Tablet Studios

We’re taking this week off, but we wanted to bring you an unedited look into a conversation Mark was desperate to set up between two of his friends, Liel Leibovitz and Jay Michaelson.  These are two Jews who are very in sync in some ways, but extremely different in others.  Come explore with them as they talk about some of the most important issues we’re all facing.

This week on Unorthodox, comedian Nick Kroll returns to the show to talk about 'Big Mouth,' his raunchy Netflix animated show about puberty, now in its third season. He tells us about hosting Purim talent shows with 'Big Mouth' co-creator Andrew Goldberg at their Jewish day school in Westchester, NY, explains how his own adolescent experiences influenced the show, and shares his bar mitzvah horror story.Our Gentile of the Week is Sarah Blake, author of the novel The Guest Book, which tells the story of the uber-WASPy Milton family over three generations, centered around the island in Maine that the family bought during the Depression. She tells us how the story was modeled on elements of her own upbringing, describes how the few Jewish characters who appear throughout the book ultimately change the course of the Milton dynasty, and speaks candidly about what it's like to be a WASP in 2019 America.Come see us on tour! Copies of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia will be sold and signed at each event:November 2 – Detroit, MI: Unorthodox live showNovember 3 – Detroit, MI: Panel eventNovember 4 – Denver, CO: Book talk and Unorthodox live showNovember 6 – Houston, Texas: Jewish Book Fair signing and teen eventNovember 14 – Margate, NJ: Book talkNovember 17 – Cincinnati, OH: Unorthodox live showNovember 20 – Dresher, PA: Book talkNovember 21 – New York, NY: Book talkNovember 22 – New York, NY: Shabbat book talkDecember 5 – Port Washington, NY: Book talkDecember 7-8 – Encinitas, CA: An Unorthodox Shabbat and Unorthodox live showDecember 9 – Phoenix, AZ: Unorthodox live showDecember 19 – St. Louis, MO: Book eventLike the book? Leave us a review! (Amazon or Goodreads).Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is also sponsored by J. Press. Get 15 percent off your first order when you use discount code Unorthodox15 at jpressonline.com or in one of their retail stores in New Haven, New York, or Washington, D.C. Offer good through December 24, 2019.Get ready for Thanksgiving with KOL Foods. Go to kolfoods.com and use the code UNORTHODOX to receive a 10 percent discount on your next order. Order before November 3, 2019 and you can get $1 off per pound on all whole turkeys with the KOL Foods Thanksgiving Early bird sale.

This week on Unorthodox, we're marking the one-year anniversary of the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, which occurred on October 27, 2019. Two days after the shooting, we aired a special episode recorded from Pittsburgh, featuring voices from the community. This year we're revisiting the horror of the massacre and checking in with local Pittsburgh Jews about their reflections one year later.We talk to Pittsburgh-based writer Beth Kissileff, who explains Jewish notions of vengeance and offers her thoughts on the appropriate punishment for the murderer. Mark, who has been reporting a book about the shooting for the past year, shares audio from his interviews with Andrea Wedner, daughter of Rose Malinger, one of the victims, Andrea's husband Ron Wedner, and Joe Charny.Sending our love to the Pittsburgh Jewish community, today and always.Get your copy of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, our brand new guide to all things Jewish (and Jew-ish), here [https://workman.com/products/the-newish-jewish-encyclopedia]. Leave us a review! (Amazon or Goodreads).Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.See us on tour! Liel Leibovitz will be at Arts Matter Shabbat in Boston, MA on October 25 at 6 p.m. (details here), and Stephanie Butnick will be at the Jewish Book Festival in Tampa, FL, on October 29 at 7 p.m. (details here).Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by the fine haberdashery, J. Press. Head to jpressonline.com and use code Unorthodox15 for 15% of your first order through November. You can even use the code in one of their three retail stores in New Haven, New York, or Washington, D.C.

This week on Unorthodox, we're celebrating all the Jewish holidays, including reaching our 200th episode! We talk to a gematria expert to find out just what the number 200 symbolizes in Jewish numerology, and hear some words of wisdom from our boss, Alana Newhouse.Our first guest is Jodi Kantor, co-author of the new book 'She Said,' which details the allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein first reported on by Jodi and Megan Twohey in the New York Times in 2017. She talks to Stephanie about the process of reporting such a complex story, first for the New York Times and then for this book, and the roles that people like Jill Kargman and Gwyneth Paltrow played throughout the process. She also explains why the Weinstein story is fundamentally not a Jewish story, despite the fact that several of the main characters, including Weinstein, are Jewish.Then Liel sits down with Peter Pomerantsev, author of 'This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality,' to discuss how the Internet is enabling autocratic rulers from Russia to the Phillipines to create disinformation on a massive scale, and how too much access to information can be as hazardous to democracy as not enough.Get your copy of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, our brand new guide to all things Jewish (and Jew-ish), here [https://workman.com/products/the-newish-jewish-encyclopedia]. Leave us a review! (Amazon or Goodreads).Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.See us on tour! Liel Leibovitz will be at Arts Matter Shabbat in Boston, MA on October 25 at 6 p.m. (details here), and Stephanie Butnick will be at the Jewish Book Festival in Tampa, FL, on October 29 at 7 p.m. (details here).Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by the fine haberdashery, J. Press. Head to jpressonline.com and use code Unorthodox15 for 15% of your first order through November. You can even use the code in one of their three retail stores in New Haven, New York, or Washington, D.C.

This week on Unorthodox, a special live show recorded at the San Francisco JCC. We’re joined by guest host Bari Weiss, New York Times opinion editor and writer and the author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/616727/how-to-fight-anti-semitism-by-bari-weiss/]. We also talk to New Yorker writer Andrew Marantz, author of the new book Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/562022/antisocial-by-andrew-marantz/9780525522263].Get your copy of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, our brand new guide to all things Jewish (and Jew-ish), here [https://workman.com/products/the-newish-jewish-encyclopedia]. Leave us a review! (Amazon or Goodreads). Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.See us on tour! Liel Leibovitz will be at Arts Matter Shabbat in Boston, MA on October 25 at 6 p.m. (details here), and Stephanie Butnick will be at the Jewish Book Festival in Tampa, FL, on October 29 at 7 p.m. (details here).Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.

The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia, our guide to all things Jewish (and Jew-ish), is here! To celebrate, we put together a very special episode featuring some familiar voices. Get a taste of the book from its contributors and hear about famous Jews, favorite holidays, and beloved Jewish foods from Mario Cantone, Corey Feldman, Tovah Feldshuh, Bethenny Frankel, Gilbert Gottfried, Steve Guttenberg, Tone Loc, Jon Lovitz, Pauly Shore, The Sugarhill Gang, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, and even Margaret Thatcher.Thanks to Gary Greengrass, Jordan Hoffman, Wayne Hoffman, Lisa Ann Sandell, Marc Tracy, and Alana Newhouse.Special thanks to our producer, Josh Kross, for putting together this wild episode.Like the book? Leave us a review! (Amazon or Goodreads). Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.See us on tour! Liel Leibovitz will be at Arts Matter Shabbat in Boston, MA on October 25 at 6 p.m. (details here), and Stephanie Butnick will be at the Jewish Book Festival in Tampa, FL, on October 29 at 7 p.m. (details here).Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

We're closing the book on 5779 with our fifth-annual apology episode (listen to previous year's episodes here [https://www.tabletmag.com/tag/unorthodox-apology]). Join us for stories of apologies, discussions about friendship, and an exploration of one of the most controversial figures in recent Jewish history.First we talk to our Tablet colleague Marjorie Ingall, who co-edits the site SorryWatch.com. She reminds us how to offer a proper apology, and shares the best (and worst) public apologies of the past year.Stephanie sits down with Lauren Mechling, author of the new novel How Could She, and Did Jew Know author Emily Stone to discuss the female friendships that animate Lauren's novel, and reflect on the challenges of maintaining our relationships, particularly as we approach the New Year.In a special reported segment, we talk to Neshama Carlebach and Rabbi Angela Warnick Buchdahl about the complicated legacy of rabbi and composer Shlomo Carlebach.Let us know what you think of the show! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.Thanks to the Jewish Book Council for their help with this episode.

