Sue Frumin is a post-doctoral researcher at Bar Ilan University and archaeobotanist. Sue works in the archaebotany lab run by Professor Ehud Weiss at the university. She is one of the co-authors of a 2015 paper that examined the impact of the Philistine migration on biodiversity in the Southern Levant. You can check out the paper here

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Gideon Bohak is a Professor in the Department of Jewish Philosophy and Talmud at Tel Aviv University. He is a specialist in Jewish magic, especially in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in the study of the Cairo Genizah. In this episode of the podcast, we spoke about Jewish magical practices of late antiquity and the use of Jewish amulets, incantation bowls, and manuals in Aramaic and Hebrew. You can purchase Professor Bohak's book Ancient Jewish Magic on Amazon.

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Professor David Ilan has come back to discuss the Chalcolithic age in the Southern Levant (4500 - 3700 BC) and specifically theories concerning religious beliefs about death and reincarnation. Professor Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Tel Dan excavations. You can read a paper that he co-authored with Professor Yorke Rowan of the University of Chicago, "Deconstructing and Recomposing the Narrative of Spiritual Life in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant" here.

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Roni-Henkin is an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. We spoke about the contact between Palestinian Arabic and Israeli Hebrew and how the two languages have interacted with one another for over a century. One item we did not get around to discussing, but is still important, is the major phenomenon of codeswitching among young Palestinians, and the sociolinguistic implications as it relates to education, social status, and ethnic loyalties. You can download Professor Henkin's research on this topic at Academia.edu

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Lily Kahn is a Professor of Hebrew and Jewish languages at University College London. Professor Kahn is also a scholar of the Yiddish language and published the book Colloquial Yiddish, which can be purchased on Amazon.

In our talk, we examined the history of Yiddish, its rise, fall, and resurgence, and also how the language continues to change and develop.

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Professor David Ilan serves as the Director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem and the Director of the Tel Dan excavations. Our discussion focused on Professor Ilan’s new theory surrounding the emergence of Israelite settlements in the hill country of Canaan.

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Eric Cline is a Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and Anthropology and the Director of the GWU Capitol Archaeological Institute. He's also the author of the book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, which covers the Bronze Age collapse, its causes, and what we can learn from it. You can purchase the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Nesrin Amin, the founder, and host of the Bilmasri blog and podcast. Bilmasri is a blog & podcast dedicated to the Egyptian dialect, its sounds, structures, vocabulary, and the culture behind it. You can download episodes of the Podcast from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others and check out the blog at Bilmasri.com 

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In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Dawn Chatty who is the former director of the Refugee Studies Center at the University of Oxford, a Fellow of the British Academy and an internationally recognized expert on Bedouin culture and tribalism. She is the author of From Camel to Truck - The Bedouin in the Modern World. We spoke about her decades of experience researching the Bedouin of the Levant, their history, customs, and current situation in Syria.

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In this episode of the podcast, we spoke with Professor Devin Naar who is the Sephardic Studies Program Chair, Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies, and an Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. We spoke about the Ladino language, its history and cultural legacy and efforts underway at the university to preserve Ladino for future generations. You can learn more about the efforts underway at the University of Washington to preserve the Ladino language and Sephardic culture on the website of the Sephardic Studies Digital Library.

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