Rabbi Steven Leder is a highly respected leader in the Jewish community and author of the new book More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us. He brings an inspiring message to the podcast about learning from and moving through pain and suffering to live a gentler, wiser and more beautiful life.

With personal stories that cover a variety of experiences, they explore how it feels to experience pain and grief yourself, as well as how to help others who might be suffering.

They talk about raising children and the risk of protecting them from pain, and Mark and Chuck also ask the Rabbi how people should handle their feelings of dissatisfaction and anxiety within the political climate.

Also on the podcast, Chuck and Mark talk about the pay raises and bonuses that business are handing out because of the tax cuts, while the people demanding a $15/hour minimum wage are staying silent. Mark relays the nightmare unfolding in Venezuela because of the government controlling business.

About the guest:

Rabbi Steven Z. Leder is the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles and the author of such critically acclaimed books as The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary Things and More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life without Losing Your Soul.

He has studied at Northwestern University; Trinity College, Oxford; and Hebrew Union College. He is a recipient of the American Jewish Press Association's Louis Rappaport Award for Excellence in Commentary and the Religious Action Center's Kovler Award, and he is a fellow in the British-American Project, a think tank bringing together leaders from America and Great Britain. Newsweek magazine named him one of the ten most influential rabbis in America.

Rabbi Leder lives with his family in Los Angeles.