Amusing Jews

Allen Frishman is the archival officer of the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville, New York, which celebrates the golden age of the Catskills resort era, when millions of mostly Jewish urbanites sought refuge in the mountains of upstate New York. He’s also the author of two books: Tales of a Catskill Mountain Plumber and More Borscht from a Catskill Mountain Plumber.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann &...

Joe Alterman is a jazz pianist who’s performed at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Birdland, and Blue Note with his own trio and alongside legends like Houston Person, Les McCann, Dick Gregory, and Ramsey Lewis. Downbeat describes his sound as “rooted in the blues, and with a touch reminiscent of the great pianists of the 1950s—Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans.”  ...

Margie Haber is a renowned acting coach whose celebrity clients include Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Tiffany Haddish, and many others. She runs Margie Haber Studio in Los Angeles and is the author of two books, How to Get the Part Without Falling Apart and F*ck Your Comfort Zone: Take a Risk and Become the Lead in Your Own Life.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer:...

Esther Friesner is a prolific and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author known for her humorous style and thematic focus on gender equality and social justice. Her many books include the Nobody’s Princess, Sphinx’s Princess, the Chicks in Chainmail series, and Threads and Flames, a YA novel about a Jewish girl caught up in the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.   Co-hosts:...

Aaron Fruchtman is a musicologist and composer whose work examines Jewish film composers during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He holds degrees in music composition from Berklee College of Music and the University of California, Riverside, and a doctorate in musicology from UC Riverside. He also earned an Advanced Studies Certificate in Music for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Sout...

Jeff Treistman is founder of the Jewish Comics Library of Seattle and the author and publisher of Graven, the library’s newsletter. He also has a Substack blog, Son of the Wicked Child.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   JCLS Website https://sites.google.com/view/jewish-comics-library/catalog?authuser=0   JCLS Catalog https://www.librarycat.org...

Andy Muchin is an occasional freelance writer and host of the Sounds Jewish radio show, which has aired weekly since 2010. Sounds Jewish is available on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Radio-J.com, and PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Sounds Jewish https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish   Some of...

Jerry Sroka is an actor, writer, and producer known for his roles in Godspell, Antz, The Wild Thornberrys, and many more. His latest film is Our (Almost Completely True) Love Story, co-written with and co-starring his wife, Mariette Hartley.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-Engineer: Mike Tomren   Jerry’s IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0820293/   Our (Almost Compl...

Seymour Chwast is one of the most highly-regarded graphic designers in American history. In 1954, he founded the design group Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins. Seymour has executed hundreds of advertising campaigns, designed multiple popular typefaces, and illustrated numerous books. His new book, an illustrated adaptation of Mark Twain’s War Prayer, was just...

Jeffrey Braer is a creative marketer, media developer, and brander of food, themed entertainment, consumer products, and companies. His long list of brand partners includes Barbie, Apple’s Beats, ABC, Disney, Doritos, Sanrio, Amazon, Mattel, NBC, Universal, Toyota, Sony, UPN, Betty Crocker, McDonald’s, Good Humor, General Mills, Minute Maid, Coke, Smurfs, NASA/JPL, and many more.   Co-hosts: Jonat...

Theodore Bogosian is an award-winning independent filmmaker and television producer who’s been directing, producing, and writing long-form documentaries for PBS, the New York Times, Discovery, and other networks since 1978. His latest documentary, Live at Mister Kelly’s, about the famous Chicago nightclub, is a collaboration with David Marienthal, the son of Mister Kelly’s co-founder, George Marie...

Josh Frank is the author of Fool The World: The Oral His­to­ry of the Band Called Pix­ies, In Heav­en Every­thing Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers, The Good Inn, a novel co-written with Pixies’ frontman Black Francis, and Giraffes on Horse­back Sal­ad, a graphic novel adaptation of an unmade Marx Brothers movie penned by Salvador Dalí. He also built, owns, and oper­ates the Blue Star­lite...

