Today we check in with Nerdette book club regular Heather Havrilesky. She also writes the Ask Polly advice column for New York magazine, so she gives us another perspective on how everyone's doing out there. And of course, we hear from a bunch of you, too, which is quickly becoming the best part of this show. If you’d like to chime in, just tell us how you’re adapting, along with your name and where you’re from. You can record yourself on your phone and email the file to&...
Mar 20, 2020•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast A lot of us are looking around and realizing the plans we had aren’t necessarily a reality anymore. Which can be scary and hard, but it’s also a great opportunity to adapt. Today, Greta checks in with her friend Shannon Downey. She’s a crafter with a big online community , but most of the work she does involves meeting people in real life, something that can’t happen right now. Hear what she decided to do, and the voices of Nerdette listeners from all over the place, about what...
Mar 19, 2020•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast One thing for which Greta is grateful? Danielle Kurtzleben, who works on the NPR Politics Podcast  team, and whose tweet about wearing a ball gown while working from home is exquisitely delightful . We’ll hear what Danielle appreciates now more than ever, and we’ll also hear from some of you!...
Mar 18, 2020•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we ask how we can help ourselves while helping others. We also hear from some of you in this episode, and we want to keep that up! Tell us your name, where you’re calling from, and what you’re grateful for. Just record yourself on your phone and then email the audio file to us at nerdettepodcast@gmail.com . Keep ‘em coming!...
Mar 17, 2020•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Now more than ever, we could all use a little pick-me-up. Starting today, we’re making regular mini-sodes with ideas on how to work from home, what you should be reading, and some things to help lift your mood.
Mar 16, 2020•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast We get help from longtime tech journalist Kara Swisher to dissect Anna Wiener's 'Uncanny Valley,' a fish-out-of-water memoir about a young woman who abandons New York’s publishing industry in favor of big tech and Silicon Valley. Join us! We assure you, the Nerdette book club is just like a normal book club, except we don’t shame you if you didn’t do the reading.
Feb 28, 2020•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Where we read a book a month and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. It’s just like a normal book club except no one shames you when you don't do the reading. This episode is all about Kiley Reid’s excellent debut novel, Such a Fun Age . It’s an incisive look at race and class in modern America, (and it also happens to be really funny.) Join Nerdette host Greta Johnsen, New York magazine advice columnist Heather Havrilesky and The Morning AM...
Jan 31, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nerdette has always been a podcast for book lovers, but for the first few months of 2020, we’re doubling down. Join host Greta Johnsen and a rotating cast of panelists as they discuss the year’s buzziest books. Whether you can’t wait to dive in or just want to sound like you know what you’re talking about with your book nerd buddies, this is the podcast for you. First up: Such a Fun Age , Kiley Reid’s debut page-turner about race and class in America. Read it, and share your thoughts by recordin...
Jan 17, 2020•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Books! Books! Books! Greta read 72 books this year, and today she sits down and ranks her 10 favorites. (Plus, she speaks with the author of her favorite book of 2019, ‘Such A Fun Age’ by Kiley Reid.) Here's her full list, and you can get more details on each title at this link : 10. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes 9. The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman 8. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo 7. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim 6. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Wo...
Dec 27, 2019•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Good gravy! It's George R.R. Martin! If you're unfamiliar, he's the author of that little book series that became one of the most popular TV shows of all time, Game of Thrones . These days, he’s in the midst of writing the final two novels in that series. Before he sat down with Greta, his team told us that he couldn’t answer the question on everyone’s mind ("So, like, when’s the next book coming out?"). So we didn’t ask that one, but Martin did tell us plenty about how writing ...
Nov 01, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast To celebrate the approach of another wonderful two-day break, Nerdette host Greta Johnsen talked with Alison Roman, author of the new cookbook Nothing Fancy , about three ways to make sure you host the most badass dinner party possible (she prefers to call it “ having people over ”). And did you know that the largest 3D printer in the world just printed the world’s largest 3D-printed boat ? We talk to Habib Dagher, the executive director at the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the Un...
