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 Nerdad.

I'm Greta Johnson, and we have somehow made it to another Friday in the month of March in the year 2021. Coming up, the biggest book nerd I know tells us about some books

coming out this spring. She has already read 150 in the last three months. Plus, we'll hear from

someone who's managed to make a job out of talking about cast iron pans on TikTok.

But first, it's our chat about the week that was this time with two excellent reporters in the race class and

communities desk here at WBEZ. We have Esther Yunji Kang and Natalie Moore. Hey, you two.

Hey, Greta. Hi, Greta. Welcome to the show. I'm glad to have both of you.

Obviously, this has been a really rough news week, especially because a couple days ago we learned that a man was arrested after killing eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian American women.

It's the latest in a spike of violence against Asian Americans,

largely attributed to racism around COVID. Esther, you have reported on this violence. You are

an Asian American woman. How are you doing? You know, there's not a lot of time to think and feel

how I am doing. I think yesterday was full of just

reporting and deadline and getting the story out the door. I think in the evenings, when I kind of

have time to reflect, it's just really sad. And what I've been doing is I've been looking for more

information on the victims and seeing how just how

invisible they are, even in this story, which is about them. And they are, there's just not a lot

...