Deep Meaningful Conversations

Anxiety is something we all have to deal with as human beings, even if we don’t have a clinical diagnosis. And if we do struggle with clinical anxiety, let’s try to take away the stigma surrounding mental illness, so YES we are all in for a DMC about anxiety. Especially one designed for frum women who are already dealing with so many additional demands due to the frum lifestyle. Our guest is Mrs....

Zeya is a queen when it comes to kosher comedy. Between her shows, youtube videos and her social media posts, Zeya makes us laugh about our foibles and everyday realities as frum women. However in this interview, we get deeper than expected about the power of comedy and the meaning Zeya finds in the work she does. This DMC is just in time for Purim, and we straight talk about the joys and challeng...

This episode of DMC is about the art of everyday living, and we couldn’t have this conversation without our guest, Raizy Fried, who is the queen of this art. Raizy’s been called the Jewish Martha Stewart, her platform Inspired Living is devoted to helping women run their homes more efficiently, entertain with practicality and style, and learn all the clever homemaking and organizing techniques the...

Female performers have had a renaissance in recent years, especially with live performances and concerts. In this episode of DMC, we go backstage with Chanale Fellig-Harrel, otherwise known as Chanale, who published her first album in the late 90s and she was one of the few frum female artists out there putting out albums and performing at the time. She’s also the consummate hustler, as evidenced...

In this episode of Deep Meaningful Conversations, we’re going deep with all things personal development with our guest, Jackie Glaser. Jackie is all about accessing your greatness and living life on purpose. She's a life coach, a dating coach, a leadership developer – and was the resident psychologist on the Today Show in Australia. She also served as the Director of Leadership Development for 12...

Welcome to a brand new season of Deep Meaningful Conversations, powered by Town Appliance! Parents in the audience, do you ever feel that while you have gained tools from the various parenting classes you’ve taken, some things feel left out or not addressed fully? No one parenting approach can fit all sizes – parents and children included – but the older we get and the more we learn, we’re able to...

We could all use that "older sister" who knows the answer to everything and gives us those tips and tricks to make our lives run smoother. Between Carpools, the lifestyle website for the busy Jewish woman run by five talented women, fills that need beautifully. We sat down and had a DMC with Leah Schapira, known at the ultimate connecter. Like it says on their website, every team needs a mover, sh...

In this DMC, we’re talking with Dr. Leslie Leslie Ginsparg Klein about the history of the Bais Yaakov Movement, the lessons and legacy of Sarah Schenirer, and about girls education today. Dr. Klein is the Academic Dean of Women’s Institute of Torah Seminary & College in Baltimore. She speaks on Jewish history, Tanach, leadership and communication skills across the United States and internation...

Love it or hate it (or some feeling in between), meal prep and cooking is a big part of our lives as frum women. Some of us are systems people, with our weekly menu plan and shopping list carefully constructed and executed. Others are more off the cuff, preparing meals that feel right at the moment, as needed (and praying that we have the ingredients already defrosted in our refrigerator!) In addi...

Parenting is all-encompassing and all-consuming, even if you’re not a helicopter parent. At the very bare minimum, we are tasked with keeping our offspring alive. Yet we also want to facilitate our children’s emotional, spiritual, psychological, physical, social and academic growth! And we very much don’t want to hinder their growth and development with our mistakes, missteps and full-blown fails....

24 years ago during candlelighting erev Yom Kippur, Chanie Bochner made the decision that she wanted to help others who were going through the same struggle as she was. What started as a grass-roots effort to support couples experiencing infertility morphed into an international organization that to date, has helped bring over 10,000 babies into this world. For this episode, we have the honor of s...

We’re entering the high holiday season. Quick, what’s the first word that enters your head? If it has anything to do with lists, shopping or cooking, don’t worry, you’re not alone. But brownie points to any of you who thought teshuva! This period is filled with both spiritual and physical demands. And as busy women, it’s easy to get stuck in the material demands of this season, and neglect the spi...

