Episode Details

David Denby, long time New York Magazine film critic and acclaimed New Yorker writer, joins me to discuss his captivating new book "Eminent Jews." He examines how Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer—all born within eight years of each other—wielded their Jewish heritage as a creative weapon in post-WWII America. In our conversation, Denby reveals how these boundary-breaking figures transformed American culture with their bold, unapologetic genius while embodying a new Jewish confidence.