Tablet Studios

This week on Unorthodox, we can't be tamed.Our Jewish guest is Eddy Portnoy, senior researcher and director of exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, whose new book is Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. He tells us how he stumbled upon these colorful, less-remembered characters and tales—so many of which seem to involve Jews rioting—and why it's important for a community to examine the good with the bad to truly know its history. Our gentile of the week is Washington Post religion reporter Sarah Pulliam Bailey, who dropped by the studio in early October to tell us about growing up in a conservative, Christian environment in Indiana, the intricacies of covering religion while being a person of faith herself, and the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.We're giving away two copies of the Kale and Caramel cookbook, by episode 111 guest Lily Diamond! Enter the draw to win here.Join our new Facebook group! And sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set—including razor handle, blades, and gel—when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This week on Unorthodox, we've got food on the brain.Our first guest is Kerry Brodie, founder of Emma's Torch, a cafe in Brooklyn that employs and trains refugees and political asylum seekers. She tells us about her unlikely transition from government work to culinary school, what she learned about refugees by working alongside them in the kitchen, and why she believes food is such a powerful uniting force.Our second guest is Lily Diamond, the Maui-born blogger behind Kale and Caramel, and the author of a brand new cookbook by the same name. She tells us about fleeing her laid-back Hawaiian high school for Yale, accidentally becoming a food blogger, and how food and cooking helped her grieve her mother's death. (Enter the draw to win a copy of her book here!)Join our new Facebook group! And sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.

This week on Unorthodox, we're totally bewitched. Our Jewish guest is novelist Alice Hoffman, whose new book is The Rules of Magic, a prequel to her bestselling 1995 novel Practical Magic, which was made into the 1998 film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. She tells us how she re-immersed herself in the magical Owens family 20 years later, the ways in which her Jewish background influenced her interest in rebellious women, and why it's important to her to redefine the popular mythology of witches.Our gentile of the week is a witch and priest in the Minoan Brotherhood, who studies neo-paganism at Harvard Divinity School. He tells us the difference between witches and pagans, how he planned to celebrate Samhain, the pagan festival also known as Halloween, and why eye of newt is something you might already have in your kitchen cabinet. Join our new Facebook group! And sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set—including razor handle, blades, and gel—when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This week, we're live from JCC Manhattan!Our Jewish guest is writer A.J. Jacobs—our first-ever guest back in 2015—whose latest book is It's All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World's Family Tree. He tells us about his unlikely entry into the world of genealogy, the famous—and infamous—relatives he discovered, and, in a 'Maury'-style twist, reveals which hosts are related to him.Our gentile of the week is actor Kobi Libii, who played Cantor Duvid on Season 3 of 'Transparent' and currently appears on Comedy Central's 'The Opposition With Jordan Klepper'. He tells us about meeting with rabbis and other Jewish leaders to prepare for the 'Transparent' role, which required him to speak Hebrew, pivoting to political satire, and what he does to unwind from the constant news cycle he now covers.Join our new Facebook group! And sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.Unorthodox is sponsored by Hello Fresh, the leading meal-delivery kit service. Visit hellofresh.com and use promo code UNORTHODOX for $30 off your first week.Unorthodox is also sponsored by ModernTribe.com, a new kind of Jewish gift shop. Use the code UNORTHODOX to save 10% on your order through 2017.

