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.

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From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We did it. We made it to another weekend. And somehow it is December, which means now is the perfect time to sit back, relax, and reflect on some of the best stuff of the year. Coming up over the next couple of weeks, we are going to talk about the best books the best podcasts and the best TV of 2023 but to kick things off today we are talking about the best cookbooks

with one of our favorite eaters with us today is Alex Beggs who writes about food Alex

welcome back thanks for having me again.

So before we get into your actual picks, I'd love to know, like, this year felt a little

different to me in terms of cookbooks, but I can't tell if that's just because I'm sort of out

the loop or if it was like maybe sort of an off year compared to some of the abundance that we've

experienced more recently. What do you think? Yeah, I don't know

if it's our subjective feeling, you know, maybe none of the cookbooks called to you specifically.

But I do think, you know, if you think about the lag in the time, like a cookbook deal happens

and then when it comes to life, I think the cookbooks that came out this year were probably the ones that had to go through the phase of being bought and written like peak pandemic.

So I wonder if that's why it feels.

Yeah.

I don't know what to take from that.

I also was kind of like, I had plenty of books that I really excited about, but I

agree.

It didn't, I didn't feel, I didn't feel overwhelmed with, with too many amazing ones.

...