What we learned from Taylor Swift's highly anticipated podcast interview

Taylor Swift made her highly anticipated podcast debut on New Heights, hosted by boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce.

The pop superstar used the appearance to announce her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, and give some updates on her life since the Eras Tour, which spanned almost two years and five continents before ending in December.

More than 1.3 million tuned in live for the broadcast as Swift offered insights into her relationship with Travis, the hidden clues she plants in music for fans and even tidbits on her sourdough-bread baking.

It marked a change for megastar, who tends not to give interviews, instead sharing updates on her life through song lyrics, which are dissected by obsessed fans.

The American football star brothers called Swift "Tay Tay" and ran through a list of her many awards.

Preview clips of the New Heights podcast went viral before her episode aired, including one where Swift pulled out her new album.

Here is some of what we learned from her appearance.

Swift's 12th studio studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be available on 3 October.

Its cover features the singer wearing a dress emblazoned with diamonds lying in turquoise green.

She is seen submerged in the water, with only her face and wrist above the surface.

The record was simultaneously made available for pre-order on her website, which started crashing as soon as the podcast began.

Swift explained that she wrote the album while on her Eras Tour and would frequently return to Sweden while performing concerts in Europe, in order to record it.

"I was basically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating," she said.

Travis added: "Literally living the life of a showgirl."

Swift went on to read out all 12 track names, including the title track featuring Sabrina Carpenter.

Travis said the album is "upbeat" and will make people dance. He called it a 180-degree turnabout from her last album, The Tortured Poets Department.

"Life is more upbeat," Swift said in response, smiling and looking at Travis.

Swift said the album tells the story of "everything that was going on behind the curtain" of her time on tour.

Orange was chosen because it's a colour she likes and felt energised by, she added.

Near the beginning of the show, Swift was asked why she chose to appear on the podcast, which caters primarily to sports fans.

"This podcast got me a boyfriend," she said, accusing Travis of using the broadcast as his "personal dating app" to connect with her.

Before they even met, Travis famously gushed on the podcast about attending one of Swift's concerts and being disappointed when they couldn't meet.

He talked about making her a beaded friendship bracelet, which were popular during the Eras Tour, and said he wanted to give her his phone number.

She said the clip, which went viral, felt almost like "he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, 'I want to go on a date with you'".

She said this was exactly the moment she had "been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager".

"It was wild, but it worked... He's the good kind of crazy," she said, calling her boyfriend "a human exclamation point".

Sitting beside Travis, Swift teased the "male sports fans" in the audience.

"As we all know, you know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast," she said.

"I think we all know that if there's one thing that male sports fans want in their spaces and on their screens, it's more of me," she deadpanned, looking straight into the camera.

Swift's appearance at Kansas City Chiefs games have caused a frenzy over the years. But some football fans weren't happy.

She was booed when she appeared on the jumbotron screen at the Super Bowl last February, which drew social media posts from President Donald Trump.

Despite the criticism, Jason assured her she has been the "most requested guest on the podcast".

Other recent guests on the show have included basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James, and actors Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray and Adam Sandler.

Swift also spoke about all the ways she uses Easter eggs - or secret messages to fans - to tease her music.

She said she has rules for these covert clues in her music and performances.

"I'm never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It's always going to go back to my music," she said, joking that some fans are so good at decoding her that it's almost gotten a bit "zodiac killer".

The secret messages are "something that you don't know I'm saying for a specific reason, but you'll go back and be like, 'Oh my God!'"

She said her favourite example was a speech she gave when she received an honorary doctorate.

"I put so many lyrical Easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out, after that, the fans were like, 'The whole speech was an Easter egg!'"

She also spoke about her love of numbers and dates.

"I love math stuff," she said, saying 13 was her favourite number.

Travis, she said, is "87" – the number he wears on his game jersey – and she noted that 13 plus 87 equals 100.

Some of her hidden messages are so complex, she said, they are crafted "upside down, backwards in Braille".

Swift said she knew nothing about football before their romance began.

"I didn't know what a first down was," or a "tight-end" (the position Travis plays), she said.

Swift said she appreciated Travis' patience when they started dating and introducing her to his world.

She's now personally invested, citing a moment where she found herself interested in a recent player trade.

Travis told her he will be "forever grateful" that she embraced his world "wholeheartedly".

In May this year, it was announced that she had bought the rights to her first six albums, ending a long-running battle over the ownership of her music.

After her original masters sold, she vowed to re-record all six albums, which became known as "Taylor's Versions".

Swift grew emotional as she explained the process by which she purchased her master recordings, after trying for a decade to secure the rights.

She said she was not interested in the financial rewards the albums would bring.

"I want this because it was my handwritten diary entries from my entire life," she said.

She said her mother and brother had talked to Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, about purchasing her music.

When her mother called her, saying "You got your music," she said: "I just very dramatically hit the floor. For real."

"Bawling my eyes out, and just weeping."

"This changed my life," she continued.

She also thanked loyal fans for listening to her re-recorded albums, saying they reacted to the dispute over rights to her music with the Western cowboy expression, "We ride at dawn".

Swift also said it was through her fans that she was able to buy back her music.

"The reason I was able to purchase my music back is, they came to the Eras Tour," she said.

Swift was also asked which versions of her albums her fans should listen to – now that she owns both versions.

"I think a lot of the vocals I did on the re-records were better than the original," she said, adding she is especially fond of the remake of her 2012 album Red.

She and Travis spoke fondly about their love, describing how they bake sourdough bread together.

His dough winds up with chest hair in it, while hers has extra cat hair, she joked.

"I had never experienced something so mesmerising on stage, and then so real and beautiful in person," said Travis.

Jason then joked that maybe he should leave, and give them some privacy, as Swift swooned.

"Yeah I think so, honestly," Swift responded. "At this point, I think everyone should leave."

While Swift has at times been shy about discussing her relationship in public, Travis has been more outspoken. Before the podcast aired, he told GQ in an interview: "I love being the happiest guy in the world."