization after her suicide attempt at Holiday House… or as she calls it “her Peter Pan episode”… At the end, we discuss a mysterious virtual memorial for Edith Harkness, which you can find here.  Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers Read this insane scanned copy of Blue Blood with us: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rQyfynoG81rb7trUACZDN3-i1aVFqXb/view?usp=embed_facebook More info about GayloreFest ‘23 and Camp Gaylore: gaylorswift.com Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 2: Ch. 6-11 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
May 21 2023
(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 2: Ch. 6-11 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
We recorded this second installment of our Blue Blood Book Club on June 14th, 2022 for our Patreon feed, where we read chapters 6-11 from the Rebekah Harkness by Craig Unger biography, Blue Blood. We’ve recapped our notes and thoughts over on Patreon for the last year. Now, we've edited them down and we'll be releasing each Book Club episode for y'all on the main feed to join us on this rollercoaster journey of a book! **Keep in mind we learned more about all of these people in the book later on, so not everything we say here is with context from later chapters** In this episode, chapters we cover in this episode include "Strange Bedfellows" "Sexual Politics" and "The Go-Go Years". We arrive at the infamous story that inspired Taylor's line "And in a feud with her neighbor/She stole his dog and dyed it key lime green." You may know that the dog in question was really a cat, but did you also know that "the neighbor" was actually not a neighbor at all, but Rebekah's psychic and potential lover Eva (we ship)? Bearded pronouns indeed! Get ready for a lot of gender talk! Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers Read this insane scanned copy of Blue Blood with us: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rQyfynoG81rb7trUACZDN3-i1aVFqXb/view?usp=embed_facebook More info about GayloreFest ‘23 and Camp Gaylore: gaylorswift.com Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 1: Ch. 1-5 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
May 7 2023
(S3) Blue Blood Rebekah Harkness Book Club Part 1: Ch. 1-5 (Main Feed Version) TLGAD
We recorded this very first episode of our Blue Blood Book Club on May 14th, 2022 for our Patreon feed, where we have since committed to reading Blue Blood by Craig Unger AKA the very long Rebekah Harkness biography that The Last Great American Dynasty is based off of. Since then, we've read five chapters for each Blue Blood Book Club episode and recapped our notes and thoughts over on Patreon. Now, we've edited them down and we'll be releasing each Book Club episode for y'all on the main feed to join us on this rollercoaster journey of a book! **Keep in mind we learned more about all of these people in the book later on, so not everything we say here is with context from later chapters** In this episode, we recap the first five chapters including the infamous chapter one "Betty and the Bitch Pack" and chapter five titled "The Golden Cage". Join us as we go back in time to when we recorded this episode nearly a year ago, just before Taylor's NYU commencement and long before Midnights' release, and read about the loudest woman this town has ever seen. THANK YOU for the love and well wishes for Katie Read this insane scanned copy of Blue Blood with us: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rQyfynoG81rb7trUACZDN3-i1aVFqXb/view?usp=embed_facebook Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers More info about GayloreFest ‘23 and Camp Gaylore: gaylorswift.com Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S3) Episode 6: Guilded Golden Bird Cages & Trapped Queerness (in Taylor Swift's Art & Queer History)
Apr 23 2023
(S3) Episode 6: Guilded Golden Bird Cages & Trapped Queerness (in Taylor Swift's Art & Queer History)
After literal years of discussing Taylor's persistent use of birdcages and bird imagery, Katie and Madyson have gathered every single birdcage reference to unpack the Queer symbolism behind it all. To kick off the episode, the Archers revel in the assumption that Taylor debuted her brand new green dress in Tampa on a Thursday as a reference to S3 E3's hairpin drop from Sappho Speaks. Then, they review all of Taylor's cage-related lyrics in her discography and establish their interpretations of its meaning in her work. Aside from her lyrics, they also look at an extensive timeline of Taylor's relationship to birdcages in her life; They read excerpts from the Lover Diaries, fawn over her human sized birdcage in her Nashville condo, and review all the birdcage imagery from Speak Now's promotional shoots. Finally, the Archers connect all of Taylor's birdcage references to the very established Queer history of birdcages ranging from Maya Angelou to Dali to Rebekah Harkness to Alice in Wonderland to British art from the 19th century.... Check out or Twitter page (linked below) to see photos of what we reference in this episode! Link to support Katie & Lizzy: https://www.giftster.com/gift/XXHd2/ Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers More info about GayloreFest ‘23 and Camp Gaylore: gaylorswift.com Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod Hairpin Drop: Sappho Speaks Zine This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S3) Episode 2: "Hiding in Plain Sight"- Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson's Skies of Secrets
