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, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend. I am very sorry to tell you this if you haven't already heard, but there was a random, well, maybe not so random rodent in Pennsylvania that has told us that we have another six weeks of winter ahead of us. But we're going to eke out some good news from that and say, that means we have that much more time to use the cold as an

excuse to stay inside and read a good book. This week, we are bringing you an episode of NPR's

Book of the Day podcast. Every day, that podcast highlights a recent story or interview about

books from NPR. And one that I found really interesting was part of a series they did about

banned books. Take a listen. Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. So this

current rash of book bannings are often focused on books that deal with

race and gender identity. George M. Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue deals with both head on. And it's

maybe no surprise that it is one of the most challenged books in the country right now. It wasn't even a

surprise to Johnson. They told NPR's Lila Faddle about how they saw

other books get banned and so it was more than likely that this book would get challenged.

It was just a surprise at how much of a hubbub it caused. But, and I think this is important to remember

while we do this week on banned books, Johnson says that the support they've gotten from parents,

librarians, and kids far outweighs the haters out there.

Let's take a listen after this quick break.

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.

...