Welcome to our 20th episode of DMC! In this episode, we sit down with Zahava List to discuss mental health. She shares with us her own journey to mental health, her perspectives on stigma surrounding mental health in the frum community, and how and why she founded Chazkeinu, an organization which provides chizuk for all Jewish women coping with mental illness. By the end of today’s episode, we hop...

For this episode, we’re going with “work-family synergy” instead of the ubiquitous “work-life balance.” Why? Because balance, quite literally, means 50/50. And we all know when it comes to work and home life, that’s not always realistic or ideal. Synergy connotes a combination, hopefully one that is mutually advantageous. And it doesn’t tell us that our work and our home life needs to be balanced....

This episode really feels like a tackle. We’re talking about kallah classes, in other words, premarital education. Frum women have many feelings about their kallah classes. Kallah classes are typically where engaged women learn about the laws of family purity. When it comes to premarital education about intimacy, the amount of information shared in a kallah class is going to depend on numerous fac...

Humor is much more than cracking jokes and stand-up comedy routines. Tapping into the full power of humor has emotional and physical therapeutic benefits. It’s also a tool that is sourced in our Torah tradition. All in all, humor is actually good for you, and we wanted to know how we can utilize it more in our everyday interactions to improve our lives. Enter Yaffa Palti, who uses humor masterfull...

S2 Ep. 16 | Mini DMC about Parenting with Alex & Rivki

Tackling the topic of marriage DMC-style, we’re going with the assumption that everyone who is married experiences some sort of struggle or conflict. That there is at least one area in everyone’s marriage that needs improvement. But sometimes when we hear about “habits of highly effective marriages”, we can easily walk away feeling deflated and uninspired, disappointed that we don’t have those “ef...

Social media: keep or delete? This has been the conversation of late in the Orthodox world, and Alex and Rivki get deep and meaningful about their relationship with social media, and why they're choosing to grapple with it -- and silence notifications.  If you have any topics that you’d like to listen to Alex and Rivki have a mini DMC about, email them at dmc@meaningfulminute.org . Show notes: The...

On this episode of DMC, Alex and Rivki tackle body image. They share their thoughts on how this impacts frum women: the messaging we receive about our weight and size during our upbringing from home and peers, pressure due to shidduchim, pressure to keep off weight after the wedding and post pregnancy, and more. The guest for this episode is Rachel Tuchman, LMHC.  Rachel’s specialty is educating o...

Staying connected to our Yiddishkeit during the various seasons of our lives is a challenge for many. In this mini DMC, Rivki and Alex share the times they’ve felt it, the times they haven’t, and what they’re doing these days to help keep connected.  If you have any topics that you’d like to listen to Alex and Rivki have a mini DMC about, email them at dmc@meaningfulminute.org .

Keeping up our friendships seems like a nice thing in our hectic lives, but is it a necessity? Well, according to research on loneliness, it actually is. Having friends benefits us emotionally, physically and spiritually. There is real power in sisterhood.  Don’t believe it? Believe it but don’t have the time or energy to invest in finding and maintaining friendships? Take a listen. On this episod...

Jealous? Who's jealous? Me? NEVER. In this mini DMC, Rivki and Alex talk take a vulnerable plunge into the areas of their lives in which they struggle with jealousy (and maybe a little envy too), and how they work on being more content.  We’d love to hear from you. You can find us on social media, or email us at dmc@meaningfulinute.org. Let us know if you have topic requests for future Mini DMC ep...

Who doesn’t want to live more joyously? On this episode of DMC, Rivki and Alex talk about what joy means to them, how they find it in their lives and how it can be hard to attain during the challenging times. Their guest for this episode is Shaindy Plotzker, singer and songwriter. Shaindy is well-known in the Jewish music world as a soulful and talented singer, but she’s also well-known for her po...

In this Mini DMC, Alex and Rivki shmooze about Shabbos: what they love about it and what they find challenging about the day in the week they can’t live without! If you have any topics that you’d like to listen to Alex and Rivki have a mini DMC about, email them at dmc@meaningfulminute.org.