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 WBEZ 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 Nerdat.

I'm Greta Johnson, and I don't know about you, but as a single unmarried person living alone during a global pandemic, I have been extra grateful for my friends,

whether they're here in Chicago or in North Carolina or Utah or Oregon or wherever. I've always

had a lot of far-flung friends, which means I'm already used to,

you know, sending postcards and check-ins via text and scheduling phone calls. Two people who are

very good at long-distance friendship are Aminatu So and Anne Friedman. They have been buds for a solid

decade and lots of us have been able to kind of listen in on

their friendship because of their amazing podcast, Call Your Girlfriend.

Anne and Aminatu also wrote a really lovely book recently.

It's called Big Friendship, How We Keep Each Other Close, and it tells the origin story of their own

friendship, but it's also about how all those important friendships in your life require just as much

effort as any of the other relationships that you have.

And how maintaining what they call big friendships isn't always easy, but it's almost always

worth it.

I mean, Natu and Ann are with me now. Hey.

Hello. Hi. So I am really interested in the fact that this book opens with the scene where the two

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