The Daily Zeitgeist - Taco Bell's MexiTrend Pizza 8/1: Taco Bell, Angus Cloud, Paul Reubens, Taylor Swift, Lizzo, RTO Fail

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

In this edition of Taco Bell's MexiTrend Pizza, Miles and super producer Becca discuss the brave soul suing Taco Bell, the passing of Angus Cloud and Paul Reubens, Taylor Swift cutting bonus checks for her trucking team, Lizzo getting sued for a toxic work environment, and companies failing to bring workers back into the office!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer,

this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast rebel spirit where i head back to my hometown in kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot the rebels into something everyone in the south loves the biscuits i was a lady rebel like what does that even mean it's right here in black and white and prints they lie bigger than a flag or mascot listen Listen to Rebel Spirit

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre.

Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, Emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE Superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts.

Hello, Internet, and welcome to this very special edition of Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza. And we're going to get into why we're talking about the Mexican pizza in one second. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Miles and I'm here in the place to be with Becca Ramos. Hello, Becca. Hello. How are you? I'm good. I wanted to give another update. I finally got my eyebrows eliminated. And I would say that's the difference.

Let me see. Bring them close, child. Bring them close to the camera. Let me see these eyebrows. Oh, they look good. Oh, good God almighty. Lamination in the building. Wow.

It was worth it. It was worth every penny. What does that mean? I'm sorry. What does that mean? So basically, like, you know, when you perm your hair straight. Wouldn't know about that. Not with these jeans.

The concept, though. You understand the chemical. Yes, yes. So basically, you perm them up. You would use, I think, a similar chemical compound. And they say laminate because that's the look. Like they're laid. Yeah, like they're slicked up.

Eyebrows laid, edges laid. Basically, yes. And I do the same thing to my lashes i don't think the lash treatment is as worth it as the brow treatment because why would you want straight lashes is that the new look well they curl them up like basically they're like oh so you don't have to use that thing i remember my mom used to back in day put her eyelid in there like it basically is like a permanent eyelash curler, essentially. And people do it, I think, who like their normal lashes versus getting like lash extensions. Because we know the girlies who have the extensions.

Oh, yeah. Shout out the mink extensions. So it's like a step behind getting full extensions. It's like your own lashes and they're just curling them up. And you can't use extensions if you do have them curled up because they're like really fragile in this state. So you shouldn't like curl them yourself because they should, in theory, them curled up because they're like really fragile in this state so you shouldn't like curl them yourself because they should in theory be curled up and like mascara only no falsies and how much how much information does i can't give you because i remember when you're on your eyebrow journey you felt like people were coming through everyone was just like

girl get your eyebrows eliminated like that's what they do they're all lying to you on the internet and they're right absolutely and then one girl emailed me this really great korean brand that i really want to order because i do trust that but i was just like go i'm going to a wedding this weekend i was like i want to look good and i'm disappointed with my eyebrows i'm just gonna suck it up and get them laminated and that changed my life i feel like a whole new woman and i you know and i hope to not offend you with this statement but your eyebrows have never looked better thank you no that is what i needed to hear and but i do think like the eyebrow treatment wasn't that expensive the last treatment was pretty expensive and i think for like the results

i got the last not worth the money is not worth the money. I would regularly get my eyebrows laminated. Lashes, it's like, maybe if I'm having extra money, I have some fun. Yeah. I'll do it. I'm glad I tried it. I won't be trying it again. The lady, you know, obviously she's like, have you ever thought about getting your lashes laminated?

I was like, girl. No. I know you're trying to get more money out of me. There you go with the add-ons. I'm out of here. Thank you for this though. I'm scammed and I will do it right now, but i don't know if i'll do it again one thing at a time uh all right well aside those just fantastic brows from another planet uh allow us to get into

some sadder news uh and i don't mean to be flippant about some actual deaths i kind of reworded this i went to talk about this taco bell lawsuit um because a very disappointed taco bell customer is filing a class action lawsuit against taco bell because he's saying the mexican pizza and the crunch wraps they don't got that meat not the same quote unfair deceptive trade practices for falsely advertising the amount of beef and or ingredients in various quote overstated menu items and oh so they're skimping yes they're skimping but again i get you know like obviously those things are measured out like you know you got the scoop it's like you get one scoop of beef whatever and whatever but the other day i had the five layer

burrito felt skimpy. You know what I mean? But hey, I get it. Times are hard. I'm not and I'm not coming for the people that work. No, I'm looking at the people at the C-suite. Times are not hard for the C-suite of Taco Bell. You know what I'm saying? Yes.

