Over on Candy Chat Chicago, Ronnie Raviv joined hosts Leah Jones and Jocelyn Geboy to talk about medical diagnoses, Finland, the Ice Hotel, the last Bears game of the post-season, all while eating a lot of Finnish candy.

Candy that we sample during the episode. Photos on Threads

Vestibular Schwannoma or Acoustic Neuroma information

Mayo Clinic

Dr. Ricky Wong

Ronnie and Leah's guide to Lapland

Time-lapse drive to Sweden:

Housing between Kittila/Levy and Muonio

Appropriate clothing

Places we ate in Finland

Finland activities and vendors

Ice hotel in Sweden

https://www.icehotel.com/ 

What we did

Ice Hotel suggestions

Overall thoughts

A few notes on traveling fat and mobility-impaired

It's time for our annual Best of Call In show where past guests and listeners send in voice memos of some of their favorite things from 2025. This year's episode includes a 30 minute interlude with Rabbi Michael Zedek to talk about his newest book!

Rabbi Michael Zedek

People are Like...

Taking Miracles Seriously

TedX The Four Beautifuls

Korman Siblings

Hosts of Friday Night Movie Podcast

Producers of The Floaters

Pam Rose

Abbas Jaffary

Steve Higgins

Andy 

Jasmine Davila

Ezra Butler - independent researcher

Jute Backerei in Berlin

Jesse Dukes - host of Upper Middle Brow

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Max Klau, an author, musician and social change agent, joined Leah in October to talk about his new book, a new album and making art in dangerous times. Max and Leah met through New Politics Academy and his book Developing Servant Leaders at Scale dives into his tried and true methods for self-discovery. 

Follow Max online

Developing Servant Leaders at Scale by Max Klau: https://bookshop.org/p/books/developing-servant-leaders-at-scale-how-to-do-it-and-why-it-matters-max-klau/a9fe513c6a63c3ca?ean=9781837081653

Max's website: https://www.maxklau.com/

Max's LinkedIn for workshop info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-klau-0319a11/ 

The Max Klau Band: https://www.maxklau.com/music

New Politics Academy: https://www.newpoliticsacademy.org/

James Talarico: https://jamestalarico.com/

Kansas Leadership Center: https://kansasleadershipcenter.org/

Inner Development Goals: https://innerdevelopmentgoals.org/

Stutz: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21819228/

Jessi Bender on Finding Favorites: https://findingfavorites.podbean.com/e/jesi-bender-victorian-utica/

I Fight Dragons: https://ifightdragons.com/

Tour:Smart by Martin Atkins: https://martinatkins.bigcartel.com/product/tour-smart-digital-book

Moshav: https://www.moshavband.com/

Bob Schneider: https://www.bobschneider.com/

Michael Shelley: https://michaelshelley.net/

WFMU: https://wfmu.org/ 

Finding Favorites is (once again) edited and mixed by Rob Abrazado. Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Ry Jones, an open source community architect and Leah's older brother, loves sending postcards when he travels. We dig into his postcard habits and he also shares the different ways that he supports the war effort in Ukraine through Car for Ukraine and Help99.

Follow Ry online

Support Ukraine

Postcrossing

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Suzanne Reisman is one of Leah's friends from MySpace and they sat down to talk about her viral sensation - the New York City History of Garbage and Rats walking tour! Coming soon to a newspaper or TV near you! She's been featured in Time Out NYC, the NY Post, Nebraska and Australian radio shows, and even made it to newspapers in Europe and Chinatown. We dig deep on how (and why) she created the  walking tour before talking about her favorite moment of the day.

Follow Suzanne online

[email protected]

Show notes

Shoe Recommendations

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Author/artist Jesi Bender joined Leah to talk about her novel Child of Light, available from Whiskey Tit press, and Victorian houses in Utica, New York.

Note from Leah: In this episode, I boldly say that there are no Victorian houses in Chicago, because they all burnt down in the Chicago fire. I couldn't have been more wrong.

Follow Jesi Bender online

Show Notes

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

To kick off the month of Elul and High Holy Day preparations, Leah sat down with Sarah Osborne, founder of A Mitzvah to Eat, to talk about how her organizations supports Jews who are unable to fast on days like Yom Kippur. We also talk about leadership, our mutual friend Evonne, and tongue drums.

Order your A Mitzvah to Eat care package by September 12, 2025 to receive before Yom Kippur. 

