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 Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend.

And somehow it is July. Coming up, I talked to the creator of a theatrical experience where you

spend a pretty intense hour on the phone with a complete stranger. You won't be able to track this person

down. You won't recognize them on the street. You might be standing in line with them at the bank, you know, a couple months later, but you would never, ever know it. Plus, Everdeen Mason,

who's in charge of games at the New York Times, tells us how she wants to shake things up in

crossword land, even though she is not that intense about them. The big scam is that I'm actually

not that great at them. I am a very, very comfortable Monday Tuesday solver.

But first, it's our chat about the week that was.

With us this week, we have two excellent guests.

First up is Prisca Neely, managing editor for the Gulf States Newsroom,

a collaboration between NPR and some Gulf States.

Prisca, hello.

Hello, good to be here. Thanks for coming. Okay,

so we also have Anna Rubinova. She is the co-creator of Left-Handed Radio, the sketch comedy podcast.

Anna, welcome. Hi there. Nice to be here. Yay. So it turned out to actually be a pretty heavy week,

I would say. Search and rescue crews are still sorting through the rubble of a building in Miami.

Bill Cosby, who had been serving a 10-year sentence for sexual assault, got out of jail by overturning his conviction.

...