Stan Zimmerman is a writer, producer, and director best known for his writing on The Golden Girls, Roseanne, and The Gilmore Girls. Stan wrote for both Brady Bunch movies, co-created the Lifetime sitcom Rita Rocks, and has written and directed a variety of theater productions. He also has a new memoir, The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Produ...

Jason Kravits is an actor and writer whose credits include The Practice, Law & Order, Everybody Loves Raymond, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, The Goldbergs, and many more. An Accomplished voice actor, he can be heard as Michael Bloomberg and Alan Dershowitz in the political satire series Our Cartoon President, among other animated projects.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Fried...

Dalilah Bernier is the director of teen initiatives for Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Coalition of Jewish Learning. She's the co-creator of the educational program “The Torah of Taylor Swift,” which uses the pop star as a way into Jewish texts.   The Torah of Taylor Swift https://www.jewishchronicle.org/2023/09/19/torah-and-taylor-swift/   Teen Philanthropy – Milwaukee Jewish Federation https://ww...

Matt Singer is editor and film critic at ScreenCrush and current chair of the New York Film Critics Circle. He’s the author of Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular – The Definitive Comic Art Collection and a new book, Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Matt’s website h...

Nina Paley is a cartoonist, animator, and free culture advocate. She’s best known for her 2008 animated feature film, Sita Sings the Blues, based on the Ramayana, and her 2018 animated feature, Seder-Masochism, a jukebox musical recounting the Exodus, the eradication of goddess worship, and the rise of patriarchy.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Joey Ange...

Nancy Pearlman is an award-winning broadcaster and environmentalist who has dedicated her career to protecting the planet’s ecosystems. She organized the first Earth Day in Southern California in 1970, has hosted the Environmental Directions radio show since 1977, and has produced the ECONEWS television program since 1984. She also directs the nonprofit Educational Communications.   Co-hosts: Jona...

Eva Bilick is an actor, writer, and producer behind the 2020 podcast series A Place Called Fairneck and the 2018 web series Weird in Bed.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Eva’s website https://www.evabilick.com/   A Place Called Fairneck https://www.evabilick.com/podcast   Weird in Bed https://www.evabilick.com/web-series   Subscribe to the A...

Eric Glickman is a cartoonist who spent 36 years in advertising before switching gears and becoming an art educator. His new graphic memoir, Camp Pock-a-Wocknee and the Dyn-O-Mite Summer of ’77, reveals what really happened at Jewish summer camp and comes with a warning: “This is NOT a book for kids.”   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Eric’s w...

Andrew Burt is a poet, author, and lawyer whose writings have appeared in the New York Times, LA Times, Slate, The Atlantic, Politico, Harvard Business Review, and other publications. He’s the author of American Hysteria: The Untold Story of Mass Political Extremism in the United States and a new book, Poems for a Cartoon Mouse.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engi...

Marc Scott Zicree is a science fiction author, screenwriter, and producer who’s written hundreds of hours of TV programs for most of the major studios and networks. His credits include, among many others, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, Super Friends, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and The Smurfs. His new sci-fi series, Space Command, is currently in...

Susan Ryan is a Beatles expert and proprietor and tour guide of Fab 4 NYC Walking Tours, which visits New York City sites related to the group. Her writing has appeared in Daytrippin’ Magazine, the London Beatles Fan Club Magazine, Newsbeat, REBEAT Magazine, Humanistic Judaism Magazine, and other publications. She’s also a co-author of the 2021 book The Beatles: Fab Four Cities: Liverpool - Hambur...

Oren Kroll-Zeldin and Ariella Werden-Greenfield are the co-editors of a new book, This Is Your Song Too: Phish and Contemporary Jewish Identity. Oren is assistant director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice and assistant professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco. Ariella is associate director of the Feinstein Center for A...

Josh Tuininga is an author, illustrator, and musician whose debut graphic novel, We Are Not Strangers, follows his grandfather’s efforts to help his Japanese American neighbors who were incarcerated during World War II. Josh is also the founder and creative director of the design firm, The Medium, has two children’s books, Why Blue? and Dream On, and makes music with his wife in the duo, To the Ri...