For this episode, I have asked the program Notebook LM to generate a two person discussion of the history of science fiction. This is ahead of a conversation I will be having with a rabbi who has written a fascinating novel in which an AI not only falls in love, but converts to Judaism! I promise that I won’t be using AI often, but it seems fitting with our idea of space travel because no doubt our ship will be assisted by AI systems.

Shalom, mishpocha! Welcome to the first episode of Jews in Space, where I talk to Sarah Blake, the author of several of my favorite books, about what life is like on an ark ship. She has two books that deal with this directly. The first, a collection of poems titled Let’s Not Live on Earth, includes an epic poem about life on just such a spaceship. She’s also written about Naamah, Noah’s wife, in a novel reimagining her life on the original ark. (Note: where possible, I’ll use links to Bookshop to support independent book sellers. When a book is not available through them, I will post a link to Amazon.) Join me while we talk about those books and what goes in to imagining life in the confined space of an ark ship!

As always, your support means a great deal. Subscribe to keep the podcast going and to allow me to pay our guests.

A little bit more about my vision for this web series? Podcast? (Can someone PLEASE tell me what this is!) Now with subscriber comments turned on!

Welcome to the soft launch of Jews in Space, a bi-weekly podcast in which I’ll talk to different Jewish creators, writers, artists, and clergy about what life would look like aboard an ark ship populated entirely by Jews! I hope you’ll join me on this science fictional exploration of mitzvot, minhag, and mishpocha in space…