In this episode of the Whiny Palooza Wednesday vlog/podcast, host Rebecca Greene, joined by a co‑host (Speaker B), explores life lessons drawn from Taylor Swift’s music and career, a topic sparked by Rebecca’s 14‑year‑old daughter Ella’s enthusiasm for Swift. Rebecca recounts how Ella’s constant playing of Taylor’s songs turned her from a lukewarm listener into a fan, leading her to reflect on the messages in the lyrics. The conversation outlines several concrete take‑aways: 1) Dream‑chasing and persistence – Taylor’s rise from playing free gigs to global stardom shows that if you can imagine it, you can achieve it. 2) Creative expression as emotional processing – writing or performing music (or journaling, piano) helps release feelings, mirroring how Taylor turns personal experiences into songs. 3) Ignoring criticism – “Shake It Off” becomes a mantra for dismissing unhelpful opinions and focusing on voices that truly matter. 4) Karma and accountability – Swift’s references to karma inspire Rebecca to trust that wrongdoing will be repaid and to act with integrity. 5) Love and risk – Taylor’s celebration of love encourages taking the plunge, learning from both successes and failures. 6) Apology and self‑reflection – Swift’s willingness to own her part in conflicts models healthy accountability. 7) Choosing whose advice to follow – the episode stresses listening to people whose lives reflect the advice they give (e.g., good parents, stable marriages). Rebecca weaves personal anecdotes (hair‑dresser story, movie night, family dynamics) and repeatedly invites listeners to share their own Swift‑inspired lessons. The episode ends with promotional plugs for Rebecca’s blog (wineandclothes.com), the upcoming podcast guest Meredith Esu on “finding joy in chaos,” and her free Facebook group “Whiny Clues a Mom,” urging listeners to subscribe, rate, and share the show, especially with fellow Swifties.
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Hello everyone, happy Winey Palooza Wednesday! It's Winey Palooza Wednesday, have some wine and join us on the Winey Palooza Wednesday with the Green Family.
We got love, we got laughter, and all the lights, so tune in every Wednesday night.
Cha-cha chicken! Yay! Thank you, team! Yum! Yum! Go to do your homework. You're going to bed soon? Yep. Okay, let's turn my phone off. Yeah, and let's get jiggy with it.
Jiggy with it?
Where did I get that?
I don't think I have heard you say those words in our entire relationship.
I don't know where that came from.
All right, well, apparently you're getting— you're doing something.
Did you put the title on here?
I did.
You did?
I did. Okay, Lessons from Taylor Swift.
Can you believe that that is my topic this week?
So I'm so excited.
So this topic this week, every week I do a different topic and I did write about it at wineandclothes.com. You can see the blog. This blog is inspired from my 14-year-old daughter, Ella. Ella loves Taylor Swift. She listens to Taylor Swift all the time. If she's in my car, she's like, mom, can I play Taylor? And I resisted at first. And I wasn't like a Taylor fan, I was like lukewarm. I don't know if you know that stuff. But as I started realizing that a lot of the— I didn't realize that so many of the songs that I like are hers. Is that bizarre?
Bizarre.
Um, and Ella kept playing her music and I started to become a fan. And now— and she really, um affected me and my, my enjoyment of Taylor Swift. And you know that Taylor is huge right now. We just went to the movie, which was phenomenal, and Lily was like, I don't know if you're gonna like it, it's long. Well, guess what? Not only did I love it, I didn't want it to end, and I was sad when it was over. So Ella loves Taylor. She talks to me about how Taylor inspires her. She talks to me about lessons that that she has learned from Taylor and the meaning behind her songs that she writes. And it really made me think. And I was like, you know, she is like so crazy right now. Let's learn from Taylor.
All right.
Okay, so here we go. My lessons from Taylor. And some of these are from Ella. So I will tell you, Ella and I both have been inspired by Taylor to follow your dreams. Taylor did not start out the megastar that she is. When I got my hair done, the woman doing my hair said that she met Taylor when she was playing for free at a bar near my house. And she said Taylor said, "Come on back, I wanna meet, like, I wanna meet these two girls." And she got to meet her and she was like nothing back then. And she climbed the ladder and gradually and patiently made herself the name that she is today. And I feel like, and you feel like, if you can dream it, you can make it happen.
