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This week on Unorthodox: Miley meets Woody. Our Jewish guest is word maven Lizzie Skurnick, whose book, That Should Be A Word, is based on her popular New York Times Magazine column of the same name. In 2013 she founded Lizzie Skurnick Books, which reissues classic young adult literature. Our Gentile of the Week is Bill Schulz, former co-host of Fox News Channel's 3 a.m. satirical talk show, Red Eye. He claims Amy Schumer, a frequent guest on Red Eye, based the terrible character Schultz in her hit film Trainwreck on him.  We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. This episode of Unorthodox is brought to you by Harry’s. Stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to Harrys.com and enter the code UNORTHODOX at checkout for $5 off your first order.

This week on Unorthodox: Bloomberg, Bernie, and Trump, oh my! Our Jewish guest is Mark Seidenfeld, vice president and deputy general counsel at Scholastic, publisher of the wildly successful Harry Potter and The Hunger Games series. He tells us about traveling to Scotland to pick up a manuscript from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling—and then sitting on it during the flight back to New York to keep it safe. Our non-Jewish guest is bioethicist and writer Alice Dreger, whose new book, Galileo’s Middle Finger, explores the at-times contentious clashes between scientists and activists throughout history. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. This episode of Unorthodox is brought to you by Harry’s. Stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to Harrys.com and enter the code UNORTHODOX at checkout for $5 off your first order.

Our Jewish guest this week is Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization whose mission includes ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, and which supports the controversial Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. She explains why she believes her organization's work is more important now than ever, and spars with Liel over the merits of BDS.  Our Gentile of the Week is Mike Albo—writer, performer, and humorist—whose next project is an off-Broadway performance based on his 2015 memoir, 'Spermhood: Diary of a Donor.' His question for the panel is simple: Why are gay Jewish men so good in bed? We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast.

This week on Unorthodox: Bar Refaeli baby watch begins, and Mel Gibson returns (shudder). Our Jewish guest is painter Archie Rand, whose new book, The 613, is the culmination of his most ambitious project yet: painting visual representations of each of Judaism’s 613 mitzvot, or commandments. Our Gentile of the Week is Catherine Burns, the longtime artistic director of the hit storytelling series The Moth. Her question to the panel is about Jewish burial traditions, and, characteristically, takes the form of a story. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast.

This week on Unorthodox: kosher marijuana, the great bagel scooping debate, and one very WASPy cardigan. Our Jewish guest is Bethany Mandel, author of the Convert's Bill of Rights, which she wrote after learning she was one of the women videotaped by Rabbi Barry Freundel while using the mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath. (The Orthodox rabbi was sentenced in May 2015 to 6 1/2 years in prison for filming more than 150 women, many of them converts, using the ritual bath.) Our Gentile of the Week is writer Rand Cooper, who asks the panel the ever-important question, "Is Jewdar real?" We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. 

From Drake to Bernie Sanders, Amy Schumer to the presidential election—and, of course, Israeli cats—we’ve covered a lot this year on Unorthodox. We’re ringing in the new year with a special compilation of our favorite moments from 2015, including never-before aired segments, highlights from our live shows, and guests Simon Doonan, sex therapist Bat Sheva Marcus, comedian Dave Hill, lexicographer Erin McKean, and more. Want more Unorthodox? Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com, and sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. 

This week, Unorthodox celebrates Christmas—or as we call it, Christian Hanukkah—the only way we know how: binge-watching Netflix (the new ‘going to a movie’) and eating Chinese food. We’re joined by Orange is the New Black’s Yael Stone, who tells us about playing the memorable Lorna Morello, a compulsive shopper and lovable stalker, on the hit Netflix show. Her newest role is as Peretta Jones on the SyFy series Childhood’s End, which you can binge-watch after you finish Season 3 of Orange is the New Black. She tells us about moving to the U.S. from Australia, where she grew up, and directs us to watch her new show using that distinctive Morello accent. ​We’re also joined by Jennifer 8. Lee, whose book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles explores, among other things, the relationship between Jews and Chinese food. She tells us why chow mein is “the chosen food of the chosen people,” and how Chinese food on Christmas became a veritable Jewish American tradition. She also tells us about the Dumpling Emoji Project, her campaign to get a dumpling added to the canon of emoji available on your smartphone. While you’re Netflix-ing on Christmas Day, check out the excellent documentary she produced, The Search for General Tso. We wish you a merry, Unorthodox Christmas, no matter how you celebrate. Now pass the lo mein. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast.  You can watch SyFy's Childhood's End online at http://www.syfy.com/childhoodsend/episodes, and Orange is the New Black on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/mx-en/title/70242311. For more on Jennifer 8. Lee, check out http://www.jennifer8lee.com/, and http://fortunecookiechronicles.com/. Show your support for the dumpling emoji campaign at https://www.change.org/p/unicode-consortium-we-need-a-dumpling-emoji. 

