Unorthodox

This week on Unorthodox: Kappa connections, ruff times for dogs in Iran, and a new original song from our in-house Jewbadour Jim Knable. Our Jewish guest is Rebecca Schiff, whose debut short story collection, The Bed Moved, was published in April .  She reads us one of the stories, and tells us what her mom thinks of the sex and pot references in the book, and why she’s attracted to Jewish guys. Our Gentile of the Week is Mo Rocca, NPR ‘Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me’ regular. The former Daily Show fixture and VH1 commentator (he Loves the 80s) tells us about the time he judged a Trump-owned Miss U.S.A. pageant, his hamantaschen-baking habit, and what gentiles say when the Jews leave the room. If you like listening to us each week, consider making a contribution to keep Unorthodox going until 120. All sorts of on-air goodies await those who donate at tabletmag.com/donate.  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, El Al helps herd biblical sheep to Israel. Our Jewish guest is Matthew Futterman, senior special writer for sports at The Wall Street Journal and the author of Players: The Story of Sports and Money, and the Visionaries Who Fought to Create a Revolution. He tells us how NFL quarterbacks used to sell real estate in the off-season to support themselves, plus what he’s looking forward to at this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio and why water polo is an underrated Olympic sport. Our Gentile of the Week is longtime book editor Ann Patty, whose memoir, Living with a Dead Language: My Romance with Latin, is about how she decided to learn Latin after leaving the publishing industry. She tells us about the Vassar students she met in her introductory Latin class, and the week-long Latin camp she’s attending this summer. 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: public swimming pool drama in Brooklyn, and one Jewish man’s unusual sperm donation program. We don’t have a Jewish guest this week, but we have reached peak gentile: award-winning architect Duo Dickinson, a cradle Episcopalian, joins us for a lively discussion about Jews, WASPs, and the difference between designing a church and a synagogue. We also get a visit from our producer Julie’s daughter Leah, who joins us on-air for a discussion of presumed Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.  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, Unorthodox jumpstarts the Father’s Day festivities with a special episode—because is there any figure more overlooked and misunderstood than the Jewish father? Liel talks to Tablet’s Gabe Sanders about archetypal father figures, starting with the biblical Abraham, and how their own identities changed when they became fathers. Stephanie sits down with Unorthodox regular Marjorie Ingall to break down the problematic aspects of Father’s Day, as well as the tough rap Jewish dads get—and how that’s wrapped up in the Jewish mother stereotype. Mark sits down with his dad, Tim Oppenheimer, who opens up about everything from his father’s many marriages and divorces to his own depression after his youngest child left for college.   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.  We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at

This week on the show: Nazis, Taylor Swift, and cats—the Unorthodox trifecta. Our Jewish guest is Chicago native Jeff Aeder, who founded the online Jewish Baseball Museum. The Cubs fan tells us about some of the lesser-known Jewish figures in America’s national pastime, why he thinks we need a museum dedicated to Jews in baseball, and when we can expect a brick-and-mortar outpost. Our Gentile of the Week is Carrie Poppy—writer, actress, and co-host of the podcast Oh No Ross and Carrie, which investigates fringe science and religious groups. She tells us the wackiest movement she’s encountered and what she thinks draws people to these kinds of groups. 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, the '90s are back: The Intifada is all the rage at UC Irvine, 90210's Andrea Zuckerman is on our minds, and a Clinton is running for president. Our Jewish guest is BuzzFeed News national reporter Amanda Chicago Lewis, who covers the burgeoning marijuana industry and the politics of legalization. In lieu of a Gentile of the Week, we read from a Jews for Jesus pamphlet left in the lobby of our producer Julie’s apartment building. 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, Unorthodox goes back to high school. This episode was recorded live from the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, N.C, the world's only International Jewish College Prep boarding school. Our Jewish guest is former North Carolina State Senator Marshall Rauch, who when he was elected in 1967 became the first Jew in the state senate, where he spearheaded legislation making Yom Kippur a state holiday. Our Gentile of the Week is musician Judith Saxton, who is in her tenth year as Trumpet Artist/Faculty and Brass/Percussion Chair at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and is principal cornet of the North Carolina Brass Band.  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: Gentiles love Manischewitz, the new Han Solo’s Jewish, and Nazi pugs exist. Our Jewish guest is Rosie Schaap, “Drink” columnist for the New York Times Magazine and the author of Drinking With Men: A Memoir. She tells us why there’s more to bars than drinking and the cocktail essentials every drinker should have at home. Our Gentile of the Week is Doug Henwood, publisher of Left Business Observer and the author of the 2015 anti-Hillary book, My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency. He tells us what he thinks will happen to Bernie’s campaign and who he’d vote for in a Clinton-Trump election. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. Come see us live May 16 at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina. 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 o

This week on Unorthodox: Broad City skewers Birthright. Our Jewish guest is literary agent and author Betsy Lerner, whose latest book, The Bridge Ladies, tells the story of the women in her mother’s bridge group, which has been meeting weekly for 50 years. Our Gentile of the Week is CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, who covers the 2016 election with a special focus on identity politics, exploring the dynamics of demographics, race and religion.  We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. Come see us live at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina, on May 16. 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, we’re searching for chametz and waiting for the Red Sea to part. Our Jewish guest is comedian David Tuchman, who hosts the lively and irreverent-er OMGWTFBIBLE podcast, which each week features a guest reading from Tuchman’s own translation of the Bible, while he chimes in with jokes. He tells us how getting started in comedy unexpectedly brought him back to his yeshiva roots. Our Gentile of the Week is Irish journalist Maitiú Ó Coimin, who took issue with Mark Oppenheimer’s characterization a few episodes back of Irish as a language no one speaks anymore. He schools us on the vibrant and large Irish speaking community, and curses Mark out in Irish. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. Come see us live at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina, on May 16. This episode of Unorthodox is brought to you by Harry’s. Stop overpaying for a great shave. Go to Harrys.com and ente

This week, Unorthodox heads to Palo Alto, California, for a special live taping at the Oshman Family JCC. Our Jewish guest is Eddan Katz, a cyber-crime lawyer who founded Sudo Room, a hackerspace in Oakland. Our Gentile of the Week is Amanda Bradford, founder and CEO of The League, an invite-only dating app that uses data from Facebook and LinkedIn to match its highly selective pool of ambitious singles. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast. Come see us live at the American Hebrew Academy in Greensboro, North Carolina, on May 16.

