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. We made it to another weekend, and it is officially relief. All coming up, Hannah Georges wrote an amazing article for The Atlantic, revealing

the unwritten rules in the writers' rooms of black TV shows, going back to the golden age of

network sitcoms to today.

We're so far from place where those stories are not constantly filtered through what's comfortable or relatable or understandable to white executives and audiences.

Plus, ecologist Meg Lauman talks to us about her new memoir, which details the glass

ceiling she broke as a lady who climbed trees for science in the 1970s.

So I was tiptoeing in a man's world for a lot of my career, and I didn't even know girls could be scientists when I was young.

But first, let's take a minute and look back at the week that was.

With us this week, We have two excellent Chicago

journalists. We've got Mina Bloom, a reporter for Block Club Chicago. Mina, hey. Hey, Greta. I'm so

excited to have you on the show. And we've got Brandon Pope. He's an anchor and reporter at CW26

in Chicago. Brandon, welcome. Greta, great to hear you. Great to be with you.

Yay. Okay, so I think we should start with what's really big COVID news this week, which is that we learned the Pfizer vaccine should be available for five to 11 year olds by Halloween.

This is extremely long-awaited, especially obviously for those who have school-age kids.

Mask mandates are different everywhere. It's all been very confusing for a very long time.

...