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 WB.B.E.Z Chicago, this is Nerdat. I'm Greta Johnson. And I am so freaking excited to tell you our guest this week is George R.R.R. Martin. This nerd probably needs no introduction, but just in case, the short version is he wrote a bunch of books that became an insanely popular HBO series that you probably have heard of. It's called Game of Thrones. He still has two more books in that series to write. He hasn't quite finished them yet. I'm sorry to say in this episode, we do not have like a publishing date for you, but we did have a really great conversation. We talked about how he manages fan expectations and the future of fantasy and we talk about how writing those books is going.

So, without further ado, here's the interview.

George R.R. Martin, perhaps one of the world's most famous nerds. Welcome to Nerdette.

Well, thank you, and I'm glad to be here.

It's interesting that the word nerd has now become a good thing.

Right?

I'm so old, I remember when it was a bad thing.

I bet. I bet.

I bet.

In high school, very traumatic.

So, yeah, how do you feel about it now?

Do you kind of lean into it?

Yeah, sure.

There's still a little bit. I'm always interested in the definitions, you know. It is a nerd different from a geek?

And so what is the precise differences?

I mean, the way we've always thought of nerd is, like, you can be a nerd about,

it doesn't really matter what the thing is.

...