This week we're going to party like it's 5779, while we still can. First we sit down with Samantha Frank and Rena Singer, the rabbi and rabbinical student behind Modern Ritual, which models passionate, feminist Jewish life and content on Instagram. They tell us why they're they're thinking beyond congregational posts, and why they believe social media is the way to connect with young Jews today.We also talk to Saul Austerlitz, whose new book is Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show the Defined a Television Era. He gives us some Friends casting what-ifs and offers his theory on why the show remains incredibly popular on streaming platforms 25 years after it premiered. Liel talks to Wesleyan University president Michael Roth about his new book on free speech and political correctness on campus.Join us in San Francisco Monday, Sept. 23.  Get your tickets here and use code TABLET50 for 50% off the ticket price.  Let us know what you think of the show! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by KOL Foods, delivering great tasting, healthy, sustainable, and ethically raised kosher meat. Get a 10 percent discount on your next order using the code UNORTHODOX at kolfoods.com.This episode is also brought to you by the Tikvah Fund’s free online course, Tevye the Dairyman. Professor Ruth Wisse guides you story by story as Sholem Aleichem's famous character confronts the challenges of revolution, materialism, assimilation, and anti-Semitism. Visit tevye.tikvahfund.org/unorthodox to sign up today. (edited) 

Join us for 'The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia' launch party next Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the JCC Manhattan! There will be wine from our friends at Unorthodox Wines, and you'll be able to buy the book two weeks before its official publication date! Can't make it? Preorder the book and you could win a Zabar's gift basket! To enter, forward a copy of your receipt or confirmation to unorthodox@tabletmag.com.Our Jewish guest this week is Israeli writer Etgar Keret, winner of the Sapir Prize, one of Israel's most prestigious literary awards. His new story collection, newly published in English, is called Fly Already, and he joins Stephanie and Liel to discuss his characteristically quirky short stories, the influence of of the Holocaust on his work, and the starkly different reception he—and his work—receives in Israel vs. the United States.Our Gentile of the Week is Henry G. Brinton, senior pastor at Fairfax Presbytarian Church in Fairfax, VA and a contributor to the Huffington Post. He and Stephanie talk about their shared connection with two religion professors at Duke University, Brinton's career-long focus on building interfaith community, and his new novel, City of Peace.Let us know what you think of the show! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by KOL Foods, delivering great tasting, healthy, sustainable, and ethically raised kosher meat. Get a 10 percent discount on your next order using the code UNORTHODOX at kolfoods.com.This episode is also brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox. 

 'The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia,' our guide to all things Jewish (and Jew-ish), is out next month! Pre-order your copy today and you could win a Zabar's gift basket—to enter, forward a copy of your receipt or confirmation to unorthodox@tabletmag.com.This week, two more Jewish guests! We sit down with food writer Adeena Sussman, whose new cookbook is Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors From My Israeli Kitchen. She tells us why we should be eating more tahini (which is the same thing as tahina), how she puts her own spin on Israeli food as a California native transplanted to Tel Aviv, and how we can easily incorporate Middle Eastern herbs and spices into our dishes.Next, we hear an interview Stephanie did with author Dani Shapiro, whose memoir Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love begins with the surprising results of an online DNA kit she submitted on a whim. Dani discusses what it was like to grow up always being told she didn't "look Jewish," how the discovery of her paternity affected her sense of identity—Jewish and otherwise, and whether we can realistically expect family secrets to stay hidden in today's modern era.Let us know what you think of the show! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by KOL Foods, delivering great tasting, healthy, sustainable, and ethically raised kosher meat. Get a 10 percent discount on your next order using the code UNORTHODOX at kolfoods.com.