I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still

watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,

soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,

Stories Without End from WB EZ Chicago.

Join me as I share how the genre began, their social impact, and why these stories endure.

Listen wherever you get your podcast.

From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette.

I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend, which means it is time to celebrate with a new episode. Coming up, New York Times Magazine, staff writer Marcella Valdez unpacks her story about how the book business is diversifying, slowly but surely. The values of the big publishers begin to trickle down through these communities,

like what will sell, what is valued,

and they affect not just what we see on shelves,

but they affect the people who are trying to write books.

Then Wired Culture Reporter Kate Nibbs makes the case for why reality TV has seriously gone around the bend.

Because I think that the streaming era has really accelerated the quantity of ridiculous shows,

if not like the quality of them.

But first, let's unwind from the week that was with two delightful humans with us this week,

we have the hosts of

Celebrity Book Club with Stephen and Lily, Stephen Phillips Horst and Lily Marada. Stephen,

Lily, hello. Hello, hello. Okay, so I feel like we have to start with Benefer.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez got married over the weekend. It's fully two decades after the term Benefer became a thing. Jennifer broke the news in her newsletter, which is called On the J-Lo. She said it was the best night of their lives. They had reconnected during the pandemic. And here we are. I just love this story so much. Lily, what do you think? Is this something you've been

following over the past couple of years or decades? Decades my entire life. I am like such a

rom-com head. So like one, just anyone who breaks up and then gets back together if it's

meant to be. But I loved Benefer, like, originally.

...