This week on Unorthodox, we really can’t stop talking about Hanukkah—read our op-ed all about it in the Washington Post.First we talk to actress Sarah Podemski, who stars on the new FX on Hulu show Reservation Dogs. She tells us about her “Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi” heritage and growing up in Toronto’s Jewish community, plus her experience working with an all-Indigenous cast and creative team on Reservation Dogs.   Then Liel has a candid conversation with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat about his new book, The Deep Places, an account of his confounding struggle with chronic Lyme Disease.  Throughout the episode you’ll hear “The Hanukkah Song 2.0” from our friends Kosha Dillz and Nissim Black. We’re looking for listeners to be part of two upcoming episodes. Send us your best Jew-at-Christmas stories, like the time you accidentally ruined Santa for the whole class. And on a more earnest note, has Unorthodox meant something special to you? Share your story for our 300th episode. You can leave us a voicemail at 914-570-4869 or even better, record a voice memo on your phone and email it to unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Sponsors:Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recognize 15 extraordinary Jewish teenagers with $36,000 toward their initiatives. Learn more and apply or nominate a teen at dillerteenawards.org/unorthodox. AJWS supports activism in 18 countries around the world. When you give to AJWS this Hanukkah, your gift will be matched to make double the impact. Give today at AJWS.org/unorthodox. Chai Flicks streams Jewish and Israeli movies and TV, with hundreds of films, series, and documentaries to choose from. Visit ChaiFlicks.com and enter code CHECKOUT to get 50% off your first month subscription.Hanukkah Homecoming Hundreds of communities are throwing Hanukkah Homecoming events this weekend. Find all the Hanukkah happenings in one place at hanukkahhomecoming.org. Tikvah Scholars Program at Yale University brings together Jewish 10th and 11th grade students to push their intellectual limits with world-class faculty. Learn more and apply or nominate a teen at tikvahscholars.org. 

Stacy Keach joins Liel to discuss his upcoming presentation of the play "Vienna," created by Stacy Keach Zoom Theater (SKZ). The show begins airing on YouTube on Sunday, November 28, and will be available through Wednesday, December 1. Admission is free.Donations are welcome to benefit The Actors Fund of America. To access the production, visit stacykeachzoomtheater.com.

Unorthodox is off this week for Thanksgiving, but we're bringing you "Pigging Out," an episode from our friends at Israel Story:"Not once, but twice, does the Bible admonish us to abstain from eating the flesh of the pig. And though there are many other animals we are commanded to avoid, the pig has—over the centuries—become the quintessential symbol of all that is unkosher, impure, and morally reprehensible. But was that always the case? In an episode that starts in prehistoric times and ends in the 21st century, we explore the place of all kinds of porcines—from piggy banks to pork sausages and from wild boars to Iron Age bones—in Israeli society."Send us your stories for our Unorthodox Christmas episode at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

This week on Unorthodox, it’s beginning to look a lot like Hanukkah! The Festival of Lights starts Sunday, Nov. 28, and we could think of no better way to kick off a holiday about the triumph of Jewish observance over assimilation than with a special episode featuring some amazing Jews whose work celebrates Jewish culture and identity. Comedian and proud Jew Judy Gold—aka @jewdygold—joins us to discuss embracing her Jewishness on stage and off, and lighting Hanukkah candles in hotel rooms as she tours the country during the ‘holiday season.’ For more Judy Gold, check out her podcast “Kill Me Now” and her book Yes, I Can Say That, and find her tour schedule at judygold.com. Listen to Judy’s previous appearances on the show here and here. Jake Cohen, author of Jew-ish: A Cookbook: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch, shares his Hanukkah menu (a latke bar!) and tells us why he loves wearing his Star of David necklace on Good Morning America. We’re giving away free copies of Jew-Ish to a few lucky listeners! Check out the giveaway on our Instagram and in our Facebook group. Plus we talk #HanukkahFails with Rachel Kenneth and hear new Hanukkah music from Sarah Aroeste and Jeremiah Lockwood.Tablet’s 100 Most Jewish Foods book has been reimagined as a jigsaw puzzle, memory game, and sticker book, just in time for Hanukkah. Shop the whole set here.Send us your stories for our Christmas episode at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Sponsors:AJWS supports more than 500 grassroots human rights organizations in 18 countries around the world. Made a twice matched donation today at AJWS.org/unorthodox. Rothy’s shoes are stylish, comfortable, and sustainable. Get $20 off your first purchase at rothys.com/UNORTHODOX.Chai Flicks is a streaming service dedicated to Jewish and Israeli movies and TV, with hundreds of films, series, and documentaries to choose from. Visit ChaiFlicks.com and enter code CHECKOUT to get 50% off your first month subscription.Harry’s is a great shave at a great price. New customers can get a Starter Set—which includes a five-blade razor, weighted handle, foaming shave gel with aloe, and a travel cover—for just $3 at harrys.com/unorthodox.

