Song Exploder - Key Change: Sophie Thatcher on Elliott Smith

Key Change is a new conversation series within Song Exploder, where I talk to fascinating people about the music that's transformed them.

My first guest is Sophie Thatcher, an actor and musician whose credits include starring in the TV show Yellowjackets, the film Heretic, and the new movie Companion. I met Sophie through Companion, because I composed the score to the film, and she contributes vocals to a few of the tracks I wrote. For this episode, we discussed how "Waltz #1" by Elliott Smith shaped Sophie's tastes and work. 

For more, visit songexploder.net/keychange

You can listen to "Waltz #1" by Elliott Smith here. 

Take This Pod and Shove It - Country In Decline: A Look of the Inauguration Performances, w/ Danii Gallegos

Last week was the 2025 Inauguration, and of all the terrible things that happened, the most light-hearted had to be the musical performances. These performances included a number of—you guessed it—country acts, including Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, Lee Greenwood, and what's left of Billy Ray Cyrus.

This week Tyler and Danny are joined by comedy writer and pop culture expert Danii Gallegos to take a look at what happened and why so many things went wrong.

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Song Exploder - Yola – Symphony

Yola is a singer/songwriter and actress. She released her solo debut album in 2019, which was nominated for 4 Grammys, including Best New Artist and Best Americana Album, and Rolling Stone named it one of the best country albums of the year. But the thing is, Yola’s music career wasn’t new, and her background wasn’t in country music. She’s from Bristol in the UK, and starting back in the early 2000s, she was a vocalist recording tracks for DJs and electronic music producers. In January 2025, Yola put out an EP called My Way. And as you’ll hear her explain in this episode, a lot of her new music is motivated by wanting to assert her identity beyond the Americana and country music boundaries. In addition to her music, she’s also acting – she played Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the 2022 film Elvis, and she starred on Broadway in the musical Hadestown. For this episode, I talked to Yola about her song “Symphony,” along with co-writer and co-producer Sean Douglas. Yola and Sean trace the journey of the song “Symphony,” and, along with it, Yola traces her own journey, too.

For more info, visit songexploder.net/yola.

Take This Pod and Shove It - Our Favorite Country Albums of 2024

It's been 2025 for a couple weeks now, but we're still thinking about these incredible country and Americana albums from last year. In a year where everyone from giant pop stars to indie rock darlings were exploring country sounds it was hard to narrow our favorite albums down to just five. Hear what albums Danny and Tyler chose, and where they overlapped.

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Want to create your own great podcast? Why not start today! We use BuzzSprout for hosting and have loved it. So we suggest you give them a try as well! Buzzsprout gets your show listed in every major podcast platform, and makes understanding your podcast data a breeze.
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Song Exploder - Adrianne Lenker – Sadness As a Gift

Adrianne Lenker is a singer and songwriter. She’s the lead singer of the critically acclaimed and beloved band Big Thief, and her work as a solo artist is also critically acclaimed and beloved. Her most recent solo album, Bright Future, was named one of the best albums of 2024 by the New Yorker, Stereogum, and more, and it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album. It was co-produced by Adrianne and longtime collaborator Phil Weinrobe. And I talked to the two of them about the making of one of my favorite songs from it, “Sadness As a Gift.”

For more, visit songexploder.net/adrianne-lenker.

Take This Pod and Shove It - It’s a Trucker Christmas

It's a special BONUS Christmas episode! This week Danny and Tyler discuss Red Simpson's Country Christmas concept album "Truckers' Christmas." We hope you enjoy and we'll see ya in 2025!

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Instagram: @TakeThisPodandShoveIt
For everything else click HERE!

Want to create your own great podcast? Why not start today! We use BuzzSprout for hosting and have loved it. So we suggest you give them a try as well! Buzzsprout gets your show listed in every major podcast platform, and makes understanding your podcast data a breeze.
Follow this link to let Buzzsprout know we sent you—you'll get a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan, and it helps support our show.



Song Exploder - Sabrina Carpenter – Please Please Please

Sabrina Carpenter is a singer, songwriter, and actress. She had a huge year with her album Short N Sweet, which came out in August 2024. It debuted at #1, and went platinum within a month. At the upcoming Grammys, she’s nominated for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and more. One of her big hits is “Please Please Please,” which she wrote with Amy Allen and producer Jack Antonoff. He’s won Producer of the Year at the Grammys for the last three years in a row. For this episode, I talked to Sabrina and Jack about everything that went into making “Please Please Please.” 

For more, visit songexploder.net/sabrina-carpenter

A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs - Song 177: “Never Learn Not to Love” by the Beach Boys, Part Two — “Is it True What They Say About Dixie?”

For those who haven’t heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a multi-episode look at the song “Never Learn Not to Love” by the Beach Boys, and the links between Charles Manson and the LA music scene. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.

This one is later than normal, for reasons explained in the episode. The next one should be up much sooner.

Patreon backers also have a twenty-five-minute bonus episode available, on “Israelites” by Desmond Dekker.

Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/

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Take This Pod and Shove It - 82: “If We Make it Through December” by Merle Haggard

For our annual Christmas episode, Danny and Tyler add Merle Haggard's hard-timin' working-class classic to the Ultimate Country Playlist. For all the joy it brings, December can still be a pretty rough month. Merle knows your pain, so give this tune a listen!

Follow the link below to keep up with which songs are being added to our Ultimate Country Playlist on Spotify
https://tinyurl.com/takethispodplaylist
And on TIDAL!
https://t.co/MHEvOz2DOA

Check out our Patreon!
Check out our new merch store!
Instagram: @TakeThisPodandShoveIt
For everything else click HERE!

Want to create your own great podcast? Why not start today! We use BuzzSprout for hosting and have loved it. So we suggest you give them a try as well! Buzzsprout gets your show listed in every major podcast platform, and makes understanding your podcast data a breeze.
Follow this link to let Buzzsprout know we sent you—you'll get a $20 credit if you sign up for a paid plan, and it helps support our show.



A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs - Next Episode Coming Soon

This is just to let people know that there is a better than usual reason for the longer than normal delay in the next episode. I was about to record it early last week, when checking a minor detail I discovered a book published this year, after I’d bought the books I used for the research, which showed that everything in the first half of the episode — everything that had been published in every book on Huddie Ledbetter, who is the focus of that first half — was badly mistaken. I had to totally scrap a completed script and redo the research from scratch. I start recording tomorrow and it should be up in a few days. I think you’ll agree when you hear it that it’s worth the extra time it ended up taking.