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. It is officially the end of the year 2021. It was a weird year, but we got through it together. We've been spending the last couple of

weeks talking about some of the best stuff of the year. First, we did books and then TV shows.

And now this week we are diving in to the wild world

of podcasting. Our guests today are Sarah Larson. She writes about podcasts for the New Yorker. Sarah,

hi. Hello. Thank you for having me. And we also have Nick Qua, Vulture's podcast critic. Nick,

welcome back. Hello, hello.

So you both came with your top five picks from this year.

Before we get to them, I was curious if there are any particular trends you've noticed.

I mean, not in terms of like the industry because that's a whole conversation in and of itself,

but more like in terms of maybe themes or structure or what people just kind of generally seem interested in.

What do you think, Sarah?

There are so many different kinds of podcasts, so many genres that are thriving, et cetera. But I noticed that a lot of the ones that moved me the most this year had themes of family, which sort of surprised me.

That's not something I remember thinking about a lot in podcasts of previous years.

Nick, do you have thoughts about themes that popped out at you?

Yeah.

...