Jill Santopolo on Being a “Pizza Bagel”, and Fiction as a Way to Make History More Human
The long-awaited follow-up to the Reese’s Book Club pick and New York Times bestselling global phenomenon The Light We Lost: a thrilling love story about the roles fate and choice play in shaping a li...
13 Maj 202546min
Allison Epstein on Taking on One of Literature’s Most Notoriously Antisemitic Characters
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of nineteenth-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after...
6 Maj 202545min
Nicole Graev Lipson on the Attention, Intention, and Complexity of Mothers
What does it take to escape the plotlines mapped onto us? Searching for clues in the work of her literary foremothers, Lipson untangles what it means to be a girl, a woman, a lover, a partner, a daugh...
29 Apr 202549min
Gayle Forman on Judy Blume, Taylor Swift, and the Innate Goodness of Young People
To say Alex has had it rough is an understatement. His father's gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he's now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have h...
22 Apr 202558min
Jennifer Weiner on Pushing Back Against De-Jewified Last Names, “Women’s Fiction,” and Activism in the Face of Despair
Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were thrust into the spotlight as The Griffin Sisters, a pop duo that defined the aughts. Together, they skyrocketed to the top, gracing MTV, SNL, and the cover of Rolling Sto...
15 Apr 202552min
Dara Horn on Being the Lorax at Her Seder Table
Dara Horn is the award-winning author of six books, including the novels The World to Come, All Other Nights, and the essay collection People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. Her latest...
8 Apr 202555min
BONUS: Dara Horn on Tevye the Dairyman
Award-winning author Dara Horn is also a professor of Jewish literature. In discussing the Tevye story, she went into a deep dive, explaining each of the daughters’ marriages as a confrontation with a...
8 Apr 20257min
Georgia Hunter on Discovering her Family’s Jewish History and Kindness as Resistance
When Georgia Hunter was fifteen years old, she discovered that she came from a family of Holocaust survivors. Years later, she embarked on a journey of intensive research, determined to unearth and re...
1 Apr 202552min
