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 Nerdette.

I'm Tricia Bobita.

And I'm Greta Johnson.

This week we're talking with author G. Willow Wilson. She writes the fantastic comic book, Ms. Marvel, for Marvel. She also wrote for X-Men, Superman, Women of Marvel, A-Force. She's written her own novels and some graphic novels and has done some journalism-y stuff. This is one prolific human being.

We wanted to talk to her not just because she's writing a great comic right now, but also because she's bringing a character to life who breaks barriers in more ways than one. That conversation

is coming up. We will also tell you about a new bold initiative that Nerdette is making. And we're

going to talk a little bit about

podcast fashion with some folks over at ModCloth. That is all coming up. I thought the whole point

of podcast meant it didn't matter what I wore. I know, right? No one knows. That was my dilemma as well.

All right. We'll talk about it. But first, our conversation with G. Willow Wilson. On that, we often like to talk about the origin stories of things.

So when Trisha talked with G. Willow, she figured a good first question was to hear about the origin story of the Ms. Marvel comics.

Well, Ms. Marvel started out kind of out of the blue with a phone call I got from Stephen Wacker, who at that time was an X-Men editor at Marvel, and his then-assistant editor,

Sana Ammanat. And they pitched me the following concept. We want to create a new young American

Muslim superhero and give her her own ongoing series. And nothing was known at that time about that character.

She could have been from anywhere, she didn't have a power set, she didn't have a name.

They just said, this is what we want to do.

...