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This week on Unorthodox, it's Adar Madness! Make your picks for Liel's middle name here.We've got two Jewish guests this week. The first is psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb, who writes the “Dear Therapist” column for The Atlantic. Her latest book, Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, is about her life as a therapist, and about starting to see a therapist herself after an unexpected and traumatic breakup.Our second guest is Clevelander Harley Cohen, who was assigned the seat next to Mark on the flight to Cleveland for our November live show at the Mandel JCC. Harley is a Jewish Deadhead (a Grateful Dead megafan), and he told Mark about his embrace of Jewish practice later in life and his love of the iconic jam band, and the ways in which the two are intertwined.We love to hear from you! Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more.This episode is also brought to you KOL Foods, delivering the best tasting, healthiest, most sustainable, and most ethically raised meat anywhere! Go to KOLFoods.com and use the code UNORTHODOX to receive a 10 percent discount on your next order.Additional support comes from Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.

This week on Unorthodox, you'll never look at an Einstein Bros. bagel the same way again.Our Jewish guests are David Rossmer and Steve Rosen, co-writers and co-stars in the Off-Broadway play The Other Josh Cohen. They tell us about meeting at the performing arts summer camp French Woods and working together ever since, most recently collaborating on this rollicking musical tale of mistaken identity (apparently there are a lot of Josh Cohens out there!).Our gentile of the week is Drew Magary, a columnist for GQ and Deadspin, and the author of the memoir Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood. He tells us about his highly controversial recent columns about bagels, and asks us if he's in for a year of shlepping his now 12-year-old daughter to bar mitzvahs in the Maryland area.We love to hear from you! Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is also sponsored by JChef, the new kosher meal kit and the perfect solution for Passover. Go to Jchef.com/unorthodox and use coupon code Unorthodox30 to get 30 percent off your first order.This episode is also sponsored by Harry's, offering a great shave at a great price. Get a free trial shave set at Harrys.com/UNORTHODOX.Additional support comes from Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.

This week on Unorthodox, we're celebrating the publication of The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List with an episode dedicated to Jewish food. Throughout the episode you’ll hear from contributors to the book—including Jill Kargman, Gil Hovav, Gail Simmons, Shalom Auslander, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of Food52, and many more—who will be reading their entries.We talk to Tablet editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse, who edited the collection, as well as Gabriella Gershenson, who edited the recipes in the book. We also sit down with Dr. Beth Ricanati, the author of Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs, who tells us about the healing power of baking bread. Naama Shefi and Amanda Dell tell us about their work at the Jewish Food Society and their Schmaltzy storytelling events.Plus, Brette Warshaw explains the difference between corned beef and pastrami, listener Sonia Marie Leikam tell us about brewing kosher beer in Portland, and the story of a special pie delivery to Pittsburgh's Jewish community.Get your copy of The 100 Most Jewish Foods at Tabletmag.com/100JewishFoods.Tell us your Jewish food memories! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.The music on today's episode is by the klezmer duo Farnakht.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more.This episode is brought to you by Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.This episode is brought to you KOL Foods, delivering the best tasting, healthiest, most sustainable, and most ethically raised meat anywhere! Go to KOLFoods.com and use the code UNORTHODOX to receive a 10 percent discount on your next order.Unorthodox is supported by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, which is presenting Diaspora Songs: Yiddish Meets Ladino, Thursday, March 28, at 7:30 pm.  The event is a part of Carnegie Hall’s “Migrations, The Making of America Festival” and co-sponsored by The Yiddish Book Center. Visit jccmanhattan.org/music for tickets. 

This week on Unorthodox, an update from Belgium, and Lin-Manuel Miranda's bar mitzvah-dancing past.This week's interviews were recorded live at the Marlene Meyerson Manhattan JCC during our Valentine's Day show. Our Jewish guest is dating app ghostwriter Meredith Golden, whose job is to make your dating profile better and to get you dates! She tells us about the mistakes most men and women are making on their profiles, and polls the audience about with dating apps they prefer.Our next guests are Jess Salomon and Eman El-Husseini, married comedians from Canada. Jess is Jewish and Eman is Palestinian, and they tell us about how they met, what their parents think, and the comedy they've found in the tensions of their particular union.This episode is brought to you by Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.This episode is brought to you KOL Foods, delivering the best tasting, healthiest, most sustainable, and most ethically raised meat anywhere! Go to KOLFoods.com and use the code UNORTHODOX to receive a 10 percent discount on your next order.The Jewish Education Project is doing incredible work empowering Jewish educators across the country. On April 11, the Jewish Education Project is throwing a party honoring its retiring CEO Bob Sherman, and recognizing the impact of the UJA-Federation New York’s John Ruskay and Alisa Rubin Kurshan .Visit JewishEdProject.org/Benefit and use the promo code UNORTHODOX for a special discount for Unorthodox listeners.

