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.

Hello, you're listening to Nerdette from WBEZ in Chicago.

I'm Greta Johnson.

And I'm Trisha Bobita.

Before we jump in, we do have a couple housekeeping notes. We're still doing a Game of Thrones recap every week with Peter Sago, host of NPR's

News Quiz. Wait, wait, wait, don't tell me. Game of Thrones airs on HBO every Sunday night,

and each Monday we meet up with Peter to dissect the latest twists and turns in the Seven Kingdoms. That's a bonus episode each week to this, our regular nerdat show.

Where this week we will be talking with Mike Pesca.

Mike Pesca is the host of the Slate podcast, The Gist.

It's a podcast about basically everything and it happens five days a week, which is a lot of podcasting.

Seriously, this guy is talking about everything, like probiotics and canishes and Shakespeare and spelling.

That's like all of the things right there.

Monday through Friday.

And they've been doing it for just over a year now.

Happy one-year anniversary, the gist.

Very cool.

I first heard Mike Pesco when he was a sports reporter on NPR.

...