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 wb easy

chicago this is nerd ad i'm greta john. We have made it to another Friday. It is also

somehow December, the last month, in the dumpster fire of a year we've been calling 2020. And I am

so glad you're with us today. I think it's going to be a pretty fun show. Coming up, we're going to

check in with Andrew Bird about his new Christmas album. If you'd asked me a few years ago or told me that I was going to make a Christmas

album, I would have thought, oh my God, what kind of rut am I in?

And later, we're going to learn about the history of sprinkles.

Yes, sprinkles.

But first, we're going to unpack the week that was with two delightful panelists.

We have Meha Ahmad. She's a producer

for WB.EZ Daily Talk Show Reset. Meha. Hey. Hey, Greta. And Mariah Wolfill is a reporter at WB.EZ.

Mariah, hello. Hey, Greta. I am so excited to have both of you on NERDette. This is very exciting.

Yeah. I'm just going to keep using the word exciting over and over and

over apparently. Tell me more about the history of sprinkles. I knew that one was going to peak your

interest, Mahal. You'll just have to listen to the segment, my friend. So I want to start

unpacking the weird week this was by discussing the very strange desert monolith

situation that happened. For those of you who haven't heard about it, in mid-November,

this like giant metal monolith structure appeared in a remote Utah desert. Then it disappeared.

...