Chosen People Problems

By Ark MediaNews Religion & Spirituality Judaism

Chosen People Problems episodes

January 08, 2024 Pizza Bagels - with Mike Pesca
This week on Ask A Jew, the girls sit down with their colleague at the top of the podcasting charts Mike Pesca, who just returned from his first ever reporting trip to Israel. We discuss the war with Hamas, growing up Italian and Jewish, and attempt to answer some of the nation’s most divisive questions like - does ketchup belong on a bagel? Should the voting age be raised to 45? And what kind of Jews wear hats?

Mike Pesca is host of "The Gist" the longest running daily news podcast in history, consistently ranked in Apple's Top 20 Daily News charts. During his 10 years as a correspondent for NPR, Mike has guest hosted All Things Considered and the news quiz Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. His work has been featured on This American Life, Radiolab, and Planet Money. He has frequently appeared on MSNBC, CNN, and The PBS Newshour, and written for The Washington Post, The Guardian, GQ, Slate, and Baseball Prospectus.

More Mike Pesca - https://www.mikepesca.com/

Here is Mike talking about his Israel trip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMRuqfbfhjo

Follow him on Susbtack and Twitter too

Upon Further Review - The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History - https://www.mikepesca.com/publications

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1 hr 18 min
January 02, 2024 Righteous Among the Gentiles - W/ Michael Moynihan
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1 hr 24 min
December 21, 2023 A Rabbi "Jewsplains" Christmas Music
This week we are re-airing one of our favorite episodes, "All I want for Christmas is Jews", from December 2022. In this episode we interview Rabbi David Komerofsky, an expert on Christmas music. I know, right??

If Rabbi K's name sounds familiar, it's because his congregation in Canton, Ohio was just the target of a shooting plot by a 13-year-old. Such are the times.

But first - Chaya Leah is back from Israel and we talk about the horrors she saw there, as well as the horrors she saw in her hometown of Long Beach.

0:47 is where the Christmas Episode begins

All I Want For Chsitmas is Jews Spotify Playlist

Trouble in the LBC

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2 hr 7 min
December 15, 2023Vote
Thank you to everyone who showed up at the Hanukkah Party! It was lots of fun, we had donuts, drinks, home made hamentaschen (why not!) and more laughs than awkward introductions. Lets do it again sometime! Pics here.

This week:
Pray for the social media manager
The IDF is gay, ew/The IDF isn’t gay enough
Would you take a bullet for your Twitter friends?
Sweet Chabad kids
What it's like in Israel right now
Move over Julian Edelman
That Spielberg with his Jew obsession, ugh.
Do we care what the world thinks?
Listener questions! Thank you for writing in, you can send us Qs on substack or email [email protected].
Chaya Leah’s cleaning lady just doesn’t get it!

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1 hr 14 min
December 06, 2023 Every Dog Will Have Its Day
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY, DEC 13 Hanukkah Bash - 3 sheets bar, 134 West 3rd street, 6pm. RSVP

More info on askajew.substack.com

In a nice catch-up episode we discuss this non-fun rollercoaster of emotions, turn our rage to all different directions (this was before the congressional hearing on Antisemitism featuring your favorite Ivy Leage presidents), discuss masterpieces like "Gremlins 2" and "Untamed Heart", and contemplate the legitimacy of Hanukkah decorations.

PLUS:

Help Hamas catcalled me

Can Jews pull this off?

Why going to the movies is sexy

The greatest moment in the movie Gremlins 2

Israeli launch non-proportional diss track against Nassrallah and Bellah Hadid

Horrific testomonies of sexual violence

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1 hr 11 min
November 29, 2023Spirals of Silence w/ Jonathan Rauch
As part of our ongoing therapy, we welcomed Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jonathan is one of our favorite authors, and his books “Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought” and “The Constitution of Knowledge - A Defense of Truth” are heavily earmarked in both our bookshelves.

We ask Jonathan to help us hold on to our values and ideals in the face of October 7th, when everything we thought we knew was challenged. We talk about moral courage, what the roles of universities should be, how silence can be weaponized to make us feel like a minority, and we draw some optimism from Jonathan’s struggle for gay marriage – when it seemed like the whole world was against him.
Why JR was not surprised by the reaction to October 7th
And why it’s good that the veil came off
It is your job to educate
“Ohio State opposed Genocide” – does it matter?
When massacre and rape are too controversial to condemn
Swastika graffiti is too easy to condemn
Spirals of silence and false consensus
If you don’t speak up – you lose.
The parallels to Jonathan’s fight for gay marriage
Are idealism and policy incompatible?
The amazing story of Frank Kameny
Fallibilism > skepticism.
What JR missed when he wrote Kindly Inquisitors
Twitter/X is an epistemic sewer
Civic literacy
Thanks for the free publicity, crazies
Don’t rise to the bait of the craziest person.
The person you need on your side is the quiet person in the middle
Optimistic? Hopeful.

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1 hr 14 min
November 21, 2023 The 4 Horsemen of the Jewpocalypse
~~Save the Date - December 13th Hannukah party in NYC~~

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam Harris is amazing.

Me too, unless you’re a jew

WHO? Unicef? UNHRC? GTFO

Ilhan "some of my best friends are Jewish" Omar

For the soul - Escaping Twin Flames on Netflix

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1 hr 13 min
November 16, 2023 Gen Z and the Z word - with Blake Flayton
We welcome young journalist and activist Blake Flayton, fresh off a ground invasion into academia. He tries to explain to us what is wrong with the kids today, what TikTok and peer pressure has to do with it, and why we need different kinds of Jews on campus.

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Blake’s NY Times piece about antisemitism on campus

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Make Zionism Sexy Again

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1 hr 7 min
November 06, 2023 Islamophobia Month Special - with the Habibi Bros Mujahed Kobbe and Siraj Hashmi
In honor of Islamophobia month, we detained Mujahed Kobbe and Siraj Hashmi, otherwise knows as the Habibi Bros, hosts of the Habibi Power Hour." Seriously, this is the most fun we’ve had all month - and that's before we strip searched them. Follow their show and socials if you don't believe us!

We heard these boys are safe and funny, but when Mujahed showed up to our video call with a background of a tunnel, we knew we had found our people.

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Send questions to [email protected]

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1 hr 27 min
October 31, 2023Return of the Jewish whisper - with Yossi Klein Halevi
The girls use their guest Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow at the Hartman Institute, as a free therapist.

Warning: This episode gets funny and lighthearted at times, some might even say optimistic. We talk:
Israeli music is so….Israeli.
Why is Yossi doing a bit better?
Hamas really messed up by making us stop hating each other.
Our leaders don’t deserve us
Moral failures
What the hell does Hashem want from us??
Even the orthodox are becoming Zionists (and why that’s weird)
Mental health help is not the answer to antisemitism
The privilege of the progressive Jew
Why there can never be a two-state solution and yet there HAS to be a two-state solution.
There are more people of good will on the other side than the right thinks, but less than the left thinks.

Links:

More about Yossi

https://www.yossikleinhalevi.com/

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Palestinian-Neighbor-Yossi-Halevi/dp/0062844911

Spotify Avoda Ivrit playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5RZ2TSTjeQqglz9G35n8Uk?si=mtj5VHRMQ0O4UN9m4CUpMw

The Genesis War - Yedidia Stern

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/yedidia-stern/

Chaya Leah's YKH-inspired playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oWIUXjGtjZwB9nOgQeFnh?si=S2kSqXUUTOCU7a70uYs0rw

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1 hr 11 min