This week on Unorthodox: two Jews, many opinions!Returning to the show is writer and illustrator Christopher Noxon. He tells us about his new book, “Good Trouble: Lessons from the Civil Rights Playbook,” an illustrated history of the civil rights movement.Our second guest is French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, the author of more than 30 books, including The Genius of Judaism. He joins us to discuss his most recent book, The Empire and the Five Kings: America's Abdication and the Fate of the World.We love to hear from you! Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is also sponsored by Harry's, offering a great shave at a great price. Get a free trial shave set at Harrys.com/UNORTHODOX.This episode is brought to you by Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more. 

This week on Unorthodox, we've got a special episode dedicated to circumcision and the Jewish mitzvah known as the brit, or bris, that signifies entry into the tribe for eight-day-old Jewish males.We talk to Dr. Emily Blake, the mohel who performed Mark's son's bris, about why this biblical practice has remained so central to the Jewish experience, even among the non-observant.  The folks at BimBam explain Lech Lecha, the parsha in which Abraham and God enter into the covenant that defines the Jewish people. Hayim Leiter, a rabbi and mohel in Jerusalem, tells us about Safer Habrit, his organization that provides circumcision education and advocates against the controversial practice known as metzitzah b'peh. Sara Fredman Aeder tells us about approaching Jewish circumcision from a scholarly perspective and, later, a personal one, and Lizzie Skurnick shares her experience weighing circumcision as a single mother by choice. Producer Noah Levinson talks with Australian medical historian Dr. Robert Darby, (www.historyofcircumcision.net) about the speculation surrounding the British royal family's possible circumcisions, including the role of the "royal mohel.". And finally, Cristian Uriostegui tells the story of getting circumcised his junior year in college,The BimBam explainer was read by Emily Shapiro Katz, a Jewish educator in Beer Sheva, Israel; watch the animated version at bimbam.com.We'd love to know what you think about this episode! Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.This episode is brought to you by Unorthodox Wine, offering beautiful kosher wines from South Africa. Get free shipping on any order when you visit bitly.com/unorthowine.'The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List' comes out March 19! Featuring the biggest names in food—Jewish and not—and recipes for some of the most beloved, polarizing, and enduring Jewish foods, it’s the perfect gift to bring to this year’s Passover seder. Pre-order your copy today and you could win a $150 gift card to Russ & Daughters: to enter, forward a copy of your receipt or confirmation to 100foods@tabletmag.com.

 This week on Unorthodox, we'd like to thank the Academy... and our three Jewish guests!First we get glammed up with shoe designer Stuart Weitzman, who tells us about getting his big break when Aretha Franklin wore his shoes to the 1983 American Music Awards, and how he made red carpet history when he designed $1 million shoes for Mulholland Drive actress Laura Harring to wear to the 2002 Oscars. Since then, the 'shoe cam' has become a standard feature of award shoe red carpets.Then film critic Jordan Hoffman returns to the show to tell us what to expect at Sunday's Academy Awards, at which only a few Jews are nominated and some non-Jews are up for Jewish roles.Finally, a special Oscars treat: Liel calls up actor Kurt Fuller, who talks about being 'that guy' in hundreds of films, including Ghostbusters II, Wayne's World, Anger Management, and just about every movie you've ever seen.We love to hear from you: Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Get your Unorthodox T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more.This episode is also sponsored by Harry's, offering a great shave at a great price. Get a free trial shave set at Harrys.com/UNORTHODOX.Unorthodox is hiring! We're looking for a part-time associate producer to handle guest booking, episode scheduling, live show planning, and more. Click here for more information. To apply for the position, email jkross@tabletmag.com with the subject line ‘associate producer.’

This week, we're live and wide awake from Seattle.Our Jewish guest is Rabbi Will Berkovitz, CEO of Jewish Family Service Seattle. He tells us why helping resettle refugees is about more than simply "Jewish values," describes the surprising pushback he's received from some Jews over his social activism, and explains how he was inspired to become a rabbi after attending a Catholic college.Our gentile of the week is Dan Savage, the Seattle-based sex-advice columnist and host of Savage Lovecast. He returns to the show to answer love and relationship questions from Unorthodox listeners just in time for Valentine's Day (or as we call it, secular Tu B'Av). (For the uninitiated, Dan is very open and uncensored in his discussion of sex and relationships, so we really mean the obscenity warning this week.)We love to hear from you: Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and join our Facebook group to chat with the hosts and see what happens behind-the-scenes! Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, photos, and more. Show your love for Unorthodox with our new T-shirts, sweatshirts, and baby onesies. Get yours at bit.ly/unorthoshirt.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more.'The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List' comes out March 19! Featuring the biggest names in food—Jewish and not—and recipes for some of the most beloved, polarizing, and enduring Jewish foods, it’s the perfect gift to bring to this year’s Passover seder. Pre-order your copy today and you could win a $150 gift card to Russ & Daughters: to enter, forward a copy of your receipt or confirmation to 100foods@tabletmag.com.Unorthodox is hiring! We're looking for a part-time associate producer to handle guest booking, episode scheduling, live show planning, and more. Check out bit.ly/unorthodoxproducer for more information. To apply for the position, email jkross@tabletmag.com with the subject line ‘associate producer.’ (edited) Message InputMessage #episodecopy

