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 Nerdad. I'm Greta Johnson, and I am certain that I do not need to tell you that election week is almost here. Maybe you, like me, have decided to mute every single human on

Twitter who is giving you a countdown of how many days there are left. Maybe you're also getting

a whole bunch of texts and calls. Maybe you are kind of super over it.

Well, while we are on the subject, I do think it's worthwhile to zoom out for a second and recognize

the fact that voting in America is actually really weird. Like not a lot of us do it. And a lot of elections end up coming down to the people living in just a handful of states, which means it might be worthwhile to think about how we actually got here.

And, you know, why we have the Electoral College.

And what does it matter if people vote anyways?

Here to guide us through these questions and more is Erin Geiger-Smith.

She's a journalist who recently wrote the book, Thank You for Voting, the Maddening,

enlightening, inspiring truth about voting in America.

It's a book that is super nonpartisan, but

pretty explicitly pro voting. Erin, hi. Hi. Hi. Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you for doing this.

I am very excited. It seems like you have like become a pretty huge voting nerd, obviously, if you've written this book, huh? I have

become a huge voting nerd. That is absolutely the best way to describe me right now. I don't know

if I'll ever not be, but for right now, it's pretty much the top description. So I definitely

want to talk to you about some more like now times issues, but I think we should start with some history because obviously you've done a lot of research.

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