Becoming Bovino
Who is Gregory Bovino? For months, the Border Patrol Commander-at-Large led agents through Chicago on an aggressive immigration enforcement...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Society & Culture
Making
WBEZ's critically-acclaimed bio-podcast series explores how an icon is made.
Episodes
20 of 54 episodes
A new era for daytime soaps operas: Beyond the Gates
A Chicago woman, Irna Phillips, birthed the daytime serial — and a Chicago woman, Michele Val Jean, is ushering in new interest in the genre...
Behind the curtain at ‘Days of Our Lives’: The lights, the sets, the pink coat
Go behind the scenes at Days of Our Lives in Burbank, California. Hear from actors, set designers and wardrobe as we pull back the curtain o...
TV wouldn’t be TV without soap operas
Without soaps, we wouldn’t have melodramas or reality shows. Without soaps, we wouldn’t have many of the TV tropes and shows we love to stre...
Soaps take the lead on nuanced storylines about queer life
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...
Black actors don’t want to be your sidekick
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 ha...
In the world of soaps, women’s issues take front-burner status
Irna Phillips created the cliff-hanger in broadcast storytelling and perfected the serial drama, first in radio, then on television. She men...
Meet Irna Phillips: The Queen of Daytime
Soap operas have long been trivialized as low-brow women’s entertainment. Even the term “soap” is pejorative when describing television. But...
TRAILER: Stories Without End
Soap operas are the foundation of American television storytelling. From early radio days in the 1930s to the invention of TV to streaming,...
Making Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is widely considered one of America’s greatest writers. She published 11 novels and is the recipient of a Pulitzer, a Nobel an...
Making Fred Hampton
“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 wi...
Maya Angelou: Going from Strength to Strength
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...
Making Derrick Rose
“Why can’t I be MVP of the league?” Derrick Rose said. With unimpressive statistics and an unselfish playing style, sports media did not tak...
Rihanna: Mother and Mogul
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 Centu...
Making Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh changed fashion in the 21st century. His brand Off-White redefined streetwear and youth culture for a notoriously elite and ina...
BONUS: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma
Hyphy Kids Got Trauma is an exploration of a transformative year in Bay Area music history, 2006, through the eyes and ears of Pendarvis Har...
Serena Williams: The Blueprint
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-y...
Making Whoopi Goldberg
Over the course of her climb to the Hollywood A-List, Whoopi Goldberg has worn many hats: stand-up comedian, Broadway star, screen actress,...
RuPaul: ‘Empress of Drag’
Since November, dozens of states have introduced legislation that could criminalize drag performances, including Florida, Tennessee and Nort...
Making Shonda
Shonda Rhimes has been called TV’s greatest. With groundbreaking shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder, she bec...