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 WBEZ 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.

Coming up, Victoria Schwab stops by to tell us about her latest book, The Fragile Threads of Power,

and her relentless campaign to trick literary book lovers into reading fantasy. We just, like, should do what we can to dismantle the concept of fantasy as like

dudes with broad swords and dragons. But first, it's our chance to sit back and relax from the

week that was with two excellent humans. With us this week, we have Ismail Perez, who writes the

advice column for the Chicago Sun-Times. It's called Someone in Chicago

Ismail. Hello. Hey. Also, here is the host of WBEZ's making podcast and the host of On the

Block, powered by Block Club Chicago and WCIU. Brandon Pope. Brandon, hello. What's good, family? How

y'all feeling? All right. How are you? I'm great. I'm great. You know, it's a little dreary out, but hey, we live with it. We got the vitamin D pills. We're going to make it work. Exactly. Okay. So before we jump in, I want to put both of you on the spot. Is either of you going to go see the Taylor Swift movie? Ismail? Are you a Swifty? I am a Swifty. I just, i'm also an introvert and i've seen the crowds

so maybe i'll wait for it to die down a bit if that happens and i will go like when it's more

private i respect that very much brandon what are what about you i think you'd be surprised

i kind of am a swifty but but like I'm a newer Swifty.

Like I think she should be making some bops for sure.

...