Amusing Jews

Seth Michael Donsky was named to the International Screenwriters Association's list of the top 25 screenwriters to watch. He’s currently working on a project exploring the 1951 best actress Oscar race.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Seth’s website https://sethdonsky.com/   Seth’s IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0233094/   Amusing Jews Merc...

Gary Lippman is the author of the novel Set the Controls for the Heart of Sharon Tate, the short story collection We Loved the World but Could Not Stay, and, most recently, I Wish, Therefore I Am, or, This Here is a List of Humble Appeals to Dame Fortune.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Gary’s Website https://garylippmanofficial.com/   I Wis...

Eli Valley is a critically acclaimed political cartoonist whose latest book is Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Eli’s website https://www.elivalley.com/   Museum of Degenerates https://orbooks.com/catalog/museum-of-degenerates/   Diaspora Boy https://orbooks.com/catalog/diaspora-boy/...

Julian David Stone is an author, photographer, and filmmaker whose novel It’s Alive! recounts the frantic days leading up to the filming of Universal’s 1931 classic, Frankenstein.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Julian’s website https://www.juliandavidstone.com/ Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the...

Kelilah Miller is an artist and rabbi whose linocut design is featured on a new shirt from They Might Be Giants.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Kelilah’s SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/kelilah-miller   Kelilah’s Redbubble shop https://www.redbubble.com/people/RabbiVole/shop?utm_source=rb-native-app&utm_campaign=share-artist&utm_m...

Steve Vertlieb is an award-winning writer, film historian, critic, archivist, and poet who’s been writing about motion pictures and symphonic film music since 1969. Many of his articles can be found online at the long-running science fiction fanzine File 770.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   File 770 https://file770.com/?s=vertlieb&submit...

Stephen Weiner has been writing about graphic novels since 1992 and spearheaded the movement to bring graphic novels into public libraries. Dan Mazur is a screenwriter, cartoonist, and co-founder of MICE: The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo and the Boston Comics Roundtable. Their new book is Will Eisner: A Comics Biography, published by NBM Graphic Novels.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann &amp...

*Finding humor in the Bible with Gil Kidron, a writer, editor, and host of A Podcast of Biblical Proportions.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   A Podcast of Biblical Proportions https://podcastofbiblicalproportions.com/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/   Subscribe to the Amusing Jews podcast https://www.spreaker....

Michael Hirsh is a trailblazing producer of children’s programming and former head of Nelvana, Cookie Jar, and Wow! Unlimited Media. His shows include Inspector Gadget, The Care Bears Movie, Babar, The Berenstain Bears, Little Bear, Rolie Polie Olie, Franklin, The Magic School Bus, Beetlejuice, Eek! The Cat, Max & Ruby, and many more. His book is Animation Nation: How We Built a Cartoon Empire...

Noah Diamond is a co-host of The Marx Brothers Council Podcast, an author, performer, and cartoonist whose books include 400 Years in Manhattan; Love Marches On: A Saga of Broadway; and Gimme a Thrill: The Story of I’ll Say She Is, the Lost Marx Brothers Musical, and How It Was Found. His newest project is the limited series podcast, Pintele.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field  ...

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. His recent article, “SQUIGGLEVISION! 30 Years of Kvetching from the Couch of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist,” is available at Paste. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann and Joey Angel-Fiel...

Julian David Stone is an author, photographer, and filmmaker whose photography is collected in the coffee table book, No Cameras Allowed: My Career as an Outlaw Rock & Roll Photographer. He also has two novels: The Strange Birth, Short Life, and Sudden Death of Justice Girl; and It’s Alive!   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Julian’s websit...

Ilana Trachtman is an Emmy award-winning documentary director and producer whose latest film is Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round https://www.aintnoback.com/   Ilana’s IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1196719/   Amusing Jews Merch Store https://www.amusingjews.com/merch#!/  ...

Jonathan Lackman is an author and art historian and Zachary J. Pinson is an artist and illustrator. Their new book, The Woman with Fifty Faces: Maria Lani & the Greatest Art Heist that Never Was, is published by Fantagraphics.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann and Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Woman with Fifty Faces https://www.fantagraphics.com/products/the-woman-with-f...

Harold Schechter is a true crime author and professor emeritus at Queens College whose latest graphic biography is “Dr. Werthless,” illustrated and co-written by Eric Powell.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   “Dr Worthless” https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/3012-934/Dr-Werthless-HC   Harold’s website https://haroldschechter.com/   Amusing Jews M...

Miriam Eve Mora is managing director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan and author of Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century. Her chapter, “The Jewish Case for Fereginar,” is published in the book Jews in Popular Science Fiction: Marginalized in the Mainstream, edited by Valerie Estelle Frankel.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedm...

Jonathan Rosen is co-host of Pop Culture Retro and host of The Jewish Lens. He’s also the author and editor of several books, including Night of the Living Cuddle Bunnies and Coming of Age: 13 B’nai Mitzvah Stories.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Jonathan’s website https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v5E05jPfVs   Pop Culture Retro https://www....

Roy Schwartz is a comic book historian, former CNN regular contributor, board member of the American Jewish Historical Society, and author of Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Is Superman Circumcised? https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/is-superman-circumcised/  ...

Jonathan L. Friedmann is the president of the Western States Jewish History Association; vice president, academic dean, and director of programs at Ezzree Institute; admissions director and associate professor at the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism; and director of the Jewish Museum of the American West. His latest book is Chai Noon: Jews and the Cinematic Wild West.    Co-h...

Paul Levitz is a comic book writer, editor, and executive best known for his decades-long association with DC Comics, which began as a freelancer in the early 1970s and included a tenure as the company’s president and publisher from 2002 to 2009.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Paul’s website https://paullevitz.com/   Paul’s Wikipedia https:...

David Denby is a New Yorker staff writer and New York Times bestselling author whose latest book is Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Eminent Jews https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250193407/eminentjews/   David’s website https://denby-david.com/   David’s New Yorker columns https://www.newyor...

Danny Fingeroth is a biographer, cultural historian, and former writer and editor at Marvel Comics whose latest book is Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin. He also authored A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee; Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero; and Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society....

Alina Adams is a New York Times bestselling author whose latest historical novel, Go On Pretending, explores three generations of Jewish women battling the tides of history from segregated 1950s America to the fall of the USSR to the rise of revolutionary Rojava.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Alina’s website https://alinaadams.com/   Go On...

Bruce Vilanch is Hollywood’s go-to comedy writer for award shows, sitcoms, and variety specials. His new book is It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time https://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/it-seemed-like-a-bad-idea-at-t...

Victoria Aarons is the O.R. and Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature at Trinity University and editor of a new book, The Story’s Not Over: Jewish Women and Embodied Selfhood in Graphic Narratives.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Story’s Not Over https://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814349113/   Memory Spaces https://wsupress.wayn...