Wow, this week has been a very busy one in the world of pop culture—and it’s only Wednesday.

And, really, a lot of the fervor didn’t even happen over the course of several days. It happened in the 24 hours surrounding the Emmys telecast and the release of Ryan Adams’ long-awaited cover album of Taylor Swift’s 1989. In that span of time we saw the world of television have a serious talk with itself about diversity and the world of music get one of the more interesting albums of 2015 so far.

But that just scratches the surface; we haven’t even begun to delve into the wonderful weirdness of Johnny Depp. So sit back and pop on your headphones. We have editors and contributors Jordan Crucchiola, K.M. McFarland, Angela Watercutter, and special guest Jason Kehe on The Monitor this week and we have some processing to do.

A few helpful links for things we talk about in the podcast:

-Jordan Crucchiola’s piece about why Johnny Depp is an essential Hollywood weirdo
-Jordan Crucchiola and K.M. McFarland’s track-by-track review of Ryan Adams’ 1989
-K.M. McFarland’s piece on Andy Samberg’s hosting skills during the Emmys
-Jason Kehe’s review of the e-book short story “Now That I’m a Ghost, I’m Gay”
-Jordan Crucchiola’s piece on Sorority Horror
-Angela Watercutter’s panel with Matt Damon, Ridley Scott, Andy Weir, and NASA staffers for The Martian
-Dakota Johnson’s excellent Saturday Night Live sketch from last season
-Johnny Depp telling a Disney exec: “But didn’t you know that all my characters are gay?”