A Mitzvah to Eat

https://fnd.us/a-mitzvah-to-eat-care-packages

https://www.amitzvahtoeat.org/

https://www.amitzvahtoeat.org/about

https://www.amitzvahtoeat.org/yom-kippur-1

Show Notes

https://findingfavorites.podbean.com/e/evonne-marzouk-writing/

Tongue drum: https://www.balmyworld.com/products/sound-healing?

https://www.mayyimhayyim.org/

https://www.mayyimhayyim.org/ceremonies/

https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08712-2.html?

https://slate.com/culture/2025/08/long-story-short-netflix-show-pandemic-covid-grief.html

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33247080/

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Shai Korman, one of the Friday Night Movie podcast hosts, is on the road with a movie he produced with his sisters. He took a break in between festivals to talk about The Floaters, film festivals and Weird Al. 

Follow Shai online

Show Links

Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.

Israel-based educator and writer Sharna Marcus joined Leah on Friday, June 20th, to share the story of how she was able to get to Indiana from Israel during the active war with Iran. Spoiler alert: a cargo ship was involved.

We talk about her work as a Middle East history educator, the damage done by the "weapons of mass destruction" lies told by the Bush administration, finding Jewish identity and community, and more. 

Follow Sharna online

Note from Leah: The podcast is just on a break while I recover from gallbladder surgery in march, moving in late April, and figuring out a whole new apartment. We recorded this episode before the US got involved directly in the war and I'm releasing it a few days after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel started. 

In case it does not "go without saying" I deeply desire all of the hostages should be returned home immediately, that humanitarian aid needs to flow into the Gaza strip, and that I desire peace and safety for all people living in and around Israel. I don't know how we get there.

A few other links

Author Lee Upton joined Leah to talk about her newest book Wrongful, available for pre-order now for May 1 delivery, and about how she became a bunny person.

PSA: Bunnies are exotic pets and not responsible Easter presents. Stick to chocolate and toy bunnies today!

Where was the podcast? Leah had emergency gall bladder surgery which meant hitting eject from her life for about a month. So happy to be back on the mic and to welcome back engineer-extraordinaire Rob Abrazado.

Wrongful is available for pre-order now and releases May 1, 2025: https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/catalog/wrongful/

Lee's website: https://www.leeupton.com/

Sagging Meniscus Press: https://www.saggingmeniscus.com/

Tabitha, Get Up: https://bookshop.org/p/books/tabitha-get-up-lee-upton/21257767

Kate Racculia: https://www.kateracculia.com/

Agatha Christie: https://www.agathachristie.com/

The Withers (coming in 2026 from Regal House Publishing): https://regalhousepublishing.com/forthcoming-publications/

Book & Puppet Co.: https://www.bookandpuppet.com/

Ghostlit: https://bookshop.org/p/books/ghostlit-poems/121f3a980b2b881e

On the Rocks: https://www.theodoraziolkowski.com/books

Asterism: https://asterismbooks.com/

I Am a Bunny: https://bookshop.org/p/books/i-am-a-bunny-ole-risom/8547916

Michael Sowa: https://michaelsowa-art.de/

Bunny by Mona Awad: https://bookshop.org/p/books/bunny-mona-awad/12087549

Alice in Wonderland: https://bookshop.org/p/books/alice-in-wonderland-illustrated-lewis-carroll/7841425

Rabbit, Run (the first book in John Updike's Rabbit series): https://bookshop.org/p/books/rabbit-run-john-updike/11076364

The Velveteen Rabbit: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-velveteen-rabbit-margery-williams-bianco/19005883

Donnie Darko: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578/

Harvey: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042546/

Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery (the first book of the Bunnicula series): https://bookshop.org/p/books/bunnicula-a-rabbit-tale-of-mystery-deborah-howe/286233

Bunnicula (TV series): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5444412/

Watership Down: https://bookshop.org/p/books/watership-down-richard-adams/286191

The House Rabbit Society: https://houserabbit.org/

POP Cats: https://popcats.co/

Finding Favorites is edited and mixed by Rob Abrazado. Follow Finding Favorites on Instagram at @FindingFavsPod and leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, GoodPods or Spotify. Got a question or want to suggest a guest? email Leah at [email protected]

Support Finding Favorites by shopping for books by guests or recommended by guests on Bookshop.