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 WBEC 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 Nerd Ed.

I'm Greta Johnson. We made it to another weekend.

Coming up, one of the creators of the HBO show, Somebody Somewhere, talks about why those Midwest vibes are so important.

Instead of leaving the place you're from, I think the sort of beauty of this show is getting to look at these prairie fields and these things that you were taking for granted and seeing kind of the beauty in that.

Plus, the latest in our nerdy job series, this time it's a professional TV watcher.

I love to think of my job as still sort of being back at the video store or working at a bookstore.

But first, time to unpack some of the wild and wonderful things from the week that was with us this week.

We have the two hosts of the Vox podcast today, explained to Noel King and Sean Ramos from welcome you two.

Thanks for having us.

Hello.

Oh my gosh. I'm so excited.

Okay. So we're starting with the Olympics again, not my strong suit, but some interesting stuff. The 2022 Winter Olympics wrap up this weekend. There have been some great moments. There's been an effort for a more diverse field of athletes. The first black woman won a gold in speed skating for the U.S. But like almost all Olympics, there's been plenty of drama and scandal, human rights issues with China, also questions around doping.

One thing that I thought was really interesting, especially as a self-identifying snow snob who grew up in Alaska, is that all of the snow in the competitions is man-made, almost all of it anyway because climate change has made

it so difficult to count on enough snow being available. So as we close out the games, my question

we're zooming out is like, should the Winter Olympics even exist? Now, Sean, I know you're an

Olympics nerd. What do you think? It's a really interesting question. Should they exist or perhaps should we just always do these things in the exact same place?

...