Oct 18, 2019•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve finished The Testaments ! Press play and join Nerdette host Greta Johnsen, New York Magazine ’s Heather Havrilesky and Vocalo’s Jill Hopkins for this final installment of the #NerdetteBookClub . You’ll hear how each of us rated the book on a scale of 1-10 warm milks (10 being the best, obviously), what the professional reviewers thought, and how much your fellow book club members liked it! Plus, if you need post- Testaments- reading recommendations, check out this week's Nerdsletter (and s...
Oct 04, 2019•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re two thirds of the way through Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, and we’ve got a lot to talk about. This week is all about chapters 24 through 46, and our panel of intrepid feminists questions whether these storylines are just a little toooo convenient, whether it’s really possible to rip a person apart with your bare hands … and what the deal is with all that warm milk. Want to be a part of the #NerdetteBookClub ? Easy! Just press play and join Nerdette host Greta Johnsen, New York Magazin...
Sep 27, 2019•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our reading of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments has commenced! This week, we’re talking about book chapters 1 through 23. So … spoilers abound. Join Nerdette host Greta Johnsen, New York Magazine’s Heather Havrilesky and Vocalo’s Jill Hopkins as they contemplate the motives of Aunt Lydia, wonder what’s in that darn safe and talk smack about the mean girls of Gilead. To follow along with us, read The Testaments through chapter 46 (pages 124-282) before next Friday, September 27. And hey, we want ...
Sep 20, 2019•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! It’s just like a normal book club but in podcast form, and you provide your own booze. In this episode, we're taking a look back at Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopian novel 'The Handmaid's Tale' before sending you out to read Atwood's brand new sequel, ' The Testaments .' What are the rules of a book club podcast, you ask? Well, after this ' Handmaid’s Tale' refresher, we're all going to read ' The Testaments' together over the next...
Sep 13, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast September is right around the corner, which means fall is coming . To celebrate, Nerdette host Greta Johnsen talks with Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks, author and illustrator of the new graphic novel Pumpkinheads . It’s about Deja and Josiah, two high schoolers who love working at an amazing pumpkin patch every autumn. But the story starts on their last day of work as they try to enjoy everything the patch has to offer one last time. We also check in with an atmospheric scientist who’s abou...
Aug 30, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Abra Berens is a Midwest born-and-bred farmer-turned-chef. And her cookbook, Ruffage , is a gorgeous A-to-Z guide to vegetables. The idea, she tells us, is this: You go to the grocery store, buy what inspires you and then you go home to look up meal ideas in her cookbook. Abra’s not a pretentious chef who poo-poos comfort food. Instead, she’s all about meeting people where they are (and encouraging you to enjoy your veggies). She talks with Greta about how she approaches cooking, why her book is...
Aug 16, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Chicago Magazine called this novel "a Midwestern Big Little Lies — an intimate character study of a group of affluent, secretive women." In this bonus interview, Greta talks with author Claire Lombardo about her debut novel, ‘The Most Fun We Ever Had.’ It’s the story of four radically different daughters from suburban Chicago. And it’s about love, family, forgiveness and the importance of showing up....
Aug 09, 2019•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast These days there are more and more celebrations of women who might have otherwise been relegated to the footnotes of history. As you can imagine, here at Nerdette we’re all about that. Totally into it. Zero complaints. But what is equally as wonderful is when the spotlight also lands on accomplished young girls. And that’s what author Kate Schatz and illustrator Miriam Klein Stahl have done with their book Rad Girls Can , which tells the stories of inspiring young women who have made positive im...
Aug 02, 2019•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Is summer a great time for watching TV? Heck yeah it is. So we caught up with New York Times TV critic Margaret Lyons to get recommendations for the best of the best summer TV, including shows that are dark and mysterious, bright and fun, and also the throwbackiest throwback binges.
Jul 19, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast When anyone at WBEZ needs book recommendations, they go to Greta Johnsen, the station’s resident bookworm. So please enjoy Greta talking about some fantastic reads that you might want to pick up this summer. Contemporary Romantic Fiction Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren Fantasy Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey Mystery/Thriller Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok Biography/Memoir More Than Enough: Claiming Space For Who You Are (No Matter What They S...
