Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation from author Anne Helen Petersen. In Can’t Even, Petersen argues that societal conditions and poor timing primed the millennial generation for burnout. Petersen points to the 2008 recession, the rise of the contract worker, the prevalence of cell phones and astronomical student loan debt as a few contribu...
Oct 30, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Election Day is nearly upon us. And instead of cold-calling you and everyone you know, we’d rather invite you to consider a few important (and non-partisan!) election-related questions. Like how did we get such a strange voting system? Why do more than 40% of eligible voters stay home? And why should we care? For some answers we turned to Erin Geiger Smith, author of the new book Thank You For Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth about Voting in America ....
Oct 27, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast We get you ready for the weekend with movies, books and everyone’s favorite thing: a new way to categorize life experiences. Trust us!
Oct 23, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The millennial generation came into adulthood during an American recession, an era of crushing student loan debt and the rise of temporary workers and independent contractors. Add a global pandemic to that precariousness and you’ve got a perfect recipe for burnout. Today, Greta talks with author Anne Helen Petersen about Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation . It's our October pick for the Nerdette Book Club. And even if you aren't a millennial or haven't read the book,...
Oct 16, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast You didn’t already know? Nerdette talked with two brand new MacArthur Fellows — also known as MacArthur “geniuses” — about the important work they’re doing and what it’s like to get that phone call. Mary L. Gray is an anthropologist and a media scholar honored for her work investigating how “labor, identity, and human rights are transformed by the digital economy.” And Damien Fair is a cognitive neuroscientist honored for his research on the developing human brain....
Oct 13, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast What a wild week! And to celebrate the return of another weekend, we assembled a bunch of fun people to take a look back … in a merry, pop culture kind of way, not a CAPS LOCK newsy way. To talk about the big week for movies, we called up Eliana Dockterman, who writes about movies, pop culture and feminism for Time . Then, to break down the gloriousness that is Fat Bear Week, we talked with Mike Fitz, the resident naturalist at explore.org . And for all the rest, w...
Oct 09, 2020•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast The seasons are changing but the novel coronavirus is still with us. And that’s left us with a lot of questions about how to safely socialize with friends and family when the weather makes small outdoor gatherings less viable. So we called up Dr. Emily Landon, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago . (She also gave Nerdette listeners some therapeutic advice about the pandemic back in June.) And now that autumn is upon ...
Oct 02, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast You know Gillian Flynn as the genre-redefining writer behind Gone Girl , both the 2012 novel and the 2014 movie adaptation starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. Since the success of Gone Girl , Flynn has written only for the screen, including the 2018 movie Widows and the HBO series Sharp Objects. Out now on Amazon Prime, Utopia is Flynn’s latest work, based on a 2013 BBC show of the same name. Greta talks with Flynn about Utopia, Gone Girl and what’s next....
Sep 29, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Maaza Mengiste’s historical novel The Shadow King . It’s based on the true story of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s. Against Italian Prime Minister Benito Musolinni’s technologically-advanced army, the citizens of feudal Ethiopia didn’t seem to have a chance. But they eventually overcame— and they had the help of a number of forgotten female f...
Sep 25, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast “I’m not woke. I’m aware.” That’s the answer Chicago comedian T. Murph gives when he’s asked about his relationship to the title of Woke , a new series that dropped on Hulu earlier this month. T. Murph plays the role of Clovis, friend and roommate of Keef, the show’s protagonist (played by Lamorne Morris), who tries to avoid controversy in his work until the world forces him to do otherwise. Greta talks with T. Murph about what being woke means to him, if he moves through the world like his char...
Sep 22, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Bechdel test asks a simple question: Does a work of fiction have two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man? Today we talk with Sarah Kozloff, who was a film professor at Vassar College when she learned that The Lord of The Rings movies fail the Bechdel test. That inspired her to write The Nine Realms , a series of fantasy novels about a young princess who must grow up and fight her way back to the throne. Greta talks with Sa...
Sep 18, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Like it or not these seasons are a changing! And that means right now is a great opportunity to embrace flavors from late summer and early fall, and to make a chocolate zucchini cake! We talk with baker and cookbook author Shauna Sever — all about all the spices you should have, sourdoughs you should start, and pies you should scarf down immediately....
Sep 15, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast While researching for her novel, author Maaza Mengiste says she came across a New York Times article from 1935 that described a woman leading an army of 2,000 men into victory. She was shocked. Why had she never heard about this female wartime hero? “It struck me,” Mengiste tells Nerdette. “If there’s one, there’s two. If there’s two, there’s five.” We talk to Mengiste about her novel, The Shadow King, which is the Nerdette Book Club’s September pick. Listen to this spoiler-free...
Sep 11, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Of course it's not too early to talk about fall books! We got ahold of NPR books editor Barrie Hardymon to get recommendations for some great autumn reads. Find the full list of recommendations at www.wbez.org/nerdette.
Sep 04, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast When considering some of the milestone moments in feminist history, you might think about the Seneca Falls Conference of 1848, the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the 1990s? “This was actually one of the most pivotal decades, I believe, for feminist history.” We talk with Lisa Levenstein, the Director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at UNC Greensboro and the author of They Didn't See Us Coming: The Hidden History of Fem...