I'm saying in the general sort of vague Wall Street sense of the word, as they say, like, well, that's why we can't hire more people or give raises at all. That's because times are hard. Oh, me? Sorry, my phone wasn't working because i was in the maldives for nine weeks straight um but yeah i get it man like this is always we will always be fucking disappointed with the advertisements for fast food and then you unwrap a fucking gray ass thing and you're like i guess it's fine as someone who's worked in fast food after where. Where'd you go? Whataburger?

You know I worked on KFC. Oh, I thought you meant you worked at. No, no, no, no. When you said worked in fast food. I never actually was allowed to work at fast food. My dad was like, absolutely not. If you're going to have a job, it cannot be in fast food. Because he was just, I think, worried as like a girl. I was going to get like attacked while working my fast food job.

But you worked at that lumber mill. I worked at the lumber mill and i worked at fossil um but i worked on kfc marketing for a long time and it's fake yeah a lot of it of course i mean look y'all there's something called food stylists they're brought in to make this shit look like you would never believe and i remember working on like a food thing before and like how expensive a food stylist can be like if they know what the fuck they're doing my friends are food stylists yeah because that should be making good money what they call a hero shot of your product that's it that's worth money right there anyway so you don't want to know how much that ad costs like a quick 30 second ad I don't want to know. And then I'm just going to be like, why am I talking on the internet? Why aren't I styling hamburgers?

But for real, some real sad news. So Angus Cloud, who was one of the stars of Euphoria, passed away 25 years old. Fezco, for people who are trying to remember his specific name. I didn't know he was that young. Yeah. Well, I mean, because he just kind of had that like old side sort of he had an old soul but yeah apparently you know he was really struggling after the passing of his father which was like this past week so it was like within a week of his father's passing which is wild man so young and then peewee herman too he died at 70 he was battling cancer uh yeah quietly battling cancer anyway life is precious y'all uh it's and then we had i mean there's so many whatever i mean people are always passing away

but you know they they come around in clumps don't they yeah very sad i think people are also very struck in with angus cloud not just because he's obviously so young and was like beloved in euphoria but uh his resemblance to mac miller is like uncanny and a lot of people were like at one point oh my god will he play mac miller in a biopic and like he even said no like i don't want to because i i don't feel like i am a trained enough and as an actor, like I'm pretty new to this and B it's too soon, which is like, so sad, you know,

thinking about context. So rest in peace to both of those souls. Look at that. All right. Um, let's take a quick break and we're going to come back around to talk some more trends after I guess this. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months.

These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground.

Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or smell it. Suppliers mix fentanyl into their products because it's potent and cheap, and the dealer might not even know. Keep yourself and others safe by knowing the real deal on fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdealonfentanyl.com. This message is brought to you by the Ad Council. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere

you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere starting September 25th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. and we are back uh taylor swift just want to shout out well i'm gonna shout out taylor swift i mean i guess actually i want to shout out somebody who makes damn near a billion dollars

on their tour and says you know what maybe i need to cut some checks for the other people that make this happen um so as we know the eras tour is i think it's at this point become the highest grossing tour of all time it's more than beyonce right now that right now well there's been more shows so that's true i think it's been on longer we can do that but i mean because what because what? Taylor's doing like five nights in LA and shit. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Danza's like, I'm tired. She's like, no, man.

You won't see me when you don't see me. And that's it. Yeah. She's like, look, get it in now. But here's the deal. I got to keep this thing moving. Anyway, it's expected to bring in $1 billion with AB. one billion dollars with a B and we

recently found out according to you know TMZ that she has been giving a hundred thousand dollar bonus checks to each trucker on the tour and these are the people who are like the long haul truckers who are moving all the stage infrastructure all

the fucking like hardware that needs to go to venue to venue and be unloaded move to the next thing to keep the show looking the way it does. It's a very difficult job. She's like, you know what? Let me give you a hundred thousand dollars. 50.

