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.

WBEZ is supported by Chicago Humanities, presenting its spring festival on April 27th in Lakeview

with historians Heather Cox Richardson and Timothy Snyder,

Jonathan Blitzer on Immigration,

University of Chicago professor Agnes Collard on Socrates,

and documentaries Unblocked Englewood by Chicago's Tanika Lewis Johnson,

and Beyond Closure on the 2013 Chicago Public School closures. Tickets and more conversations on

arts, culture, and current affairs at Chicago Humanities.org.

From WBEZ Chicago, this is NERN. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend. And I am so

excited about this week's guest. She is one of my favorite authors and she has written what I think

might just be my favorite of her books. I am talking about Anne Patchett. Her ninth novel,

Tom Lake, came out earlier this month, and it is about a family that's

brought together to their northern Michigan cherry orchard during the quarantine days of the pandemic.

They don't have the staffing they usually have because everything is shut down. So the parents

and three daughters spend their days picking cherries. As they pick, the mother, Lara, tells a story.

At first glance, it's about the play Our Town and acting and making it in the biz. But on the other

hand, it's about magical summers and passion and art and finding beauty in unexpected places.

And welcome back to Nerdep. Thank you. What a nice intro. I love that.

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