For sure.
So follow your dreams, go after your dreams. Thank you, Taylor, for showing us to go—
Anything is possible.
That anything is possible. Okay, put your feelings into something creative. Taylor writes her music. And I think that is, that puts you at another level. If you're a great singer, that's wonderful. I'm happy for you. If you're writing the music that you're singing, that's like extra, right?
Even better.
And she is taking her— she's been made fun of for like, she has relationship issues and she writes about it. I'm not going to make fun of her. I'm going to give her kudos. And as a therapist, you go writing out your feelings and making yourself even more successful. Her songs are her deep feelings and emotions that she puts onto paper. I write out my feelings. That's helpful for me. My daughter sings. That's helpful for her. My other daughter dances. Put it out into something creative and you will feel so much better.
Amen to that.
What do you do creatively? You do a lot. Give them one thing.
I don't know that I—
Journaling.
Oh, okay.
I didn't know that that counted. Playing the piano.
Oh, I didn't know that. I'm not like writing my feelings into music.
I mean, right. But Okay, so if you get upset, what is something creative that would help you?
Okay, I would play different songs on the piano if I were mad versus if I was in a loving mood.
Yes, yes.
You are right there.
Okay, she writes about not caring what other people say. Okay, Shake It Off.
I do know that song. That's one of them.
Shake it off. So when people are saying things to upset you, I want you to think of Taylor going, shake it off.
Excellent life advice. What are your lessons learned from Taylor? Chime in.
Okay, I would love to hear— if you are a Taylor fan, you're a Swiftie, I would love to hear— yes, I would love to hear what she has taught you. If you are not a Swiftie, I would love to hear if you take anything away from any of this. So let us know. Yes, we'd love to hear from you.
Consider the validity of the message regardless of your feelings about the source.
So don't care about what people are saying about you. You know, Taylor is this megastar, and I was thinking about it when I was writing this, and how many people talking about her have even met her? Have you even said two words to her? Do you know her? How can you form an opinion about somebody that you don't even know? And now she's in a new relationship, and words are flying about this relationship. You don't know her boyfriend. You don't know her. You don't know anything about their relationship. Here's what I've learned. I have learned that we need to care about opinions from people who matter in our lives. And if you don't matter in my life, I don't really care what you have to say.
Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
Yes. I had to think about that. Karma's gonna track you down is one of the lines from her songs. She talks about karma, she sings about karma. I believe in karma. I have had people tell me that they want revenge on somebody. I have had people tell me that they want harm done to people who have done their harm. You want to know what I say to these people? I give them one word: karma.
Paying attention.
I tell them that karma is a real thing. That karma will come around and get them and that be a good person, do good things, and karma will be good to you. So let karma take care of them. I believe in karma. Do you believe in karma?
You're here because of karma.
Aww, that was so sweet.
I must have done something right in a previous life.
I'm not sure what it is, but you were probably a knight is my guess, in a previous life, because you still swoop in and save the day for a lot of people.
You could be my princess.
I see him on the phone all the time going, what, what do you need? How can I help? And I'm like, who's calling him now? So make sure people are treating you right. Have you noticed how many relationships she has had? Because I have noticed, and I have noticed that Um, they haven't worked out, and that's probably a good thing. So sometimes it doesn't take us long to figure out that we aren't being treated right. Sometimes it takes us way too long to figure it out, but figure it out. And if you aren't being treated well, get out. Whether it's a friendship or a romantic relationship, make sure that you're being treated well. And I believe that Taylor will make sure that whoever she marries is treating her well, and I do hope that she gets married one day if she wants to. So, apologize. She is so good at apologizing. Has anybody noticed that but me? Ella has noticed that. She writes music about apologizing. She doesn't think that things are never her fault. She She is good at self-reflection. She is good at seeing what her part is in things. And I'm learning all this from her music.
Yeah, I've gotta catch up.
Listen, I don't know Taylor. I wanna make that very clear. Taylor, if you see this, I don't know you. I am just dissecting you from your music. And if some of this stuff isn't really you and it's not what you really think, I'm just taking it off of your songs.
But Taylor, if you'd like to talk to someone about your feelings, my wife would be fabulous.