This week on Unorthodox: Tel Aviv, so hot right now. Our Jewish guest is writer Jillian Keenan, whose first book, Sex with Shakespeare, explores her dual passions for the Bard and BDSM. She tells us why she identifies with Caliban from The Tempest, and who she thinks is the most underrated Shakespeare character. Our Gentile of the Week is Jeff Yang, editor and publisher of aMagazine, an Asian American periodical, whose son, Hudson Yang, stars on ABC’sFresh Off the Boat. He tells us about his enduring love for comic books, and what it’s like having his 12-year-old son star on a sitcom. 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. 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: Scottish Jews get their own official tartan. Our Jewish guest is L. Jon Wertheim, executive editor of Sports Illustrated and the co-author of the book, This is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What we Can Learn from the T-Shirt Cannon. He tells us how he got into sports journalism, and what he thinks the least Jewish sports are. Our Gentile of the Week is Imani Perry, professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton. She tells us why she thinks Bernie Sanders should have more support from African American voters, and what she really thinks of Drake. 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: Israeli actress Gal Gadot proves she’s Wonder Woman off-screen, too. Our Jewish guest is Ladino singer-songwriter Sarah Aroeste, who tells us what Ladino is, and why it’s so important to keep the Sephardic language and culture alive. She performs a song from her new Ladino children’s album, and (warning!) even gets the hosts to sing along. Our Gentile of the Week is ACLU lawyer Gillian Thomas, whose new book, Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women’s Lives at Work, explores the impact of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibited gender discrimination in the workplace. She tells us how much progress we've actually made in the 50 years since the trailblazing women she profiles took their fight for workplace equality to the Supreme Court. 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: Name-calling at a basketball game between a Catholic high school and a heavily Jewish public school in a Boston suburb takes a weirdly dark turn. Our Jewish guest is Jessamyn Hope, whose debut novel, Safekeeping, tells the intertwined stories of several strangers who find their way to a kibbutz in the summer of 1994, and was partly inspired by her own brief stay on a kibbutz. Our other Jewish guest (we are short a Gentile of the Week–forgive us!) is legal scholar Lawrence Douglas, whose latest book, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial, chronicles the dramatic effort to try the former Nazi known as Ivan the Terrible. 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: Israeli settlers and Palestinians working together… to grow marijuana. Our Jewish guest is Eric Weiner, author of the new book, The Geography of Genius. He tells us the cities throughout history most conducive to breeding genius, how he really feels about Silicon Valley, and whether cats are smarter than dogs. Our Gentile of the Week is Katherine Connor Martin, editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and the New Oxford American Dictionary. She tells us why "Trumpmentum" doesn’t hold a candle to "Joementum," and asks about the difference between the words kippah, yarmulke, and skullcap.

This week on Unorthodox: the Oscars' Jewish highlights (and lowlights). Our Jewish guest, Adam Kantor, plays the tailor Mottel Kamzoil in the Broadway revivial of "Fiddler on the Roof," which opened in December. He made his Broadway debut in 2008 as Mark Cohen in "Rent." Our Gentile of the Week is writer and comedian Mandy Stadtmiller. She discusses her new Unwifeable column for New York magazine (and her recent wedding) and the mysteries of Kabbalah. We love to hear from you! Email us at Unorthodox@tabletmag.com. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at http://bit.ly/UnorthodoxPodcast.

Our Jewish guest this week is Ben Ostrower, whose design firm created Bernie Sanders’ logo. He tells us how campaign logos have evolved over time and how the Obama campaign catapulted branding and logos to the forefront of election-season consciousness. Our Gentile of the Week is Chris Eigeman, who made his acting debut as preppy New York City teen Nick Smith in Whit Stillman’s 1990 film, Metropolitan. He tells us about playing an Upper East Side WASP despite being from Denver and his latest directing project. 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: Klezmer aerobics and the strangest bris story you've ever heard. Our Jewish guest is Daniel Oppenheimer, author of the new book, Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century. He’s also—you guessed it—the brother of our host Mark Oppenheimer. Our Gentile of the Week is novelist and essayist Roxane Gay, whose latest book, Bad Feminist, cleverly tackles issues in contemporary feminism alongside considerations of culture, identity, and race. 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 a special Valentine’s Day episode, Unorthodox plays Yenta. Our Jewish guest is Jill Kargman—creator, writer, producer, and star of the Bravo comedy Odd Mom Out, a thinly-veiled satire of life and motherhood on the Upper East Side, a world the lifelong New Yorker is no stranger to and isn’t afraid to lampoon. A few weeks ago we put out a call for listeners who wanted to be set up by Unorthodox, and we were so overwhelmed by the amount and quality of the submissions we received that we enlisted the help of an expert: professional dating coach Nancy Slotnick. She preps us for our first Unorthodox matchmaking session, in which we meet Shira Ginsburg, a cantor and singer based in New York City who’s looking for her beshert. Know a great guy for Shira? 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 chec