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 on the show, Jennifer Egan has a new book out. It's called The Candy House. And today she tells us how she keeps track of all the different characters whose lives she leaves together.

Each chapter is about a different person and it introduces us to another constellation with this particular person at the

center of it, which of course inevitably reaches in every possible direction.

Plus, we learn about the rescue dog pipeline that's saving pups in the U.S.

People want dogs. There's just incredible demand for these animals for lots of reasons that we know well.

But first, let's take a moment to unwind from the week with two excellent humans with us today.

We have Kat Chow. She's a journalist and writer who wrote a memoir last year called Seeing Ghosts.

Kat, welcome back. Thank you. Glad to be on.

And we have Margaret Willison. She's a culture writer who

newsletter is called Two Bossy Dames. She co-host a TV podcast called Appointment Television. Margaret,

welcome to Nurdat. Thank you so much for having me, Greta. I am so excited to have both of you.

I'm such a fan of both of you on Pop Culture Happy Hour, among other things, too. So this is just a delight. Oh, glad to be on with Margaret, too. Yeah, same. As I always say, the best admiration

societies are mutual admiration societies. That's so sweet. Okay, so I don't know if you all picked up

on this, but there apparently was a significant celestial event on Tuesday. It was the first time

...