This week on Unorthodox, are we ready for a Better Bagel?Our guest is novelist Alice McDermott, whose latest book is What About the Baby? Some Thoughts on the Art of Fiction. She tells us about her 1998 National Book Award-winning novel, Charming Billy, as well as her Catholic faith, relationship with the church, and what she misses now that she’s no longer teaching.Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Tablet’s 100 Most Jewish Foods book has been reimagined as a jigsaw puzzle, memory game, and sticker book, just in time for Hanukkah. Check out the whole set here.Sponsors:Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recognize 15 extraordinary Jewish teenagers from across the United States with an award of $36,000 to honor their initiatives to help change the world. Nominate a teen by January 7 at dillerteenawards.org/unorthodox.AJWS supports more than 500 grassroots human rights organizations in 18 countries around the world. Made a twice matched donation today at AJWS.org/unorthodox.Spertus Institute’s Certificate in Jewish Leadership is specifically geared to the particular needs of Jewish organizations. Find out more at spertus.edu/certificate.

This week on Unorthodox, our national nightmare is over: Stephanie returns to the show!We talk to comedian Alex Edelman, whose new one-man show, “Just For Us,” is about the time he infiltrated a white supremacist gathering. Edelman, who was raised Orthodox, tells us about starting to wrap tefillin again during the pandemic, his work on Saturday Night Seder, and why some Jewish comedians miss the mark for him. “Just For Us” runs Dec. 1-19 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York.Then we visit Sherry Herring, New York City’s latest culinary import from Tel Aviv and Liel’s favorite place on Earth, to sample chipotle tuna and piri piri sardine sandwiches and learn about the Jewish love of smoked fish.Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Sponsors:Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards recognize 15 extraordinary Jewish teenagers from across the United States with an award of $36,000 to honor their initiatives to help change the world. You can nominate a teen today or they can apply directly by January 7. Visit dillerteenawards.org/unorthodox to learn more.Harry’s is a great shave at a great price. New customers can get a Starter Set—which includes a five-blade razor, weighted handle, foaming shave gel with aloe, and a travel cover—for just $3 at harrys.com/unorthodox.Rothy’s shoes are stylish and sustainable, and now they’re available for men too! Get $20 off your first purchase at rothys.com/UNORTHODOX.

Three years after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting that killed 11 Jews, we return to Pittsburgh with a special episode based on Mark Oppenheimer's reporting for his new book, Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood.You’ll hear from the local high schoolers who planned the Saturday night vigil that drew thousands of people, from the Pulitzer-winning editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette explaining how he conceived the paper's famous Hebrew-language front page headline, and from the archivist responsible for cataloging the thousands of pieces of mail received by the synagogue from around the world. Listeners will learn about the evangelical Christian carpenter who drove nine hours to place handmade crosses, to which he affixed Stars of David, outside the synagogue, and the member of the Jewish burial society who was shot in the attack and who then helped prepare the bodies of fellow members for burial.Listen to our 2018 episode, recorded from Pittsburgh in the hours following the shooting, here.Unorthodox is produced by Tablet Studios. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Sponsors:The 15th annual Other Israel Film Festival is taking place November 4–11 at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. This festival provides an in-depth look into Israeli and Palestinian societies, and this year features both in-person and virtual screenings. For more info and tickets, visit otherisrael.org.

