An Intro To Book Club: ‘The Testaments’

Nerdette Recaps With Peter Sagal

WBEZ

Tv & Film, Books, Self, Improvement, Pop, Tv, Wbez, Culture, Technology, Society & Culture, Nerds, Nerd, Nerdette

4.6 • 924 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! It’s just like a normal book club but in podcast form, and you provide your own booze.

In this episode, we're taking a look back at Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale' before sending you out to read Atwood's brand new sequel, 'The Testaments.'

What are the rules of a book club podcast, you ask? Well, after this 'Handmaid’s Tale' refresher, we're all going to read 'The Testaments' together over the next three weeks — and talk about what’s happening, why a sequel to a 35 year old book is relevant today and whether the bastards really will get us down.

And we’ll do it in three chunks. Here are your assignments:

By Friday Sept. 20, read The Testaments through Chapter 23 (pages 1-133)
By Friday Sept. 27, read The Testaments through Chapter 46 (pages 134-282)
By Friday Oct. 4, finish The Testaments (pages 283-end!)
Listen to this podcast each of those Fridays!

Joining Nerdette’s Greta Johnsen is the wonderful Jill Hopkins, host of the Morning Amp on WBEZ’s sister station Vocalo, and the delightful Heather Havrilesky, who writes the Ask Polly advice column for New York Magazine. And hey, we want your crazy interpretations too! Share your thoughts with us by recording your voice with your smartyphone. (Please be succinct!) Then email the audio file to [email protected], preferably by Tuesday evenings. You may hear yourself in an episode!

And when you need to tweet or Instagram something really important about the club, just use #NerdetteBookClub on the internets, and so will we.

OK let’s do this!

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still
0:06.1	watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,
0:12.7	soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,
0:18.0	Stories Without End from WBEZ Chicago, join me as i share how the genre began
0:22.7	their social impact and why these stories endure listen wherever you get your podcast so what kind of
0:31.2	snacks you guys got going on funny you should ask i came rolling through with some cool ranch Doritos.
0:39.2	I love cool ranch burritos the most.
0:41.2	They're my favorite kinds.
0:42.9	From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette.
0:45.6	I'm Greta Johnson, and for the next couple of weeks,
0:47.9	we're going to do something a little bit different.
0:49.5	It is the Nerdette Book Club.
1:00.7	Yeah. nerdette book club. This is my literal dream come true.
1:03.3	Think of it as like a normal book club.
1:04.9	You might do with some of your friends,
1:06.0	except you're bringing your own booze
1:07.4	and you only have to talk if you really want to.
1:09.5	It features three excellent nerds.
1:11.4	I guess that is myself included in that count. I am here with Jill Hopkins. She's the host of
1:16.5	the morning amp on WBEZ's sister station Vocalo. Hey Jill. Hey, Greta. And also joining us from afar,
1:23.2	who also brought her own snacks is Heather Heverleski. She writes the Ask Polly advice column for New York
1:28.3	Magazine. Hi, Heather. Hi. Nerd here. Yes. From Los Angeles. Okay, so here's what's happening.
	...

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