This week, comedian and Glamorous Trash host Chelsea Devantez and podcast producer Kristina Lopez stop by to unwind from the week. We chat about the Senate’s new dress code, the slow death of paper checks, and why people on TikTok are talking about the Roman Empire.

Plus, the Nerdette Book Club pick Loot by Tania James is one of the top 10 contenders for this year’s National Book Award for fiction! Loot is historical fiction at its finest. The story opens in Mysore, India when a young wood carver named Abbas is summoned to the Sultan’s palace to craft a mechanical tiger. The tiger is based on ‘Tippoo’s Tiger,’ a wooden automaton at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that depicts a tiger mauling a British soldier. In this spoiler-free interview with the author, we talk about writing a delightful, propulsive plot that also deals with the legacy of colonialism.