There's 50 truckers apparently working on the show. A hundred thousand to each person. So that's like 5 million right there. Um, the least you can do. Yeah. And again, I'm like,

that's actually the least you can do, but we need to kind of normalize this shit to start expecting this because I don't want to hear people being like, it's the highest grossing tour of all time. It's like, well, what did you get as a light technician? Oh, I just got my usual rate, you know. And to her credit, the other sources are saying that it's not just the truckers, it's the band members, it's the dancers, it's the lighting and sound techs, it's catering. It's like other people who are there as part of like the critical infrastructure of the tour uh have been getting what they say quote very generous bonus checks uh so yeah you love to see someone actually putting their money where their mouth is so yeah and we were kind of talking like you know we don't this is the kind of shit that it should be fucking normal right

i'm like wow taylor good for you it's like this please have some fucking awareness about if you are at the head of a money-making snake like where is where what happens what happens to everybody who makes it happen so it's literally why everyone's striking right now yeah it's like truly have you seen there's like one graphic where they talk about the actual revenues that are generated by film and television and then how much of a fraction, like it's even imperceptible if you even put it in like Excel as a spreadsheet. Oh, I'm sure. To say like what that percentage is that goes to like crew and cast and all that shit.

Yeah. It's insane. I mean, like I've been seeing those viral TikToks go around of actors who got negative residuals. It's like, how are they're gonna charge me yeah how am i gonna get negative 37 cents wait this is fucking up my credit for being in this episode of gsi how how make this make sense uh and i guess moving on to somebody a performer who might not be acting in a way that we may have expected so we got this thing coming out about

lizzo and she's being sued and uh by some dancers for a toxic work environment yeah and like body shaming and all kinds of shit it's been going viral so heavy on tiktok maybe we're my side of tiktok but uh i got this in old people written news i didn't even i didn't catch the tiktok version of this yeah yeah i caught the old people news version where it was a headline of the written word well because it's like jack will ask me you know behind the scenes of the guys jack will be like what's trending on tiktok but sometimes i gotta like legitimize the source right like it's like well this is trending on tiktok but like is it real like right right right right and then when i saw the embassy article i was like okay so this is like on tiktok but like is it real like right right right and then when i saw the embassy articles like okay so this is like a legitimate claim this isn't just like more

celebrity gossip fervor you know like you could say the arna grande ethan whatever his name's broadway of it all you know there's a lot of fervor online about that um and that is real right he just left his wife it is real but there's a lot of rumors also surrounding the subject matter like i feel like a lot of people are like oh remember when she did this thing in like 2016 and like remember how like i saw a video today that was talking about how this disney cast member you know like someone who works at the parks hopped on the train and being like aren't you ronnie actually i'm so glad we're talking about it she is the worst cast member or the worst person to come to the Disney park.

She makes us shut down the whole park. So I'm like, how much of this now is hearsay? Y'all just want to be able to put your face on a trending... How you want to shut down the whole park? I've never been there and been like, sorry, may Ariana Grande here today. Turn around. Yeah, she apparently loves to shut down the rock and roller coaster. No one's allowed to go in or out when she's riding it.

So it shuts it down for three hours. But who knows who knows it's all that to say right yeah there's all kinds of discussion we don't know what from what but this thing but this hit the news so yeah so three former dancers now are filing a lawsuit against lizzo saying sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment i saw that like there are some some of the the hostile work environment is to that like there are some some of the the hostile work environment is to do with like the person who leads the dance team and they're apparently the captain the dance team which i when i was initially hearing it on tiktok uh it was alleged that the head of the captain of the dance team was the one suing but she is not

she's actually a perpetrator yeah who is like prostituting which is like to try to recruit people into a cult of a religion of sorts wait but she was prostituting like for christianity or like she had her own okay yeah yeah but at the same time i heard but then she's also kind of also not very holy and yeah doing a lot of weird sex shit with the dancers or making them uncomfortable so there's just like a lot going on and apparently it was reported to lizzo like they were like hey we don't like her right and lizzo was like so yeah like tom talking about someone's like's like publicly discussing the virginity of one of the plaintiffs. And then they said that the was it like Lizzo?

