Happy To Be Here

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 n...

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 Mi...

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 a...

Either Peter really hates the 1991 film Hook or he’s suffering from some serious Peter Pan envy … or maybe both! Welcome to a special bonus episode of Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! his week it’s all about Steven Spielberg’s Peter Pan sequel , starring Dustin Hoffman as the titular captain, Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. Listen as Peter explains why he t...

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....

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...

“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...

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 prince...

Six weeks of movie recaps and there still seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere. This week it’s all about the 1995 Pixar classic Toy Story, starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and all of our collective childhood memories. Listen as Peter, Tricia and Greta recall the moments that made them weep, search for hidden religious analogs and consider the system of ethics in the 'Toy Story' universe ....

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. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy...

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...

The $5 milkshake. Once a shocking, exorbitant example of the scourge of inflation. Now, a hot bargain that shouldn’t be missed! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! It’s the podcast where we rewatch movies of the ‘90s and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. Episode 5 is all about 1994’s Pulp Fiction, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. Lis...

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. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Does Dazed and Confused have a plot? Barely! Does that matter? To some people, yes! This week's recap is all about 1993’s Dazed and Confused , starring young versions of Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck and Anthony Rapp. It’s also an early film from director Richard Linklater, who went on to make critically-acclaimed movies like Before Sunset, Boyhood and A Scanner Darkly . Listen to...

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...

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...

We didn’t ask him, but I think we can say it with certainty: Peter Sagal definitely cannot dunk. Episode 3 of Nerdette Recaps  features our very first sportsball movie: 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, starring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson and Rosie Perez. It’s director Ron Shelton’s followup to Bull Durham and the script might just contain more obscenities than non-obscenities. Listen to this conve...

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...

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.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy...

If you’re a former fighter pilot and the world is facing annihilation at the hands of an alien species whose only motivation is permanently ending the human race, well then, who cares if you’re the president? You belong in the air, baby! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal , the podcast where we rewatch movies of the ‘90s and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. Today is all ab...

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...

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 cultu...

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,'...

Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal!  the podcast where we rewatch movies of the ‘90s and talk about them like the intense nerds we are. Our first selection is Clueless , the 1995 Emma adaptation filled with ridiculous footwear, Paul Rudd putting mayo on cold cuts and also Friedrich Nietzsche for some reason. Listen to our conversation, then join us next week for a discussion of Indep...

We talk with New York Magazine advice columnist Heather Havrilesky about quarantine madness, cinnamon rolls and making friends during a pandemic. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .