Making: Stories Without End podcast

#Binge-Worthy Documentary #WBEZ Chicago #Documentaries #Society #Storytelling

29:22

The world often feels rigged. And this episode is a wake-up call to recognize the barriers that exist for those who don’t fit the traditional mold. In this episode, which is a kind of tribute to my dear departed Dad, I recount some powerful lessons from the man who was a brilliant psychiatrist and my biggest champion. He taught me that if something feels off about the environment you’re in, it probably is—and it’s absolutely hella-not your fault. We dare to break into the uncomfortable truth that many workplaces are designed for a very specific demographic, leaving neurodivergent individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum, feeling excluded. I share three stories in which my Dad imparted to me more than my fair share of his wisdom, and I'm hoping you to can feel empowered. You'll learn that we can advocate for ourselves and others to create a more inclusive work culture. Newsletter Paste this into your browser if the newsletter link is broken - https://www.lbeehealth.com/ Join our Patreon - https://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/patreon Mentioned in this episode: Sign Up For Our Newsletter Stay updated on all the things! Get added to our newsletter mailing list. Newsletter…

Making: Stories Without End

Series home•Feed

Making: Stories Without End takes you on a journey to learn about daytime soap operas and their broad reach on television.

53 episodes

Making: Stories Without End

1,401 subscribers

updated 6 days ago

Series home•Feed

Making: Stories Without End takes you on a journey to learn about daytime soap operas and their broad reach on television.

53 episodes

#Binge-Worthy Documentary #WBEZ Chicago #Documentaries #Society #Storytelling

All episodes

Making: Stories Without End

1
Soaps take the lead on nuanced storylines about queer life 33:34

6 days ago33:34

33:34

Before the mainstreaming of Ellen and the hit show Will and Grace , soaps did their best to bring tenderness to LGBTQ+ storylines. That’s the nature of the form: It gives room for anyone and everyone to be complex, fleshed out, loved and hated all at once. From supporting roles to legacy characters to complex depictions in their full humanity, from respectability politics to sometimes making missteps, soaps have found ways to evolve their depictions of queer life. Ryan Phillippe played a gay teen in the 1990s on One Life to Live . Eden Riegel played Bianca, Erica Kane’s gay daughter in the 2000s on All My Children . Today, progress looks like a villain, according to Days of Our Lives actor Greg Rikaart. “I came on as the ‘gay villain,’ if you will, and to me, that felt like the ultimate equality, in that I didn’t have to just say the right thing and follow the rules in order to be palatable to the audience,” he said. “And when I would get blowback from some people … I would just argue all those things: That that is further pushing the envelope open by saying, ‘Yeah, we can be multifaceted. We don’t all have to be good guys.’ ” You can listen to this podcast episode by following “Making: Stories Without End” wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes drop every Tuesday for six weeks starting April 8.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Black actors don’t want to be your sidekick 40:03

13 days ago40:03

40:03

From Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee on The Guiding Light to the first Black super-couple, Jesse and Angie on All My Children , Black soap actors have been on the canvas. According to an executive at CBS, Black women overindex as soap watchers, which has led to the first new daytime soap in decades. Beyond the Gates debuted with a core Black family in February 2025. It’s an exciting time to be a Black soap fan. Even though there’s been Black representation, Black writers and actors have often had to push to be more than sidekicks, according to soap writer Shannon Peace. “You see the faces; they’re there,” Peace said. “But what are the storylines? Why do we still feel often like they’re being backgrounded or there being support staff, to prop [up] other characters or other families? And when I say other characters or other families, I mean white characters or white families.” Peace said she doesn’t see that problem in primetime television, but it still exists in daytime. “I feel in primetime mode, for the most part, they’ve done away with a Black sidekick, with a Black friend — that Black best friend — and you have Black characters in meaningful front-facing roles that are driving story. I don't see that in daytime.” What Natalie read: Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter by Carolyn Hinsey Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History by Elana Levine The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era , edited by Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera from the Museum of Television and Radio You can listen to this podcast episode by following “Making: Stories Without End” wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes drop every Tuesday for six weeks starting April 8.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
In the world of soaps, women’s issues take front-burner status 34:19

20 days ago34:19

34:19

Irna Phillips created the cliff-hanger in broadcast storytelling and perfected the serial drama, first in radio, then on television. She mentored the creators of All My Children, One Life to Live, The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful . The latter two remain on television today. Phillips also created the television vixen, an archetype first seen on soap operas that still endures. Agnes Nixon and married couple William and Lee Phillip Bell worked for Phillips in Chicago. Nixon was head writer of The Guiding Light . In 1962, she wanted to do a cancer storyline, about how uterine cancer is curable if caught in time. Doctors said women proactively asked for Pap smears after watching the character Bert Bauer struggle with her health. The Bells also ushered the sexual revolution into soaps in the 1970s, with glitz and glamor and pushing the envelope on sexuality. Soap operas created complex and groundbreaking women-centered storylines. In 1964, Another World ran an abortion storyline. In 1971, All My Children ’s biggest vixen, Erica Kane, was a married pregnant model who didn’t want to be a mother. That abortion storyline was disruptive because the character was not seen as the “right” woman to tell an abortion story. Rape storylines on soaps have played out for decades because the form allows real-time nuance with storytelling. Nothing is ever wrapped up in one “Very Special Episode.” The uniqueness of soaps, airing five days a week, allows for pioneering storytelling. What Natalie read: “Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter” by Carolyn Hinsey “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History” by Elana Levine “The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era” edited by Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington “Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera” from the Museum of Television and Radio Agnes Nixon archives – Northwestern University You can listen to this podcast episode by following “Making: Stories Without End” wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes drop every Tuesday for six weeks starting April 8.…

Making: Stories Without End

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Meet Irna Phillips: The Queen of Daytime 21:42

27 days ago21:42

21:42

Soap operas have long been trivialized as low-brow women’s entertainment. Even the term “soap” is pejorative when describing television. But there’s a deeper story to tell about the genre that changed storytelling on the small screen. Irna Phillips doesn’t get enough credit for her creation. She’s the Chicago woman who birthed the daytime serial for radio in the 1930s and ushered it onto television in the 1950s. Phillips established staples in the genre like the cliff-hanger; she was a prolific writer who knew the daytime audience wanted to see their own problems in stories. As she summed it up in 1947: “[T]heir own conflicts, their own heartache, their hopes and their own dreams. Everything isn't happiness, is it? No.” Beyond the melodrama and romantic escapism, soaps took bold risks, embracing social consciousness with groundbreaking women-centered storylines. “Daytime dramas have grappled with social change and offered thoughtful explorations of romantic and familial relationships to an extent rarely seen in evening schedules, with controversial subject matter airing to little notice and thereby little upset,” said soap scholar and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Elana Levine. Whether you know it or not, soaps are a foundation of U.S. television. They’ve given us the medium’s longest-running scripted series — and worlds that do not end. What Natalie read: “Afternoon Delight: Why Soaps Still Matter” by Carolyn Hinsey “Her Stories: Daytime Soap Opera and US Television History” by Elana Levine “The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era” edited by Sam Ford, Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington “Worlds Without End: The Art and History of the Soap Opera” from the Museum of Television and Radio Natalie Moore is a senior lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Follow her on X at @natalieymoore .…

Making: Stories Without End

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TRAILER: Stories Without End 2:27

9 weeks ago2:27

2:27

Soap operas are the foundation of American television storytelling. From early radio days in the 1930s to the invention of TV to streaming, soaps have endured by telling intergenerational family stories. Daytime dramas are an important part of American television history and popular culture. It’s been said that television is socially ahead of movies. Soap operas take that social consciousness a step further. Rape, abortion, AIDS, LGBTQ+ storylines – before primetime or even mainstream America was ready. But soaps have been written off as low-brow drivel for women. For decades, soaps routinely pushed serious social issues the general public didn’t even know about because they weren’t paying attention to them. Take this journey to learn the history of soaps, the innovative creators who pushed social impact and how the genre was the moneymaker for networks for decades. This is television's unique immersive storytelling.…

