Podcast Episodes

Georgia Hunter on Discovering her Family’s Jewish History and Kindness as Resistance

Season 2 Episode 3

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 r…

Published on 5 months, 4 weeks ago

Rob Kutner on Writing for The Daily Show, Conan, and How Comedy and Judaism Overlap

Season 2 Episode 2

Rob Kutner’s new irreverent book on Jewish history, The Jews: 5000 Years and Counting covers every major moment in Jewish history from Adam and Eve to Tuesday’s rerun of Seinfeld. This book will make…

Published on 6 months ago

Allegra Goodman on Making the Exotic Familiar, and Finding the Modern in Ancient Words

Season 2 Episode 1

Isola is inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, and is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival. 

Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and …

Published on 6 months, 1 week ago

Introducing Chutzpod!

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to Chutzpod, a podcast that offers frank and wide-ranging conversations on how to build a good life.

Each week on Chutzpod, Rabbi Shira Stutman and co-host Hanna …

Published on 7 months ago

We'd love to hear your feedback!

Season 1 Episode 13

We just finished our very first season of The Five Books! While we're preparing Season 2, we'd love to hear what you thought of our show. You can email us at team@fivebookspod.org.

We will be back on…

Published on 7 months, 1 week ago

Tova Mirvis on Community, Belonging, and Forgiveness

Season 1 Episode 12

We Would Never is a riveting literary page-turner that maps the extremes to which a family will go in order to protect their own.

No one appears more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under …

Published on 7 months, 2 weeks ago

Bonny Reichert on Food, Fear, and Finding Beauty

Season 1 Episode 11

Bonny Reichert avoided everything to do with the Holocaust. The journalist had grown up hearing stories about her father’s near-starvation and ultimate survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but she never i…

Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago

Jessica Elisheva Emerson on Belief, Identity, and Women’s Desire

Season 1 Episode 10

Olive Days is a novel about Rina Kirsch, a young mother and Modern Orthodox Jew in Los Angeles. But a contradiction burns at her center: Rina is an atheist. She is also stymied in her life and marria…

Published on 8 months ago

Elyssa Friedland on Being a First Generation American and Why Representation in Books Matters

Season 1 Episode 9

After the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection–but they couldn’t be more wrong.

The Jacobson chi…

Published on 8 months, 1 week ago

Gila Pfeffer on Finding Meaning and Humor in the Darkest Times

Season 1 Episode 8

By the time she was thirty, Gila Pfeffer was the oldest living member of her family, having lost her mother to breast cancer and her father to colon cancer. A simple blood test confirmed she carried …

Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago