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, I'm Greta Johnson, and this is the Nerdat Book Club. It's just like a regular book club, except sometimes the author stops by. It is November, and this month's selection is

Laura Worell's highly anticipated novel, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm. It's about Circus Palmer,

a struggling jazz trumpeter in Boston, and the women he admires but usually disappoints.

That is all I am going to say for now, since this is a spoiler-free conversation.

Laura, welcome to Nerdat.

Thank you so much for having me, and I love the way you've described it.

Women he admires but disappoints.

That perfectly sums it up. I love it.

It's funny because in our meeting discussing this earlier today, my boss was like,

are you sure you're not putting that a little too kindly?

That's true. It depends on your perspective of a guy like circus.

Either that's a perfect way to describe him or terribly generous, but I like it.

It's giving him a lot of benefit of the doubt. I'm glad you like it. Well, and that's actually where I want to

start with this conversation because, you know, this book, this book is also about tender different

women. We see chapters from their points of view. They're from

really diverse backgrounds. They're of all ages. But the through line really is circus who

...