So learn from Taylor. Learn to apologize. Learn to take accountability. Learn that you are not always innocent in a situation. And I love that she's willing to apologize, and I think that's an excellent skill for us to have and for us to teach to our kids. For sure. Okay. Yes. Um, so Ella says it will all be okay is what she learned from Taylor. And I think that as we go through ups and downs in life, it is nice to see other people going through ups and downs and writing about it and coming out the other end okay. So Ella has learned from Taylor to follow her dreams and that it will be okay. And there was one more that— what was the third one, Ella?
I was not here right now.
I know Ella's not here right now. She'll take a message. Ella says, never give up, follow your dreams, it will all be okay. Those are her 3 lessons from Taylor. She had a lot more that she wrote down, it wasn't just 3. Uh, Taylor has reminded me, which I already knew, that being in love is a wonderful thing. And I love that she writes about love. She doesn't just write about when she's distraught. She writes about when she's happy, and she writes about when she's like intoxicated in love. And it— being intoxicated in love is like the best thing in the world, I think. And I think that you should always take the risk for love. I think you should jump in, and I think you should, um, What am I looking for? Help me with my words.
I've been—
I think you should dive in headfirst. That's— those are the words I'm looking for. Dive in, take the risk. Love is worth it. If it works out, it's amazing.
Yes. And if it doesn't work out, then you learn from it and there'll be somebody else.
And there'll be somebody else. So take the risk, go after love. It's worth it.
There you go.
Watch who you take advice from. Um, so it's interesting that Taylor reminds us to pay attention to who's giving us advice. So if somebody's life is falling apart, do you want to take advice from them? Probably not. If somebody—
unless I wanted advice on how to make my life fall apart.
If somebody has a wonderful marriage, do you want them to give you marital advice?
I do.
Exactly. I had— when I was writing this, I was thinking about how I take parenting advice from my parents partly because I think they did a good job raising us. So if I think they did a good job as parents, then I want to take advice from them. If somebody— if I don't think somebody's a good parent, I probably shouldn't take what they're saying so seriously. I don't know, I guess you don't have to be a good parent to give advice, but watch, watch who you take advice from. That's the lesson. So there are a lot more lessons. Ella had a page of lessons, and I didn't get to all of her lessons. Some of these are Ella's, some of these are mine. This is all inspired from my daughter who absolutely loves Taylor Swift. So Taylor, you are inspiring girls, and I love that. And I love that she is teaching them to follow their dreams, to never give up, to go after love. I love the lessons in her songs.
Awesome.
And yes, I think maybe she'll see this.
That would be fantastic. You would fall over. I would love to see—
oh my God, can you imagine a phone call from Taylor? I really liked your vlog. I listened to it.
We got insurance on your phone for when you drop it.
I'm totally kidding. I think I'm funny, everybody. Yes. So I had a lot of fun writing this, and I really thought that Ella would enjoy it. And I love when my kids like my blogs. And my mother wrote, texted me and said she enjoyed it and that she wants Taylor to see my blog.
Well, she's got a Jewish grandmother. Come on, make some connections, figure it out, matchmake.
Oh my gosh. So, um, That is the topic this week. It was a lot of fun to write, and I look forward to writing more next week. I did look up who was on the podcast this week. I did remember it is Meredith Esu, and we talked about finding the joy in the chaos. And we all have chaos every day. There's not one of us that doesn't have some sort of chaos in our day. If you don't, you need to contact me and tell me why you have no chaos. I would love to learn from you. So listen to Meredith, you're gonna love her. You're gonna learn how to find joy no matter what's going on in your day. And, um, come find me in my Whiny Clues a Mom Facebook group. It's a supportive group, it's free, and it's just moms supporting moms, lifting each other up, giving each other advice, talking about challenges. And what else do I want to tell them? When you listen to my podcast, um, please rate and review it and subscribe and subscribe and share it with a friend.
There you go.
Who you think would enjoy it.
There you go.
And for this one in particular, share it with the Swiftie in your life because they will enjoy it.
There you go. Right, Swiftie Nation.
Okay, well, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you, and, um, have a wonderful week.
Thank you for watching Whiny Balooza Wednesday with the Green Family. He