Sep 01, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Sameer Pandya’s debut novel Members Only . It takes place over the course of one very intense week in the life of Raj, a middle-aged Indian-American anthropology professor. When he’s asked to help his tennis club interview potential new members, he’s thrilled by the opportunity to help diversify his tennis partners. But he makes a huge gaffe in front of a Black...
Aug 28, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Argonne National Laboratory is a massive research facility outside of Chicago that’s run by the U.S. Department of Energy. And this week, Nerdette hosts Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen take you behind the curtain to learn about some of the innovative stuff happening there. Stuff like superbatteries, supercomputers, and questions that may never get answers This episode originally aired on August 10, 2018....
Aug 25, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast The optimism of one woman’s 20s meets the disappointment of her 30s in I Used To Go Here , a new film from Chicago filmmaker Kris Rey. We talked to Rey about the inspiration for the film, her recent name change from Swanberg to Rey, and what she tells young filmmakers. “Go for it,” she said. “The stakes are not that high. You can always start over.”
Aug 21, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified exactly 100 years ago Tuesday, the culmination of decades of activism that finally gave women the right to vote. Finish the Fight! is a new children’s book that chronicles the stories of some of the lesser-known suffragettes that made the 19th Amendment possible. Greta talks with author Veronica Chambers about 100 years of women’s suffrage and some of her favorite, lesser-known suffragettes. ...
Aug 18, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re all human, but who has the right to make mistakes? That’s a question at the heart of Members Only , the debut novel from author Sameer Pandya. In it, Raj Bhatt's life falls apart after he makes a racist remark to an African-American couple at a posh tennis club. In this Nerdette Book Club author interview, host Greta Johnsen talks with Pandya about the weaponization of the term “cancel culture,” why a tennis club serves as the setting for a story about Indian-American identity and wh...
Aug 14, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some of you may already be familiar with Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal, the podcast where Greta Johnsen and Nerdette cohost-emeritus Tricia Bobeda recapped Game of Thrones with Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me! Well we are very happy to announce that we’re BACK, and this time, we’re doing '90s movies! So here is our very first episode! It’s a recap of 1995's 'Clueless,' featuring Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, and Paul Rudd. We break it down, ask if it holds up,...
Aug 11, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast We talk with New York Magazine advice columnist Heather Havrilesky about quarantine madness, cinnamon rolls and making friends during a pandemic.
Aug 07, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast More women are running for political office this year than ever before, but men still disproportionally represent the American populace. We talk with Erin Vilardi, the founder of VoteRunLead, an organization that encourages and trains women to run for office -- and win. Are YOU considering a run for office? Vilardi explains why women are well-suited for leadership and why you should take the plunge. ...
Aug 04, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho. It tells the story of Andrea Tang, a thirtysomething Malaysian woman who lives and works in Singapore. Her love life is a mess and she’s vying for partner at her law firm, all while drinking a lot and somehow spending many hours playing Candy Crush. Listen along as Nerdette host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with podcast expe...
Jul 31, 2020•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast As you'll soon find out, Emily Graslie has a contagious enthusiasm for science and discovery. She holds the very real title of “Chief Curiosity Correspondent” at the Field Museum here in Chicago. She hosts a YouTube series called The Brain Scoop . And she’s also the host of a series on PBS called Prehistoric Road Trip , where she travels across the western United States to examine the history of our planet. We talk with Emily about exploration and discovery, how loving art and science does ...
Jul 28, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast When you hit a rough spot with a good friend, what do you do about it? Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman are longtime friends and business partners. Their fans also know them as the hosts and creators of ' Call Your Girlfriend ,' a podcast “for long-distance besties everywhere.” When they recently hit a rough patch, the pair took what might be considered an unusual step to save a friendship: they went to therapy together. Their new book is called Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Cl...
Jul 24, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a weird year for [insert almost anything] and also summer blockbusters. But even though the theaters remain (mostly) closed, there's still plenty of great new movies to stream from the comfort of your own home. We talk with Eliana Dockterman, staff writer at Time , about the uncertain future for new movies, a few great films you can watch right now, and a few more that you'll have to wait for....
Jul 21, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s the Nerdette Book Club! And today we're talking with Lauren Ho, the author of this month’s selection, Last Tang Standing . It's a wonderful summer romance that follows the story of Andrea Tang, a 33-year-old Chinese-Malaysian lawyer, as she tries to make partner at her Singaporean law firm while fending off the unhealthy interest her relatives have in her love life. Before she wrote this novel, Lauren herself was a Chinese-Malaysian lawyer living in Singapore. So a head of our pa...
Jul 17, 2020•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kate Stayman-London loves reality TV. But even though shows like The Bachelorette and Love Island bring her joy, “we should also hold those things accountable to our values,” she said. Stayman-London’s debut novel, One To Watch , puts a plus-size woman as the star of a Bachelorette -style reality TV show. It’s both a lovely summer read and also a critical assessment of reality TV tropes. Greta talks with Kate about the impetus for the novel, what it means to see stories about large wo...
Jul 14, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sheyna Gifford spent a year living on a volcano in Hawaii with just five other people as part of a NASA project to simulate life on Mars. Living in a biodome the size of a two-bedroom apartment, the crew studied the psychological effects and group dynamics that could be at play when astronauts eventually make it to Mars. This interview — about relationships, food and free time while in isolation — originally aired on Nerdette back in 2017, but it also has a few interesting parallels to our...
Jul 10, 2020•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
