This week, we are beating the winter blahs and leaning into coziness. First, we talk to City Cast Chicago host Jacoby Cochran and WBEZ’s Araceli Gómez-Aldana about ads upending streaming services, a $3,000 train trip and cozy rituals. Then, Bon Appétit food editor Shilpa Uskokovic shares some of her favorite cold weather recipes. Here they are… Dark and Stormy Braised Pot RoastNo-Knead FougasseFrizzled-Onion Cabbage SaladCheesy Spinach and Corn Piroshki]]>

Nerdette Book Club is off to an excellent start with our first selection of 2024, ‘Jonathan Abernathy You are Kind’ by Molly McGhee! It’s a deeply strange novel that dabbles in dreamscapes while also being a very real critique of capitalism. Our readers this month are Maya Lau, the host of the personal finance podcast ‘Other Peoples’ Pockets’ and Nick Quah, podcast critic for ‘Vulture.’ We do get into spoilers in the conversation! If you’re not ready to find out what happens yet, listen...

This week, co-hosts of the Just Between Us podcast, Gabe Dunn and Allison Raskin, stop in to play Burden or Delight. This week’s topics: double dipping, the snow salt chococcino, and gummy vitamins! Then, Greta and Book Riot’s Liberty Hardy rave about some of the buzziest titles coming out this year. For a full list of the books mentioned in the episode, head to our website! ]]>

This week, we are distracting ourselves from the freezing cold weather with a game of Burden or Delight. Our panelists are Adora Namigadde, WBEZ metro reporter and host of the morning episodes of the WBEZ podcast The Rundown, and Erin Allen, host of The Rundown in the afternoons. We discuss the end of certain comedic road signs and the ethics of a husband’s hidden trust fund. Then, we head to a basement bar in Chicago for a Silent Book Club! One Sunday a month, the lesbian bar Dorothy fills...

We’re back with our first pop culture panel of 2024! In that spirit, we are talking all about New Year's resolutions and the myth of fresh starts. Our guests are the host of Vox’s The Weeds podcast Jonquilyn Hill and the host of New Hampshire Public Radio’s The 13th Step podcast Lauren Chooljian. We also get into two recent trends: the rise of closed captioning and the extra trendy, extra large Stanley tumblers. ]]>

This week we're sharing an episode we think you'll enjoy. It's from the podcast Missing Pages and it is the first part of their two-part series on book banning. Host and acclaimed literary critic Bethanne Patrick explores America’s history of banning books. Missing Pages is produced by The Podglomerate. Listen to more episodes of Missing Pages here: https://link.chtbl.com/M8oj-eXh?sid=NerdetteFeedDrop ]]>

Nerdette Book Club is kicking off a new year of reading with Molly McGhee’s debut novel Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind. Our protagonist, Jonathan Abernathy, is completely subsumed by debt. So, he takes a job editing the bad dreams of middle class workers. It’s a searing critique of late-stage capitalism that also manages to be funny and tender. Read along with us! The book club will be back on the last Tuesday of the month with a spoilery discussion of the book and two fun guest readers....

Despite two historic writers’ and actors’ strikes, there was a lot of TV to watch this year. We turned to two TV critics to weigh in on their favorites: The New Yorker’s Inkoo Kang and Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk For links, pics and more details, head to our website! Beef (Netflix)Reservation Dogs (Hulu)Succession (Max)Fellow Travelers (Showtime)The Bear (Hulu)Wrestlers (Netflix)For All Mankind (Apple TV +)I'm A Virgo on (Prime VIdeo)Starstruck (Max) Scavengers Reign (Max)Deadloch (Prime...

To find the best podcasts of the year, we talked to two veritable experts in the form: Leah-Simone Bowen, host of ‘Podcast Playlist’ from the CBC, and Nick Quah, podcast critic for Vulture. In order to make it on their lists this year, both Leah and Nick said shows had to really push the envelope in format or reporting. From heavy investigations to a show that Nick calls “cotton candy sprinkled with more cotton candy,” here are the best podcasts of 2023. For links, pics and more info, check...

We are reflecting on a year of reading by tallying up the books that we just can’t stop thinking about. Two professional readers – Miwa Messer, host of Barnes & Noble’s book podcast Poured Over, and Andrew Limbong, host of NPR’s Book of the Day podcast – join us to share their best of the year lists. Here are the books mentioned in the episode. For pictures, links and more details, head to our website! Andrew’s picks: ‘Landscapes’ by Christine Lai ‘Poverty by America’ by Matthew...

It’s that time of year where we sit back, relax and reflect on some of the best stuff that came out this year! First up, we asked Alex Beggs — freelance food writer, former staffer at ‘Bon Appetit’ and all-around friend of the show — to tell us about her favorite cookbooks of 2023. Here’s Alex’s list. You can find pictures, links and more details at our website! - ‘More is More’ by Molly Baz - ‘Make It Japanese’ by Rie McClenny - ‘More Than Cake’ by Natasha Picowicz - ‘Sweet enough’ by...

This week, we're sharing a podcast from our public radio friends KUOW in Seattle. It's called "Text Me Back" and it's all about friendship and making your favorite people laugh, even when this dumpster fire of a world gets you down. Bestselling writer Lindy West and democracy policy expert Meagan Hatcher-Mays are two award-winning best friends from high school. Each week, Lindy and Meagan will hilariously digest what’s going on in the news, their lives and their text threads with their...

This week, we are asking the important questions about 2024. Like, what plant will we fall in love with? And what body part will be in style? Those are some of the ponderings included in a recent story on next year’s trends in T: The New York Times Style Magazine. We put the co-hosts of ‘Fanti,’ Tre’vell Anderson and Jarrett Hill, to the test. They are also the co-authors of ‘Historically Black Phrases.’ Tre’vell’s recent book is titled ‘We See Each Other.’ Then, Omkari Williams tells us...

Nerdette Book Club is back to discuss our November selection, ‘Land of Milk and Honey’ by C Pam Zhang! It’s a novel about survival, privilege, and seeking pleasure at the end of the world. Our readers this month are Aliza Abarbanel, co-founder and co-editor of ‘Cake Zine,’ an independent print publication exploring society through sweets, and co-host of the podcast ‘This is TASTE,’ and Miriam Kramer, news editor at WPLN in Nashville. We do get into spoilers in the conversation! If you’re...

Academy Award winning writer, actor, and director Emerald Fennell tells us about her intoxicating new movie ‘Saltburn,’ which is out this week. It’s a British country house thriller about obsession, excess, and desire. ]]>

Thanksgiving is almost upon us, so it’s time to get cooking! First, we ask chef Tanya Holland to share some fun, fresh ideas for the big meal. Tanya is the author of three cookbooks, including most recently the gorgeous ‘California Soul.’ You can find the recipes for her stuffed sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts salad at our website! Since one of the best parts of Thanksgiving is the leftovers, we also talk to Tamar Adler about her cookbook ‘The Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Leftovers A to...

This week, Vocalo host Nudia Hernandez and host of WBEZ’s ‘The Rundown’ Erin Allen join us to unwind from the week that was. We chat about Barbra Streisand’s extremely long memoir, The Simpsons’ attempts to keep up with the times, and how to cope with shorter days. Then, we talk to two of the showrunners on the Apple TV+ show ‘For All Mankind,’ Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi. The series supposes what might have happened if the Soviet Union had won the race to the moon. As a result, we end up...

It is the month of November and our Book Club selection is C Pam Zhang’s Land of Milk and Honey. It takes place in an alarmingly conceivable future where the world is on the brink of ecological collapse. A smog is enveloping the earth, making it difficult for crops to grow. Our narrator is a chef who is straddled with inherited debt and locked out of the United States. She takes a mysterious job cooking for an elite research community in the Italian Alps that is able to grow the food she...

This week, we chat about long movie intermissions, the business of Taylor Swift, and the delight of keeping oddball rituals. Our panelists are Lauren Chooljian, senior reporter, producer and host of the NHPR podcast The 13th Step, and Anisa Khalifa, producer and host of the WUNC podcast The Broadside and the indie podcasts Dramas Over Flowers and Muslim in Plain Sight. Then, we talk to one of our favorite chefs, Sohla El-Waylly, about her debut cookbook Start Here: Instructions for Becoming...

Nerdette Book Club is back to discuss our October selection, Lauren Groff’s ‘The Vaster Wilds.’ It’s about a girl in early American colonial history who runs away from the Jamestown settlement during a period of starvation. She then struggles to survive in the woods during freezing cold days and nights, armed with only a pewter cup and leather gloves. We asked long-distance dogsledder Blair Braverman, the author of the novel ‘Small Game,’ and MJ Franklin, an editor for the New York Times...

We are leaning into Halloween this week! Taylor Lorenz, Washington Post columnist and author of Extremely Online, and Margaret Willison, culture writer and faculty at Not Sorry Productions, dared to join us to discuss the very tall, very viral Halloween decorations named Skelly and Lewis, along with more Halloween nonsense. Then, comedian Sam Reece tells us about her new book S****y Craft Club: A Club for Gluing Beads to Trash, Talking about Our Feelings, and Making Silly Things. You can...

This week, we talk about Netflix’s reinvention of the video store, the right way to board a plane, and the art of advice-giving with Chicago Sun Times’ new advice columnist Ismael Perez and Brandon Pope, who hosts WBEZ’s Making podcast and On the Block from Block Club Chicago and WCIU. Then, author V.E. Schwab talks about the latest installment in her “Shades of Magic” fantasy series, The Fragile Threads of Power. This will be her fourth time on Nerdette, because her books are just that...

On this cursed October day, we’re talking about Croc’s new cowboy boots and other outrageous stories from the week. Our panelists are Patrick Hinds, co-host of the True Crime Obsessed podcast and author of the new book Failure Is Not Not An Option, and Kristen Meinzer, the co-host of the Daily Fail podcast. Then, author Chuck Wendig tells us about his apple-filled horror novel Black River Orchard. Chuck is also the author of Wanderers, The Book of Accidents, and more. ]]>

This week, we discuss Barbies, bedbugs, and centenarian skydivers with comedian and host of the podcasts 'In The Cards' and 'Dead Eyes' Connor Ratliff and Bridget Todd, host of 'City Cast DC' and 'There are No Girls on the Internet.' Then, comedian Aparna Nancherla opens up about her struggles with imposter syndrome in her new essay collection 'Unreliable Narrator.' ]]>

It is the month of October and Nerdette Book Club’s selection is ‘The Vaster Wilds’ by three-time National Book Award finalist Lauren Groff. This historical novel is about a servant girl who is on the run from her corrupt, smallpox-riddled colonial settlement. She struggles to survive in the unforgiving wilderness. In this spoiler-free interview with the author, we talk about changing the narrative of the American frontier by putting a young girl at its center. We invite you to read along...