Rise & Shine with Adrienne Gold Davis

Pregnant with her first child, Adrienne was terrified she felt nothing and afraid she wouldn't love her baby. Everyone told her the same thing: "You'll see." They were right. Love didn't arrive first. It grew with every feeding, every sleepless night, every diaper. Jewish tradition connects ahavah, love, to hav, to give. We come to love what we give to.   The Rise & Shine Podcast Series is mad...

The power went out next door and stayed out for three days. My husband came home the minute it was safe to drive, found an extra-long extension cord, and ran it from our back door into our neighbors' house so their food wouldn't spoil. Nobody asked him to. Later I told a friend about it. She isn't Jewish, and she said something I didn't expect. From everything you have taught me about Judaism, isn...

If you are carrying something against someone who never apologized, this episode offers a place to start without asking you to pretend you are fine. Adrienne opens with what an old friend told her years later: she used to be jaded, judgmental, and very good at holding a grudge. Becoming a mother in her thirties forced her to ask what she actually stood for, and the answer came from Jewish wisdom s...

Teshuvah, the Jewish practice of return, is easy to talk about and genuinely hard to do. In this Rise & Shine conversation, Adrienne Gold Davis walks through the four steps of Teshuvah: cessation, regret, confession, and resolution, with author and educator Carly Israel, who has been sober for 27 years. Carly explains why nothing else works until you stop, why regret arrives after you stop rat...

Some people irritate us for reasons we cannot explain. This episode offers a Jewish framework for what is really happening, and a practical way to use it. Adrienne Gold Davis tells the story of a rooftop dinner in Jerusalem, where a young speaker got under her skin until the woman beside her leaned over and said the speaker could have been Adrienne's daughter. What followed was an uncomfortable ed...

If you have ever lain awake worrying that you are getting parenting wrong, this conversation is for you. Adrienne Gold Davis sits down with Dr. Michael Milobsky, a pediatrician with more than thirty years of experience and a father of seven, to sort the worries worth your energy from the ones you can put down. They talk through the fears that follow us from infancy onward: missed milestones, sleep...

Your child's teacher spends more waking hours with them than almost anyone outside your home. Adrienne Gold Davis opens Season 30 of Rise & Shine with a case for putting the bar back up: the honor Jewish tradition asks us to give our parents extends to the people who teach our children. She also shares the pediatrician's line that reframes why your well-behaved student falls apart the moment h...

What if getting older is not about losing who you were, but discovering who you are still becoming? In this episode of Rise & Shine, Adrienne Gold Davis shares seven lessons she has gathered with age: stay hungry for wisdom, tell yourself the truth, stop running from discomfort, love people without demanding sameness, and protect your peace without losing your humanity. The Rise & Shine Po...

Is it ever okay to step back from a parent? In this episode of Rise and Shine, Adrienne Gold Davis explores one of the most painful and least-discussed questions in Jewish family life: what to do when a relationship with a parent becomes harmful. Drawing on Bowen Family Systems Theory alongside Jewish teaching on honoring parents, Adrienne unpacks why complete cutoff often isn't resolution so much...

Gratitude is not only a feeling. In Jewish life, it is a practice woven into the day from the moment we wake. In this episode of Rise and Shine, Adrienne shares a personal story: months of caring for her husband through a frightening illness, the fear that came with it, and the renewed gratitude that followed his recovery. The Rise & Shine Podcast Series is made possible by the generous suppor...

Every child carries something precious inside, even when the world cannot see it yet. In this episode of Rise and Shine, host Adrienne returns to the teaching of the Lubavitcher Rebbe that every soul is a diamond, infinitely valuable and waiting to be polished until its light shines through. Drawing on the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, Adrienne explores a truth at the hear...

Repair is possible, even when parenting feels painful, complicated, or far from what we imagined. In Part 2 of this special Rise and Shine episode, Adrienne continues her conversation with Momentum Educators Ruchi Koval and Jael Toledo about Jewish motherhood, adult children, family dynamics, grief, and repair. This conversation explores what happens when children make choices that challenge our e...

Motherhood often comes with a deep desire to protect and hold everything together, but what happens when our children need us to step back? In this first part of a special Rise and Shine episode, Adrienne Gold-Davis introduces the parenting practice of “watch, wait, wonder". Together with Momentum Educators, Ruchi Koval and Jael Toledo explore radical acceptance, parenting anxiety, the instinct to...

What can Jewish wisdom teach us about dealing with disability? Adrienne turns to the words of our sages for guidance.

For 25 hours each week, Adrienne Gold Davis takes a vacation. Slip into endless summer, every week. Being Jewish makes that possible.

Adrienne Gold Davis sits down with Tanya Tsikanovsky, known online as Highly Jewish , for a powerful conversation about what it means to be visibly and unapologetically Jewish after October 7. Tanya shares how a community she once trusted began to see her differently, why she now centers Jewish identity in every part of her life, and what Jewish pride can look like when rooted not only in activism...

In this episode of Rise and Shine, Adrienne offers practical language for raising children with strong family values without judging families who live differently. From playdates and kosher standards to teen peer pressure and household boundaries, Adrienne explores how Jewish wisdom can help us protect our children, respect privacy, avoid lashon hara, and model unity without uniformity. For any pa...

Adrienne explores anti-Israel celebrities, antisemitism in entertainment, and whether Jewish audiences can still separate art from the artist after October 7. The Rise & Shine Podcast Series is made possible by the generous support of Bonnie Vozar of Chicago, Illinois. If you would like to sponsor an upcoming podcast, please email us at info@momentumunlimited.org

Our differences make it difficult to see eye-to-eye – but what if those same differences could unite us instead?   The “Rise & Shine” podcast series has been made possible by the Zitelman Family Foundation’s generosity. If you would like to sponsor an upcoming podcast, please email us at info@momentumunlimited.org  

What if the broken parts of your life are not something to fix, but something to carry with purpose? In this episode of Rise and Shine, Adrienne explores a deeply Jewish perspective on resilience, identity, and growth. Drawing on a powerful story about a familiar bridge, the wisdom of the Talmud, and the enduring strength of the Jewish people, she reframes what it means to live with both joy and p...

What happens after death in Judaism? Adrienne explores the Jewish perspectives on the afterlife, the soul, and mourning, and how these ideas shape how we respond to loss. Drawing on personal experience, she reflects on why words often feel inadequate in grief and why presence can matter more than explanations. Through a well-known Jewish parable and classic sources, this episode offers insight int...

One of the most powerful ideas in Jewish thought is this: We are not just living for ourselves, we are building for the next generation. In this episode, Adrienne reflects on what it means to “choose legacy over self” and why effort doesn’t always lead to immediate results. It’s a perspective shift that feels especially relevant right now, when so much of life feels urgent and immediate. But the r...

Adrienne Gold Davis sits down with Momentum CEO Tara Brown to reframe tzedakah not as charity, but as a core expression of Jewish identity, leadership, and purpose.   Together, they unpack why a generation of committed givers often directs that energy elsewhere, and how Jewish mothers are uniquely positioned to change that.   Drawing on personal stories and Jewish wisdom, Tara and Adrienne show ho...

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the bad news in the world. Adrienne explains how to avoid this paralysis and reclaim your joy. 

A sugary epiphany helped Adrienne Gold Davis reimagine all that Passover can be.   Have a Happy Passover!   If you would like to sponsor an upcoming podcast, please email us at info@momentumunlimited.org