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 WB EZ 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 Nerdad.

I'm Greta Johnson.

It is another Friday in the year 2021, and we have a heck of a show for you today. We are going to hear from Anna Malika Tubbs, author of the three

mothers about the mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, and Malcolm X. Then we'll hear

from Sherry Turkle about her new memoir, The Empathy Diaries, but first,

it's our panel about the week that was. With us today, we have best-selling fantasy author Lee Bardugo.

Her newest book is the second in the King of Scars series, and it comes out later this month. And the

Netflix adaptation of her YA book, Shadow and Bone, comes out in April.

Lee, hello. Hello. Happy to be here. Yay, thank you. And we also have Emily Grassley, executive

producer and host of PBS's prehistoric road trip and creator of the YouTube series,

The Brain Scoop. Emily, hello. Hi, I'm delighted to be here. Oh my gosh, we are delighted to have you.

Okay, so as we do many weeks, I think we got to start with COVID. The news this week is that we are

inching closer to the one year anniversary of the beginning of shutdowns here in the United States.

Also this week, President Biden said there would be enough vaccines for

everyone who wants one by the end of May. Meanwhile, Texas and Mississippi have decided COVID

isn't a thing anymore. They're giving up on mask mandates and letting everything just return to

...