This week on Unorthodox, former guest Gavriel Savit joins us for a spooktacular Halloween episode. We talk about the Jewishness of Dune, William Shatner’s mission to the moon, why some religious Jews don’t celebrate Halloween, and more.Our Jewish guest is actor, author, and substance abuse counselor Stacey Nelkin, who starred in the 1982 film Halloween III: Season of the Witch. She joins us to reminisce about the critically panned cult classic.Our Gentile of the week is Carrie Harris, a fiction writer whose work features monsters, mayhem, and murder. She tells us why horror writing flourishes in uncertain times, and reads a passage from her new young adult book, Elder God Dance Squad, which she describes as ‘Stranger Things meets Bring It On.’Dara Horn, author of the new book People Love Dead Jews, and host of the podcast “Adventures with Dead Jews,” gets us in the holiday spirit with a reading of “The Dead Town” by Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz. (Translated by Helen Frank and Hillel Halkin, abridged and adapted by Dara Horn.)Listen to Liel on a special crossover episode of “People of the Pod,” discussing “How the Jews Went Right in Britain.” It’s the first installment of “21st Century Europe and the Jews,” a four-part collaboration between Tablet and American Jewish Committee. Listen to the episode here, and learn more about the series here.It’s that time of the year! Please support Unorthodox and the other Tablet shows you know and love by visiting bit.ly/givetounorthodox.Send comments and questions to unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel!Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Sponsors:Rothy’s shoes are stylish and sustainable, and now they’re available for men too! Get $20 off your first purchase at rothys.com/UNORTHODOX

This week, while Mark’s on book tour and Stephanie is dancing with diapers, we’re bringing you a minisode with a special story of the impact of a single hungry draft dodger. Enjoy!On October 19 at 12pm ET, Liel will be moderating a live discussion along with Manya Brachear Pashman of American Jewish Committee's podcast, People of the Pod. This is the first in a four-part series by Tablet Magazine and AJC titled “21st Century Europe and the Jews”, which aims to address timely issues related to Jewish life and the protection of democracies in Europe. The series will delve into the most pressing issues in the United Kingdom, Poland, France, and Germany.The October 19th live program, “How the Jews Went Right in Britain,” will start with the UK.Go to AJC.org/Tablet to register, and for more details!Please support Unorthodox and the other Tablet shows you know and love by visiting bit.ly/givetounorthodox and giving a gift of any amount!Aa always, let us know what you think of the show! Send us comments and questions at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more.Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel! Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.

In this week's news, the Orthodox Union won't certify "Impossible Pork," Maccabi Haifa receives an interesting welcome in Berlin, and Mark owns a wetsuit.Tablet Studios is proud to bring you Radioactive, a new narrative podcast about Radio Priest and renowned antisemite Father Charles Coughlin. Enjoy this sneak peek, as well as Liel's conversation with host Andrew Lapin, and make sure to subscribeLiel also sits down with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who recently conducted a walking tour throughout Green-Wood Cemetery including performances on several pianos scattered throughout the route.We are launching our fundraiser! Please support Unorthodox and the other Tablet shows you know and love by visiting bit.ly/givetounorthodox and giving a gift of any amount!Aa always, let us know what you think of the show! Send us comments and questions at unorthodox@tabletmag.com, or leave us a voicemail at (914) 570-4869. You can also record a voice memo on your smartphone and email it to us. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more.Join our Facebook group, and follow Unorthodox on Twitter and Instagram. Get a behind-the-scenes look at our recording sessions on our YouTube channel! Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, mugs, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt. Want to book us for a live show? Email producer Josh Kross at jkross@tabletmag.com.Check out all of Tablet’s podcasts at tabletmag.com/podcasts.Harry’s is a great shave at a great price. Get a Harry's trial shave set for just $3 at harrys.com/unorthodox.