Like Lizzo asked somebody to touch a nude performer in Amsterdam. Yeah, that's what they're alleging. So we shall see. And also fat shaming behind scenes. Wow. This is funny. Look, guys, we just got to just try and be okay. Be better.

With each other. With all of these. This alleged behavior is not becoming Lizzo. And then finally, this is something we always like to keep our eye out on. We always talked about the work from home propaganda. Always talked about the push to get people fucking back in the office. We hade biden being like the pandemic's over y'all it's not and that's why we can go back and we can hopefully uh resuscitate the commercial real estate industry that has been fucking suffering since people began working from home well there's a new study

talking to workers that have had to had like mandated return to office is not looking good uh nearly half 42 of companies with return to office mandates witnessed a higher level of employee attrition than they had anticipated almost a third of companies 29 enforcing office returns are struggling with recruitment because now people are like oh yeah cool i love the interview so it's it's remote uh no you would have to come into the office five days a week and people are like oh okay so miss me with that and good day to you and i will move on to find work that suits me uh they also say quote a staggering 76 percent of employees stand ready to jump ship if their companies decide to pull the plug on flexible work schedules i know that part you know but yeah i'm not taking me back no i mean i go in every now and then but it's i i get the i understand that feeling if it's like becomes

mandated it's like no yeah you have to come back it's like i'm sorry everything's working as it should also a lot of these companies are not improving the office environment in order for you to come back. So to speak, right? Like they have cut out the snacks, they cut out all these things. And so it's like,

okay, then what's the point? You're going to make me come back and you're also going to make this a miserable place to be. To an over air conditioned fluorescent hellscape. Yeah. Pull up. Like I'm not,

I'm not doing all that. I dropped the pin. Okay. You know where it's at. Now get your behind in here. I will say even I personally, like I had a offer come in that was like, hey, you want to come work for us? And I was like, nope. You want me to come in three days a week?

Absolutely not. That's not happening. I'm not. And I'm look, and I respect as a texan for not signing on with governor abbott's re-election campaign you know what i mean fuck that man immediate um but here's the other thing too uh they say moreover employees from historically underrepresented groups are 22 percent more likely to consider other options if flexibility comes to an end yeah because that's another part of, like, if you are in, you know,

you know, hegemonic spaces, predominantly white office spaces, it's often not a pleasant experience being, you know, part of, again, a historically underrepresented group, to put it lightly. So I totally get that. And also, I totally get the fucking

the privilege that I have to be able to work from home, but that is absolutely, it is, it's a huge privilege. 100%. And I think it's one of these things too, where we're just trying to, as,

as a society philosophically understand, like what is the nature of the kind of work that we're doing? And does it matter? And what, what is, and is not fucking essential. I don't know. We're in a very,

we're in a very interesting period. I mean, just like looking around with all of the strikes that are happening, it's people are definitely like, they understand like the boundaries that they want to set for themselves. And yeah, you have companies doing it the old way or being like, you better get in here or else you can,

or else you will not have health insurance. Well, and that's the frustrating part. Cause there's a lot of these companies are asking it's, you know, bottom line to basically absolve them of the financial decision that they poorly made right like i remember during covid at one of my former jobs won't name which one but uh they had just re-signed a lease for their office and it is

where i worked like right when covid hit and so they were pushing the boundaries of, like, safety in the midst of New York City COVID, August 2020, of making us come in the office. Because they didn't want the cost of their lease to be eaten up, right? Like, they were like, well, we just signed this expensive-ass lease in Manhattan. And we need it to be used. And it's like, okay, okay well that's not my fucking problem yeah it's a pandemic yeah it's like literally vaccines were not out yet and they were like expecting us to come in the office two three times a week wearing a mask they're like well we put the plexiglass up and it's like i don't know i'm not trying to die for marketing okay

well where's my outbreak suit i'm not I'm not trying to die for marketing. Oh, you're not trying to die for this? It's just not that serious. Oh, okay. So y'all hear this? Becca not trying to die for this. I'm not trying to die for this. I'm sorry.