Feb 26 2023
(S3) Episode 2: "Hiding in Plain Sight"- Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson's Skies of Secrets
Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers More info about GayloreFest ‘23 and Camp Gaylore: gaylorswift.com Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod Hairpin Drop: https://www.thecut.com/2014/10/taylor-swift-never-erases-her-chalkboard.html Dickinson Poems: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/115/the-poems-of-emily-dickinson-series-two/4444/nature-poem-16-secrets/ https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/the-secret-by-emily-dickinson/ In a packed episode, Katie and Madyson open up with a breaking news report and a hairpin drop written on Taylor's chalkboard during her 1989 era. Katie points out how the parallels of Zelda Fitzgerald's similar battles to Taylor's as a female writer, and their shared ghostwriting experiences. Sticking with the American Lit theme of Taylor's F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, the archers revisit the incredible sapphic poet that inspires Taylor's quill pen, Emily Dickinson. They compare Taylor's writing in the folklore prologue to two poems about secrets by Dickinson and find that they sing about the same skies full of secrets. Finally, they go through *all* of Taylor's lyrics about hiding, sneaking around, secrets, whispering, covering things up, and lying... Which go back to the beginning of her career. This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S2) Episode 5: Track Fives (Gaylor's Version), Niceboy Ed, and Midnights Predictions
Oct 9 2022
(S2) Episode 5: Track Fives (Gaylor's Version), Niceboy Ed, and Midnights Predictions
Join us for a Midnights release virtual listening party: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAqf-CqrzgpHdcYRVVayZ80Ca-hox0AISFZ Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod Our ethereal new intro and outro theme song!: https://twitter.com/erynranney & https://www.tiktok.com/@alltoogayyy References this episode: 1. "Made Me Gay" by Margaret Mead (I named the wrong author in the episode! Oops!): https://faculty.uml.edu//kluis/42.101/Newton_HighSchoolCrackUp.pdf 2. Niceboy Ed Reddit Posts: -https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/comments/xg9h5v/nice_boy_ed_in_an_essay_about_homophobia/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf -https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/comments/xg5bxp/when_i_google_niceboy_ed/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf Katie and Madyson start off the episode by revisiting their values as Gaylors and as The Archers (this episode was recorded before the release of Lavender Haze & the rest of the track list). Then, they discuss the hairpin drop of the week: niceboyed and the Queer essay that Taylor could be linking herself to. Before getting into their analysis of Taylor’s Track Fives, they quickly share their eagerness for Karma and the rest of the Midnights album. Taylor’s Track Fives include Cold As You, White Horse, Dear John, All Too Well, All You Had To Do Was Stay, Delicate, My Tears Ricochet, Tolerate It, and now You’re On Your Own, Kid… They unpack the invisible thread of themes of anxiety and battles, and ponder what the newest Track Five will be about. This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own. Everything discussed is myth.
(S2) Episode 2: Queerness in Taylor Swift's Album Prologues from 2006-2020
Jul 31 2022
(S2) Episode 2: Queerness in Taylor Swift's Album Prologues from 2006-2020
P.S. This episode was recorded a month ago, right after Carolina’s release! Thank you for being patient with us as we stepped away to focus on GaylorFest/mental health… GaylorFest was SO MUCH FUN and we’re so excited to start planning for next year :,) Check out GaylorSwift.com to access recordings of the presentations! Shoutout to our INCREDIBLE team of volunteers and presenters. We love yall. Support us on Patreon ($5 monthly) for two bonus episodes every month: patreon.com/thearchers Connect with us on Twitter: twitter.com/TheArchersPod In Season 1, Katie and Madyson realized how crucial the folklore and evermore prologues were for their understanding of both albums. So in this episode, they read through the prologues/forewords of each of Taylor’s albums AND included her foreword for Carolina. Breaking down these forewords in retrospect, they notice references to tolerate it, mirrorball, daylight, and many more prolific moments (as per usual). At the end of the episode, they discuss their favorite lyrics from Carolina. Debut-Reputation Forewords: https://godforbidfate.tumblr.com/post/168050757849/forewords-prologues-and-album-explanations-here Lover Foreword: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/606086062337787577/ Folklore Foreword: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EdqdQx5WkAIt-dj?format=jpg&name=large Evermore Foreword: https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-evermore-liner-notes-annotated This podcast is not affiliated with Taylor Swift, her companies, or affiliated companies. All opinions are our own.