Making: Stories Without End

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Making Toni Morrison 39:50

1 year ago39:50

39:50

Toni Morrison is widely considered one of America’s greatest writers. She published 11 novels and is the recipient of a Pulitzer, a Nobel and a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Sula and Beloved are just a few of her works that are considered great American classics. Before she was a celebrated author, she was a pioneering editor at Random House, opening doors for a whole generation of Black writers, including Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton and Gayl Jones. Her editorship assembled a strong network of the most prominent Black intellectuals of the 20th century. But Toni Morrison’s road to success was not a straight shot. She only published her first novel around 40 years old. And when she found her footing, she changed the face of American literature. On the Making season finale, host Brandon Pope sits down with leading Toni Morrison scholars, including Dana Williams, Carolyn Denard, Autumn Womack and Courtney Thorsson, to unpack the trajectory of an American literary hero. Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Making Fred Hampton 42:43

1 year ago42:43

42:43

“I don’t believe I’m going to die slipping on a piece of ice. I don’t believe I’m going to die because I got a bad heart…I believe that I will be able to die as a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletarian struggle.” - Fred Hampton, 1969 Fred Hampton became the Chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party when he was just years out of high school. His oratory talent and intellectual grasp on leftist literature quickly shot him to stardom in activist circles. But, his leadership did not last long. In 1969, when he was just 21 years old, he was assassinated during a raid on his home orchestrated by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Chicago Police Department and the FBI. “He knew the power and potential of Fred Hampton,” former Congressman Bobby Rush said of the FBI Director at the time. “So I’m telling you, the man was nothing but greatness.” Today, in a special Black History Month episode of Making, in collaboration with The Rundown podcast, we tell the story of iconic Chicago liberation activist, Fred Hampton. Our hosts Brandon Pope and Erin Allen sat down with original members of the Black Panther Party, attorneys who fought his post-assassination lawsuits in the 1960s and family members who carry on his legacy. Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Maya Angelou: Going from Strength to Strength 34:39

1 year ago34:39

34:39

In just 86 years Maya Angelou lived dozens of lives. Perhaps best known for her seminal autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou is one of the most celebrated literary minds in history, whose poetry and prose has touched generations of readers. But before Caged Bird, Angelou danced and sang on and off Broadway, earned the moniker “Miss Calypso” in the 1950s, called dozens of American cities and African nations home, and even became the first Black woman to work as a cable car conductor in San Francisco. On this episode of Making, host Brandon Pope sits down with Rita Coburn, co-director of the Peabody-Award-winning PBS documentary Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise; Randal Jelks, professor of African and African American studies and American studies at the University of Kansas; and Dr. Maxine Mimms, the founder of the Tacoma Campus of Evergreen State College and a longtime friend of Angelou. “Her main word was courage,” Dr. Mimms said, “The courage to love, the courage to walk, the courage to move.” Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Making Derrick Rose 42:53

1 year ago42:53

42:53

“Why can’t I be MVP of the league?” Derrick Rose said. With unimpressive statistics and an unselfish playing style, sports media did not take the third-year point guard seriously. Eight months after those famous words, he became the youngest MVP in NBA history. Derrick Rose was Chicago’s pride and joy. Fans and journalists alike called him the next Michael Jordan. Some thought he would be the greatest of all time. When an ACL tear took him out of the game, those high hopes turned to high scrutiny. On this episode of Making, host Brandon Pope explores the years before Derrick Rose changed the NBA. He grew up in the South Side neighborhood of Englewood, raised by a loving mother and three protective older brothers. By his sophomore year of high school, his talent and name was known across the city. We chatted with his high school coach who shaped his rise, veteran Chicago journalists who traced his steps, and Bulls insiders who witnessed his history-making. “He'll forever be one of the greatest basketball players to come out of the city,” NBC Chicago host Jason Goff said. “I make no bones about it.” Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Rihanna: Mother and Mogul 39:06