This week on Unorthodox, a special live taping from the nation's capital featuring Jewish food maven Joan Nathan and New Republic writer Elizabeth Bruenig, and much, much more This week, Unorthodox heads to our nation's capital for a special live episode at the Washington DCJCC. Our Jewish guest is food maven and Tablet contributor Joan Nathan, who discusses her Yemenite chicken soup recipe and explains why we're all missing out on Libyan Jewish cuisine. She tells us about her favorite chefs, visits to the White House, and which president she considers the 'most Jewish.'  Our non-Jewish guest is Elizabeth Bruenig, who writes about Christianity, politics, and poverty for the New Republic. She tells us how a Methodist from Texas ended up at Brandeis University—and then converted to Catholicism. Her question for the panel is whether Bernie Sanders' campaign has been exciting for Jews to watch.  For more Joan Nathan, visit http://joannathan.com/, or get her Tablet recipes at http://www.tabletmag.com/author/jnathan. You find Elizabeth Bruenig's articles athttps://newrepublic.com/authors/elizabeth-bruenig. For more of our in-house Jewbadour, Jim Knable, check out jimknable.com.  We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. 

On this week's episode: America’s most badass Supreme Court Justice and TV’s most visible rabbi. Our Jewish guest is MSNBC reporter Irin Carmon, whose new book, Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is a smart, entertaining biography of the Supreme Court justice. She tells us about RBG’s recent turn as a feminist pop culture icon, her important role on the Supreme Court today, and the octogenarian’s impressive workout routine. Our non-Jewish guest is actress Kathryn Hahn, who tells us what it’s like to regularly play Jewish characters (see: Transparent, Afternoon Delight, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days). She explains how she prepared for her latest role as Rabbi Raquel Fein on Jill Soloway’s Amazon hit Transparent, which returns Friday for Season 2. She asks the panel about Judaism’s earliest female rabbis. Our next episode will be a live taping on Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Washington DC JCC, in Washington, D.C. You can buy tickets at http://thejdc.convio.net/site/Calendar?id=151257&view=Detail. To buy Notorious RBG, go to http://notoriousrbg.tumblr.com/book. For more Transparent, check out amazon.com/transparent. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. 

This week, we're, we’re ringing in the Festival of Lights with a special episode filled with Unorthodox holiday cheer, Adam Sandler’s updated “Hanukkah Song,” and a whole lot of latkes. We’re joined by Jewish competitive eater Don Moses Lerman, who comes out of retirement to see how many Russ & Daughters potato latkes he can eat in five minutes on the air. Tablet columnist Marjorie Ingall, who previously gave us a crash course in pre-Yom Kippur apologies, stops by with some advice on how not to make Hanukkah all about the presents for kids, and recommends the best new Jewish children's books. Tablet’s art director Esther Werdiger also returns this week with a tale of Hanukkah Down Under—where the holiday falls smack in the middle of summer, and instead of snowflakes and fireplaces there are arbecues and beach parties. We're recording a live show December 15 at 7 p.m. at the Washington DC JCC in Washington, D.C. You can buy tickets here: http://thejdc.convio.net/site/Calendar?id=151257&view=Detail.  Let us know what you really think of Unorthodox! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. You can sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast.  For more about Don Lerman, check out his website: http://www.donmoseslerman.com/. You can find Marjorie Ingall's list of the best children's books of 2015 here:http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/195314/best-jewish-childrens-books-2015.