This week's episode was recorded live at Adat Shalom in Los Angeles.Our first Jewish guest is Rachel Sumekh, who founded Swipe Out Hunger, the leading nonprofit in addressing hunger on college campuses. She tells us why Swipe Out Hunger is a fundamentally Jewish project, inspired in part by her family's dependence on food assistance after her parents immigrated to the U.S. from Iran, and how, as a Persian Jewish woman in the technology and social entrepreneurship world, she's hoping to be more of a norm than an exception.Our second Jewish guest is actor, screenwriter, and director Lauren Miller Rogen, whose most recent film, Like Father, stars Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer and is streaming on Netflix. After her mother was diagnosed, at age 55, with early onset Alzheimer's, Lauren created Hilarity for Charity, which has raised more than $10 million for Alzheimer's awareness and research through star-studded variety shows fundraisers. Lauren tells us about moving from Long Island to Lakeland, Fl and becoming one of very few Jewish students, explaining Hanukkah to her dentist, and what it’s like directing her husband Seth in her films.Our gentile of the week is Jonathan Groff, executive producer and co-showrunner on ABC's Blackish. He also worked on How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs, and spent five seasons as head writer on Late Night with Conen O'Brien. He tells us about sharing a name with that other Jonathan Groff (this Jonathan Groff's Twitter handle is @NotThatGroff), and growing up in a rectory as the son of an Episcopal priestJoin us Wednesday, February 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan for a special Valentine's Day live show featuring dating app ghostwriter Meredith Golden and married female comedians Jess Salomon, who is Jewish, and Eman El-Husseini, who is Palestinian. Get your tickets here.This episode is sponsored by Hebrew College. The Jewish community needs rabbis who are creatively engaging with Jewish tradition, and Hebrew College’s rabbinical school is currently accepting applications. Visit Hebrewcollege.edu/unorthodox to find out more.This episode is also sponsored by JChef, the new kosher meal kit. Go to JChef.com/unorthodox and use coupon code Unorthodox30 to get 30 percent off your first order.Tablet’s new book, 'The 100 Most Jewish Foods: A Highly Debatable List' comes out March 19! Featuring the biggest names in food—Jewish and not—and recipes for some of the most beloved, polarizing, and enduring Jewish foods, it’s the perfect gift to bring to this year’s Passover seder. Pre-order your copy today and you could win a $150 gift card to Russ & Daughters: to enter, forward a copy of your receipt or confirmation to 100foods@tabletmag.com.

This week on Unorthodox, one young man's journey out of white nationalism. Our Jewish guest is Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow, whose latest book is Rising out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist, which tells the story of Derek Black, the son of Stormfront founder Don Black and heir apparent to the White Nationalist movement. After enrolling in a diverse college and befriending a wide range of people—including Jewish students who invited him to weekly Shabbat dinners after he was outed as a white supremacist—Derek began to challenge his ingrained assumptions, ultimately denouncing the movement he was raised to lead and his family's involvement in it.We also talk to Derek himself, who tells producer Shira Telushkin about life after white nationalism, explains the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories at the root of the movement (plus the whole thing about lizard people), and shares the remorse and guilt he feels that the ideas he once publicly espoused and proliferated inspired the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.We're heading to the West Coast! We'll be at Adat Shalom in Los Angeles Friday, Feb. 1 at 7 p.m. for a special Shabbat show with actor and director Lauren Miller Rogen, 'Black-ish' producer Jonathan Groff, and Iranian-Jewish philanthropist Rachel Sumekh; get your tickets here. Then we'll be at the Stroum JCC in the Seattle area Saturday, Feb. 2 for a special live show with Dan Savage of the Savage Lovecast. Get your tickets here.We love to hear from you: Send comments and questions for Unorthodox to Unorthodox@tabletmag.com or leave a message at our listener line: 914-570-4869.This episode is sponsored by the Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Summer Program for high school juniors and seniors. To learn more and apply, visit: www.yiddishbookcenter.org/greatjewishbooks.This episode is also sponsored by JChef, the new kosher meal kit. Go to Jchef.com/unorthodox and use coupon code Unorthodox30 to get 30 percent off your first order.Additional support for this episode comes from Harry's. Get a free trial shave set at Harrys.com/UNORTHODOX.