Amusing Jews

Barbara “Willy” Mendes is a fine artist and underground comix pioneer whose new anthology, Queen of Cosmos Comix Trilogy, is published by Fantagraphics.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Queen of Cosmos Comix Trilogy https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/queen-of-cosmos-comix-trilogy   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merc...

Michael Kimmel is a SUNY distinguished professor emeritus of sociology and gender studies at Stony Brook University, whose latest book is Playmakers: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Playmakers https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324105282   Michael’s website https://www.michaelkimm...

Johanna Silver is a garden writer and author of the book, Growing Weed in the Garden: A No-Fuss, Seed-to-Stash Guide to Outdoor Cannabis Cultivation.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Growing Weed in the Garden https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/growing-weed-in-the-garden_9781419742767/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/m...

Peter Kuper is a prolific cartoonist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Nation, Charlie Hebdo, and MAD magazine. He’s the author of numerous books, including the graphic novels Kafkaesque and Insectopolis: A Natural History. His latest book, Wish We Weren’t Here: Postcards from the Apocalypse, is published by Fantagraphics.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Produc...

Michael Seth Starr is a prolific biographer whose books include Don Rickles: The Merchant of Venom.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Michael’s website https://www.michaelsethstarr.com/   Don Rickles: The Merchant of Venom https://www.kensingtonbooks.com/9780806541747/don-rickles/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/...

Rena Strober is a Broadway, television, film, and voice actor who’s currently working on a memoir, Singing for Sid and Other Wow Moments.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Joey Angel-Field   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker.com/show/amusing-jews   Adat Chaverim – Congr...

We’re thrilled to chat with Mark Rubin, Jew of Oklahoma, a multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter whose latest album is Dispatches: Songs from a World Gone Mad.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Mark’s website https://www.jewofoklahoma.com/   Mark’s Bandcamp https://jewofoklahoma.bandcamp.com/   Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience ht...

Deborah F. Blum is an artist, educator, and documentary filmmaker whose latest film is Laemmle’s List.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Laemmle’s List https://www.laemmleslist.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker.com/show/amusing-jews   Adat Chaverim...

Mathew Klickstein is an author and pop culture historian whose books have covered such topics as Nickelodeon, The Simpsons, The San Diego Comic-Con, and Lloyd Kaufman, president and co-founder of Troma Entertainment.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Mathew's website https://www.mathewklickstein.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amus...

Alan Bernstein is a filmmaker whose latest documentary is When We Went MAD!   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   When We Went MAD! https://tubitv.com/movies/100047417/when-we-went-mad   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker.com/show/amusing-jews   Adat Chaverim –...

  Jeff Newelt is a veteran PR and social media macher who has worked with Harvey Pekar, Art Spiegelman, Al Jaffee, the Zappa family, and many more.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Jeff’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahfurry/   Jeff on Harvey Pekar https://forward.com/culture/books/139783/harvey-pekar-our-mensch-in-cleveland/   Jeff...

Yossi Yovel is an ecologist, neurobiologist, and author of The Genius Bat: The Secret Life of the Only Flying Mammal.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Genius Bat https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250378446/thegeniusbat/   The BAT LAB for Neuro-Ecology https://www.yovelbatlab.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/mer...

Arie Kaplan is a prolific writer of non-fiction, television, graphic novels, video games, and transmedia. His new book is The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Encyclopedia of Curious Rituals and Superstitions https://www.quarto.com/books/9781577154624/the-encyclopedia-of-curious-rituals-a...

We’re delighted to chat with Andrew Rubin, a filmmaker and author whose debut novel is Hell or High Winter.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Andrew’s website https://www.hellorhighwinter.com/   Hell or High Winter https://rarebirdlit.com/hell-or-high-winter-book-one-in-a-holy-trinity-by-andrew-rubin/   Symptom Media https://symptommedia.com/...

Mark Rutzick is a retired attorney who was twice appointed to the federal government’s Senior Executive Service. His new book is Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers—1788 to 1920.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer Mike Tomren   Mark’s website http://www.markrutzick.com/   Breaking New Ground https://www.amazon.co...

Marcie Maxfield is an award-winning author and playwright whose latest book is JewGirl: A Memoir on Being and Belonging.   Marcie’s website https://marciemaxfield.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker.com/show/amusing-jews   Adat Chaverim – Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Los Angeles https://www.humani...

David Margolick is a journalist and author whose latest book is When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy . Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   When Caesar Was King https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/107565/when-caesar-was-king-by-david-margolick/   David’s Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Margolick  ...

Henry Sapoznik is a five-time Grammy-nominated producer/performer of over fifty recordings and author of the award-winning book, Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World. His latest book is The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Tourist’s Guide to Lost Yiddish New York City https://sun...

Frances Jetter is a prolific illustrator, sculptor, and printmaker whose latest book, Amalgam: An Immigrant, His Labor Union, and his American Family in Brooklyn, is published by Fantagraphics.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Amalgam https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/amalgam   Frances’ website https://fjetter.net/   Amusing Jews Merch S...

Bob Levin is a longtime contributor to the Comics Journal whose latest book, Messiahs, Meshugganahs, Misanthropes, and Mysteries: True Tales of Comics, Conflict, and Creativity, is published by Fantagraphics.   Messiahs, Meshugganahs, Misanthropes, and Mysteries https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/messiahs-meshugganahs-misanthropes-and-mysteries   Bob’s website http://www.theboblevin.com/   Amu...

Mathew Klickstein is an author and pop culture historian whose books have covered such topics as Nickelodeon, The Simpsons, The San Diego Comic-Con, and Lloyd Kaufman, president and co-founder of Troma Entertainment. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren Mathew's website https://www.mathewklickstein.com/ Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews....

Diana Harmon Asher is an award-winning author of the middle grade novels Sidetracked and Upstaged. Her latest novel, Trouble Finds Evie Lefkowitz, is distributed to 9- to 12-year-olds across North America through PJ Library's program for older readers, PJ Our Way.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-Engineer: Mike Tomren   Diana’s website https://dianaharmonasher.com/...

Sam Singer is known as the "Ed Wood of Animation" for making cheap, shoddy, and borderline-intolerable cartoons during the early days of television cartoons. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker.com/show/amusing-jews   Adat Chaveri...

Eric Glickman and Stephen Hersh have an ongoing series, How to Lose Your Mind: A Comics Project about Friendship, Memories and Alzheimer’s Disease, documenting Stephen’s experiences with Alzheimer’s.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   How to Lose Your Mind https://howtoloseyourmindcomics.substack.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amus...

Deborah Gitell is director of client partnership at Wilkins Media, a global outdoor media company. In 2013, she helped spread the term Thanksgivukkah with her sister-in-law, Dana Reichman Gittel, capturing the unlikely convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   How to Celebrate Thanksgivukkah - BuzzFeed https:/...