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, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerdat Book Club. It's just like a regular book club, except you don't have to share your snacks. This month's selection is Sabrina Imbler's sparkling essay collection called How Far the Light Reaches. This is normally when I would give a spoiler warning, but this is nonfiction, so I feel like it's not quite necessary in this instance. But if you haven't read the book and you want to read the book before you hear this discussion, you should do that. You could also listen to a discussion with Sabrina, which is already in the feed. They are phenomenal. So go listen to that. If you are here and ready to listen along with us, we are very glad to have you. I can't wait to introduce you to this month's panelists. We have Kat Chow. She's a former NPR reporter and the author of the memoir Seeing Ghosts. Kat, hello. Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to talk about this book. We also have Rachel E. Gross. She's a science journalist and the author of the book of Vagina Obscura. Rachel, hello. Hi, I'm psyched to be with you two today.

Siked to have you. Okay, so full disclosure, both of you blurbed the book. You were coming from very positive and biased points of view, which is totally cool.

We kind of love that. Absolutely. Yes. So I'm really excited to have both of you because I think

this book is such a fascinating combination of both science journalism and memoir, which both of you

have, you know, varying degrees of experience with. And Rachel, especially since you are a science

journalist, I would love to start with you and know what stood out to you, especially when it

comes to the structure of this book, because it really is super unique. Yeah, absolutely. I mean,

so yeah, there's like a long, rich tradition of nature essays that try to get at these big

questions about humanity

and existence and inspire a lot of awe and wonder through looking at the natural world in a new

way. And what Sabrina does is weave those stories of individual starving octopus mothers

and swarms of gelatinous balls on Reese Beach with

their own life. I think the first thing I thought when I started reading this was this book

is like a creature like none other that I've ever seen, something that's constantly morphing

like a cuttlefish and surprising your expectations like a feral goldfish.

And there's just no way not to make that connection to the content of the book.

Right. I love the idea of thinking of this book as a creature itself. I think that's really fun.

...