I hate to break it to you this way. We're not re-upping your contract because you're not ready to die like the B.I.G. album cover. So we're going to move on. Yeah, there was quite the moment where i realized i had left some stuff there in march 2020 and then like you know that wave came back in like november december yeah and i went back there and they decided to let us not have to come in again when the wave got really bad at the end of october they were like okay since holidays are coming up and stuff you don't have to come in anymore you know until after the holidays due to the wave and like holiday time and i was like that i packed everything and was like i'm gonna quit

this job before i have to come back and i did like good for you like december 2020 was like bye i'm not coming back here good for you good for you you know boundaries boundaries boundaries but yeah again like to your point like even with the actor strike you know like the, boundaries, boundaries. But yeah, again, like to your point, like even with the actor strike, you know, like the talent and crew are paying for the network's, uh, insistence on going to streaming and a business model that was unsustainable, especially at the rate that they're going at.

And then being like, okay, well, I guess we can save some money by like completely fucking off and not paying these people for like what they're, whatever it's there. It's their fucking, their problem. We thought it was a good idea netflix is doing everybody was

at home we thought streaming was a thing oh we fucked that part up yeah it's so crazy and now it's falling on them because they're not about to take the l in the c-suite uh anyway all that to say worker power forever uh thank you so much for joining me becca uh we are gonna be back tomorrow with a whole new episode You're going to love it Wait, I have something to promote Oh, what? Oh, okay, what are you promoting?

It's that time of year again Y'all came through last year For my English teacher, Miss Ortega Yes I have come back With her Amazon wish list For this new year She's teaching

English AP High teaching English AP. High school English AP. And dual credit. Which is what I took her class for. She has a new list of books. Because she's trying to get creative. Considering Texas has been banning. A lot of the books lately.

So she's trying to find. New and more interesting books. That's still within her limits. Of these very serious book bans which is like really fucked up um but i ask y'all if you can help miss or take it out that would be incredible of course i mean pull through last year yeah and a few of you actually hit me up and saying are you gonna do teacher wish lists again absolutely so again time baby you'll see us we We'll retweet,

uh, obviously, uh, you know, miss Ortega's list. And then if you're a teacher to hit me up, uh, stay on me.

Cause like, I will, I will retweet your lists. I will rethread them. Uh, and you know, we will try to help each other out as much as possible. Because again,

just like we were saying last year, it is so fucking difficult to be a teacher. And it is, again, it's like one of the most fundamental jobs we have to message to children that they are valuable and that learning is something that is important, which it absolutely is. We were just talking to Alec Karakatsanis on Tuesday, and he was saying, you know, one of the biggest predictors of like life outcomes is early childhood education. Yep. Educate, man man it all fucking

so much comes from there so i personally have such a deep sense of gratitude for teachers for what they've done for me what i've seen it do for other people and i fucking hate that these people are being systematically scared out of a job that they love to do uh And yes. If we can contribute to making your classroom. A little more comfortable. Have a little bit better equipment. You might need that pad for your chair. Because your back hurting. Whatever.

Please send us your wish list. We fucking love y'all. We want to help y'all. I know you care for these people too. So please look out for those. As they're being retweeted. They're not all big ticket items. Sometimes it's just a box of pencils, a couple of rulers.

Yeah. A lot of these items are literally one book. Yeah. So for the price of a latte, you know, you could put a book that would hopefully subvert a white supremacist agenda in the state of Texas. You know what I mean? For real though. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Be on the lookout because we fuck with y'all and we love y'all so anyway yes thank you for reminding that from reminding me uh and also yes be on the lookout again brand new episode tomorrow be safe be kind of yourselves be kind to each other don't do nothing about white supremacy or homophobia especially after that fucking hate crime that just happened in new york where a fucking young man was stabbed because he was voguing yeah come the fuck on i can't anyway this is where we're at folks these are the stakes please be a good person and don't let bullshit be uttered around you let that shit be known that you don't fuck with that kind of stuff because

that's the only way we're going to show people that there are more of us than there are them okay till next time we'll talk to show people that there are more of us than there are them. Okay. Till next time. We'll talk to you later. Bye. Bye. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straight away.

They try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like, what does that even mean? It's right here in black and white in print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before. Tried to assassinate the president of the United States.

One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free

and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus only on Apple Podcasts.