Jul 05, 2019•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you know NPR’s Linda Holmes, it’s probably not as a novelist. She’s a pop culture correspondent, she co-hosts NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, and her recalcitrant dog Brian is mildly famous on Twitter. But she always wanted to write a novel. And at 48, she did. It's called Evvie Drake Starts Over and it is excellent. “This is what I think my story does actually prove,” Holmes tells Greta on this episode of Nerdette . “The fact that you haven’t g...
Jun 21, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast What’s it like to give people hallucinogenic drugs and study what happens? How might these drugs be used for therapy? And what causes people to take drugs in the first place? That’s what we asked Harriet de Wit, who runs the University of Chicago’s Human Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory , where she administers drugs like LSD, ecstacy and psilocybin to volunteers in an effort to learn more about the human nervous system. “The whole world of researchers is feeling very cautious,” de ...
Jun 07, 2019•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Greta gives 'Booksmart' four out of four Gretas, a new rating system we've devised specifically for this wonderful new movie. Why's it so good? Well, it’s smart, funny, a little raunchy, and it embraces so many gorgeous, gut-wrenching elements of what it means to be a smart, funny teenage girl. This week on Nerdette, we talk with the wonderful Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein (the stars of the film) about the movie's themes: Friendship, growing older, sexuality, feminism, and dealing wit...
May 24, 2019•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bill Nye says that when he was in high school, the big skill that students had to learn was how to find information. “But the challenge now is to sort out the information that may not be true.” Greta talks to Bill from the stage at The Collider’s Climate City Expo in Asheville, N.C. Their conversation focuses on climate change, Bill's new Netflix series (called "Bill Nye Saves the World") and combatting dubious scientific claims with critical thinking and an abundance of evidence. And also: Fake...
May 10, 2019•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lizzo recently landed on the Billboard 200 chart for the first time with her new album ‘Cuz I Love You,’ making now the perfect time to revisit her 2016 conversation with Nerdette's Greta Johnsen. Lizzo and Greta talk about what inspired her 2016 EP 'Coconut Oil' and how Lizzo became Lizzo. And your homework after listening to this episode is, of course, to play ‘Cuz I Love You’ on repeat, forever? P.S. Get in on our lovely new tote bags! One’s for Nerdette and one’s for Nerdette Recaps Ga...
May 03, 2019•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scientists around the world are trying to figure out how to mitigate the potentially disastrous impacts of climate change. Among the innovative ideas? De-extinction. “De-extinction is a scientific movement that’s aiming to recreate close versions of extinct species,” said Britt Wray, the author of Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics, and Risks of De-Extinction . Wray says the idea is to create close facsimiles of “keystone species,” or animals that had a profound impact on their ecosyste...
Apr 19, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sahana Srinivasan is the host of the Netflix kids’ science show Brainchild , a series that’s all about exploring interesting questions about the world in which we live. On Nerdette , Sahana talks about what makes her show different from the kids’ science shows of the ‘90s, why it’s so important for kids to see a woman of color talk about science and what she’s going to do after she graduates from college....
Apr 05, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Oh hey it's Lindy West! Lindy's the the executive producer of Shrill , a new Hulu series starring SNL's Aidy Bryant that's based on Lindy's 2016 novel of the same name. And we talk with Lindy about a few of the delightful scenes from the series (including an epic pool party), why Lindy left Twitter, and her forthcoming new book called The Witches Are Coming . She also tells us about how her new Hulu series subverts a common TV trope. “Usually what we get are weight loss narratives and ...
Mar 22, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast At WBEZ (and maybe at your office too?) it seems like a lot of folks get sick at almost exactly the same time. But why?! Simple: People in our office are sick because sick people are in our office. “I think that is probably the single biggest thing that we could do to reduce the incidence of a lot of diseases,” says Sarah Cobey, an evolutionary microbiologist from the University of Chicago. "Just self-quarantine." On this episode of Nerdette, Sarah takes a walk through our open office...
Mar 08, 2019•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
