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Why Taylor Swift and Mel Robbins are so popular · The Daily Article

• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Greetings and welcome to the Wednesday, October the 8th, 2025 edition of Denison Forum's Daily Article Podcast.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Chris Elkins, narrating today's Daily article written by Good Friend and CEO Dr. Jim Denison.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Following yesterday's tragic October 7th anniversary, let's focus today on something more uplifting, or at least very different.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: I typically try to write on subjects about which I have some personal knowledge or expertise.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today, I'll not do that, or at least to begin.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, I want to reflect with you on the prolific output of Taylor Swift, who released her 12th original studio album last week.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: I am apparently unlike most of humanity, in that I have heard only one of her songs one time, and that at my granddaughter's urging, have never been to one of her concerts, and have never heard a podcast or seen a movie featuring her.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: The closest I have come to observing her in popular media,
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: has been those times when the TV cameras paned to her in the stands, watching her now fiance Travis Kelsey play tied in for the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: So I'll turn to an expert on the subject.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Erie Perez is an associate professor at Queen of Piac University in Connecticut where she teaches a class called Taylor Swift, cultural mirror ball.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: She explains that Swift is so prolific,
• 1:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Because she genuinely likes what she does, according to Perez, I think she enjoys keeping a strong productive output so that putting music out on a continuous basis makes her happy and fulfilled.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, well, that was simple, wasn't it.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: But there's more to the story.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next, we'll turn to another very popular media figure, Mel Robbins, the best selling author and podcaster.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: Her latest book, The Let Them Theory, was the number one selling book in 2025 and is on pace to have the best non-fiction book launch of all time.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: In reading it, I was impressed with the simplicity of its central formula.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: let them, plus, let me.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let them apply to the people whose behavior bothers you.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: These two words are a way of admitting that we cannot control them and that they are going to do what they choose to do.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me apply to us as we decide how we will respond proactively to what life brings us.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to Robbins, allowing people to live their lives while taking control of our own is the key to flourishing.
• 2:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: She complimented Taylor Swift for modeling this philosophy, quote, let them be wrong about you.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me get back to what I was put on earth to do, in quote.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, how do we know what we were put on this earth to do?
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ray Bradbury famously offered advice that aligns with the philosophies of Swift and Robbins, love what you do, and do what you love.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's the catch.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Doing what you love only leads to flourishing if what you love is worth doing.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: In Nicholas Wade's book, The Origin of Politics, How Evolution and Ideology shaped the fate of nations, he reports, on the morning of October 7, 1969, the entire police force of Montreal went on strike.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Within a few hours, gathering crowds started to loot stores, gangs of mask men arrived to rob banks.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: Citizens huddled indoors as looters swept through downtown Montreal, smashing the windows of restaurants, stores and hotels.
• 3:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: By the end of the day, some $500,000 worth of merchandise had been looted, not until the arrival of army troops shortly after midnight where the violets and disorder brought to an end.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: End quote.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Apostle Paul would not have been surprised.
• 3:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: He listed in Galatians 5 vs. 19 through 21 the works of the flesh that things fall on humans naturally do, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, vits of anger, rivalries, dissentions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: We can love doing them, but we see the brokenness they produce every day in the news.
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Conversely, later in the same chapter of Galatians, Paul listed in verses 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit, the things Spirit-led humans naturally do.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we love doing them, our changed lives changed the world.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday morning, I spent time on my favorite bench beside my favorite lake just before the sun came up.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Harvest Supermoon was still iridescent in the pre-dont sky, though I could only see it in fragments through the trees that can't compete overhead.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, its reflection on the lake before me was so clear as to mirror the moon itself.
• 5:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: This thought occurred
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: The source of the light, the sun, is more visible to me in the reflection of the reflection of the moon.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said of himself in John 9 verse 5, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now that he's in heaven, you and I are the light of the world, according to Matthew 5 verse 13, call to reflect his light in our darkened culture.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Others cannot see his light in our hearts, however, but in the character we manifest through the circumstances of our lives.
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Our acts are a reflection of the reflection of our source.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: How does this work in practical terms?
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Jesus tells us followers in John 15, verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he is that bears much fruit.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: When we know Jesus personally and intimately, we will make him known publicly and powerfully.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Here's why this matters, people need to know God more than they need anything else.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are made in his image and likeness, and their hearts are, quoting St.
• 6:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Augustine, restless until they rest in him.
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, knowing the god of the universe and making him known is the highest purpose, privilege, and passion in life.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: This purpose is urgent beyond any other in our fallen world.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: On this day in 1871, the great evangelist Dwight Moody preached in Chicago to the largest congregation he had ever addressed in that city.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: In the book, The Life of Dwight L. Moody, written by his son, William R. Moody, we read that Moody paraphrase Matthew 2722 that evening, the question of Pontius Pilate, what shall we do with Jesus, which is called Christ?
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: He challenged the congregation to think about this question during the week, and returned to church the following Sunday when, quote, we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth, in quote,
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The great Chicago fire began that night, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of buildings, and causing more than $4 billion in damages in today's dollars.
• 7:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: Moody reflected later on the tragedy, quote, I want to tell you about one lesson I learned that night, which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach to urge Christ upon people then and there and try to bring
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: I have asked God many times to forgive me for telling people that night to take a week to think it over.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if he spares my life, I will never do it again.
• 7:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: This audience will break up in a few moments.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: We may never meet after today.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, is the same not true for everyone you meet today?