1 year ago39:06

39:06

With 36 billion streams on Spotify, 14 No. 1 hits and 9 Grammys, Rihanna is regarded as one of the most well-known artists of the 21st Century. But she also spent the last decade changing the fashion world, launching brands that transformed her from music star to business mogul and billionaire. Her illustrious career began 20 years ago, when she was just a 15-year-old in Barbados. She performed Destiny’s Child songs in a trio with her friends. Soon, an American record producer visited the island, saw her audition and launched her to stardom. This week on Making, hear the tale of Rihanna’s come-up from record producer Evan Rogers, music journalist Bill Werde and head of British Vogue Chioma Nnadi, featuring exclusive archival tape of Rihanna’s early rehearsals.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Making Virgil Abloh 37:09

2 years ago37:09

37:09

Virgil Abloh changed fashion in the 21st century. His brand Off-White redefined streetwear and youth culture for a notoriously elite and inaccessible industry. And he broke barriers to become the first Black artistic director at a French luxury fashion house. “His whole career is dedicated to opening up the gate for everyone,” said Marc Moran, his long-time friend and collaborator. “And I think that’s what made him such a force to reckon with.” Virgil Abloh passed away from cancer on November 28, 2021 at the age of 41, leaving behind a sprawling legacy. But before he took over an industry, he was a quiet and humble suburban kid who loved soccer, skateboarding, T-shirts and turntables. This week on Making, host Brandon Pope talks with Abloh’s family, friends, critics and collaborators – including his father, his high school soccer coach and the head of British Vogue – to look back at the life of a Chicago icon. Making tells the story of a different, iconic figure every episode. Subscribe now.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
BONUS: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma 3:05

2 years ago3:05

3:05

Hyphy Kids Got Trauma is an exploration of a transformative year in Bay Area music history, 2006, through the eyes and ears of Pendarvis Harshaw. A college student and burgeoning journalist at the time, Pendarvis navigates the shifting tides of a culture in transition, all set to the seminal sounds of the Bay Area’s “Hyphy Movement.” an era fueled by uptempo, bass-heavy songs with a free and fun-loving vibe. But 2006 also marked the second highest homicide total Oakland has ever seen. The violence was compounded by drugs, over-policing, the onset of gentrification, and the ongoing War On Terror. The wounds that occurred almost twenty years ago still impact the adults of the Bay Area today. Hyphy kids got trauma, and this is why. Listen to the whole series today on Rightnowish .…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Serena Williams: The Blueprint 31:49

2 years ago31:49

31:49

In early September, 19-year-old Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open. She is the first American teenager to win the tournament since 1999, when 17-year-old Serena Williams took the crown. Gauff has said Serena is the reason she plays tennis. She is her tennis idol, and for good reason. Serena Williams has won 23 Grand Slam titles – more than any player in the Open era. But before becoming a household name, Serena was a girl from Compton with a drive. This week on "Making", Brandon Pope revisits the years before anyone knew Serena’s name. Hear from the people in the room and on the court during her evolution to tennis prodigy, including her sister Isha Price, former tennis pro Chanda Rubin, and childhood coach Rick Macci.…

Making: Stories Without End

1
Making Whoopi Goldberg 41:03

2 years ago41:03

41:03

Over the course of her climb to the Hollywood A-List, Whoopi Goldberg has worn many hats: stand-up comedian, Broadway star, screen actress, and daytime television host. But before her breakout role in a Steven Spielberg film, she was a young mom hopping around the country, taking odd jobs and doing avant-garde theater. This week on Making, we chart Whoopi Goldberg’s winding path to stardom, from living off welfare, to landing on Broadway with her one-woman show. Host Brandon Pope chats with her first theater partners, her first director, and her first stage manager to discover who Whoopi was when she was just a wide-eyed talent waiting to be discovered. “The first time I saw her, I knew she was going to make it,” said William Farley, the director for her first on-screen performance. “She was an original. And an original, they become seen.”…

Making: Stories Without End

1
RuPaul: ‘Empress of Drag’ 38:28

2 years ago38:28