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. And believe it or not, Election Day is in 12 weeks. Once again, a record number of women are running for office, which is super cool. However, women still are not proportionally representative in American politics. Remember, women make up like half the population here in the United States,

but right now, only 23% of Congress is female. If you look over the course of all of American

history, more than 12,000 people have served in Congress, and fewer than 400 of those have been

women. And according to the House's historical website,

only 80 women of color have served in Congress ever, which is two-thirds of one percent.

Now, those are the federal stats, but we looked into it, and it's a similar story in city halls and

state houses across the country. So what can be done? And what should you do? If you have a

little voice in your head that's like, hey, maybe you should run for office. Well, Erin Valardi has

answers. She is our guest today. She's the founder and CEO of Vote Run Lead, which is a

nonpartisan organization that trains women to run for office and to win. Erin, welcome to

Nerdette. Thank you for having me. Okay, so I'm going to start with a softball. Why do you think

it's important for women to run for office? Because we're better at it.

We're better at government. We're better at leading. You know, that actually is the truth.

You know, there's a recent Harvard Business Review survey, you know, something like nine out of the

10 things about leadership, women rang higher than, you know, the women bosses,

then the men bosses. It was everything I think except for decisiveness. We find that women bring

more money home to their districts. They pass more bills. They're more likely to have open and

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