Our Jewish guest this week is David Litt, author of Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, a memoir about his time as a speechwriter in the Obama White House. He tells us about teaching President Obama to say 'chag sameach' for a Passover video, writing jokes for the White House Correspondent's Dinner, and the time his grandpa sent him a water pipeline proposal to show the president.Our gentile of the week is U.S. Naval War College professor Thomas Nichols, whose latest book is The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters. He explains how experts today have been branded as out-of-touch elites and experience itself is being shunned—and how President Trump is the avatar of this cultural shift. We also discuss how his students' view of him changed after he was on Jeopardy, and why Jews feel such an affinity for Greeks.Come see us live on October 25 at the Manhattan JCC! Get your tickets here.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag , @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set—including razor handle, blades, and gel—when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This week on Unorthodox, we're all about 5778. Our guest this week is Rabbi Shai Held, president and dean of the continuing education institute Mechon Hadar, and the author of The Heart of Torah, a new two-volume book of essays about each weekly Torah portion. He tells us why he dreaded tackling Leviticus but learned the most from it, explains why he's optimistic about the future of Judaism, and gives us some useful advice for the new year.Come see us live on October 25 at the Manhattan JCC! Get your tickets here.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! And email us at unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we’ll share our favorite notes on-air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag, @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s! Get a free trial shave set (including razor handle, blades, and gel) valued at $13 when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This week, we're all about atonement. For our third annual apology episode, we're joined by University of Nebraska–Lincoln professor Ari Kohen, who explains what makes an apology truly bad (and why he stopped blogging about apologies). Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor turned clemency advocate, tells us about the personal journey behind his career change. Vanessa Zoltan, host of the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, returns with a true story about a family apology that didn’t quite take. We also share your letters about Yom Kippur atonement, and offer our own apologies. (You can listen to our previous Yom Kippur episodes here and here!)Want to come to an Unorthodox taping IRL? (Of course you do!) Our next live show will be recorded in New York on October 25—tickets and info right here.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! And email us at unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we’ll share our favorite notes on-air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag, @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s! Get a free trial shave set (including razor handle, blades, and gel) valued at $13 when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This week on Unorthodox: We recap the Butnick-Cohen nuptials (mazel tov!), Liel has a big reveal, and our guests wrestle with complicated legacies—both personal and political.Our first Jewish guest is Annabelle Gurwitch, the author of Wherever You Go, There They Are, a funny, wise memoir about the families we’re born into—and the families we choose. She talks about growing up with a fabulist father, becoming a drug mule for her elderly mother, her colorful Southern Jewish clan, and the various tribes she’s joined over the years in her quest for belonging.Our gentile of the week, director Dylan Kussman, comes with a bonus Jewish guest—actor/writer Aaron Davidman. They’re the creative duo behind Wrestling Jerusalem, a new film adaptation of Davidman’s one-man play that explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of 17 characters from a range of religious, political, and ethnic backgrounds. Kussman explains what attracted him to a story about one of the world’s most controversial conflicts, and Davidman tells us how he recovers from his marathon stage performances. Wrestling Jerusalem is showing at Symphony Space in New York City through September 17.We love hearing from you! Email us at unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we’ll share our favorite notes on-air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag, @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set (including razor handle, blades, and gel) valued at $13 when you sign up at Harrys.com/Unorthodox.

This episode is brought to you by the letter A, for ally.Our Jewish guest is Brooke Kroeger, author of The Suffragents: How Women Used Men to Get the Vote. She tells us about the men whose support helped women get the vote, and what those of us who want to be allies to marginalized communities today should learn from their efforts. Our gentile of the week is German-Danish historian Thorsten Wagner, the academic director of FASPE: Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, which sends law, medical, journalism, and business school students on specialized trips to Germany and Poland. He tells us why the FASPE programs deliberately focus on perpetrators and enablers, not victims, and weighs in on the current U.S. debate over monuments and memorials.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag, @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.

If you love listening to Unorthodox, please make a donation before our fundraising drive ends next week!This week: Everything you ever wanted to know about Jewish weddings.Author Anita Diamant tells us about The Jewish Wedding Now, her newly updated guide to planning a meaningful Jewish celebration. Roberta Grossman, director of the documentary Hava Nagila (The Movie) explains how the catchy Hebrew folk song became a staple at Jewish weddings. Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie of New York’s Lab/Shul explains his recent decision to leave the rabbinic arm of the Conservative movement over its prohibition on performing interfaith weddings. Bat Sheva Marcus, clinical director of Maze Women’s Health and co-host of the Joy of Text podcast, tells us about the importance of communication for maintaining a healthy sex life, as newlyweds and beyond. And finally, Bridesmaid for Hire Jen Glantz explains why she decided to turn a much-maligned obligation into a profession.Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get new episodes, behind-the-scenes photos, and more! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com—we may read your note on air.Follow us on Twitter: @tabletmag, @markopp1, @liel, and @stuffism.This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. Get a free trial shave set, valued at $13, when you sign up at harrys.com/unorthodox.