From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend. Happy Virgo season to all who celebrate.

Coming up, we're going to talk with Vulture Critic Catherine Van Aarondonk about a new trend we're seeing on TV, white men in crisis.

It is this almost like narrative experiment of like what if we take the guy who used to be the center and then we just shift him slightly off.

Plus, Jess Zimmerman tells us about her book Women and Other Monsters about why ancient myths feminize so many of their monsters.

I don't intend this as like a takedown of mythology, right? Because like this is true of so much of culture. It's really just takedown of culture.

But first, it's our look at the week that was our panelists today are two excellent Chicago journalists. WTTW host Brandis Friedman and WBEZ Weekend Inker Areselli Gomez Aldana. Hi, you two. Hey Greta. Hi, Brandis. Hello. I'm happy to be here.

Oh, so excited to have you. So there is a lot of news this week. The US government is working to quickly evacuate American citizens and Afghan allies from the country, which is now under Taliban rule.

The Pfizer vaccine was granted full approval by the FDA and Pepsi is making a flame in hot Cheetos Mountain Dew for some reason.

But I think we should start with another junk food giant this week, Taco Bell announced rapper Lil Nas X will be the company's chief impact officer.

He used to work at one of the Atlanta locations. So this is quite a promotion. He'll be thinking about menu innovations, which is certainly intriguing.

I am curious if either of you would ever have anticipated this career arc for Lil Nas X. What do you think, Areselli?

I think I don't know. I was I'm excited for him to be a 22 year old chief, chief anything. I mean, he wouldn't even be out of college, right?

If you like would have picked that route. So I'm totally I'm totally into it. I'm excited. I am curious to see what other people are going to, you know, do other companies like you mentioned are like doing all of these crazy tactics, but Lil Nas X is an interesting one because he's so controversial, right?

So, but he's also known to be authentic and I don't know. It's an interesting pick. It's a cool that they have a connection that he used to work there. So he kind of knows what it's like.

Yeah, but I'm excited to see what happens with it. And I'll try I'll try everything. I'll see. I'll see what they got. Yeah, game. What about you, Brandis? Are you like a Taco Bell fan? Has it is?

Um, I can't wait not so much. I haven't been to Taco Bell in quite some time, although I will admit to eating quite a bit of it in college.

Of course, to the point where I didn't gain the freshman 15, I gained like the sophomore 15 because that is when I was hitting the Taco Bell especially hard.

And so, yeah, no congrats to him, although I read somewhere, I think it might be more like an honorary position.

I mean, and when you put that title in front of it, I'm kind of like, okay, good for you Taco Bell.

Like, you still want him because I think it's great that, you know, he worked there once upon a time and he's got all of this success.

And they're welcoming him back to join in a new role, you know, using all of the experience and, you know, the creativity that he has.

But I'm also kind of like good for you Taco Bell for keeping yourself relevant by asking someone like Lil Nas X to join you.

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